Elkanah, Hannah & Peninnah - I Samuel 1
Jealousy is a wounding evil, and our living together can help bring it up
and out of us.
Peninnah teased Hannah, because Hannah had yet
no children. One particuliar year, while the family was at
the Shiloh sacrifice, Hannah wept and refused
to eat. She was dearly loved by Elkanah, who tried to comfort her;
and then she did eat. Also she prayed, asking God that she may give birth to
a boy; specifically,
a child who would
grow up as
a Nazarene in
the house of God: fully given to
the Lord in service. The child would be Samuel, and,
that prayer brought
an immediate end to Hannah's saddness.Hannah had asked for
a firstborn child, yet not so as to give her possession of a child.
What have we lost since Hannah?
- Faith in God to provide children; to open the womb.
- We have often assumed some manner of reproductive authority, and a personal possession of the fruit of the womb.
- Do we helplessly attempt to dodge or suffer beneath jealousy?
