Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“But Hannah answered, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Friday, October 15, 2021
by R. M. Fergus, Clergy Stuff
A woman deeply troubled. I love that line. Just as with Rachel and Leah last week, we are greeted with a story about a woman living in a society in which she has no agency nor value outside of her ability to bear sons. Her husband adores her, and assures her she is fully loved and valued in spite of her childlessness (an element absent from the Jacob/Leah/Rachel story). But she isn’t having it. She, herself, sees no purpose in her life if she cannot bear sons.
What’s interesting here is that she prays desperately for a son not for her husband, Elkanah, but just for the fact of having a son at all. So much so that she promises the son to God. He will not even belong to Elkanah, but to God. So complete is her longing to give birth to a male child that she will gladly sacrifice her claim to him when he is born (or probably weaned, I imagine).
How deeply troubled do you have to be to make that kind of a commitment? I don’t know that I have ever wanted anything that badly. Not that I haven’t “poured out my soul before the Lord” on many occasions. And God does answer, declaring God’s love for me, even if the answer isn’t the one I want to hear.
Have I been willing to sacrifice something precious to God’s service?