In the fall of 2004, ABC launched its hit television series Desperate Housewives. The show, part comedy and part drama, follows the lives of a group of housewives, seen through the eyes of their dead neighbor. They work through domestic struggles and family life, while facing the secrets, crimes and mysteries hidden behind the doors of their—at the surface—beautiful and seemingly perfect suburban neighborhood.

In more recent years, the show’s incredible popularity has spawned a number of spinoff reality shows called “The Real Housewives of …well…take your pick…Orange County, Miami, New York, New Jersey, Beverly Hills, Atlanta, and even Wall Street. Thankfully, I have never watched a single episode of any of these shows, but I have seen their advertisements. They seem to have just a little too much matriarchal drama for this pastor’s taste!

Well, this morning’s Bible character was a real and desperate housewife. We know virtually nothing about Hannah’s origin or early life. We only meet her when she is already married to a man named Elkanah, an Ephraimite from the town of Ramathaim, and even then, we don’t know how old she was, how long she had been married, or what she was like. The only other thing that the biblical text tells us about her was that she had some problems—problems that made her desperate!

Hannah’s Problems (1-8)

The opening verses of I Samuel reveal some of the problems that made Hannah such a desperate housewife. In verse 2 we learn that Hannah was childless. Although the ultimate reason why she couldn’t conceive was because God closed her womb, it must have been viewed as some physical problem that prevented her from experiencing a mother’s joy. This physical problem caused her deep emotional pain and grief. Can you imagine trying to have a child year after year, and yet, every time you look at the pregnancy test it is negative? She probably kept asking herself, “What is wrong with me?”

Sometimes spiritual problems lead to physical problems, but in this story, Hannah’s physical problem led to her spiritual problem. In ancient Jewish culture, if a woman could not conceive, it was often understood to be a curse or punishment from God. She would have been considered a disgrace to her husband and the people from her town would have wondered and gossiped about what she did to deserve such a fate. Even though Hannah appeared to have a devout faith, God had not blessed her with a child.

Hannah not only had physical and spiritual problems, she also had relationship problems. Her husband had another wife named Peninnah, and she was able to have children. The text doesn’t tell us for sure, but Elkanah probably took a second wife because Hannah was unable to bear children.

Now two women sharing one man typically has its share of relationship problems anyway, but this relationship was complicated further by the fact that even though Peninnah was a virtual baby factory, Elkanah still loved Hannah more. They each had what the other wanted—Hannah wanted children; Peninnah wanted love. This led to a serious bout of matrimonial rivalry. Over the years, Peninnah took every opportunity to provoke and irritate Hannah. With every child she bore, she rubbed it in Hannah’s face, even when they were on their way to worship God at the temple in Shiloh.

To make matters even worse, when Elkanah would saw Hanna crying, he gave the typical male response in verse 8, “Why are you crying? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” His intentions were good, but he was just another blundering husband that didn’t understand women!

You can certainly see the complexity and severity of Hanna’s problems. This housewife had real problems! And they made her desperate!

Do you ever have problems that make you feel desperate? Maybe you have struggled with infertility or some other physical problem. Maybe you know that there is something wrong with your body, but neither you nor your doctor can figure out what it is. Maybe you have been rehabilitating an injury for a long time, but it doesn’t seem like therapy is helping. Like Hannah, our physical problems are real, and they can make us feel desperate.

Perhaps your health is fine, but you are experiencing relationship problems. Maybe you have an unresolved conflict with your spouse, your boyfriend or girlfriend, a family member, a co-worker, or even a fellow church member. Have you hurt or been hurt by someone? As with Hannah, relationship problems can cause deep emotional pain; where tears replace your appetite.

Whether your problems are physical, relational, spiritual, or emotional, or something else, the fact is we all have real problems and sometimes they make us feel desperate! What is your biggest problem right now? And more importantly, what should we do about it? Well, let’s see what Hannah did about her problems!

Hannah’s Prayer (9-20)

Hannah’s heart was so distraught that she couldn’t eat anything, so she got up from the dinner table and walked over to the Lord’s temple. Out of her great distress and bitterness of soul, she poured her heart out to the Lord in prayer. We see the passion of her prayer in her tears, the faith of her prayer in addressing God as (Yahweh Zuba)“the Lord of hosts” or “the Lord Almighty”, and the humility of her prayer by referring to herself as the Lord’s “servant” or “handmaiden” three times.

In her prayer, she also made a vow to the Lord that if he blessed her with a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord’s service for all the days of his life. This was the same Nazarite vow that Samson’s mother made, whereby she promised that the child’s hair would never be cut. His long hair would serve as a symbol of his being set apart for God.

While Hannah was praying, the priest Eli, who was sitting on a chair near the doorpost of the temple and, noticed her. As he approached her, he thought it strange that her lips were moving but her voice was not heard, and concluded that she was drunk. (Eli’s misunderstanding of Hannah’s piety shows some flaws in his own character, but that is another sermon for another day.) He chastised her by saying, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself?” She defended herself firmly and thoroughly by explaining that she was pouring her soul out to the Lord in prayer because of her anguish and grief. Once Eli realized what she was doing, he pronounced a blessing upon her “may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.” The combination of her time in prayer and Eli’s blessing encouraged her so much that she was able to go on her way, eat something, and her overall demeanor changed. Her prayer hadn’t been answered yet, but she felt much better!

When Hannah prayed, her problems didn’t necessarily change, but she did. Time spent in prayer always changes us too! Prayer doesn’t always change our predicament, but it always changes our perspective! Oswald Chambers, in his classic daily devotional My Utmost for His Highest, writes in his entry for August 28th, “It is not so true that ‘prayer changes things’ as prayer changes me and I change things. God has so constituted things that prayer on the basis of redemption alters the way in which a man looks at things. Prayer is not a question of altering things externally, but of working wonders in a man’s disposition.”

When you have problems, do you pray about them? Do you pray with tearful passion? Do you pray with trusting faith? Do you pray with heartfelt humility? When you pray, sometimes God will fix your problems, but he will always fix you! Listen to this poem with an unknown author titled “DOES PRAYER CHANGE THINGS?”

They say that prayer changes things, but does it REALLY change anything?
Oh yes! It really does!

Does prayer change your present situation or sudden circumstances?
No, not always, but it does change the way you look at those events.

Does prayer change your financial future?
No, not always, but it does change who you look to for meeting your daily Needs.

Does prayer change shattered hearts or broken bodies?
No, not always, but it will change your source of strength and comfort.

Does prayer change your wants and desires?
No, not always, but it will change your wants into what God desires!

Does prayer change how you view the world?
No, not always, but it will change whose eyes you see the world through.

Does prayer change your regrets from the past?
No, not always, but it will change your hopes for the future!

Does prayer change the people around you?
No, not always, but it will change you – the problem isn’t always in others.

Does prayer change your life in ways you can’t explain?
Oh, yes, always! And it will change you from the inside out!
So does prayer REALLY change ANYTHING?
Yes! It REALLY does change EVERYTHING!

 

Hannah’s Presentation (21-28)

In Hannah’s story, God not only changed her, but he changed at least one of her problems. When she and her husband returned to their hometown, the Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel because that name means “Because I asked the Lord for him.”

Over the next few years, Hannah and Samuel did not accompany Elkanah and the rest of the family on their annual journey to Shiloh. Hannah must have known the complications of taking a child on a long road trip. But after three years (the usual duration for breastfeeding in ancient Israel) the boy was weaned and Hannah knew it was time to fulfill her vow to God by dedicating Samuel to His service.

Sometime after Samuel’s third birthday, his parents gathered a bull for a sacrifice and some food for the trip and set off for the temple in Shiloh. When they reached the temple, she kept her extremely difficult vow and turned the boy over to Eli the priest to raise from that point on. She gave up the very child for which she prayed. For the rest of Samuel’s childhood years, Hannah only got to see him once a year when they went to Shiloh for the festival. She always made him a little robe and brought it for him every year.

Can you imagine how difficult it would have been for Hannah to give up her son? She was incredibly faithful. God takes our vows seriously and so should we! Whether they are marital vows, religious vows, or some other kind of vows, God expects us to keep them!

Hannah’s Praise (2:1-11)

After Hannah gave Samuel to Eli, she worshipped the Lord by composing and singing one of the most beautiful songs in the Bible. I Samuel 2:1-11 records Hannah’s Song, where she praises the Lord for who he is and what he had done for her. Throughout the song, the lyrics express various aspects of God’s character—his holiness, uniqueness, omniscience, sovereignty, creativity, protection, etc. She also praises him for delivering her from her problems and giving her strength. Praise was the appropriate expression of gratitude for the Lord hearing Hannah’s prayers and transforming her from a desperate housewife into a devout housewife.

I wonder how often we forget to praise God for who he is and what he has done for us? Especially when we think about how he understands our problems, hears our prayers, and transforms us. He deserves praise for all of these things, but most of all for allowing Jesus to die and rise again to delivering us from our greatest problem: sin.

In Hannah’s story, there is a clear pattern that goes from problems to prayer to praise! Do you see it? Will you live it?