Hannah’s Prayer and the Birth of Samuel (1 Sam. 2)

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Hannah’s Prayer and the Birth of Samuel (1 Sam. 2)

Prepared and preached by Pastor Steve Rhodes for and at Bethel Friends Church in Poland, OH on Sunday, February 22, 2026

Prayer, what does it matter? Seeking the Lord, who cares, dependence upon the Lord, not that important, is it? Well, obviously, I think all these things in our lives are very important. Prayers, seeking the Lord, and dependence on God are important as they affect our whole lives. But when you are a parent, these affect more than you; they affect your children, even if your children are not born yet. Unfortunately, in my ministry, I have worked with children who haven’t had godly parents. Unfortunately, I have worked with children who have had absent parents. It is always refreshing to see a good family. It is refreshing for me to see a family that puts God first. I know there are many families in this church that seek the Lord, depend upon God, and have a vibrant prayer life.

I am not the only one who thinks that prayer and seeking the Lord are very important. In the Old Testament, a woman sought the Lord and was rewarded for it. I know as soon as I mentioned the Old Testament, you thought of Hannah in 1 Samuel. But for those of you who haven’t thought of Hannah, she is the one I am thinking of. Hannah was a very godly woman. She gave birth to one of the greatest Old Testament prophets. The prophet Samuel ordained King Saul and King David, Israel’s first two kings. Because of Hannah, we have the Old Testament narratives of First and Second Samuel. Let me explain this as we walk through chapter 1. But let me add a note, a very important note: As I talk about 1 Samuel 1, I will talk about Hannah’s devotion to the Lord and her husband’s support. My challenge is that we are also devoted to the Lord. But just because we are devoted to the Lord doesn’t mean your kids will also grow up to be godly. If you have an adult or teenage child that you are struggling with, it is easy to blame yourself. But I know of parents who have been and are very godly, and yet their children rebel.  

My theme and application today are:

Strive to pray like Hannah

Please follow along as we read 1Samuel 1

  1. What is going on in 1 Samuel 1?
    1. In the first couple of verses, we have an introduction to the passage. We have a little bit about their lifestyle. Hannah was married to Elkanah. Elkanah had two wives.
    2. It is most likely from context and wording that Elkanah was married to Hannah first. But when Hannah could not have children, he took a second wife named Peninnah. Hannah means “grace,” and Peninnah means  “ruby.”
    3. It was important back then for a man and a woman to be able to have children. Back then, children were expected to take care of their parents as they grew older. Children also helped with the family business.
    4. The text shows that Hannah was barren. This was a big deal. It was tragic.
    5. As we talk about Hannah’s commitment to the Lord, we must also talk about Elkanah’s commitment to the Lord. Verse 3 shows that Elkanah would take his family to Shiloh to worship and make sacrifices. He gave sacrifices to his two wives and to his children.
    6. Now, this was a big commitment. Shiloh was about 15 miles from Jerusalem and about a two-day journey. Now, many of you are thinking, “Why Shiloh? What about Jerusalem?” I am glad you asked. At this point, Jerusalem had not yet been conquered by King David. So, at this point, the Ark of the Covenant, Israel’s temple, and worship center were in Shiloh.
    7. Verse 5 shows that Elkanah loved Hannah more. But also, that “the Lord had closed her womb.”
    8. Major principle: The Lord is in control. I was at a doctor’s office, and there was a sign—“Physicians treat, God heals.”
    9. Verses 6-8 show the pain that Hannah experienced from being barren. Peninnah is described as a rival. She would provoke Hannah, as Hannah had no children. It is possible that she provoked Hannah because Elkanah loved Hannah more.
    10. The Scriptures show God controls the womb, and now Hannah believes that. She believes it so much that she spends extra time in prayer about her son.
  2. Hannah’s prayer-
    1. 1 Samuel 1:9–11 (ESV)
    2. 9 After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. 10 She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. 11 And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”
    3. She prays for a son. She prays so intensely that Eli, the priest, thinks she is drunk. She is praying with her mouth, but her lips are moving without sounds coming out.
    4. Verse 10: She was “deeply” distressed and prayed to the Lord.
    5. She wept “bitterly.”
    6. She made a vow to the Lord.
    7. She would dedicate her son to the Lord.
    8. 1 Samuel 1:12–18 (ESV)
    9. 12 As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. 14 And Eli said to her, “How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.” 15 But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. 16 Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.” 17 Then Eli answered, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.” 18 And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
    10. Now, Hannah prays for a son but also makes a vow. If the Lord gives her a son, she will dedicate him to the Lord for his whole life, and no razor will touch his head.
    11. Now, that is the Nazirite vow, which is usually a temporary vow, but she promises that Samuel will have that vow for his whole life.
    12. According to Numbers 6, people might make a special vow to separate themselves to the Lord for a time. This involved letting no razor … touch one’s head, eating nothing from the grapevine, and not going near a dead body. Hannah mentions only the razor in the text, but that part of the vow probably stood for the whole of the regulations. According to Lev. 27:1–8, a person as young as a month old could be vowed to the Lord, apparently to work in the temple. The Leviticus passage deals with redeeming someone who has been dedicated, but Hannah does not intend to redeem her son.[1]
    13. Have you ever wanted something so bad? Well, Hannah did in this case, so she went to the One who could ultimately provide it.
  3. The Lord rewarded Hannah’s vow.
    1. Hannah goes home, and she becomes pregnant (1 Samuel 1:19-20). God provided a baby, and they named him Samuel. So, Hannah follows through, and after the child was weaned, she brings him to the temple.
    2. So, Samuel was probably two to three years old when he was dedicated to the temple.
    3. I read this and think, “That is amazing, she dedicates her son to serve in temple service his whole life.” This means that, from the age of two, the priest would have raised him.
  4.  Applications:
    1. How are we doing with prayer?
    2. Hannah goes to the Lord with her need.
    3. Do you know what this means? This means she knew the Lord controls the womb.
    4. She believed in the Lord’s sovereignty.
    5. She submitted to God’s sovereignty.
    6. Tim Keller shares:
    7. Hannah had a son named Samuel, and she put him into the ministry, and he became one of the great deliverers, a penultimate messiah, one of the deliverers who foreshadowed the great Messiah to come. He rose up at a time of great crisis, and he led his people to victory over their enemies and saved them.
    8. If Hannah had not suffered … See if God had just given her a child when she wanted a child, she would have crushed him under the weight of her expectations. She would have dangled him before Peninnah and said, “Ha, ha, ha. See I am okay. I’m all right. I’m a real woman. I had a son.” He never would have become the savior, would he? Never. He would have needed somebody to save him.
    9. But because of her suffering and because of her sacrifice of him by sending him away … Through her suffering and her sacrifice the people were saved, because she accepted not knowing how God was going to use her suffering but simply said, “I’m at peace. I’ve made my vow. I’ve changed my heart. Now do what you want. Give me a son. Now it’s safe for me to have him. I won’t make an idol out of him.”
    10. It was safe, finally. It was finally safe for her to have this thing. Because she suffered and sacrificed and put God in the center, he became the savior.[2]
    11. She humbly prayed to the Lord.
    12. Do we believe in the sovereignty of God?
    13. Do we submit to the sovereignty of God?
    14. Do we pray in a way in which we trust the Lord with the results?
  5. How does this point to Jesus?
    1. Hannah prays and praises in 1 Samuel 2.
    2. 1 Samuel 2:8 (ESV) He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.
    3. Tim Keller:
    4. Most interesting (verse 8), God has taken the poor off the ash heap. The ash heaps were the garbage dumps outside the city, they were so foul, and they were burned. They just burned their garbage, and any poor person who actually rooted around in the garbage dump, in the ash heap, was the poorest of the poor. Yet God takes the poorest of the poor and sets them up with princes, and takes the princes and sends them down to the ash heap. “Well,” you say, “that’s very interesting. So what?” So everything.
    5. When Jesus Christ was led outside of the gates of Jerusalem to be executed over in the garbage area, ignominiously being crucified, which is the most disgraceful of all executions … As Jesus Christ was going out in disgrace and in weakness, everybody said, “That can’t be the Messiah.” Why? Because if you look at the forefathers of the Messiah, the penultimate forerunners of the Messiah, they were Samuel and Samson and David and Gideon, and they all brought salvation by being strong and getting glory.
    6. So they looked at Jesus and said, “That can’t be the Messiah. The Messiah wouldn’t be weak. The Messiah wouldn’t be disgraced. That couldn’t be the Messiah.” Do you know what their problem was? They were looking at the forefathers of the Messiah but not the foremothers. They were looking at the men who were the forerunners of Jesus but not the women. Over and over again, God gave a foretaste of the real gospel and the work of Jesus Christ in the fact he continually brought his salvation of the world through the barren, through the rejected, through the unwanted women.
    7. It’s old barren Sarah, not beautiful fertile Hagar through whom God brings the royal messianic saving seed, Isaac. It’s through Leah, the girl nobody wanted, the wife Jacob didn’t want, not Rachel the beautiful and the wanted that God brings the royal messianic saving seed of Judah. Samson is born to a barren woman who shouldn’t be able to have children. Samuel is born to a suffering disgraced woman, but through the suffering and disgrace of Hannah, salvation comes.
    8. If you looked at the foremothers, you would have known Isaiah was talking about the Messiah when he said the one who comes to save us will suffer disgrace and will be crushed for our iniquities. Jesus experienced the reversal Hannah was talking about. Why can we be lifted up and seated in the heavenly places in Christ? Why can we be seated on thrones? Because Jesus Christ went deeper than the ash heap. He went literally into the ash heap.
    9. He not only was crucified in the ash heap, but he experienced the disgrace and the punishment and the divine justice we deserve. Because our sins and our disgrace were put on him, through his weakness and through his suffering we’re saved. You could see it in Hannah if you were looking at Hannah not Samuel. You could see it in Samson’s mother. You could see it in Leah. You could see it in all of those women. The women in the Old Testament show Jesus Christ is not just a coming king, but a suffering servant.
    10. Until you understand the true spirituality of women like Hannah, you won’t know what Hannah knew. Hannah did not know exactly how God was going to use her suffering to bring about salvation. I have no idea whether she even lived long enough to understand that. Maybe at the very end of her life, when she began to see what was going on with Samuel, she said, “Oh, that’s why I had to suffer. So that’s why I had to sacrifice.” But maybe she didn’t know. She didn’t care. She trusted him.
    11. Well, that’s pretty good of Hannah, but you and I have something she didn’t have. We have the cross. On the cross I see that God brings life out of death, and through suffering, his own suffering, he brings about all kinds of life in the world. Therefore, O friends, you can trust him right now. If you are faithful to him and don’t give up on God but put God in the center even during your suffering, like Hannah, God will turn it all to gold for you and for others.[3]

Closing:

There is great value in raising godly children. This value begins when moms and dads seek the Lord at home.

A mother in New England was helping pack a box to be sent to India. Her son, aged four, insisted on putting in an offering all his own, a little leaflet entitled “Come to Jesus.” His name was written on it with the little prayer, “May the one who gets this soon learn to love Jesus.” When the child’s leaflet reached that far-off land, it was finally given to a Hindu priest who was teaching the missionaries the language. He took it without looking at it, but on his way back to his mountain home, he thought of the leaflet, took it out, and read the writing on the outside.

The child’s prayer so touched him that he was then eager to read further. He soon gave up his idols and became a devoted missionary to his own people. Fifteen years after that, American missionaries visited his mountain village, and there found the converted Hindu priest with a congregation of fifteen hundred people who had learned to love Jesus as their Saviour, through the influence and teaching of that leaflet.

[1] Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 492.

[2] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

[3] Timothy J. Keller, The Timothy Keller Sermon Archive (New York City: Redeemer Presbyterian Church, 2013).

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