Let me tell you a story…

This is the story of Elkanah, Hannah and Peninnah. Yes, it is the same story from 1 Samuel Chapter 1 and I just want to briefly share an event from this story that inspired me.

So lets start from the beginning.

Elkanah had 2 wives- Hannah and Peninnah. Hannah had no child but Peninnah had children. How devastating and heart breaking it must have been for Hannah to see Peninnah surrounded by these bundles of joy everyday, hearing the cry of babies each time Peninnah gave birth and seeing them run around the house and grow up under her nose.

I carried on reading and stopped in my tracks when I got to verses 6&7 which says: ‘Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year.Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat’. So not only was Peninnah a co-wife who had children, she was a rival who rubbed it in Hannah’s face.

Initially, I thought ‘Oh poor Hannah, that’s so unfair’ but as I carried on reading, I appreciated Peninnah’s role in Hannah’s ordeal and came to the conclusion that she was needed and played a very important role in Hannah’s life. Bear with me one sec, I am heading somewhere with this.

Now, year after year, repeatedly, consistently, as a family, they all went up to Shiloh to offer sacrifices to God. I believe that Hannah must have said prayers concerning her desire to have children but year after year, she returned the same and nothing changed. And in the same way, Peninnah sought to frustrate her, provoking her to sorrow, making her feel like her prayer wasn’t reaching heaven and that she was never going to carry her child.

In her desperation, Hannah was forced to go to God and pray like she had never before. She cried bitterly and prayed until she made a vow. Hannah realised that constantly crying, looking sad before her husband wasn’t making any diference so she went to the One who had the solution-to God. I wonder what would have happend to Hannah if Peninnah didn’t keep irritating her, making her uncomfotable. Maybe she would have accepted that it was her destiny to remain childless and given up (but this was not the case as she gave birth to Samuel).

So this is why I said we need a ‘Peninnah’ in our lives. We sometimes need that one person(or thing) who makes us so uncomfortable in our comfort zones that we are forced to go find solutions. Year after year this person or thing brings us to tears, causing us to dwell in sorrow, our heart and head to ache, sapping us of all strength and will to move on…

I say it is time to get up, just as Hannah stood up!.