Tears are often liquid prayers, but prayers expressed can more surely lay hold of the promises.
It’s hard to be impressed with Peninnah, Elkanah’s second wife. Wasn’t it enough that God had blessed her with “all her sons and daughters” (1 Sam 1:4)? No, she “provoked [Hannah] severely, to make her miserable” (v 6). This went on “year by year” (v 7). On one of the family’s annual trips to Shiloh, where the ark of God was pitched, Elkanah noticed Hannah weeping and not eating. His comment personifies all the unwise statements made by husbands to their wives through the centuries: “Am I not better to you than ten sons?” (v 8). As we see from the following verses, the poor man completely missed the point. This was not the petulant threat of Rachel to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die!” (Gen 30:1). No, Hannah had observed the moral decline of her own nation. She understood that the answer would not be found in improved politics or modified religion. The way God often works is through the willing cooperation of godly women in raising up boys for His use. Hannah quietly left the group and went to commune with Heaven. As she wept and prayed, old Eli, the priest, sat watching. He, like Elkanah, seriously misjudged what he was seeing. He thought she was drunk (1 Sam 1:14)! It’s sad when a priest can’t tell the difference between spirits and the Spirit (something repeated in Acts 2). But how gracious is Hannah’s response. She understood that a woman, disappointed by the men in her life, always has instant access to the sovereign Lord. In the vow she made, she promised God that a son given to her would be given back for His service, something wisely done by every believing mother. And as she rose to leave, she believed God had answered, “and her face was no longer sad” (v 18).