Thursday, March 8, 2012

1 Samuel 1

I had forgotten the other wife in the story of Hannah, Samuel's mother. Her name was Penninah and apparently she was cruel to Hannah about the fact that Hannah had born no children while she had born their husband many - probably because the Bible makes a point of telling us that Elkanah loved Hannah, implying that he didn't have the same (degree of) love for Penninah (they got the children from somewhere, is all I'm saying). To Elkanah's credit, he does not hold the the lack of children against Hannah and doesn't seem to be actively fostering any of the competition in the Rachel - Jacob - Leah marriage.

Elkanah in fact validates Hannah's role as just a loving wife rather than a producer of sons for him, although he goes perhaps a bit astray in his argument, "Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?"

Perhaps the most striking part of the story is the fact that Hannah is praying so desperately that Eli thinks that she is drunk when he sees her. That's actually kind of horribly hilarious. I feel bad for finding it so, but it's just so...what non-believers will never understand about religion, I suppose. I firmly believe that most religious people enjoy a good "make me eat a live chicken" joke as much as the next person, because, well, those people freak us out a bit.

So perhaps what we need here is more of a scene - Hannah praying and Eli coming in to accuse her of being drunk. I can't help thinking of it as the speech at the end of an episode of television, where everything in the A Plot and the B Plot comes pouring out in a jumbled mess that wouldn't really make sense to anyone but the omnipotent viewer. Those people in real life look drunk at best (it's one of my pet peeves in television, and I have been particularly intolerant of it ever since my brief relationship with someone who regularly vented to me in a barely comprehensible fashion as if he were the protagonist of sitcom or teen drama).

That's the goal for tomorrow's entry, to find a few B plots to throw in with Hannah's main drama going on - perhaps details about the share of the meal?

My real point here being: even loved ones, even saints and prophets, will never really have access to everything that is going on in your mind/heart/life. Only God really understands you. It's why He's the best to turn to.