Bible Women: The Story of Hannah and Our Struggle to Understand the Will of God

But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb. 1Sa 1:5 

The Will of God is Complex

We struggle to accept God is not bad. But we also struggle to accept that we are not good.

Job struggled too. He brought out his mental arithmetic book, and on one side he counted his goodness which was almost full. On the other side he counted God’s goodness which was perfect. But his equation did not add up. Else why was he suffering when he had so much good to his credit?

The unspoken question of Job was what had he done to deserve this? And so we read, “but the LORD had shut up her womb.” And being human, we ask, “What had Hannah done to deserve this?”

God’s Will versus Human Will

We read, “ Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created” (Rev 4:11).  

And immediately we feel that is not an easy thing to accept. Our natural self-love rejects it. But take heart, for even men of great stature like Paul struggled too!

“What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.  So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy” (Rom 9:14-15).  

“Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?” (Rom 9:19-21).  

So God acts for his own glory in everything that happens. He raised up Pharaoh, and he raised up Moses. He raised up the blind man for his glory. We struggle to accept God created Satan. But that throws us back to our struggle not to accept God is bad! (Ecc 3:11).

But all the saints of the Bible were sorely tried but they never lost their faith. Will you now because you struggle?

And here again Paul throws in his wonderful exhortation: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? …Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:35-39). 

Self as a Stumbling block to Knowing the Will of God

Love for self is the chief stumbling block to knowing the will of God. Because it is very hard to accept something painful as being God’s will.

“O LORD, thou hast searched me, and known me” cried David. He did not cry that because he saw anything good in himself. Rather it staggered him that God knew so much about him (more than David knew about himself)! That is what one feels in the presence of God. He feels naked. He feels crushed. He feels small.

We can’t know our true self unless God reveals that to us. As the prophet wrote, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings” (Jer 17:9-10).  

But the Bible encourages us to wait on God. It does not give a time limit. It can be one day, or four, or ninety years. I believe that is the attitude we should carry with us to bed every night until all our tomorrows are subsumed into eternity.

Moreover we are commanded to be strong, to have courage, and to hope continually. For it is by loving God’s commandments as they are that we begin to walk on the road to heaven. It is by cherishing him and him alone that our iron chains are broken.  

But Jesus taught us to pray for God’s will to be done. That makes his will supreme. Suffering may bring the better side of us, or the worst. I pray that it will end in your salvation as it did to the psalmist: “Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (Psa 119:67,71).  

Hannah’s Victory Came at Last

Hannah was barren. Peninah made her life hell. She wept. She was angry. She was bitter. She tried to pray but only a whisper escaped her mouth. But God heard it. And he picked it up. He gave her a new song. “And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation” (1Sa 2:1).  

I believe God has a song for you too in the making. Just don’t allow anger and bitterness to overwhelm you.

Hannah had spent her voice until only a whisper stayed. Let your anger be spent. Let your bitterness begin to thaw. And then let a new song begin to form in you even though now it is only a whisper.

Canst thou by searching find out God? canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? Job 11:7

For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men. Lam 3:33  

For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted. Heb 2:18