"There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God...For the foundations of the earth are the Lord's..." (1 Samuel 2:2, 8) If you've ever longed for something, been taunted by someone, or felt forgotten, then you can appreciate Hannah's struggle as, "year after year", she accompanied her husband Elkanah to the Lord's temple at Shiloh, where they offered a sacrifice and then shared a festive meal in fellowship and spiritual union with God, in thankfulness for His mercies. You see, Hannah was barren. Elkanah's other wife, Peninnah, had been blessed by God with sons and daughters, and she taunted her rival until Hannah "wept and would not eat" (1 Samuel 1:7). Hannah was an Israelite, one of God's chosen people living in the land He had promised to bless them in - so why was she childless? Why wasn't she experiencing God's blessing? It amazes me that Hannah, "pouring out" her heart in prayer, took her "bitterness of soul" and her "great anguish and grief" to God, the very one who (the Bible tells us) hadn't given her what she wanted (1 Samuel 1:10, 15-16). In response to Hannah's prayer, "the Lord remembered her" (acted in her behalf), and "in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son". She named him Samuel (1 Samuel 1:19-20). Hannah's faith-filled prayer and the Lord's faithful answer are both testaments to God's goodness, His good intentions for His people in delivering them from their struggles, which He had demonstrated time and again in the course of their history. Through mighty acts of deliverance, the Lord freed Hannah's ancestors from their suffering at the hands of Egyptian slave drivers so that they could be His people and He could be their God (see last week's blog post). He led them in the desert, graciously providing for them. Through more mighty acts of deliverance (parting the Jordan River, stopping the sun in the sky and sending their enemies into confusion - Joshua 3, 10), God then led the Israelites into the land He had promised to give them. He established them in the land, to be a nation set apart to Him. The Lord was with Hannah's people as they fought and won His battles, and as they experienced His blessings - so that through them the world would know that He is God. Knowing the larger story of all that God had done for her people empowered Hannah to pray in faith to Him. In her own need for deliverance from her barrenness, she clung to the One she knew was able to deliver! In a song, which she sang after dedicating her young son Samuel to a life of service to the Lord at the Shiloh temple (1 Samuel 2:1-10), Hannah fits and fixes herself into God's larger Redemption Story. She sang about God's power to deliver, as she had experienced it personally:"...My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance..." She sang about God's larger work of deliverance and justice in the world:"...The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength...He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor..." Hannah even sang about God's future plans for deliverance, and for redemption:"...the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed." Hannah sang prophetically about God's chosen servant, David, who her son Samuel would one day anoint as king over Israel!  She was also and ultimately singing about the One who would be The King, the Deliverer and Redeemer and Savior of all the world, God's anointed Son, Jesus Christ! God brought Jesus into the world through another Israelite woman (Mary, a virgin), who, along with her people of that time, also longed for deliverance (from their Roman oppressors). Jesus lived to assure God's people that they had not been forgotten, and to make God's redemptive power and plan - His good intentions for all people - known throughout the world. In giving up his life for us on the Cross, Jesus acted on the behalf of all people, delivering us from slavery to sin and from death. He rose again to life, to make all who believe in him God's chosen and blessed people eternally. Through her divinely-inspired song, Hannah tells us God's Redemption Story, by helping us to see how He was powerfully at work to save the world, both through the lives of the Israelites and through her own life. Hannah's witness, born out of her suffering and barrenness, speaks to our own struggles in life and gives them new meaning and purpose. Her faith-filled words point us to the larger story of God's faithfulness in delivering all people, and because of that her words have the power to give birth to faith in us as well, as through them God's Spirit gives people new life! Prayer: Lord, thank you for Hannah, for her story and her song, her beautiful witness to me.  Thank you for your faithfulness in redeeming me! How do I tell other people about you? Do I have a song to sing or a story to tell, about my own experience of your faithfulness, goodness and redemptive power? Help me to see what you have done and what you have promised to do for me in Jesus. Help me to see what Jesus is doing right now in and around me. Give me words to sing and to speak, that you can use to give life to someone who is struggling.