000 Allen FMT (i-xxii) - The Presbyterian Leader

Proper 28 [33]/Year B 203
The books of Samuel and Kings, then, present the monarchs as
ambiguous leaders whose strengths (and obedience) are nearly always
accompanied by faults (and disobedience). The prophets were ombudspeople
who monitored the degree to which the monarchs and the wider
community were faithful to the covenant, and as necessary called for corrective
action or interpreted the consequences of human misdeeds and
YHWH’s actions. Given the Deuteronomic atmosphere, the reader is not
surprised when the monarchy later divides, or when the people go into
exile. These books are as much cautionary tale as celebrations of the monarchs
or monarchy, especially in implying that those returned from exile
should avoid the actions that sent them to Babylon.
Today’s lection is a part of the Deuteronomists’ literary strategy to show
that Samuel was a true prophet (though later we see Samuel himself somewhat
compromised). Literature in the ancient Near East often uses birth
stories to help authenticate the life and message of the one born. This
story focuses on God graciously inspiring the life of Samuel from the
beginning, and on Hannah as a model of a person or community who
tenaciously seeks divine blessing and through whose faithfulness God
guides the community.
Elkanah had two wives, Peninnah who had given birth and Hannah
who was barren. To be barren was to have no future, for children represented
a future. The relationship between Peninnah and Hannah was so
tense that Hannah wept and would not eat (1 Sam. 1:3–8). While today’s
culture sees things differently, many people in antiquity considered barrenness
a disgrace.
Hannah went to the place of worship to pray. The narrator mentions
that Eli, the priest, was at the door, thus placing a male figure in the text
to testify to the veracity of the subsequent events that center in the
woman. Hannah asserts considerable initiative by pleading with God to
grant her a male child whom she would give over to God for service as a
Nazirite. The Nazirites were devoted completely to God, and did not cut
their hair, abstained from wine, avoided contact with corpses, and often
manifested charismatic gifts (cf. Num. 6:1–21) (1 Sam. 1:9–11).
Hannah prayed silently, moving her lips, an unusual mode of prayer in
those days. The narrator portrays Eli as an uncomprehending male who
mistakes Hannah’s behavior for drunkenness (1 Sam. 1:12–13), but she
becomes an instructor for the religious leader by theologically interpreting
her own experience (1:14–15). Eli then truly functions as priest by assuring
Hannah that God would answer her prayer. She named her male child
“Samuel,” the Hebrew meaning of which is “One from God” (1:16–20).