(Part 1)

JBTM Robert D. Bergen
28
As part of the religious, weeklong family vacation, Eli and the other worshipers would
present animal sacrifices to the Lord. They could be expected to offer up three animals to
God; one that would serve as a burnt offering, one as a sin offering, and one as a peace
offering. The burnt offering would have all the meat portions burned to ash at the altar. In the
language of sacrifice in that day, the burnt offering said to God, “Through this animal’s death
please accept me as a living sacrifice in service to You.” The sin offering spoke a different
message. It said, “By this sacrifice I declare that I am a sinner worthy of death; this animal’s
death satisfies that demand in my place.” With the sin offering the most sacred parts of the
animal were burned up on the altar, with the other portions being given to the officiating
priest. The peace offering’s message was one of thanksgiving. It served as an expression of
gratitude for the restoration of right relations between God and the one offering the animal.
The third sacrificial animal was a party animal, since the man who brought the animal
would be permitted to eat most of the animal’s meat. Elkanah naturally shared the meat from
the peace offering with his family as the centerpiece of a special celebratory meal. It seems
that he used the event as a sort of family awards dinner whereby he rewarded each wife for
their hard work over the past year and for the blessing of children brought into the family by
the wives. And so it was that
⁴Whenever Elkanah offered a sacrifice, he always gave portions of the meat to his wife
Peninnah and to each of her sons and daughters. ⁵But he gave a double portion to Hannah, for
he loved her even though the LORD had kept her from conceiving. (1 Sam 1:4–5)
Interestingly, the Hebrew text does not actually state that Hannah received “a double
portion” from Elkanah; instead, it says that she received “a portion of two nostrils.” In my
opinion, this means that Hannah got only one portion—a portion which seems reasonable
since she had failed to provide her husband with any children. Of course, Elkanah did not
give her this relatively small portion because he hated her. In fact, “he loved her, even though
the Lord had kept her from conceiving” (v. 5b). But it didn’t feel like love to Hannah, and
it provided the perfect chance for Peninnah to stick a verbal knife into her feminine rival’s
spirit and then twist it. And Peninnah did not waste this opportunity: Hannah’s
⁶rival would taunt her severely just to provoke her, because the LORD had kept
Hannah from conceiving. ⁷Whenever she went up to the LORD’s house, her rival
taunted her in this way every year. Hannah wept and would not eat. (1 Sam 1:6)
These annual banquets—the meals that were supposed to be the happiest and best of each
year—repeatedly served as the single most humiliating and painful of Hannah’s life. Once a
year, every year, before all the members of the clan she was being openly humiliated for an
embarrassing and shameful condition imposed on her by Yahweh Himself. Fascinatingly, the
very God who commanded Hannah to “be fruitful and multiply” (Gen. 1:28), had also “kept
Hannah from conceiving” (v. 6b). How could a truly good God command a person to do
something and then make it impossible for them to fulfill that command?