Ladies in Waiting

I know that it has been quite a while since my last post. My apologies; I was trying to juggle a new career into my life and took a sabbatical from posting.


So, as stated before we will look at several women in the Bible and discuss their situations.


First we will look at King David's daughter Tamar, who experienced a fate all too common today. We will also meet up with Hagar, Jael, The Woman from Sychar, and The Syrophonecian/Canaanite Woman, just to list a few.


If there are any women which you would like to visit please let me know.


Peace be with you,
Gye

Hannah’s Han

            The narrative of the Old Testament book of First Samuel begins with a grieving barren woman of the 12^th century B.C.E. who petitions God for the ability to conceive a child, specifically a male child. The story of Hannah, mother of the priest and prophet Samuel, clearly relates an incident where a ministerial leader misdiagnosed the outward display of emotion of a congregant wracked with the pain of inner wounds and initially responded to the hurting congregant without compassion.

¹ There was a certain man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham son of Elihu son of Tohu son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. ² He had two wives; the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. ³ Now this man used to go up year by year from his town to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were priests of the Lord. ⁴ On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters; ⁵ but to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. ⁶ Her rival used to provoke her severely, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. ⁷ So it went on year after year; as often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. ⁸ Her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? Why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” ⁹ After they had eaten and drunk at Shiloh, Hannah rose and presented herself before the Lord. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. ¹⁰ She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. ¹¹ She made this vow: “O Lord of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head.” ¹² As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. ¹³ Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. ¹⁴ So Eli said to her, “How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.” ¹⁵ But Hannah answered, “No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. ¹⁶ Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.” ¹⁷ Then Eli answered, “Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.” ¹⁸ And she said, “Let your servant find favor in your sight.” Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer. 

1 Samuel 1:1-18, New Revised Standard Version

            The central focus of the passage is Hannah’s deep inner wounds—her han.[1] When deep wounds are not healed they “become vortexes of troubled waters, intertwined with [the wounded’s] own instinct of survival and fear.”[2] Hannah’s woundedness was centered on her inability to conceive a child. She experienced at least four types of deep wounds: (1) lack of a son to establish her position as the main wife, and also to provide for her in her old age; (2) torment and provocation by her husband’s second wife; (3) being in the position of having to seek God out of desperation; and (4) the ministerial leader misunderstanding her anguish for public drunkenness.[3] She had endured public shame and Peninnah’s provocations for years.[4] After reaching the point where she could no longer endure her torment, Hannah addressed her issue to the One who would be able to do something about her pain—God. Hannah knew that God had the ability to heal her barrenness and she was willing to dedicate the resulting child back to him in exchange for his concession to her plea.

            A striking aspect of this passage is the intensity in which Hannah prayed to conceive a child. This author connected with Hannah in her lament because she herself has so lamented on several occasions, usually at home in the sanctity of her prayer room, but sometimes in church, though then her lament was usually through dance and tears. Lament is a part of the healing process. In the process offered by Park it could well be part of both the forgivingness and justice steps.[5] Patrick D. Miller, Jr. offers a description of the prayer of lament that this author finds fitting for Hannah, as well as for herself and the women her ministerial context. Miller states,

The prayer for help, or the lament prayer, is not a feature of Christian worship to be heard by others. It is a feature of human existence to be heard by God. The Lord is addressed; the pastor may listen in. The community is not there. It is part of the problem. The prayer for help is spontaneous, unplanned, wrenched from the experience of pain, but is not formless. Its aim is to secure help. Its resolution is in words and deeds that transform the situation.[6]

Hannah’s prayer of lament was not meant to be heard by the priest Eli, and any woman steeped in a prayer of lament can be mistaken for drunken, as such a prayer usually brings with it tears, mucous, passionate groans, and sometimes howls.

            Hannah’s soul-wrenching request to conceive and give birth to a child parallels many lamenting women’s requests to birth something new or different in their lives: love, the mending of broken relationships, redirection of a wayward child; lifting of economic or social burdens, mental peace, and the list can go on and on. As Miller states, Hannah’s

situation is exemplary of those individuals who cry out to God in great hurt and need…The prayer of the troubled, the cry for help that is at the heart of biblical prayer, is not in this instance an act of worship in the congregation. It is an act of the one who is cut off from community, who is alone and isolated.[7]

In another source, Miller offers that Psalm 6 could have been an appropriate lament for Hannah’s distress.[8] Women such as Hannah are abused by men and by other women.[9] Such abuse results in inner wounds.

            More striking than the intensity of Hannah’s prayer was the response of Eli, the ministerial leader, to Hannah’s strife (vv. 12-14). Rather than considering the possibility that the woman was relinquishing to God some deep-seated anguish, Eli elected to accuse her of public drunkenness and added to her pain by accusing her in a manner that lacked compassion. An immediate question is, “Why did the ministerial leader respond to the hurting woman in such a manner?” But the better question becomes, “How did the ministerial leader’s response impact the hurting woman?”[10] On top of everything she had endured for years, what was the effect on Hannah of being verbally assaulted by the ministerial leader, the person in charge of the place where she had gone for resolution and solace—the House of God?[11]

Let's re-examine the questions from the previous post:

Q: How would you feel about being one of two or more wives in a household?
Q: What entitlements would the first wife have over the junior wives?
Q: What would any of the wives need to ensure economic stability in the event of the husband's demise?
Q: What would be the thoughts and feelings of each of the wives?
Q: What would be the thoughts and feelings of the husband of two or more wives?
Q: What other questions can you come up with about such an arrangement?

Now let us examine some additional questions:

Have you ever experienced the kind of woundedness (han) that Hannah experienced?

If so, how did you address your pain?

Do you know of another woman who has experienced such han?

If so, how did she address her pain?

What could/you do to help the woman through her han?

What can you do to help yourself through future han?

Be opened!

Gye

---

[1]Park, 10. Han (pronounced hahn) is the Korean term for deep (inner) wounds that affect a victim.

[2]Park, 3.

[3]Marjorie Menaul, “1 Samuel 1 & 2,” Interpretation 55, no. 2 (2001), 174.

[4]The story of Hannah bears resemblance to the story of Leah and Rachel in Genesis 29, with Hannah replicating the anguish felt by the unloved Leah, though at the same time she was the most loved, like Rachel. Though she was most loved by Elkanah (v. 5), he continually had sexual relations with the second wife, Penninah, producing at least four children by her (as deduced by v. 4 speaking of Peninnah having sons and daughters, both plural).

[5]Park, 81-130.

[6]Patrick D. Miller, Jr., “Prayer and Worship,” Calvin Theological Journal 36, no. 1

(April 2001), 53.

[7]Miller, Jr., 54, 55.

[8]Patrick D. Miller, They Cried to the Lord: The Form and Theology of Biblical Prayer (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 1994), 238.

[9]Miller, 239. In Hannah’s case, she was a victim of a patriarchal system and a family system that measured the worth of a woman by her ability to bear children, particularly sons. This, in turn, gave men power and legitimacy to abuse their wives and it created a competition that caused women to abuse each other—as Peninnah had done to Hannah.

[10]Had the hypothesis focused on explanations for ministerial compassionless communication then perhaps it would be appropriate to offer excuses such as it being due to his age, his physical condition, disenchanted with the behavior of his sons, or perhaps just being burnt out with ministry. But the researcher’s concern is not the why, it is the how—how to be compassionate toward the inner-wounded.

[11]In a possibly unprecedented move, Hannah politely but affirmatively spoke back to Eli, correcting him about his perception of her condition (vv. 15-16). In those times, For a woman to talk back to a man, particularly the chief priest, most likely was not permitted. See Tzvi Freeman, “Women in the Temple: An Answer to the Controversy,” The Jewish Woman, http://www.chabad.org/theJewishWoman/

article_cdo/aid//97367jewish/Women-in-the-Synagogue.htm (accessed April 30, 2012), where in answer to a question about the role of women in Jewish synagogues the author states, “You brought up prayer and the all-male minyan. Yes, women can attend services, but all the dominant roles are handed to the men. And they stand on the other side of a partition or upstairs in the gallery. You don't know just how enigmatic this is. In fact, it is bewildering. Mysterious. Astonishing. Let me explain why…”

Woman of Grace

A capable wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
She is like the ships of the merchant,
she brings her food from far away.
She rises while it is still night
and provides food for her household
and tasks for her servant-girls.
She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
She girds herself with strength,
and makes her arms strong.
She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands to the spindle.
She opens her hand to the poor,
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid for her household when it snows,
for all her household are clothed in crimson.
She makes herself coverings;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the city gates,
taking his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them;
she supplies the merchant with sashes.
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of her kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household,
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her happy;
her husband too, and he praises her:
"Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all."
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.
Give her a share in the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the city gate.
~Proverbs 31:10-31 (NRSV)

Why does this woman scare so many of us? Is she real? Is she possible?
Yes, and she can be you.

She is not Superwoman; all of her skills and actions are attainable.

First, she selected a man of good character, and he excelled at what he was gifted. Not all of our men will be "known in the city gates" but whatever their sphere of influence, they can be of good reputation. Be wise about whom you allow to woo you. But even if you have bound yourself to one who is of low esteem, you may still choose to be a woman of grace and honor. Perhaps your elevation will encourage his. But whatever his estate, do him good and not harm, after all, by your character is how you will be known.

Second, this woman is industrious. She hones her skills, supplies her household, directs her subordinates, engages in business decisions, maintains her health and strength. This lady is no slouch! You will not find her sprawled out on a couch eating bon-bons and watching soap operas, Maury Povich or Jerry Springer. She has too much positive good to do with her time. Also, she knows that her family is dependant upon her so she maintains her health and strength. When was your last physical exam, mammogram, teeth cleaning, or aerobics workout? Do you use your Wii to exercise your body and brain or does it sit collecting dust? When was the last time that you perused the shelves of your local library? What cultural events have taken place in your town which you attended? Don't allow yourself to stagnate.

Third, she knows value. She is not a gold digger, but she pursues high quality. Remember that field she purchased? And the wool, flax, and food? I am confident that she negotiated the best deals when purchasing all of these, and did not rush into any of these transactions. When you engage in an activity (sewing, volunteering, shopping, auto mechanics, painting, dancing...whatever you choose) do you do your best? Is your quality of output high? There is an adage "garbage in, garbage out," but I suggest that we reverse our thinking to "garbage out, garbage in." In other words, if I produce garbage I will accept garbage. Not this woman! Quality is the name of the game. But keep in mind that high quality does not necessarily mean expensive. Be a wise shopper.

Fourth, she knows her worth and she drapes her body accordingly. Her clothing is fine linen and purple. This woman was not self-centered, she was self-assured. Translated, she expects the best for herself and her family. Again, having the best does not mean spending all of your money. In fact, this woman made clothes herself. Not all of us sew these days, but we can still be wise in our purchasing decisions. The Loreal commercials state "because I'm worth it." I agree...I am worth it, but I won't pay full price if I can avoid it. And I always examine to ensure that flaws are discovered before I decide to buy. She was well aware of who she was and who she represented when she stepped out of her house. I am confident that she never went out in headrags, pajamas, and house slippers. Knowing ones worth does not only apply to purchases; worth also applies to our character and acquaintances. Value yourself. You are a temple of God, make sure that your temple is respected by others and by yourself.

Fifth, she extends herself to others. Because she does everything with quality, style, and grace her offerings to the less fortunate are not rejects that she would not use herself. Think of Tabitha/Dorcas in the Book of Acts and how the people lamented her death because of her kindness and the quality of the garments that she made. Our Proverbs 31 woman was probably Tabitha's role model. What is the quality of your offerings? Will you be remembered like that?

Sixth, her children and husband are proud of her and brag of her to their peers. She had no need to boast, her family couldn't contain their delight and extolled her virtues to whomever would listen. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter how those on the outside view us, what matters is how those close to our hearts view us. How does your family think of you? Do they smile at the thought of you? What do you children and mates say about you to others?

There is so much more to share about this woman, but that will take a few more columns.

It is important to know that she is not an impossible standard to pursue. Set your mind, actions, and habits upon being a woman of high standards who is willing to be a servant to those in need - like Jesus is for us.

You are a capable woman. You are a woman of grace.

Be reconciled,
Gye