LEADERSHIP VACUUM - In messianic overtones Israel is ready for a single leader who will protect, defend, gather, liberate, and legitimate the community. [1] The two needs are apparent: the first is a political threat-the Philistines have made life marginal and unstable; the second need emerges from the moral chaos described in the book of Judges-undisciplined religion (Judges 17-18) and brutality (Judges 19-21). The king will come-David-but the interim pastor will be the prophet Samuel and that’s who occupies the pages of 1 Samuel.

FUNCTION OF CHAPTER ONE - . . . Chapter one functions as a paradigm for the entire drama of Israel’s faithful waiting as it is presented in the Samuel narrative . . . The problem is barrenness: no child, no son, no heir, no future, no historical possibility. The resolution is worship, with a son given and a future opened. The dramatic flow of the narrative is the process through which the problem of barrenness is transformed into a resolution of glad, trustful, yielding praise . . . The narrative is a witness to Yahweh’s transformative power, which creates a new historical possibility where none existed. [2]

LISTENING TO HANNAH’S STRUGGLE - This passage boldly names the honest struggles of a person in desperation. As a new life struggles in fertile wombs, so another struggle exists within the barrenness of Hannah. Hannah is desperate yet bravely bears the brunt of her lack in the face of cruel comments and false theologies. In our own society that champions goal-setting, programs, and strategic planning that deliver, it is refreshing to run into Hannah-the person who realizes that her wholeness lies outside her own control and thus must rely upon God as the creator of hoped-for reality in her life.

Who picked on you most when you were growing up?

What is the worst thing you’ve had to cope with in the face of some well-known objective that you’ve failed to achieve? Rivals? Cruel words? Depression? Misunderstandings? Cheap answers?

What do you think Hannah came away with from her interactions . . . with Elkanah? . . . Peninah? . . . Eli? . . . God? . . . .with her own desperation?

As to structure, you might consider building the proclamation around the problem/resolution form. State the problem and explore the problem of barrenness metaphorically. Let us see clearly by analogy into our own lives what barrenness looks and feels like.

Move to the various ways we seek to resolve such barrenness-borrow money, run from the problem, take a short cut, detour around, let it get under our skin, get stressed out about it, hit the self-help section, etc. Speak how Hannah may have sought to resolve her barrenness.

Final move to resolution-how does Hannah move beyond the barrenness? What does she learn from this entire episode of barrenness? What can we learn from Hannah about God? About our own barrenness?

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[1] Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: 1 & 2 Sam (Louisville: John Knox Press, 1990), p. 10.
[2] Ibid, page 12.