Jacob Chanikuzhy

Some try power, others drugs and still others multiple sex partners to extract maximum joy from this life. While no prominent modern systems approve of using drugs, money or power to achieve happiness in life, it is clear that polygamy is still allowed in certain religious systems to help man to enjoy more peace and pleasure in this life. However, having an extra wife appears to be a cause of extra sorrow than extra pleasure according to several biblical narratives.  The dilemma faced by Abraham in appeasing his wife Sarah and showing kindness to Hagar is well known. Patriarch Jacob also was squashed between his wives Leah and Rachel. Another story is that of Elkanah found in 1 Samuel 1. He was a devout man and had two wives. Though a devout man he violated the biblical precept of monogamy. Perhaps Elkanah married his second wife    Peninnah since his first wife Hannah failed to bear any children. Elkanah had children in his wife Peninnah. But, with her children Peninnah became very haughty and through her continuous taunting she made the life of Hannah more miserable. It was a sign of her wickedness that she delighted in grieving the already disappointed and dispirited Hannah.

Having no children was a serious matter of shame especially in the Old Testament times as barrenness was considered a punishment from God. It was also a matter of insecurity as the death of the husband would make the wife a widow without anyone to protect her. But, the silver line amidst the cloud of shame and fear in the life of Hannah was the love of her husband. Although Hannah was barren, Elkanah loved Hannah more than his second wife. To withhold one’s love from one’s wife/husband for a reason which was in not in her/his power to rectify is to add affliction to the afflicted. He consoles his barren wife saying, “Am I not more to you than ten sons?” Though he meant to show his love for her, it was bit naïve of him as his words manifested his own significance in her life rather than admitting her importance in his life. A better consolation would have been, “Are you not more to me than ten sons?” Moreover, he did not consider it significant that a woman has needs and desires which a husband alone cannot satisfy. For example, a woman earnestly desires to be a mother and nurse her child. No husband can replace a child.

The sorrows in her life did not turn her away from God, rather she chose to cling to God. However, her gestures in prayer made Eli, the priest of the temple, misunderstand her as drunk. The fact that the priest could expect the presence of a drunken woman in the temple indicates that sometimes the fellowship meals after the sacrifice in the temple could even encourage women to drink and get intoxicated. Moreover, his own sons were abusing their priestly office for sinful gains and pleasures. However, not for a moment Hannah blames Eli for his own mistakes. Rather, she faces his reproaches with utmost humility and respect.

Thus, Hannah encounters an “unjustly punishing” God, a naïve husband who does not really understands her real problems, a taunting second wife of her husband, and an unfairly accusing priest of the temple. But, her responses to all these are remarkable: She does not abandon God; she does not retort to the ridiculing second wife; she does not blame her husband, and she does not criticize the unsympathetic priest. Though she was of such a humble and noble character she was not blessed with a child where as the insensitive and haughty Peninnah was made fruitful by God. As the story further unfolds, we come to know that God closed the womb of Hannah for a while to accomplish something really great. She was made waiting to give birth to an extraordinary child who would play a significant role in the salvation history. He called her son Samuel, because she said, “I have asked him of the Lord.” The name suggests that God had listened to her prayers all throughout her life even when others considered her accursed by God. Our trials and ordeals mostly manifested in the seeming fruitlessness of our labour are only a prelude to our glory, because God is one who listens to the prayer of the afflicted.