Today’s Daily Lesson comes from 1 Samuel chapter 1 verses 1 through 3 and 9 through 20:
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. 2He 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 Phinehas, were priests of the Lord.
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. 10She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord, and wept bitterly. 11She 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. 13Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. 14So Eli said to her, ‘How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself? Put away your wine.’ 15But 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. 16Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation all this time.’ 17Then Eli answered, ‘Go in peace; the God of Israel grant the petition you have made to him.’ 18And she said, ‘Let your servant find favour in your sight.’ Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.
19 They rose early in the morning and worshipped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. 20In due time Hannah conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, ‘I have asked him of the Lord.’
Today is the Day of Visitation in the Liturgical Calendar, the time when Mary visited Elizabeth after the angel is said to have appeared to Mary and promised a divinely conceived child in due time.
The phrase, “In due time,” is found in today’s Lesson from the Hebrew Bible and is a wonderful little string of words. Hannah has been hoping and praying for a child and anguishing over her and her husband Elkanah’s inability to conceive together. The frustration and disappointment was heart wrenching. Yet she continued to pray, bringing her sorrows and her heartache to the LORD, and in due time she conceived.
There’s a danger in the text that must be avoided. Hannah is celebrated for her faithfulness. But faithfulness is never a guarantee that what we hope and wish for might happen. She was faithful in her barrenness. It is for this that she is a model, because she was faithful even amidst her sorrow and disappointment.
Conception is a mystery. Life is a mystery. The due time of anything is always hidden in the mystery of God. The times we know not of. Our task for the time being then is always to work, to wait, to hope, and to pray. The future is in God’s hands. The day of birth for something new is unknown. The advent of God’s work is unrevealed and in the words of the Hymn of Promise “something God alone can see.”
God alone knows the due date for all things. And so to us belongs this day which we can rejoice and be glad in or sing psalms of longing and lamentation. In either case there is faithfulness, and hope in the one who in the end is always the Giver of Life.
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