John K. Jenkins Sr - Hannah's Dilemma

I want to, first of all, quickly identify these three characters in this particular passage: Elkanah, the husband , and his two wives. I need to point out significantly at the start that you will see a few places in Scripture where men had multiple wives. I know some of you want to go back to biblical days and replicate those things , but I'm struggling to understand how he could handle two wives when I am struggling with the one that I have . I can't imagine dealing with two women at the same time . You can't handle the truth up in here; you can't handle the truth.

I want to make it clear that that was not God's pattern or plan , even though you'll see a few places in Scripture where it occurs. God's plan is explained to us in Genesis, at the beginning of the Bible, which consists of one man and one woman for one lifetime. I knew I wouldn't get rousing applause from this 10:00 crowd. Some of us exchange spouses like cars , but that's not God's plan. Here in this case , this man is married to two women. Peninnah has children; as a matter of fact, the text says she has sons and daughters. It does not tell us how many, but we can infer she had a multiplicity of kids, sons and daughters. Hannah, however, had no children.

The story goes on to tell us that approximately one to three times a year, they traveled to the city of Shiloh to worship and make a sacrifice to God. Unlike what we have in our communities with churches on every corner, in that day and time, they had to go to where the temple was situated , which was in particular locations . It was their practice to participate in corporate worship and to give a sacrifice to God , traveling to Shiloh to do so.

It was during these travel days , when they were making their way to the temple in Shiloh, that this particular incident occurs . What captures my attention about this story is that when they get there, the Bible says that they would give Peninnah her portion , that which would go to her and her children, her sons and daughters . But the Bible also says-and this caught my eye ; I've been waiting to study this to understand it because it didn't quite make sense to me-that he would give Hannah twice what he gave to Peninnah. He gave Peninnah her portion, but he gave to Hannah double.

I think it's important for you and me to recognize that sometimes God chooses to give twice to a person that which they perhaps don't deserve. It's going to take you a few moments to grasp that point. It caught my attention because I wondered why he would give her a double portion. She had no children; she had not carried a child for nine months or gone through the pain of childbirth . She had not breastfed a baby or changed any diapers , and she had not gotten up in the middle of the night to nurse a child. Yet she got a double portion .

I think about the journey my wife has taken with our six kids . Remember the first child we had 30 years ago ? My oldest just turned 30 , and I'm such a young man ! Come on, say Amen! On our way to Howard University Hospital, I was flying down Route 50 at 90 miles an hour. My wife turned to me and said, "I'm going too slow; I need to go faster." We came down Florida Avenue, trying to make our way to Howard University Hospital . There was traffic backing us up , and we couldn 't get through. She told me to turn down a street, so I did as she said, and we ended up at the back of the hospital.

The hospital was surrounded by a fence, so we couldn 't get to it. She got out of the car to try to walk to the hospital . She was in great pain and giving birth. She had never experienced this before; she was in immense pain and trying to hurry to get this baby out. Hannah had never had this experience, but she received a double portion. You would think, by natural reasoning, that Peninnah would have been the one to receive the double portion since she was the one who had gone through labor, the contractions , and had actually given birth to a child. But she was not the one who received the double portion .

That alone tells us something about God . It shows us that sometimes God blesses people not because they deserve it. You don 't have to say Amen; I can see what kind of crowd you' re going to be right here, right now . It captured my attention ; it caught my eye that for some reason, Elkanah gave Hannah, the childless one, a double portion.