The story of
Hannah is found in the first two chapters of 1 Samuel. In it, Hannah is married to a man named
Elkanah, who is also married to another woman named Penninah. Penninah is able to have children, but Hannah
is completely barren and unable to produce offspring. Because of this, our heroine is tormented by
Penninah at every opportunity, until eventually she becomes too distraught to
eat. Upon noticing her anguish, Elkanah
makes a pretty classic husband statement, “Hannah, what’s wrong? Don’t I make you happier than ten sons?” Of course, she doesn’t bother dignifying that
with a response.
Hannah
didn’t have it easy, nor was she immune to feelings of inadequacy, but she understood
that there was only one thing powerful enough to change her dreary fate. She went to the house of the Lord, and there
she made a covenant that if God would give her a son, she would give her son to
the Lord. About that time, Eli the priest
wandered by and promised Hannah her plea would not go unanswered, and so she
walked away joyfully, freed at last from bitterness of soul and a heavy
heart. She had not yet received the
blessing, but she had a testimony of temples, of covenants, and of the fact
that God never goes back on a promise.
And sure enough, she was given a son, she did give that son back to the
Lord, and as a result she was blessed with five more children.
Without a
doubt, covenants can enable things in our lives which otherwise would not be
possible. The most important covenants
we make are our temple covenants, which enable us to obtain eternal life and
exaltation. If we look closely at the
story of Hannah, particularly at the names of those involved, I think we’ll see
that it actually applies to these covenants.
For instance, you’ll recognize the name Eli from when Jesus was on the
cross and called out, “Eli, Eli, why have you forsaken me?” Eli means
“my God”, and just as Eli visited Hannah in the temple and promised her the
Lord would honor His promise, when I go to the temple I can receive a promise
from my God.
Hannah, of
course, is the star of the story, and Hannah
means “grace”. The Bible dictionary
defines grace as “the enabling power that allows men and women to take hold on
eternal life and exaltation” and in The Book of Mormon, Nephi writes that we
are saved by grace, after all we can do.
Without grace we cannot hope to receive eternal life, and so our primary
goal should be focused on finding this grace.
Unfortunately, the phrase “after all we can do” is a little vague and a
bit intimidating. Luckily, the story of
Hannah puts grace in its proper place: directly alongside our temple covenants.
Elkanah also
plays a pivotal role in the story; in fact we’re introduced to him before we’re
introduced to Hannah! His name means
“God has purchased” and I like to think he represents each of us, because
Christ has already paid the terrible price for our sins, allowing us a way to
repent and draw nearer to him. In the
beginning of the story Elkanah has two marriages, but only one of them is
producing any fruit: Penninah has lots of children, but Hannah can’t have
any. Unlike Elkanah we do not
participate in plural marriages, but there may be times in our lives when we
are tempted to participate in a dual relationship. On one hand we’ll have a relationship with
Hannah: with grace and our temple covenants, but on the other hand we may want
a relationship with Penninah whose name means “pearl” and she represents our
worldly treasures and passions. However,
these things are at odds, and if our primary focus is on our worldly treasures
and passions we may in fact be diminishing the power of grace to bear fruit in
our lives.
So what is
the secret to gaining more grace in our lives?
According to the story of Hannah it is as simple as making and keeping
temple covenants.
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