Nobody Likes Hardship. But we, the children of God, have to learn that it is good for us. It is a lesson we do not like to learn.
“All things work together for good,” declared the apostle, and then he listed the “bad” things which happen to us (Rom. 8:35-39).
The reason is character. God wants men and women of superlative character, and He knows the best way to produce it. He is very wise.
A good illustration is the experience of Hannah, mother of Samuel. Note carefully how God treated her: “The LORD closed her womb” (I Sam. 1:5). She had a good husband for, “he loved her” (v. 5). They would normally have had a happy married life, but God frustrated all that. And worse was to come.
Elkanah, her husband, took another wife, Peninnah, and had a number of sons and daughters by her. Peninnah provoked Hannah sorely and irritated her deliberately. Day after day this went on, but particularly at the annual visit to the tabernacle was Hannah hurt. She was deeply distressed; she wept and would not (or could not) eat.
“Am I not better to you than ten sons?” Foolishly Elkanah tried to console her, not appreciating Hannah’s desperate yearning for a son.
Hannah had reached her limit. She had prayed before, many times, but never like this occasion. She went as close to God as she could get. Words would not come, though her lips moved. Silently, but powerfully, she prayed within. For the first time her prayer became a vow, a vow to dedicate a son, should the Lord grant him to her, totally to the Lord’s service. Was she influenced by the fact that the courts of the Lord were trodden by two of the most ungodly priests in Israel’s history?
The response of God was immediate. Though Eli, the aged high priest, misjudged her as a drunken woman, on learning the truth he was inspired to give the answer of God: May God grant your petition.
The transformation was immediate and dramatic. With smiling face she went to Elkanah. She sat and ate heartily of the food she had recently rejected. What had so greatly changed her? She shared the great news with Elkanah, and he rejoiced with her. No doubt that night they would come together in love, absolutely confident that, as Jesus would later say, that her prayer had already been answered. It was a happy company which returned to their home in Ephraim.
Hannah’s womb was opened. Samuel was conceived and eventually born. There was no happier mother, then and since, apart from Mary mother of Jesus. What loving care and attention was lavished on this special son, training which would never leave him to his dying day.
Hannah did not forget her vow. How could she? He who was asked of God, a special gift from the Almighty, grew up until the age when he could be independent of his mother. Then Hannah gave him back to God. What a sacrifice! And yet Hannah learned the blessing of giving to God. As Samuel developed into the great spiritual leader that he became, Hannah received much more than she gave. That is a wonderful truth which God wants us all to learn. Moreover, Hannah went on to have three more sons and two daughters. The more we give to God, the more we get.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One