
"Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint
and grief have I spoken hitherto.
STRONG’S H7230-31
רֹב rôb, robe; abundance (in any respect):—abundance(-antly), all, × common (sort), excellent, great(-ly, -ness, number), huge, be increased, long, many, more in number, most, much, multitude, plenty(-ifully), × very (age).
In this scripture, we learn about the grief and dejection of Hannah as she came to the temple pleading with God for a son and was mistaken for being drunk by the priest, Eli. Note how she mentions that she is not among those ‘daughters of Belial’ – now we know that Belial is the name
of a league of demons assigned to abuse. Hannah states her actions to Eli quite infantilely. She has an ‘abundance of complaint and grief’ within her. Most of us would not highlight an abundance of this kind as valuable, but Hannah shows us how an offering of this can be exchanged when brought to the Lord. The meaning of abundance in this verse is the the Hebrew word from Strong’s concordance, H7231- meaning ‘the robe’. Hannah came with her grief and complaint but understood that it could not cover her for the days to come. She needed a voluptuous and exquisite new refuge to weather her soul’s distress of being childless. Her carefully constructed offering brought before the King of Heaven and earth, reminds me of Esther would bring centuries later to King Xerxes.
I award Hannah the highest of honors for her insight and understanding of bringing her complaint and grief to the highest court – God’s. It was there where finally, Eli had to recognize the true nature of Hannah’s offering and, was left only able to proclaim what he saw - God’s coming intervention in the form of Samuel’s birth.
Let’s look at the accusation Eli made against Hannah, to be ‘drunk’. Read how she calmly and clearly refuted this claim, gut wrenching as it must have added a false accusation to her already broken heart. Yet, at that moment, Hannah’s reply to Eli spoke volumes. A sharp and discrete rebuke, “Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial”.
Hannah understood the temple protocol of the times and wasn’t going to stand for a wrongful accusation. To come in a drunken state into the house of the Lord was a defilement to God and abuse against the sovereignty of His person. She didn’t flinch or delay but let Eli know whose gaze her eyes were fixed.
What awe and grandeur in Hannah’s reply to Eli. Still covered in a shroud of sorrow and brokenness in her plea before God, she reached into her humanity to find a robe of abundance within. Yes, her prayers and person were already hers as a rich covering of abundance, holiness, reverence, and awe saturated with grace and protection from the ‘jagged’ places of fear, pain, or impossibility of knowing whether or not her prayers would be answered as she so desperately desired.
Profound, regal and in a posture of a Kingdom citizen who knew how to trust her God! I give you Hannah. Now, ask yourself, what in your life is in need of exchange?
God longs to hear from you, along with your abundant complaint – even in the face of rebuke, your petition has substance.
Where are the Hannah's’ of today?
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