Most of you will be familiar with the story of Hannah. You will find her story in the first two chapters of I Samuel.

In the first chapter we read of Elkanah, a man who had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not have any children.

If you continue reading, you will find that Peninnah provoked Hannah because she had children, and Hannah did not.

The story goes that Hannah prayed for a son and promised that she would give the child back to God, if He would answer her prayer. Time passed, and God granted Hannah’s wish. Samuel was born to Hannah and Elkanah, and Hannah kept her word. When Samuel was weaned, she took him to the temple and gave him to Eli the priest.

Samuel delivered God’s message to Eli about the demise of his sons. He eventually became a great prophet of God, and he anointed King Saul and King David.

So what can we learn from this story? There are at least ten applicable lessons from the first three chapters. We will look at just a few.

The first one is found in the statement in chapter two, “But Hannah had no children.” Our lesson is that life is not fair.

We all experience things in our lives that are difficult—not having children, losing a child, the death of a spouse, loss of job, etc. We don’t want to have any of those things happen to us, but they do.

There are several examples of just such things in the scriptures. There is Sara, the wife of Abraham, who also wanted a child. She became impatient with God’s promise, and found another wife for Abraham. But that was not God’s plan. The seed was to come from Abraham and Sara. It took many years, but God fulfilled His promise.

Think of the story of Ruth. Ruth lost her father-in-law, her brother-in-law, and her husband. She moved to a land where she didn’t know anyone, and where she had nothing. But God was with her and provided a husband for her. She had a son named Obed who became an ancestor of Jesus.

Life isn’t fair, but it the way things are; and we need to prepare ourselves to trust in God to see us through whatever may happen.

Our second lesson can be found in chapter one, verse 5. “But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah…” Favoritism is never a good thing. The fact that Elkanah showed partiality to Hannah caused her a lot of grief. Peninnah used this against Hannah, and made her life miserable.

We see other examples of this in the story of Jacob and Esau. Rebekah showed partiality to Jacob, and Isaac showed partiality to Esau. Jacob didn’t learn a thing from this because he showed partiality to his wife, Rachel, over Leah, and he showed partiality to Joseph because he was Rachel’s son.

But God used these situations to good. Jacob fathered twelve sons and one daughter, and his sons received the inheritance of the land that was later given to the Children of Israel.

Another lesson we learn is found in chapter three. God chose Samuel to deliver a message to Eli about his sons that had been so disobedient to God. Three times God called to Samuel in the night, and three times Samuel answered, “Here am I.” Each time the Lord called, Samuel ran to Eli only to discover that Eli was not the one that had called.

On the fourth time and with instruction from Eli, Samuel answered, “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.” Our lesson is that when the Lord calls, we need to listen.

When does the Lord call us? How does He call us? The Lord calls us through His word, and He calls us every time we have an opportunity to serve Him. In Matthew 25:34-45, Jesus talks about giving food, water, and clothing to those in need. He even talks about visiting the sick and those in prison. He says, “Inasmuch as ye have done it one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” The opposite, of course, is also true. If we don’t do these things to others, we don’t do them to the Lord.

We have opportunities daily to serve Him by helping others. We have opportunities to teach others about Him. When we are presented with those opportunities, we need to take advantage of them.

The Lord told Samuel that He would judge Eli’s house because his sons were vile, and Eli did not restrain them. Our lesson is that when we see wrong, we have to speak up for right. Eli saw the sins of his sons, but he failed to do anything about it.

So often we are tempted to sit back and say nothing when we see wrong. We may do this with our own children, or we may do it with our friends. Whatever the circumstances, we need to be willing to stand up for the truth. James tells us in James 4:17, “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

So our lessons learned from the story of Samuel are:

We need to recognize that life is not always fair, and we need to make the best of every situation.

We need to treat everyone the same and not show favoritism to anyone.

When the Lord calls, we need to listen.

When we see wrong, we need to stand up for right.

Sandra Oliver