Can this be happening? She’s pregnant again! All Hannah wants to do is run into her tent and hide! Peninnah’s taunts are becoming unbearable; every word is a vindictive razor that cuts at her weary, barren womb.
Safely out of sight, crying uncontrollably, Hannah buries her head into a pillow, trying hard to forget that she is in a polygamous marriage. Emotionally exhausted, she wonders how her husband Elkanah could have taken Peninnah as a secondary wife?! Isn’t Hannah “worth more to him than ten sons?” If it weren’t for the laws of the land, Hannah’s love for God, and devotion to Elkanah, she would have left for Jerusalem a long time ago. Yet, there is a Deep and Holy desire that has been growing in Hannah’s heart for years, and she won’t be denied!
Spiritual and natural pregnancies can sometimes be uncertain because you don’t readily see that you are pregnant, so you forget you are. All you know is that suddenly you feel overwhelmed, uncomfortable, and challenged. What you may not realize is that there is a “Peninnah,” an assignment of the enemy dispatched against you!
Why?
To keep you from “Birthing a Deliverer!”
Merriam Webster Dictionary:
DELIVERER: One that saves from danger or destruction.
Never forget that nobody else can “Birth The Deliverer” that God has called you to, “For such a time as this!” Ref. Esther 4:14 (b). The fruit of your womb is a God Sent Solution to a lost and hurting world! An answer that has the ability through God to “save from danger or destruction.” Don’t allow the taunts of a “Peninnah” cause you to question or miscarry your God-Given Deliverer!
Who is “Peninnah?”
The meaning of her name is “coral,” in this instance, the razor-like coral that has the potential to wound or kill if touched, cut and left untreated.
1st Samuel 1:1-7 (AMPC)
“There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, named Elkanah, son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.” “He had two wives, one named Hannah and the other named Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.” “This man went from his city year by year to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were the Lord’s priests.” “ When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give to Peninnah his wife and all her sons and daughters portions [of the sacrificial meat]. “But to Hannah, he gave a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had given her no children.” “[This embarrassed and grieved Hannah] her rival provoked her greatly to vex her because The Lord had left her childless.” “So it was year after year; whenever Hannah went up to the Lord’s House, Peninnah provoked her, so she wept and did not eat.” “Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you cry? And why do you not eat? And why are you grieving? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” “So Hannah rose after they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his seat beside a post of the temple (tent) of the Lord.” “And {Hannah} was in distress of soul, praying to the Lord and weeping bitterly.” “She vowed, saying, O Lord of Hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your handmaid and [earnestly] remember, and not forget Your handmaid but will give me a son, I will give him to The Lord all his life; no razor shall touch his head.”
Hannah is upright before the Lord. She doesn’t ask God for revenge against Peninnah or Elkanah, She asks for a “Deliverer!” A son that she vows to give back to The Lord as a Priest. That is what the scripture means when Hannah prays, “no razor shall touch his head.”
The sharp “coral” edge of Peninnah’s cutting words and Elkanah’s indifference to Hannah’s barrenness could not defile Hannah’s heart! Hannah is determined to “Birth A Deliverer,” A son who will one day replace Hophni and Phinehas, the evil sons who serve as Priests under their father, Eli. Hannah’s prayer so moved God that He “remembered” her request.”
1st Samuel 1:19-22 (AMPC);
“The family rose early the next morning, worshiped before The Lord, and returned to their home in Ramah. Elkanah knew Hannah, his wife, and The Lord remembered her.” “Hannah became pregnant and in due time bore a son and named him Samuel [heard of God]. Because she said, I have asked him of The Lord,” “And Elkanah and all his house went up to offer The Lord the yearly sacrifice and pay his vow.” “But Hannah did not go, for she said to her husband, I will not go until the child is of age, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before The Lord and remain there as long as he lives.”
Hannah could have asked for a son that she could raise as her own, yet she chose the greater and made a decision to “tithe” her womb by offering to God the best. Her “First Born” son. Hannah understood that her pregnancy was a “covenant” between her and God. What an important truth that you and I must remember. Whenever we are pregnant with a Promise of God, we are pregnant with a “Covenant of God.” There is Covenant in our womb, and that Covenant must come forth In Jesus Name!
Merriam Webster Dictionary:
COVENANT: A written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties, especially for the performance of some action.
How do we safely carry our “Covenant Promises” to full term and have a healthy delivery?
By being committed to the process! You see, when God calls you to pregnancy, He calls you to the process. Every pregnancy has a process from conception to gestation to the water breaking to the actual birth. In both spiritual and natural pregnancies, you may have cravings at each stage of the process. Feed your growing baby with the right spiritual and natural nutrients to create a safe and nurturing environment that develops a healthy baby and makes way for safe delivery.
Like Hannah, our pregnancies are also prophecies. With each prophecy is a God-Given Promise with a name. For Hannah, the name was “Samuel,” for you; the name could be Sarah or Peter or the cure for cancer or the name of a new business or ministry or the preparation process for marriage; the list is endless.
What we have to keep at the forefront of our minds is that the enemy hates our pregnancies. He will always send a “Peninnah” our way to discourage or miscarry or abort those God Given Promises, which are His Prophecies in Motion for our lives.
Ephesians 6:12 (TPT);
“Your hand-to-hand combat is not with human beings, but with the highest principalities and authorities operating in rebellion under the heavenly realms. For they are a powerful class of demon-gods and evil spirits that hold this dark world in bondage.”
Why does the enemy hate your pregnancy so much?
The enemy hates your pregnancy because he knows that, “You Are A Deliverer,” one called to “Birth A Deliverer!” Our wombs nurture spiritual and natural assignments of God’s Presence, Power, and Purpose! Think about it, when you were born your mother, “Delivered” you. She was and is a “Deliverer” who “Birthed A Deliverer,” YOU!!! I sense by The Holy Spirit that I am to remind you of something VERY IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW:
“THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS AN UNWANTED PREGNANCY IN THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN!”
No matter what the circumstances were or are surrounding your birth or pregnancy, God wants you to know that HE IS LIFE. Therefore THE LIFE that you carry in your womb is a Covenant With Him! You Are Pregnant With The Covenant of God and that child that promise must come forth In Jesus Name!
Psalm 139:13-18 (AMPC);
“For you did form my inward parts; You did knit me together in my mother’s womb.” “I will confess and praise You for You are fearful and wonderful and for the awful wonder of my birth! Wonderful are Your works, and that my inner self knows right well.” “My frame was not hidden from You when I was being formed in secret [and] intricately and curiously wrought [as if embroidered with various colors] in the depths of the earth [a region of darkness and mystery].” “Your Eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book, all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape when as yet there was none of them.” “How precious and weighty also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How vast is the sum of them!” “If I could count them, they would be more in number than the sand. When I awoke, [could I count to the end} I would still be with You.”
Beautiful, Precious Friend, God Is With You!
“Be Strong and Live Free…..As You Go Forth and Birth Boldly For Him!”
© 2021 Clare Matthews – Boldly For Him. “All Rights Reserved.”
Photo By: Andriyko Podilnyk
Boldly For Him 