¹⁰ An excellent wife, who can find? For her worth is far above jewels.  ¹¹ The heart of her husband trusts in her, And he will have no lack of gain.

Proverbs 31:10-11

There are many things to be thankful for in this life, but for us men, we really need to praise God for women.  When God determined that it was not good for us to be alone, He created women knowing exactly what we need and He shared the love that lasts to enjoy with them.  When God finished creation, He said that it was good, the only thing that was not good before sin entered the world was that man was alone, so God brought Eve into existence from the side of Adam and God created marriage.

The sanctity of marriage is not discussed much these days, but it is something that God takes seriously as He even uses marriage as an analogy when explaining His relationship to the church, which is Hid bride.  We are told that when man and woman marry, they become one flesh, a oneness that is a mystery yet has many dimensions.  Marriage is God’s design for sex, for deep intimacy, for experiencing the fullest expression of love with another person, and for creating more humans.  In the gift of children, the Lord allows us to share in the creation of people.  In this process, we come to better understand our relationship with God as scripture refers to us as His children (John 1:12; Romans 8:15-17).  In todays world, most people have determined that their way is better than God’s way, so sex outside of marriage (fornication) has become standard practice among couple in our culture.  Even those who still value marriage do not fully understand it as many people opt to live together prior to marriage, a sort of test run to see if they can make it with this person.  Two items of note here: 1) Those who opt to live together will eventually get divorced, largely because they have not understood sin and the dynamics of having another sinner in your personal space for longer periods of time. Vows are rarely honored often forgotten when trouble strikes. 2) The second issue is that of oneness.  When we talk about the mystery of one-flesh, we are really discussing the oneness of mind, heart, soul, emotions, and will, in addition to physical union. So, though sex can be fun, it is never fulfilling when it is isolated outside of marriage.  When two people grow together in every aspect of their beings, the physical union is heightened to a place transcends biology.

Once a man and woman have become one, the create a bond that enables them to now outwardly engage in the world as one. There are many ways we do this, either through parenting, occupation, ministry, or many other ways we share in community, both society and in the faith community.  There are some profound affects that come through oneness such as wisdom in decision making, problem solving, hearing God’s leading, pouring into younger believers, etc.  So when Proverbs 31 says that a wife is far above jewels and her husband trusts in her, that is the fruit of relationship with God, prayer, godly character, and likely being poured into by older women who walked the marriage path for a decade or two before younger wife.  The bible has examples of some great wives and marriages, women who did amazing things.   God involved women in some pretty important events.  Jesus first revealed that He was Messiah to the Samaritan women, after rising from the dead, Jesus first appeared to women and when God directed Paul to take the gospel to Europe, the first convert, Lidia, was a women.  There are other great examples such as Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Ruth, and Esther to name a few.  These are some pretty amazing women in the Bible, but when you think about a godly example of a wife, I always think of Hannah first!  We pick up Hannah’s story in chapter one of 1 Samuel.

We start out by seeing the providence of God in that the Lord had closed the womb of Hannah (1Samuel 1:5), very similar to closing the womb of Sarah (Genesis 16:2) and Rachel (Genesis 30:2).  Hannah was taunted by Penninah, the other wife of her husband Elkanah.  Hannah was a great woman of faith.  The scripture says that she went to the House of the Lord year after year though being provoked to tears.  In sadness with loss of appetite, she persevered and was faithful (v.7).  Hannah also demonstrates prayer for us.  She prayed honestly to the Lord, weeping bitterly with tears, making a vow to the Lord if He will look on her affliction and give her a son, she would commit her child to the Lord (v.10-11).  She was diligent in prayer, speaking with her heart to God, pouring out her soul to the Lord (v.12-15).  This is how God wants us to come to Him, as His adopted children and cry out Abba Father (Romans 8:15).

As Hannah poured out her heart to the Lord, with complete faith in God, she was no longer sad (v.18).  God gave her peace in her circumstances and her sadness lifted because had shifted her focus to God.  When Hannah was sad, she was focused on being childless, but scripture says she was faithful, consistent in worship, consistent in prayer and rose early in the morning to worship the Lord (v.19).  Like Sarah gave birth to Isaac and Rachel would eventually give birth to Joseph, Hannah would eventually give birth to Samuel.  All of these are examples of the providence of God and the Lord moving in perfect timing though they all became impatient.  Abraham was 100 years old when Sarah gave birth to Isaac.  Prior to this, Sarah laughed at the idea she would be a mom in her old age.  Now Hannah had to wait year after year according to the scriptures, but in time would give birth to Samuel the prophet.  Hannah would then follow through on her vow to commit the child to the Lord, confirming that she had a son because she asked for a son from God (v. 22-28).  Hannah would then give us the Prayer of Thanksgiving in 1 Samuel 2.  As we read the Song below, remember that Hannah was consistent in worship and prayer in her circumstances, despite her adversaries, and was patient, never doubting that the Lord would answer her:

Hannah’s Song of Thanksgiving

2 Then Hannah prayed and said,