Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work.

I'm Jensen Holt McNair. I'm a fixer, a control freak. I don't enjoy sitting in the tension of stress, of discomfort, of the unknown, or the difficult, so I don't.

I fix it and fast. If I'm thinking about something too much, if I want something done and it's

taking too long, you better believe I'm going to come up with a solution to the problem,

a plan of action, execute it, and move right on out of that tension.

Which is why, as I read the first 20 verses of 1st Samuel, the story of Samuel's unlikely birth,

I found myself focused and challenged by a person in this story that is more of a supporting character.

Now, you see, we could look at Hannah

and her faith, her longing, her desires, her prayers to God, and we will. But this time, as I read,

I was really struck by the actions and motivations of Elkanah, Hannah's husband, Samuel's father.

So, humor me today, and let's walk through these first 20

verses examining them from the perspective of Elkanah. Elkanah had two wives. One was called

Hannah and the other, Penina. Penina had children, but Hannah had none. Year after year, this man

went up from his town to worship and sacrifice

to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hopney and Phineas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the

Lord. Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his

wife, Penina, and to all her sons and daughters.

But to Hannah, he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.

So what do we learn about Elkanah from these first five verses?

Well, first, we learn that he has two wives, but one of them is barren. That's Hannah. We then learn that he's a faithful Israelite. He travels with his family year after year to worship God and to make sacrifices to him. He seems to have a faith of his own, a genuine faith. We then learn from the final verse that Elkanah has greater love for Hannah and that the reason for her barrenness

was that the Lord had closed her womb. Now, we could move on, but I want to notice some underlying

things that we can learn that maybe aren't explicitly stated in the text. Now, first is that most

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