I am getting ready to teach the first book of Samuel in my Connection group.  I have 12 women.  Some are married, some have never been married, some are widowed and some are divorced--as many as three times.  It is a very diverse group.  Some have children, some don't, and some can't.

First Samuel starts with a story of a woman named Hannah who was nearing the end of her childbearing years--and had never had a child.  In those days, if you didn't have a son, it was a disaster financially.  Land was always handed down to the oldest son.  And if a woman didn't have a son and her husband died, she would be poverty stricken because women couldn't hold property.  So sometimes her husband would take a second wife in order to bear a son.  And that woman's son would then inherit the property leaving the first wife with nothing.  And no one to care for her.

Hannah's husband took a second wife after Hannah had been barren for many years.  So Hannah petitioned God and pleaded her case before Him.  1 Sam. 1:11 "Making a vow, she pleaded, Lord of Hosts, if You will take notice of Your servant's affliction, remember and not forget me, and give Your servant a son, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life..."

Sometimes you get what you pray for.  I don't know how God decides these things.  But he listens to our hearts.  Some suggest that she was bargaining with God.  Perhaps, but I don't think so.  I think she was just asking for a son.  I think she was desperate and was going to the only Person who could help her.  And telling God what she would do if she had a son. 

I look at it like this:  If it doesn't rain tomorrow, I will work in my yard.  Sort of like an if-then statement.  One thing follows another.  I think she was telling God that she didn't just want a son for her own maternal desires but was willing to give him back to God.  Which she did.  And Samuel became the heir of his father's property.

Read the story.  You don't have to agree with me.  She could have been bargaining.