Retelling Their Stories
A new look at old tales provides fresh insight into familiar passages.
Oh, my dear Hannah. I know, perhaps better than anyone else, how difficult today will be for you. Today we will take Samuel, our precious son, to Shiloh, to the tabernacle of the Lord. There we will dedicate him before the priest into the service of the Lord for all his days. I know your heart must be breaking as you dress him for the trip. His eyes are shining, full of love for his mother. And he smiles sweetly at you in trust and confidence. You return his smile, and your eyes also shine. But they shine with tears.
It has been more than three years since you’ve been to Shiloh. I remember that trip well. You were in such anguish. There was an emptiness in your soul, a longing for the child you could not have. I wanted to fill that need for you. I did all I could to comfort you and to encourage you. I always gave you twice as much as Peninnah at the time of the peace offering. I thought that my efforts and my gifts could ease your pain. But I should have known better.
Your faith in God amazed me then, as it does now. Even though He had closed your womb, you continued to seek Him, to ask Him, to trust Him. I remember the vow you made to God. You promised that if God would give you a son, that you would dedicate him to the Lord. But you went one step further. Our people’s custom in the Nazirite vow was always to dedicate a son after a number of years. But you promised our son to God “all the days of his life.” Your longing was that great, your desire was that strong.
Those paragraphs open my essay “Elkanah’s Letter,” which approaches the story found in 1 Samuel 1–2 from the perspective of Elkanah, Hannah’s husband. When I began working on the essay, I didn’t realize the impact it would have on my devotional life. Rewriting a familiar story from a new viewpoint brought fresh insight and made the story personal. Instead of just knowing the story, I now felt it. It had been filtered through my mind, my experience, and to some extent, my imagination, and emerged as a part of me.
I hadn’t changed the facts or rewritten history. I just imagined what Elkanah might have said to Hannah on the day they took Samuel to the tabernacle. I imagined that he would have looked back at all they had been through and would have praised Hannah for her faithfulness and attempted to comfort her in her sadness.
In writing this essay, I really dug into God’s Word. I studied the custom behind the Nazirite vow and the meaning of the name Samuel. I read and reread the passage until I knew it inside out. I found that using this method to study the Bible gave a boost to my sometimes dry devotional life. I found myself meditating on Scripture day and night.
Here’s how you can use this method to boost your own devotional life.
Writing Your Essay
1. Choose your story. Pick a Bible story you would like to write about from a different perspective. Make it a familiar story: one you’ve heard often as a child, or one you’ve read many times.
2. Read through the passage at least five times to familiarize yourself with the details. If possible, read it in several different translations to get a feel for the story behind the words.
3. Investigate the background. If you have a good study Bible, read over the notes carefully. Or use other tools such as a Bible commentary or a Bible dictionary to dig more deeply into the story. Learn at least two new things about the characters, their situation, or the relevant customs of the time.
4. Pick your viewpoint character. Decide who will tell the story. Choose a person who was there, but someone other than the main character of the story. In my essay, I chose Hannah’s husband, Elkanah. In the biblical passage, the narrator focuses primarily on Hannah. But he does describe Elkanah’s great love for Hannah as well. That was my starting point.
5. Write your essay. Begin to write your story from the viewpoint of the character you’ve chosen. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar, or punctuation. Just write. Incorporate biblical facts and the new things you’ve learned from your background study. You can write your essay as if it were a journal entry, a newspaper article, a letter, an obituary (if applicable), or any other form of writing. Be creative, and have fun with it.
Helpful Guidelines
Don’t pressure yourself. You don’t have to be a professional writer to do this exercise. Everyone has an imagination. Use yours!
Don’t take liberty with the facts. The point of this method is to get to know a familiar Bible story in a new, more intimate way—not to rearrange the facts to say something other than what God intended. Base your essay on the truth of God’s Word.
Don’t set a time limit. You can finish your essay in 30 minutes or take 30 days. You can scribble something down and come back to it in a few days to refine your work, or you can ponder the story for a week before you write anything. There is no right or wrong approach. Do whatever works for you.
When you have completed your essay, you will find that you know your chosen story well, perhaps better than any other, since you have used your intellect, your emotions, and your imagination to work through it. Take some time to record your insights. Thank God for the new things you’ve learned. And, if you’re feeling brave, share your story with others.
I wouldn’t recommend this method of Bible study for everyday use. It requires a level of study, thought, and creativity that could be draining if implemented daily. But it is a great way to take a break, step back, and refresh your devotional life when you find yourself in a slump. Try using this method three or four times a year, or whenever you find yourself intrigued by a particular person in the Bible.
