1Ⅳ Hannah's experience shows that we need to pour out our soul before the Lord in the midst of our bitterness (1 Sam. 1:6, 10, 15-16); in Exodus 15 the children of Israel came to the bitter waters of Marah; when the people murmured against Moses, he "cried out to Jehovah, and Jehovah showed him a tree; and he cast it into the waters, and the waters became sweet" (vv. 22-25):
2A The tree that the Lord showed Moses signifies the tree of life; Revelation 2:7 speaks of "the tree of life"; in Greek the word for tree here is the same word used for tree in 1 Peter 2:24:
31 The tree of life in Revelation 2:7 signifies the crucified (implied in the tree as a piece of wood—1 Pet. 2:24) and resurrected (implied in the life of God—John 11:25) Christ; thus, we may say that the tree that Moses cast into the bitter waters was the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life.
42 When we cry out to the Lord in prayer, He shows us a vision of the crucified and resurrected Christ as the tree of life; through our prayer by pouring out our soul before the Lord, we are casting this tree into the bitter waters of our being; then these bitter waters are changed into the sweet waters of His presence.
5B Hannah's prayer came out of her bitter circumstances and her bitter being (1 Sam. 1:6, 10); she told Eli, "I am a woman oppressed in spirit… I have been pouring out my soul before Jehovah…Out of the greatness of my anxiety and provocation I have been speaking all this time" (vv. 15-16); Psalm 62:8 says, "Trust in Him at all times, O people; / Pour out your heart before Him; / God is a refuge to us. Selah"; such prayer to contact God consists of words spoken genuinely from the heart.
6C Whenever we are in bitter circumstances and are bitter in our being, we need to pour out our soul with our heart to the Lord by being real and honest with Him; such prayer produces the overcomers, who will bring in the King with the kingdom.
7D When we come to "bitter waters," we have to realize that God is sovereignly and secretly motivating us to pray in a desperate way not only for our inner healing (Exo. 15:26) but even more for the producing of overcoming Nazarites, who will cooperate with Him to bring in the King with His kingdom—when the name of God will be excellent in all the earth (Psa. 8:1), and the kingdom of the world will "become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He will reign forever and ever" (Rev. 11:15).