1 Samuel 1-5 CSB
“I prayed for this boy, and since the LORD gave me what I asked him for, I now give the boy to the LORD. For as long as he lives, he is given to the LORD.” Then he worshiped the LORD there. 1:27-28
Reading this story today I was hanging on every word. Maybe, because my new grandson’s name is Samuel and it gives a new special twist to an old, old story. However, more likely it is because this story resonates with all of us in what is real life. In this story, we see an unhappy home and people trying to do the right thing amid brokenness. This story has jealousy, bitterness, heartache… but it also has hope and integrity and sacrifice. I live in a world where barrenness is often considered a curse and where polygamy is common. I have seen the heartache that is in this world and I have seen God break through time and time again to show Himself faithful amid the brokenness, the sin and the messiness of life.
In this story, we see Hannah wanting a son with all of her heart and enduring the ridicule of the second wife. We see this family going to worship (like many broken families going to worship today) and Hannah crying out to God. In praying from “the depth of her anguish and resentment” Hannah encounters Eli who is the priest of God, but who is also plagued with his own problems and imperfect home. Two things happen in that encounter that are significant; God comforts her heart and Eli somehow encourages her. She leaves the place of worship a different woman and God meets her at the point of her need. Now, this bitter, crushed woman is joyful and soon after gets the very thing she has been longing for. I can imagine her joy at holding Samuel for the first time; I cannot imagine her joy at letting him go. Yet, true to her word she gives back to God the very thing she has been pining for all along.
I love that conversation between her and Elkanah where she says, “Go on without me, I will stay here and wean him and then I will take him to stay there permanently. He says, do what you think is best” (1:22) I can picture her nursing him, singing over him, praying over him, thanking the Lord for him… but also envisioning the day she will let him go. I have done that very thing for my three children, but I never had to let them go at age 4. I can’t begin to understand all that was in her heart, but true to her promise Hannah takes little Samuel by the hand and begins the long journey to the temple. Then year after year she lives for that one time in the year when she can return to see him and take him the little robe and gifts she poured her heart into during their long separation. There is so much else that I could say… about Samuel hearing the call of God, about Eli’s sons and the judgment they brought on themselves, about the power of God, the loss of the ark, etc. but, I think I will leave this here.
The takeaway from this whole story is that God owns everything, even our children. Eli wasn’t the owner of the temple and the meat offerings, though he acted like he was. Hophni and Phinehas didn’t own the ark, though they acted as if they did. Hannah never owned Samuel, but she knew that from the very beginning. He had come from God and he belonged to God. God probably isn’t telling you to take your 4-year-old and enlist him in religious service, but no matter how old your kids are they are His. We are just stewards of the gifts God has given us and our job is to raise them and present them back to Him when they trust Him as Lord and Savior. Samuel had the courage to answer God’s call and became one of the greatest prophets who ever lived, because he had a mother who loved him, sang over him and taught him what it meant to give everything back to God. May we do that for our kids.
