20240227

giving Samuel back

1 Samuel 1:19-28 (JDV)

1 Samuel 1:19 The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to bow before Yahveh. Afterward, they returned home to Ramah. Then Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and Yahveh remembered her.
1 Samuel 1:20 After some time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, because she said, “I requested him from Yahveh.”
1 Samuel 1:21 When Elkanah and all his household went up to make the annual sacrifice and his vow offering to Yahveh,
1 Samuel 1:22 Hannah did not go and explained to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I’ll take him to appear in Yahveh’s presence and to stay there permanently.”
1 Samuel 1:23 Her husband Elkanah replied, “Do what you think is best, and stay here until you’ve weaned him. May Yahveh confirm your word.” So, Hannah stayed there and nursed her son until she weaned him.
1 Samuel 1:24 When she had weaned him, she took him with her to Shiloh, a three-year-old bull, half a bushel of flour, and a clay jar of wine. Though the boy was still young, she took him to Yahveh’s house at Shiloh.
1 Samuel 1:25 Then they slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli.
1 Samuel 1:26 “Please, my lord,” she said, “as surely as your throat lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to Yahveh.
1 Samuel 1:27 I prayed for this boy, and since Yahveh gave me what I asked him for,
1 Samuel 1:28 I now give the boy to Yahveh. For as long as he lives, he is given to Yahveh.” Then he worshiped Yahveh there.

giving Samuel back

I suppose many in this modern day read this story and scratch their heads in confusion. It is hard to grasp why Hannah was so willing to “give up” her son since he meant so much to her in the first place. But she had made a vow to do so. She knew that God had answered her prayer, and given her the joy of that so until he was weaned and ready to serve Yahveh. The shame had been replaced with joy and she could willingly give back the gift.

In a sense, all of us who are believers experience what Hannah did. We knew the fruitlessness of a barren life until we meet Christ and are born again. But our vow to God is to give the life he gave us back to him. We can do so with joy because the life came from him in the first place.