1Sa 1:21-28 | KingComments | STEP | Samuel will appear before the LORD as a priest according to Hannah’s purpose. In practice, he performs the priestly service. Hannah has high thoughts of her son in connection with God. She is not satisfied with an ordinary life for her son. This is not a natural pride. It stems from her desire that only the LORD will be central in his life. First, he must be nourished by her. Under her influence and through her nutrition and education he will receive the basic formation necessary for his stay with the LORD in an ungodly environment. Therefore, she stays at home when Elkanah goes on his way to make the annual sacrifice. Elkanah shows his faith by agreeing with Hannah’s desire to wait until Samuel can join them and stay there. Elkanah has confirmed the vow of Hannah ( ), and makes a vow himself. He is encouraged by the faith of Hannah. He trusts that the LORD will do what He has said. This seems to indicate that he has come to share the expectation of the blessing that will come to Israel through this child because of Hannah’s prayer. Hannah stays at home because the child needs milk. The time will come when the child no longer needs the milk. Our children need our help in their spiritual growth, but there must come a time when they themselves take spiritual food. We teach them to read and pray and we read and pray with them, but there comes a time when they must do this themselves. They must learn to stand before the Lord independently.

‏ 1 Samuel 1:21-28

Elkanah Confirms Hannah’s Faith

Samuel will appear before the LORD as a priest according to Hannah’s purpose. In practice, he performs the priestly service. Hannah has high thoughts of her son in connection with God. She is not satisfied with an ordinary life for her son. This is not a natural pride. It stems from her desire that only the LORD will be central in his life.

First, he must be nourished by her. Under her influence and through her nutrition and education he will receive the basic formation necessary for his stay with the LORD in an ungodly environment. Therefore, she stays at home when Elkanah goes on his way to make the annual sacrifice. Elkanah shows his faith by agreeing with Hannah’s desire to wait until Samuel can join them and stay there.

Elkanah has confirmed the vow of Hannah (Num 30:13-14), and makes a vow himself. He is encouraged by the faith of Hannah. He trusts that the LORD will do what He has said. This seems to indicate that he has come to share the expectation of the blessing that will come to Israel through this child because of Hannah’s prayer.

Hannah stays at home because the child needs milk. The time will come when the child no longer needs the milk. Our children need our help in their spiritual growth, but there must come a time when they themselves take spiritual food. We teach them to read and pray and we read and pray with them, but there comes a time when they must do this themselves. They must learn to stand before the Lord independently.

Hannah Dedicates Samuel

When the time has come – Samuel is then about three years old – Hannah gives him to the LORD. She entrusts him to Eli’s care, from whom he would receive his further formation and training for the tabernacle service. She has received him from the LORD and gives him back to the LORD (1Chr 29:14b).

She brings the son of her vow to the house of the LORD, together with a sacrifice. Her sacrifice consisted of “a three-year-old bull and one ephah of flour and a jug of wine”. The bull serves as a peace offering or votive offering, the flour as a grain offering and the wine as a drink offering. The purpose of her vow is Christ, for that is what the whole sacrifice speaks of.

The bull can be used as a sin offering and as a peace offering. This speaks of the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross through which He has put sin away (sin offering) and made fellowship with God possible (peace offering). Hannah realizes – in picture – that it is only on this basis that she can offer her son to God. The number three is the number of the resurrection (Mt 16:21; Lk 24:46; 1Cor 15:3-4; 1Pet 1:21). The fine flour of the grain offering speaks of the Lord Jesus as true Man Who lived in humility on earth in full dedication to God until death. Wine speaks of the joy that God finds in His Son. He also finds this joy in all those in whom the Son becomes visible on earth, as with Paul (Phil 2:17) and as it will also happen in Samuel’s life.

With the words “as your soul lives”, Hannah wants to say, ‘as true as it is that your soul lives so true it is that I stood here with you then to pray to the LORD’. She tells Eli about their first meeting and the hearing by the LORD. That will be more than three years ago. She still remembers exactly where she stood. This is often the case with special events in someone’s (spiritual) life, whether it is about suffering or a special word from the Lord or a special meeting. Hannah rejoices in the same place where she has spoken to the LORD in her sadness.

Even now, there is no blame in the direction of Eli. She does not come triumphantly to tell her right. It seems as if she has forgotten all. At this place she only thinks of her prayer. Her triumph is in God. She knows Him as the abundant Giver of all good. She comes to fulfill her vow. Hannah teaches us how to overcome and forget the injustice done to us by people.

The first act we read of Samuel is that he worships the LORD. This is the result of the milk Hannah gave him. He learned this from his mother. She is a woman of prayer. We will see this in the next chapter. Her hymn of praise is a prayer. Her prayer is worship or prophecy. Often, she will have prayed with Samuel, often he will have heard and seen her pray. The impressions he gained in his first years have formed him.