Samuel, Given To God

"I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he lives he shall be lent to the Lord"

1 Samuel 1:28

Samuel's story stands at the very beginning of this great historical book of the Old Testament; this first book of Samuel is also called the first book of the kings; and although we have two books of Samuel and two books of Kings, there is a tradition that all of these were regarded as narratives dealing with the establishing of David's kingdom and David's kingship within Israel, so that they are all books of kings, and yet they begin with someone who was not a king at all.

Those of you who know the books of Samuel and these stories of the Old Testament will know that the narrative revolves first of all around Samuel, then around Saul, then around David. And with that sequence of events God brings his people from being what we call a theocracy to being a monarchy. The word 'theocracy' means that God's people were governed by God himself. We live in a democracy, where the government is in the hands of the people; in the Old Testament the children of Israel lived in a theocracy, where they were directly governed by God himself. God was their King, and their ruler, and lawgiver and judge. God directed them and governed them directly through the judges and through the prophets, and then gradually and eventually settled the kingdom, first of all under Saul, but especially under David.

The story of Samuel brings us to the home of Elkanah and Hannah. Elkanah, as we saw, had two wives, Peninah had many children, but Hannah had no children. That was a particularly difficult burden for Hannah to bear; and a particularly difficult Providence that God had ordained for her. It was made all the more difficult to bear by the way in which Penninah ridiculed her and mocked her and added to her affliction by saying to her that God had obviously forgotten her, and had no interest in her; God's grace was not for her. Remember, it was when they went to worship God at Shiloh - when they went to the house of God - the very place where Hannah ought to have received comfort in her affliction, and where she ought to have received peace in sorrow, that was the very time Penninah chose to rub salt into her wound and to add to her burden.

It's very often the case in the history and experience of God's people that when they ought to find peace and comfort and solace for their souls in the worship of God, the devil comes in, and it only takes one word out of place from even perhaps another Christian to bring arrows of trial and affliction and sorrow into our hearts and souls. How careful we ought to be in our relations with one another, in our speaking to one another, especially when we gather together for the worship of God!

Remember what Hannah did with her burden: Hannah cast her burden where all burdens ought to be cast - upon the Lord. Where else could she go? She could not go to Penninah; Elkanah her husband tried to comfort her and show his love and affection for her, but it was largely through his own sin that she found herself now in this condition. He had probably married Hannah first; she had no children, so then he broke God's law and married Penninah. And because of that sin in his past, now casting this long shadow over Hannah, she is bearing this burden. She can only take it now to the Lord and leave it there.

The moment we leave our burdens with God is the moment we realise that all things will work together for our good if we trust in him. As long as we try to shoulder these burdens alone, we are liable to be crushed under them, and they are liable to bring us right down into the snare and pit of darkness and depression. God says to us in his word 'Be careful for nothing..' There are many things in this world that will trouble us, and that will be a source of grief to us - afflictions, burdens, sorrows that we may have to carry. God says to us that if we try to shoulder these burdens alone, we will open the door to darkness and depression, into a pit that we may not easily be able to get out of. But if we bring all our burdens to him, his peace will guard our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ. That's what Hannah does.

You know the history - she came to God's house, and prayed, and Eli the priest saw her. Her prayer was not audible; nobody could hear it except God. Eli looked at her, saw her lips moving and concluded she was drunk. The facts of this situation did not convey to Eli the truth of this situation , but he jumped into this conclusion headlong. 'What are you doing here, in the house of God, drunk?' O, my lord, she says, I am not drunk. I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. It is at that point that Eli acknowledges his mistake and pronounces the blessing of God upon her and she leaves, no more sad.

I don't know if Eli ever remembered this before Hannah came again - when Hannah left these sacred, hallowed precincts, did Eli remember her? I do know that God remembered her (verse 19). God's eye was on her, and God followed her on her long journey from the temple, where she met with him and where she received his blessing, and where her burden was lifted away, until she came to her own home. God's eye was with her there, over the following months, perhaps even up to a year until Samuel was born. And whoever forgot her, or whoever remembered her, from that time she was in the Temple, Jehovah the Lord of hosts, remembered her.

It is a wonderful thing this - it takes us to the very heart of the Gospel. It is the very stuff of which we were singing in Psalm 102 - the God of all glory, the God of all creation, Jehovah of hosts tonight hears the prisoner's mourning groan, and frees them that are doomed to die. He heard the groan of Hannah. He heard the prayer of Hannah and he treasured up her prayer, putting all her tears, as the psalmist puts it, into his own bottle (Psalm 56:6) and wrote them in his book. As our years pass on, all the tears of God's people are bottled up by him and written in his book. Every single night of sorrow, every long night, every sleepless night, every night full of care and worry and anxiety that you, child of God, have ever had - all of these tears are so precious to God that he preserves them all and he writes down the occasion and the circumstances and inscribes in his own infallible book of memory these long nights in your experience. The time is coming when he will reward you for all these tears, and will wipe them all away. He will say to his people in the glory of Heaven that there will be no more sighing, and no more sorrow because these former things will have passed away.

There is no shame in crying. In fact, God says to us in his word that some of the most precious moments he has with his children are when they cry, and when they pour out their hearts to him, and are emptied of themselves and are brought low. He comes right down to where they are in the poverty and loneliness and solitude of their grief and of their pain, and he comes to help them in their affliction and God remembered Hannah. Whoever forgot her, God did not forget her. Whoever saw her, God saw her, and God's eye was on her, and God was with her every step she took, and God took her home safely and was with her there over the, long months of pregnancy until at last Samuel was born.

Is not this the glory of the gospel? That the Lord knows those who are his, and he remembers every single one of them wherever they are, whatever they are going through, whatever burden they are carrying in this world. Cast your burden on the Lord, and see if he will not sustain you like he sustained Hannah, and see if he will not remember you like he remembered Hannah, and see if he will not be for you in his grace and in his strength and in his covenant love and mercy all that he has ever been for those who have unburdened themselves at his feet and at his cross.

God remembered Hannah, and he gave her a son, whom she called Samuel because he was asked of the Lord. That's what his name means. She had prayed for him, she had requested him. Now she had this child in her arms as a token of God's love for her. Elkanah went up to offer the yearly sacrifice at Shiloh. Here was a dark day, and an irreligious and apostate generation, but instead of simply complaining about the darkness Elkanah goes to worship the God who is light. It is so easy for us to look at the darkness all around us, and to look at the state of our world, and the state of our nation and the spiritual sloth and apathy that there is; it is the easiest thing in the world, to complain about the darkness. But to do what Elkanah did, and to make the witness that Elkanah made, and to take the stand that Elkanah took, that is what is costly. To worship God diligently, faithfully, regularly at the stated hour of worship. Elkanah could so easily have stayed at home like everybody else. This was, after all, a time when everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes. Nobody thought of God. But God has had his Elkanah here and there and he had people faithful to himself and faithful to his cause in this generation as he does still. Thousands who have not bowed the knee to Baal, for whom the worship of God and the name and honour of God are more important than the philosophies and fashions of this godless world in which we live.

But Hannah did not go with him - let's just notice this in passing. Why not? Because she had a duty to perform at home. That's why. 'I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and there abide for ever' (verse 22). Samuel was given to her by God; she had a duty to nurse him, and to wean him and to look after him until he was old enough to be presented to the Lord as this chapter tells us. That was her duty, and she fulfilled her duty. There are times when our duty will keep us necessarily from attending the public worship of God. There are times when we cannot be there, and God knows that. God knows that if we are performing our duty, whether it is at home or at work in the legitimate occupations God has given us, if God knows that the reason for our absence is legitimate because we are attending to our duty then he says to us as he says in this very book, that 'Obedience is better than sacrifice'. But we must always weigh up the reason for our absence. It sometimes takes effort to come to church. It takes effort to be present when the word of God is being proclaimed. It is far easier to stay away. Every time we are tempted to stay away we must ask ourselves 'What is the reason for my absence?' Is it because of some duty that must be fulfilled? Obedience is what God expects in that situation. God weighs up every single case and every single individual and God will compensate for these times when we ar kept from the sacrifice because of our duty, even those who remain at home can divide the spoils as the psalmist puts it (Psalm 68:12).

Hannah was a godly mother, and when she had weaned Samuel she went to Shiloh with him in order to present him to the Lord. She did so, and Samuel grew up in the care of Eli, worshipping God there in the temple. It may seem strange to us that a mother like Hannah could leave her child in the care of the priest at this particular stage of life. But of course we must always remember that in the reading of this narrative Samuel was an exceptional child, raised by God for an exceptional purpose at an exceptional time. Hannah is here presenting Samuel to the Lord in Shiloh and it is a token of the special reason for which God has raised Samuel up. She comes with him and says, For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him; therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. Hannah prayed for Samuel, and God gave Samuel to Hannah. Her response is this - she gives Samuel back to Jehovah in the worship of God, and sings this song of thankfulness and thanksgiving of how the Lord has come to visit his people and to raise up the horn of his anointed, the horn of his own people and his own church at this particular time.

There are many echoes between Hannah's song and the song of Mary that we read in the New Testament. Mary knew that a child was to come into the world, conceived in her body by the power of the Holy Spirit she too sang, knowing that this child was to be dedicated to God and the honour and glory of God for the salvation of sinners. Like Hannah, Mary is ready to give her child to the Lord, who gave that child to her.

At Christmas time, people customarily give gifts to one another. It is a good thing to give gifts. The Bible says it is more blessed to give than to receive. Children look forward to gifts, eagerly expecting gifts. This passage of the Old Testament is all about gifts and giving. This unique child, Samuel was, first, a gift from God. He was also a gift to God, and finally he was a gift for God.

A Gift From God

Hannah explicitly rejoices in the fact that Samuel was an answer to her prayer. There she was, burdened and anxious afflicted and lonely, lonely in her household, lonely in her church. There was no place to which she could turn but upwards, to the Lord, and she cried to the Lord and the Lord heard her and gave her a sign of his favour and a sign of his blessing in the giving to her of a child and she could truly say 'For this child I prayed'. Every time she thought of Samuel, and looked at Samuel, her heart was full. Children always fill the hearts of their parents with memories; their parents look at them and look at their development and look at their lives and remember times in the past, times when these children were expected, and times when they were born, hard times, difficult times, times of joy and times of sorrow, and Samuel rekindled and re-awakened in the mind of Hannah this one great fact - that God had answered her prayer exceeding abundantly above what she could ask or even think.

Is that not how God answers our prayers? Is that not how God shows his grace and his love to us, in giving to us things that we could scarcely even think of the moment we prayed to Him. Perhaps there were times when we prayed to God and God gave you the direction you needed in a wonderful way; times when we felt helpless, but God heard our prayer and met our need and gave us grace and strength, and it went above anything that you could have thought of the moment you prayed to Him. We are living in a prayerless age and in a prayerless generation; but this does not mean that prayer has lost any of its significance for the child of God. I do not believe so much in the power of prayer as I believe in the power of the God who answers prayer and who is able to answer my prayers according to his purpose in the most glorious way possible. I once heard a man preaching and describing prayer like a boat hook, the purpose of which was not to bring the shore to the boat, but to bring the boat to the shore. Let us remember this in our prayers; we pray not in order that God will come to us, but in order that we will draw closer to him, to know in our own experience the riches of his grace and the riches of his provision and it is his delight at all times to give to his people. Did Christ himself not say to the fathers of his own generation 'If you, being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will God give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?'

Have we asked? Do we pray? Do we know what it is to draw near the God of all grace and all strength and of all power? Are we expecting our boathook to drag God down to where we are, just in some emergency or other, when we think that it is time to start praying? I read recently a man who was talking about an airline company, whose manual of safety suggested that in an emergency the pilot had to say 'If you believe in God, this is the time to start praying!' That was actually written in the safety manual of the airline company. If there is some disaster and if you believe in God - then start praying. For too many people that is what prayer is - some kind of hook that will bring God down to them in an emergency. But that is not what prayer is to those who really know God, and who love God like hannah did; prayer is not something that brings God down to them in an emergency or in a time of crisis, but that brings them closer to God every single day of their lives. God gave Hannah the greatest token of his love and his grace in the provision of Samuel, and Samuel will give to us also all that we need and he will give us more than we can ask for and more than we can think of.

Let us remind ourselves too that it was a child God gave her, and Hannah could truly say 'I prayed for that child'. Let us ask ourselves, if we are parents, can we truly say that we pray for our children? Can we truly say with Hannah, 'For this child I prayed? As we look at the children God has given us in this world that fill our heats and that fill our homes and our lives, that give us the greatest happiness that we have every known, that sometimes can even bring us through the greatest trials that we will ever know - can we truly say 'For this child I prayed'? Can we look into the face of God who gave these children to us, and say with honesty, in the very presence of God, that whatever we did for our children, whatever we gave to our children, that we prayed for them? That we brought them to God, asked his blessing upon them, asked that he would preserve them and keep them safe, asked that whatever they did on us, whatever they said to us, however they hurt us, that God would be with them to bless them and to keep them and to encourage them, so that one day they would come to know and embrace him - have we prayed the blessings of the covenant down on the heads of our children? Have we brought them in our prayers to the God of all the earth, to the great Father in Heaven who is able to do for our children more than we can ask or think? Can we say like Hannah said, 'For this child I prayed?'.

Hannah lived her life knowing that in Samuel God had given her an answer to her prayer. When you buy something in a shop you're encouraged to keep your receipt. You may need it again for one reason or another. Maybe the thing you bought is not suitable - you need to replace it. Maybe you need to go back with it for one reason or another. You need to keep your receipt, you need proof of purchase. Christians ought to be keeping their receipts; everything that they have received from God, everything that God has done for them and given them every blessing that they have known and experienced along life's way - let us keep our receipts and let them remind you of the faithfulness of God who has been with you right up until now, and who will go before you into the future and who will never leave you nor forsake you. You keep a place in your heart for your receipts so that you will give thanks to God for every gift he has given , every answer to prayer, every promise, every token of his covenant love and faithfulness along the way.

Let us remind ourselves too that in the Gospel a greater than Samuel is here. The prophet prophesied unto us a child is born unto us a Son is given. Here is the glory of the great, unique Saviour of the Gospel, the Son from all eternity given for a lost world, the Child in God's purposes born among men, the God-man Christ Jesus; that is God's greatest gift - his indescribable gift to a world that hates him without a cause as he loves that world without a cause, except that he is a God of love and kindness and grace. What are we doing with God's gift of the child who was born - the Lord Jesus Christ. He was not born so that we would stand over the manger and gaze into the manger and sing carols and nice hymns about the child in the manger and go away and leave him there. There are far too many people who do that; for whom Christmas time is a time of gazing into the face of the child Jesus and walking away and leaving him there in his bed of straw. Don't leave Jesus there, but let him come into your heart and into your experience and life every single moment of every single day. What are we doing with God's gift to the world, the Lord Jesus Christ.

A Gift To God

What did Hannah do with Samuel? She gave him back to God. I do not know if Hannah fully understood what purposes God had in Samuel, what God was going to do with Samuel; but this I do know - Hannah came to the Temple and said 'Because God gave him to me, I am giving him back to God. There she was in the Temple, saying 'Eli, do you recognise me? The last time you saw me I was so downcast and so sad, praying there, but I couldn't put words onto my prayers, my prayer was writtne in Heaven but all I could do was just move my lips - you thought I was drunk - do you recognise me now? God turned my mourning into dancing, took away my sackloth and girded me with gladness and joy, something to sing about and rejoice in. I'm the woman who stood by you here praying to the Lord and he gave me my petition, and I have given Samuel back to the Lord'.

It is the great test, is it not? Not so much what have we given to God, but what have we kept back from God? Here was Samuel, and the whole of Hannah's heart was bound up in the life and experience of Samuel. The whole of Hannah's life was bound up in the life of Samuel, and Hannah is giving herself to God when she gives Samuel back to God. Jesus, you recall, was one day standing in the Temple precincts when all the people came in and put their money in the collection plate; all the rich people were there and all the toffs, those who were respected, high-class people putting all their money into the treasury, all so pleased with themselves, but a woman came who had nothing but two coins. She threw them in and Jesus said 'She has put in more than them all.' What did he mean? Simply this - that what we give to the Lord is measured not by what we have given but by what we have kept. She kept nothing; all of these other people had kept back enough for themselves, enough for this, enough for that - she kept nothing; she gave everything she had to the Lord.

What are we keeping back from God? Of our money, our time, our talents, our lives - we say to ourselves that we will give God one hour on a Sunday, not even one day - just one hour on one day in the week - that's enough for God, we'll keep the rest for ourselves. We'll use our talents for this or that, but we will not use them in the service of God. We'll use our minds to read this, or that, or to watch this or that but we'll not read our Bibles. We'll spend our time exercising, but not praying. How much are we keeping back? Hannah kept nothing back - she gave all she had to the Lord devoted joyfully and cheerfully when Samuel was entrusted to Eli, and she said 'I've given him back to Jehovah'. We'll pay this amount of money for our papers every week, but when it comes to giving this amount to the church it's amazing how a pound coin increases in value when it comes to the church - won't buy very much in a shop and won't do very much in a bank but when it falls into a collection plate you would think it was a fortune! We keep back constantly. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Hannah knew that. She knew that it was more blessed to give Samuel to God than it was to receive Samuel from God. She got a greater blessing there. And we will get the greater blessing too in giving ourselves completely and wholeheartedly to the service of Jesus Christ.

A Gift For God

Notice the significance of these closing words - Samuel worshipped the Lord there (verse 28). It is a summary of the whole of his life. Where did he grow up? In the temple service. He came to know and love and serve God willingly, cheerfully, faithfully and diligently there, in the courts of God's house. It was Hannah's greatest desire that her child would be forGod, not just given to him, dedicated to him, but that his whole life would be consecrated to the worship of Jehovah.

Those of us who are parents must ask ourselves - we baptised our children, consecrating these children to the Lord. Do we want these children now to live for the Lord? Is that our great burden and prayer, not simply that that child whom we gave to Jehovah in the covenant of baptism and in the obligations of baptism, but that that child would be the Lord's to serve him just like Samuel did? Hannah could sing her song of praise in the knowledge that her son was dedicated to the service of Jehovah, spending his life in the service of God's cause and of God's house.

Again, we are reminded that a greater than Samuel is here. The child of whom Mary sang, who caused the hymn of thanksgiving to come from the lips of Mary - why did she rejoice in the Lord? Because God had visited his people and given them a Child wholly dedicated to the service of God's house, of whom it was true that teh zeal of God's house consumed him. Jesus Christ came into this world for the service of Jehovah - 'I came down from Heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me'. Let this cup of suffering , sin and shame pass, nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.

I think the reason Mary sang her great song of praise to God in the way she did was because her mind was full of Scripture. I believe that is why there are echoes of Hannah's song in Mary's song. I believe that is why they are so like one another. Mary could almost identify with Hannah when she received the news from the angel and when she rejoiced in the Lord who had visited his people with his salvation.

It is a wonderful thing if you are able to come to the Bible and find your situation described on its pages. I believe Mary found her situation in the Scriptures, with which her heart and mind were so full. I believe that is why there are echoes and traces of Hannah's song in Mary's heart, because she found herself there on the pages of the Word of God. There have been many times in the experience of God's people when they have searched the Bible, and all of a sudden the Bible's light has flooded their soul because they have found themselves there. Nobody can tell me that the Bible is an old-fashioned out-of-date book that is not relevant in our modern society; I believe we need this Bible more than ever before and the reason we can have it tonight in the knowledge that it is as fresh and as relevant and as new as it has ever been is because God speaks directly into the situations and circumstances of individuals in this great book of the Scriptures. Read it and see if you will not find yourself in it, and see if there is not a word in it that is relevant to you in your need and your situation; see if you'll not find a song that you can sing as Mary found a song that she could sing.

Maybe in your present circumstances you don't feel like singing. If that is your situation, remember that there is a God in Heaven for whom there is music even in a groan, and who has said that he will not despise the poor who calls on him. Maybe we are poor, but he is rich beyond measure and beyond compare, and if we come to his word we will find a song to sing that will give glory to God in the darkest of our trials. Unto us a child is born, and that child grew up to be the man of Calvary, who says to us 'Come unto me'.

© Iain D. Campbell 2001