1 Samuel 1-2
Never were things at a lower ebb in Israel than in Hannah’s day. Never had there been such an undignified and unrespected high priest as Eli. Never had there been viler sons than Hophni and Phinehas. Dark and evil were their practices, and they caused the offering of the Lord to be abhorred. There was no open vision in those days, all was as dead and lifeless as a stricken tree in the depth of winter.
One could understand any Israelite resolving to retreat into solitude rather than associate himself with a ritual so far removed from all sense of God’s presence, and where things were greatly aggravated by the positive and shamefaced wickedness of those who should have restrained evil.
But no, there were godly souls who clung to what stood for and what represented Jehovah in the land. Away in Mount Ephraim a man named Elkanah lived with his wife Hannah. Happy in a deep attachment to each other, the only domestic drawback was that Hannah was childless. And in the hidden and bitter exercises of soul that this godly, unknown woman went through lay the beginning of revival for Israel. A praying woman brought in, in the ways of God, a new era. She named her son Samuel, which means “Asked of God.” What a deep joy to the happy mother’s heart when her infant son nestled in her bosom, and found shelter, food, warmth, and love there!
We can understand how she clung to little Samuel. And the very intensity of her joy in receiving such an answer from the Lord helps us to comprehend how devoted she was to Jehovah’s interests when she carried him off to the temple, only to get a glimpse of him once every twelve-month, when she gave him the little coat which her loving hands had made.
Thus did Hannah put the Lord before herself, and His interests before her own At the same time there is a tender appreciation of the sacrifice that Hannah made. Jehovah did not allow her home to remain practically childless, as it would have been when little Samuel was devoted to the service of the Lord. Three sons and two daughters were given to Hannah to reward her for her devotedness. Her home resounded with the innocent prattle of children, and the mother’s heart was comforted, though no child or children could quite fill the place that Samuel had.
It is deeply interesting to see that dear child left with faith so unwavering in the hands of Eli and where his wretched sons might have influenced him for evil. But Hannah commits Samuel to the care of the Lord, and the Lord takes care of him. “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.” What joy this must have been to the heart of Hannah!—not the empty pride of having a distinguished son, but the deep thankfulness of one who cared for Jehovah’s interests before her own.
Now for an application. Sometimes in our history things seem to go so terribly to the bad that we are inclined to seek the selfish and ignoble ease of an individual path. If we look at the Scriptures and recall the bright fair days of Pentecost, when all the believers were together and had all things common, how attractive the truth of the Church appears! A fascinating picture indeed. But soon the fine gold becomes dim, and what is committed to man’s hands fails. Revival after revival in God’s goodness is permitted as the centuries roll by, but only to be followed by repeated failure.
At such a time of widespread declension Satan tempts us. “The truth is magnificent,” says he, “but it is a magnificent impossibility. Drop down to what is ordinary and understandable. Do all the good you can as an individual. Look upon the bright days of Pentecost as you would on one of the paintings of the grand old masters, the like of which cannot be produced in our degenerate day. Do not repeated failures prove this?” Thus the enemy argues.
“No! a thousand times no,” we answer. To allow such reasoning is to admit that Satan is stronger than God, evil more powerful than good, and man’s ordering more enduring than God’s truth.
Christ’s NAME is still the centre to which to gather and from which blessing comes. Be it the sinner, through His NAME is offered the forgiveness of sins; be it the Christian, it still holds good that “where two or three are gathered together in My NAME there am I in the midst of them.” And if bright revival days came in with Hannah’s devotedness, and her son lived to anoint David, the man after God’s own heart, may we not humbly cry to God that we may be devoted and in the self-forgetful strength of devotedness and love for the Lord go on with the truth? Let us not give up, but press on. Is it too much to expect that the Lord will revive us, that we shall see Christians on every hand attracted to Christ, and sinners drawn to the Saviour? I do not think so. God grant it, is my earnest desire.