1 Samuel 1

The books that we call First and Second Samuel and First and Second Kings should be read together as one account of the history of Israel from the end of the period of Judges to the time of the exile to Babylon. This four-volume story begins with the heartache of one woman, Hannah.

“The Lord had closed her womb.” Hannah was unable to conceive. But why? The Lord had a purpose in this. Hannah's husband, Elkanah, attempted to comfort the woman he loved, but to no avail. The turning point came when Hannah brought her sorrows to the Lord in worship in the spirit of complete surrender to Him.

This surrender came in the form of a vow. A vow was an act of worship under Old Testament practice that placed an obligation on the one who made the vow if the Lord answered the petitioner's request. Hannah asked God for a son. If God answered that prayer, Hannah promised to “give him to the Lord all the days of his life.”

What did those words mean? We only understand after the gift was given. God gave Hannah what she asked for. The Lord heard her prayer. Now Hannah had to give God what she had promised. When the child was weaned, Hannah went back again to the place of worship and presented her precious son before the Lord's priest, Eli. Samuel would live out his life in the Lord's house rather than being at Hannah's side. That was her vow to the Lord. At just the right time, Hannah kept her promise.

“For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore I have lent him to the LORD. As long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD.”

This heartache, this surrender of what was most precious, and this peace that was beyond understanding in one woman's life is the first episode in this very moving history of Israel. The Lord God Almighty knows how to weave our greatest suffering and our prayerful consecration into an account that is much better with Him as Author than any book we could write.

That would be harder for us to accept if our God were detached from sorrow and from us. But is our Father in heaven detached?

The Father knows what it means to lose a son. Jesus made a vow that required His death on the cross for our sins. At the cross, where a mother had no choice but to consecrate her son to the Lord's purposes, there was also a Father who knows what it means to suffer. At that cross we see not only death, but death in our place, death for our eternal life with the Father and the Son. How deep the Father's love for us!

So we worship. Hannah worshiped. So did Hannah's son. The chapter closes with these words, “And he worshiped the LORD there.” He worshiped in a different place than where his devoted mother lived. But not forever. Only for a time. She had said that she would lend him to the Lord as long as he lived. Now they are together forever. Because of Samuel? No, because of Jesus.