Samuel Is Born (1)

Most of us go to church every Sunday. Some of us are even able to go to services during the week. That is very good. Going to church will not convert us, but we must do as much as we can to put ourselves in the places where God speaks to us.

Do you know what the Bible calls church? It calls it “the house of God.” God is everywhere, but the church or temple is His special dwelling place. Sometimes people with troubles and a heavy heart will go to the church to pray. They go there because that is where they feel closer to God; they are in His house. That is where Hannah went. Hannah was a woman who was very sad, and no one but God could help her. More than anything in the world, Hannah wanted a baby. Oh, how it hurt her that she could not have one!

Her husband, Elkanah, loved her even though she had no children. Elkanah had two wives, and he loved Hannah much more than his other wife, Peninnah. (Remember, such was practiced in those days though God never intended man to have more than one wife.) “Oh, Hannah!” he would tell her. “Why are you so sad that you do not have any children? You will not eat, you only cry, don’t be so sad. You still have me. Am I not better than ten sons to you?”

What really hurt Hannah was the teasing from the other wife, Peninnah. Peninnah could be really cruel when she tormented Hannah. Peninnah would make fun of Hannah because she couldn’t have any children. Then Hannah would go to be alone to cry and pray. How she wanted a baby, especially a baby boy, because boys were thought to be special blessings from the Lord. Having NO children was thought to be a curse.

One day Hannah and Elkanah went up to the temple in Shiloh to offer a sacrifice to God, as they did once a year. This time Hannah slipped away from her husband, found a quiet spot in the temple, and fell on her knees crying and praying to the only One who could answer her. “O God,” she prayed, “please give me a son. I promise that if Thou wilt give me one, I will give him back to Thee. I will let him work for Thee in the temple. And I will never cut his hair but let him be a Nazarite unto Thee.”

The high priest named Eli was sitting in the temple. He saw Hannah kneeling there and saw her lips moving as she prayed in her heart. “She must be drunken.” Eli thought. “How do people dare do that. They offer sacrifices to the holy God, and then they get drunk.”

“Woman!” Eli cried to Hannah, “Why are you drunk? You shouldn’t be like that.”

“Oh, no.” Hannah replied. “I’m not drunken as you think. I haven’t been eating or drinking at all because I’m just so sad. I’ve been praying to God.”

“Go in peace,” Eli told her. “May God give you what you wish.” Suddenly, Hannah felt much better. She felt like eating and drinking again. Elkanah also must have been glad to see her so happy again. What happened next? In less than a year Hannah had a baby, a baby boy whom they named “Samuel.” This name means, “asked of God.” How happy Hannah was with her little boy. All children are gifts from the Lord, and she thanked God over and over for this special gift.

Maybe you are thinking, “I remember other women who could not have children, and they prayed to God and He gave them children, just as He did to Hannah. Does that always happen?”

No, it doesn’t. God always gives us an answer, but sometimes His answer is “no.” Your mother and father don’t give you everything you ask for either because sometimes they see it isn’t good for you. God doesn’t always give a “yes” because sometimes He knows that it would not be the best for His people.

Soon the time came to go up to Shiloh to offer sacrifices again, but Samuel was just a few months old, just a tiny baby, so Hannah stayed home with him. “I will go up when he’s a little older,” she said, “and then when I bring him up, I will leave him at the temple to live there. I promised the Lord that Samuel would work for Him, and so he will.”

So it was that one day she brought Samuel up to Shiloh with her. When she saw Eli the priest, she told him: “I am the woman whom you saw praying in the temple, but you thought I was drunken. This is the son for whom I was praying, and God has given him to me. Now I am lending him back to God to work for Him. I want him to serve God for the rest of his life.” Then Eli and Hannah praised the Lord together. When Hannah and Elkanah went home again, Samuel stayed with Eli.

What a wonderful mother Hannah was. She prayed for a son, and when God answered her, she remembered her promise. Even though it must have hurt to give up the son she wanted so much, she did what she had promised, and God did not forget her. Later He gave her three more sons and two daughters… and Samuel? The Lord gave Samuel a new heart and made him one of the greatest judges in the land of Israel.

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