I now dedicate the boy to the LORD. For as long as he lives, he is dedicated to the LORD." So they worshiped the LORD there. Sermons 1 Samuel 1:19-28. (RAMAH and SHILOH) (References - 1 Chronicles 29:29, "the seer;" Psalm 99:9; Jeremiah 15:1; Acts 3:24; Acts 13:20; Hebrews 12:32; Apoc. Ecclus. 46:13-20.) Consolation and hope were from the first associated with the birth of children (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 4:1, 25; Genesis 5:29; Genesis 21:6). More than ordinary joy (John 16:24) was felt at the birth of Samuel by his mother, because of the peculiar circumstances connected therewith, and the expectations entertained by her of the good which he might effect for Israel. Often as she looked upon her God-given infant she would think, "What manner of child shall this be?" (Luke 1:66), and ask, "How shall we order the child, and how shall we do unto him?" (Judges 13:12). Nor did she fail to do her utmost towards the fulfilment of her exalted hopes. The child was - I. REGARDED AS A DIVINE GIFT (Psalm 127:4). Every little infant bears the impress of the "Father of spirits" (James 3:9). "Trailing clouds of glory do we come II. DESIGNATED BY AN APPROPRIATE NAME (ver. 20). Samuel = heard of God. "The mother names, the father assents, God approves, and time confirms the nomination" (Hunter). Like other personal names in the Bible, it was full of significance; being a grateful memorial of the goodness and faithfulness of God in the past, and a constant incentive to faith and prayer in the future. "Our very names should mind us of our duty." The name "Samuel" was uttered by the Lord as mindful of his history, and recognising his special relation to himself (1 Samuel 3:10). The name of a child is not an unimportant matter, and it should be given with due consideration. When parents give their children names borne by excellent men, they should train them to follow in the footsteps of such men. III. NURTURED WITH MOTHERLY TENDERNESS (vers. 22-25). His mother was herself his nurse (ver. 23), not intrusting him to others, and not neglecting him, whereby many young lives are sacrificed; but thoughtfully, carefully, and constantly ministering to his physical needs, praying over him, and directing his thoughts, with the earliest dawn of reason, toward the Lord of hosts. That she might the more perfectly fulfil her trust, she remained at home, and went not up to Shiloh until he was weaned. Her absence from the sanctuary was justifiable, her worship at home was acceptable, and the service which she rendered to her child was a service rendered to God and to his people. "A mother's teachings have a marvellous vitality in them; there is a strange living power in that good seed which is sown by a mother's hand in her child's heart in the early dawn of the child's being, when they two are alone together, and the mother's soul gushes forth on her child, and the child listens to his mother as a God; and there is a deathless potency in a mother's prayers and tears for those whom she has borne which only God can estimate" (W.L. Alexander). "Who is best taught? He that is taught of his mother" ('Talmud'). IV. PRAYED OVER WITH FATHERLY SOLICITUDE. Elkanah consented to the vow of his wife (Numbers 30:6, 7), and appears to have made it his own (ver. 21). He was zealous for its performance, and whilst he agreed with her in the desire of its postponement for a brief period, he expressed the wish in prayer, "Only the Lord establish his word" (ver. 23). "Word, that is, may he fulfil what he designs with him, and has promised by his birth (vers. 11, 20). The words refer, therefore, to the boy's destination to the service of God; which the Eternal has in fact acknowledged by the partial fulfilment of the mothers wish" (Bunsen). HIS PRAYER indicates, with respect to the Divine word - 1. Confidence in its truth. He believed (1) that it was his word which had been uttered by the high priest (ver. 17); (2) that its Divine origin and faithfulness had been in part confirmed by his own act (ver. 20); and (3) that it would be completely established by his bringing about the end designed. 2. Desire of its fulfilment. (1) As a matter of great importance. (2) Deeply felt. "Only." (3) Through the continued and gracious operation of God. "The Lord establish his word." 3. Obedience to its requirements. In order to its establishment, cooperation on their part was - (1) Necessary. God's purposes and promises are fulfilled in connection with human endeavour, and not independently of it. (2) Obligatory. It had been solemnly promised by them, and was a condition of the bestowment of the Divine blessing. (3) Fully resolved upon. "His father used to open his breast when he was asleep and kiss it in prayer over him, as it is said of Origen's father, that the Holy Ghost would take possession thereof" ('Life of Sir Thomas Browne'). V. CONDUCTED TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. As soon as he was weaned (the first step of separate, independent life) "she took him up with her" (ver. 24), and "they brought the child to Eli" (ver. 25). Children are in their right place in the temple (Matthew 21:15, 16), and their praises are acceptable to the Lord. Even infants (sucklings) belong to the kingdom of heaven, and are capable of being blessed by him (Matthew 19:13). Therefore the "little ones" should be brought unto him (Matthew 18:14). VI. DEDICATED TO A LIFE-LONG SERVICE (vers. 25-28), i.e. a continual (and not a limited or periodical) service at the sanctuary as a Levite, and an entire (and not a partial) service as a Nazarite. It was done (1) with a burnt offering, (2) accompanied by a thankful acknowledgment of the goodness of God in answer to prayer offered on the same spot several years previously, and (3) in a full surrender of the child. "My child shall be entirely and absolutely thy servant. I give up all my maternal rights. I desire to be his mother only in so far as that he shall owe his existence to me; after that I give him up to thee" (Chrysostom). "For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath granted me my request which I asked of him; therefore I also make him one asked of the Lord all the days that he liveth; he is asked of the Lord" (Keil). So the vow was performed. And in the spirit of this dedication all parents should give back to God "the children which he hath given them." VII. FOLLOWED BY PARENTAL PRAYERS AND THANKSGIVINGS. "He (Elkanah) worshipped the Lord there" (ver. 28). "And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord." (1 Samuel 2:1). "And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house" (1 Samuel 2:11). The sacrifice made in learning the child behind was great, but it was attended, through Divine grace, with great joy. The more any one gives to God, the more God gives back to him in spiritual blessing. Hannah felt little anxiety or fear for the safety of her child, for she believed that he would "keep the feet of his saints" (1 Samuel 2:9). What holy influences ever rest on children whose parents pray for them "without ceasing!" and what multitudes have by such means been eternally saved! - D. "The boy was vowed I give thee to thy God - the God that gave thee, Therefore, farewell! - I go, my soul may fail me, (C. H. Parkhurst, D. D.) (Footsteps of Truth.) (W. G. Blaikie, D. D.) Do not treat lightly, O parents, the connection between God and your children! Cherish the thought that they are God's gifts, God's heritage to you, committed by Him to you to bring up, but not apart from Him, not in separation from those holy influences which He alone can impart, and which He is willing to impart. What a cruel thing it is to cut this early connection between them and God, and send them drifting through the world like a ship with a forsaken rudder, that flaps hither and thither with every current of the sea.(W. G. Blaikie, D. D.) In those rude times which long preceded the birth of science in our country, when there was no appliance of steam to wear vessels off the dangers of a lee shore, nor lights shone forth on sunken reef or rocky headland to guide them through the gloom of night, one of the royal family of Scotland was in imminent hazard of shipwreck. After every effort had been made, but made in vain, to wear off shore, he vowed a vow that it God would interpose to deliver them from death, he would build and endow a chapel, as an acknowledgment of God's gracious interposition and an expression of his own gratitude. They were saved. And, though a Papist, a better man than many Protestants who forget, in the day of returned health or prosperity, the vows and resolutions formed in an hour of trouble, he fulfilled his promise. In the erection of Maison Dieu Chapel (in Brechin, Forfar), for so it is called, David, Earl of Huntingdon, paid his vow. Associated though it be with popish superstitions, it sprang from higher motives than either ecclesiastical pride or sectarian rivalry; and humble as these ruins are now, they form a venerable and interesting memorial of the simple faith, and devout piety, that ever and anon, like the blaze of a brilliant meteor, lighted up the long night of the dark ages of the Church. Such dedications and vows as those to which that chapel owed its existence, have fallen into too great disuse. The devout, but too much neglected, practice which these famous saints observed, Hannah also recommends to our imitation. It was in the performance of such a vow that she returned to the house of God, not empty handed; but to earn, if I may say so, the high encomium pronounced on her of whom our Lord said, "She hath given all she had." In that child of prayer, her only son, the boy whom she leads lovingly by the hand, Hannah presented to God a gift more beautiful and costly, more precious far, than Jacob's tithe of corn and cattle, or David's richest spoils of war. A blessed contrast to another woman, the unhappy partner of Ananias' guilt and also of his doom, who, pretending, while a part was withheld, that the whole price had been given, lied to the Holy Ghost, Hannah, in going to perform her vow, like a martyr marching to the stake, "walks in her integrity." Hannah's case was peculiar. She might, repenting of her vow, have kept back not a part of the price, but the whole; nor thereby laid herself open to challenge or censure; to the taunts of Peninnah, her enemy, or of anyone else. When she vowed that if God would give her a son, he should be the Lord's, Eli saw her lips move; but no more — and hearing nothing took her for a drunken woman. Only God and she herself knew what these lips had said. That was enough for Hannah. It should be so for us. "Thou God seest me," should place us in circumstances of greater restraint than broad daylight, the public street, the eyes of a theatre of spectators; even so it was a sufficient reason for Hannah performing her vow that God had heard the words of her noiseless lips, and that the vow, though a secret to others, was none to Him. It is to the honour of Hannah's sex that the only two offerings on which Jesus, He who offered himself for her and us on the cross, ever bestowed the meed of His applause, were both made by women. The one was a widow. Poor, and meanly clad, in her offering as much as in her dress, she presented a remarkable contrast to many who, sweeping into the house of God, attired in all the gaieties of changing fashions, give a wide berth to the plate at the door, or drop into the offertory, without a blush of shame, the merest, meanest pittance. Though but two mites, hers was a munificent gift, being her little all. The other woman, praised by Him whom all heaven praises, was one — strange as it will appear to such as have not reflected on the blessed truth, that a fallen is not necessarily a lost woman — from whose touch decency and decorum shrinks. As the phrase went, "she was a sinner." Lying, where all have need, and the purest love, to lie, at Jesus' feet, she washes them with a flood of tears; and, taking an alabaster box of precious ointment, pours its fragrance on the feet that for her, and us, were ire be nailed on Calvary. Beside these women Hannah deserves a place. In her dedication of Samuel, in giving him up who was the light of her eyes and the joy of her home, she parted for God's sake and his service with the costliest, the most prized and precious, thing in her possession. Before turning the dedication of Samuel to a practical use, let me observe, that though we may have to wait for the reward and recompense in heaven, Hannah had not so long to wait. She says of Samuel, "I have lent him to the Lord;" and God paid her good interest for the loan. Ages before the great words were uttered by the lips of Jesus, she proved the truth of His saying, "Whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." "There is that scattereth," says the wise man, "and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. The liberal soul shall be made fat." Such was Hannah's experience. She gave away one child, and God paid her back with five; and promptly too. To turn the dedication of Samuel to a seasonable and important use, let me ask why so few parents now follow Hannah's example? why so few either dedicate themselves, or are dedicated by others to the Christian ministry? When other professions are overstocked, why is it that almost all the churches, both in this country and in America, are complaining of a hack of candidates for the sacred office, and especially of such as possess not only the piety, but the talents and culture which it requires? Why should not our Christian youth come forward to embrace this noblest, though meanwhile poorest, of all professions? Some years ago, leaving titles, estates, luxurious mansions, kind fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers, and blooming brides, many threw themselves on the shores of the Black Sea, to face frost and famine, pestilence and iron showers of death, under the walls of Sebastopol! And shall piety blush before patriotism? Shall Jesus Christ call in vain for less costly sacrifices — either of money or of men? Let those whom Providence has enriched, some with silver and some with sons, remember the touching question one wrote beneath a figure of our Lord stretched bleeding on the cross, "This Thou hast done for me, what shall I do for Thee?"(T. Guthrie, D. D.). People Eli, Elihu, Elkanah, Ephah, Hannah, Hophni, Jeroham, Peninnah, Phinehas, Samuel, Tohu, ZuphPlaces Ramah, Ramathaim-zophim, ShilohTopics Boweth, Caused, Dedicated, Granted, Lent, Lord's, Worship, Worshiped, WorshippedOutline 1. Elkanah, a Levite, having two wives, worships yearly at Shiloh4. He cherishes Hannah, though barren, and provoked by Peninnah 9. Hannah in grief prays for a child 12. Eli first rebuking her, afterwards blesses her 19. Hannah, having born Samuel, stays at home till he is weaned 24. She presents him, according to her vow, to the Lord Dictionary of Bible Themes 1 Samuel 1:28Library Of Self-AnnihilationOf Self-Annihilation Supplication and sacrifice are comprehended in prayer, which, according to S. John, is "an incense, the smoke whereof ascendeth unto God;" therefore it is said in the Apocalypse that "unto the Angel was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints'' (Chap. viii. 3). Prayer is the effusion of the heart in the Presence of God: "I have poured out my soul before God" saith the mother of Samuel. (1 Sam. i. 15) The prayer of the wise men at the feet of … Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer Prayer and Sacrifice Explained by the Similitude of a Perfume --Our Annihilation in this Sacrifice --Solidity and Fruitfulness of this Prayer as Set Forth in The Home Dedication. John Newton 1Sam 1:10,18 Hwochow Women's Bible Training School The Love of the Holy Spirit in Us. The Prophet Jonah. And V the Kingdom Undivided and the Kingdom Divided Divers Matters. Ramah. Ramathaim Zophim. Gibeah. The King --Continued. Nature of Covenanting. I Will Pray with the Spirit and with the Understanding Also- Samuel Links 1 Samuel 1:28 NIV1 Samuel 1:28 NLT 1 Samuel 1:28 ESV 1 Samuel 1:28 NASB 1 Samuel 1:28 KJV 1 Samuel 1:28 Bible Apps 1 Samuel 1:28 Parallel 1 Samuel 1:28 Biblia Paralela 1 Samuel 1:28 Chinese Bible 1 Samuel 1:28 French Bible 1 Samuel 1:28 German Bible 1 Samuel 1:28 Commentaries Bible Hub |