There's a lot going on in today's passage but I'm only going to focus on a couple of things.
As a side note, Elkanah's attempt to comfort Hannah during her inability to conceive showed a pretty major lack of understanding women!
Anyway, the first thing that stood out to me was Hannah's willingness to give back to God the very thing she had so desperately wanted in the first place - her child. How difficult it must have been to leave Samuel at the temple at such a young age, particularly with it being common knowledge that Samuel was lacking in the parenting department, to put it mildly. She didn't grasp on to her dream with both hands, going back on her vow, and keeping her son at home with her, as she easily could have justified herself doing. Instead, recognizing that Samuel was not just a gift of God's but that he was God's, she gave Him what was never truly hers anyway.
Do we do that? With our children? Our spouses? Our jobs? Our houses? Our stuff?! Do we grasp them so tight that they are all but useless for Kingdom work? Or do we steward everything God's given us as the temporary gifts that they are, acknowledging that their purpose is to glorify God and they are to be "used" as God intended?
The story of God calling Samuel has always struck me as somewhat humorous, but today I also realized that we all need to be listening for God's voice, even in the ordinariness of life. And then need to be willing to act on it! Relaying God's words to Eli must have been extremely hard for a young Samuel to do, but he did it anyway. Are we willing to live with such integrity and boldness?
Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage: 1 Samuel 4-8
3 comments:
Reminding myself and realizing that all I have is really God's, is one of the toughest things to do. It's so easy to get caught up in the way the world thinks about gathering up possessions - the more we have the better we are. Nothing we have is truly ours, God has given us everything, realizing this and having this attitude is something I work at.
It always amazes me at how willing Hannah was to let Samuel go as she had promised to God. It is much easier to promise to give something away that you don't have. It's a totally different scenario when you have that something to give up. Good on Hannah, and a good reminder for us too, to not hold onto what God has blessed us with.
'"May the LORD give you other children to take the place of this one she gave to the LORD." And the LORD gave Hannah three sons and two daughters.' (1 Samuel 2:20b-21a). This section really stood out to me. It was an example of how sometimes we pray for something (ex. Hannah praying to have a son) and then God tests us with it (ex. Whether or not Hannah would stick true to her word and give Samuel to the LORD), and then if we obey (ex. Hannah following through on her part), the LORD might bless us with more than we asked for (ex. Hannah having 5 more children). It reminds me of the hymn from church "trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey."
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