To Encourage You

1 Samuel 1:20 “And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, ‘I have asked for him from the Lord.’”

One of the things to look for in the study of the Bible is repeated words.  If we see a word that is repeated over and over again, we can be sure that God has done so to get our attention.  That’s one of the thoughts that came to me as I began a study of the book of 1 Samuel.  And what is that word?  It’s the word “son.” It shows up repeatedly in the very first verse, where it says “There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. A similar word, “children,” is used in verse 2 where it says, “He (i.e., Elkanah) had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah.  And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.” Then in verse 3 we again see the word “son” used, where it says, “Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord.”  Later in the first chapter we find that Peninah continually mocked Hannah because she had children, but Hannah was barren. 

This, then, becomes a focus of the chapter as Hannah prays to God for a son.  Eventually those prayers are answered, as we see in the verse above.  As I’ve meditated on this chapter, a number of thoughts have come to my mind about this word “son.”  First, regarding verse 1, I thought about how easy it is to pass over some verses of Scripture and give them no thought at all, although God has assured us that every part of His Word is profitable for us (2 Timothy 3:16).  You see this first verse is a simple accounting of a genealogy as it goes from the son of one man, to the son of the next, to the son of the next, and so forth.  But genealogies are very significant.  They tell a person where they came from and they speak of God’s blessings of children throughout the ages, for “children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward” (Psalm 127:3). It’s important for us to not pass over this, for our children aren’t something that “just happened” in our lives. No, our children are gifts that have come to us from God. How grateful we should be as we reflect on this.  What a treasure He has bestowed on us and on all those who have been blessed with children in all generations over thousands of years since Adam and Eve were blessed with their first son and Eve said, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD” (Genesis 4:1). 

But then in 1 Samuel 1, we see how children can become a source of pride, but in a negative way.  We see the account of Peninah mocking and grieving Hannah for her barrenness, while she exults in the children she had been given by God.  Maybe it’s not much of a stretch to see a similar attitude expressed in the Christmas letters or on social media where we often hear from perhaps well-meaning friends who go on and on about how wonderful and perfect their children are.  I sometimes wonder how this affects those who have no children, have lost children, or whose children haven’t quite made it to valedictorian or come in first place in whatever the contest of the week might have been.  It’s a fine line, I suppose, between sharing good news with others about our (especially) wonderful children and boasting about them in a prideful way. 

Then we have the mention of the priest Eli’s sons. Later in the book we find that although this man was a priest, his sons were very wicked.  In 1 Samuel 2:29, Eli is rebuked by the Lord for his negligence as a father with these words, “Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?” Apparently, his children had become everything to him, to the neglect of the God Who had given them to him.  And then this rebuke from 1 Samuel 2:13: “And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.”  It’s a reminder that the God Who has given us the gift of children has also given us the command to “bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

And then we have Hannah as she mourns because she had no son. Year after year she pleaded to God for a son and mourned because she was barren, no matter what other blessings God had given her.  But then God does give her a son, and we see in this godly woman a godly response to this precious gift.  She humbly thanks God for her son and vows to consecrate him wholly to the Lord.  She praises and thanks God in prayer for Samuel, but we never see her gloating over others for what God had done. 

May God give us the heart of Hannah, thankful for every child (and grandchild) God has blessed us with, and may we dedicate ourselves to our heritage that they be raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.