A Samuel in Our Midst

“Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty, neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me.  Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, like a child that is weaned of his mother, my soul is even like a weaned child.”  Psalms 131: 1-2

I now direct your attention to I Samuel, Chapter I.

Hannah was “in bitterness of soul”.  She was tormented in her baroness. She wanted a child with every fiber of her being.  Every year her husband, Elkanah,  would take Hannah and his other wife, Peninnah, and go to the temple to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord.  To make matters even worse for Hannah, Peninnah would taunt her, ridiculing her for not being able to have a child.  This particular year Hannah was so distressed she could not eat.  It is important to note that in her grief, she turned to the Lord.  As Hannah cried out to God, she made a vow, “O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thy maidservant and remember me, and not forget thy maidservant, but wilt give thy maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and a razor shall never come on his head.” I Samuel 1:11

The Bible tells us that the Lord had shut up Hannah’s womb.  God knew Samuel before He formed him in the womb and He had a specific purpose for his life.  His desire was for Hannah to come to the place where she would be willing to give Samuel to the Lord. This particular day Hannah prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. She made a vow that if the Lord would open her womb and giver her a male child, she would offer the child to Him all the days of his life.  Would she have made this vow had her womb not been shut?

Eli, the priest, was watching Hannah as she prayed and accused her of being drunk.  Hannah explained to Eli, “No, my Lord, I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured (means with intense agony) out my soul before the Lord….Eli said, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him.”  God had a plan, it was on track to be fulfilled; however, note that when Eli prayed, the Hand of God was moved.  (This is meat for another blog, but let me say that we need to recognize that in God’s order of things, He has designed the method by which He works in the earth and that is through the prayer of His people.)

Hannah chose to wean the child before giving him to the Lord. Samuel was weaned, he ministered to the Lord, he stilled and quieted his soul. The word tells us that John the Baptist “grew, and became strong in spirit, and was in the desert until the day of his showing unto Israel.” Luke 1:80.  Likewise with Jesus, “And the child grew and became strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.” Luke 2:40  There is a truth here, a nugget if you will.  As children of God, we need to be weaned, coming to the place in our walk with the Lord that we have moved from milk to meat. Too many are still on the milk of the word when God longs to feed them meat.  When that time comes, our desire will be to minister to God. We will not be consumed with our own needs but we will be seeking ways to be a blessing to God and to His people.

Now to the crux of this message.  Eli was living in the temple, ministering to the Lord.  One night God called out to Samuel.  Samuel was a child and he thought Eli was calling him.  The first and second time he heard his name called, Samuel went to Eli and was told that he did not call him and he should return to bed.  The third time Eli finally recognized that it was God calling the child.  He told him to lie back down and when he heard the voice again he was to say, “Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.”  The word says the Lord CAME, and STOOD, and CALLED. Samuel understood it was the Lord speaking and he answered as Eli had instructed him.  There is a pattern shown in this passage.  We are to be weaned, we are to minister to the Lord, we need to have a stilled and quiet soul and we need to be humble before the Lord.

Please hear my heart. I believe there are many children God has His hand on for a divine purpose in the hour in which we live. They have a tender heart for the Lord at an early age.  They perceive the things of the spirit and are sensitive to the voice of the Lord.  Has God placed one of these children in our care? If so, we are to nurture them, be faithful to fervently  pray for them, guide them in the things of the Lord.  I have a grandson whose favorite movie is The Passion of the Christ. He has such a tender heart. It is a serious thing in God’s eyes to be given the privilege and responsibility of rearing any child, but especially one God has chosen for a distinct purpose.  We must sense God’s moving in our own family and perceive His hand as it touches the shoulder of one of our own.

God again responded to Eli’s prayer as he asked God to give Hannah more children.  God gave her five more. Once His perfect will was accomplished, He opened the windows of heaven to Hannah. Five is the number for grace. How magnificent is our God!