THOUGHTS ON 1 SAMUEL 1

Psalm 12&14

Table of Contents

“……And the LORD remembered her”
1Sam1:19b

This chapter has so many characters that we can learn from but I will focus on Hannah.
Here we find a woman beloved of her husband which made her mate hate and mock her.

As much as her husband loved her yet he couldn’t give her this one thing she needed, a child, which left her weeping and fasting most of the time.

Her responses are the thrust of this write up.
1. Her response to the mockery of her mate is endurance and silence.
2. Her response to her husband’s inability to give her a child is Prayers, not like Rachel that told Jacob “give me a child or I die”. She knew that it lay in GOD’s hands.
3. Her response to Eli’s mindless scolding is humility
4. Her response to GOD’s silence was submission and daring to do what has not been done before.

We find in Hannah, a woman, totally broken by what she has passed through who willingly committed all her efforts and the fruits thereof into GOD’s hands.Who does that? A barren woman seeking a child from GOD would promise to give money, property but not the child she has been longing to hold and call her own to show her mate and the whole world that she too is a mother and is serving a living GOD

But it appears that none of these was Hannah’s intention.
She was a Jew and knew that all first fruits belonged to the LORD and she was willing to give it to the LORD.

The trials she went through in her journey to have a child succeeded to break her down to the point of total submission and surrender to GOD. This was her first fruit.
Hannah’s response to life issues is a challenge to all of us. Yes, she wept bitterly over her condition, yet she was willing to give out her first child without the LORD making any demand on her.

Can we let go of that which is dearest to us, especially a thing we have longed for for so long, even if it is our first fruit?
She not only fulfilled her promise to GOD, she presented it with a worthy offering.
It can only take a person who knows and loves GOD sincerely to do that.
She put GOD first above her own need.

The name of the child is particularly significant “ Because I asked him of the LORD”, yet she returned him totally to the LORD.

“And GOD remembered her”. And answered her beyond her request. She had 5 more children after Samuel.

The LORD’s command states that every male child that opens the womb belongs to HIM or it should be redeemed.
Hannah had the option to redeem, but she chose to give it all up to GOD. Moreso when she wasn’t a Levite, she had good standing to redeem the child. Yet, she didn’t. Her promise to GOD and her action brought about having a non levite serve in the temple for the very first time ever.

Do we want GOD to remember us? Remember what Hannah did.

Take Away
1. Life issues will always confront us.
2. Our response to life issues determine a long way how events will turn out for us.
3. We have the power to decide how life turns out for us by the way we respond to what life brings our way.
4. Life challenges are not supposed to break us down to despair but to draw us closer to GOD
4. When we honour GOD with all our heart, GOD will always remember us in our situations.
May life challenges lead us to be broken enough to lay our all before the LORD in the mighty name of JESUS, Amen

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