Give Him to the Lord

Around the year 1050 BC, the loose confederation of tribes that were known as the Israelites were well settled into the Promised Land, that land which one day would be known as the countries of Israel and Jordan. For centuries, the people of Israel had been united by one thing – the worship of Yahweh, God Almighty, who had led them out of slavery in Egypt. Although from time to time they had to come together under a military leader, or “judge”, the people of Israel also recognized that a descendent of Aaron, their first High Priest, was the High Priest of God, of Yahweh, and this man was accorded special respect and reverence, for it was he who decided what sacrifices were acceptable to God, it was he who made the sacrifices, and it was he to whom God spoke.

In the hill country north of Jerusalem, where the descendants of Ephraim had settled, there was a man named Elkanah. He had two wives. The first named Hannah and the second Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless.

Every year, when Elkanah offered a sacrifice at Shiloh where the Tent of God was located, he always gave portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to each of her sons and daughters. 5 But he gave a double portion to Hannah, for he loved her even though the Lord had kept her from conceiving. At a time when sons were required to work the land and to help defend the land, sons were valuable – and a childless woman was considered a drain on the family. But Elkahah loved Hannah, and took excellent care of her.

1 Samuel 1:4-20; 1 Samuel 2:1-10; Mark 13:1-8

Her rival Peninah would taunt her severely just to provoke her, because the Lord had kept Hannah from conceiving. Whenever she went up to the Lord’s house, her rival taunted her in this way every year. Hannah wept and would not eat. “Hannah, why are you crying?” her husband Elkanah asked. “Why won’t you eat? Why are you troubled? Am I not better to you than 10 sons?”
Remember also, that at this time, the average life expectancy was between 30 and 40 years. Men and women died young – many women in childbirth. But Hannah was looking very practically – if she did not bear children, she could expect to outlive her husband – but Peninah would throw her out, and then she would be forced to beg or prostitute herself for food, for it was difficult enough for a family to work the land without tools, without even iron shovels and hoes, but only wooden tools. An older woman would not survive long without a husband or son to provide for her.

9 Hannah got up after they ate and drank at Shiloh. Eli the High Priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s tabernacle, the Tent of God. 10 Deeply hurt, Hannah walked to the Tent and prayed to the Lord and wept with many tears. 11 Making a vow, she pleaded, “Lord of Hosts, if You will take notice of Your servant’s affliction, remember and not forget me, and give Your servant a son, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and his hair will never be cut.”

Hannah made two promise if the Lord would give her a son. First, she would give him to the Lord. God could do anything God wanted with her son, she just wanted to have a son. And second, she made what was known as a Nazirite vow.

The details of this vow are found in Number 6. The person, man or woman, who makes this special vow promises to avoid wine and beer. He or she will avoid anything that comes from grapes – grapes, raisins, seeds, skin, grape juice, wine, vinegar.

He or she promises not to cut any hair or whiskers on his or her head – the hair grows long. He must not go near a dead body, even if his family member dies.

In essence, the man or woman sets himself or herself apart for God, separating from the world. This could be for a specific time, such as 6 months, or until a task was fulfilled such as a wall being built, or it could be permanent.

We see these promises made regarding two other important biblical characters – Before Hannah, there lived Sampson, whose famous long hair was tied to a Nazirite vow. And there was Jesus, who famously vowed to stay away from grape products after passing around the cup that He said was His blood on the night of the Last Supper.

Hannah was making a permanent Nazirite promise for her son – if a son came from God.

While she continued praying in the Lord’s presence, Eli watched her lips. Hannah was praying silently, and though her lips were moving, her voice could not be heard. Eli thought she was drunk and scolded her, “How long are you going to be drunk? Get rid of your wine!”

You know, when you focus upon the Lord, the people of the world can begin to think you are a bit different – because you are. In this case, Eli, the High Priest, who should have known better, mistook Hannah’s praying for the babbling of a drunk.

“No, my lord,” Hannah replied. “I am a woman with a broken heart. I haven’t had any wine or beer; I’ve been pouring out my heart before the Lord. Don’t think of me as a wicked woman; I’ve been praying from the depth of my anguish and resentment.”
It is here that we understand how deep Hannah’s faith was. Hannah had “anguish and resentment”. Toward whom? Clearly, she was upset at her rival Peninah, but she was also upset with God for leaving her childless. Yet she prayed to God, pouring out her grief, her anguish, her resentment, her broken heart to the God she knew could make things better.

How well do we react when how hopes are down, our enemies taunt us, our family doesn’t give comfort? Do we lash out in anger at our enemies, our family, at God? Or do we do like Hannah did, finding a place to pray quietly with God, trusting God even more because God is in our life, coming closer to the God who made us and is right now walking beside us, sitting beside us, listening to everything we say and watching everything we do?

That day, Hannah told Eli that she was praying, and not drunk.

Eli responded, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the petition you’ve requested from Him.”

“May your servant find favor with you,” she replied. Then Hannah went on her way; she ate and no longer looked despondent.
Hannah had unburdened her soul. She had turned the greatest issue of her life over to God – she had decided that what she wanted most in the world, a son, was not hers to possess, but only hers to hand over to God.

Do we do the same? You know, the Buddhists hold that our desires are the root of all suffering and to eliminate suffering, we must eliminate all desire. Christianity looks at it a bit differently.

We believe that suffering happens when we put our desires for earthly things ahead of our desire for God. It is not necessary to eliminate our desires – only to reprioritize them, recognizing that we aren’t very good at sorting out which desires are best – but God is excellent and supremely wise at granting us desires. Our desires, we believe, unbalance us. Only God can balance our spirits once more.

Hannah, talking with God, chose to take her greatest desire, her desire for a son, and let God have control of that desire. And she walked away from her prayers back in balance in her life. She ate and no longer looked despondent.

The next morning Elkanah and Hannah got up early to bow in worship before the Lord.
The account doesn’t mention Peninah and her children. Apparently, Elkanah and Hannah went together to the tabernacle, the Tent of God, to worship. There is something special when a man and woman worship together, whether in church, or together on knees beside a common bed, or simply sitting together at lunch, praying together for each other to God. Do you and your spouse pray together? Do you pray for your spouse – Does your spouse pray for you? Can you imagine how that can bring you together?

Afterward, Elkanah and Hannah returned home to Ramah. Then Elkanah was intimate with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her.
What a comment! “The Lord remembered her.” Have you ever prayed for something and after a few days or weeks, the prayer was granted? Did you notice? The Lord remembers all of us – we are just too busy much of the time to notice.

Our culture, of course, looks at things differently. In our American culture, we are strangely of two minds. On the one hand, our American culture is much more religious on the surface than the rest of Western culture. In Europe, weekly church attendance runs about 5% while in America it runs around 25%. About a quarter of Americans go to church every week. You’d think we are a religious society.

Yet American religion tends to be shallow. In our American culture, we are encouraged to leave God in the church, or, if you are a fanatic, leave God at home. Our television shows rarely feature a church-going character – and if they do, that church-going character is the weird person, the strange person, the dangerous person. Think about the show from a few years ago, “The Office”. Dwight was the only character who attended church. Think about “The Big Bang Theory” – Howard occasionally mentions going to a Jewish synagogue – when he was young. Of the major shows, only NCIS has a likable major character who is known to attend church regularly – Abby, who also wears skulls and sleeps in a coffin.

Growing up in America, we’ve been taught to leave our Christianity behind at the house or even at the church.

And so we come to our second American culture thing – our successes are said to be all due to our hard work and smart thinking – with a bit of luck. Because we left God at the church or at home, it is difficult for our pride to remember the prayers we’ve said, the times we’ve asked God for help, the times when God remembered us and gave us our desires. Only in football – particularly in college football and some other athletics do we publicly acknowledge that God gave us the victory.

Have you acknowledged God in your work this year? Ever?

Perhaps the reason we don’t is partially because we’ve bought into the culture, preferring to live in that culture rather than talk about the God who is there beside us every day. We feel guilty talking about God because there are those in our society who intentionally make us feel guilty talking about God, because God-talk makes them uncomfortable. God-talk, you see, reminds them that God exists and has very definite opinions about what is right and what is wrong. God’s very existence is a threat to some people, because that existence is a reminder that we don’t really have the independence and control that we’d like to think we have. For on the day of our death, who has control, who has independence, who decides what happens next?

Hannah had little control in her life and she understood that. She understood that she did not determine whether or not she had a son, she understood she could not control what her rival said to her and about her, Hannah understood that even her husband’s love for her was not enough to give her the son she so desperately wanted. But she also understood that God loves people, that God has the power to do anything, and most importantly, that God would listen to her in her time of sadness. And so she asked God to intervene – and left her sadness at the Tabernacle of God.

After some time, Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, because she said, “I requested him from the Lord.”
The word Samuel sounds like “Requested from God”. What a name! The boy arrives, Elkanah asks, “what shall we name him?” and Hannah replies, “Let’s name Him “Requested from God”. Samu-el.

In your life, there is likely a desire that you have, a dream you want, a wonderful place you’d like for your life. If your desire, your dream, your place is something that is good for you, the Lord already knows this. But sometimes, God wants your assurance that you understand Who is in charge of dreams. Our culture would have us believe that we can do anything. God tells us that, indeed, we can do all things thru Christ who strengthens us. For desires to be satisfied, for dreams to happen, for us to end up in wonderful places in our lives, it is necessary, absolutely necessary to ask the Creator to create those places, those dreams, and to satisfy those desires.

For if God decides to grant those prayers, then we will know that we are on the right path. If God decides not to grant those prayers, they were misguided – WE were misguided, following a path that leads to death instead of life. And sometimes, God grants us prayers so we will learn lessons about what to ask for, like when we want a hot new car and pray desperately for the loan to go through, the loan that will stretch our finances, and then God allows the loan to be approved – and for the next six years, we struggle to make those payments just so we can have a car our friends “oo and ah” at.

In the teacher’s restroom at Parkersburg Catholic High School, when I worked there, was a poster. It read, “If a problem is big enough to worry about, it’s big enough to pray about.” This applies to personal problems, to work problems, and to family problems.

And if you pray about a problem, an answer will come. Many people have started prayer journals over the years. Take a simple notebook or open a Word document. Every time you pray, put the date and the request into the journal. Every so often, go back and see how those prayers have been answered. You will be pleasantly surprised by how God has answered your prayers.

As you grow in the Lord, though, there is a change that you should make in your prayers. Most of us begin with simple prayers, prayers where we ask God for something. That is normal. That is fine. Those simple prayers are okay.

But as you grow in the Lord, begin to think of prayer as a two-way conversation. We ask for something, and we ask questions. We ask God to answer these questions, so we ask – and then, in silence, we listen for the still, small voice that is God’s reply to us. We pray before bed and await the dreams sent by God. We LISTEN and WATCH to see what God has to say to us. And God will speak to us through the Holy Spirit.

And then, as we grow even more, we gradually stop asking for anything except guidance, because as we walk on the path of holiness, we begin to realize that we shouldn’t want anything that God doesn’t want for us, and so we begin to ask, “God, what do you want of me? What should I do? What should I ask for?” And God will also answer those questions.

And then, as we truly realize that we don’t need anything but God, we can pray the ultimate, but very frightening prayer – “God, please take away all my desires except the desire to do Your will, to make Your will, my will.” And if you are truly praying for this, if you really want this deep down in your soul, if you want this to happen, God may choose to give you that, also. For that is the end of the path of holiness, complete sanctification, when our will is simply to always do God’s will.

Jesus, who was so obedient to God that He died upon the cross voluntarily for our salvation, has told us part of God’s will. God’s will is that we go to all groups of people, baptizing them and teaching them all that Jesus has commanded. And He has promised to be with us until the end of the age if we do this.

In our conversations this week, in the stores and around the Thanksgiving table, let us remember to speak of what Christ has done for each of us. Tell the basic story of Christ’s sacrifice and tell what Jesus has done for each of you to your family, friends, and neighbors this week. And you will be doing the will of God.

Hannah’s greatest desire was that she wanted a son. But that day, she learned that giving her son to the Lord was what made her happy. And within the year, her son arrived, “Requested from God”. Samu-el.

What will you ask for and give to the Lord? What will you name “Samu-el”?