IYAR 26
Hannah
“And יהוה visited Ḥannah, so that she
conceived and bore three sons and two daughters, while the young Shemu’ĕl grew
before יהוה.” (1Sam
2:21)
The
story of Hannah, and her heart-rending petition to Abba Father to end her
barrenness, and ‘give’ (1Sam 1:11) her
a son, is found in 1Sam 1:1 through 1:20.
Those of us who have read and studied this account know that the son
Elohim ‘gave’ to Hannah was Samuel, the man who became one of the most famous
prophets in the history of Israel.
Let
us look at “the rest of the story”. Barrenness was the ultimate humiliation for
a married Hebrew woman, yet Hannah knew that her answer lay with her Creator,
that only EL-Shaddai could help
her. When Elohim ‘remembered’ Hannah,
and she conceived a child (see 1Sam 1:19-20), Hannah knew her prayers had been
answered.
According
to Torah, first born males that opened the womb belonged to Elohim (see Ex
13:2). They were to be circumcised on
the 8th day (Lev 12:3; Luke 2:21) but were to be redeemed the 31st
day after birth[1]
(see Ex 13:11-13; Num 18:15-16). The
exception to this redemption was if the son was of the tribe of Levi (Num
8:13-19), the tribe Elohim chose to be those who would serve Him as priests
(Num 1:50-53; 3:6-10; Deu 10:8-9). Genealogical
records found in 1Chronicals reveal to us that Elkanah, Samuel’s father, was a
Levite, his ancestors having relocated to this particular area belonging to Ephraim
(compare 1Chr 6 with 1Sam 1:1). This is
further confirmed when the young child Samuel is given an ephod to wear as he ministered before Elohim (1Sam 2:18-19) – only
those of the tribe of Levi may wear an ephod,
which is a priestly garment, and again, only those of the tribe of Levi may
minister in the Mishkan (tabernacle).
This
also may explain why Hannah made the decision not to make the annual visit to the Tabernacle until the child
Samuel was weaned. In the culture of
that time, children were not weaned until at
least three years of age, and sometimes as old as four or five. These early years in a child’s life have been
labeled as the “formative years”; many child psychologists’ believe that a
person’s character is created and developed in the first 3 to 5 years of their
life. If this is true, it says much for
Hannah’s training of the young child Samuel, before she released him into the care of the aging priest, Eli, and
his two corrupt sons (2Sam 2:12-17).
It
is very likely that young Samuel was told, by his mother Hannah, of the
life-long service to Elohim that was to be his. From his mother he probably heard that the
King of the Universe answers prayer, and it is possible that he may have even
learned the words to the song that she would sing at his dedication (1Sam
2:1-10). All the lessons that the young
Samuel learned at Hannah’s knee were to train him, prepare him, for a life-long
ministry and service to our Creator.
Samuel would learn the voice of Elohim at an early age, and in later years,
it would be said of Samuel “יהוה was with him and let
not one of his words be without effect” (1Sam 3:19, emphasis mine).
Hannah
did not just ‘give’ her son back to
the Father. She prepared him, as only a
mother could, as only a mother should, for a lifetime of service to the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. What a
beautiful example of a Godly mother we have in Hannah…
“My son, watch over
your father’s command, And do not forsake the Torah of your mother. Bind them on your heart always; Tie them
around your neck. When you are walking
about, it leads you; When you lie down, it guards you. And when you have woken
up, It talks to you.” (Pro 6:20-22)
©2021
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