Scripture Daily

Context No. 1946 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 1:20-28: in context

20When the time had come, Hannah conceived, and bore a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked him of the LORD.” 21The man Elkanah, and all his house, went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and his vow. 22But Hannah didn’t go up, for she said to her husband, “Not until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD, and stay there forever.” 23Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems good to you. Wait until you have weaned him; only may the LORD establish his word.” So the woman waited and nursed her son until she weaned him. 24When she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, and one ephah of meal, and a container of wine, and brought him to the LORD’s house in Shiloh. The child was young. 25They killed the bull, and brought the child to Eli. 26She said, “Oh, my lord, as your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to the LORD. 27I prayed for this child, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of him. 28Therefore I have also given him to the LORD. As long as he lives he is given to the LORD.” He worshiped the LORD there.

Hannah, who had prayed in bitter grief for a child, conceives and bears a son, Samuel, whose name means she asked him of the LORD. When the boy is weaned, she brings him to the sanctuary at Shiloh and gives him back to God. I prayed for this child, she says, and the LORD has granted my petition. Therefore I have given him to the LORD; as long as he lives he is given to the LORD. The son she had longed for and received, she now surrenders back to the God who gave him.

What Hannah does is remarkable and costly: she gives back to God the very gift she had longed for most. She had wanted a child with a desperate longing, prayed for one in bitter tears, and received Samuel as the answer to years of yearning. And now, having finally received this most precious gift, she gives him back to God, dedicating him to the LORD's service. She does not clutch the child as her own possession, hard-won and hers to keep; she holds him with an open hand and surrenders him to God. There is a profound faith and generosity in this. Our most precious blessings, the things we have longed for and finally received, are the very things we are most tempted to clutch as our own, to hold tightly, to treat as our possession rather than God's gift. Hannah shows another way: to hold even our most treasured blessings with an open hand, dedicating them to God, recognizing that they are his gifts, entrusted to us, not our possessions to grasp. This is a hard and beautiful surrender, to give back to God the very thing we love most, to hold our dearest blessings loosely, offered to him. And it flows from a right understanding: that all we have is God's gift, given by him, and that the fitting response to his gifts is not to clutch them but to hold them open before him, dedicated to his purposes. Every good gift is from above; and of your own have we given you, David prayed. Hannah received the son she had longed for, and gave him back to God; and the same open-handed surrender is asked of us with our own most precious gifts, our children, our loves, our treasures, holding them not as possessions to grasp but as gifts from God, entrusted to us and offered back to him. To hold even what we love most with an open hand, dedicated to God, as Hannah held Samuel, is the freedom and the faith of one who knows that all we have is his.

Do I clutch my most precious blessings, the things I have longed for and finally received, as my own possessions to grasp tightly, or can I hold them with an open hand as Hannah held Samuel, giving back to God the very gift I love most, dedicating my dearest treasures to him, recognizing that all I have is his gift, entrusted to me and offered back to him?

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