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She Kept Her Promise, May 11
1 Samuel 1:1-18
I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life.
1 Samuel 1:11
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Elkanah, a Levite of Mount Ephraim, was a man of wealth and influence, and
one who loved and feared the Lord. His wife, Hannah, was a woman of fervent
piety. Gentle and unassuming, her character was marked with deep earnestness
and a lofty faith.
The blessing so earnestly sought by every Hebrew was denied this godly
pair; their home was not gladdened by the voice of childhood; and the desire to
perpetuate his name led the husband—as it had led many others—to contract a
second marriage. But this step, prompted by a lack of faith in God, did not bring
happiness. Sons and daughters were added to the household; but the joy and
beauty of God’s sacred institution had been marred and the peace of the family
was broken. Peninnah, the new wife, was jealous and narrow-minded, and she
bore herself with pride and insolence. To Hannah, hope seemed crushed and life
a weary burden; yet she met the trial with uncomplaining meekness....
The burden which she could share with no earthly friend she cast upon God.
Earnestly she pleaded that He would take away her reproach and grant her the
precious gift of a son to nurture and train for Him. And she made a solemn vow
that if her request were granted, she would dedicate her child to God, even from
its birth....
Hannah’s prayer was granted; she received the gift for which she had so
earnestly entreated. As she looked upon the child, she called him Samuel—
“asked of God.
As soon as the little one was old enough to be separated from its mother, she
fulfilled her solemn vow. She loved her child with all the devotion of a mother’s
heart; day by day her affections entwined about him more closely as she watched
his expanding powers, and listened to the childish prattle; he was her only son,
the especial gift of heaven; but she had received him as a treasure consecrated to
God, and she would not withhold from the Giver His own. Faith strengthened
the mother’s heart, and she yielded not to the pleadings of natural affection
[138]
23
Patriarchs and Prophets, 569, 570
.
24
The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 2:1008
.
142