"I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life." 1 Samuel 1:11
Additional readings: Luke 16:15
Samuel was one of the great leaders of the Hebrew nation. His life was long. He was faithful and courageous. All the Israelites gathered to mourn his death, and buried him in his house at Ramah.
Samuel was born about three hundred years after the death of Joshua. The nation had passed through a long series of declines, and had come into a condition of lawlessness, division, and idolatry. The weakness of some of the judges and the wickedness of others, together with the instability of the people, had brought the twelve tribes, so wonderfully led from bondage in Egypt to homes of their own in the land of Canaan, to the verge of ruin. A man was needed who could once more introduce Divine government among them. God gave them such a man in answer to Hannah's prayer. This gift of God was Samuel. Hannah was "in bitterness of soul" because she had no child, and vowed that if a son were given her she would dedicate the child to the service of the Lord. In due time her prayer was granted.
The birth of a child is so common an event that, like all our greatest blessings, which are common to all, it attracts but little attention, outside of parents and immediate friends. But an immortal being has been born; the germs of heaven, of earth and of hell are enclosed within it. There is no limit to its development and usefulness, and also there is the power to pervert all things, and bring misery and suffering to the world.
God helps men through men. When the infant Moses lay helpless in his little ark, who could have surmised that the deliverer of his people was there, the lawgiver, who would receive the laws from God at Sinai and transmit them to the human race for all generations?
If parents would feel that children are given them by the Lord to be trained in humility and obedience to the Lord, the world would soon be filled with better people.
The history of Israel, as we all know, is a Divine parable as well as real history. And it is this inner meaning that is the mark of the divinity of the Word. There is everywhere beneath the letter a stream of living water flowing down from God. To see the spiritual lessons involved in this story we must apply the law of correspondences.
Israel under the judges had sunk into all forms of wickedness and vice. Lawlessness existed throughout the lard, and this was because "every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 21:25). It is the same today. Because men and women set aside the laws of the Lord and do what is right in their own eyes, because they make laws to establish their own desires and ideals, there is injustice and crime. And for a society depraved and polluted by self and selfish maxims there is no help except through a restoration of the Word of God. The Lord must in some way give His truth again to the people. In man himself there is no help.
Samuel was raised up, who received Divine Truth from the Most High and imparted its lessons of life to the people. When the state of a Church has become grossly perverted and evil, so that a new beginning must be made, there are always a few, a remnant of good, whom the Lord can make a nucleus of better things. Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives were the symbolic remnant in the early Scripture narrative. The Israelites in Egypt were the remnant in the days of Moses. Those who expected and hoped for the coming of the Messiah were the remnant by which Christianity was commenced, to whom the Savior said, "Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom" (Luke 12:32). Elkanah and his two wives, Hannah and Peninnah, represent the remnant in the days we are considering. They dwelt in Ramathaimzophim. Names in the Scriptures have meaning. Ramathaim means heights, and Zophim those who expect. The heights of those who expect pictures the state of the few who in dark times hold fast to the true and good and wait for better things. They are like the shepherds who kept watch over their flocks by night. They too dwelt spiritually in Ramathaimzophim.
Elkanah, which in Hebrew means God is zealous, represents the Divine Zeal. The two wives, Peninnah and Hannah, represent the affection for outward truth and the affection for inward truth. It is the same as Lamech with his two wives, Abraham with Hagar and Sarah, Jacob with Leah and Rachel. In the Gospels we have this relationship pictured in Martha and Mary. The first state of the Church is always external, like that represented by Hagar, Leah, Peninnah, Martha. While striving to obey the law of duty the Church is as a hired servant. And this Church has many sons. There are a far greater number of Marthas than of Marys. Many come into a state of obedience and keep the Commandments from a sense of duty. The Lord loves them, encourages them, blesses them; but they are still only in the outer courts of His Kingdom. They are the children of obedience, not the children of light nor the children of love. Often, like Peninnah, they mock at those who seek inner wisdom, for they do not care for anything deeper and purer. But those represented by Hannah wish to know the Lord and to come into a knowledge of heavenly things.
The priest Eli observed Hannah and did not understand her. He thought she was drunken. So it is today: those who are religious by trade, caring only for outward forms, cannot understand why anyone should seek to go deeper. Eli did not understand Hannah, but her sincerity was evident, and he said, "Go in peace; and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of Him." In due time Samuel was born, and the whole family was grateful and gave thanks and worshiped the Lord.
This story of Samuel is a story of the Lord's life. As a child when He read this story, He knew that it applied to Him. From it He learned His own duty. And the story is given to teach everyone his duty. Parents should know that their children are the Lord's, and that they should teach them to know and serve Him. We should know from the beginning that heaven is our real home.
And we need to come to the Lord. For He alone is our help. He came into the world to overcome evil and hold it subject, solely for the purpose that He might protect us from it. The power of evil is so great that we or all men could not more hold it back by our own power than we could hold back the ocean's tides. The Lord withholds its forces from us, and gives us freedom. He bears our sorrows, carries our griefs, and in due time removes our transgressions from us. We read in the Gospel, "When even was come, they brought unto Him many that were possessed with devils; and he cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses" (Matthew 8:16).
This Scripture is a vivid picture of the state of the world today; men and women possessed of wrong desires, and afflicted in many ways because their spiritual powers are weak and undeveloped. They have not been brought up in the Word of the Lord, and it is only by power from the Lord through His Word that evil and falsity can be recognized and overcome. "He cast out the spirits with His word, and healed all that were sick" (Matthew 8:16).
Our specific task is to recognize our own weakness and need, and to bring up our children in the knowledge of the Word and in the service of the Lord. The world will not get well overnight. Only by the slow process of education, and by the ever-widening influence of those who do put the Lord first in their lives is it possible for the world to progress, for from the Lord alone can this power come.
Samuel was one man apparently alone in a nation that had degenerated into the worship of self and the world. He is an example given to teach us of our own possibilities, of what it is possible for us to do, of what power can come into our lives if we cease to rely on ourselves, and instead let the Lord work through us. Each one of us can have the power from the Lord to stand out in his place in the world as a light to guide others on the way.
"Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:16).
