The quiet certainty which faith in God has imparted to the soul, enabling it calmly and implicitly to obey Him under the most trying circumstances and in every dispensation, is a fact much to be regarded in a skeptical age. The parting with her only child as soon as he was weaned must have been a severe trial to Hannah. As a pious mother it cost her the more, for she knew well that she was not leaving him with a divinely regulated household. Eli had grievously failed in his own family, and the Spirit of God has interspersed with the earliest notices of Samuel the most distressing details of the conduct of Eli's sons, and that in a way that commands our attention. But Hannah knew whom she believed, and her faith was not disappointed. Year by year as she visited Shiloh she was the happy witness of how her child “grew on and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men.”
What then was her warrant for this extraordinary step? It may be replied—her vow. This does not answer the question. Jephthah vowed; but it will scarcely be contended that he had any divine warrant for his vow: Hannah had. Immediately on the redemption of the first-born in Israel from judgment by the blood of the Paschal lamb, the Lord, their Redeemer, claimed them as His own (Exodus and set apart the tribe of Levi in their stead to serve Him. “And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the children of Israel.... therefore the Levites shall be mine because all the firstborn are mine” (Num. 3). This surely was known to Hannah when she prayed for a man-child, for her husband was a Levite. She was, herself, an eyewitness of the neglect of the sanctuary, and saw that there were none there who cared for the honor of the Lord. She longed, therefore, for one, even though a child, who should recognize His claims, for when all is darkness, the feeblest ray of light makes itself manifest. If no one else would minister to the Lord, as before Him, this man-child might do so to their shame. She made no attack on the evil-doers, neither did she seek to expose their evil ways, but with singleness of purpose sought the Lord's glory by faithful adherence to His word when all around her were abandoning it. The Levites were to be numbered, like the firstborn, from a month old, so that her vow to give her child to the Lord all the days of his life was in accordance with His revealed will. Her husband also approved of it, and this was required (Num. 30:6, 8; 1 Sam. 1:23). The Tabernacle was at Shiloh, and Deut. 18:6, 8, sanctioned her taking Samuel there. In offering the bullocks, she followed the appointed order of consecration (Num. 8), and in giving him to Eli she obeyed the commandment (Num. 3:9).
But to return to Samuel. When in Shiloh he was in the way of seeing the provisions made for Israel in the tabernacle according to the law. They were perfect for their purpose. They showed how willing God was that man should approach Him, if he would come as a sinner by sacrifice. But all this had failed, and another truth dawns upon us here, and is fully set forth in the N. T.—God will draw near to man. This He did to this child. He appeared again in Shiloh. He came, stood, called, and revealed Himself to Samuel by His word. By nature he knew not the Lord (1 Sam. 3:7). In this he was like us all; and he needed this sovereign work of grace by the word in order to know Him (see for us James 1:18, 1 Peter 1:23). A revelation from God, perfect as it is, and unspeakably precious, is not sufficient alone. There must also be a revelation of God by it for individual blessing. Many possess the Bible, and are responsible on this account beyond those who have it not, yet they live and die in ignorance of God. And why? If they want spiritual food, God in giving them the scriptures has not given a stone. “Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live” (Deut. 8.). Jeremiah said, “Thy words were found and I did eat them” (Jer. 15:16). Again, the Bereans “were more noble than those of Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the scriptures daily whether these things were so, therefore many of them believed” (Acts 18). Proofs indeed are innumerable of blessing to souls by reading the scriptures without note or comment. Augustine in his “Confessions” relates how he was led by hearing a voice (“Tolle, lege.” Take, read) to open again the epistles of Paul (codicem Apostoli) which he had recently been reading: “I read in silence the first place on which my eyes fell (Rom. 13:13-14). I neither cared, nor needed, to read further. At the close of the sentence, as if a ray of certainty was poured into my heart, the clouds of hesitation all fled at once.” Thus the prayers of his pious mother, Monica, were answered. How needed are these words in our day, as to the Bible; “Tolle, lege.” Take, read; for God will magnify His word, it is for man to honor it. As another has said, “Oh that men knew how much hangs upon it! How would they seek that God, and His revelations might remain in their integrity. Here alone are the springs and power of a life and walk of faith; and here is the only guide by which the poor heart of man can be delivered from the mazes of a multiform error, and the wretched trammels of a growing superstition.”
The first lesson Samuel was set to learn was to know and obey the voice of the Lord, for when called of Him he ran at first to Eli. As a child, the age and the sacred office of the high priest naturally exercised a commanding influence over him; but this is not by any means a danger confined to the young. How numerous are the instances in which a too ready subjection of the conscience, which is due to God only, is rendered to the usurped authority of men! Indeed, who in Christendom has not suffered from it more or less? The solemn thing is, as we see here, that where the heart runs after men, in the same degree it leaves God, and the door is then open to make His commandments of none effect through man's tradition. All will remember how unsparingly this was dealt with by the Lord Jesus, no doubt provoking the hostility of the scribes and elders against Him. And further, in describing those who shall never perish and to whom He gives eternal life, the characteristic mark is, that they hear His voice and follow Him, while a stranger they will not follow (John 10). Even so devoted a servant and an apostle as Peter grievously failed when he yielded to the influence of some who came from James (Gal. 2), but when the supreme and absolute authority of God was reestablished in his soul, no inspired writings are more practical than his as to obedience to Him.
In the case of Samuel, the Lord in rich grace repeated the call until he was effectually separated from man to Himself. Happy result of persistent grace! How every truly delivered soul is indebted to it.
Samuel, alone with the Lord, is taught of Him the true condition of the scene he is in and the judgment about to come upon it (1 Sam. 3:11-14). It is the only place and way of entering simply and without bias into prophetic truth, and the prophetic truth is essential to a true witness, for the cunning craft of the adversary is always directed to keeping up a false confidence to the last moment. This was seen in the camp of Israel. Hophni and Phinehas, with inconceivable hardihood, took the ark of God from the holiest into their midst. They were not afraid “to dare the glory in its face,” to minister to the superstitious cravings of the people, and to magnify their own importance among them. Then the judgment of God made manifest to all what was already known to Samuel. Strange and painful teaching for one so young, yet how needed to preserve him in the midst of the iniquity of those outwardly near the Lord yet in heart and ways far from Him. Shall it be lost on us, when the all-pervading principles of a superficial Christianity are rapidly assuming features so similar to that time, and confidence in ordinances, and ordinances taken out of their place, are becoming more universal?
Beyond and above all knowledge of truth, Samuel, child as he was, had the unspeakably happy consciousness that he was called, chosen, and loved of the Lord; and this carried him through all the scenes of trial, sorrow, and difficulty of that momentous period, and enabled him to render effectual help to the people when by sin they had forfeited everything. (This will come before us if permitted to consider his conduct as the judge of Israel). If they knew from Daniel even to Beersheba that he was established to be a prophet of the Lord, they learned too that as a prophet he could and would pray for them (Gen. 20:7).