In Elkanah we have an Israelite who fully recognized the place of Jehovah in Shiloh, as He says, “where I set my name at the first.” (Jer. 7:12.) This is the more cheering, after all the failure and forgetfulness of their history during the period of the Judges. Was it not sad that they should so soon turn aside from the center that God had set up—His dwelling-place amongst them—and set up their own idolatry in their high places? Is it not still more strangely sad, that the church should have so soon, and for so long, turned aside from God’s center—God’s gathering-place—the Person of Christ, and set up churches of men’s own in every land?
After all the forgetfulness and departure, Shiloh was the only place where the name of the Lord was recorded. It was as yet still the same. The mercy-seat, cherubim, golden altar, candlestick, laver, altar of burnt-offering—all were there as at the first. Thither did Elkanah bring his whole house, all his sons and daughters. There they came to worship. “This man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh.”
Is not this a refreshing sight? They came to that place where all Israel had been gathered together in the days of Joshua, as we have seen. Has there not been a little reviving in our day, after the true Shiloh had been almost forgotten? Have not a few believers been gathered together to worship, even to the name of the Lord Jesus, in His presence, owning the presence of the Holy Ghost, as in the days of the apostles? After centuries of forgetfulness, like the days of the Judges, have not souls been awakened to inquire what is, and where is, Shiloh, that is, the quiet, true place of the assembly of God? Shiloh means “quiet,” or “peaceful”—and, oh, the blessed peace of being in His presence as worshippers! Yes, the true Shiloh is wherever two or three are gathered to His name. For a time the scepter has departed from Judah, and the period of gathering together to Him has come. Even as it will be in another way, and in a future day.
Happy is the Elkanah of our day, who, with his whole household, is gathered to the true Shiloh, even unto the Lord, to worship. There is one remarkable member of this household—we might say a true Philadelphian in her day. Shall we now observe closely Hannah before the Lord at Shiloh? She was a despised woman, of little strength, and, to look at, of little worth, for she had no child, “and her adversary also provoked her sore.” She was of a grieved spirit, but she held fast the word. What earnestness of prayer! She asked for what she wished to devote to the Lord in Shiloh. She “prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore.” And “she continued praying before the Lord.” “Now Hannah she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.” She was greatly misunderstood, even by Eli the priest. There were others at Shiloh—we will notice them soon—but how far do we answer to Hannah at Shiloh? She could say, “I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.” The Lord heard her cry, and Samuel was the gift in answer to her prayer at Shiloh. The Lord’s presence was very clear to Hannah at Shiloh, and to all Elkanah’s household.
And what was the inmost desire of Hannah for her precious babe? Let her tell us. She says, “I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide forever;” and she “brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh; and the child was young.” She does not say, He is only a child, I will leave him at home in Ham ah. No, she brings him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh. Is there no voice in this to us? Have we less privileges, as to our children now, than Hannah had then? Then, as now, it was to the overcomer. Who would have thought that sorrowful Hannah was the overcomer? Read her triumphant song of faith—what a key-note: “My heart rejoiceth in the Lord.” Faith, that soars beyond all difficulties, evils, and judgments, and looks right on to Israel’s—nay, Messiah’s—glory. Here, then, is one, not only on true ground, at the place where the Lord had placed His name—the true gathering-place and center of all Israel; but she is in the state of heart suitable to that place.
It is sometimes said we do not see that those gathered to the Lord, as at the beginning, are any better than others—evil shows itself there as elsewhere. In plain words this means, It is no matter whether we do the will of the Lord, or not. After all the evil recorded in the Book of Judges, was not Shiloh still the only place Jehovah owned as His dwelling-place? The ark was still there, and those who sought the Lord, like Elkanah, came there. There Hannah prayed and worshipped. There she brought her young child. There she rejoiced in the Lord. The more we study the case of Hannah at Shiloh, the more we must own it to be of the Lord.
Now let us look at the warning this scripture affords. There was terrible evil at Shiloh, evil that must be, and was, judged. Could we have a more striking contrast than Hannah and the sons of Eli? In one case a worshipper filled with joy in the Lord; in the other, the most daring wickedness—yes, wickedness that refused to be restrained, and carelessness that neglected to restrain wickedness.
Yes, all this is a picture of the once one assembly of God, and now the great house of Christendom, but to the faith of Hannah or her child, it was still as yet Shiloh, the quiet place of communion with God-Jehovah. Did not the Lord speak there to Samuel? a And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh: for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” (1 Sam. 3:21.) Shiloh was the gathering-place of Israel, and however few were gathered to Him—yea, to even one—He thus reveals Himself. It is so where two or three are gathered to Him now. It is in Shiloh, so to speak, He appears again. He reveals Himself to those really gathered to Himself in a way unknown elsewhere, and this by the word of the Lord.
No one will question that there may be in our closing day two persons, both, as to position, gathered on true ground, both professedly in the dwelling-place of God. The one hears the distinct voice of the Lord by the word; the other does not hear, has no real communication of God’s thoughts. How is this? Have we not the answer here at Shiloh?
There is the stout and aged Eli, the very priest of Jehovah. Yes, age, antiquity, office, authority—all these he has, and he is in the dwelling-place of God; but he does not hear a word. He had grieved the Lord by the allowance of evil. Is it so with any of us? Can we hear and understand the voice of the Lord, if allowing evil? Impossible!
There was another person in the same house of the Lord. But what a contrast! It was the little child, Samuel. Are we like this little child, or like the ancient, aged Eli? There were two things very striking in the case of Samuel. He had been first weaned before he was presented to the Lord in Shiloh. You see that man of importance, who fails to hear the voice of the Lord in the assembly gathered to Him in Shiloh. Ah, he never was weaned. Reader, have you been weaned? Or did you take a place at Shiloh with your heart still linked with the world, and like it in your ways? It was after Hannah had weaned him she “brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh; and the child was young.” (1 Sam. 1:24.) “And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli.”
Samuel was not only weaned, but presented to the Lord, through death. Have we been separated from the world, and from all human religious efforts to improve the flesh, by the cross of Christ? Weaned, dead with Christ, and as a little child listening to the voice of the Lord in His word; it is not enough to be in the right place or position at Shiloh. But, oh, to be as a little child; yea, to be nothing, with the ear open to hear what the Spirit speaketh. Lord, search us by this Thy word! If we are treading in the steps of Eli, we cannot have communion with the Lord. Oh, to be as a little child, weaned—yea, presented to our God through death!
And mark, it is only as such that we can be used in communicating the word of the Lord to others. Read, again, 1 Samuel 3:16-21. Whatever the Lord reveals to us in His word we must faithfully declare to others, even to the Elis of this day. Judgment was at the very doors of Shiloh. And is not judgment at the very doors of Christendom? Surely holiness became the house of the Lord at Shiloh! And as surely holiness becomes the house of God in Christendom. But what has it become? And what will it yet become? Soon will Ichabod be written upon it. And how terrible its destruction may be seen in Revelation 17, 18. But, beloved children of God, very great are our privileges during the brief moments that remain. If we are little, we shall grow. “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him.” Oh, to thus grow in grace, and in the blessed consciousness of the Lord’s presence with us, where two or three are gathered to His name. There is no doubt that men are more determined than ever to reject the testimony of the Lord Jesus. But the Lord did “let none of his words fall to the ground.” May we be fully persuaded of this, that the Lord will let none of His words, at this time of rejection, fall to the ground. Judgment must begin at the house of the Lord. In one sense it has begun—the whole church is no longer gathered as one to the Lord. The ark has been in the hands of the Philistines, and the little Samuels have to go to Ram ah. Ramah was his home. And whilst the ark has outwardly been a long time now with the Philistines—the world, those in Canaan, but not of it—yet the Lord has never failed to find a Ramah, a blessed home, for His twos and threes in His presence, and to them that home is their Shiloh.
How blessed, even at this day, is the home of His dear presence! Though Christendom be like ancient Shiloh, though there be not a stone in Shiloh that bears the slightest resemblance of its original form or purpose; and though there be not one thing left in Christendom that bears the slightest likeness of its original design; how blessed to any who are truly weaned, and presented, through death with Christ, to God, to find Him with them in Ramah.
In conclusion, we would desire, with our readers, carefully to consider those words, “And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh: for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” Let us be careful, on the one hand, not to disconnect the word from the Person of the Lord, and so become mere intellectual students of scripture, which gives no spiritual power to the—soul; and, on the other hand, he equally careful, lest we separate the Lord from His word, and thus become fanatical, and trust in feelings or visions, or so-called inward light. May we see and hear the Lord Himself in every scripture. Thus may the Lord reveal Himself to us by the word of the Lord!
It will be seen in Hannah’s song that the Lord is before her soul in every thought; His salvation and His Person fill her soul with joy, at a time when there was everything to discourage in Israel. So may it be with us. C. S.