1 Samuel 1:22

Hannah went not up. Samuel was looked upon by his mother not merely as a child but as an offering to God. Therefore she sought to have him trained for God from his earliest infancy. She ministered to his physical needs with much care and prayer, directing his thoughts toward the Lord of hosts from the very earliest age. That she might the more perfectly fulfill her trust, she did not visit Shiloh till after he was weaned. How far reaching is the influence of a mother in Israel! Whether she be an exile and a slave, like Jochebed the mother of Moses, or the persecuted member of a Levite home in Canaan, her moments are priceless. Realizing this, Hannah began to work not only for time but for eternity. It was her responsibility to impress upon a human soul the image of the divine. Thus it was also with Mary the mother of Jesus.

More than once there has been entrusted to a handmaiden of the Lord the task of reviving the decadent faith of a sin-loving and discouraged people who have failed to realize that God makes use of the weak things of the world to confound the wise.

Meditate on Jochebed’s consecration to her task, on Hannah’s clear vision as she brought Samuel into the world, or on Mary’s sense of solemn responsibility as she replied to the angel’s message, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38).

But even with the most earnest thought on the part of the mother, the child still has to make his own choice in life. So it was with Samson, for instance. Yet even Samson, after a long period of self-serving, caught a vision of God that led him to give his life with no thought of return, a consecration that placed him in the great galaxy of those who triumphed through faith, as recorded in the 11th chapter of Hebrews. How true it is that the very ones whom God proposes to use as His instruments for a special work, Satan seeks to employ, to lead astray.

For ever. See on Ex. 12:14; 21:6. By “for ever” Hannah meant that Samuel was to be a Nazirite for life (1 Sam. 1:11; see also on Gen. 49:26; Num. 6:2). A fragment from the book of 1 Samuel found in the fourth cave at Khirbet Qumran and published in 1954 specifically states that Samuel was a Nazirite.