I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of Him. So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD. (1 Samuel 1:27-28). These are Hannah’s words as she brings her young son, Samuel, to Eli the priest and leaves him there to be raised in the temple. Hannah knew the anguish of being a barren Jewish woman. She wanted nothing more than a son. She poured out her soul to the Lord and He gave her a son. She named him Samuel meaning, “heard of God.” He was her delight, her gift. So how could Hannah have the faith to trust God with Samuel? How can any parent?
1.Hannah knew God and knew His character. When we read her prayers in the first two chapters of 1 Samuel, we hear her heart. She knows Him as Lord, as God Almighty, as the giver of all gifts. She worships Him, knowing who He is and who she is in His presence.
2.Hannah seeks God honestly and humbly in prayer. Her prayers are fervent; nothing is left unsaid. She describes her prayer as pouring out her soul in grief and great anguish. And when she is finished praying, she leaves in peace.
3.Hannah demonstrates her faith through obedience, even when it means an extreme personal sacrifice. She has longed for this child, and she loves him as only a mother can love a child. But her love for God is greater and she shows it by letting go of Samuel.
4.Hannah trusts God and that His plan for Samuel is better than her way or her plan. She may not understand it but she trusted it. Through her life she had learned to wait on the Lord and trust in His sovereignty.
5.Hannah praises God in all circumstances. The 2nd chapter is her prayer right after leaving her son. How must she have felt on that trip back home without him? And yet, we hear her say, “My heart exults and triumphs in the Lord; my strength is lifted up in the Lord … There is none holy like the Lord, there is none besides You; there is no rock like our God.”
When Hannah took her 3-year-old son to the temple to entrust him to God, she could have never known God’s plan for Samuel. The Scripture says, “The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and let none of his words fall to the ground … And Samuel’s word came to all Israel” (1 Samuel 3:19). God used Samuel to change a nation – a nation! Samuel had a great faith and was an obedient servant. He first saw faith lived out through his mother as she taught him not only through her words but more importantly, through her obedient action of letting him go. (JANE ANN CROWSON)