Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah made love to his wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.” – 1 Samuel 1:19-20
“If you’ll do this for me…” How many of us have uttered this conditional promise to God during prayer? I know that I have, numerous times. And most of those times I’ve failed to live up to my end of the deal. While God is merciful and quick to forgive, we would be wise to remember that He takes our vows seriously. This is why we should think long and hard before making deals with the Lord.
Elkanah had two wives. One was Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none because the Lord had closed her womb. Peninnah was very jealous because Elkanah showed Hannah favor, so she would often mock and ridicule Hannah because of her barrenness.
Having children was very important during that time in history. So for a woman to not be able to bear children came with an embarrassing stigma, one that Hannah knew all too well because of Peninnah’s ongoing reminders. This had an impacted on every aspect of Hannah’s life. She had all but given up on someday having a son, and it brought her great shame. Desperate, Hannah cried out to the Lord for help.
Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s house. In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly. And she made a vow, saying, “Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head” (1Sam 1:9-11).
So God honored Hannah’s request. She went home and made love to Elkanah and over time became pregnant. And after Samuel was born, Hannah kept her word to the Lord. After the boy was old enough to walk and eat hard food, she took him back to Shiloh and presented her son to Eli the priest so that he may stay there with him and serve God for the remainder of his life.
The joy she experienced after finally giving birth to a newborn son probably paled in comparison to the pain she felt on her way to Shiloh to dedicate Samuel to the Lord. Little children being curious and inquisitive as they are, I wonder if perhaps her little boy had asked her, “Where are we going, mama? Where are you taking me?” If so, what might have been going through Hannah’s mind as she pondered the consequences of the vow she had made to the Lord?
But Hannah knew that Samuel was God’s promise to her, and that her promise to Him had to be kept, no matter how hard it would be for her to keep that vow.
Hannah’s story is a hard lesson that we too should consider ourselves. Before making a promise to God for something in return, we should always ask ourselves, “Will I follow through on my end of the deal?”
God never changes. He’s the same on Monday as He is on Friday. But unlike God, we change our minds all the time, especially when it involves a commitment that might require us to sacrifice something important to us.
So not only does God remember His promises to us, but He also keeps them. Do we remember and keep our promises to Him?
We should.
Former Blackout Artist 