Hannah has just vowed if God will give her a son she will give that boy back to the Lord. I’ve been reading 1 Samuel as a storyteller, looking for characters, patterns and cross references.
So WHEN are we? Early the next morning. Hold onto your time clauses because we are about to leap years in the next few paragraphs.
Verse 19, Why does it repeat that they arose and worshiped? Offered sacrifices and worshiped. Every year, they come and worship. So why mention it?
Well, it tells us something about their character; Elkanah and his family are devout. It tells us something about their lives, their regular habits. But it’s also like a transition scene, like that overhead footage and peppy music you see in movies that gives breathing time as the heroine changes cities. So this one sentences tells us about the characters and transitions us to the next thing.
And the next thing is a little happy matrimony plus an unspecified amount of time and then it happens! Hannah gets what she had prayed for. The Lord remembers her and she gives birth to a son. The name Samuel is roughly translated as the Lord has heard me. Oh, and he also happens to be the guy the book is named after.
Now we know why way back at the beginning Verse 1 thought it was important we know about all the names and heritage of Elkanah and Hannah and that they lived in Ephraim. This book is going to have a lot to do with Samuel and in the ancient world, your linage is like your resume, your credentials, your character reference. Samuel is so significant we need his reference and his parents references…
Hannah skips a few annual sacrifices to make sure that Samuel is walking and eating solid food. You don’t want to turn over a baby that’s not potty trained. And in verse 23 Elkanah trusts her and encourages her.
So it is at least three, probably about five years later they all go up together, Elkanah, two wives and new son. Again, the priority is the sacrifice before introducing Samuel to his new home. To be “given to the Lord” starts by joining the crew at the tabernacle, the meeting place of God.
Hannah gets the last word. She reintroduces herself to the priest who had judged her, “I was that women who stood beside you praying…The Lord gave me the son I asked for, now I give him to the Lord.”
This is a bittersweet ending, perhaps a bizarre ending by modern standards. Hannah gets the thing she wanted and then gives it away. But stories aren’t about happy endings. They’re about change. In this first chapter, every character who spoke has changed. Elkanah is trusting his wife instead of questioning her. Eli is blessing Hannah instead of judging her and Hannah trusts Eli enough that Samuel goes to live with him as the representative of the Lord.
Hannah changes the most. She “stood up” and the Lord remembered her.
A childless couple getting an unexpected baby is a familiar narrative in every culture—but really that’s only where Samuel’s story begins. Here comes Chapter 2!
