"When her husband Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, 'After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.'" (1 Samuel 1:21-22) Hannah didn't go up to Shiloh the next year when the rest of her family went. She didn't go again until Samuel was fully weaned, which at that time in history would have probably been around the age of two or perhaps even three.
"'Do what seems best to you,' her husband Elkanah told her. 'Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the Lord make good His word.' So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him." (1 Samuel 1:23) Elkanah's words might be more properly rendered as, "May you make good on your word to the Lord." He reminds her that she is responsible for keeping her vow. The Lord didn't ask her to make such a vow, as far as we can tell, but after having made it she is required to keep it. When Hannah states her intention not to go up to Shiloh until the child is weaned, Elkanah wants to make sure she is being honest with him, with herself, and with the Lord and is not just looking for a way out of keeping her vow. Elkanah himself has evidently made some sort of vow to the Lord that he intends to fulfill at Shiloh. This may have been a vow to dedicate a certain amount of money to the house of God or to dedicate a certain amount of grain or livestock.
Elkanah doesn't seem disturbed by the thought of this child going to live and work at the tabernacle from now on. Upon hearing that Hannah made such a vow, he could have negated it according to Numbers 30:13 but he didn't. He loves Hannah and accepts the fact that she made an oath to the Lord when she asked for the miracle of this son. He does not force her to withhold her son; instead he upholds her vow, for he takes vows very seriously.
We also have to keep in mind that Elkanah has other sons and daughters by his secondary wife, Peninnah. It's not as if he doesn't already have an heir-apparent to his estate. On top of that, in a time when infant mortality rates were quite high, parents often had to steel themselves to face the possibility that they might lose a child during childbirth, during infancy, or at any time between infancy and adulthood. This doesn't mean they were callous toward their children but Elkanah regarded having Samuel at all as a great blessing; dedicating him to the Lord in this manner may seem like "insurance" to Elkanah that Samuel will grow up and live a long life.
When the right time comes to fulfill her vow, Hannah goes up to Shiloh with her family when they make their regular pilgrimage. "After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. When the bull had been sacrificed, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, 'Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. 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.' And he worshiped the Lord there." (1 Samuel 1:24-28) The more modern translations of this passage end at, "And they worshiped the Lord there." (Emphasis mine.) The family worshiped the Lord there together.
It could be that Eli is included in this "they" who worshiped together. Hannah joyfully gives him her praise report regarding what the Lord has done for her. She says, "Remember me? I'm the woman you saw weeping and praying a couple of years ago and you blessed me and told me you hoped the Lord would give me what I asked for. Well, He did! I asked the Lord for a son and this is the son He gave me. Glory to the name of the Lord!" After saying these words, in tomorrow's study we will find her speaking a beautiful prayer of praise to the Lord.
Difficult as it may have been to leave Samuel at Shiloh and to only see him on her annual pilgrimages there, I think Hannah has an inkling that this will all turn out for the greater good of Israel. I don't know whether she had any clear ideas about what the Lord might call him to do when he becomes an adult but I think she was expecting great things. A miraculous birth like Samuel's is an indication of more wonderful things to come. In addition, she's comforted when the Lord blesses her with three more sons and two daughters, as the author will tell us in Chapter 2. She doesn't have to go home and keep living like a childless woman. She will be given five more children to care for and to delight in.
The Lord always outgives us. No matter what we dedicate to Him, He is always capable of doing far more for us than we will ever be able to do for Him, far more than we can ever ask or think. The Apostle Paul says Ephesians 3:20 that the Lord can do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine". Hannah asked the Lord for one son. She had enough faith to believe He could do that. But in return for her great faith the Lord did immeasurably more than she asked or imagined: He gave her six children in all. On top of that, He called the son she dedicated to Him to be a great prophet and judge in Israel---the last and most famous judge of them all.
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