CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES.—
1 Samuel 1:21. “Yearly Sacrifice” literally, the “offering of the days,”—the Israelites’ customary and obligatory annual sacrifice. The “offering of the days “is, as it were, the yearly reckoning with the Lord, the presentation of those portions of the property which fall to him in the course of the year” (Hengstenberg). “His Vow.” Here is a proof that Elkanah had likewise vowed unto the Lord in reference to Samuel.
1 Samuel 1:23. “Only the Lord establish His word.” “Elkanah seeks from God, and suppliantly begs with prayers, that, since God has bestowed on him male offspring, He will consecrate him and make him fit for His service (Calvin).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Samuel 1:21-23
SERVING GOD IN THE HOME AND IN THE TEMPLE
I. An obedient recognition of Divine ordinances.
1. As to place. “And Elkanah went up to offer unto the Lord.” The value of laws or ordinances depends upon the wisdom of him who institutes them, and our obligation to observe them depends upon the claim to obedience that he has upon us and upon their adaptation to meet our needs. In the time of Elkanah, the place of the ark was the place appointed by God where his people were to assemble to perform acts of special worship. Under the New Testament dispensation, Christians are commanded to assemble themselves together for the same purpose (Hebrews 10:25), and the command is binding upon all because it has been given by Him who is fully acquainted with man’s spiritual needs, and knows how those needs will be most fully met.
2. As to time. Ancient Israel was commanded to assemble together at special seasons and on special days. Although it may be disputed whether Christians are bound to observe any particular day, there can be no doubt that the regular observance of a special day such as the Christian Sabbath, is indispensable to the maintenance of a national sense of the existence of a God, and if it is not absolutely necessary to preserve divine and spiritual life in the individual soul, it is indispensable to its growth and vigour. The obligation of Christians to observe a “Lord’s day” has its origin both in the Divine institution of the Sabbath at the Creation, in its recognition by Christ Himself (Mark 2:27), and in the manifest adaptation to meet their spiritual needs. He who knows man’s needs made the Sabbath for him, and to set it aside as unnecessary is to impute to Him ignorance as to the spiritual wants of His own creatures. We are as much bound to recognise a place and a period in which to meet for the public worship of God as the ancient Jew was. Christ Himself has attached a special promise to such a gathering in His name (Matthew 18:20), and in two instances on record, cheered his first disciples by fulfilling it even in His bodily presence on “the first day of the week” (John 20:19-26). It is worthy of note that the divine ordinances were observed not only by Elkanah, but by “all his house,” that is, as is evident from the following-verses, by all who were not prevented by age or by home duties.
II. A service performed for God at home. “Hannah went not up,” etc. Hannah, in her present circumstances, served God to more purpose by absenting herself for the time from the public worship of God. God permits His human creatures to be co-workers with Him in the accomplishment of His purposes. He had purposed to bring about a revival of true godliness in Israel by means of Samuel, but in bringing about the accomplishment of his purpose, He worked through ordinary human channels and used human instrumentality. Hannah, by nourishing the bodily life of her child, and by training his infant mind in a knowledge of the God whose prophet he was to be, was a co-worker with God in the raising the nation to a higher spiritual condition. It is so in all God’s purposes in relation to the world, whether in the kingdom of nature or of grace. He has purposed that the earth shall bring forth her harvests year after year to supply man with bread. But He calls man to aid Him in the accomplishment of His purpose (Isaiah 28:26-29). And so in the spiritual kingdom. And when any man of God is raised up by Him for a great work, he is not the only instrument of its accomplishment, but all those who have helped to train him for God’s services—especially his mother, if she has been faithful to her trust—have a share in the honour and joy. It may be questioned if anyone in the kingdom of Israel at this time was doing so great a work for God as Hannah in the performance of her unobtrusive work in the privacy of her home.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1 Samuel 1:23. Hannah looked upon her child, not as a child only, but as an offering; she had two reasons to love him, one from nature and one from grace.… Those who purpose to consecrate cups or vessels of gold to the service of God, while they keep them in their house until the day of consecration, look upon them no longer as common objects, and do not permit them to be carelessly or indifferently handled. So Hannah, with much more reason, nurtured her child with a special reference to his introduction to the temple; she loved him more than as an ordinary child, she regarded him as an offering to the Lord, looking upon herself as sanctified through him; indeed, her house had become a temple since it enclosed this priest, this prophet.—Chrysostom.