A Child: Asked For and Lent To

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: I Samuel 1:27,28
Psalters: 170, 341, 214, 360
Sacrament of Baptism
  1. The important setting.
    1. The larger setting is in home of Elkanah who had two wives: Hannah and Peninnah (2).
      1. Children were an Old Dispensational sign of God?s blessing the nation (Deut. 28:4,18).
      2. Hannah, like Job, wrongly took the sign for the reality and concluded that her name (?grace?) was false.
      3. Hannah?s grief was increased by the persecution of Peninnah.
    2. At a Passover feast Hannah was ?marah? (in bitterness), crying in prayer, and then vowed a vow (10,11).
      1. First, note that Hannah (the object of God?s grace) prayed.
      2. Second and specifically, Hannah prayed for ?this child.?
  2. Hannah?s vow and the vow of baptizing parents.
    1. Hannah vowed to ?give him unto Jehovah all the days of his life? (11); ?as long as he liveth he shall be lent to Jehovah? (28).
      1. He was to be used in the service of Jehovah, trained for this work (not used to develop the family land and life).
      2. Once he was weaned she brought Samuel to the house of God and to Eli the High Priest at Shiloh.
    2. Godly believers when gifted with a child (or gifted without a child) return it (daughter as well as a son) to Jehovah.
      1. Unbelief declares the child to be the product of our will, to be ours to be done with as we please.
      2. Graced believers see the child as a gift, as always belonging to the Giver.
    3. Constantly and fervently pray.
  3. The result of God?s real blessing is that Samuel ?worshipped Jehovah.?
    1. Samuel acknowledged God to be the most blessed One, full of majesty and blessing, worthy of all praise.
      1. He began to do what we all will do forever in heaven.
      2. It was in the way of giving himself to the service of God that God called him to a specific work and calling.
      3. See Samuel as a mighty man of prayer for Israel (I Sam. 7:5ff; 12:11,18,19) like to Moses (Psalm 99:6; Jeremiah 15:1).
    2. Blessing results for godly parents like Hannah and we can declare: ?My heart rejoiceth in the Lord? (2:1).
      1. All the work of instruction our children in the way and fear of Jehovah accompanied by fervent prayers is ?graced.?
      2. We work at instructing and praying so there is no greater joy than to hear that the elder?s children walk in truth.