Page 12 - August 2026 - Truth & Tidings

amuel has been called by some a failure to recognize genuine spirituality
“God’s emergency man.” A study (1:10-15). Eli also demonstrated a failure
Sof the life and times of Samuel can to realize when God speaks, when he did not
provide wholesome lessons for the people recognize that the Lord had called young
of God in all ages, but can be especially in- Samuel (3:3-6).
structive for us in these days of increasing It is interesting and instructive to notice
declension and departure from God and the prayer of Hannah, Samuel’s mother,
His holy Word. as she asked the Lord for a child. The
Samuel was born at a time when Israel Scriptures record her response to Eli’s false
as a nation had forsaken the Lord. Even assumption: “I am a woman of a sorrow-
the priests of the Lord were not serving ful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor
the Lord as they should have been. These strong drink, but have poured out my soul
conditions marked the days of Samuel's before the LORD” (1:15).
infancy and early life. Consider her vow to lend her child to
However, in the midst of all the decline the Lord as long as he lived (1:24-28). Did
and spiritual darkness, it is wonderfully Hannah have a greater insight into the
refreshing to see a family in which God spiritual condition of the nation than even
was honoured and where worship was a the priest of the Lord? We must wonder
family affair. The Scriptures record con- if her prayer for a child was because she
cerning Elkanah, Samuel’s father, “This saw the deplorable spiritual condition
man went up out of his city yearly to of God’s earthly people and prayed that
worship and to sacrifice unto the LORD God would give her a son who would be
of hosts in Shiloh” (1Sa 1:3,21). raised up to be a spiritual leader in the
1
As goes the priesthood, so goes the na- nation to incline the hearts of the people
tion. This was certainly true concerning towards their God.
the priesthood under Eli. We see in the life Hannah called her son Samuel, which
of Eli a failure to render God service (1Sa 1:9), means “asked of God.” As we trace the life
a failure to reverence God’s sacrifice (2:29), a of Samuel from his early childhood to his
failure to repent of great sins (3:18), and a later years, we will see the influence of a
failure to represent God’s station (4:18). godly mother. Her prayer of thanksgiving
When he saw Hannah praying in the to God for answering her prayer in giving
temple, he thought she was drunken, be- her a son reveals her gratitude to God as
cause her lips moved but no words were well as her awareness of the spiritual need
spoken aloud. In this, Eli demonstrated in Israel at the time.

1 Bible quotations in this article are from the Hannah praised God for His holiness
KJV. and for His knowledge of the motives

236 TRUTH kTidings August 2026