The
sweet story of Hannah and Elkanah comes next before us. There is peculiar
comfort to a parent’s heart in this Mother’s faith. You remember Hannah was so
grieved over her adversary’s vexatious teasing, because she had no son, that
she could not even eat. She did the right thing, the very best thing she could
have done; she took it to the Lord in prayer. And this, the most obvious thing
for a Christian parent to do, is often just where we fail. The children vex us,
our friends vex us with criticism and comparisons. Our relations vex us, often
well meant advice, that does not in the least understand the real conditions.
How often we let these things vex us, like Hannah did, so that we can hardly
eat. Let us follow her example and take it all to the Lord in prayer. It was
not entirely easy, there were trials, one might almost say opposition and
criticism, from the one who ought to have given help and sympathy; but that
only served on the one hand to impress that day’s prayer the more deeply on the
heart of the sorrowing woman and the old priest; and on the other hand, to draw
from Eli himself that wonderful benediction: “Go in peace, and the God of
Israel grant thee thy petition which thou hast asked of Him.” How deep the
comfort and consolation of these words to that wounded heart we may judge by
the fact that several years later she herself uses almost these very words.
And
now: Notice what happens: her countenance is no more sad. That is the true
result of prayer. As we pour out our complaint, and roll our burden on the
Lord, He lifts the burden, and our sorrow and vexation is turned to peace that
passeth all understanding. “In every thing by prayer and supplication, with
thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peach of God
that passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ
Jesus.” So was it with Hannah, and that incomprehensible Peace did keep her
soul, and change her countenance. It reminds us of our own blessed Lord. “As He
prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered.” I know the meaning is
entirely different, and the circumstances of a special and extraordinary
character; but in a certain sense it is true even of us, in our own prayer: as
we pray, really pray, the fashion of our countenance is altered.
And
now, some years later, when the child is weaned, she takes him up to the
Tabernacle to old Eli, the one whose words had wrought such comfort to her
embittered soul. “For this boy I prayed”, she says, “and Jehovah has granted me
my petition which I asked of Him.” (New Translation.)
How
many a Mother and Father can echo those words, “For this boy I prayed!” How
often the boys (and the girls, too) bring us to our knees! Be not discouraged
Father, Mother, the Lord does hear as you ask for that boy. Go on praying for
him, and, “Go in peace, and may God grant thee thy petition which thou hast
asked of Him.”
But
thee is another lesson for us parents to learn from Hannah. She gave up her
claim on her boy, and loaned him to the Lord as long as he lived. Surely this
is the right way for each of us. Another mother in later years, wrote:
“Joyfully,
gladly, my son I give to Thee;
And still
I deem him Thy choice gift to me,
What Thou
hast given, with joy, I give again,
And yet
what pain in joy, and joy in pain.”
May
God help every one of us parents to hold the children God has given us, as the
most sacred trust which it is possible for God to put into our keeping. Some
are “stewards” of the Lord’s goods, but how much heavier a responsibility to be
put in trust with precious, never dying souls, to train and prepare for Himself
and His service!
And
there is only one right way to do this. These precious gifts must be given
back, “loaned” (see New Translation) “to the Lord” as long as they live. (Notice,
also, the marginal reading of I Samuel 1:28, in our ordinary English Bible,)
–and then, as we realize Whose they are, not only will we realize more solemnly
our responsibility, but we will also know more deeply the One Who is ready and
willing to give the infinite grace, patience and wisdom that are required to
train them for Himself. Notice, too, that the parents “Slew a bullock and
brought the child to Eli.” We can only give our children back to the Lord
through death, an acknowledgment that they only deserve death, but that Another
died for them.
And
it is well for us to remember that when we loan them to the Lord, the Lord
accepts the loan, and from that day and onward they are His. Hannah did not go,
after a few months, and bring her boy home again to have him with her for a
while. It was a definite transaction that she carried out with the Lord in all
seriousness, and the Lord accepted her loan. Too often we are apt to forget
this, and act as if those children loaned to the Lord were our own, and we
train them for their own profit, or for ourselves, or the world, and not for
Him to Whom alone they belong.
Thine,
Savior, Thine,
No more
this child of mine
Belongs to
me, but loaned to Thee,
Is Thine
for aye, Henceforth to stay
As wholly Thine.