The Only One Who Has Power

1 Samuel 2:1-11

Hannah had been feeling powerless for years. So, she took her problem to the only One who has power. We, too, have access to the King of heaven and earth. He can be trusted with anything we need. He may not always give us what we want but He always has our best interests at heart, He knows what is good and right for everyone, and He is the only One with the power to really help us.

Hannah’s Song of Praise – 1 Samuel 2:1-10

After Elkanah and Hannah presented their vow offering and their son to the Lord and to Eli, Hannah sang a song of praise to the Lord. The first time Eli saw her praying, it was out of bitterness and lacking. But this time, she was thankful and full. It was both a personal accounting of how God had dealt with her and Penninah, but in a broader sense, it reveals the nature of God towards us all.

First, she praised Him for being her strength. The horn of an animal is where its power comes from. Because God gave her the power to have a child, she could now deride the woman who had been deriding her. Then, Hannah praised God for His holiness. No man, or god, could give her that ability. God alone had that power. Penninah could not brag about giving Elkanah something that Hannah could not. God saw what was happening between them, and He evened the scales. What Elkanah had been trying to do for years, God did in an instant.

Then, Hannah praised God for humbling the powerful and strengthening the powerless. The Lord had filled her emptiness. He gives to the needy and makes the rich work for what they need. Sometimes those who have plenty need to understand what it is like to be without so they will be more compassionate or grateful. God knows who needs to be humbled and who needs to be lifted up, and He arranges their circumstances accordingly.

Then, in keeping with this juxtaposition, Hannah praised God for fulfilling the barren woman with a family, while leaving the one who had children to lack later in life. Seven is the symbol for completeness, so in saying that God gives the barren woman seven children, she is not actually putting a number on it. She is just saying that He is giving her a complete family. Then, by saying that the one who has many children is forlorn, she was not saying that God makes her childless. Instead, she was probably saying that she would become a widow, or her children would be estranged to her. Both would leave the woman’s family incomplete.

This whole song just shows that God is in control. He decides who lives and dies. He even has the power to raise us into eternity after death. God is sovereign over how much money we have and our station in life. If He chooses, He can bless the poor, relieving them of their need and bringing them to a place of honor and prestige. He created the earth from its foundation, and He has power over it. If we choose to follow Him, He will show us the way. But those who choose to go their own way will always be searching. He will not let us succeed if we are relying on ourselves instead of Him. He wants us to realize that we do not have the power to do anything without Him. But if we go against Him, He will go against us. We will certainly not prevail with God as our Judge.

Hannah ended her song by saying that God will give strength to His king and exalt His anointed. Israel had not yet had a king rule over them, and those anointed by Him were priests, prophets, and judges. But Moses had spoken of a day when Israel would have a king and Hannah trusted that God would give him strength (Deuteronomy 17:14-20). Then, she had already seen God lift up His anointed ones, so she knew that He would continue to raise up those He chose. Of course, this also pointed to Jesus, although Hannah probably did not know that at the time. Psalm 113

Samuel Begins His Training - 1 Samuel 2:11

Then, Hannah and Elkanah went back home, leaving Samuel in Eli’s care. Unlike Samson who was set aside for God’s purposes but raised by his parents, Samuel would be raised by the high priest for ministry (Judges 13).

When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, the Lord continuously told Pharaoh to let His people go, warning him of consequences each time. Finally, when God took Egypt’s firstborn sons, they let His firstborn son go, which was Israel. But the only reason the Angel of Death passed over the Israelites homes is because they killed a lamb and put its blood on their doorposts. Because they had trusted in God and killed the Passover Lamb as He had instructed, their firstborn sons were spared (Exodus 12).

From that point forward, God said the Israelites’ firstborn were dedicated to the Lord. If it was an animal, they gave it to Him as a sacrifice. If it was a child, he was dedicated to God, but redeemed (Exodus 13:11-16). Instead of taking each of their firstborn sons to live and work at the Tabernacle, God took the tribe of Levi as His own (Numbers 3). But even they were raised by their parents and only served God from the time they were 25 to 50 years old (Numbers 8:14-26). But Hannah took the law of the firstborn a step further, giving her son over at birth, even letting him be raised by the high priest.