The Greatest Thing You Can Do for Your Kids (1 Samuel 1-3)

A Few Thoughts to Consider

Are you a parent who feels like a failure?  

Maybe you’re poor and can’t help your kids get the education you desire. Maybe you lack intellectual prowess and feel your kids have outsmarted you. Maybe you don’t live in the best home. Maybe you haven’t provided for them as well as you’d hoped. The maybes roll on. But in 1 Samuel 1-3, the story of Hannah and Samuel shows us the greatest thing we can ever do for our kids is help them encounter the living God.

The narrative of 1 Samuel unfolds over a century, stretching from around 1100 B.C. to about 1000 B.C. Following that, the story continues in 2 Samuel for an additional 40 years. Therefore, the composition of these texts would have occurred after 960 B.C. This was when Israel shifted from a loose group of tribes led by judges to a more organized monarchy. It was a period filled with challenges both from within and outside. Robert Bergen writes,

The books of Samuel are masterful examples of ancient Hebrew narrative art. They possess all the characteristics of a timeless literary classic: a magnificent central plot involving kings, international wars, ambition, murder, deception, and sexual intrigue; complex character portrayals; skillful use of varied settings ranging from mountains to deserts; and masterful use of wordplays and allusions.^[1]

1 Samuel 1-3 tells us about Hannah, who wanted a child and promised to dedicate him to God if he granted her wish. God listened, and Samuel was born. Hannah kept her promise, and Samuel was raised in the temple under Eli, the priest. In Chapter 3, we see how Samuel hears God’s voice, and he becomes a mouthpiece of God to speak truth to power. 

But let’s go back to Hannah. In the Old Testament, being unable to have children was often seen as a significant misfortune and sometimes even a social stigma. It was not just a personal sorrow but could also be perceived as a lack of divine blessing. Phil Long writes,

Hannah is weak in several respects. She is childless in a culture where bearing children was considered one of the chief roles of a wife (1 Sam. 1:2). She finds herself in a polygamous marriage, where her rival takes every opportunity to mock her pain (v. 6). Her husband’s attempts to ease her pain are ineffectual (vv. 5, 8). And even her own actions are misunderstood by those who should know better (v. 13). ^[2]

The first to misunderstand her is her husband Elkanah, who, in 1 Samuel 1:8, makes what might be considered the most foolish statement a husband ever made to his wife. After seeing Hannah weeping, Elkanah coolly responds: “Why are you troubled?” or more literally, “Why is your heart bad?”^[3] “Am I not better to you than ten sons?” It’s doubtful these words provided much comfort.

Still, Hannah trusts God. Still, she has faith and calls out to him. As Phil Long shares, “While she might have used her standing as favored wife to take revenge on her rival or simply to repress her pain, she chooses rather to take her sorrow to God. Hannah must have understood that no trial, however heavy, can “outweigh” God and his grace and that God honors those who honor him.”^[4]

She humbles herself before God and refers to herself as “your servant,” “a submissive way of referring to oneself in the presence of a superior in ancient Near Eastern culture.”^[5] She dedicates her future son, Samuel, to God, and as a result, God speaks to him and uses him to change a nation.

Hannah’s life serves as a great lesson for parents—especially single parents who are parenting alone. There might be a lot you cannot do for your kids, but the one thing you can do is raise them to love God and position them to hear his voice. Do this, and you’ve done what matters most.