1 Samuel 1:24
And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young.
The verse records Hannah bringing her weaned but still young son Samuel to the house of the Lord at Shiloh with offerings, to fulfill her vow and dedicate him to God. His dedication meant he was given to the Lord as a consecrated offering to serve Him, placed under the care of Eli the high priest to be trained for service in the house of God. The gift required faith and involved sorrow, self-denial, separation, and real sacrifice in not keeping back her only deeply loved son, yet she was grateful and joyful that God accepted her offering. During his first three years his mother carefully taught him at home to love and reverence God and to distinguish between good and evil, which prepared his heart and led him to maintain his integrity when exposed to the evil example of Eli's sons at the tabernacle. Faithful Hannah's firmness and self-denial stand in contrast to Eli's failure to restrain and train his sons, showing the value God places on a life consecrated to Him from childhood and encouraging parents to faithfulness in child training.
Hannah's Dedication at Shiloh
The verse belongs to the going up of the family to Shiloh for worship and sacrifice, when Hannah brought the weaned Samuel to the house of the Lord there with offerings as she dedicated him to God. After he was weaned, while he was still young but old enough to be separated from her, she fulfilled her vow by taking her only, deeply loved son to Shiloh and to the tabernacle to dedicate him to God for service. Though he was her only son and deeply loved, she would not keep back from God the child she had received as a gift, and faith strengthened her to give him over.
His dedication meant he was given to the Lord as a consecrated offering to serve Him, placed with self-denial under the care of Eli the high priest to be trained for service in the house of God. He was left there at Shiloh, still a young child, to be trained for service in the house of God under Eli. In fulfillment of her vow she gave him to Eli for service to God, treating as consecrated to God the child she had received from God.
The gift required faith and involved sorrow, self-denial, separation, and real sacrifice, for she could have cherished and cared for the son God had given her, yet she gave him up. She accepted the separation as a real sacrifice, and her yearly care for him did not lessen the sacrifice of giving him up. Yet she was grateful and joyful that God accepted her gift and her offering.
Even after leaving him, she continued to care for him with love and prayers, preparing and bringing him a little coat or garment each year when she came up for the yearly sacrifice. The annual coat she made reflected her continuing care and affection and expressed her love and prayers for his character and service. Her example in entrusting Samuel to the Lord's service and remembering him with a yearly present is the pattern for a mother who must leave her child in another family's care while serving God.
Early Training and Example
During the first three years of his life, while his childhood was still being shaped, his mother carefully taught him at home, where home and school were one. She taught him to love and reverence God and to see himself as the Lord's. She taught him to distinguish between good and evil. She used every familiar object around him to lead his thoughts up to the Creator, and joined thoughts of God to all the events of daily life. She told with reverence the mighty works of God in delivering His people, and pressed on the young mind the great truths of God's providence and the future life. She made him acquainted with the true, the good, and the beautiful, fixed lessons in memory by figures and symbols, and led him almost from infancy into the mysteries, wisdom, and hopes of his fathers to think and feel beyond things seen and passing to the unseen and eternal.
That early training prepared his heart like good ground for seed, and made him vigorous in body and mind, quick to see and strong to act. It led him to choose to maintain his integrity when his youth at the tabernacle exposed him to evil influences and sinful example. For the sons of Eli feared not God nor honored their father, but Samuel did not seek their company nor follow their evil ways. Faithful Hannah's firmness and self-denial stand in contrast to Eli's failure to restrain his sons and train his children rightly. So God accepted Samuel and chose him for a special work, while the aged priest Eli was passed by because he had neglected his sacred duty.
Because his heart was pure and he reverenced God, the Lord accepted him from childhood and made him a channel of light. His life shows the value God places on a life consecrated to Him, and that young people who consecrate themselves to God may be accepted and used in His work. Hannah's reward in Samuel's faithfulness is an encouragement to faithfulness in child training, showing that God can do a great work for children when parents cooperate with Him. Her patient, prayerful, and persevering fidelity is an example needed for the church, the Sabbath school, and society to prosper. The verse provides a model for a mother who must leave her child in another family's care while serving God, entrusting him to the Lord's service. She remembers him with a yearly present or provision as Hannah did for Samuel, as when caregivers had full charge of a child for five years without payment and provided his clothing apart from his mother's annual gift.