Commentary - 1 Samuel 1:19-20

Bird's-eye view

This brief passage marks the pivotal turning point in the opening narrative of 1 Samuel. After the raw anguish of Hannah's prayer and Eli's blessing, we now see the quiet, orderly, and sovereign fulfillment of God's purpose. The scene is one of domestic piety and covenantal faithfulness. The family worships, they return home, and in the most natural of ways, God performs the miraculous. Yahweh "remembers" Hannah, a rich biblical term indicating not that God had forgotten, but that He was now moving to act on His covenant promises in her specific situation. The result is the conception and birth of Samuel, a son who is not merely an answer to a mother's desperate prayer, but is God's answer to the spiritual barrenness of Israel. His very name, "Asked of God," becomes a permanent testimony to the fact that God hears and acts, and that the great movements of redemptive history often begin in the quiet faithfulness of a godly household.

This is the hinge on which the story turns. The apathetic priesthood of Eli is failing, and the nation is spiritually adrift. God's solution does not begin with a political committee or a military coup, but with a baby. This passage demonstrates the profound link between piety in the home and providence in the world. Elkanah and Hannah's simple obedience, worship, and marital union become the vehicle through which God brings forth the next great leader for His people. It is a potent reminder that God's sovereign plan is worked out through the faithful, mundane, and often hidden means of His grace.

Outline

Context In 1 Samuel

These verses are the direct result of the preceding scene at Shiloh. In the verses just before, Hannah, in deep distress, poured out her soul to Yahweh, vowing that if He gave her a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord for life (1 Sam 1:11). After being misunderstood and then blessed by Eli the priest (1 Sam 1:17), she went away with her countenance no longer sad (1 Sam 1:18). Our passage, then, is the divine response to that entire episode. It is the fulfillment of Eli's blessing and the answer to Hannah's prayer. This event sets in motion the entire course of the book. The birth of Samuel marks the beginning of the end for the corrupt house of Eli and the chaotic period of the Judges. Samuel will be the transitional figure, the last of the great judges and the prophet who will anoint Israel's first two kings, Saul and David. Everything that follows, the rise and fall of Saul and the establishment of the Davidic monarchy, has its historical and theological seed in the event described here: Yahweh remembering a faithful, barren woman.

Key Issues

God Remembers

When the text says that "Yahweh remembered her," we must be careful not to import our modern, limited understanding of memory into the text. This is not a case of divine forgetfulness followed by a sudden recollection, as though God had misplaced his keys and then found them. In the Bible, when God "remembers" His people or His covenant, it is an anthropomorphic way of saying that He is now moving to act publicly on the basis of His covenant promises. It is a term of action, not of cognition. God had never forgotten Hannah's plight; He was the one who ordained it in the first place ("Yahweh had shut up her womb," 1 Sam 1:5). His remembering, therefore, is the turning of the tide. It is the moment when His hidden decree becomes His visible providence. He remembered Noah, and sent a wind to dry the earth (Gen 8:1). He remembered His covenant with Abraham, and delivered Israel from Egypt (Exo 2:24). For God to remember is for God to save. Here, His remembrance is the opening of the womb, the granting of a son, and the setting in motion of a new era of redemption for His people.

Verse by Verse Commentary

19 Then they arose early in the morning and worshiped before Yahweh and turned back and came to their house in Ramah.

The first thing to note is the first thing they did. They got up early and worshiped. Hannah had received a word of peace from Eli, but she had not yet received a child. Her hope was now fixed, but the promise was not yet fulfilled. This is the posture of true faith. Worship is not transactional; it is not something we do to get something from God. It is a response to who God is. They worshiped Him before they went to Shiloh, and they worshiped Him before they left. Their piety was not dependent on their circumstances, but on the character of their God. After this act of covenantal faithfulness, they returned to their ordinary life at home in Ramah. The great moments of spiritual encounter must be followed by a return to our mundane duties. Faith is not lived on the mountaintop, but in the daily grind of the home.

And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and Yahweh remembered her.

Here we have a beautiful juxtaposition of human responsibility and divine sovereignty. "Elkanah knew Hannah his wife" is the delicate biblical expression for marital intimacy. This was a normal, creaturely act within the covenant of marriage. And right alongside it, we are told "and Yahweh remembered her." The two clauses are not in tension. God's sovereign work does not bypass or nullify ordinary means; it works through them. Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward (Ps 127:3). Elkanah and Hannah did what husbands and wives do, and God did what only God can do. He opened the womb He had previously shut. This is how God ordinarily works in the world. He uses secondary causes. Farmers plow, and God gives the harvest. Husbands and wives come together, and God knits a new life in the womb. The miracle is not that God suspended the natural order, but that He sovereignly governed it to accomplish His redemptive purpose.

20 Now it happened in due time that Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son;

The phrase "in due time," or as some translations have it, "in the course of time," is significant. God's answers to prayer are not like an instant vending machine. There was a process, a pregnancy, a waiting. Faith is required not only in the asking, but also in the waiting. Hannah conceived. The barrenness was over. The taunts of Peninnah were silenced by the manifest blessing of God. And she gave birth to a son, precisely as she had asked. God's answer was not a near miss; it was a bullseye. This son was not just any son. This was the son of the vow, the one who would be given back to God. He was God's provision for Hannah, but more importantly, he was God's provision for Israel.

and she named him Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked him of Yahweh.”

In the ancient world, a name was not just a label; it was an expression of identity, character, or circumstance. Hannah names her son Samuel. The name itself likely means something like "Name of God" or "Heard of God." But Hannah provides her own inspired etymology, connecting it to the Hebrew verb for "to ask," sha'al. She says, in effect, "I will call him Samuel, because he is God's answer to my asking." Every time she would call his name, it would be a sermon. It would be a testimony to her, to Elkanah, to Peninnah, and to Samuel himself that he was a gift of grace, an answer to a specific prayer offered in deep anguish. His very existence was a memorial to the faithfulness of Yahweh. This is what all our children are. They are gifts we have asked of the Lord, and their lives ought to be a testimony to His goodness.

Application

This passage is a profound encouragement to faithful, persistent prayer, especially for those experiencing the particular pain of barrenness or any other long-standing, unanswered longing. Hannah's story teaches us to bring our sorrows to God without pretense, but it also teaches us what to do after we have prayed. We are to get up, wash our faces, and get on with the business of faithful worship and obedient living. We worship God because He is God, not because He has given us what we want. We trust His timing, knowing that His answers come "in due time," which is always the perfect time.

Furthermore, this passage puts the lie to any notion of a sacred-secular divide. The grand purposes of God for His people were advanced here through the most mundane of circumstances: a family meal, a trip home, and the intimacy of a husband and wife. Godliness is not found in escaping the ordinary, but in consecrating the ordinary to God. Our homes, our marriages, and our daily work are the primary stage where God's providence is at work. When we are faithful in the little things, in the Ramahs of our lives, God is pleased to use that faithfulness to bring forth the Samuels that the church and the world so desperately need.

Finally, we must see Samuel as a type, a forerunner of the greater Son who was asked for. All of Israel's history was a groaning, a longing for the Messiah. And in the fullness of time, God "remembered" His covenant and sent forth His Son, born of a woman. Jesus is the ultimate answer to the prayer of God's people. His name is Jesus, for He saves His people from their sins. And just as Samuel was given back to God to serve in the temple, so Christ was given up for us all, that He might bring many sons to glory. Our salvation, like Samuel's birth, is a gift, given in response to the deep cry of humanity, accomplished by the sovereign grace of God.