Reading: “She bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, because I have asked him of the Lord.”—I Samuel 1:20
It is both blessed and profitable to observe, how holy men of old made memorandums of the Lord’s kind dealings with them. You remember the case of Hagar, the memorial was set up to perpetuate the place of the Lord’s graciousness. Here, with Hannah, the dedication is of the person concerning whom divine favour was shown. But in both, the design is to glorify God.
This instance of Hannah beautifully illustrates the desire to remember the Lord, every time she looked at her son—she called him Samuel, which signifies “asked of the Lord.” Hence, therefore, we may suppose, the on numerous occasions, whenever she heard her Samuel mentioned, or she called him herself, the soul of Hannah went out in faith, and love, and praise, to the Author and Giver of this blessing. And it is also reasonable to suppose, that if the name reminded the mother of her mercy, and she called her son by this name purposely, that she might remember the Lord in His bounty; no doubt, she was not forgetful to instruct her Samuel also in the same thing. We may, indeed, conclude that Hannah at times told Samuel the significance of his name. And from the sequel of the history we find that he who was a child of prayer became a servant to His praise.
Reader, you and I have our Samuels, I mean our asked blessings, whether in children, or in other providence. Pray for grace to make these mercies the memorandums of the great Giver! If what we ask from God in prayer, we give back again to God in praise, then we shall find cause to call many a blessing Samuel, because “it has been asked,” and often given unasked, of the Lord.
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