1 Samuel 1:11 Sermons: She vowed a vow, and said, "LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget your handmaid, but will give to your handmaid a son, then I will set him before you as a Nazirite until the day of his death. And he will not drink wine or strong drink, and no razor will come on his head."

◄ 1 Samuel 1:11 ►

And she made a vow, pleading, "O LORD of Hosts, if only You will look upon the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, not forgetting Your maidservant but giving her a son, then I will dedicate him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall ever come over his head."

Sermons

About Setting Our Hearts Upon Things	Dean Goulburn.	1 Samuel 1:11
Vows	B. Dale	1 Samuel 1:11
The Lord of Hosts	B. Dale	1 Samuel 1:3, 11
Effectual Prayer	B. Dale	1 Samuel 1:9-13
God Sought in Trouble	Helen Plumptre.	1 Samuel 1:10-11
Prayer At the Point of Agony	Joseph Parker, D. D.	1 Samuel 1:10-11
The Success of Hannah's Prayer, and the Reasons for It	Dean Goulburn.	1 Samuel 1:10-11

Pulpit Commentary Homiletics

Vows

1 Samuel 1:11 (1 Samuel 1:21, 23, 28). (SHILOH.)

B. Dale

And she vowed a vow. The first recorded instance of a religious yowls that of Jacob (Genesis 28:20; Genesis 31:13). Under a sense of obligation to God, he entered into a spontaneous and solemn engagement before him to do what he believed would be pleasing in his sight, joining with it the desire of obtaining certain benefits at his hand. He did not, as it has been said, make a bargain with God; but gratefully repeated what had been virtually promised ("if" or "since God will be with me," etc.), and simply desired those blessings, without which it would be impossible for him to fulfil his purpose. Directions concerning the practice of making vows were given in the Law (Leviticus 27.; Numbers 6., 30.). The age of the judges was an age of vows. "Then appears a new power of the age, the binding vow - a spasmodic impulse, dangerous to many, yet in the greatest emergencies of life indispensable; bracing up the deepest energies, and working the greatest marvels; often renovating, or else entirely transforming, whole nations and religions; assuming a thousand forms, and in all, while the first fidelity endures, exercising an indomitable power" (Ewald). Jephthah - Samson - Samuel. Vows are seldom alluded to in the New Testament (Luke 1:15; Acts 18:18; Acts 21:23). In some of their forms, and in so far as they might embody a legal spirit, they are done away. But they are not prohibited; and, understood as denoting a solemn binding of ourselves to the service of God, or resolutions and engagements made before him to perform or omit certain definite acts, they are often needful and beneficial. Consider that -

I. THERE ARE CERTAIN THINGS TO WHICH THEY MAY LAWFULLY PERTAIN.

1. Things over which we possess a rightful authority. We may not vow what does not belong to us.

2. Things which ought to be done, independently of vows; but the obligation of which is felt for the first time, or with unusual force.

3. Things which are in themselves indifferent; being right or wrong according to the individual conscience, but with reference to which a vow creates a new obligation. The vow of a Nazarite to abstain from wine, etc.

4. Things, more particularly, that relate to the use of

(1) property (Genesis 28:22; 1 Corinthians 16:2);

(2) time;

(3) influence over others, especially in the training of children;

(4) the various powers of body and soul (Romans 12:1).

II. THERE ARE SPECIAL OCCASIONS ON WHICH THEY ARE APPROPRIATELY MADE.

1. Severe trouble - personal affliction, nearness to death, bereavement; bringing the invisible and eternal nigh, teaching dependence on God, and exciting desire for his help (Isaiah 66:13, 14).

2. Singular prosperity - unexpected recovery from illness, extraordinary deliverance from danger, unwonted providential and spiritual benefits, temporal success.

3. Spiritual exercises - in public worship, private meditation, religious profession.

4. Starting points of life - a birthday, the first day of a new year, the commencement of a fresh enterprise. These things are often occasions of spiritual illumination and impression, mountain heights that rise above the mists of ordinary life; and it is well to embody the views and feelings then entertained in fixed purposes, definite resolutions, solemn vows for future guidance and help. "Vow, and pay unto the Lord your God" (Psalm 76:11).

III. THEY SHOULD ALWAYS BE MADE IN A PROPER SPIRIT. With -

1. Due deliberation (Ecclesiastes 5:2), so as to ascertain "what the will of the Lord is," and what we may reasonably hope to accomplish, lest they should become a burden and temptation.

2. A sense of dependence on Divine grace; and not in a self-righteous spirit, as if our service were exceedingly meritorious, and deserved to be richly rewarded.

3. Humble and earnest prayer for the aid of the Divine Spirit. Vows made in our own strength are "as the morning cloud and the early dew."

4. Faith in Christ, the perfect pattern of self-surrender and self-sacrifice, the way of approach to God, the medium of Divine blessing. "Bind the sacrifice with cords, even unto the horns of the altar" (Psalm 118:27).

IV. WHEN MADE THEY OUGHT TO BE STRICTLY FULFILLED. Their making is optional, voluntary; not so their performance. Their obligation -

1. Changes not with a change of feeling, even with respect to those things which are, in themselves, indifferent.

"The things which are in insight willed
Must be in hours of gloom fulfilled."

2. Rests upon the same ground as that of the obligation of promises generally, and is specially strong because of their sacred character.

3. Is enforced by the consequences of their observance or neglect. Their fulfilment is a means of grace. Broken vows undermine the foundations of character, interfere with Divine fellowship, and pave the way to destruction (Ecclesiastes 5:4-6).

4. Requires their performance with sincerity (in the sense intended, not by the substitution of something else, not in part merely), cheerfulness (Psalm 116:17, 18), and promptitude. "Defer not." "There is a Greek mythical story of the treatment of the goddess Juno by Mandrabulus the Samian. This man had, under her auspices, and by her directions, discovered a golden mine. In the first flush of gratitude he vowed to her a golden ram; however, he presently exchanged that for a silver one, and again that for a very small brass one, and that for nothing at all" (Trench). "It is storied of a merchant that in a great storm at sea vowed to Jupiter, if he would save him and his vessel, to give him a hecatomb. The storm ceaseth, and he bethinks that a hecatomb was unreasonable; he resolves on seven oxen. Another tempest comes, and now again he vows the seven at least. Delivered, then also he thought that seven were too many, and one ox would serve his turn. Yet another peril comes, and now he vows solemnly to fall no lower; if he might be rescued, an ox Jupiter shall have. Again freed, the ox sticks in his stomach, and he would fain draw his devotion to a lower rate; a sheep was sufficient. But at last, being set ashore, he thought a sheep too much, and purposeth to carry to the altar only a few dates. But by the way he eats up the dates, and lays on the altar only the shells. After this manner do many perform their vows" (Adams, vol. 1. p. 112). - D.

Biblical Illustrator

And she vowed a vow.

1 Samuel 1:11

About setting our hearts upon things

Dean Goulburn.

And Hannah, — what shall we say of her passionate longing and prayer for a child? Was this sinful, like the longing of the Israelites for gross and stimulating food? or was it foolish, and wanting in judgment, like good King Hezekiah's prayer for a longer life? There are traces in the story of its having been neither the one nor the other. In the first place, the granting of her request turned out thoroughly well; it turned out not only for her own happiness and honour, but for the good of the Church and people of God, which does not look as if God was displeased with it. Then look at the mind of the woman herself — what a holy and good woman she seems to have been. Then observe, too, how little of herself there is in her petition, as it is expressed in her vow. She vows that she will give the child Unto the Lord "all the days of his life." Her child, as being a Levite, would, in the ordinary course of things, be bound to the service of the tabernacle from the age of twenty to the age of fifty; but Hannah vows that she will give him up to the service of the Lord from his earliest childhood. And so she did. It was clear that she had great, disinterested, patriotic views for the child, altogether distinct from any consideration of her own comfort in him; and probably in making her vow she must have been guided by some intimation from the Holy Spirit that a great honour was in store for her, but that she must seek it in the appointed way in which all blessings are to be had — in prayer and sacrifice of the mere natural inclinations.

(Dean Goulburn.)

People

Eli, Elihu, Elkanah, Ephah, Hannah, Hophni, Jeroham, Peninnah, Phinehas, Samuel, Tohu, Zuph

Places

Ramah, Ramathaim-zophim, Shiloh

Topics

Affliction, Almighty, Armies, Boy, Certainly, Child, Cut, Forget, Hair, Handmaid, Hast, Hosts, Indeed, Keeping, Maidservant, Male, Man-child, Mind, Misery, Note, O, Oath, Razor, Remember, Remembered, Saying, Seed, Servant, Servant's, Sorrow, Touch, Truly, Turning, Vow, Vowed, Voweth, Wilt

Outline

1. Elkanah, a Levite, having two wives, worships yearly at Shiloh
4. He cherishes Hannah, though barren, and provoked by Peninnah
9. Hannah in grief prays for a child
12. Eli first rebuking her, afterwards blesses her
19. Hannah, having born Samuel, stays at home till he is weaned
24. She presents him, according to her vow, to the Lord

Dictionary of Bible Themes

1 Samuel 1:11

     5157   head
     5180   shaving
     5720   mothers, examples
     5741   vows
     7160   servants of the Lord
     8223   dedication

1 Samuel 1:1-20

5225 barrenness
5733 pregnancy

1 Samuel 1:6-16

1 Samuel 1:9-18

1 Samuel 1:9-20

1 Samuel 1:9-28

     5155   hair
     5663   childbirth
     8610   prayer, asking God

1 Samuel 1:10-20

8614 prayer, answers

1 Samuel 1:11-20

5468 promises, human

Library

Of Self-Annihilation
Of Self-Annihilation Supplication and sacrifice are comprehended in prayer, which, according to S. John, is "an incense, the smoke whereof ascendeth unto God;" therefore it is said in the Apocalypse that "unto the Angel was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints'' (Chap. viii. 3). Prayer is the effusion of the heart in the Presence of God: "I have poured out my soul before God" saith the mother of Samuel. (1 Sam. i. 15) The prayer of the wise men at the feet of …
Madame Guyon—A Short and Easy Method of Prayer

Prayer and Sacrifice Explained by the Similitude of a Perfume --Our Annihilation in this Sacrifice --Solidity and Fruitfulness of this Prayer as Set Forth in The
Prayer ought to be both petition and sacrifice. Prayer, according to the testimony of St John, is an incense, whose perfume rises to God. Therefore it is said in the Revelation (chap. viii. 3), that an angel held a censer, which contained the incense of the prayers of saints. Prayer is an outpouring of the heart in the presence of God. "I have poured out my soul before the Lord," said the mother of Samuel (1 Sam. i. 15). Thus the prayers of the Magi at the feet of the infant Jesus in the stable of …
Jeanne Marie Bouvières—A Short Method Of Prayer And Spiritual Torrents

Home Dedication.
"The rose was rich in bloom on Sharon's plain, When a young mother with her first born thence Went up to Zion, for the boy was vowed Unto the Temple-service; by the hand She led him, and her silent soul, the while, Oft as the dewy laughter of his eye Met her sweet serious glance, rejoiced to think That aught so pure, so beautiful, was hers, To bring before her God!" Beautiful thought, and thrice beautiful deed,--fresh from the pure fount of maternal piety! The Hebrew mother consecrating her first-born …
Samuel Philips—The Christian Home

John Newton 1Sam 1:10,18
…
John Newton—Olney Hymns

Hwochow Women's Bible Training School
COURSE OF STUDY FIRST TERM Book of Genesis. Gospel according to St. Luke or St. Mark. Acts of the Apostles, chapters i. to ix. "A Synopsis of the Central Themes of the Holy Bible." Reading Lessons, with necessary Explanation and Writing of Chinese Character. Arithmetic. Singing and Memorisation of Hymns. SECOND TERM Book of Exodus, Numbers, and 1 Samuel i. to xvi. The Gospel according to St. John. The Epistle of St James. "A Synopsis of the Central Themes of the Holy Bible"--(continued). Reading …
A. Mildred Cable—The Fulfilment of a Dream of Pastor Hsi's

The Love of the Holy Spirit in Us.
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not."--Matt. xxvii. 37. The Scripture teaches not only that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, and with Him Love, but also that He sheds abroad that Love in our hearts. This shedding abroad does not refer to the coming of the Holy Spirit's Person, for a person can not be shed abroad. He comes, takes possession, and dwells in us; but that which is shed abroad …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

The Prophet Jonah.
It has been asserted without any sufficient reason, that Jonah is older than Hosea, Joel, Amos, and Obadiah,--that he is the oldest among the prophets whose written monuments have been preserved to us. The passage in 2 Kings xiv. 25, where it is said, that Jonah, the son of Amittai the prophet, prophesied to Jeroboam the happy success of his arms, and the restoration of the ancient boundaries of Israel, and that this prophecy was confirmed by the event, cannot decide in favour of this assertion, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

And V the Kingdom Undivided and the Kingdom Divided
THE HISTORICAL BOOKS: I and II Samuel. I and II Kings. I and II Chronicles. NOTE.--As these three pairs of books are so closely related in their historical contents, it is deemed best to study them together, though they overlap the two divisions of IV and V. I. CHARTS Chart A. General Contents +--+ " I AND II SAMUEL " +-------------+-----+------+ "Samuel "Saul "David " +-------------+-----+------+----------+ " " " " I AND II KINGS "NOTE.--Biblical …
Frank Nelson Palmer—A Bird's-Eye View of the Bible

Divers Matters.
I. Beth-cerem, Nehemiah 3:14. "The stones, as well of the altar, as of the ascent to the altar, were from the valley of Beth-cerem, which they digged out beneath the barren land. And thence they are wont to bring whole stones, upon which the working iron came not." The fathers of the traditions, treating concerning the blood of women's terms, reckon up five colours of it; among which that, "which is like the water of the earth, out of the valley of Beth-cerem."--Where the Gloss writes thus, "Beth-cerem …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Ramah. Ramathaim Zophim. Gibeah.
There was a certain Ramah, in the tribe of Benjamin, Joshua 18:25, and that within sight of Jerusalem, as it seems, Judges 19:13; where it is named with Gibeah:--and elsewhere, Hosea 5:8; which towns were not much distant. See 1 Samuel 22:6; "Saul sat in Gibeah, under a grove in Ramah." Here the Gemarists trifle: "Whence is it (say they) that Ramah is placed near Gibea? To hint to you, that the speech of Samuel of Ramah was the cause, why Saul remained two years and a half in Gibeah." They blindly …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The King --Continued.
The years thus well begun are, in the historical books, characterized mainly by three events, namely, the bringing up of the ark to the newly won city of David, Nathan's prophecy of the perpetual dominion of his house, and his victories over the surrounding nations. These three hinges of the narrative are all abundantly illustrated in the psalms. As to the first, we have relics of the joyful ceremonial connected with it in two psalms, the fifteenth and twenty-fourth, which are singularly alike not …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David

Nature of Covenanting.
A covenant is a mutual voluntary compact between two parties on given terms or conditions. It may be made between superiors and inferiors, or between equals. The sentiment that a covenant can be made only between parties respectively independent of one another is inconsistent with the testimony of Scripture. Parties to covenants in a great variety of relative circumstances, are there introduced. There, covenant relations among men are represented as obtaining not merely between nation and nation, …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

I Will Pray with the Spirit and with the Understanding Also-
OR, A DISCOURSE TOUCHING PRAYER; WHEREIN IS BRIEFLY DISCOVERED, 1. WHAT PRAYER IS. 2. WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT. 3. WHAT IT IS TO PRAY WITH THE SPIRIT AND WITH THE UNDERSTANDING ALSO. WRITTEN IN PRISON, 1662. PUBLISHED, 1663. "For we know not what we should pray for as we ought:--the Spirit--helpeth our infirmities" (Rom 8:26). ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. There is no subject of more solemn importance to human happiness than prayer. It is the only medium of intercourse with heaven. "It is …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Samuel
Alike from the literary and the historical point of view, the book[1] of Samuel stands midway between the book of Judges and the book of Kings. As we have already seen, the Deuteronomic book of Judges in all probability ran into Samuel and ended in ch. xii.; while the story of David, begun in Samuel, embraces the first two chapters of the first book of Kings. The book of Samuel is not very happily named, as much of it is devoted to Saul and the greater part to David; yet it is not altogether inappropriate, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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