Shilo: A Promise of Revival after Drought
My husband and I kept a running list of baby names we love for years. Before we knew the baby's gender, my husband was sure of one thing: he wanted a biblical name, preferably Hebrew. One day during the Sunday School class we teach at our church, we came across a passage that leapt off the page.
“And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.”
The moment we read that, I sensed the Holy Spirit impressing upon my heart that “Shilo” was our baby’s name. It was strange because in the past my husband always loved that name for a daughter, but I never really resonated with it. I didn’t dislike it, but I had no personal connection or preference about it. Now remember, at this time we didn’t yet know the gender, but being a town’s name, it really is gender neutral. I know of several male and female uses of the name Shilo/h.
After church, I fought back tears as I told my husband about what God laid on my heart. We discussed it and agreed on the name. That is, until we found out we were having a boy. Suddenly he couldn’t quite picture it anymore.
I knew what God laid on my heart, but I also know, with more certainty, what the Word of God says about unity and submission between spouses. Something you may or may not know, is I actually love to debate. When my husband and I disagree, I’m often ready to build my case. There have been plenty of times when I successfully won him over. But, there have also been times I regretted it, because I could tell that while he verbally agreed, his heart wasn’t fully in it. And I definitely did not want that to be the case in the naming of our child. It was too important of a decision, and I wanted unanimous agreement, from the heart.
So, while I let him know my thoughts, I backed off. I followed his lead back to the drawing board and considered a hundred other biblical names. Ones I was familiar with, ones I’d never heard of, and ones that sounded more like hobbits than Hebrew boys.
We went back and forth, but it was incredibly hard to move on from the name I had already been calling him before. In my mind, the baby in my womb was Shilo, and I couldn’t shake that feeling, but I was determined not to argue my case. I occasionally reminded my husband of where I was at, but I didn’t push.
In a brief lapse of faith, I wondered if that moment in class was genuinely an impression from the Holy Spirit, or maybe just pregnancy hormones. After all, I certainly had plenty of those flowing, but I continued prayerfully seeking the Lord. Every time, He led me to surrender.
This went on for months, with me picking it up and laying it back down, asking God to put the name on my husband’s heart as clearly as He had mine. There was one particular night I prayed that, with great anguish, but also great resignation. I was not going to bother with it in prayer or conversation anymore.
The very next morning, Trey sent me a text message. He realized one of his saved worship songs on Spotify was from a male artist named Shilo. In a stroke of divine providence, God caught my husband’s attention without my intervention.
It wasn’t an immediate change of mind, as he still wanted to pray and develop a clear conviction. Over time, God brought us into agreement. And He did it beautifully, in a way that gave me full confidence in the genuineness of his decision, and certainty in seeing God’s caring hand in the most minute details of our lives. He sees the sparrows, attends to their every need, and He does the same for me.
That sweet, personal leading from the Holy Spirit was just the beginning. You see, the passage we read holds a deeply personal spiritual significance. Shilo is the town where God revealed Himself to the prophet Samuel after a long season of spiritual drought. God wasn’t speaking often, and prophetic visions were rare (1 Samuel 3:1).
This time of spiritual dryness was multi-layered. For starters, the period of the judges was ending here with Samuel. The book of Judges records the progressive downward cycle of Israel’s collapse. With every passing year, the integrity of the people and their ruling judges declines, ultimately culminating in the demise of the infamous Samson, who at nearly every turn rebels against God’s ways. In the end, the whole book illustrates how depraved God’s chosen people are and how phenomenally merciful our God is.
Then, in a new book (1 Samuel), we see the very next ruler, the prophet Eli, shirking his God-given responsibility as a father to restrain his sons from their wickedness in profaning the sanctuary of God. In their day, even the religious leaders were marked by greed, selfishness, and sexual immorality. Sound familiar? It’s not hard to imagine.
So when God spoke to Samuel at Shilo, it ended the drought; a new season was ushered in, one where Samuel would rule righteously and remain in close communion with God all the days of his life. On the heels of one of Israel’s darkest chapters, when it seemed all hope was lost, God spoke. He did not abandon them to their sin and depravity, but carried on with His plan for redemption and deliverance.
The name “Shilo” means “tranquil,” “peace,” or “he whose it is.” It is both a messianic title, referenced all the way back in Genesis 49:10, and the place where the ark of the covenant and tabernacle resided for centuries.
I recently wrote confessing my own spiritual drought and how God upheld me in His mercy. I was in a very dark place throughout my baby’s pregnancy, but God gave me a name fitting for the journey He was bringing me on: Shilo, a promise of spiritual revival after drought, peace in the face of anxieties, and a concrete reminder to set my eyes not on the despairing times we live in, but on the perfect Messiah.
All Photos: Hannah Pate Photo of Madison, AL
