Ist Samuel chapters one to
three, emphasis on chapter three
We are told that Elkanah
had two wives. One was called Hannah and the other Peninnah.
Peninnah had
children, Hannah had none
Each year Elkanah would go up to Shiloh to sacrifice to the lord where Hophni and Phinehas, the
two sons of Eli, were priests to the lord
Everyone would have known these men as they were meant to be
Gods representatives to the people. They
were entrusted with responsibility and should have honoured God. We shall see how they despised that
responsibility and suffered the consequences.
Year by year they publicly sinned and it must have seemed
like God would do nothing about it. WE
now know that God is not mocked. God
disciplines, and God had a plan, and that plan involved an as yet un born
child. They could not have seen that as
Elkanah came every year that he would father the child whom God would use to
bring about the discipline that would fall upon them
God was angry with them and they should have known it. They choose to be foolish.
In our own day God has decreed that a man may have one wife.
In those days God had not yet decreed that, so it was alright for Elkanah to
have two wives.
However, Peninnah mocked Hannah for being childless. Hannah would have felt like a complete and
utter failure as a baron woman was commonly thought to be under Gods
Judgement. This was in fact not true as
Hannah would be used of God to give birth to the child who would honour God and
bring about his judgement.
It is not for us to judge others. We do not always have the full picture, but
God does.
What Elis sons did at Shiloh
was a disgrace, yet it was at that same place that Hannah prayed,
She was in deep distress as she prayed and she would have a
son, and God would take away her disgrace.
In my opinion, it is not likely that this was a single
prayer. I think a woman in so much
distress would pray persistently.
She vowed in her prayer that is God gave her a son, she
would give that son back to the lord all he days of his life, and no razer
would come upon his head, ( like Samson, an nazarite)
Eli saw her praying, but only saw her mouth move. He thought she was drunk.
She told Eli that she was not drunk, she was praying in
great anguish.
I note that she did not tell Eli exactly what she prayed
for, but Eli said, “Go in peace and may the God of Isreal grant what you have
asked of him”.
That is what she did.
MY OPINION
I think that Hannah took what Eli said as a reply from the
lord. She knew that what she had asked
for in due time would be granted to her, and she had confidence in the lord
Do we pray
persistently? Do we have confidence
that the lord will grant what we ask of him?
I think the lord answers persistent prayer, perhaps not always in the
ways and means that we expect or imagine, but he does answer. I think that it is because of prayer that I
left Dunfermline to come here to Join OM and in turn because of that, I came to
this church.
If we were to read chapter 2 we would find that when Samuel
was born, Hannah did not neglect prayer once she had what she asked for. She
prayed in thanksgiving to the lord, and she carried out her promise and
gave the boy over to the lord.
Christian parents may not physically give their children
over, but I am sure that you parents in your hearts, give them to the lord, and
that you persistently pray for them.
We now come to chapter 3
Samuel ministered to the lord under Eli ( the very same
priest who had said to his mother, may the lord grant what you have asked)
By now, Eli did know
that Samuel was the answer to Hannahs prayer, because when she presented
the boy to him, she told him what she had prayed for that day, and here was the
lord answer. She had the son she asked
for and now she was carrying out her vow by handing him over.
We now come to the passage I have chosen, 1st
Samuel, chapter 3.
We are told that in
those days, the word of the lord was rare.
( Not completely unknown)
Surely if God were to speak, it would be to an adult, a
priest, but no, the lord spoke to Samuel, while he was still a child.
I say to the children, God may not speak with an audible
voice, but he does speak and it is usually through the bible, and he speaks to
all of you and says that he wants you to trust him like Samuel did. He wants you to accept Jesus as your saviour
and here is a chance to do it now.
Samuel, did not know
the lord, but he heard the voice and assumed that it was Eli calling his name. Samuel was lying down before the Ark of the
Covenant. It was that ark that had
travelled with them thought the wilderness for 40 year and it was a reminder of
the presence of God, so that in that sense when Samuel lay down to sleep, he
was in the presence of God.
We may not realise it, but in our day, we are in the presence
of God all the time.
God called out Samuels name, and Samuel thought it was
Eli. He went to Eli and said, “Here I
am, you called me”. In so doing, Samuel
like any good boy was seeking to do as he was told, so when he heard the voice
calling his name he went to Eli in obedience.
It is good for children to be obedient to their parents. It
is even better to be obedient to God.
On each occasion, Eli said he had not called him and to go
back to sleep, but on the third occasion Eli realised that it was the lord
calling the boy. Eli still had enough
understanding of the lord to know that God was calling the boy. We saw that in those days the word of the
lord was rare, and Eli realise that this was one of those rare occasions.
You can just imagine it, Samuel goes to Eli three times and
each time Eli says, I did not call you.
Samuel must have heard the voice calling his name and said to Eli you did call me!!!! and said that more emphatically
each time. Samuel would have realised
that the voice was not his imagination, and on the third occasion, Eli realised
that to.
Eli knew that the lord would keep calling the boy, until he
responded. So Eli instructed Samuel in
what to say. He told him that if he
called again, to say “SPEAK LORD FOR YOUR SERVANT HEARS” notice
how in that reply, Eli instructs Samuel from a very young age to be like a
servant. A servant is humble and
obedient. A servant also listens to his
master and Samuel was being told to listen to what God had to say.
MY OPINION
I imagine that Eli was curious to know what the lord had to
say. He knew that a word from the lord
was rare and so it would be significant and that God was going to do
something. We know that Eli was well
aware of the behaviour of his sons.
In obedience Samuel did as Eli said, and when the lord
called his name a fourth time we read in 1st
Samuel 3:10-14 what the lord had to say.
These words would not have seemed very encouraging to a
young child, but the lord entrusted them to Samuel, but they were directed
against his mentor Eli
Perhaps in the morning Samuel hoped that Eli would not ask
the dreadful question, “What was it that he ( The lord) said to you?
I think Eli could see that Samuel was afraid to tell him,
for Eli was his mentor and when Samuel told him, Eli would feel terribly hurt
So to encourage the boy to tell him and to tell him the
truth, Eli says, “ Do not hide it from me, may god deal with you be it ever do
severely if you hide from me anything he told you.”
Eli knew what God would do for God had already told
him. Eli had not responded to the
warning God had given him. He had not disciplined his sons and now the
punishment God had promised was about to happen and God had chosen a child to
tell him”
It was still in obedience both to God and to Eli that Samuel
told him everything god had said to him.
In verse 18 we
see that Eli, having heard the word that the lord spoke to Samuel, accepted it.
He knew that he was in the wrong and should have disciplined his sons because
their behaviour was known throughout the land and would have brought the lords
name into ill repute. #
God guards his name, his holy and in erring reputation
jealously. He will not have it profaned.
Eli would have known that, so he says, “He is the lord, let
him do what is good in his eyes.”
You see that Eli acknowledged that he IS! the lord.
We to, must acknowledge that he IS! the lord also.
SHILOH
God spoke to Samuel at Shiloh,
the place where God should have been honoured, but was disgraced by Elis
family.
It was at Shiloh
that Hannah prayed and receive the assurance that she would have a son
It was at Shiloh that god continued to reveal himself to
Samuel and to the nation and thus, Shiloh that place where God was despised,
became a place where God was honoured.
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