1 Samuel 1–2

If you would open up in your Bibles to the book of 1 Samuel, chapter 1. 1 Samuel, chapter 1. All right, so before we get into God's word, I'm going to tell you a story, okay? Because here's what's going to happen. Every single person that walks out the door and says hi to me on the way out the door is going to ask me one question. The one question you're going to ask me is this.

Pastor Ryan, what'd you do to your head? Okay? Because I got this cut going on right here. See, all you people with hair, you don't think about this. You bang your head on something nobody notices. When you're bald, you bang your head on something, and everybody asks you, what'd you do to your head? Okay, so there I was, right? I'm at the gas station because I needed to get some gas this afternoon.

That's why you go to the gas station and the second reason why I was there. And so I go in. I pay for my gas. I'm like, hey, I need a tasty treat because I'm at the gas station, right? So I go in, and there's the donuts, right, the powdered donuts, which are like, you know, powdered diet pills, right? So fun fact, sidebar. A package of six of them cost $2. $2.39.

A bag of 24 of them cost $2.59. You do the math, right? So I bought the bag, right? So I grab the bag, and I go out, and I start pumping my, throw the thing in, and I start pumping my gas. And I'm like, hey, look, there's some trash in my car. So I grab the trash, and I walk it around the thing, and I try to save time on the way back through. So I step up on the little concrete thing.

You know what there is right at this level right here? There's a sign, right? And so I hit that sign. And I mean, it dinged me good. It was one of those. It kind of stood me back for just a minute, and I went, I hope I don't have to have staples in my head. Like, I reached up and felt it, and I'm like, that's not good. That's not good at all. And I look in the mirror, and I'm like, that's not good.

That thing's going to bleed like crazy. Like, two minutes later, right, the blood starts flowing. And I'm like, dabbing my head. And I'm like, you can't hide it, right? Like, you just cannot hide it. So anyway, that's what happened to me today. So you don't have to ask me the question. I don't have to answer it 500 times on the way out the door. Hey, what did you do?

The kid down at the other end of the hall already asked me, okay? So that's the story. I just, for a guy that's 5'6", I can hit my head as well as any human being, any tall human being on the face of the earth. My wife just laughs at me now when she sees it because she's like, how can you be that short and hit your head all the time? Look, it's a gift, okay?

All right, so we're moving into 1 Samuel tonight. And as we move into 1 Samuel, we remember that it's sort of at the end of the time of the judges. That's kind of. What we've been through. We've been through the judges. And then we saw Ruth, which was sort of a story that was in the midst of the judges. But Samuel was really either a contemporary with Samson or maybe just shortly after Samson, which was the last major judge that we looked at.

Because that was the time when the Philistines were reigning. And that's who we're going to see in the book of 1 Samuel that the children of Israel are dealing with the most. And so 1 and 2 Samuel, which actually in the Hebrew form just one book. But I believe it was when the Septuagint was written or translated that they converted it into two. So they gave us 1 and 2 Samuel gives us the link between the judges and the kings.

It's actually a very transitional book because in the book of 1 Samuel, especially the very beginning, we will see that it is a transition from a time of the spiritual leadership of the priesthood into a spiritual leadership of the prophetic office, uh, within the nation of Israel. We're going to see sort of the decline of the priesthood and, uh, uh, the prophetic office will really come to rise. Now, 1 Samuel was written mostly by Samuel, which would make sense because it bears that name. However, he could not have written the rest of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel because about halfway to three-fourths of the way through 1 Samuel, Samuel dies, right?

And so, uh, it's thought by most that both Nathan, who was a prophet, that spoke into the life of David and Gad, who was, uh, uh, another prophet who spoke into the life of David are probably the ones who finished the writing of 1 and 2 Samuel. And 1 Samuel breaks really nicely into three different sections. There's three main sections. The first section that we'll see, uh, the first eight chapters is the ministry of Samuel.

The next major section is the reign of King Saul. And then the third major section is the rise. And so, uh, so we'll start tonight looking at, uh, at the, uh, the ministry of Samuel. But remember, when we come to these books, these Old Testament books, we remember there's always three things we're looking for, right? We're looking for historical truth because it's laying out the history of the nation of Israel.

We're looking for theological significance because we're following the story of redemption through the Old Testament as God prepares his people and prepares a Messiah. We're looking for historical truth because it's laying out the history of the nation of Israel. To enter, uh, enter the scene. But then third, we're also looking for practical lessons. What are some things that we can learn that apply to our lives based upon what we read in 1 Samuel?

So we're going to look at the first couple of chapters tonight. And so we pick up in verse 1 as we look at the birth of Samuel. It says, now there was a certain man from Ramatham Zophim from the hill country of Ephraim. And his name was Elkanah. the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zoph, and Ephraimite. And he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Peninnah.

And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. And so we start off seeing this scene set. And it's always interesting for us to point something out about the people that God uses. Because God could do his work however he chose to, right? He could use any method that he wanted to, supernatural or otherwise. But it is typical of God that when he wants to do his work,

he always chooses a certain man, right? He always chooses some human being who is flawed and yet has a faithful heart after God to do his work. And that's what we see in Elkanah. Elkanah was a man who was faithful to God and yet flawed in the things that he did. Now, it says that Elkanah was an Ephraimite, but that was because he dwelt in an Ephraimite city.

If you follow his chronology, when you get into the book of, I think it's 1 Chronicles, you'll actually find that he's a part of the tribe of Levi. But the Levites were scattered throughout the land. And so the city that Elkanah was from was a city in the tribe of Ephraim. Therefore, he was referred to as an Ephraimite. So Elkanah and his son Samuel are actually going to be Levitical in the fact that they are a part of the priestly tribe,

even though they're referred to as an Ephraimite. And as we see this scene set, we find out that this man Elkanah had two wives. Now, it's always good to address things like this because everybody takes issue when you come to a place like this in scripture. You're like, so does this mean that God is condoning polygamy? A lot of people have that question. A lot of people have a lot of questions

about the Bible, don't they? Some of them have really good answers. Some of them have not quite as simple of answers, but this one's actually pretty simple. And that's that the Bible records real history. It doesn't approve of the history always that it records, but it does record real history. And God uses human beings, even though they're flawed. And we've talked about this before

because I think if we were to go a hundred or 200 years into the future, what will people look back if we're still around at that point in time, if humanity is still here at that point in time, what will humanity look back on in the early 2000s and say, this was actually wrong. They should not have done this. Even though God still uses us, even though God is still patient with us, even though God is so gracious with us, we all still have flaws. And in their culture, this was a normal thing. And so he followed what the culture was doing, even though it wasn't the right thing to do.

And God still used him. Even though he was flawed in this way, the Bible does not approve of polygamy. As a matter of fact, when Jesus is asked about divorce in the new Testament, he says, but this is not the way that it was from the beginning. And then he takes them back and says that God created a man and a woman and brought them together in a unified marriage and what God has joined together. Let no one dare

to separate. Right? And so we find that this was not God's perfect plan. And yet God uses flawed human beings. I guarantee if you took a good bit of time looking through my life, you would go, God probably shouldn't use him because he struggles with fill in the blank here. Right? But you know what? If I look with a fine tooth comb through your life, I would say, God can't use you because you have a

struggle in this area right here. And isn't it great that God continues to use people who struggle the most. I'm reminded of that verse from Ecclesiastes that says the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Amen. And so we see this scene that's set for us. He has two wives. One's named Hannah and one is named Peninnah. And we can

immediately see the consequences of polygamy at this point in time, because Peninnah is able to have kids, but Hannah is barren. Now at that point in time, many would view her and say, you've been cursed by God because you're not able to have kids. She would be viewed as, less than in society because she didn't measure up to what women were supposed to do at that point in time. So if you will, Hannah found herself in a place where she did not feel like she was enough because she could not do what other women could do at that point in time. Ladies, does our culture

not do that to us still today? Does it still make you feel like you're not enough because perhaps you don't fit some kind of a mold? And I'm here to tell you right now, don't allow the mold of the world to tell you who you are. Allow your identity to be in Christ. And we're going to see Hannah be a beautiful example. of that here. And so she was unable to have children. That brings us to verse three. It says,

now this man, meaning Elkanah, would go up from his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the Lord there. And when the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah, he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had closed her womb. Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her because the Lord had

closed her womb. Oh man, we see that there's a real issue between these two, isn't there? You see, the rivalry between these two wives was pretty great. And the greatest thing that Peninnah could hold over Hannah's head is that she was able to have kids and Hannah was not. And she despised her because of it. She looked down on her because of it. She actually would make fun of her about this matter, about this issue in her life.

And it became a source of not only rivalry between the two of them, but it became a source of defeat in the life of Hannah. And so she was constantly defeated over this because the Lord had closed her womb. Now, what we find in the life of Hannah is that she has an amazingly great trial. In her life, a trial that she felt like she would never overcome a trial that felt like more than she could ever deal with. And yet it's something that she had to deal with on a daily basis.

But this trial that came into the life of Hannah, God would use to not only do a work in the life of Hannah, but it would also be something that God would use to further his plan of redemption. And it reminds me of the things that go on in our lives. Maybe they're not exactly like what Hannah has going on. Maybe it's not that we can't have kids, but perhaps there is some area of your life where either someone else or the enemy of our soul causes us to constantly feel defeated, causes us to constantly feel like we'll never be enough because we can't do this one thing, because we can't fulfill something in this one area of our life. And we start comparing ourselves to everybody

else. And that comparison obviously robs us of our joy. And as it does so, we find ourselves in this place of constantly feeling defeated. But I want us to understand something. Whatever trial it is that you have going on in your life, God wants to use it for two purposes. God wants to use it, first of all, to further your faith, but he also ultimately wants to use it to further the plan of salvation in the lives of the people

that are around you. Because you know as well as I do that when things are great, we don't always see that growth of the Lord, right? It's always in the valley that we see the most growth. It's always in the most difficult times that we see the most growth. And that's why I want us to see the most growth in our lives. And when we can actually allow our witness to shine in oftentimes

the strongest way. Amen? And so that's what we see in the life of Hannah here. It says, the Lord had closed her womb and her rival would provoke her. Verse 7, and it happened year after year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she would provoke her. And so she would weep and she would not eat. And then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep?

And why do you not eat? And why do you not eat? And why do you not eat? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart so sad? Am I not better to you than 10 sons? Listen, fellas, I need us to know something. That was stupid, okay? That's just, that's not ever the way to handle it, right? You can never use you as being the greatest prize in your wife's life, right? You can't be like,

well, you don't understand. I realize you can't have this, but you got me. No, she didn't win the prize when she got you, okay? And you need to know that. You won the prize when you got her, okay? And so he handles this in a really poor way. He's like, hey, come on, you got me, right? Make me a sandwich. And so Hannah arose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. And Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple

of the Lord. And so she greatly distressed, prayed to the Lord, and she wept bitterly. And she made a vow. And she said, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your, your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life. And a razor shall never come on his head. And it came about as she continued

praying before the Lord that Eli was watching her mouth. Now I want us to pay attention to a couple of things about what happens with Hannah here. First of all, she does exactly what she's supposed to when she comes to the place of feeling like she's not enough. And she goes to the God who allows her to always be enough. Because he is enough for her. She goes to the Lord and she pours out her heart to him. We just

talked about this Sunday, right? She was anxious about something. And so what does she do? Well, she went to the Lord in prayer. She, she took it to God because he was the only one who could do anything about this. But I want you to think about something. Do you think this was the first time Hannah prayed about it? I don't think it was. I, Hannah's been feeling this way every single year

that she's been going to the temple. And it says that Peninnah has sons and daughters. Meaning that this has probably been more than just one year. This has actually been multiple times of her going to the temple. And when she goes, she's sad and she can't eat and she's discouraged and she's depressed and she's irritated and she's anxious because she feels like she's not

enough. And so she keeps going to the Lord in prayer and saying, Lord, I would love to have a son. I just want one son. Lord, please give me a son. I want to show her up. I want to show her that, that I'm not cursed by you. I want to show her that I am your daughter, that I am someone who can do something. She's not better than me. And every year she's praying about the same thing over and over and

over again. And finally her prayer looked a little bit different. At least I think it looked a little bit different. First thing I want you to take note of is how she addresses the Lord. It says, she made a vow and she said, Oh Lord of hosts. That can also be translated. Oh Lord of mighty armies. Isn't that great? Like when she went to the Lord, she realized that what she was

in the middle of was a battle and that this battle was going to be fought in prayer and that the only one who could ultimately win this battle for her was the Lord. And then she says something to the Lord that I think is very interesting. She says, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant, but give your maidservant a son will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and a razor shall never come on his head. Speaking of a Nazarite vow, dedication to the Lord. I want you to notice what Hannah just did there in prayer.

Hannah did something in my opinion that she'd probably had not done in the times when she'd prayed before she was fully surrendered to the Lord. You know, oftentimes God, when we go to him in prayer is waiting for us to do one thing to fully surrender to him. I was just talking to some kids about this the other night. I said, have you ever noticed that when you go to the Lord in prayer, you usually start off telling God, you're probably not going to be able to do that.

Have you ever done that before? And if you tell me you haven't, I know you're lying. You start off by telling God your plan, Lord, this is what I want you to do, right? Like, Lord, this is my problem, but I figured it out. If you'll do X, Y, and Z, we'll have the problem solved by Thursday, right? And so we give God our plan and then God goes, no, right? Or he says, or he says, wait,

because he's waiting for something. He's waiting for us to get in line with his will. Because ultimately the goal of prayer is to align my will with the will of God so that the will of God can be accomplished on earth and in my life, right? And that's exactly what he was waiting on Hannah to do is he was waiting on her to finally completely and fully surrender. And that's exactly

what she did. She said, Lord, if you give me a son, I'll give him back to you. And can I just say one of the greatest things we can do with our kids is to finally give them back to the Lord. You know, we, we start with the little thing here with dedicating a baby. And, and I realized that that's just step one of giving your kid back to the Lord, because it's, it's now a process of saying, Lord, they're yours. And my job is not to make them more

like me. My job is to point them to you. My job is to dedicate them to you because ultimately I want your best in their life. Even listen, even if that doesn't line up with what I want for them, because I think right now in our culture, we have a real problem with really good parents. And the problem we have with really good parents is they want their kids to become

the way that they want them to be instead of allowing them to become the way that God wants them to be. And we fight so hard to mold them into the image that we've created of a perfect little kid. Instead of saying, Lord, you mold them into your image. I'm battling that right now, allowing God to work my girls into the image that he wants them to be. Cause I know where I want them to be and how I want them to get there. And God just goes,

no, I'm going to do. it my way. And I have to say, okay, they're yours. I'm going to dedicate them to you. And whatever trial it is that you're going through, whatever thing it is that has you on your knees before the Lord, weeping bitterly before him, he eventually just wants you to go, Lord, it's yours. I surrender it to you. You do whatever you want to with it.

And that's exactly what Hannah does. She comes to that place of saying, I'll give him back to you. Now it came about, Eli was watching her this whole time, right? He's sitting there. She's just down on her knees praying, pouring out her heart to the Lord. Notice what it says. As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart and only her lips were moving and her voice was not heard. So Eli thought she was drunk

and Eli said to her, how long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine. And Hannah replied, no, my Lord, I am a woman oppressed in spirit. I've drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have poured out my soul before the Lord. Do not consider your maid servant as a worthless woman, for I have spoken until now of my great concern and provocation. So I want you to notice

what the picture is. She's on her knees and she's praying only nothing's coming out out loud, right? Like it's all in her heart, but you know that sometimes when you're thinking things in your head, you can sometimes mouth them a little bit. And I do this a lot. Like I'm thinking about things and people go, are you, are you talking to yourself? Like, no, no, I'm not talking to you.

I'm just my, whatever I'm saying, it's coming out a little bit. I didn't mean for that to happen. That's exactly what's going on with her. And she's so enraptured in her prayer that it looked like her mouth was moving, but nothing was coming out. And because of the spiritual state of Israel at that point in time, which is exactly why she needed to surrender Samuel to the Lord so that he could

be used by God to bring revival in the nation. The spiritual state of Israel was such that he thought she was just hanging out in the temple drunk, right? Because that was the place where they were as a nation. That was a place where they were spiritually. She says, no, you don't understand. It's not that at all. It's just my brokenness of spirit and I'm pouring out my heart to the Lord. And when she

knows how Eli responds to her and Eli answered and said, go in peace and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him. And she said, let your maid servant find favor in your sight. So the woman with her went her way and she ate. And her face was no longer sad. So Eli looks at her and receives this word from the Lord. He says, you're going to have your, you're going to have your request. The Lord's going to answer that for

you. And when she knows the way that Hannah responds, Hannah gets up, she washes her face. She goes and eats and she's no longer sad. Now I want to point something out to you. Had anything changed about Hannah's life at that point in time? Did she have a son sitting right in front of her at that point in time? No. So why on earth is she sad? Why is she sad? Why is she sad? Why is she sad?

Why is she happy now? She doesn't have the son in front of her, but she's been given a promise. And you know what? She believes the promise. And because she believes the promise, even though it's not right in front of her, she has hope restored in her life. You see, we call that the response of faith. Faith says, I believe it, even though I don't see it yet. And it changes everything

about the perspective of my life. And that's exactly what Hannah does. She doesn't have the son in front of her, but she's been given a promise. And you know what? She responds that way. And brothers and sisters, the greatest thing we can do is start believing what God has to say. Will it change my situation in the moment? Maybe, maybe not, but it will change your

outlook on the situation in the moment. Because now all of a sudden your outlook is that God has made a promise and I'm going to believe it because if God said it, he's going to do it. And even if it's now or 20 years from now, I can find joy because I have hope in the promise. And that's what she does here. And so she gets up, she washes her face, she moves on, life is great. Verse 19,

then they arose early in the morning and they worshiped before the Lord. I love that response and returned again to their house in Rama and Elkanah had relations with Hannah, his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And it came about in due time that Hannah had conceived and that she gave birth to a son and she named him Samuel saying, because I have asked him of the Lord. Uh, the, the name Samuel sounds a lot like a Hebrew phrase for heard by the Lord.

By God. Isn't that great? That's what she names him. She's like, I've asked him of the Lord and God heard me. And I think it's a beautiful thing for us to remember that that's what God does when we pray is that he hears and he answers our prayers. And so that's what she names him heard by God. It says, then the man Elkanah went up with all his household to offer to the Lord,

the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. But Hannah did not go up for, she said to her husband, I will not go up until the child is weaned. And then I will bring him that he may, appear before the Lord and stay there forever. And Elkanah, her husband said to her, do what seems best to you remain until you have weaned him. Only may the Lord confirm his word. So the

woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. Now, when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with a three-year-old bull and one ephah of flour and a jug of wine and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh. Although the child was young. Now, this is exactly what she does. She keeps her promise. First year, she says, I'm not going to go. And Elkanah says, that's fine, but just remember what you promised.

And she does. Now, Hebrew children at that point in time were usually weaned around the age of three. Now, I want you to think about the reality of this, moms. She took her three-year-old son to the temple, to the tabernacle, and she left him there. Friends, when we dedicate people to the Lord, when we dedicate things to the Lord, it's always going to mean some sacrifice, right? This would have been a really difficult sacrifice

for her to make. Even though she knew she was obeying the Lord, even though she knew she was doing exactly what she was supposed to, you know she cried the whole way home, right? So she brings these sacrifices to the Lord and she brings him, even though he's young, to the temple. Can you imagine Eli just being like, okay, so I'm going to go to the temple. I'm going to go to the temple. I'm

It's high priest daycare, right? That's why when we dedicate babies, I'm like, you don't get to leave them here, right? You still got to take them home. But this is where we get the idea of dedicating a baby because I want you to notice what she says. It says verse 25, then they slaughtered the bull and they brought the boy to Eli. And she said, oh my Lord, as your soul lives, I am the woman who

stood here beside you praying to the Lord. For this boy, I prayed and the Lord has given me my petition, which I asked of him. So I also have dedicated him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is dedicated to the Lord and he worshiped the Lord there. She dedicated him to the Lord. You know what the word dedicated could also be translated as? She lent him to the Lord. It was as if she said, I know,

I know this is my son, but I'm going to let you use him as long as you need to. And this, as we've explained before, is where we get the idea of dedicating our kids to the Lord is that she knew that the best thing for her son was to be used by God, to be dedicated to the service of the Lord. Obviously it's a lifetime of doing that, but this is where we get that idea from. And so can you imagine the faith builder that this would have been for Eli? Eli, who is, we're going to find not in the best spiritual state at this

point in time, but she shows up three years later and she goes, hey, remember me? And he's like, I mean, you know, she said, I'm the one who was, who was praying for the son. And you told me it would happen. Isn't that great? Isn't it wonderful when we get to see those moments of answered prayer. Sometimes we don't get to see those, right? Sometimes God does things that we never get to see the result

of it, but it's a beautiful thing when we get to see the result and you go, son of a gun, God really does keep his promises, doesn't he? Well, as we move into chapter two, Hannah sings a song of praise unto the Lord. Matter of fact, that's what I've titled this is simply Hannah's song. So starting in verse one, it says that Hannah prayed and said, my heart exalts in the Lord.

My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord. Indeed, there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God. And so she starts off in those first couple of verses, just pouring out praise to the Lord, pouring out praise for how powerful God is, pouring out praise for how wonderful God is, and pouring out praise for God keeping his promise.

And then she goes on from there to say, boast no more so very proudly. Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and with him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are shattered, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry, cease to hunger. Even the barren gives birth to seven, but she who has many children languishes.

I love this because she talks about the vindication that she has over her enemies. And I think this is pretty cool because she never lashed out at Peninnah, at least not that we can see, but now when everything is dealt with, it's like she goes, God fought my battle for me. And I think that's a good thing for us to remember is that we're all going to face some enemies, right? Right.

Some of them spiritual in nature, but some of them very personal in nature. And remember one of the, one of the greatest pieces of advice that somebody gave me one time is it says, you need to learn to understand and accept that you will always be the villain in someone's story. You'll always be the villain in someone's story. And there's always going to be someone who doesn't like you because of things that you say and things that you do. And I just

have to sit back and go, Lord, you're going to have to fight that battle. You're going to have to fight that battle for me. What we see here is that's exactly what God does. He always fights our battle for us. And then she goes on from there to say, the Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to Sheol and he raises up the Lord makes poor and rich. He brings low. He also

exalts. He raises the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the, the, the, the ash heap to make them sit with nobles and inherit a seat of honor for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's. And he set the world on fire. And then she goes on from there to say, the Lord kills and makes alive. He keeps the feet of his godly ones, but the wicked ones are silenced in darkness for not by

might shall a man prevail. Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered and against them. He will thunder in the heavens. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth and he will give strength to his King and will exalt the horn of his anointed. And then Elkanah went to his home at Ramah, but the boy ministered to the Lord before Eli. And so the last thing that she praises God for is his sovereignty, his sovereignty over all of the

things that were that, that go on in the world, all of the things that happen in life. And I would actually encourage you to go back and read through that sometime. I was really blessed just to read through that song and to see the great praise that comes out of it. Interestingly enough, if you were to jump all the way into the book of Luke, Mary's song that she sings after she has told about the birth of Jesus, that she's going to have a son and he's going to be the most high.

She borrows some things from Hannah's song and her song. So it's kind of interesting to, to compare the two with each other. She was a student of the, uh, of the old Testament. And so now, unfortunately we move into a sad scene in Israel's history and part of why Samuel had to come along. And so we learned a little bit about Eli's sons. Now the sons of Eli were worthless. They were worthless. They were worthless. They were worthless. They were worthless.

And they did not know the Lord, the custom of the priests with the, and with the people, when any man was offering a sacrifice, the priest servant would come while the meat was boiling with a three pronged fork in his hand. And he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. Thus they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Also, before they burned the fire, they burned the fire,

the priest servant would come and say to the man was who was sacrificing, give the priest meat for roasting as he will not take boiled meat from you only raw. And if the man said to him, they must surely burn the fat first, then take as much as you desire. They would say no, but you shall give it to me now. And if not, I will take it by force. That's the sin of the young men was very great

before the Lord for the men. And despised the offering of the Lord. Now, remember we were told early on in first Samuel chapter one, that the sons of Eli were Hophni and Phinehas, right? And these two boys were boys that had never been restrained. They had never been told. No, they had always been able to do what they want to do. And we see that play itself out in the way that they lived because they were

treating the priesthood as their own, not only way of fulfilling their flesh, but also probably a money-making scheme too. So the first thing that we read about them is that they're worthless men, right? I don't think it's ever good when the Bible calls you worthless. You know what the word worthless literally means? It means sons of Belial. Like this just sounds

like a terrible term, right? They're worthless men. But then the second thing that we read about them is that they did not know the Lord. They really truly had no knowledge of God. And because of that, they treated the offerings really bad. Now, it was a part of the church that they were the law that when you offered certain sacrifices to the Lord, a portion of the meat would be given

to the priest sort of as their payment, but it would be after all of the other offerings were made. It would be after everything was taken care of, and it would be the leftover boiled meat that would be given to the priests. Only the sons of Eli started handling things very bad. First of all, while the meat was boiling, they would just reach in and grab whatever they could get with some sort of a flesh hook. And so before the meat was true,

they sacrificed and dealt with, they were taking the meat. The second thing that they were doing is before the fat was burned, they would go and they would ask for the raw meat. Now you say, why would they ask for the raw meat? Well, because they could then take that and sell it in the marketplace and make money off of it because you could sell the raw meat, not the boiled meat.

And so they were looking at this as a way to make money. And then if anybody refused them, they would use force. They would use violent force. If you don't give it to us, then we're going to take it to you by force. But the greatest sin that Eli or that Hophni and Phinehas committed is that they caused the people to despise the sacrifice of the Lord. In other words, their actions kept other people from God. And I got

to tell you, there's nothing worse in this life that we can do than to keep other people from the knowledge of the Lord. It's one thing if we walk away from the Lord, but remember what Jesus said, whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the bottom of the sea than to have to face God on the day of judgment when you stumble one of these little ones, right? So he takes that pretty seriously. And so those are the sins of Eli's sons. Now in the midst of all of that, there's

this bright shining spot, right? Verse 18, it says, now Samuel was ministering before the Lord. If I understand correctly, I think this is the third time that statement is made. Maybe this is the second. Ministering before the Lord as a boy wearing a linen ephod. And his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband

to offer the yearly sacrifice. Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, may the Lord give you children from this woman in the place of the one that she dedicated to the Lord. And they went to their own home. Now, this is why I think that this beginning part is written. By Samuel, it's because can you imagine anybody else writing about Samuel that every year his

mom would bring him a, I love the phrase that's used here, a little robe, right? You can just imagine every year. She's like, Samuel's going to need a new robe this year. I just hope I can make it the right size. You know, it was the right size every time, right? Because God's good like that. So she'd bring him this little robe, right? Here you go, Samuel, another one for you for the

year. And he would just be serving the Lord. They're a little guy doing whatever he could do to serve at that point in time. And so Eli would bless them. And I want you to notice what happens. Verse 21. And then the Lord visited Hannah and she conceived and she gave birth to three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew before the Lord. Remember, she was completely unable to have kids. And yet, because she was willing to sacrifice to the Lord,

God will be a debtor to no man. And he gave her more than she could have ever asked or think, right? Because that's what God does in our lives. And so we move on to verse 22. It says this.

Now, when you first hear that, you think, well, that's good. Eli was rebuking them, right? Until you really think about what the law says. And the law says a couple of things. First of all, if a son is rebellious, what does that mean? If a son is rebellious, what does that mean? If a son is what's supposed to happen to him? He's supposed to be put to death. And if a son commits sexual

immorality, what's supposed to happen to him? He's supposed to be put to death. And yet all Eli can do to these two boys is say, boy, I've heard really bad things about you guys and you shouldn't be doing this. He just gave them a simple rebuke of words. If I've learned anything about raising kids, if I've learned anything about parenting kids, it's that they don't listen to your words. They pay attention to your actions.

And you can say over and over and over again, threats and all the things, but they won't pay attention until you do something about it. And this is what was not happening with Eli is he was not ever dealing with his sons. He was not ever dealing with their sin. And because he wouldn't deal with their sin, it continued to the point where people were being led away from the Lord to the point where the, the Lord desired to put them to death. So it goes on from there to say, now the boy Samuel was

growing in stature and in favor, but both with the Lord and with men. And then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, thus says the Lord, did I not reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt, speaking of Aaron in Egypt in bondage to Pharaoh's house? Did I not choose them? Meaning the Levites from all the tribes of Israel, to be my priests, to go up to my altar and to burn incense, to carry an ephod before me.

And did I not give to the house of your father, speaking of Aaron's house, the high priesthood, all the fire offerings of the sons of Israel. Why did you kick it? My sacrifice and my offering, which I commanded and my dwelling and honor your sons above me, making yourselves fat with the choices of every offering of my people. Israel. There's one statement in there. I want you to pay attention to before we continue to move

on. Why did you honor your sons above me? I know that oftentimes what we find is that we think we're actually showing love and grace by never dealing with sin. But what we're actually doing is telling our kids that what you want is more important than what God wants. And I'm seeing it over and over again in our culture today. We're seeing it take place all over,

the world, that people are honoring their sons over the Lord. It says, therefore, the Lord God of Israel declares, I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever. But now the Lord declares far be it from me for those who honor me, I will honor. And those who despise me will be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days are coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father's house.

So that there will not be an old man in your house. You will see the distress of my dwelling in spite of all the good that I do for Israel. And an old man will not be in your house forever. Yet I will not cut off every man from your, of yours from my altar so that your eyes will fail from weeping and your soul grieve and all the increase of your house will die in the prime of life. This will be the sign which will come concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas

on the same day. Both of them will die, but I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in my heart and in my soul. And I will build him an enduring house and he will walk before my, my anointed always. Everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and say, please assign me to one of the priest's offices so that I may eat a piece of bread. And so this,

man of God, did you notice that this man of God that made this declaration to Eli is unnamed? He's just an anonymous man of God that comes and makes this statement. And he says, your house is going to be cut off. Now, if you've been reading with us through the Bible, you know that when you came into first Kings, when Solomon became King, Abiathar, the priest was put to death. And when Abiathar, the priest was put to death, you may have noticed a little

footnote within the verse that said, thus fulfilling what the man of God spoke to the house of Eli. Do you guys remember that? That's exactly what it was being, what it was talking about right here is this word that was spoken to Eli that was officially finished when Solomon put to death Abiathar, the priest who had rebelled against David. But there is a highlight. He said,

but I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in my heart and in my soul. Who is that faithful priest? Well, I think that there's a, both a near partial fulfillment and a future fulfillment of what he has to say here about this faithful priest who will do according to all of his will. The partial fulfillment of this is going to be Samuel because in the next chapter, which we won't get to tonight in the next chapter, we will see Samuel called into ministry. Yes. He's been serving the Lord. Yes. He knows about God, but in chapter

three, he will know the Lord and God will call him to be that faithful priest. But the partial fulfillment is just that it's partial. The ultimate fulfillment is that he will do according to all of his will. And the fulfillment will be the great high priest that is to come, which is none other than Jesus Christ himself. That is the ultimate fulfillment of what this man of God has to say.

And brothers and sisters, we are reminded human leaders are just that they're human leaders. We have to ultimately learn that our great high priest is Jesus Christ, the one who will never fail, the one who will never falter, the one who will always remain faithful, even when we are faithless. And so as we see people around us fall, as we see, sometimes people end up falling into things that they're not supposed to. We remember that one thing never changes. And that's Jesus.

I read some concerning things and I do over and over again about people that are questioning their faith. And they, they always go back to, well, I've been hurt by people in the church. And so now I don't know if I believe what the Bible says anymore, because people have hurt me. I need us all to know something. People are going to hurt us. People in the church are going to hurt us because people in the church are, first of all, people.

But there is one person who will never hurt us. There is one person who will always remain faithful. There is one person you should put your faith in because he is the one that ultimately we are all striving to become more like, and that's Jesus. If you've been hurt by people in the church, I want you to know that you've been hurt by people in the church. You haven't been hurt by Jesus.

So come back to Jesus. And in his good time, he'll bring you back to whatever else he needs to bring you back to. But he's the one, the faithful priest who will always walk in the ways of truth. Amen. We just keep looking to Jesus. And so father, we come before you and I thank you for these examples that are given to us. And Lord, I pray that we like Hannah would learn to surrender.

Father, I, I just sense in my spirit that there's some of us in here tonight that are holding on to some things and, and we're going, Lord, I've been praying about it for so long and you're just waiting for us to surrender. And so father, we want to do that tonight. We surrender all these things to you. All of the cares that we have in our life, all of the worries that we have in our life, all of the feelings of being insignificant, being incomplete, not being enough. Lord, we

surrender all of those things to you, not because you're going to make us enough, but because you are sufficient for all of these things. And we find our hope in you. And father, we just thank you and praise you for who you are in Jesus name. Amen. Be blessed.