Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we’re beginning a new series.

We’re going to be studying the books of 1 & 2 Samuel.

Now for those of you who have read through your Bibles, or are familiar with 1 & 2 Samuel, you will note that much of the story is repeated in 1 & 2 Kings, and 1 & 2 Chronicles.

But for us, we’re going to be looking at 1 & 2 Samuel specifically and the transition between Judges and Kings in the Bible.

In 1 Samuel is where we are first introduced to King David, and as we’ve just come out of celebrating Advent and Christmas you will remember that Jesus was born the Messiah out of the line of King David, so we know that Samuel has a significance for us in understanding Jesus as Messiah.

Within these pages we are going to learn from God’s Word about devotion to God, relationships between husbands and wives, friendship, leadership, faith, obedience, sacrifice, love, and a whole lot more.

What’s more it takes place in a narrative form so that we can read it almost like a novel and watch the characters unfold as the text continues.

I hope you will be able to be here as we make this journey together, and if you’re not I hope that you will check out our Facebook page where the sermons will be posted weekly and you can listen to them and follow the same slides that we show here each Sunday.

So with that said, let’s ask God to open the Word to us, and let’s dive in.

Invite Congregation to pray

Before we jump into 1 Samuel, I want to remind us of where we are in Israel’s history.

The idea of following God had become for many flippant at best.

The book of Judges ends with:

That really sets the back drop for the change that we’re going to see happen in 1 Samuel.

So, if you’ll turn with me to 1 Samuel 1 - If you’re trying to find it, don’t be afraid to use the Table of Contents in your Bible, or of course you can follow along on the screen behind me.

As we know polygamy was not uncommon in the OT.

Though monogamy was generally practiced in Israel as in most of the ancient world, Polygamy was not contrary to law or morals.

The main occurence of polygamy was when the first wife was barren as it was considered important to pass down your inheritance.

In vs. 3 we find out that Elkanah is a very devout man.

And when they’d go, he’d provide for his wives to be able to make sacrifices too.

Now translators are not sure about the double portion - it seems to contradict the “But” statement, but the Hebrew used here is obscure.

Most translators choose “double portion” others though choose “single portion”.

Some scholars think that the single portion fits better because it sets up the contrast that makes the most sense in what follows.

So we see Hannah being provoked by Peninnah.

And this happens every time they go up to sacrifice as a family≥ Remember it was seen as judgment from God not to have children.

Yet we see that Hannah was devout as well...

And then we read her prayer:

This is an extreme vow.

She is basically pronouncing that the son she will have will be a Nazarite - If we go back to Numbers 6, we see that this was a special vow of separation

However, note that there was a time period to it.

Hannah is saying of her son,

“I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”

And remember what we said about the context this all is happening in.

Israel was a place where piety was flippant in many ways.

The place of sacrifice it was not kept “HOLY” as we will see.

A couple of things I want to point out here:

Hannah is praying in her heart, only her lips moved - this was not a normal way of praying in places of worship.

They would pray outloud.

This is different from our culture where when we see someone praying fervently we will often see their lips moving, but not hear any sound.

Eli took her to be a drunken woman - the fact that he takes her to be this and she’s even allowed in the place of worship would seem to suggest that it wasn’t uncommon to have drunk people in worship!

Notice Eli’s judgment:

It is so easy for us to judge at times, just as Eli did.

Eli gives her this blessing:

Eli’s blessing, Hannah’s request, bear fruit:

And later when she had weaned him she takes him up with her to Shiloh, when he is still young.

She makes sacrifices to the Lord and she bring the child to Eli...

And finally in verse 28

Notice, it doesn’t say, SHE worshiped the Lord there, it says that Samuel worshipped the Lord there.

This is an amazing journey.

As we’ve journeyed through this passage I hope you’ve seen the request that Hannah made, and the promise that she made as well.

She asks for a son and at the same time her request is not for her to keep - her gift is to bear the child, then she will give it up.

Think about that - she asks for something to give up.

It is the knowledge that God has heard, that God has answered - it’s enough for her.

Is it enough for us?

And this child of hers, though he is very young, in fact if we assume that this takes place immediately after he was weaned as seems to be indicated in vv.

24

She leaves this young child to worship with Eli, and it says:

“He worshiped the Lord there.”

How did Samuel know how to worship?

How did Samuel know who the Lord was?

How did Samuel know any of that?

You have to think it was because of Elkanah and Hannah.

They must have taught Samuel what he knew, what he could grasp.

Now before we think that she is leaving a child that has barely learned to walk with some stranger it was common for children not to be weaned until 3 years of age or more.

You still see this in parts of the world today.

So this child may be as young as 3 but possibly even older.

But this child knows how to worship the Lord.

What do we take from this:

We need to know the Lord in such a way that we can pass it down to our children.

When we ask of God - if we make a promise, we need to keep that promise.

God answers prayer.