Your word tonight in jesus name we pray. Amen
Okay, we're starting a brand new book this evening, let me get situated here
We are in the book of first samuel and so, um
We're starting a brand new book on thursday evenings in the old testament and I do want to encourage you before we get into
the actual text to
Make it a goal in 2022 to be here every thursday
For this series, you know, you should be here to to hear this so you can get a plenary understanding
Of everything in the book of first samuel
And you can understand uh, just obviously we can read it and understand it
But you know, there's something said when you can be consistent and faithful in church
From chapter one all the way to chapter 31
And and just get the plenary of everything that's being taught on thursday nights
I want to encourage you to challenge yourself to do so
Okay, this should be a challenge to you and you should make it a goal to say you know what
2022 i'm going to be in church on thursday to finish an entire book
Okay
And so I want to encourage you to do that now before we get into the actual text itself
I want to give you some introductory statements
uh regarding the book of first samuel first and foremost, let me just start off by saying this is that
First samuel is obviously what we would consider to be a part of the historical
Books, okay
And what that means is that when you look at the old testament books and even some in the new testament primarily in the old testament
They're really broken up the books are broken up into genres. Okay, and i'll give you an example you have
You know genesis exodus leviticus numbers deuteronomy
And that would be considered the pentateuch right or some would say the torah or even the law of moses
And it doesn't mean that moses wrote all those books
But what it means is that the main emphasis and the main focus is on the law of god
Okay
Those are the first five books of the bible and then you get into the historical books
That stems from the book of joshua all the way to the book of esther
Okay, and the reason they're referred to as the historical books is because of the fact that it's basically an account
All right of all of the events the history of israel and everything that took place from the going in into the promised land
All the way to the rebuilding of the temple and this is important because of the fact that
Historical books doesn't necessarily mean that everything that took place within those stories is right
Okay, it's simply giving an account of the stories of the kings and the different prophets, etc
Then you go into the poetical books such as joe psalms proverbs psalm ecclesiastes
Then you have the major and minor prophets, okay
And so this is part of the historical books
so that's important to note and the reason that's important is because of the fact that
You know, sometimes you'll read certain stories in the historical books and it can kind of confuse you a little bit
and the reason why is because it's like some people do some pretty crazy things in the historical books and you're kind of like
Man does god approve of this?
And you know some sometimes people just get the misconception that because something is in the bible
Then automatically god approves of it. Okay, they automatically that's just the justification to commit that act or that sin or to do x y and z
When you when in reality, you just have to understand that this is simply an account. This is what a
A chronicle of something that took place in the lives of the kings of the prophets
And it doesn't mean that god puts his stamp of approval on it
He's just recording the events that took place. So we should never necessarily use the historical books to teach doctrine
Although there is doctrine in the historical books
You can pull out doctrine from there things that reinforce things that we already believe
Clear statements that are made in the new testament are reinforced by parables
They're reinforced by stories
But we don't want to necessarily take the historical books and build doctrines off of the stories in the historical books
We obviously understand that this is still scripture
It's the word of god all scriptures given by inspiration of god's profitable for doctrine for proof of correction instruction to righteousness
We know that the things these things are written
For our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come right?
And so we don't want to negate or neglect what we're reading here
We just have to understand that it has its rightful place and the rightful place that these stories have are to reinforce
Clear statements that are already given to us
Whether in the new testament or throughout
The bible where god is clearly saying this is what we should do
And so just keep that in mind because of the fact that you know
Sometimes people will see polygamists like we're going to look at in just a bit
And say well, you know, okay now was uh, you know, he had two wives
So why can't I have two wives or something like that, you know?
And this is not necessarily an example of you know how to marry, okay?
This is not an instructional book on how to do these things. It's just giving us an account of it
Okay, so that's the first thing I want to mention is the fact that it's part of the historical books
The second second thing I want to mention is the fact that what time period are we in when we're reading the book of first
samuel
Well, you know going into the promised land
Uh or from the time of moses, excuse me all the way up until what we're looking at here
The children of israel are under a theocracy
And what that means is that god is their king, right? He's the one who's ruling over them
He's the one who's deputizing people to you know to carry out his the civil laws and the ceremonial laws, you know
They're under a theocracy. Okay, and then you know, they go into the promised land and then he deputizes judges
Okay, this is where we have the book of judges where approximately 12 judges rule the children of israel at separate times
They operated
Uh, basically like military generals
They would judge the people
and and tell them what the word of god said and and
Basically deliver them from the hand of the oppressors and tell them what the word of god said
Those are the system of the judges. So here in first samuel, we're basically still in that system of the judges
Okay, it's basically the tail end of the system of the judges because the very last couple of judges is eli
And then you have samuel
Well, what happens in the time of samuel?
Well, the children of israel want to be like unto the other nations
Right, they want to be like everyone else who has an earthly king
So it transitions from being a theocracy to be a monarchy where they have an earthly king ruling over them
That's what they wanted. You understand
and so
the
Office of a judge basically ceases to exist doesn't mean that
Prophets no longer existed or levites and priests no longer existed
Those offices were still in place
But the judges were no longer in place because of the fact that now they have a king ruling over them
Who basically is in charge of you know, whether it's conquest or defending their cities their nation, etc
Okay
So this is the period in which we're in and it's only the beginning parts of first samuel where they're still in that system
Of the judges because then saul comes into the picture the people want a king and then they transition into that. Okay
So these are the last judges that we see here now this evening
We're going to look at the birth of a prophet and samuel is a pretty significant person in the bible
He's pretty awesome when you look at his life and his story
He did a lot of great exploits and we're going to get into
Uh prior to his birth, obviously, we're going to look at the character
Of his of his parents where he comes from etc. Look at verse number one
It says now there was a certain man of rame mathayim zofim of mount ephraim and his name was elkanah
The son of jeroham the son of elihu the son of tohu the son of zeph and ephrathite
And he had two wives the name of the one was hannah the name of the other was penina and penina had children
But hannah had no children. So the first thing we're going to look at is elkanah's family
Okay
And right off the bat we see that he is basically a polygamist. All right, he has two wives and uh, you know
This is the situation they're in he one of his wives is able to bear children
Hannah is not able to bear children
It goes on to say in verse three and this man a man went up out of the city yearly to worship and to sacrifice
to the lord
host lord of hosts in shiloh and the two sons of eli hofni and phanehas the priest of the lord were there so
Let me just start off by talking about polygamy just for a little bit. Okay
Because again people can look at a story like this and say well elkanah was a godly man
You know abraham was a godly man
You know solomon was a godly man, you know, david who's a man after god's own heart
He was a godly man. All these men were involved in this therefore
You know, I guess polygamy is permitted in the bible because all these men of god did it, you know
This is the mormon view of marriage, obviously, right? These are like their favorite favorite verses
But nowhere in this passage does it say that god approved of this you understand
And it doesn't take much to see it doesn't take much to see in the old testament that god does not approve of polygamy
first and foremost because if you just read the second chapter of genesis verse 24
It talks about a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave into his wife and they shall be one flesh
Jesus reiterates that in the new testament it says they twain shall be one fret one fresh one flesh
It's pretty fresh though, too. I'll just be honest with you. Okay, nah day three
Okay, shall be one flesh. He says they twain shall be one flesh. That's been god's will from the beginning
Okay, no third party you understand so right from the beginning
We see what god's intent was for holy matrimony was to be between one man and one woman no third party involved
And then you know people will make the argument. Well, you know, there's all kinds of laws though in the old testament addressing polygamists though
So that would indicate or imply that god does approve of it because he's giving these laws for them
but you know, that's a stupid argument because of the fact that
People back then just like people today get saved later on in life
And when people get saved later on in life, you know, they might have made some really bad mistakes prior to getting saved
Prior to knowing the god of the bible prior to knowing the word of god, you know
I'm sure there's people I know that there's people who have gotten saved later on in life and they've been maybe they've been divorced a couple
times
You understand and god obviously doesn't approve of divorce, but if they get saved during that time
So you say so what's that supposed to imply? What are you trying to say?
What are you trying to say
Well, i'm trying to say that the laws that we see in the old testament addressing polygamous is for people who may have already made
That mistake so god basically gives them some rules to abide by
Ask polygamists not saying that he approves of it. But since they're in that situation
Let's kind of help them out to know what to do in certain circumstances and situations you understand
And so nowhere in the bible does god approve of having two wives or whatever may be and in fact, all you have to do
Is read the testimonies of the lord or should we say read the testimonies of of the polygamists in the bible
And let's see how it went for them
Right off the bat. We're looking at el cana, you know, just in a few first few verses
We see that it's not going well for him. Okay, you know his uh, um
Uh panina is like hating on hannah and she's her adversary
And then we see that also with sarah and hagar, uh, you know in the book of genesis we see this throughout the bible
Anytime someone had more than one wife, you know
There's always conflict and strife and never and you know, there is no happily ever after
When there's two wives involved, okay
And this is completely contrary to what a lot of men think it would be like, you know
It's like oh man having two wives that should that's that's probably great. Well not according to the examples that we see in the bible
It sounds bad, you know, it sounds terrible. There's always conflict and there's always strife, you know
And it's probably a big headache for el cana to have to deal with this, okay
And so polygamy is not permissible in the bible at all
We see that based upon the testimonies that we see of the people who were polygamists. We see it based upon
uh the first
uh commandment that god gives in regards to marriage in genesis 224
And we see it based upon the fact that he's giving specific laws and rules to polygamists not to permit them to commit polygamy
But just saying, you know, this is what happens when you get involved in this
You know, these are the rules you need to abide by etc
Now in verse three, we see that this man referring to el cana
Went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice him to the lord of hosts in shiloh, okay?
Now what is this talking about? Well shiloh is basically where the tabernacle is at this time, okay?
And it basically started off there in about I think judges chapter 18
But that's where the tabernacle is that's where the arc of the covenant is that's where they are supposed to go yearly
They're supposed to make that yearly pilgrimage
Okay to go there and do that yearly sacrifice in the house of god. Now. I also want you to notice how this is written
Because just in the first few verses we are introduced to basically the prime characters for the next couple of chapters
Because it talks about eli hofne and phanehas which are pretty significant characters in the next couple of chapters
I mean, these are pretty some pretty wicked people not eli but hofne and phanehas
They are children of satan according to what we're going to look at in just a bit
So they go up there to do these yearly sacrifices look at verse four
And when the time was that el cana offered he gave to panina his wife and to all her sons and her daughter's portions
But into hannah he gave a worthy portion for he loved hannah
But the lord had shut up her womb and her adversary also provoked her sore for to make her fret
Because the lord had shut up her room now what's going on here?
Why is it that el cana and his two wives are partaking of the sacrifice?
Because they're going to shiloh to do these sacrifices, but the bible says that he's given a portion to uh panina
But he's also giving a worthy portion to hannah. Why is that? Well, let me explain how this works
So in the own testament you have these sacrifices, right? Sometimes people get the misconception
There's only like one type of sacrifice, but really there's about five different types of sacrifices
You have these mandatory sacrifices that are that are supposed to be made, but then you have what's called the free will offerings
Okay, and a free will offering is just that it's like a voluntary offering that you give
At your own will at your own discretion, okay
Well under the free will offerings you have for example the burnt offering which pretty much everyone is familiar with the burnt offering
What they would do is they would get all the organs and the heart and they would burn it upon the altar
And they would give a portion of that to the priest. Okay, that's part of the free will offering
And then you have like the meal offerings, which is often offered up in conjunction with a drink offering
All right, and that's often grains things of that nature and then a portion of that was also given to the priest
Uh to take
And they were to consume that within the confines of the tabernacle. I know this is really interesting
Okay, but you need to know this information. Amen
So when you're reading you're not like what's going on here, you know
the third free will offering
Is the one where the participants were actually able to consume the food. This is what's known as the peace offering
Or also the wave offering
Okay
And this is when a person who came to basically offer up a sacrifice
Would bring an animal that was unblemished without blemish, right?
You guys heard that term when you read the old testament without blemish no blemish
So they're supposed to bring the best of what they have of their flock and offer that unto the lord. Okay
And part of that animal
The shoulder that was given to the priest
And then what remained of it was to be given to the participants to consume
Okay
And and that was an offering of like thanksgiving. For example, if they wanted to just show a heart of gratitude thanksgiving
They would give a peace offering a heave offer a wave offering. Excuse me, and and do that
So this is what we see taking place here because they're participating in the in the in the uh, and consuming the animal products
So this this shows us that it's part of the peace offering now go to deuteronomy if you would go to deuteronomy chapter 21
and verse 15
deuteronomy 21
and verse 15 because I thought this was interesting because
They're doing this peace offering and what we see is that you know, obviously he's favoring hannah
She's not able to bear children and you know, his other wife is able to bear children, but he's giving hannah
A a worthy portion a worthy portion basically would mean like a really good amount more than his other wife. Okay, he's favoring
Uh wife number two more than wife number one, okay
But this actually kind of we see something similar to this in the law look at deuteronomy 21
And verse 15 it says if a man have two wives
one beloved and another hated
And they have borne him children both the beloved and the hated and that the firstborn son be hers that was hated
Then it shall be when he maketh the sons to inherit that which he hath
That he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated which is indeed firstborn
But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated
For the firstborn by giving him a double portion of all that he hath
For he is the beginning of his strength. The right of the firstborn is his so what is this very interesting?
Commandment talking about okay, because I know you're dying to know, right?
It's basically referring to the fact, you know, some polygamists is out there and he marries two women he
Loves one but he kind of hates the other one and what's saying is just like the other one is not as esteemed
As the as the other okay, it's kind of like a rachel and leia type of a thing, right?
And he's saying look, you know
The temptation for the man is to favor the one who is loved so that even if the one who is hated bears a child
First and then the one who's hated bears a child, you know, his temptation is to give his inheritance
The double portion to the one to the son of the one that's loved right rather than the one that's hated. Okay
He's saying that's not right
If the one you hate bears a child first
They deserve the double portion and so, you know
Don't be unjust in that area now
With the story with el cana we see him giving a double portion to hannah, even though she doesn't even have children
Which is kind of interesting, right?
He's you know, she doesn't even have children obviously he favors her and he's giving her the double portion and you know
Apparently panayna is not even complaining about it because she's you know, she's not really saying anything
But what's the point of this? Well, I was thinking about this and you know
Obviously, this is a literal commandment a literal law that was given
But you know, I was thinking about the spiritual aspect of this the spiritual application
Is you know you think of christians for example, we are the off scouring and that which is hated in this world
You know because the entire world is considered the offspring of god
Offspring not meaning sons, but just meaning the creation of god, you understand?
So the world can be divided into two segments you have those who are saved and those who are not saved
And according to the new testament in the gospels the bible tells us that we shall be hated of all men
And when you say the word of that double portion
What's the first thing that comes into your mind when you think of that double portion?
What story in the bible do you think of when you think of the double portion?
elijah, right
because elijah
You know, he's he's going to go home to be with the lord
Elijah his successor is coming and he says I want a double portion of thy spirit
And you know, he tells them if you see me go up then you shall receive you're asking for a hard thing
But if you see me go up, you're going to get a double portion
And what that means is that elijah actually does double of the miracles that elijah did
So elijah was actually a greater prophet in the sense that he did more miracles than elijah
Not necessarily referring to the quality of the miracles but rather the quantity of the miracles
You understand?
Well elijah and elisham
That's a great story, but it actually pictures
Jesus christ and the believer
right
Because of the fact that you know, jesus christ told his disciples greater works than these shall you do
If you know if he goes into his father, you know
The comfort is going to come and then he tells his disciples
Tear ye in jerusalem until you being due to a power from on high, right?
And what happens he says it is expedient that I go away for if I go another way the comforter shall not come unto you
So in order for them to get that double portion
Of his spirit, which is the holy spirit. It was expedient that he go away so that the comforter could come
And what happened they tared in jerusalem till they were in due with power from on high and those disciples did greater works than jesus
Not in quality because jesus christ, you know produces the best type of miracle
He's referring to the quantity why because jesus christ only had about three years
to do all those miracles
The disciples had years and years and years to win souls to christ to to perform miracles to do those things and how about us?
We are actually able to do greater works than jesus
Not because there's anything special about us
But because we have the double portion of his spirit and we we're here for a lot longer so we can win more souls to christ
We could do greater exploits
You know so on and so forth so
This is kind of showing that because of the fact that the double portion is given unto the hated
right, well, you know what if
In order for me to get the double portion of god's spirit would require for me to be hated then so be it
I'll take it
It says look if you want a double portion if you want to do greater works if you want the inheritance like it says here
You have to be part of the woman who's hated
Sign me up
Because I want to do greater works than those who came before me. I want to do something significant with my life
I want to do something special with my life
I want to do something great with my life and if that requires me to have a stigma that i'm hated
You know then so be it. Okay, but I thought that was interesting that this law was given
And he's talking about those who were loved and those who were hated. I'll tell you who's loved the false prophets of this world
Those are the ones who are loved the joel holsteins the john mccarthers
Of this world. Those are the people who are loved. Okay, who are the ones that are hated those who you could just do?
You can do no, right?
You're like, oh you're you're so wicked and all these things you preach you show in bible verses and they still cast your name out
as evil
Why because you're just despised you're hated
You're like the one who belongs to you know, um
Talaya for example, you're the one who belongs to sarah
Because ultimately spiritually speaking we do belong to sarah. Amen
That's the lineage spiritually speaking that we come from. Okay
And so I wanted to share that just to bring some excitement into this chapter because there's a lot of storytelling here
So let's go back to first samuel if you would first samuel
I thought that was interesting about the double portion
He goes on to say in verse four
Uh, actually verse six it says in her adversary also provoked her sore so, you know
Penaena is not making it better
What does it mean when it says her adversary provoked her sore? She's basically gloating
over the fact that she's able to bear children and
Hannah is not it says for to make her fret because the lord had shut up her womb
And I think even from a medical perspective
uh
Her fretting actually causes her not to bear children even more
Okay
I've heard it said that even what you know person who wants to have a child if a couple wants to have children
One of the worst things to do is to fret
Because that causes you to tense up and not you know, your body's not functioning the way it's supposed to
And so i'm sure that that's that's causing it, uh to get worse. It says in verse number seven
And as he did so year by year when she went up to the house of the lord, so she provoked her
Therefore she wept and did not eat. So this isn't like a one-time deal
Every time they went to Shiloh to go off her like there goes Penaena just like oh you haven't had a baby yet
Oh, you're not you're not expecting yet
Oh, you're not with child yet and just provoking her mocking her you can see how this is like grievous
To Hannah and it says year by year. So this happened for for a couple years
Okay
It's like pshh
Shut up. Leave me alone
Then said Ocana her husband to her by the way, okay, so
Ocana is like your typical guy. You know what I mean? I read this i'm like he's right. He was like
Then said Ocana her husband to her Hannah
Why weepest thou?
Why eatest thou not?
And why is our heart grieved? Am not I better to thee than ten sons?
It's like why are you all sad for you got me?
I'm way better than ten sons
It you know when people think that god doesn't have a sense of humor they're obviously not reading the entire bible because this is funny
Ever since i've read this since I first got saved. I always thought that is a really funny thing to say
This guy is a man. He's just inconsiderate, you know, it's just like not sensitive towards his wife
He's not being sensitive he's just and he's probably he's probably not even joking he's not even being sarcastic
He's being serious. He's like, what's the problem?
Aren't I better than ten sons?
I mean I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward, you know, he's like
Hilarious
You know, by the way in verse nine
Is that so hannah rolls up after that they had eaten in shiloh and after they had drunk
He's like just completely just ignored him. This is like
This guy but one thing I do want to point out in verse eight
is how
uh vexed hannah was
That she couldn't have a child
You know, she's grieved she's weeping she's grieved
And she wants a child that bad
And today in 2022, it's not like that. Is it?
It's actually the complete opposite. It's actually a grief of mine to women today to have children
You know, there's there's women out there that you know who abort their children and they take contraceptives and birth control and all this nonsense
In order to keep themselves from having children because children are a grief of mine to them. That's wicked folks
The bible says that children are a blessing. They are the bible says that the fruit of the womb is his reward
You know, it's an inheritance of the lord happy as the man that had this quiver full
Folks, I don't even have a quiver full and i'm very happy. I can only imagine
Once I you know i'm on albert's status
When he has you know, I get like 12 or something
I mean, I am extremely happy with just like my four children and I hope I keep having more
But just with four alone, I mean they bring a lot of joy to my life
You know you say but don't they bring a lot of stress? Yeah, of course, but life is just filled with stress though, isn't it?
You know and I mean what's stressful diapers and you know
Fighting between the children or whatever and training them of course, but you know what there's so
There's such a blessing to have it's a joy to have children, you know, and it should be a great
You know, we need to bring this back
Where women are grieved if they can have children, okay, and they're bothered they can't have children not like these feminists out there
Who you know, they gloat when they have an abortion or something
They gloat about it and they're happy they celebrate it or something
And you know, there's nothing more hypocritical than a feminist woman who aborts her baby
You hypocrite
You know your mom didn't abort you
And all of a sudden you think it's okay for you to abort, you know that that life that's in your body understand
my body my choice
Uh, no because the person you're killing is not your body
You're killing someone else
If that was true, okay, then why don't you take your life then why don't you abort yourself?
My body my choice then why are you affecting the life of this child this unborn child who's innocent has done nothing wrong, right?
But we can see here that hannah is a godly woman
She's grieved in her heart. She's weeping. This is this is bothering her and it shows that that women esteemed having children
Uh in the bible, okay
Look at verse nine says so hannah rose up after they had eaten in shiloh and after they had drunk
Now eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the lord
And she was in bitterness of soul
And prayed unto the lord and wept sore. So this shows us where hannah's heart is
you know because instead of
Approaching this problem with the carnal way such as the way sarah did right with hagar, you know, what did she do?
She actually turns and prays unto the lord
Okay
And this is a good point that you know
Obviously if there is a situation where you can't have children or you're sickly or you have some sort of ailment, you know
We go to the doctor obviously, you know
God has blessed certain people with intelligence and understanding of medical science and whatnot
But the first thing you should do is seek the lord though
Amen
You know before you go to the physicians you should go to the lord the great physician
right
And we don't want to go to the other extreme like these. Um
I don't know. I think it's the amish who do this. Don't quote me on this
I think it's the amish or they just they're just completely against any kind of medical help and
They they reject all of that, you know, that's that's an extreme view that I don't agree with, you know
If you if your leg is chopped off
You know, it's not like well god will just help me and you're just bleeding out and everything, you know
There's a time and place when you need to go to the doctor
And get that fixed. But what i'm saying is, you know seek the lord
And so when she's in bitterness of soul, what does she do? She prays?
Have you ever found yourself in bitterness of soul?
What do you do when that happens?
Does that move you to go commit some sin?
Does that move you to do something that you know is not pleasing unto the lord to comfort yourself in a way?
That is not pleasing unto god or does it move you to get on your knees and pray?
You know and that's one of the best you know
Praying obviously is spiritual and and there's there's you know, it's a spiritual battle, but it's actually therapeutic as well
When you pour your heart out into the lord
And you pour your grief and your bitterness out into the lord the bible says cast your care upon him for he cares for you
You know, thankfully we have people that we can cast our care upon and talk to people and get things off of our chest
But the lord is the best one to do with because he knows the inner recesses of the heart
You know
He's a he's a man who's acquainted with grief
You understand that's what the bible tells us
You know, he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin
Okay
You know and so, you know, she's praying she's seeking the lord and this is a great reminder to us
Male and female
That when we're going through a difficult time
To to seek the lord's face and ask god to help us that we would pray unto him
And say and look there's nothing wrong with just being real with god and saying look. I don't think this is fair
I don't think this is fair
I i'm bitter right now. I'm angry i'm frustrated, you know, i'm x y and z but I just I need your help
Okay
It says she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the lord and wept sore
And she vowed a vow and said o lord of hosts if thou would indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid
And remember me and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child
Then I will give him unto the lord all the days of his life and there shall no razor come upon his head
So now we see hannah's vow. She's so grieved. She's saying look if you're just if you give me a child
I promise I promise you i'll give them back to you
Which is a pretty you know heavy vow there
You know what? I mean, you know, we're not supposed to do that. Let our yay be yay. Nay be nay, man
but if you do
uh
Make a vowel you better keep it
And this is a pretty hefty vow. She's saying if you give me a man child
Not only is she going to give him back unto the lord. The bible says that she that no razor will come upon his head
What is she what is she referring to the nasri vow?
According to number chapter six, which has some pretty strict rules
Okay
And so, you know, you can look that up in number chapter six verse five
When it talks about that there
It says in verse 12 and it came to pass as she continued praying before the lord that eli marked her mouth
What does it mean when it says he marked her mouth, you know, he's there and he sees her praying
He basically sees that she's she's mumbling something
Okay, you you mark something as basically it means you identify them. You understand that makes sense
Now hannah, she spake in her heart only her lips moved but her voice was not heard therefore
Eli thought she had been drunken now. This is pretty weird
Okay, and i'm gonna explain to you what I think it means if you have a different interpretation tell me after the service
But what we see here is that hannah's praying and the bible says here that she's speaking in her heart
only her lips moved so
The picture that I get
Is that you know if you pray you're praying kind of thus within yourself, but you're kind of wording
The things you're saying with your you know, it's kind of like when you read
You guys ever read and you're not necessarily audibly reading
But your lips are moving because you're reading the words with your mouth kind of thing
You guys know what i'm talking about?
So that's kind of what we see with hannah. She's praying and she's just kind of you can't really hear her
But her lips are moving. So she's she's saying something but it's not an audible type thing
So eli who's the man of god
This is the spiritual leader
He looks at this and says oh she must be drunk
That's weird
Got yourself a woman who's in the house of god
Her husband okeana had just finished offering these things the the the the sacrifices
And then the only conclusion you can come to is that she's drunk
She's inebriated. Oh, she's mumbling. She must be drunk
He says in verse 14 and eli said unto her how long will thou be drunken put away thy wine from thee
Now this is so weird. Okay, but let me explain to you why I think he said all that
I think this is showing us
eli's
spiritual state
I think that's what it is
Because later on a couple chapters later on it talks about how eli's eyes waxed them so that he could not see
And that's referring to physically you understand like he he was he was going blind. Okay
But I think the bible literally inserts those that type of wording
Because it's telling us because why would it matter if his eyes are physically growing them that he cannot see
What the bible is trying to convey there is the fact that he's spiritually going blind
He's spiritually incapable of seeing he's not seeing that his sons are reprobates
He's not seeing all the stupid stuff that they're doing the wicked things that they're doing
He lacks because what is the biblical term for being able to see?
Like if you can see something spiritually you're able to what?
discern
You're able to see not with your sixth eye or something a third eye or whatever they call that
It's referring to the fact that you're able to discern a situation, right?
You can discern someone's character you can discern someone's motives or you can discern a situation based upon
You know god's wisdom god's word the spirit leads you type of a thing, right?
and so
What this is showing us is that eli
Is losing his discernment
He's a spiritual leader of that day, but the guy can't even tell when someone's praying
She must be drunk
And we'll see later on that eli was fat
I
Mean i'm not saying that to be funny. It's actually true
He's very large and in fact, uh, you know, he dies in the most dishonorable way
I mean if I had to choose between like the way saul was gonna die and the way eli died
I don't know man. I might go for the sauls
And saul died pretty dishonorably. So well, how did eli die? He fell back and broke his neck
All the way I mean I've fallen off a chair before
back
And i've never broken my neck
I've never broken anything
other than my pride
I was extremely embarrassed
But think about how much weight had to come upon his neck to snap his neck and kill him
So it shows you how how you know, physically big he was and it should come as no surprise because hofni and phinehas were gluttons
And they learned that from someone and that was eli
So his heart the bible says his heart is as fat as greece
That's how psalms puts it, right?
He's filled his heart with
crease
It reminds me of a story
Let me tell the story real quick has nothing to do with the sermon
I remember years ago. We were part of a tour group at a bible college
And we went to a spanish church to go sing at this at this church, right?
We're singing these spanish songs and there's a particular person in our group who was who was very large, okay?
And uh and the pastor came up to us and said hey, I want you guys to go up and give a testimony of your salvation
In spanish, we're like, oh man, you know, yeah, I wasn't against giving my testimony just in spanish
You know, I wasn't that good at speaking spanish or conveying spiritual truths
So I go up and I just give the most basic
thing
testimony of my salvation
But but the guy in the groove he wanted to wax a little eloquent. You know what I mean?
So he starts he starts giving his testimony and he wants to talk about the grace of god
That he is what he is by the grace of god
Now grace in spanish is gracia
Greece in spanish is graca
Graca
See how similar they are gracia graca
So he gets up and he's like
In spanish, he's like
graca
He's like by the grease of god. I am what I am
And he's just like driving this point
About how it's the he is what he is by the grease of god and it's greece that made him what he is
And everyone's just laughing and he turns to me like why is everyone laughing and the pastor's laughing at him
And i'm thinking to myself you should have kept it simple
Should have kept it simple
Well eli
Is the way he is because of the greece, but it's not the grace of god
His heart is made fat with greece according to the book of psalms, which that's a verse from the psalms
Where where david makes the distinction between those who love god's word and those who don't
He's saying their heart is as fat as greece, but thy servant meditates upon thy word
He's like, I love the word of god. I'm i'm gonna fill my heart with god's word
Well, you know what eli wasn't doing that
Okay, and the reason we know this because physically he's not only big but also spiritually
He's incapable of discerning even the smallest of matters
You know his children are reprobates their sons of belio
Which is interesting because it talks about the sons of eli, but it also says the sons of belial belial being satan
So he's saying these are children of satan, okay?
So I want to make that I want to point that out that you know, obviously this is showing us that
First and foremost, you know israel is in a bad shape right now
Because when you have a bad leader
The rest of the the rest of the of the of the movement the congregation the church the organization is going to fall apart
Yeah
And it does fall apart because it's in the days of eli
Did they take the arc of the covenant?
He dies and of course hofni and phanehas die now eli is a safe man. I have no doubt about that. He's a safe man
But his sons were not saved and in fact god wanted to kill
Hofni and phanehas and I don't want to get ahead of myself that's in the coming chapters
And so this should show us, you know, we
Uh, you know instead of striving for positions
Or striving for a title, you know, we should strive for is just having good discernment
Having good discernment is more valuable than anything else
Because good discernment will give you a position good discernment will give you a title
But here's the thing having a title does not give you good discernment
Having a title does not give you spiritual understanding you understand and everyone, you know discernment is available to everyone
All you have to do is ask god for it
Ask god to be able to see certain things and i'm not i'm not talking about charismatic stuff. Okay
You know i'm talking about when you're able to discern between good and evil
You're able to discern god's word when you read it you're able to discern people's character based upon conversations with them
Of things of that nature but eli who's a spiritual leader can't even discern when someone is praying
I mean, how ridiculous is that?
It says in verse 15
And hannah answered and said no my lord
I'm a woman of a sorrowful spirit
I have drunk neither wine or strong drink, but i've poured out my soul before the lord
Look at verse 16 count not thine handmaid for a daughter of belial
So what does this tell us it tells us that drunkenness according to the bible associates it with reprobates
You know and it could be that the reason she said that because obviously we understand that people who are not reprobates
Who are christians even get involved in alcohol, right?
There's people who are christians who who you know struggle with alcohol whatever it may be
So obviously drinking alcohol doesn't make you a reprobate. I think the reason she said that was because she she's thinking
Only like a reprobate would come to the house of god drunk
And do these acts inebriated
You know what I mean? Because like for us it's like who would come to church high as a kite
That's weird
You know and just just go through the motions or whatever only like weird people would do something like that. You understand
So she's kind of like don't count me for a for a daughter of belial which by the way shows us that not only
Men become sons of belial. There's also daughters of belial as well
Count not that handmade for a daughter of belial
For out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken to the two I know already mentioned this but but just to
Make it clear when she says daughter of belial belial is simply another name for satan for the devil
Okay, it's a false god in the bible
And so when you see that term belial
Kids when you see that term belial when you read the bible just know that's talking about the devil
And it's referring to someone who is beyond the hope of salvation. They're they're a wicked person
Okay, because now they're a son of the devil. Okay people who are just unsaved out in the world
They're not sons of the devil. They're sons of wrath
They're children of disobedience, but they're not children of the devil, okay
I want to make that clear. So why did you address the children? Well, because they need to know amen
My son needs to know these things your children need to know these things, okay?
Verse 17 says then eli answered and said go in peace
The god of israel grant thee thy petition that thou has asked of him and she said let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight
So the woman went her way and did eat and her countenance was
No more sad
So we see here that she prays and eli basically confirms that she's gonna get what she's praying for
I don't think this is like some you know miracle that eli basically is just like well
I'm gonna let i'm, you know, i'm gonna tell god to give it to you or something
He's just confirming that she's gonna get it now go go to first john if you would in the new testament first john chapter five
We'll come back to first samuel
Go to first john chapter five if you would
So eli even though, you know, he's he's on a downward spiral he's not doing well
He obviously understands basic principles that when you pray for something believing you're gonna get it
It's not a name and claim it type of a thing either. Okay
Because there are certain stipulations to receiving things that you pray for
So if you have on your prayer list the lottery
You can pray all you want. It's not gonna happen
Okay, why well look at what the bible says?
In first john chapter five
In verse number 14 it says and this is the confidence that we have in him
That if we ask anything what according to his will
He heareth us
So here's a guaranteed way to get something that you want from the lord when you ask him make sure it's on his list
Right
If you really want the lord to give you something you want your your prayers answered then go to his prayer list
Which is the things that he wants for your life?
right
It says we this is the confidence that we have in it that we have if we ask anything according to his will
He here with us and if we know that he hear us
Whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him
So it's pretty neat
He says look
Here's a guaranteed way to know that you're going to get what you're asking for number one
Are you asking according to his will?
If you're asking according to his will then you can check out the point that says that he's hearing you
He's not going to listen to you if you're asking things that are contrary to his will
But here's the thing if you get to that base right there where he's hearing you
then just know that you're probably going to get what you desired because
If he hears you then that's for sure that you're going to get it now as far as when that's going to happen
That's a different story
Now in the microwave society do we live in
We like to hit two minutes on the microwave and get it in two minutes sometimes even before that
I like to open the microwave. I don't use the microwave, but I like to open the microwave about 30 seconds before
When I start hearing popping
Okay, don't nuke your food, by the way
I'm just using it as illustration. All right folks chill. That's the only way I can cook by the way
I don't know how to cook other than using a microwave
Okay
But when we pray for things sometimes we want it at a certain time right like why I want it now
But here's the thing. Sometimes god doesn't give us what we want now because first of all, maybe we can't handle that
You ever think about that? You know, you're like, oh man, I've been praying for this
Well, maybe you can't handle that right now then
Maybe you're incapable of handling there's certain blessings that god has that we're just incapable of handling right now
You're not capable. You don't have the character for it
You don't have the integrity. You don't know enough bible. You're not spiritual enough
You're not walking in the spirit and it's something that god wants to give you just not now because you can't handle it
I mean if someone were to drop a million dollars in your hand right now, you probably wouldn't be able to handle it
I probably wouldn't be able to handle it
Right if someone gave you a bunch of diamonds and just money beyond measure obviously
We don't want to like be crazy rich, but i'm just giving you an illustration. You probably wouldn't know what to do with it
So it's one of those things where it's like, you know, we pray according to his will
We look at god's prayer list, which is right here the word of god
See what he wants for our lives pray according to that and then just wait
And often waiting not often always creates patience patience creates maturity
Maturity prepares you to handle the blessing when it comes
Now I want it now
Well, you can throw attention on your wine you're not gonna get it
Right
Because blessings can be dangerous sometimes
If it's given to you too prematurely
You understand so it's better to just be patient to wait to pray
And to learn character on the way to receiving that particular blessing whatever it is that you're asking for
But here's the thing and another thing is this, you know, if you're a brand new christian
You know, uh, you might want to read the bible some so that you know what god wants
Not just assume that he's just going to give you anything that you want because here's the thing is that you know
We need to make sure that we have a heart that desires the things that god wants
The Bible says you give us the desires of our heart for sure
But you got to make sure your heart actually desires the right things
You understand so one thing that i've learned especially in my personal life as a christian is that the longer i'm a christian
The more my heart knows what it is what it is that god wants from me
And then my desires begin to change so things that I wanted in times past I no longer want
I want things that god wants and then he's more likely to give them to me because it's actually according to his will
That makes sense
It's like oh man, I just want um
You know, I want a million dollars. I just how much is the earth?
I'm gonna buy the earth
It's just like okay. Kanye west
That's the kanye west said that
He's like how much is the how much is the earth?
I want to buy the earth. It's like why he goes I could be king or whatever, you know
I don't want this earth
This is an ugly place
You know, give me a part of this earth
And by the way, why even try to purchase the earth when the meek shall inherit the earth. Amen
It's already mine
In the new heaven the new earth in the millennial reign
But you know
We should seek the lord's will by reading the word of god to know what it is that god wants for our lives
And and don't think that god's just going to answer your prayers if you're not doing what god has already revealed what you should be doing
Like are you are you taking care of business now?
Are you obeying god now?
Are you under authority now? Are you going to church now?
Are you reading your bible now? Are you praying now? Are you winning souls to christ now?
Are you doing what god told you to do now? No
Then why are you asking for something else?
If you haven't even if you haven't even been a good steward of that which god is asking you to do now
He that is faithful in little will be faithful in much
Go back to first samuel
And look just just to further emphasize this matter of being patient
Did god answer hannah's prayer right when she prayed for it
No, because here it says year by year
That means it took a while so, you know, it's another thing that you need, uh endurance and prayer
Right
Because here's another temptation i'm chasing rabbits here, but this is good. This is good practical christian stuff right here. Okay?
And that is this you know
Sometimes people pray for something but then they'll get it right away. And then what happens they just give up
They're just like ah
I'm, just gonna give up on praying for this
If thou faint in the day of adversity that strength is small
If thou faint in the day of adversity thy strength is small, okay
One of the worst feelings when you're lifting weights
Is when you're doing a deadlift and you're only you're halfway there
And then you're just like man
I just gotta go half just a little more and then you're just like I can't and you just drop the weight
It's just like your your strength is small
Your strength is small
Just grind it. I'm just kidding
But you know what when it comes to prayer keep praying
The bible calls it what being
importune in prayer, what does importune mean persistent
Please provide this for me. Please give it to me. Please give it to me
Please give it to give it to me and then you pray today and you pray tomorrow and you pray the next day
And it's just like then it's just going downhill and you're just like i'm still gonna pray for it
I'm still gonna ask for it. I'm still gonna ask. Well, every man everything is just going south for you
I'm still gonna ask what's it hurt to ask? I'm just gonna keep asking
And eventually the guy comes out with loaves of bread and gives it to you
Eventually the unjust judge so to speak actually grants your petition
Because of your importunity he said why does god want us to be importuning our prayers because it's an act of faith
It's just
You know, he's just like man
This guy has a lot of faith because he just keeps asking for example
Like the woman who wanted to be healed of her infirmity
He's like it's not right to give the crumbs to the dog I mean he's calling her a dog
And he's just like we eat of the crumbs and he's just like great is thy faith
And obviously he was testing her
you know
Hannah obviously had some importunity in her prayers
Because year after year she came what bitterly asked for asked for samuel and god gave her
one of the greatest prophets
I must hasten
What verse are we on here
19 and they arose up in the morning early and worshiped before the lord and returned and came to their house to raima
And ocana knew hannah his wife and the lord remembered her
Wherefore it came to pass when the time was to come about
After hannah had conceived that she bare his son and called his name samuel saying because I have asked him of the lord
Awesome, huh?
And the man ocana and all his house went up to offer unto the lord the yearly sacrifice
And his vow but hannah would not up for she said unto her husband
I will not go up until the child be weaned
And then I will bring him that he may appear before the lord and there abide forever
I'm going to skip some of these verses here because just basically saying that once the child was weaned
She was going to fulfill her vow and this is another thing. This is hannah's a woman of character. I'm just telling you
Got a lot of integrity
Because you know, this is way after
She could have just been like well, you know, I didn't really mean what I said or whatever, you know
You know, but no she's like god gave me this child and i'm going to fulfill my vow
to to uh, give him unto the lord and look what it says in verse 28 therefore
Excuse me verse 27
For this child I prayed and the lord had given me my petition which I asked him therefore also I have lent him to the lord
Lord
As long as he liveth he shall be lent to the lord and he worshiped the lord there so
You know, she she god gave her a son and she just gave him right back
Pretty amazing, you know because she kept her vow and you know, um
Obviously as parents we this is what we want to do
We want to raise our children and the nurture and the admonition of the lord, but we shouldn't set unrealistic goals for them
Where you just value like i'm gonna vow that my son's gonna be a pastor one day don't do that
You know what I mean? Just just follow the the admonitions to raise your children for the lord
Okay
And the reason I even make that point is because you know old IFP they have this thing called baby dedication sunday
Yes, moses seriously
He thought this is he thought he was the only one in this room
You want to talk about it or something? I'm just kidding
Yeah, you wouldn't believe it moses one time i'm just kidding
They have this thing called baby dedication sunday it is basically like a baptist, uh
What's the catholic thing
It's like a what it's like a it's like a baptist confirmation or something, you know
And they have this service where they take the baby and then they go did it and look
I did it. Okay
Because i'm I come from old IFP church. Let me confess my fault to you
We were there with bruce
you know just
Dedicating him to the lord or whatever
And you know what? He does belong into the lord and and i've and and i'm gonna keep that vow
Because he's that's what we're raising him for we're raising him to to serve god
We didn't dedicate him to become a pastor or anything like that or a missionary
I just said I want to raise him in the nurture in the admonition of the lord. Okay, but here's the thing is that
You know people take that very lightly though
Because in the old IP that they would make it such a big deal where they get a bunch of visitors to come
And dedicate their babies. It's like they don't even come to church afterwards
So it's like they break the valve the very next week
They don't even come to church
And it's just like, you know, it's basically a dedication for the parents
To start coming to church and training their children or whatever
But a lot of times it's just like a big day to get a bunch of people to church
You know, it's it's a gimmick and then what happens is people don't keep their vows
This is why this is the problem with altar calls
A lot of pastors gauge their service success based upon how many people come to the altar
Like how many people can we get to come to the altar but here's the problem you have a bunch of people come to the altar
Making all kinds of vows that they don't keep
And that you know, god doesn't look kindly upon that that's that's a dangerous thing to do
You know, I dedicate my life unto you lord and i'm gonna be a missionary i'll go to southeast asia i'm gonna go to russia
I'm gonna go and then you know, they're not even in the youth group the following week or whatever
Breaking their vows left and right it happens all the time
Okay
So this shows you a lot about hannah that she just kind of she's like hey, I know what I said
I know the promise that I made and i'm gonna keep my promise
To to give samuel back into the lord and he's going to be trained by eli to be a man of god
Because that's what god gave him to me for you know, this is the attitude we should have about our children
We have to understand folks. We're done
We have to understand that you know, our children are are borrowed
God is you know, he's lending his children to us
They're they're they belong to god
You know and and when we have that perspective
Then we understand that we have a great responsibility to make sure that we're raising them for the lord because they're not for
You know a lot of parents like to live vicariously through their children
So that they can become successful in areas that they might have failed in when they were younger or something
But you know, we as christian parents should not have that agenda. We should desire that our children love the lord
And and not just give lip service to that either
Won't make sure my kids love the lord then you're not even in church or you're not even reading the bible
You don't have a christian atmosphere at your home
You're not teaching them the word of god. Those are
It's just you're paying lip service to that
We're not talking about being perfect god doesn't expect us for us to be perfect
But you know what we can do we can have a christian home
We play christian music at the home read the word of god
Make sure that you emphasize to your children the importance of being in church
Make sure you tell your children we're not asking whether we're going to go to church now. We're just going to go to church
You know, obviously if they're projectile vomiting, you know or purging all meats if you heard that sermon they need to stay home
You understand?
I'm, just saying just in general
Be an example to your children to emphasize the importance of just being in church
Okay, instead of making this just blanket vowel. Oh, you know
You know
And it's just like you're dedicating your little simba
To have this ceremony of them being unto the lord, why don't you actually just shut up about it and be about it
Show your children how important it is how important the work of the lord is by actually bringing them to church
Opening up the word of god teaching them the bible talking to them about the word of god
You know, that's a good way to dedicate your children and just ask god lord help us to order this child
Help us to teach our children and to and to show them the love of christ and to make sure they get saved
And and and you know have that expectation that we want them to love the word of god
We want them to love souls. We want them to love the lord whether they're a pastor or not missionary or not
I just want them to serve god
At whatever capacity amen
Great example by hannah. Let's pray father. We thank you so much for the example of hannah and what a wonderful lady
what a godly lady and um
And just keeping her vow and
Obviously her grief was not in vain because not only does she get samuel
But she's given she's given an example for many believers for thousands of years. It's very inspirational
I pray god that you help us to give heed to that lord and help us not to make any vows
That we cannot keep lord
Help us just to obey the commandments of the lord as best as we possibly can that you give us wisdom as we do so
And lord, I pray that you bless us as we continue to study the book of first samuel help us to glean wisdom
And to put it to practice that which we're hearing in jesus name. Amen