The Book of I Samuel Part 1

Church Announcements and Prayer Requests

The Bible Baptist Church of Praise, the Russian language church, is celebrating the Harvest Festival or their Thanksgiving. That's what all of this is up here. They usually do that each year. As I understand it, their Harvest Festival is the 19th, but this is the day that they do that.

And they'd requested that they could come an hour earlier at 1 o 'clock. And we're usually out here, and a couple of us are still talking about quarter of 1. So just keep it in mind that if we stay close to 1, you'll have a lot bigger audience.

But they are going to have this Harvest Festival that they do each year. And then they plan to go to a park and eat or have some food. I think in the park, maybe here. I'm not sure. So I wanted to pass that on to you.

And also, I wanted to mention to you that we as a church have in the past supported two hospital chaplains. One was Ray Tomlinson and one was Johnson. And both men passed away around 2017 in that neighborhood.

And we as a church agreed to support their wives, continue to support their wives. And so I got a note from the daughter that says, Faith Bible Church family, thank you so much for the love and support you have given our parents.

That's Ray and Joe Tomlinson through the years. This is to let you know that Joe, and it was Josephine, but we always called her Joe. Josephine went home to be with the Lord on 9 -29 -20. So that was the last Sunday two weeks ago.

She went peacefully in her sleep. And they wanted to let us know that your generosity and kindness was greatly appreciated. May God richly bless you. And it's Lori and Sage and family. That's Tomlinson.

That's the daughter from her. So I wanted to let you, and it has a nice card here, has a nice picture. I'll try to have it in the back. If any of you want to see the card and that, remind me. And I'll try to, it has both Ray and Joe's picture in there.

So if you would like to see that, we have that for you. Also, we got word this morning, Richard, I think he checked himself into the hospital, but his brother passed away, I think, during the night. And we had said a major heart attack, but when they were checking him out, he had blood clots in the lungs and in the legs when he went in.

And the paramedics had to revive him when they found him. I guess he was out walking because he walked every day. So just to let you know, be in prayer for Richard and his family. His brother, Robert, we'd sent out a note on the e-mail this week, but his brother, Robert, is the one that passed away.

And he has two adult children, and they're taking care of all the arrangements and so forth. But remember, Richard, it's really shook up Richard quite a bit. So just uphold Richard in your prayers. And the last thing I wanted to mention too is Harold and I said we would have a special business meeting on the 18th, which would be next week, but we're not really prepared at this point to go ahead with the meeting on the 18th.

So we want to postpone that, and we will let you know about that. Do be in prayer for us as leaders that we do what the Lord wants. And so we need your leading and guiding in your prayers. Feel free to talk with us and let us know your thoughts and so forth.

We welcome that. With all of that said, if you will stand with me, and I'll start by opening in prayer first of all, and then we will sing, I Will Sing of My Redeemer. Our Heavenly Father and our God, we come before your throne this morning, and we especially uphold Richard in the loss of his brother.

We would pray, Heavenly Father, that you would comfort both he and each of their children during this time. Pray that you would comfort Richard and the family, and we would thank you for it, Lord. We would ask prayer also for Faith Bible Church, that you might have your will and way in all that we would be doing.

You know our future, Lord, and we would ask that you would guide and direct us, that we might know your leading in all of these things. And we thank you, Lord, that we have you. We think of all of those that are here today.

We would pray, Heavenly Father, that you would speak to each one of our hearts through your word and through the songs that we sing, and we'll thank you and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I Will Sing of My Redeemer.

Look at that chorus. Go back to the chorus once. There's the whole gospel rolled up in that chorus. Am I right? I'm going to sing of my Redeemer. And a Redeemer is someone who's paid a price for us, right?

With his blood he purchased us, and he purchased us on the cross with his shed blood. Am I right? He paid the debt and set us free. Right? The gospel rolled up in that whole chorus. It's an older song, but love the words there.

Okay, sorry to interrupt her.

Okay, verse 2. Let's tell the wondrous story.

The Setting for 1 Samuel and the Call to Read Ahead

What you need for this morning is found in 1 Samuel 1 verses 1 through 18. 1 Samuel 1 verses 1 through 18. Now there was a certain man of Ramah on the flank of Mount Ephraim. His name was Elkanah, the son of Jorahim, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zephite.

And he had two wives. One was Hannah, and he had named the other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. And this man went up out of the city, nearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of Hosts in Shallow.

And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. And the temple was at Elkanah offered he gave to Peninnah, his wife, and to all of his sons, daughters, portions. Unto 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 a threat, because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as she did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so he provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat.

Then said Elkanah, her husband, to her, Hannah, why weepest thou? And why eatest thou not? Why is thy heart grieved? Am not I better to thee than ten sons? So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shallow, and after they had drunk.

Now Eli, the priest, sat upon a seat by a post at the temple of the Lord. And she was embittered as a soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed her vows, and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look upon a picture of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but give unto thine handmaid a man, a child, never give unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.

And it came to pass, as she continued to pray before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.

And Eli said unto her, how long wilt thou be drunken? Pray thy wine for me. And Hannah answered and said, no, my Lord, I am a woman of a selfless spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have put out my song before the Lord.

Cannot thine handmaid for daughter be vile, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Then Eli answered and said, go in peace, and the God of Israel will grant thee the petition that thou hast asked of him.

And she said, let thine handmaid find grace in thine sight. So the woman went her way, and her countenance was no more sad. May the Lord have the blessing to believe his word.

I'm going to tell you, if you know anything about public speaking, what Jim just did takes a lot of courage, amen? I mean, I prayed when I sent that scripture reading out, those are some hard names to pronounce.

And I prayed for whoever Jack had scheduled to read today, because man, there are some names in the Old Testament. And I'll tell you who nailed every single one was Pastor Stan. I'm telling you, I have never heard a guy that could just pronounce every one of those Old Testament, because, you know, he was Jewish, right?

So he knew the language, and that was a real blessing hearing him. So thank you so much, Jim. We want to go to the Lord now and pray for our country. Every Sunday we're doing that. If you know anything about what's going on in the United States and the world, not just with COVID, but with the election.

We were coming down here on the way from our church on Sunrise Boulevard, and there were political rallies in the parking lots of stores. Huge groups of people waving flags and blowing horns and everything else.

We need to be praying for our country and also for Richard's losing his brother like that. Yeah, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we're so thankful for this day that we can come together as a church family.

God, we're thankful for your will that you cause all things to work together for our good. We do understand, God, that we rejoice in the Lord, that you make no mistakes. You knoweth each path, every step that we take.

You know what's going on in this country, Father. We pray, Father, for your grace in the United States of America. Father, we follow Daniel's example, and we confess the sins of this nation. We confess the sins of the church, God.

You know the compromises that are going on in the church. You know, Father, how the gospel has been watered down to the point that all somebody has to do to be saved is to pray a prayer over the television.

And they think that they've become a Christian simply because they prayed a prayer, God. Not knowing anything about your holiness, not knowing anything about how our sin separates us from a holy God, not knowing anything about the fact that Christ does and did it all, that his death was a final payment for all sin.

His resurrection, Father God, demonstrates the power that you have, Father God, over sin and death. So, Lord, we thank you that the gospel and your word is still with us in this country. We pray, Father God, that as we get closer and closer to this election, as governors exercise powers that the state constitutions have not given them, as we've seen already in court cases going on around this country, God, that you would pour your mercy and your grace out on this land.

We pray, especially, God, that you might give Christians a burden to share the gospel. That as people are concerned about the future, Father, that we would be able to point them to Christ and point them to the hope of the gospel.

You give us the peace that passes all understanding. You tell us to be anxious for nothing but in everything with prayer and supplication and thanksgiving to let our requests be made known to you. And the peace of God that passes all understanding will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

What a promise to stand on, God. We're standing on the promises of God. Lord, we pray for Richard. We know, Father God, with his various situations going on in his life, how upset he is. Pray for your peace, God, that only you can give.

Lord, for our church family, for those that cannot be here, we pray for them, God, for Wayne, God, all the things that he is going through health-wise. And for Emma, Father God, as she really has a labor of love for her mother and for her father, the way she takes care of them, God, just strengthen her.

And just others in our church, Father, that I don't see very often, and I think of Vierna, Father, and just her transportation issues. God, so good to see Mrs. Hunt and her daughter from Petaluma, God, meeting her today.

And thank you for this time of worship, God, for your wonderful blessings. May it be a time that we exalt Christ and that God is glorified, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.

Stand again with us as we continue to sing. And our next song that we're going to sing is He Will Hold Me Fast. Aren't you glad that the Lord keeps his promises? Amen. He will hold me fast. Promises at such a cost.

He will hold me fast. Christ will hold me fast. Justice has been satisfied. Raised with him, said the Lord. Wouldn't you rather have Jesus? Even when you think of all the things going on in the world today, if you said you'd rather have him than silver or gold, someone would say, well...

No, we need to realize that if we have any silver and gold, it came from somebody besides me. And I thank the Lord every day for life and for health. He's the life giver, number one. But he also, anything that we have, the comforts of this life, he allows, and I thank him for it.

I'd rather have Jesus. Last home hymn was written by George Beverly Shea. He's the songster for Billy Graham for many years. Actually, I'm going to change. I'm going to really throw you off.

You ready? Go to the table of contents. The very front of the Bible to the table of contents. And I encourage you also at this time to have your notes. We have some sermon notes. So, it was really neat to hear at least one of you took my challenge from last Sunday and read the book of Ruth this week.

Two of you, actually, early. Three, four, five, six, seven. Amen, I see those hands. That's wonderful. And I hope and pray, and Tim read it too. So, I hope it made a lot more sense after hearing the message.

And I don't know that I'm going to challenge you to read the 31 chapters of 1 Samuel. But guess what? I'm going to take two weeks to do 1 Samuel. So, you only have to read 16 chapters this week or 15 and then 15 or 16 next week.

And you know what? What a way to give yourself a goal to be in the Word of God than this sermon series, okay? So, I encourage you. Two weeks in 1 Samuel. You have two weeks to read 31 chapters. And the book will open up so much more richer to you if you do that.

So, anyway, I want to encourage you. I'm not going to, like, check on you. Who's there? It's Pastor John. What do you want? Did you do your reading? That's not going to happen. Well, let's pray. Father, thank you so much for your Word and just the joy and the comfort that comes from being together like we are.

We pray for those that cannot be here that are perhaps watching the video last week, 63 views. I don't know who's looking at them. I didn't realize there was that many people in the church. So, Lord, thank you for that.

And pray that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher, that Christ would be exalted. And so thankful, God, for the richness of your Word and our ability to be here together. Thank you for that in Jesus' name.

Amen. Well, let me just encourage you. Churches all over the country are meeting again, and nobody's getting COVID from those services. They're singing. They're together. They're hugging. And I've got, I mean, I'm on email lists all over the place, and many, many, many of those churches, no COVIDs, nothing.

We're talking months and months and months of this. So continue to pray for our country and what the impact that this virus is having on people's lives. There are definitely risk groups, older, overweight, you know, diabetes.

Yes, we understand that. Asthma, big, big issue with people with asthma. Other than that, God is good. Amen. Now, I want to get us oriented to where we are in the history of Israel, okay? You remember I taught you this little thing to the outline of the Old Testament, remember that?

Five books of the law, right? Five books of the law. Twelve books of history. Five books of what I like wisdom, but you might, your study Bible might say five poetic books. Five major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Ezekiel.

They're the major prophets. Then you have your pinky, the twelve minor prophets. And that's always a misnomer. So, if you think of the twelve minor prophets, understand that they're not minor. They're just as important.

Obadiah, short little book, just as important as Isaiah. As big as Isaiah is, 66 chapters in the book of Isaiah. Just as important. First John, second John, third John, just a wee little epistle in the New Testament is just as important as the gospel because it's God's word.

You understand that? It's included in God's word, so it's important. It's authoritative. So, five books of the law. You can always remember the outline of the Old Testament if you can do this. If you can do this with your fingers, you're good.

Five books of the law, twelve books of history, five wisdom books or poetic books, Job, Proverbs, Psalms, Song of Solomon, five major prophets, twelve minor prophets, okay? And remember, they're not minor.

Right? They're just shorter, most of them. Okay. So we left off, we left off with Ruth last week, and this week we're doing 1 Samuel. So look at your table of contents and get a sense of where we are.

You have the five books of the law and at Deuteronomy. Then we start the twelve books of history. We've done Joshua, we've done Judges, and we've done Ruth, okay? Now we're dealing with these twelve historical books that deal with the history of God's chosen people in the Old Testament.

People just like us in the New Testament. Old Testament, Old Covenant people. Old Covenant was essentially the same as the New Covenant because Abraham was saved by faith just like we are. Right? Abraham was saved by faith just like we are, and Abraham proved, Abraham proved the genuineness of his faith by his obedience, even to the point of taking his son Isaac up to that mountain and preparing to sacrifice him.

How about that? That is one of the most powerful stories for me in the Old Testament, is the story of Abraham taking his son Isaac up to that mountain, literally tying him down onto a pile of rocks, lifting the knife over him, and then God providing the sacrifice just as He promised.

Amazing thing, right? So God's chosen people. Now, if you look in your notes, I gave you a quick overview of the history of Israel, okay? When you think of the Old Testament, there's three main time periods.

First, there is the period of theocracy. This is where God ruled over Israel through men like Moses and Joshua, who followed Him, right? So, theocracy with God ruling. Then we have a period of monarchy, okay?

Monarchy. And this is when Israel is ruled by kings, and there's some overlap there from the book of Judges, and you'll see that we're still in the time period of the book of Judges at the beginning of 1 Samuel.

So we have theocracy, God's rule, monarchy, kings, and then a period of dependency where Israel was in captivity, and they were ruled by foreigners, by the Assyrians, by the Babylonians, okay? Now, in the books of history, we've covered Joshua, Judges, and Ruth, and now we come to this section of six books that very often, listen, for those of you that are not familiar with the Old Testament, you haven't read through the Old Testament, you struggle.

I've tried to read the Old Testament, John, but man, I get so discouraged when I get to some of these books. I just don't understand what's going on. Look at them in the table of contents. 1 Samuel, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles.

There's a lot of overlap between these six books, and it can sometimes seem when you read these books as rich as they are that there is a bit of a maze. For example, when you get to these six books, you run into some more Judges, and you say to yourself, wait a minute, I thought we were done with Judges.

Samuel was a Judge. He was also a prophet. He was also served as a priest, and when you're a new Christian or you haven't really read through your Bible enough, it can get a little confusing. In these books, believe it or not, you meet 40 different Kings.

40? Yeah, 40 different Kings. In these books, in these six books, the kingdom of Israel splits into 10 tribes to the north, two tribes to the south, and the northern tribes are called Israel, and the southern tribes are called Judah.

So you see this flipping around where God sometimes is referring to His chosen people as Israel. Sometimes He's referring to them as Judah, and sometimes He's referring to them as Jacob. And you go, oh, man, this is so much to follow.

I'm not sure I can do this. In these books, the temple is built, and when the tabernacle was built, the average Christian, including this one, gets confused because the tabernacle, you've got all these measurements, all these cubits of this and cubits of that and pomegranates of this and gold lace and this and that, and you start getting confused.

Come on, admit it. And you're just like, okay, I want to get to the New Testament. You know, Jesus loves me. This I know for the Bible tells me so. Can't I just grow as a Christian with that? Yeah, you can.

And then, so we get to the temple, and we got all these different kinds of stones, and we got gold here, gold there, lavers, things we've never even heard of, and the average Christian, including me, you sit there and you scratch your head.

So I'm just preparing you. I'm gonna do two weeks on 1 Samuel just to give us time to digest it, okay? And then we'll pick up speed as we get to 1 and 2 Kings. What do you think Kings is about, by the way?

Kings, right, good. And then 1 and 2 Chronicles, what's a chronicle, a record, right? So Samuel, who do you think Samuel's mostly about, both books? Samuel, right, God. Very good answer, by the way. The whole Bible's about God.

1 and 2 Kings, you get into 40 different kings. 1 and 2 Chronicles, same 40 kings, just a different record of those kings, okay? So breathe in. Let's go to 1 Samuel. So two weeks. Two weeks, one of the reasons is just the historical significance of this book, okay?

It is a transitional book that records this transition from the judges, the period of judges, to the monarchy. So you have the theocracy moving into the monarchy in 1 Samuel, okay? This transition from judges and the theocracy with Moses and Joshua.

Remember, God spoke directly to Moses. He spoke directly to Joshua, told him what to do, theocracy, right? Now we go to kings, right? And judges, you had the same thing. You had God speaking to Gideon, right?

You had God speaking to Samson. Now, in 1 Samuel, you have three offices. This is big, so please pay attention or write it down. In 1 Samuel, you have three offices, and I think I put them in your notes.

I don't remember. All three of these offices, listen, point to Jesus Christ and are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. You have three offices through which God works in the life of Israel. All three are pointing to the ministry of Jesus Christ.

All three point to and then are fulfilled in Jesus Christ. One of them is the priestly office. One of them is the prophetic office. In 1 Samuel, we're introduced more fully to the office of the prophet through the man Samuel.

And then we come into some documents recording the establishment of the first king of Israel. All three of those offices point to and are fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. God is constantly sending this message that what we have isn't enough.

The greater the fulfillment is coming, okay? The offer is really unknown. Most likely Samuel wrote most of it, but when you get to the last chapters, he's passed away and we're still in 1 Samuel, and then we get to 2 Samuel, right?

The time period in the history that it covers is roughly 200 years from 1100 to 970 BC. The theme of the book, if you want an overarching theme, is transition. Transition from the theocracy more fully into the monarchy.

The book traces the transition of the leadership of Israel from the judges to leadership of Israel by kings. Now, what about the message? If you were going to tell somebody after church, what's the message of 1 Samuel?

It's right underneath the title in your notes. God should be king and men should lead. God should be king and men should lead. And I want to give you a moment to think about that statement. Let it run over your mind.

God should be king. See, we need to understand, as we move forward through this message today, that the one, true, all-powerful, loving God that's all-knowing and omniscient, His will and plan for mankind and for His creation is for Him to be king.

That's why Jesus said, I'm king of kings and what? Lord of lords. Now, we have to have that truth fixed in our minds. And I'm going to tell you something. If you've been a Christian any length of time, you know that God's word can sting a little sometimes and even hurt.

And I want to say something to all the men here. And remember, as I say this, it's not me saying it. It's God. Okay? We got that? One of the biblical truths that the office of king in the Old Testament points to and teaches is that all men in the body of Christ are called to be leaders.

Men have been designated by God to be leaders in their homes and in their churches. Can ladies lead? Yes, in their role. But men are the head of the home and men are to be the head of the church. 1 Samuel communicates the message that the one true, loving, all-powerful, and all-knowing God, His desire and His plan and His will is to rule and reign over our lives and men should lead.

That's the book. Now, in this book, there's four men that are key players. Ah, I wonder why I brought up this man thing. Because there's four men that are the main... You may think Hannah's big. No, no.

There's four men. They are the main players. God is always the player, right? He's the protagonist, right? Sometimes you see Him, sometimes you don't. You've got Eli the priest. You have Samuel the judge, who was priest and also prophet.

You have Saul, the first king of Israel. And then you have David, the second king. And in 1 Samuel, you find the record of Israel crying out... Listen, you have Israel crying out for a king as God is telling them, I want to be your king.

I am to be king over my chosen people. And yet they're sitting there calling out for a king. That is the background. It's running all the way through. That men were to be the leaders and they failed. And God kept trying to say, don't you understand?

Men are always going to fail you. Look to me, right? Wow, I'm going to run out of time today. So the lives of Eli, Samuel, Saul, and David demonstrate the critical importance of men leading. God has called men to be leaders.

So that is the message. God should be king and men should lead. But sadly, as the Bible is so brutally honest, there's no other book, holy book of any religion in the history of the human race that is as honest as the Bible is about our failures.

David, a man after God's own heart, has an adulterous relationship. What kind of God is that? A God that is transparent. Amen? I'm glad that I follow this God because he's honest about my failures and his love and everything else.

I could just go on and on. But because of the fall of man, because of disobedience and for other reasons, the human race does not follow God's plan. So the outline of the book that we're going to follow is these three key leaders, right?

Number one, if you want to follow along in your notes, and there's two sides to it, there should be anyway. I checked most of them. The first leader is Samuel, who was a judge, a priest, and a prophet.

So the three sections of 1 Samuel, as you say, God, help me to read 16 chapters this week, or 15, and then I'll do 16 next week. And some of them are short, by the way. You can get through them quick.

Three sections divided up by these men who were leaders. And the first section, chapters 1 through 7, carry on the history of Israel recorded in the book of Judges. So Ruth and the book of Judges kind of overlap with 1 Samuel in terms of the timeline of Israel's history.

And the stage is set in the opening verses of the book. And Jim did a fantastic job, thank you Jim, for reading through all those difficult names. If you look at verse 1, you have Alcana. Alcana, we're told in verse 1, has two wives.

One's Hannah, and one is Penana. I call her Penana because she's a pain. That's not the correct pronunciation. She was constantly picking on Hannah, okay? And that had to do with the stigma, the stigma of Hannah not having children.

In those days, you don't have a kid. It's like being a single woman today, right? Come on, ladies, you know a little bit about that? I mean, I remember as a single man, everybody was, I have the sweetest cousin.

I have this granddaughter. But that's nothing compared to not having children in this day, okay? It's no big deal. I didn't get married until I was what, honey? Old. Yeah, thank you. What was I, 40? Do you remember?

Yeah, she knows all these dates. You know, doesn't it shock you? Ladies, I have to tell you, you're amazing. I'll have my daughter say, it's so-and-so's birthday. We haven't talked about the person in 11 months.

And Johanna or Jackie say, it's so-and-so's birthday, or Janet, it's so-and-so's anniversary. We have to remember. You're amazing, ladies. Amazing with how you remember those dates. I have to send myself three emails every year to remember our anniversary.

You can do that with Google. You schedule them, and then you get these emails, and then what do you do? You delete them and forget to read them. So Elkana has two wives. No, it's not an argument for polygamy.

One is Panana, one is Hannah. Panana has children. What a pain. Hannah didn't. Now, understand, Elkana was a devout man. He went up yearly to offer sacrifices at the tabernacle in Shiloh. Look at verse 4.

Whenever the time came for Elkana to make an offering, he would give portions to Panana, his wife, and all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah, he would give a double portion. He loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb.

And her rival also provoked her severely. By the way, you know what that is in the original Hebrew? She was a big pain. That's what that means. Provoked her severely, making her miserable. I could add to you mocking her, putting her down, because the Lord had closed her womb.

So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord that she, Panana, provoked her. Therefore, Hannah wept and did not eat. Now, I'm going to tell you something. If that does not grip your heart at the cruelty of human beings, would you do me a favor?

Would you go see a mechanic and get your heart gripper checked out? Can you imagine worshiping the Lord and having this woman mocking you, ridiculing you, putting you down, simply because the Lord had not given you children?

So we're introduced to Samuel's mother, Hannah, his father, Elkanah. And basically the whole of the book pivots around this man, Samuel, who served the Lord as a judge, a priest, and as a prophet. And the first aspect of Samuel's life that we want to look at is his birth, and that goes from 1 -1 through 2 -11.

Hannah is longing for a son. Her sorrow at being childless and Panana, mocking has brought her low. She enters the tabernacle with a heavy burden. She pours out her heart to God, and God honors her prayer and gives her a child.

And in her prayer, she makes a promise. Look at verse 11. Then she made a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a male child, then I will do this.

I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head. And that has to do with the Nazarite vow, which I don't have time to cover. So Hannah is faithful to that promise, presents this son to Eli the priest for service at the tabernacle.

Now, you have this big event of Samuel being born, right? And now parallel to that, going alongside this, is this picture of Israel's spiritual temperature, showing how lukewarm and even cold Israel's relationship and obedience to God had become by this point in their history.

For example, Eli, the priest, mistakes Hannah's devotion for drunkenness and rebukes her. Verse 13, Hannah spoke in her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Look at this guy. This is the priest.

Therefore, Eli thought she was drunk. Can you imagine me showing up at your door for a pastoral visit, which is kind of hard to do with COVID, right? And I knock on the door, and I wake you up. And I think, I'm so unspiritual and so low-life that when you open the door and kind of go...

So what are you doing, drinking? I mean, think about that. What does love say? Think the best of people, not the worst. And here's the priest, the guy that should love her the most, that has seen her year after year after year praying out, and he thinks, oh, you're drunk.

One of the possible reasons is Israel was in so much decline, and if you remember, they had not wiped out the Canaanites. So the Canaanites were still influencing them, just like God warned them, right?

And you know what was part of the Canaanite worship, the pagan worship of that day? Getting drunk and going to church. How about that? Tie one on and go to church. That's how the Canaanites worshipped.

They had all kinds of horrible things that they did in their worship of the pagan gods. And God said, if you didn't clear the pagan practices, it's going to work its way into your religion. A little leaven leavens the whole loaf.

You want a lesson for today? Look at the churches around us. Some of you don't experience this, because I'm going to tell you, you're in a solid church. I'm here because of the testimony, the Christlike testimony of Victor and Barbara Arnett and Harold and Debbie Huffon, and Stan Bernstein and Laura Bernstein.

That's why we're here. You have no idea what's going on in churches today, how they brought God down to the street level, where it's all about me and not about God. I mean, I could go on and on. And this is exactly what has happened to Israel.

We see more and more. Eli is lacking as a spiritual leader. As you read through the book, he suffers the consequences for that lack of leadership. His sons die early deaths under the judgment of God. Then Eli dies.