First Samuel was started today. It records the establishment of Israel’s monarchy, about 1050 B.C. Samuel led Israel many years in the combined roles of prophet, priest, and judge. After the people demanded a king like those in the other nations, God directed Samuel to anoint Saul as Israel’s first king. When Saul turned from God, David was anointed by Samuel to succeed him.
After David killed the giant Goliath, he was brought to Saul’s court, eventually becoming the leader of Saul’s armies. Saul’s subsequent violent jealousy forced David to flee. The book closes with Saul’s death in battle, and looks forward to David’s reign.
Samuel not only anointed Israel’s first two kings, but he gave definition to the new order of God’s rule over Israel that began with the incorporation of kingship into its structure. Samuel’s importance of God’s representative in this period of Israel’s history is close to that of Moses since he, more than any other person, provided for covenant continuity in the transition from the rule of the judges to that of the monarchy.
1 and 2 Samuel were originally one book, but it was divided into two parts as it was being translated. The title of the book has also varied from time to time. First Samuel’s author is unknown, but Samuel himself may have written portions of the book.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we need to first understand who Samuel was. Today’s reading started off with the birth of Samuel. His father’s name was Elkanah, and he had two wives. One wife was named Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah could not.
Every year Elkanah would go up to Shiloh to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests. On the day when Elkanah would sacrifice, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, even though she could not have children. Peninnah, her rival, used to provoke grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb.
This went on year after year. As often as she would go to the house of the Lord, she would provoke her. Hannah wept and would not eat. When they were in Shiloh, Hannah was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. Making a vow to the Lord that if He gave her a son, she would give him to the Lord for all the days of his life.
Eli the priest saw this, and as she continued praying, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Eli assumed she was drunk.
Hannah assured him she was not and explained how she was pouring her heart and soul out to the Lord. Eli told her to go in peace and that the God of Israel would grant her petition.
They rose early in the morning and worshiped before heading back home. Elkanah knew his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called him Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.”
The man Elkanah was going up to Shiloh for his yearly sacrifice to the Lord, but his wife Hannah did not go. She said that once the baby was weaned, she would go, taking her son there to live forever.
Once she had nursed the baby and weaned him, she took Samuel and her offerings to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. She presented her child and explained how she was the woman who prayed for this and it was granted. She lent Samuel to the Lord for as long as he lived. Then Hannah prayed.
Now the sons of Eli were worthless men and did not know the Lord. The customs of the priests with the people was to take a three-pronged fork and thrust it into the pan/kettle/cauldron/pot when the sacrifice was boiling. All that the fork brought up would be for the priest to take for himself.
However, they only wanted to take the meat before the fat was burned; for they would not accept boiled meat, only raw. Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.
Samuel was ministering before the Lord, clothed in a linen ephod. Every year his mother used to make one for him, and take it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Then Eli would bless them and hope the Lord gave them children as she had petitioned.
Indeed the Lord had visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. The young man Samuel grew in the presence of the Lord.
Eli was very old at this point, and he kept hearing all the things his sons were doing to all of Israel. They would lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. Eli said to them, “If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?”
But they would not listen to the voice of their father, and it was the will of the Lord to put them to death.
Now the young man Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and with man.
In this time, there came a man of God to Eli and told him how the day was coming when He would cut off the strength of their house until there would not be an old man in it forever. The house of Eli and all its descendants would be destroyed by the sword of men. His two sons Hophni and Phinehas would die on the same day as a sign.
The Lord would then raise up a faithful priest, who would do according to what was in His heart and mind. He would build him a sure house, and he would go in and out before the anointed forever.
Samuel was ministering under Eli when he heard his name being called. He went to Eli and said, “Here I am,” but Eli said he hadn’t called him. This happened two more times, when Eli told him it was probably the Lord’s voice calling to him.
The next time Samuel heard it he said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” With that the Lord told Samuel everything He planned to do in Israel to the house of Eli.
In the morning, Eli told Samuel that he must tell him everything the Lord had said to him. So he did and Eli responded with, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”
Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him. All Israel knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord.