I SAMUEL CHAPTER ONE

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“From the Hebrew name שְׁמוּאֵל (Shemu'el), which could mean either "name of God" or "God has heard".”

In I Samuel we are told that Samuel’s father was Elkanah. He had two wives : Hannah and Peninnah. The first was preferred to the second one but she had no children when the second one had. And peninnah taunted Hannah because of that. So Hannah prayed God and asked him a male child and promised to offer him to God. So he would serve In God’s temple. When the boy is weaned Hannah brings him to the temple and to Eli the high priest.

The Bible tells us about Job when he is old and mature, Daniel starting when he is a young adult and Samuel when he is a child. Quite interesting to compare the three examples!

 

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And there's a lot to learn when we are young even if you need time to approach wisdom or get a piece of it!

 

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Samuel is going to see straight away goodness and badness, he will choose goodness. He is away from his family but God is with him!

 

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It's a good start for Samuel because his parents are faithful! And he is going to serve God in the House of God! And his mother is going to visit him every year to encourage him!

 

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Right at the beginning Samuel is going to be in touch with God, not only by working in his house but during his sleep! How impressive for a child! Job and Daniel didn't have such an experience! i can imagine it would stay in his mind for ever!

 

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I Samuel 2

Hannah is thankful to God for the son she has received. Then we are told about Eli the priest and his two sons. But they are bad men living in the House of God. They don’t care about the offerings to God, they take what they want, they do what they want in front of the Jews who come to the temple. It seems to be that there are no limits to their depravation! Hannah gets three more sons and two daughters! Eli is getting older and he knows that his sons are acting badly and having sex with women. Eli tries to make them change their way. So a man of god comes and warns Eli and tells him that his two sons are going to die and God will replace them by a faithful priest.

 

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In each story we always find goodness and badness. Both are on each side of the border, each one enhances the other. It's a kind of two dimensional situation. It also helps us to visualize where we are. Hannah is loved by her husband and she is hated by her husband's other wife. There are bad priests in the temple of God and Samuel arrives!

 

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Sadly, the House of God is not a good place because of Eli's sons! And they are really bad! Many people would wonder what's going on! But we live in a human society and if we serve God we are not going to stop because of other human beings otherwise it's better to stop all at once and go and live on a desert island!

 

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Think about the difference when people learn a language when they are young and when they are teenagers or adults: it makes a big difference!

 

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I Samuel 3

At this time God didn’t communicate with people anymore especially through visions (it’s quite rare). At night, while asleep, Samuel hears someone calling him. So he goes to Eli, thinking that it is he who calls him. It happens three times but Samuel hasn’t been in touch with God till now. Eli realizes it is God who speaks to Samuel. He tells Samuel to answer God and listen to him. And God tells Samuel to tell Eli that he is going to destroy his family because he didn’t do anything against his sons. And Samuel keeps growing with God’s favor.

 

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So Samuel gets into contact with God as a young boy through a vision: impressive! God talks to him in a vision! Something really unusual!

 

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I Samuel 4

There is a battle between Israel and the Philistines who killed 4000 men. The Jews don’t understand why God let them be defeated. So the next day they decide to take with them the Ark of God’s covenant. The two sons of Eli are present. Once again the Jews are defeated: this time the Philistines killed 30 000 men. They also captured the Ark and the two sons of Eli are killed. When he gets the news, Eli falls and dies.
That’s the traditional chorus in the Bible: when Israel forgets the covenant with God, they are struck, when they follow it, they win. The problem is that most of the time, they don’t follow it! After a long period of time and the misbehavior of Israel, the Jews lose God’s approval. End of the story! And this modern world follows the same pattern! We had two world wars and now scientists have been warning the world leaders but they don’t care! Same chorus! The so called human authorities always start to act when it’s too late. But God’s patience has its limit: he won’t let them destroy his Earth we are just renting!

 

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This chapter reminds us that it is not possible to play with God! He is patient but his patience has limits!

 

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1 Samuel 5

The Philistines take the Ark of the true God to the house of their god Dagon. The next morning Dagon is down; The next morning Dagon is in pieces. Then God strikes the people where the house of Dagon is. So they ask the Ark to be moved so they move it to another place called Gath, then to Ekron but each time the city is in big trouble. So they want to bring it back where it was at the beginning.

 

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Same for the jews, same for the Philistines!

 

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1 Samuel 6

So the Philistines offer a guilt offering to get away from God’s anger before sending back the Ark. But when it arrives 50,070 people died because they had looked upon the Ark.

 

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We must never forget God’s will and try to think as he thinks not as we think!

 

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1 Samuel 7

Finally the Ark comes back to the Jews. They spent 20 years away from God. Samuel tells them to get rid all what they have regarding the false God and come back to God and they will be saved from the Philistines. Samuel gathers the people. So the philistines go to fight against Israel and God permits Israel to win. And it gets back all the cities of Israel from the philistines. Israel makes also peace with the Amorites. And Samuel judges Israel throughout all his life.

 

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So the situation gets to normal because of Samuel and because he told the Jews to behave properly towards God and the Jews could see that he had God’s approval

 

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1 Samuel 8

We are not told about Job’s sons (how they behaved, we don’t know if Daniel had sons but Samuel had sons and he appointed them as judges for Israel (Joel and Abijah). But they went wrong (dishonest profit, bribes and perverted justice). We remember what happened with Eli and his sons but Samuel can’t avoid the same situation with his sons. So the Jews ask Samuel for a king like the other nations around. But Samuel is displeased because the Jews reject God as their king. But God tells him they have always done that since they left Egypt. So God tells Samuel to tell the Jews what will happen to them or how their king will exploit them. And they will ask for God’s help but he won’t listen to them. But the Jews don’t listen.