Young Samuel & Old Eli

Introduction

Why would anyone today want to study the Old Testament? After all it is OLD! What possible point could it have for us today? And why would Christians be interested in it? Isn’t it really a Jewish book?

Keep in mind that the Old Testament was already old even in the first century AD when Paul the Apostle was writing his letters. In his first letter to the Christians at Corinth, Paul rehearses the events of the Old Testament, and then he says they are important for two related reasons:

They were examples, so we won’t repeat the mistakes we see there. (1 Cor. 10:6) People sometimes complain that the Bible, especially the O.T., is full of horrible things not worthy of God. There are some very bad events recounted there, but we are supposed to learn what not to do from these!

They are warnings. As Paul puts it (1 Cor. 10:11), "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come." This "on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come" means to us Christians. So there are things we Christians need to learn from the O.T.

One last point of introduction which is about the setting of 1 Samuel. This book takes up where the book of Judges leaves off. It was a time when, as Judges 21:25 says, "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit." It doesn’t mean the was anarchy in Israel. If just means that the nation was led by these people called "judges" (a succession of them) and was more of a confederation than a kingdom. Samuel was the last of these "judges" and 1 Samuel explains how and why he was the last of them.

The Book of Samuel opens with events surrounding the birth, and even conception, of Samuel.

Polygamy - Samuel’s mother is one of two wives of a man named Elkanah. (Hebrew names always sound strange to me - this one always makes me think of a herd of elk grazing. But notice it begins with "El" which a reference to one of the names of God in Hebrew. You will this a lot in Hebrew names. This name means "God has created.")

Here is something that has gotten people stirred up about the O.T. There are many examples of polygamy in the O.T. Does that mean it’s a good thing? Should we all become old-fashioned Mormons, gentlemen, with multiple wives? Or maybe you ladies might be interested in polyandry!

When you look at the way polygamy is presented here, you learn something important. It was not a good thing. The two wives are described as "rivals" - that’s far from a pretty picture. Hannah, the mother-to-be of Samuel was tormented by the other wife. On top of that, it appears that Elkanah is more affectionate toward Hannah than toward his other wife. This might explain why the other wife resented Hannah.

In fact, while there are many examples of polygamy in the O.T., we find that none of these examples present it in a good light. The point is, it is one of those negative examples we get from the O.T. It is there so we can learn what NOT to do!

The Importance of children

Hannah was moved to tears over the fact that she had no children. When you read 1:8 and find Elkanah saying to his wife, "Am I not better than ten sons?" I think you have to see him with a sly grin on his face, trying to lighten up a sad situation with a little teasing.

So was all this despondency over the lack of children just some Jewish cultural thing, or is there a lesson to be learned here as well? There is a recurring theme in the O.T. that children are a blessing from God.

Right now, European countries are being depopulated by low birth rates. Japan is now declining in population and wondering what to do about it. The United States is barely above break-even. There are many reasons for this, but one is the fact that we have begun to think that children are a bad thing rather than a blessing. I’ll leave that one for you to ponder.

God "remembered" Hannah.

Hannah made the proverbial "deal" with God. If God would give her a child, she would give the child to God’s service at the temple. When Hannah makes this "deal" with God she promises, "No razor will ever touch his head." This was a way of saying the Samuel would be what was called a Nazarite, a special order of people who served God in some unique way. Samson, from the judges, was one of these. A Nazarite never cut his hair, never touched wine, and never had contact with anything dead.

Was the "deal" with God a good thing? Notice that we never read that it was good, just that it is what Hannah did. But God responded anyway, He did "remember" Hannah and she conceived. (1:19) This doesn’t mean that God might be a little forgetful. It does mean that God was, in ways of which we don’t know the details, making sure that Hannah got her son.

Samuel's ministry in the temple (actually, the tabernacle, which is a sort of portable temple was "parked" at the town called Shiloh)

And when Samuel was "weaned" Hannah took him to the temple. Now to us "weaned" usually means something like "able to eat solid food." That is not what it means here, however. It means something along the lines of "able to live on his own." So while Samuel was probably a young boy when his mother took him to the temple, he was not a baby as we might think. (Samuel’s name - notice the "el" and the end - means "name of God.")

Samuel goes to be an "apprentice" under Eli (2:11). From 1 Chronicles 6:26 we know that Samuel is a descendant of Levi, which is the correct tribe for service in the temple.

In response to what God has done, Hannah offers this beautiful prayer found in 2:1-10.

Eli's sons

Now our attention is turned from Samuel to the sons of Eli.

Eli was an example - and again, this is a negative example - of sad situation. He seems to be a good man who himself served faithfully as a priest. But his sons were neither good nor faithful.

Sins of the sons

They refused to follow the sacrificial procedures in order to satisfy their own tastes 2:21-17.

Their "gang" (vs. 16) would coerce those who came to worship and wanted to follow proper procedure for sacrifices.

They fornicated with the women servants of the temple (vs.22) -- something like the minister who fools around with the church secretary!

They refused to listen to their father, who was also high priest and thus their boss in the temple duty.

You get the impressions from 2:23-25 that these boys had gotten away with things their whole lives. Eli had some guilt in this matter as is seen in 2:29 where God aks Eli, "why do you honor your sons more than Me?" Someday many of you will be parents. If you let your children have their way when they are young, they will keep having their way when they are older, and it will often be the wrong way. When that happens you will be in one of the most miserable positions possible in life. I am thankful not to know this first-hand, but we have friends in this position, and it is miserable at best.

By the end of chapter two, God has told Eli through a "man of God" - that is, a prophet, one who speaks for another - that He (God) is going to remove Eli’s family from the priesthood.