20260204 1 Samuel 1.10-16 Wednesday Bible Study Dave Dickmann

and we are gonna, we had some unanswered questions

last week, so we're gonna see if we can go through

this without having to write it on the board,

but if I need to, then I will. Okay, so let's

read these first three verses. Now these first

three verses are, an introduction to the story

of Samuel. Remember, that's the first story that

we have here. Now, there was a certain man of

Ramathiam Zophim of Mount Ephraim, and his name

was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu,

the son of Tohu, the son of Zuth, and Ephrathite.

And he had two wives. The name of the one was

Hannah, and the name of the other, Panina. And

Panina had children, but Hannah had no children.

And this man went up out of his city yearly to

worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of Hosts

and Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Haphne and

Phineas, the priests of the Lord, were there."

So, you can see why that's an introduction. It

pretty much gives us, at least in an introductory

way, a list of names, and then it gives us some

particular information about more information

about him. We know that Hannah had no children,

so on and so on. We know that Eli is there, Hockney

and Phineas, these are all people that are going

to feature in the story of Solomon here in the

first few chapters of the book. The question

is, what's going on there in that first verse?

We do have a genealogy. But the question is,

that we have to ask, is why is that genealogy

there? what is the author under the inspiration

of the Holy Spirit trying to tell us about Elkanah?

And I think it sounded to me as though some people

here were thinking that it was a genealogy for

the purpose of tracing the lineage back to maybe

Levi, if Samuel is a Levi. But that obviously

is not the purpose of the genealogy here. How

do we know that? It doesn't go back to Levi.

So if you were thinking that this was going to

prove or answer the question as to whether or

not Elkanah was a Levite, the answer is what?

No, it's not going to be there. So then the question

is, why is that genealogy there? It has to be

there for a reason. The Holy Spirit didn't put

it there for no reason at all. So we have all

these names here, so let's just go through them.

We have Ramatheem Zophim hyphenated. Now what

do we know about that if somebody has read first

Samuel before what is Ramatheim? The longer version

of the city name means two hills So that's what

Ramatheim means now. We have the shorter version

of Rama and who lives in Rama? In the book of

Samuel Nobody knows all right, then let's look

it up 1 Samuel chapter 1 verse 19 and then chapter

1 Samuel 1:19

2 verse 11 and chapter 2 verse 17. So somebody

tell me when you've got one of those references.

Did you say 119? Yes. I have that one. Okay.

And they rose up in the morning early and worshiped

before the Lord. and returned and came to their

house to Ramah, and Elkanah knew Hannah as wife

and will remember him. Okay, so who lives in

Ramah? Elkanah. And? Hannah. Okay. Alright, and

then who has chapter 2 verse 11? 1 Samuel 2,

11. Then Elkanah went to his house at Ramah with

the child ministers before before he lied to

the priests. Okay, and then 2, 17. You can read

it if you got it, Grace. Well, that's what I

wrote down. Doesn't necessarily mean it's right.

OK, well, I don't have. Okay, so I don't have

any more. It's also Samuel's home. Remember when

Saul goes to see him, that's where he goes to

see him. And remember he travels up to the city

and then what does he do? He goes to this high

place where Samuel is. That's where Samuel says

we're gonna go. So there's your two hills. So

there is the reason for the Ramathe in him. Now,

how many Ramas are there in Israel? Does anybody

know? Are there more than one? I don't know either.

There's at least two. So then we have, that's

the reason that we have this Zophim hyphenated

after Ramatheim. Now, what is, just from reading

the verse there, what does Zophim sound like,

a name there in the genealogy? Okay, very good.

It's okay, you can be brave. So, the reason for

the genealogy listed there and the reason that

it ends with Zuth is because this Rama is the

one in the territory of Zuth which was founded

by Alcana's, whatever that is, his great -great

-great -grandfather. All right, so then, so that's

the purpose of that genealogy. It's just a geographic

identifier in the first verse of the book here.

It's not any kind of justification for whether

or not Samuel is of the tribe of Levi. Now, there

is, so then we have in... Well, we have this

question here. Well, first of all, hopefully

we all know this, but if we don't, we'll learn

it. Where was the tribe of Levite located geographically

in Israel? Where was their territory located?

This is kind of a trick question. Okay, so where

did they live? Okay, they had what? Cities that

they were supposed to live in. And those cities,

then, would be within the geographic territories

of the other tribes. So then the question is,

when a census was taken or if a person was trying

to say where I'm from, geographically speaking,

a Levite could live, what, in Gad? He could live

in Ephraim. He could live within any of the tribes

or any of the cities where I forget what the...

It was Ephraim and it was... Gad and I can't

remember what the third prominent one was so

the fact that a Levi now remember back in judges

in the Post log there in the last few chapters

or arena about all the chaos we had Levi's there,

right and The Levi's were where they were in

Mount Ephraim So it's not it shouldn't be surprising

to us that there were Levi's living in the mountains

of Ephraim now Just for reference, the mountains

of Ephraim begin north in the territory that

was settled by or given to the tribe of Ephraim.

But they run out of that territory, and what

territory or clan, what tribe is to the south

of Ephraim? Everybody I'm sure has a Bible, and

your Bible has to have a map. Judah is definitely

south of Ephraim. We know that because we have

two tribes in the south. Has everybody got their

map out? So you can see that Dan kind of cuts

around and then we have the tribe of Benjamin

and then south of Benjamin we have Judah. So

the mountains then And you can see mine has Shiloh,

yours probably has Shiloh's also, in the tribe

of Ephraim. And then you can see Mizpah, you

see Gibeon, you see Bethel, Jericho, and Jerusalem

right there on the border between Benjamin and

Judah. And then you have Bethlehem a little bit

south of that. Just because he lived in the mountains

of Ephraim, that doesn't necessarily mean that

he was within the tribal territories of Ephraim.

Do you see that? Those mountains extend through

Ephraim, the south, into the tribe of Benjamin.

And then they do, they actually do, it's called

differently, but they do connect to the mountain

range in the tribe of Judah. Let's see. So this

Rama is the Rama of Bethlehem. Now let's look

at chapter 17, 1 Samuel 17, verse 12. And then

1 Samuel 17:12

you can turn back one, two, three pages to the

first chapter of Ruth, verse 2. Somebody read

that chapter 17 verse 12 and 1st Samuel when

they get it. Okay, so Ephrathite of Bethlehem

Judah, okay, so there we have the word Ephrathite

Now look at Ruth chapter 1 verse 2 And the name

Ruth 1:2

of the one was Elimelech and the name of his

wife Naomi and the name of his two sons Malon

and Chilean Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah They

came into the hill country of Moab and continued

there. So we see that that The hyphenate of Bethlehem

and epithite are connected, but they're in they're

in or of Bethlehem So that's what we have for

the Rama of Bethlehem Okay Okay, so I think that's

what I have to say about that first verse is

that Perfectly clear is as clear as mud to everyone.

Did you kind of follow it? Do you follow the

big picture at least? You follow that? Okay So

now that obviously leaves open the question of

whether or not and the reason that this came

up I think is last week I said that Samuel offers

sacrifices And so, when we get to that, is when

I had intended on talking about whether or not

that was legitimate, was that sin, was, you know,

why was it that Samuel was able to offer sacrifice?

And we will, and that's when we will talk about

it. Now, if you want to know if, for sure, if

Samuel was a Levite, then you can read that in

1 Chronicles 6 verse 7, I think. Something like

1 Chronicles 6:7

that. You can find it in First Chronicles. But

what we do want to, before we, and that's all

we're gonna say about that tonight. You'll have

to be patient or it's okay to do some more reading

and studying on your own. There's something to

be said then that in order to find out that Samuel

was a Levite, we have to go to a different book

of the Bible. So what conclusion or what can

we at least suspect if we can't say for sure

that we know now, about Samuel's lineage back

to Levi. How important was that to the author

of 1st Samuel's that we would know that? It wasn't

important at all. So that's the answer. On a

scale of 1 to 10, it was a zero. And the reason

for that is that he's not emphasizing at all

whether or not Samuel was a priest. It's interesting.

When I can come to a solid conviction about what

I think about the whole thing, and maybe after

I've talked to the other two elders, I can either

represent my view or our view on the whole thing.

But in Samuel, in the book of Samuel, we see

Samuel represented what? As a judge. He was a

judge. He is for sure a prophet. And he also

does priestly type stuff. He wears priestly clothes,

and he offers sacrifices. So all in one person,

then, we have prophet, priest, and king, at least

look like. Now, what do we have in David? He's

the other prominent character in Samuel. We have

David, who is a king, right? Judges are no more.

The monarch has been established. David's the

second king of Israel. So we have a king. David

wears a linen ephod, right? He kind of does priestly

things. At the end of the book, The last thing

in the book, you see David offering sacrifice.

So that's priestly things. Was he a priest? No.

And then also, there's no question that David's

a prophet. If you read his Psalms, there's undoubtedly,

there's no doubt at all that David's a prophet.

So in these two men, we have priest -like things,

king -like things, in the case of Samuel, all

represented in one. So at the very least, I think

we can say at the beginning, we're just going

to say this big picture that they are definitely

prophesying that Messiah to come is going to

be all three of these things ideally or perfectly.

He's going to be the perfect or the ideal king.

He's going to be the perfect or the ideal prophet.

And he's going to be the perfect and the ideal

priest. And so we look forward then from here

to the time of Christ when we can say we kind

of saw it here in types and shadows and we didn't

see it perfectly but now that Messiah Jesus has

come we see that perfectly represented all in

one man. Well he sits up there in Rama on the

hill And he judges. I mean, he's the closest

thing to a king that there is until we have kings.

So he's not a king, and we said that. He just

kind of looks kingly and he kind of has authority,

right, to where everybody goes to get their answers.

Any questions then before we move on? I'm not

exactly sure how far we got last week. Does anybody

have notes to a certain place? Okay, verse 11

then. So Hannah has, remember, she was persecuted

or she was harassed by Panina. We see, we saw

Elkanah's try to give her some comfort, but the

comfort that he offered her didn't have anything

to do with God and it obviously fell short. Hannah

then goes to the Lord. In her bitterness of soul,

she goes and runs to the Lord to pray. And in

verse 11, she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of

hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction

of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget

thine handmaid, but will give unto thy 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." Okay, so there's her

prayer to the Lord, her bow and her prayer. What

one word jumps out to you there that's repeated

three times? Compound word, it's a big one. You

can't hardly miss it. Handmade. Now what is that?

What is that teaching us anything? It's obviously

important. The Holy Spirit put it there on her

lips in our Bibles three times in one verse.

Well, it speaks to her posture. What's her posture

before the Lord? Humble. She's not demanding.

She doesn't go to the Lord with this complaint

that says, I'm a perfectly healthy woman, but

I can't have kids. How is this just? You call

yourself a good God? I want children. No, she

just takes her place there before the Lord in

humility. I'm your handmaiden. What's that saying?

Do what is best to you. I'm not in your position.

I don't know what you know. I don't understand

your plan. You do what seems best and right to

you. Here's what's on my heart and I'm gonna

share it with you. I'm gonna turn them over my

burden to you. Now that's prayer. We don't go

demanding to God. Anybody that thinks that she

here was trying to bribe the Lord, look, if you

give me a kid, then I'm going to turn him back

over to you as if the Lord needed somebody to

give him something that he didn't have. So then

what do we make of this vow and what do we make

of this? No razor shall come upon his head. One

more thing, you do see that in her prayer she

says, Oh Lord of hosts. So again, when you pray,

that's a reminder. So hopefully when you pray,

you're reminding yourself. When we pray publicly,

we're reminding each other of who God is. So

the reason that she says, Oh Lord of hosts, is

why? It's a reminder to her of what? It's God

that reigns. It's God that owns and has at His

disposal everything that is. It's God that can

give me the thing that I want, a child, a man

child specifically, because everything is His

and He rules over everything that He's made.

That's a reminder to her. It encourages her then

to ask for big things from this God who has all

the power, He has everything, He owns everything

and He has this perfect plan and He reigns sovereignly

in His creation. So there's, you know, when you

pray, whether you verbalize that or you just

remember that in your head, it is honoring to

the Lord when we remember who he is, how big

he is, how wonderful he is, and all of his attributes.

Okay, then she vows this vow and she says he's

going to give him unto the Lord all the days

of his life and no razor shall come upon his

head. So we could talk about whether or not Samuel

was a Levite. He was, we already know that. What

was the role of the Levite in the worship of

the Lord, in the public worship of the Lord?

Of the direct lineage from Aaron. Then what was

your role as a Levi you served in the temple

right you served in the public worship of the

Lord No, you don't remember that Okay When did

that happen does anybody know when that happened

was that immediately upon birth or upon weaning

that they All the mothers turned them over? Okay,

so 25 to 30, somewhere in there. Now, what was

the, who, the firstborn man child of every family

in Israel belonged to who? Okay, and what happened

if you, So how did you redeem that child back?

Did all those babies just wind up serving at

the temple? No. So what did you do? Offer a sacrifice.

He brought a sacrifice. Depending on how much

money you had, everybody didn't have to bring

the same thing. If you were a man or a family

of wealth, I think it was one bullock. Is that

right? I think it was one bullock or one young

bull and then three tenths of an ephah of flour

and some wine. I think that was what it was.

And then you took that to the temple and you

gave that in sacrifice to the Lord to redeem

that firstborn son. So every firstborn son, it's

right for us to say, belonged to the Lord. Everything

that opens the womb belongs to the Lord. The

firstborn son. In some kind of special way, Hannah

was pledging her child to the service of the

Lord all the days of his life. Even the Levites

that served when they were turning 30, they served

for a while, then they went back home and led

their normal life. And I don't know if they were

on rotation or they would go back, but that was,

it was not a nonstop service for the entirety

of their life. So Hannah is making a special

deal of this to the Lord that she's going to

See to it that her son should the Lord give her

one is going to serve the Lord all the days of

his life Then we just have this Question that

we have to answer that probably isn't answerable

shall there shall no razor come upon his head

Now what does she mean that is that until that

such time as he begins to serve Does that mean

that it's? Is that shorthand for the Nazarite

vowel, which is no razor, and what else? No wine.

No wine, and? You can't touch it then. Can't

touch any kind of a corpse. Do you know? Well,

I thought it was. You thought it was just shorthand

for that. So you see him as a Nazarite. But he's

never called a Nazarite. So again, it's just

one of those odd things. It does hearken our

minds back to who? Samson. And so there are people

that think that the reason that this is here

and the reason that she only mentions this part

is to distinguish him from Samson and from his

tragic end and really the tragedy of his life

where he was constantly plagued. That could be.

It could have something to do with that. So if

you thought I was going to give you a for sure

answer, I'm not. But it is there. And obviously

no razor came upon it and said, I don't think

that's ever mentioned anywhere else again either.

So we should probably just assume that he had

very long hair. And we know that he served the

Lord all the days of his life. All right, anybody

got any questions there? They do. So maybe it

was just her acknowledging that he was the Lord's.

The Lord told her every firstborn son on every

first born of the cattle belongs to the Lord.

Maybe that was just her humbly submitting to

the will of the Lord in that and acknowledging

that it was His. He wasn't asking... Why do we

ask the Lord for anything? So everything that

we receive from the Lord is for what? It's for

Him. Now, I'm not saying you can't ask for a

trans -am, but I am saying that if you're gonna

ask for a trans -am, it better in some way help

you in your ministry of the Lord or in your ministry

or your relationship with the Lord. So I'm not

telling you what you can or limiting what you

can ask, but when you ask for something from

the Lord, we better all understand that whatever

it is that we're asking is His. He's given it

to us to be stewards, and we're asking for it

so that we can serve Him better in some kind

of way. So that eliminates all the wacky health

and wealth liars out there. There's no such thing

as asking the Lord for a million dollars because

I want to live in a mansion. Unless, again, you

can explain to me how it is that that's going

to enhance your relationship with the Lord or

make you a better minister to His people and

serve them. It seems contradictory to me. But

that really is what Hannah demonstrates to us

here. I want this son, but he's yours. He's going

to serve you all the days of his life. And she

couldn't make the Nazirite vow for him that was

voluntary. And most Nazirite vows were for a

limited amount of time. All right. In the New

Testament it says that men should be ashamed

if they have long hair. But that in the Old Testament,

the Nazirite way of being dedicated to God was

to have long hair. Well, Samuel had long hair

because his If he took the Nazirite bough and

were to understand that it extended throughout

his life, in the case of Samson, we know that

it did, that was a lifetime thing. So that's

how we know they had long hair. Nazirite boughs

were not, what, maybe a few years at the most.

So it's not like everyone that took the Nazirite

bough, bowed for the rest of their life and so

their hair would grow continually and on down.

And who knows, maybe they shaved their head right

before they took their violin, it just grew out

to regular length. Well, in verse two, read verse

two. Don't chapter 1 Just until the semicolon

or period Okay, stop there You know that doesn't

you don't have any questions about that To me

that one sticks out like a sore thumb does it

What you can't be an elder in the new covenant

if you've got two wives, right? Even if it was

legal at the time, if you had two wives, you

were converted, maybe you had ten wives, but

you can't be an elder if you have more than one.

Here we have Elkanah, the father of one of the

most famous prophets, the kingmaker Samuel himself,

and he's got two wives. But if we go back to

Genesis, and we understand Genesis in light of

Jesus' teaching, what does Jesus tell us? One

man or one husband one wife right? That's the

way it was in the beginning That's the way that

it always should be right, but here we have Two

wives for Elkanna now who else had more than

one wife The list is going to get long David

now who's David is he some insignificant guy?

He's a man after God's own heart What about Israel?

How many wives did he have? Four. The namesake

of the nation had more than one wife. Now, what

does that tell us? Things aren't the same in

the two covenants, are they? Just because something

happens back here in this covenant doesn't mean

that it can happen in this covenant and just

because something Happens here doesn't mean that

it has to happen there So what I mean there's

all we're now we're familiar with all kinds of

laws right there was illegal It was the death

sentence if you started a fire on what day of

the week on the Sabbath, which was which day

by number? The seventh. Okay, the last day of

the week in honorarium of the Lord who for six

days created and then he rested on the seventh.

So struck dead. Now, is that something? I was

just at the hospital today. My home away from

home. And I'm in this elevator and it says this

elevator on the Sabbath runs continually. Doesn't

ever stop. Never stops moving. Now why is that?

Or you could put, if you've got a more expensive

oven probably, maybe there are some poor Jews.

You have the Sabbath function on your oven. What

does that do? Keeps that thing lit. on Friday

before the Sabbath starts so that on Saturday

you don't have to light the fire. Now, does anybody

here use the Sabbath function on their oven?

Does anybody here make sure that you turn your

furnace up high enough so that the light never

goes off, so that you're never starting a fire?

That's what the whole thing is. No, and why not?

Because something changed. So what was illegal

and sinful and was so serious that you were stoned

to death in the Old Covenant is in the New Covenant

understood and spiritually to have been fulfilled

by Christ who is our Sabbath and we rest in him.

So that we aren't going around looking in your

kitchen to see if you really had the oven on

on Friday night and if not we've got a backpack

full of some nice geodes and we're ready to go.

So that's your answer. Why is something that

happens back here not happening in the New Covenant?

And the answer is because things have changed.

And so whatever ethic or whatever instruction

that Lord Jesus lays down for us in the New Covenant

is what we follow and we understand everything

that happened in the Old Covenant in light of

Jesus's fulfillment of it and his teaching us.

proper place to predict and show who the Messiah

was going to be and to reveal God. Oh, that's

the same way. You can't start, I mean, if you,

you can't start, you can't start your car. That's

why they walk. You've got to live close to synagogue.

You can't start a car because there's a fire

burning in the motor. So the elevator is the

same you can't turn on a light switch You can't

so if you've got to have lights on your house

you got to turn those on and leave them on from

Friday until The Sabbath I suppose unless yeah,

I think that's the only option for that So it

just has to stay on as long as it's on you're

okay, but you can't start the fire So the elevator

never stops moving unless it's picking you up,

so it just goes and then back down. Up and back

down. It never stops unless somebody pushes the

button to get on it. And then the rabbis say

that you have kept the law and you haven't started

a fire and your safety uses the elevator. No,

but I think there's a lot of Jews in the neighborhood

so they try to accommodate. They don't want them

to not be able to come to the hospital on the

Sabbath. Alright, that's all the answer you're

going to get. And it came to pass as she continued

praying before the Lord that Eli marked her mouth.

Verse 13, Now Hannah, she spake in her heart,

only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.

Therefore Eli thought she had been drunk, or

drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt

thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee.

And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I

am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk

neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured

out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine

handmaid for a daughter of Belial, 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 grant thee

thy petition that thou hast asked of him. And

she said, let thine handmaid find grace in thy

sight." It's kind of ironic, isn't it, that she

found grace from the Lord. But she said, let

me find some grace. She probably thought it was

going to be harder to find grace from Levi than

it was from the Lord. So the woman went her way

and did eat, and her countenance was no more

sad. Now, first of all, You hear that blessing

that Eli, go in peace, and the God of Israel

grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked

of him. And what? What happened to Hannah? She

left. She went her way, did eat, and her countenance

was no more sad. Now, what was different between

the words or the comfort that Eli offered and

the words or the comfort that Elkanah, her husband,

had offered her earlier in the chapter? What's

different? Remember what Elkanah said? Am I not

better for you than 10 children? And what did

we say about that? What was missing? God's nowhere

in there. God's the only thing that is sent here

by Eli to her and it warms her heart. It comforts

her. Now again, that contrast has got to be there

for a reason and the reason is that we get through

our thick heads. They're telling somebody it's

going to be okay. Tomorrow will be better than

today. This is only going to last for so long.

And all the other goofy, stupid, immature, and

juvenile things that the world says should never

come off the lips of a Christian. We don't know

whether tomorrow might be worse. So we could

just as easily say, you better enjoy today as

bad as it is because tomorrow may be a whole

lot worse. We might as well say that. It's just

as likely. The only thing that can bring goodness

and blessing into our lives is what? God. That's

what Eli offers her. Keep your focus on God,

and may He bless you. And whether or not you

have children, whether or not it's in His plan

to send you a son, Keep your focus on the God

who owns all and is good and He's righteous.

And if you will live under His blessing, then

you will be happy and content. And that's the

truth. If you don't believe that, then you've

got to get your Bible out. Convince yourself

of it. There's no other place to be happy, to

be joyful, to be content, except as we, in faith,

look to the Lord. Who can testify to that who's

been through hard times and the Lord has brought

comfort to their soul? All right, so if it hasn't

been your turn yet get ready Soon we'll all be

raising our hands Let's see I think that's Pretty

self -explanatory there. Am I missing anything

in those verses except for I do want to talk

about the daughter of Belial. It probably has

something to say to us that maybe we ought to

think and investigate before we jump to conclusions.

I think we could probably say that too. There's

Eli. He just looks on the outside. Here's this

woman. Her lips are moving. It didn't occur to

him to say to think, well, I'm in the house of

God. Maybe I should figure out, go make some

inquiries and find out what's going on here.

Nah, I'm just going to assume she's drunk and

is over there. So, you know, think before we

act. We can all, we've all done that before.

Talk without thinking. Talk whatever comes into

our head. Now, what do you make of this daughter

of Belial? What does that mean? Count not thine

handmaid in verse 16 for a daughter of Goliath.

16. That could be. ESP just says. So that's not

right. That's not right either. Sorry. So it's

a proper noun. There's no question about that.

So there's Belial is capitalized and it's a deity.

There's no question about that. So what is this

Belial or we might say the devil. We can just

use that for shorthand whether it was the devil

exactly or some other kind of heathen God. What

does the devil do? And in so doing, what's the

end result of that when he has his way? What'd

you say? Destroys. It's not like he's just trying

to hurt you a little bit, give you a little splinter.

He's trying to what? He's a roaring lion seeking

whom he may devour. Now, who else in this book,

I assume we've read it at some point in our lives,

does anybody remember who else is, I mean, this

is, I think it's nine times in the book, son

of, daughter of Belial. Who else are sons of

Belial? Okay, and what were they doing? It was

destructive. It was destruction to the people.

The people are trying to come and worship the

Lord And the so -called priests, now, in verse

3, where it says, Eli and the sons of Eli, Haphne

and Phineas, the priests of the Lord were there.

If we were writing that in our day, we would

say, priests of the Lord. Because they weren't

priests of the Lord, they were sons of Belial.

Just because they happened to be the sons of

Eli and were in the temple, they were no priests

of God. What they really were was causing destruction

and harm to the very people that they were supposed

to be helping. And they are the sons of Belial.

We'll read that later on. That's what he was

accusing Hannah of, turning the house of the

Lord into a bar, a tavern. Just some place to

go and be drunk and do drunken things. That would

cause destruction. ironic in that from Eli. Here's

this woman in soreness of spirit he doesn't bother

to check it out he doesn't bother to see what's

going on he just kinda haphazardly and flippantly

accuses her of being drunk in the house of God

and ruining the vibe and being a general disturbance

and being destructive to God's people, when his

own sons really are the ones who are doing that.

And Eli is more than willing to go and do something

with this woman that he perceives as drunken,

but his own sons, who are so -called priests,

he doesn't do anything. Now, one of the lessons

that we can for sure learn there is that Blood

relatives. This might be a really good lesson

for us here, because a lot of us here are blood

related. But blood relation does not trump our

responsibilities before God. So I can't say,

well, Rebecca's my sister. I can't really go

and correct her. That would be really awkward

at the next Easter. We don't celebrate Easter

at my house. If you do, I can't go to her and

say anything because the 4th of July is going

to be really weird if I go and do that. It may

make my job harder. It may make it more difficult.

But I've got to be on my guard and make sure

that that consideration, what it's going to make

my, you know, this blood relative of mine, that's

got to be secondary to my concern for my honor

of the God that died for me and saved me. That

has to be chief in my thinking. And it wasn't

in the case of Eli. Eli allowed blood relatives

to get in the way of him doing the work of the

Lord. Alright, then next week we'll finish up

chapter one and maybe we'll get into chapter

two. Has anybody got any questions then before

we wrap it up? Maybe we won't answer, maybe I'll

answer next week. And then I just want to say

this, after I turn the recorder off.