Burchell, Graham: 1 Samuel 1 2 and 3

Today's study takes in chapters one, two, and three and focuses on the early years of Samuel. Well, I just want to read two sections from the passage. The first is Samuel chapter one and verse twenty five, And it's just part of the verse. And brought the child to Eli. And brought the child to Eli. And then chapter two and verse nineteen and through to verse twenty one. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel was established to be the prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. The modern psychologists and psychiatrists would be very f- perplexed to share this study with us this morning. Because as we look at the environment that surrounded the life and experience of Samuel, we'll find that it is very similar to today. And they would look at Samuel and say, in effect, how on earth can it be said of somebody that he grew in favor before God and man and grow up in the society in which he grew up. It was not only the traumatic experience of being taken from a home where God was honored to a home of corruption, but the very times in which Samuel lived were extremely disturbing. He lived in the times of the judges, times which are recorded for us in great detail in the book of that name. And just to set the scene, I would like to read with you Judges chapter two, because I think this will give us some idea of the background, the society, the environment into which Samuel was born. And then as we look at the life of Samuel very briefly and draw from these chapters some practical lessons, we must remember that it's against this background that the young man lived. So Judges chapter two and verse one: and an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochum and said, I made you to go up out of Egypt and have brought you into the land which I swear unto your fathers, and I said I will never break my covenant with you, and ye shall make no league with the inhabitants of the land. You shall throw down their altars, but you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? Wherefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you, but they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their God shall be a snare unto you. And it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spake these words unto all the children of Israel, that the people lifted up their voice and wept. And they called the name of that place Beershim, and they sacrificed there unto the Lord. And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went, every man into his inheritance, to possess the land. And the Lord, and the people served the Lord in all the days of Joshua, and in all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he had done for Israel. And Joshua, the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres in the Mount of Ephraim on the north side of the hill Gaash. And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers. And there arose another generation after them, which they knew not the Lord, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord and served Baalim. And they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, which brought them up out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to anger. And they forsook the Lord and served Baal and Ashtaroth. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. And he delivered them into the hands of the spoilers that spoiled them, and he sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Whithersoever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them, for evil, was against them for evil, as the Lord hath said, and as the Lord hath sworn unto them, and they were greatly distressed. Nevertheless, the Lord raised up judges, which delivered them out of the hand of those that spoiled them. And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods and bowed themselves unto them. And they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the Lord, but they did not so. And when the Lord raised them up, judges, then the Lord was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For it repented the Lord because of their groanings, by reason of them that oppressed them and vexed them. And when it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they returned and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them and to bow down unto them. They ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way. And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel, and he said, because this people hath transgressed my covenant which I commanded their fathers, and have not hearkened unto my voice. I also will not henceforth drive out any from before them of the nations which Joshua left when he died, that through them I might prove Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk therein, as their fathers did keep it, or not. Therefore the Lord left those nations without driving them out hastily, neither delivered he them into the hand of Joshua. And as this book, this very dramatic book, book which most of us as, as children thoroughly enjoyed in Sunday school, full of gruesome stories and wars, which boys particularly enjoy. We come to the end of that book, and we read these words: In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Not only that, that the book of Ruth records for us that there were frequent famines. And so here was a land torn by internal strife, attacked by its enemies, suffering at the hand of God. And into these, this environment, this young boy was came. Now he was fortunate in a way because he was born into a house where God was honored. And it is interesting to appreciate, as we study the word of God, that wherever there is apostasy, there is ine- inevitably a remnant. A people who, in the midst of all that is going on around them, a people whose heart is still Godward. A people who are prepared to follow the dictates of a holy God. And we'll find this right through history, and we'll find it as we approach the end times, that there will be a remnant of people who will follow the commands of God. And Elkanah was one of these. Every year he went up to the, to Shiloh and, uh, visited the tabernacle in order to offer the required sacrifices to God. And so Samuel was born into a home with a godly father. But he was also born, born into a home where there were two mothers. And the situation was a common one. On several occasions, scripture records a similar situation. And that situation was simply this, that the quote senior wife, who obviously was the first, who was very much loved, actually bore no children. And it was the dream of a father in those days to have sons, that the line might be continued. And so in many cases, and and we are suffering today in many situation in the world because a very famous biblical character did just this, that they have a second wife, and even beyond that, in order to produce those who would carry on their line. And so, to some extent, uh, Samuel was going to come into a home in which there was some tension, because the second or the junior wife really laid it on very hard to Hannah that she had no children. And the Bible uses very strong language. It talks about an adversary. It talks about being provoked. And here is this second wife, Peninnah, who is really giving Hannah a rough time. And as Les mentioned this morning, and by the way, we don't have time to go into the verses like he did this morning. We would love to do it, but we just don't have the time. So if there's anything I miss out this morning that you think I should have said, go and talk to Les. He'll fill you in in about two minutes. But there's, there's tension here. And I want you to look at the first practical lesson in the chapter, because here we have a woman who is sorely provoked, who every time they went up to the, the temple, the tabernacle, because Pen- Peninnah had, had sons and daughters, say the scripture, every time they went up, Hannah was provoked by the, the taunts of this other wife. But here's the practical lesson. Les reminded us this morning that in, in English, Hannah's name is Grace. And I want you just to, to be sidetracked for a moment and look very briefly at the character of this woman. Here she is being taunted because of her barrenness. That very thing that would have set her as an outstanding woman in the family was denied her. She had no son. And scripture says she was in great bitterness. Now, the emphasis on bitterness here is in fact towards sadness. But there was bitterness in her heart, and notice what she did. She went to the Lord and prayed. And I think that's the first practical lesson, because I'm going to suggest that none of us are exempt from bitterness. That sometimes conditions arise that we think are unfair, unreasonable. Somebody says or done something towards us, and almost our first reaction is to retaliate. To express ourselves rather strongly, verbally, in anger. To maybe get our own back in some way. But you notice this woman, in all her bitterness, there is nothing recorded of retaliation or revenge. And she goes with her bitterness before the Lord and praise. And I suggest to you that that's the first practical lesson of the chapter, that when these things come upon us, when we are upset, particularly with the actions of other people, that the place to go is in the presence of the Lord. And I want you to look at her prayer. We don't have time to go it in detail, but but look at it very simply. She didn't say, Lord, get this woman out of my life. Lord, sort her out. Lord, she could do with some good lessons, and you're the right person to give them to her. You notice what she asked the Lord? She asked the Lord for her own situation to be corrected. Lord, this thing will completely resolve itself if I have a son. And often, our way of, of attempting to set a situation right in which we are getting a rough time is to tactically suggest to the Lord that it'd be a good idea if he dealt with the other person. How much better to go into the presence of the Lord and say, Lord, please put my situation right. And so this woman goes in and says, Lord, if you'll only give me a son. Practical lesson number two. She said, Lord, if you give me a son, I will give him back to you, and he will serve you all the days of your life. What's the lesson? Simply this. Don't promise God anything unless you intend to do it. There was a man in the Judges, his name was Jephthah, and God raised him up to lead his people, and he was going against the enemy, and he said, Lord, if you will give you- give me victory, he said, I will, I will give you, I will offer as a sacrifice, when I go back to my home in peace, I will offer as a sacrifice the first thing that comes out of my house to greet me. God gave him the victory. He went towards his home, and who should walk out but his only daughter. He was very sad. Now, God would not have accepted her, of course, in a sacrifice in the conventional sense, because one of the things that God spoke against with the enemies of Israel were the fact that they offered their children to gods. But that girl was dedicated to the service of God for her whole life, and that man lost the lineage that might have been his, and he was sad. And I suggest that one of the lessons that we learn from Hannah's experience is not to promise God anything unless we intend to carry it out. God often says, well, I've done what you asked me to do, I now require of you what you promised to do for me. God is gracious to Hannah and answers her prayer and gives her her son. We don't know the situation in the family after that. I would suggest it probably changed because God gave Hannah more sons and daughters after Samuel. But he gave her Samuel, which means asked of God. And she, in her turn, was prepared to surrender this boy in terms of her vow to God, to surrender him to the service of the Lord. And again, we've not time to go into Hannah's song of praise this morning. It almost parallels the one that we read in the New Testament. But let me just point this out about that song of praise. At the end of it, there are two prophetic statements that occur in the Bible for the first time. The one talks about his anointed, his Messiah, his Christ, and the other talks about his king. And so if you study that, that, uh, song of praise in a prophetic context, you will find those two references which come in that form for the first time. So Samuel grows up a little bit. Now there is some dispute amongst Hebrew scholars as to what ti- what age he was when he left home and went into the house of Eli. There are some scholars that say it would probably have been about the age of twelve, because when the Jews talked about weaning, they talked in addition about a a child being prepared in the basics of life, being trained. Uh, others will put it at an earlier age than that, but whatever age it was, it was a young boy. And all of a sudden, that young boy was catapulted from a home with a godly mother and a godly father into the home of Eli. Talk about a traumatic experience. Talk about the damage of environment. Under today's assessment, that boy should never have turned out to be the sort of boy he was. Well, you say, what was wrong with Eli's household? The question would really be, what was right? Because here was a man, and I think I've quoted in the notes of of whom Dr. Graham S- uh, Scroggie says, he only had one strength, and that was his weakness. And as you look at the man of this, uh, this man Eli, uh, except for s- little flashes of spirituality, and we'll look at those next week, um, he had no control over the situation. He had sons who were never admonished, and those sons were corrupt, immoral, and in fact, the Bible speaks of them in terms that it rarely speaks of anybody else. You see, when people came to offer the sacrifice, the sacrifice was supposed to begin its process, and then they were supposed to take a three-pronged hook, and whatever that three-pronged hook took out was to be the reward, the food of the priests. But these fellows said, look, before you even put the offering in, we want the best part of the meat. And as you come over to a later chapter, you find that their, their relationship with the women that were around the tabernacle was certainly not of the best, to say the least about them. And if we read the scriptures, God actually calls, says of them, they made themselves vile. And as I say, we, if you read the language of the chapter, you will find that it is so strong. The sons of Belial, God calls them. And that see means, simply means in, in terms of sons of evil. And of course, the implication is that they are the sons of their father, the devil. And here they are serving in the tabernacle. And their father knows about it, says the scripture, and he does nothing. And during Samuel's service in the tabernacle, a man of God comes and warns Eli as to what the end of his sons would be. And you remember too that at the end of this chapter, God pronounces the death sentence not only on the sons of Eli, but on Eli's lineage. And so Samuel is literally taken and left in this environment. The only consolation the boy has is that his mother comes up once a year when they visit Shiloh and gives him a little coat. They seem to enjoy giving little coats in those days, didn't they? But she came up once a year, and she gave him a little coat. There was the contact with the family. There was the element still, because Samuel went around mainly in a linen ephod, uh, doing the work of God. But I quoted for you in the notes, and I won't repeat them, all the things said of Samuel. And it is simply, Samuel grew on in spite of the environment. He took up the commitment of his mother that his life should belong to the Lord, and he carried out that commitment, and it grew, and it grew, and it grew. Now there are young people here. You are going out into an environment which I believe I certainly in my lifetime have never seen before. Oh, there's always been sin. There's always been immorality. There's always been corruption. There's always been dishonesty. But for many years, society was able in various ways to keep it under control, but now we're in the days of the judges, with every man doing that which is right in his own eyes. And young Christian, the the older, old of us, older ones of us, by the way, are not exempt from this, but by the fact that we're looking at the life of young Samuel, let me challenge you. You see, it's easy today because society accepts the excuse, well, it was the environment in which I was brought up. And had you been born and brought up in the environment that I was born and brought up in, you could have said the same thing. You see, it is easy to look for excuses. Why am I not as I should be? Why am I not the servant of the Lord that I should be? Well, it's the environment. But you know, we have the example of Samuel, and time and time again we read this expression, and Samuel grew and ministered unto the Lord. Here's the key. Samuel's closeness to God. Strange as it may seem, the Bible tells us that in spite of all this, that Samuel didn't know God and and didn't recognize his voice. Now that's in the fullest sense of an experimental experience of God. And you know, when the voice came, Samuel, Samuel. Three times he went running to Eli. You're calling me. What can I do for you? Somewhere in the depths of Eli's spiritual perception, something started to stir. And after the third time he said, Samuel, it's not me, it's God. And so when the voice comes the fourth time, Samuel says, speak, for thy servant heareth. Interesting change there that you might like to think about. Eli says to him, say, speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. When he says it, he says, speak, for thy servant heareth. Now be careful, don't read things into that that may not be there. But you know, when one reads the word of God, sometimes these little differences have a lesson for us. So here's this young boy growing up in this environment, and God calls him. Calls him in a way that a- in in the sense that a voice is clearly heard. And on the fourth occasion, at the instruction of the old priest, he goes and replies to God. And you know, part of that always staggers me when I read it. Eli's going, Samuel. I've had enough, says God. I'm going to replace him. Young boy. In the morning, Eli says to him, what did God say to you, Samuel? And don't hide it from me, because if you hide it from me, may God do to you whatever he has in fact said. And so this young lad, probably a number of years older by now, uh, this young lad has to tell the aged priest that is the time had come for his priesthood and that opportunity of his lineage. By the way, he shouldn't have been priest anyway because he was the son of Aaron's younger daughter, younger son, not older son. But this young boy has to give this solemn message to this old man, to tell him that, in effect, that God had finished with him. When we come to the end of the book, and as our study of this section draws to a close, we find Samuel, and notice what the scripture said, established as the prophet of the Lord. And I think the next words are significant, in the eyes of the people. There are many times when God sent a prophet, and he really had a hard time because the people didn't and wouldn't recognize him. But here, Samuel's life was such. And as we go back and we trace this idea of Samuel growing, we notice that he grew in favor not only with God, but with the people. And that made him effective because when it came for him to take over the leadership and the judgeship of Israel, then his, his own attitude towards God and towards man made him a very effective judge. So much so as we look next week at the Samuel the man, so much so that when he goes and his sons do not follow after him, the people want a king. So out of this chapter, I would suggest, you know, it's it's nice to study the history of the Old Testament. I think we do so little of it today, ought to do a lot more. But as we look at it, lessons come out. The first one is Hannah taking her bitterness to the Lord. The second one is don't promise God what you're not prepared to carry out. And the third one is do not use your environment as an excuse for failure in your Christian life. Because your environment is no worse than that of Samuel. In fact, many of you are often not taken from a Christian home, you're left there to enjoy the blessings of Christian parents. And yet, young people living in Christian homes, unfortunately, still depart from the things of the Lord. They have a number of excuses. Oh, my father was too tough on me. I had to go to meetings. Ha. You should have been in my generation to know what it was to go to meetings. They followed as regularly as night and day. Some of you in your teens find difficulty going to the prayer meeting. I had no choice from about this high. Wendy was even worse than me because she went to the Baptist. She got converted since then, but she, she went to the Baptist, and they used to have 4 hour prayer meetings. And there's this little girl going sitting through four hours. So don't give me this, that you have to go to meetings and attend meetings, and the poor old chap who, your father, he he's tough on you. Oh dear, dear, dear. See, we can find excuses everywhere. If, if we do not want to be committed to the things of the Lord. But here's a boy who took his mother's commitment, and let me say this, that Hannah's commitment would not have kept Samuel where he was. It's one thing for a mother to say, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, but it's another for that young boy to pick up that commitment and make it a part of his life. And so as we look at this young boy and as we study his life as he grows into a man, let's realize this, that in today's terms he had so many things stacked against him. Excuses that he might have used, but no, he grew. He was established before all Israel as the prophet of the Lord. Three hundred and seventy five. Father, for the joy of having thy word in our hands, we thank thee. And as we approach it over coming weeks, if it be thy will, may thy Holy Spirit extract from its pages those things that will be of value to us in our Christian lives. And we think of this young lad that we have looked at this morning, man who grew up into one of the most respected leaders of thy people. A man who led them in a way that pleased thee. But Father, we acknowledge that that leading began in his own life. And we realize it would not have been possible for him to lead thy people in a God-pleasing way without that being the focus of his own experience. So we thank thee for reminding us as we go through this passage that Samuel grew, that he ministered before thee, that he ministered to thee. And we bless thee for that moment in his life when no one was left in any doubt that he was called to thy service. For the lessons that come from it today, we do ask that thy spirit will impress it upon our hearts. And as we look at the life and the attitude of Samuel's mother, may we try to reproduce these things in our own life. May we, in moments of stress and bitterness, take it to thee. May we realize that so often the remedy lies with us, not with other people. We pray especially for the young people in this company, growing up in an environment that parallels so closely the times of Samuel's early days. And we ask thee that there might be that real commitment to thyself and thy ways. Many of them are going to university, Father, where they will be subject to extra pressure and challenge to their faith. We ask thee that they might, as Samuel, be faithful to the one who called them. And at the end of their days, they may well have represented the God whom they love below before the people with whom they dwell. We commit thy word to thy care. We think of what the things that the boys and girls have looked at in the Bible school, and we ask thee too for a blessing upon those young lives. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.