Jeremiah 1:5 says: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
And so it was for Samuel.
Before he was born, God made a plan for his life.
WELCOME
Welcome to the COME AS A CHILD BIBLE STUDY which is held on this blogsite every Thursday.
Today we are excited to announce the beginning of our study through The Book of Samuel. It is going to be great, so grab your bible and come along with us every week.
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THE AMAZING LIFE OF SAMUEL
Samuel led an amazing life. He was born to a faithful Hebrew family who knew God. The time of Samuel’s birth was during the days near the end of the times of the Judges of Israel.
The Tent/Tabernacle of The LORD was now stationed at Shiloh.
Samuel’s parents would go up to the Tabernacle in Shiloh at least three times a year to make the annual sacrifices required by God. Those annual times would be during Passover, Pentecost and The Feast of Tabernacles.
THE ANNUAL SACRIFICES
Every fall, the family would feast with the congregation of Israel at The Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah.) They would observe the Day of Atonement ten days later. Then, they would feast again at at The Tabernacle during The Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot.)
Of course they also went up to the Tabernacle each Passover. Again, during the late Spring/Early Summer Season, exactly 50 days after the time of Passover, they would travel to the Tabernacle for The Feast of Pentecost. Samuel’s father, Elkanah, would always take a meat sacrifice to offer up to God as an offering for his family.
ELKANAH
Elkanah was a great man among the men of Israel. He was well known for his knowledge and careful observance of Torah. Elkanah was careful to be faithful and true to God in all of his ways.
This tradition of the annual offerings had been the custom of The People of God since the days of Adam and Eve. At the time of the giving of the Ten Commandments, God had once again reminded Israel of this requirement. All of the faithful carried out these observances carefully. Elkanah never missed making these trips to the Tabernacle.
Samuel’s family always kept their nation’s family traditions. New Moons, Sabbath Days and Feast and Festivals were an important part of their life. They wanted to honor God in every way.
On some of the feast days, the offerings of God’s people would be shared as food to feed the crowds of worshipers. Elkanah and his family would come joyfully to share in those festive meals with the entire congregation of Israel.
HANNAH
Samuel would one day be born to Hannah, wife of Elkanah, but it was years before God’s plan would allow that to happen. She was baren and without children for many years into her marriage to Elkanah.
One annual feast day during the time of The Feast of Trumpets, Hannah, as usual, went up to worship with Elkanah.
Actually, it wasn’t just Hannah and Elkanah who went up. The whole family went up to the Tabernacle to worship God with all of Israel. Elkanah had another wife named Peninniah, who had given birth to many children. Peninnah had been offered as a second wife to Elkanah from Hannah. She had done this when she had found herself childless and well into their marriage.
IN THE DAYS OF CONCUBINES
Hannah, being an observant believer, was simply following the path of Sarah, by giving her husband another woman for the sake of conceiving a child in order to continue to carry out the family name. It wasn’t about love, it was about bearing children.
This strange sounding custom was traditional and customary in the ancient cultures back in those days. The same type of pattern had also played out even further back in historical time during the days of the lives of Leah and Rachel, who were married to Jacob. The twelve tribes of Israel actually came from two wives; not one. We tend to forget this.
PENINNAH
Similar to the story of Sarah and Abraham and Rachel and Jacob; it was Hannah, his first wife, that Elkanah loved the most. She was the first and most honored wife. Peninnah was merely with them for the sake of bringing children into the family, similar to how Hagar had served with Abraham and Sarah.
It seems very odd to talk of such things in today’s culture, but in those days it was not such an unusual custom. Once Israel had matured and grown into a nation full of people to possess the land, these laws evolved and changed. In those days, however, sometimes this situation was needed in order to pass on the land to one’s heritage.
Each family was required to pass on the land to the next generation. The land of Promise was never to leave the family names it was given unto by God. If there were no children, that requirement became impossible. Israel solved this issue by allowing the first wife to hire a concubine for her husband.
HANNAH’S SORROW
In all of the years of their marriage, Hannah and Elkanah had been very happy, except for the fact that Hannah had not been able to bring children into the marriage. As the years went on, that one fact of life had begun to make Hannah very sad.
She grieved night and day.
Peninniah coming into their home and bringing children to Elkanah had seemed like a logical solution. As it usually turns out though, this solution had not served them well. Hannah was still unhappy.
Peninniah, being much like Hagar who was the maidservant to Sarah, chided Hannah often about the fact that she was childless. This disrespectful attitude of Peninniah was probably born out of jealousy from the fact that Hannah was the most loved wife (similar to the situations that occurred between Rachel and Leah in their marriage to Jacob and the jealousy of Hagar toward Sarah.)
Hannah had control over Peninniah. She could even dismiss her and send her away, but she was too kind. Nevertheless, this chiding made Hannah’s suffering almost unbearable.
MOURNING
Elkanah loved Hannah. He kept reminding her of that fact.
Still; she grieved about the fact that she remained childless. The feast days, which were supposed to be full of great joy for everyone, were the worst for Hannah. Each year she would observe their family table being full of Peninniah’s children, and none of her own.
As the people gathered together for the feasts and festivals at the Tabernacle that year, I’m sure Hannah looked around at all of the other women who were very occupied with teaching their children how to worship God in the way that He had commanded.
As they gathered into the large crowds at the Tabernacle on these days, the scene of feasters must have been a sweet and lovely sight for most to behold. There they would see so many eager little children coming to worship the Lord with their parents. Hannah and Elkanah would not be able to avoid seeing and observing how faithful the mothers were as they taught their children the ways of Torah.
Yet; this happy scene for most only added to the grief which Hannah felt.
SEASONS WITHOUT FRUIT
While the others came to the feasts and festivals in joy and great anticipation, all that Hannah could think about was the fact that she remained fruitless in respect to adding a child to her family tree. She wanted to be a part of the chain of women who were passing on their family names to the next generations. Hannah longed to hold her own baby in her arms.
Years passed by.
The seasons came and went.
It certainly seemed that a child from Hannah would not become another leaf on the family tree of Elkanah.
YOM HAZIKARON/THE DAY OF REMEMBRANCE
One theme always observed at The Feast of Trumpets was Yom Hazikaron, or The Day of Remembrance. This theme was about remembering that with each passing year, there would come a day when every living creature would come to stand before God with the fruit of the days of their lives. It was said on Rosh Hashanah that God would begin to decide the fate of each person for the coming new year.
All of the People of Israel were admonished to examine themselves and to consider their lives before God. Much of the times before the feasts were spent in meditations and prayer. They were encouraged to repent of all of their sins before the Day of Atonement, which was just ten days after Rosh Hashanah/Feast of Trumpets. These were called The Days of Awe.
It was always hoped that this sincere examination of the days of their lives from the year which had just passed would encourage God to grant them a good and fruitful next year.
As the whole congregation of Israel gathered, selected annual readings from the Torah were always scheduled to be read on certain days. The Torah readings for The Feast of Trumpets spoke of how God remembered Sarah and allowed her the birth of Isaac, even in her old age.
As Hannah listened to the sermons and heard the readings for the day at that particular festival, could she have been thinking of how God gave a miracle to Sarah?
TURNING TO GOD FOR HELP
Could God help Hannah as He had blessed Sarah when she too was childless?
I wonder.
I wonder if such thoughts went through Hannah’s mind during The Feast of Trumpets.
Maybe Hannah realized from hearing all of the generations of stories which had been passed down through her culture, that Sarah had received her blessing from God. She had become pregnant with Isaac on Rosh Hashanah (The Feast of Trumpets.)
It seemed that God had decided Sarah’s fate for the coming year. He had even sent special angels to feast with them and to make the announcement to Abraham and Sarah that a child was coming. Sarah would finally give birth to the promised child.
Perhaps each year as Hannah heard these readings she had hoped for the same fate to be bestowed upon her. After each feast and festival did she wonder if God would grant her a child by the next Holy Day observances?
We can only imagine what could have been going through Hannah’s mind during those days. The scriptures speak of how she poured her heart out to God at the altar instead of feasting at the festivals.
SEEKING GOD’S FACE IN THE TABERNACLE
The Feast of Trumpets came and went.
All of the Fall Holy Days passed on by.
Passover happened, then 50 more days passed.
Soon they found themselves at the Tabernacle in Shiloh again. This time the family would have been celebrating the latter spring/summer harvest festival, called Pentecost.
As the other women feasted, worshipped, and visited among themselves, Hannah must have watched from a distance. As they all tended to their children, Hannah, with nothing to occupy her time, went to the tabernacle to pray.
Even in her bitterness and misery Hannah knew God.
She trusted Him to help her.
Passionately Hannah presented her petition before God, begging Him to send her a son.
MAKING A VOW
She wanted a son so bad that she actually made a vow before God saying if He allowed such a thing, she would raise her son as a Nazarite.
Similar to the mother of Samson, Hannah too promised her son would have no wine upon his lips and no razor upon his head.
God was listening.
He is always listening.
Note to our readers: If you wish to have a devotianal book to read each day for the upcoming days of Elul – the author of this blog (Gail Landgraf) has compiled two excelent manuscripts of daily devotions for the season. Go to Amazon.com and order your own personal copy of Christian Meditations for Elul and The Ten Days of Awe For Christians today. These make great daily supplements for the things we are presenting on the blog.