The birth of Samuel may have seemed inconsequential, but it was a divine intervention in history. Whatever the deficiencies in Elkanah’s family, no one can deny that the words of 1 Samuel 1:19 are like rays of sunshine breaking through dark clouds. In spite of abounding wickedness, we read the family “rose early in the […]
Read More… from September 4, 2023 — A Living, Breathing Answer To Prayer
Tears are often liquid prayers, but prayers expressed can more surely lay hold of the promises. It’s hard to be impressed with Peninnah, Elkanah’s second wife. Wasn’t it enough that God had blessed her with “all her sons and daughters” (1 Sam 1:4)? No, she “provoked [Hannah] severely, to make her miserable” (v 6). This […]
Read More… from September 1, 2023 — When Weeping Turns To Praying
Two wives in one house is trouble enough, but when one bears children and the other can’t—fireworks! When you turn to the first page of 1 Samuel, you see why a brief overview of the historical setting was necessary. There is no formal introduction here. The book starts off by including us in a private […]
Before we can be ready to reign with Him, He must teach us the secret of His rule in our own hearts. Beginning 1 Samuel, let’s remember where we are—coming to the end of the times of the judges. The 40-year period of Philistine oppression had continued after Samson’s erratic judgeship and untimely death. Not […]
There’s plenty of meat on these bones, but it’s helpful to trace the skeleton of the book first. The fast-paced books of 1 and 2 Samuel tell the story of the only nation whose Sovereign is God, but who seek an institutional solution to a chronic personal problem that lingers to this day: they would […]
A brief review of what’s before the book we’re studying will set the stage for our coming trip. A journey through the Word of God brings the explorer eventually to the book of 1 Samuel. The vast panorama of creation at the beginning of Genesis has receded, with the worldwide catastrophes of the fall of […]
Don’t you love to look at a well-made scale model? If so, wait till you see the real wedding day! In our last episode, I quoted just the first part of Ruth 4:13, “Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife.” No longer a Moabite in heart, she had abandoned her family’s gods and put […]
The largesse of the heart of Boaz is reminiscent of the five “much mores” found in Romans 5. Let’s get this straight. Boaz was in no way obligated to marry Ruth. The law of levirate marriage only extended to the widow’s brother-in-law, and there was no physical relationship that demanded Boaz marry the young Moabite. […]