June 19, 2010 (I Samuel 1-8)

The thing that strikes me in the first chapter of I Samuel is that God is in control of things. Hannah was barren, and year after year she would worship the Lord in spite of her barrenness, but finally she was so distraught about it that she prayed out of deep anguish of soul, and God heard her. We see this over and over in the Bible, that God answers the prayers of the earnest, and yet we approach Him so 'casually' and wonder why we don't receive answers to our prayers. Perhaps it's because we are not 'earnest' in our requests.

Eli was the priest and he had two sons that 'had no respect for the Lord'. The were 'assistant priests' and failed to faithfully perform their duties. Eli heard of it, and confronted them about it, but they wouldn't listen to him. It seems as if after that, Eli let them continue 'doing what they were doing' instead of dealing with them. And because of that, God accused Eli of honoring his sons more than he honored God. Here was God's response to all this:

^2:29 So why do you scorn my sacrifices and offerings? Why do you give your sons more honor than you give me—for you and they have become fat from the best offerings of my people Israel!

³⁰ “Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi would always be my priests. But I will honor those who honor me, and I will despise those who think lightly of me. ³¹ The time is coming when I will put an end to your family, so it will no longer serve as my priests. All the members of your family will die before their time. None will reach old age. ³² You will watch with envy as I pour out prosperity on the people of Israel. But no members of your family will ever live out their days. ³³ Those who survive will live in sadness and grief, and their children will die a violent death. ³⁴ And to prove that what I have said will come true, I will cause your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to die on the same day!

³⁵ “Then I will raise up a faithful priest who will serve me and do what I desire. I will establish his family, and they will be priests to my anointed kings forever. ³⁶ Then all of your surviving family will bow before him, begging for money and food. ‘Please,’ they will say, ‘give us jobs among the priests so we will have enough to eat.’”

Honoring and obeying God - again and again we see that is the path of blessing.

The Philistines attacked Israel and captured the Ark of the Lord. Long story short, Israel got it back, but also kept foreign gods. And because of that "it seemed that the Lord had abandoned them". Then Samuel said:

7:3 “If you are really serious about wanting to return to the Lord, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Determine to obey only the Lord; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” ⁴ So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the Lord.

This section ends with the people demanding a king, like the other nations have. God warned them through Samuel that a king would be greedy and self serving, but the people demanded it anyway. So God told Samuel "Do as they say and give them a king". Sometimes God gives us what we ask for, even to our own hurt. Why don't we always seek what He wants?