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1 Samuel Recap: Where is Your Confidence?
Introduction: A Question of Confidence
Lord willing, my plan is to start into 2 Samuel next week, and so before we did that, I wanted to kind of recap, since it's been several months since we were in 1 Samuel. I want to recap the book, but rather than going blow by blow and just give you an outline of the book and fill that in, I actually want to look at 1 Samuel chapter 2.
As we turn here, I want to ask you a question. Where is your confidence? Where is your confidence? What gives you hope in life? Where do you trust? Whom do you trust?
Hannah's Desperation and God's Answer
1 Samuel opens in a strange place. 1 Samuel opens with a story of a woman named Hannah, who seems pretty insignificant. She's a barren woman. She's one of two wives of this man named Elkanah. And she, unlike the other wife, can have no children. And the text tells us that Elkanah loved Hannah more than he loved his other wife. But because the other wife had children, she had greater status in that society. All of a woman's worth, essentially, would have been wrapped up in her ability to produce and then raise children. And here Hannah was barren.
And what we find in chapter 1 of 1 Samuel, is a woman who is desperate before the Lord. And she comes, and she comes up to the place where the tabernacle was, Shiloh, and she is pouring out her heart to the Lord. She is weeping and praying silently.
But she's also in a society where God is not held in the esteem that he should be. There is a priest there at Shiloh, and his name is Eli. But Eli is something of a joke. And he sees someone there pouring her heart out to the Lord, crying. And the only category that he has for a woman acting like that is, she must be drunk. And so he comes and he rebukes her for her drunkenness. And she says, no, I'm not drunk. I'm pouring out my heart to the Lord. And he tells her, well, it seems almost like he's just trying to get rid of her. Like, okay, God will grant you your request. Like, get out of my presence, you hysterical woman.
And she goes home. But God does grant her request. She's given a son, Samuel, and then she brings him back to the Lord. Once he's weaned, she brings him to the temple and dedicates him to the Lord.
So she goes from chapter 1, pouring out her heart. In desperation, she has nowhere else to turn but the Lord.
Hannah's Song: The Foundation of 1 and 2 Samuel
But then in chapter 2 we come, and here in chapter 2 we have one of the two songs or poems that really brackets the text of 1 and 2 Samuel. 1 and 2 Samuel were originally one book, and this song in 1 Samuel chapter 2, the song with Hannah... It really lays out the groundwork for everything that follows and will be bracketed at the end of 2 Samuel by the Song of David.
I want to read 1 Samuel 2, beginning in verse 1. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart exalts in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derives my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation, Lord. There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you. There is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your mouth. The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who are full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who are hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness. For not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.
Lesson One: Seeing Yourself Rightly
The first thing that I think we need to see in this is that Hannah sees herself rightly. One of the main lessons of 1 and 2 Samuel is we have to see ourselves rightly. And she sees herself as someone who has nowhere to turn with God.
If you have confidence anywhere or in anything else, if you're counting on your position in life, your accomplishments, your own abilities... Or maybe you know that I can't do it, but I'm going to look for a savior out there. Someone else is going to help me, whether that's a spouse. If I find the right person, that person will fulfill me. Or it's some political figure who, if we could get this person in office, things will just be better. If you're looking for another person outside of you to make things okay for you, things will not go well.
But Hannah understands that needs. And the only one who can satisfy, the only one who can fulfill what I need is the Lord. And she turns to him. And what we see in her prayer is that the Lord is mighty. He is the one who is able to save. He is the one who sees the poor. Verse 7, the Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and he exalts. Verse 8, he raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash. So this woman sees herself rightly, and she goes to the only one who can satisfy. She goes to the Lord.
God's Might in Action
And then as we see the actions of the Lord throughout the book of 1 Samuel, we see, first of all, again, that he is a mighty God. And as this narrative unfolds, we'll talk about Eli and Samuel in a minute, but in the next couple chapters, we're going to see Samuel come into ministry, and Eli's family fall down. Literally fall down and die. And then the ark of God, the visual representation of God's presence in Israel, is carried off into captivity. And in that time, though the people of God are a mess, though the ministers of God are worthless, God is still acting. God still shows himself to be mighty by defeating the Philistines all throughout their region.
First, they take the Ark of God and they place it in the temple of Dagon. And Dagon keeps falling over and worshiping. Dagon, this lifeless idol, the statue falls over before him. And then the statue falls over and breaks off the head and the arms representing his strength and his might. Such that the Philistines say, okay, we've got to get this out of here. Dagon's not doing too well with Yahweh around. So we get the Ark of the Covenant out, and then they start passing it around. And every place the Ark of God goes in Philistia, there is trouble. People get sick, people die, and they finally end up sending them back to Israel.
God shows himself to be mighty, totally absent his people. He doesn't need his people at all. He still shows himself to be mighty.
The Pattern: God Brings Down and Raises Up
But the other theme that we see here in Hannah's prayer is that the Lord is the one who exalts and the Lord brings low. And that is the story of 1 Samuel, is this bringing up and bringing down.
The Fall of Eli's House
So first, you see the priest who's ruling at that time. There is no king in Israel. If you remember from the book of Judges, that's one of the refrains in the book of Judges. There was no king in Israel, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. The beginning of this book is still in the time of the Judges. So Samuel's life probably starts about the same time as Samson's life in Judges 13. They're probably born about the same time.
...under the judgeship of Eli, who is also the priest. And Eli, though we don't have a lot of negative things said about him specifically, his sons, it says, are worthless. 1 Samuel 2.12 Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. And the way that that's expressed is we see that these men, who are themselves priests... are sleeping with the women who serve at the at the tabernacle they are stealing from the sacrifices the the fat portions that are supposed to be set apart as burnt offerings from for the lord they steal that so that they can eat it because well who wants to eat the leftovers let's eat the good stuff we're here and you get down into later in chapter two and god calls eli to account because he although eli would rebuke his sons from time to time and say what are you doing guys
He never actually enforced any consequences on them. And in verse 29 of chapter 2, God says to Eli, Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?
So God calls Eli out on the carpet for honoring his sons above the honor of God, above the glory of God. And he tells him down in verse 35, Verse 34, rather. And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be assigned to you. Both of them shall die in the same day. And then he gives a prophecy. I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.
In the next couple chapters, you see the calling of Samuel. And then... Israel goes to battle with the Philistines. The Philistines are this group of people originally from the island of Crete who had moved down, starting several hundred years before this, but they moved into the land that became Philistine territory on the west bank there. And they set up these five mini-kingdoms, the five cities of the Philistines, and they started to intermarry with the giants who had been left in the land when Joshua and the people had failed to drive out the Philistines. The Philistines intermarried with them. So especially in Gath, you have this race of giants. We'll become familiar in chapter 17 with Goliath. And as these people came, they also had superior technology. They had superior weapons of war. They had iron weapons. And so they became a thorn in the Israelites' side.
And the people go out to battle with the Philistines. And Hophni and Phinehas, these two priests, go out with them. But remember, these two men don't actually know the Lord. And so they take the Ark of God as if it's some sort of magical trinket that's going to provide them victory. But then what happens is the people are decimated. Hophni and Phinehas are killed, and the Ark of God is captured.
And when news comes back to Eli, Eli has a heart attack, falls over backwards because he's 98 years old and really fat. He breaks his neck and dies. That's what happens. They're at the end of chapter 4. I'm summarizing slightly, but that's basically exactly what it says.
And so we see that though this family had power, he's a judge, he's the priest. Because God was not valued in their life, God was not valued in their ministry, quote-unquote, God brings them down.
The Rise of Samuel
And at the same time that Eli is being brought down, Samuel is being raised up as a new—he's not a priest, he's not from the priestly line, though he does perform some priestly functions—but he's a prophet. And he is a judge for the people. God raises Samuel. It kind of disappears from the narrative as the ark spends its time in Philistine territory. But then in chapter 7, after the ark has been sent back because the Philistines got tired of passing this ark around and it destroying the lives of everybody around them, they send it back to Israel. And once the ark is back, Samuel calls the people together to call them to the Lord. And it seems like things are starting to go well.
Israel Demands a King
But then in chapter 10, Israel starts looking to be like all the nations around them. They say, give us a king that we might be like all the nations. They want someone to go out and fight their battles for them. They want someone to go out and represent them to the nations. And I think we mentioned this a couple of weeks ago. It wasn't necessarily wrong for the Israelites to want a king. God made provision for that in Deuteronomy 17. But they don't want a king to honor God. They don't want a king to lead them in honoring God as a people. They want a king because they want to be just like everybody else.
And isn't that a warning for us? That we so often want to be just like everybody else. And we're willing to compromise, we're willing to do whatever it takes to not be seen as weird, to hold on to whatever rights or privileges we think we deserve. We're willing to be just like everybody else.
Saul: The King They Wanted
The sad thing is, in this story, God gives them exactly what they want. He gives them the king that they request, and he is the picture-perfect king. He's head and shoulders taller than everybody else. He's a beautiful man, and he's an awful king.
Things start off well. He leads them in battle. They have some victories. But then they're supposed to drive out and totally, totally annihilate the people of Amalek. the Amalekites, and they fail to do so. They keep the best of the property. And Samuel comes and he calls Saul to account on this matter. And Saul says, well, I'm just doing this because we want to honor the Lord with all these good things that he's given us. And Samuel asks in chapter 15, verse 22, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of rams.
Listen to verse 23. For rebellion is as the sin of divination. Like we think of witchcraft, that kind of stuff is bad. God through Samuel says, rebelling against what God says is just as bad. And presumption as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he also has rejected you from being king.
Saul's Long Fall and David's Rise
Now the interesting thing here is that unlike the narrative with Eli, where the period between God saying your sons are going to die and them dying is pretty tight. Saul has been rejected as king here in chapter 15, but all the way through the end of 1 Samuel, Saul remains on the throne. And we get this long, drawn-out narrative of Saul's long, slow fall and David's long, slow rise.
In the next chapter, Samuel basically sneaks out to Bethlehem and anoints David king. And David is the exact opposite of Saul. David is not the guy that anybody's picking to be the head of a nation. He's the youngest son. He's apparently pretty small, especially compared to Saul. Because in chapter 17, he goes to put Saul's armor on, and it's all too big and clunky. He's like, I haven't tried this. I can't do it. He's just a young man. And God has Samuel anoint him king.
But all through the rest of the book, things don't go well for David. There's a few highlights. David and Goliath, chapter 17, there's a highlight.
David's Confidence in the Lord
But then, so this fall of Saul that we see is starting to get drawn out, even before it's terribly explicit, before we can see him going crazy. In chapter 17, David comes to bring lunch to his brothers. And Saul is there, and here's Saul who has led victories over the Amalekites, victories over the Philistines. And here, we come to chapter 17, and Saul is quaking in his boots with the rest of the nation. Rather than going out, he's the one who's head and shoulders taller than everybody else. He's the one whom they have asked for in order that he might fight their battles. And he's behind the lines, behind the men, hiding. From that big, scary guy who's calling out the people of Israel.
And David comes, and David hears what Goliath is saying. And David doesn't say, oh, I'm a big, tough guy. I've got this. But David says, why are we listening to this man decry God?
Verse 31 of chapter 17. When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight for this Philistine. And Saul said to David, You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth. But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. When there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock, I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has struck down both lions and bears, and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them.
For, now listen, this is the reason he has confidence. He's like, yeah, I've killed bears, I've killed lions, but why is this uncircumcised Philistine going to be like one of them? For he has defied the armies of the living God. And David said, the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion, from the paw of the bear, will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine.
David comes into the scene, and what we see with David is someone who has confidence in the Lord as a deliverer.
If you're back in Hannah's song, 1 Samuel 2, this is exactly the confidence she has. My heart exalts in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. There is none holy like the Lord. The Lord is a God of knowledge. The Lord kills and brings to life. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. The adversaries of the Lord will be broken to pieces. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. David's confidence is the same place, is in the same person as Hannah's confidence. It's in the Lord, nowhere else.
The End of Saul
It looks a little sketchy for David going through the rest of this book. Because once David kills the Philistine, then the songs start to be about David. Saul is slain as thousands, but David is ten thousands. And Saul, who knows now that he's been rejected by the Lord, and sees, he doesn't know that David's been anointed king, but he sees the blessing that God is clearly giving to David. And he fears David. He tries to kill him twice, throws a spear at him, and then David has to flee into the wilderness. And the rest of the book, it's like a cat and mouse. Saul's trying to get David. But at the end of the book, who's dead?
Saul lies slain on Mount Gilboa.
Verse 4 of chapter 2 says, The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. I think it's interesting that it might just be coincidence, but it says the bows of the mighty are broken. It's the archers who kill Saul. Well, they don't kill him. They wound him severely in chapter 31, and then Saul kills himself. Saul's bow is broken, and he's killed by the archers of the Philistines.
The Lesson: We Need Jesus
The wrong lesson to draw from 1 Samuel, though, as we move into 2 Samuel, is to think, well, David's the hero. Because as we move into 2 Samuel, the same rise and fall that we saw with Saul is going to essentially happen to David too. 2 Samuel is full of the sins of David and the consequences on his family and the consequences on the nation. He is a man after God's own heart. Unlike Saul, he repents. Psalm 51, that prayer that Duane read for us from that prisoner, he quotes from Psalm 51. created me a clean heart oh god david does repent he is a model for us in that way but the lesson is not that oh david is the mighty man and we should be just like him no david leaves us longing just like these others did and in that in that condemnation of eli in first samuel chapter 2 god said and i will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.
Well, if you look at the book of Hebrews, the only priest who lasts forever is Jesus.
Like Samuel, Samuel here in 1 Samuel 2, verse 26 says, The boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man. Heard that before? Luke chapter 2, Lord Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
He also fulfills What God promises to David in 2 Samuel chapter 7, that he would build a house, an everlasting house, for the son of David. And Jesus comes and he fulfills the ministry of Samuel as the prophet, and the ministry of the Aaronic line as a priest, and the ministry of David's line as a king. Jesus is the prophet, the priest, and the king. Jesus is the one we need.
That's a lesson in 1 Samuel as we watch all these rises and falls. As we go into 2 Samuel, we're going to see David, who in so many ways is a model for us, but ultimately is not someone who can bear our hopes. He can't hold them on his shoulders. No one in this world can. Only Jesus, who came and will live the perfect life, spoke to us perfectly the word of God, died as a priest who not only ministers the sacrifice, but himself became the sacrifice. that perfect priest and who now reigns as the risen from the dead victorious king forever and ever with all authority in heaven on earth he is the one we need
Closing Prayer
would you pray with me father god we ask that you would help us to have our confidence in christ alone as we're about to sing it is so sweet to trust in jesus we look other places so often lord and we are left disappointed and downcast
Help us to fix our eyes on Jesus, who is the author and finisher of our faith. In his precious name we pray. Amen.
