Week 1: Samuel

In the Name of the Father, and the Son and the Holy Spirit. One God. Amen.

Introduction

The Book of 1 Samuel is one of the important historical books of the Old Testament. It tells the story of Samuel, the great priest, prophet and judge; the rise and fall of King Saul, the first King over Israel, the anointing of David as King after the fall of King Saul, and the continuous conflict between King Saul and David. 

God willing, during this Great Fast, we will study the book of 1 Samuel on a day by day basis. It is 31 chapters, but our fast is a little bit longer than that. So interspersed within the chapters of 1 Samuel, we will benefit from reading some of the Psalms of King David that he composed during the various difficulties that he faced.

On a weekly basis, we will read six days a week, and have one day for catching up, if I missed any chapters. I have the catch-up day on Sunday so that if you don't need it or don't fall behind, you can read the liturgical readings of that Sunday and listen to the liturgy sermon. On each day, I will try my best to share with you a voice recording and text for that chapter - maybe an interpretation, contemplation, or something else. I also want to encourage you all to share in the group - a verse you liked, an interpretation, ANY questions you might have. We are here to benefit from each other, and to learn and grow together.

In this recording, I will give a summary of the Old Testament up until this point, and an introduction to the first Book of Samuel, so that we can have some context to what we are reading. Then, I will send another recording later today with the recording for 1 Samuel Chapter 1. God bless you.

Old Testament Historical Context

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)

The Holy Scripture opens with the Creation of the World in the book of Genesis. From the very first chapter, we see the creation of mankind in the Image of God, according to His Likeness. You and I are made in the Image of God. But soon after, we have the fall of man. And man continues to sin and separate himself from God, even to the point that God wipes mankind from the face of the earth, except for one righteous man and his family - Noah. And from Noah, the Lord makes a new creation. From Noah's descendants will come the great man of faith - Abraham, the man after God's own heart - King David, and the Messiah Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ; the Incarnate Word of God. God in the flesh.

The Holy Scripture lays out a single thread, from the Creation of the World and the Fall of Man, to the Incarnation, Death and Resurrection of the Son of God. And as we read the Scripture, while it presents historical facts and narratives, we can see that thread. We can see the Love of God for all mankind, we can see the Promise of God and its fulfillment, we can see the Wisdom of God and those whom He gave it to. We can see the Spirit of God coming upon flawed characters, and working in them and through them. We can see the Acceptance of God of the repentant man no matter his sin. God has revealed Himself to us through His Holy Scripture. He speaks to us through His words, but we must read and study and understand and meditate on them, in order to hear His voice.

In the book of Genesis, we read about the patriarchs - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jacob has twelve sons who become the fathers of the twelve tribes. Jacob and his family go to Egypt during a famine in the land, while his son Joseph had become vizier or second-in-command to Pharaoh.

In Exodus, we read that the Israelites were prosperous and multiplying in Egypt. And when a new Pharaoh came, who did not know Joseph, he saw them as a threat and enslaved them. They were in Egypt about 400 years when the Lord sent Moses to deliver them from Egypt. And this is the meaning of the word Exodus. In Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, the Israelites receive the Law from God, build the Tabernacle, and are wandering through the desert for about 40 years until they reach the Promised Land. Then, in the book of Joshua, Joshua (the disciple of Moses) leads them to take conquest of the land and to distribute it among the twelve tribes.

In the book of Judges, the key verse that is repeated several times is that "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes." The Israelites would fall into idolatry or sexual immorality and be taken by another tribe like the Midianites or the Philistines or the Ammonites. Then God would raise up for them a Judge - typically, someone who could lead their military to victory. And they would come out and give thanks to God and promise not to fall again... and then promptly fall again. And the cycle would repeat. This lasted about 400 years and gave us Judges like Deborah, Gideon, Samson, Jephthah and culminated with the last judge - Samuel the priest and the prophet.

And this is where our story will begin in the book of 1 Samuel. We will read about the origins of Samuel and the prayer of his mother for a child, and his upbringing in the Tabernacle.

Who wrote 1 Samuel? The traditional view is that the Prophet Samuel wrote the first part of the book. He dies about halfway through the book, so clearly he didn't write the rest of it (or even 2 Samuel). But we attribute the rest of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel to be written by the prophets Nathan and Gad. They were the two main prophets at the time of King David. We call these two books 1 and 2 Samuel according to the Hebrew tradition, but according to the Greek tradition, they are called 1 and 2 Kingdoms... so if you are using an Orthodox Study Bible, they will be called 1 and 2 Kingdoms. This is because they show the beginnings of the Kingdom of Israel.

1 Samuel starts with the birth of Samuel and ends with the death of King Saul. 2 Samuel starts with the enthronement of King David and ends with the death of King David. After that, the books of 1 and 2 Kings show us King Solomon and his sons and the split of the kingdom until the time of exile. So in our study during this fast, we will focus on three main characters - Samuel, Saul, and David. 

The events of 1 Samuel take place about the year 1100 BC.

If you're not familiar with these characters and stories, that's OKAY! We will learn together and grow together. Please ask questions - privately or in the group. Whatever you feel comfortable with. 

May the Lord fill us with His wisdom and His patience, and may this Great Fast and this Bible Study be a source of edification for us, for our salvation.

If you made it to the end of the recording, go ahead and put a thumbs up emoji. God bless you.

Glory be to our God, forever. Amen.

Monday - 1 Samuel 1

Good evening, dear beloved! Today we read 1 Samuel 1. The first character we meet is Elkanah, a man of the tribe of Ephraim and he has two wives - Hannah and Peninnah. I want to make a note here that from the beginning of the Scripture - even in Genesis 2, God ordains marriage as being between one man and one woman. The closer that we get to the New Testament, the more the Lord emphasizes having one wife. And in the New Testament, the Lord talks about marriage saying "because of the hardness of your hearts." Why? In all of the stories with more than one wife, you find many problems - Jacob's wives Rachel and Leah were jealous of each other, despite being sisters. Sarah, when she gave her servant Hagar to her husband, Abraham, got jealous of her after. And we'll see the same here.

Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. And she was very grieved by this, and naturally it didn't help that Peninnah would provoke her because of her jealousy. But Elkanah was a good man and a devout man - every year he would go to worship God at Shiloh. Shiloh was a city in the land of Ephraim which is where the tabernacle was erected in the time of Joshua. And until now in the time of Samuel, the tabernacle is there.

So he would go up every year to worship and there he would meet the priest Eli and his two sons Hophni and Phinehas. And he would offer sacrifices and whenever a sacrifice was offered, a portion of it would burn, another portion would be reserved for the priest, and a last portion would be given to those who offered the sacrifice. It's a shared meal with the Lord. So Elkanah would take from his portion and divide it among his family and give double what everyone else got, to Hannah. He is a good man - he didn't treat his wife differently because she couldn't bear children. He didn't think in a worldly way about his name or his inheritance. He didn't just tell her with his words that he loves her (although he did do that) but he showed her by his actions. And even when she grieves on the day of the feast, he doesn't rebuke her but he speaks to her with good words, he gives her a chance to vent and speak her problems, and he wants her to know that he loves her.

And here we will have our first interpretation from this chapter - the Fathers of the Church see Peninnah as a type of the Old Testament, and Hannah as a type of the New Testament. Penninah represents outward fruitfulness by her many children. She also came first - in that she had children first. Her children came naturally without a miracle or anything supernatural. Hannah, on the other hand, represents barrenness that is fruitful by grace. She comes later and bears a child with patience. And her son Samuel will, himself, be a type of Christ.

So Hannah, after being comforted by her husband Elkanah's words, goes and eats and drinks, but she was still bitter. The true comfort can only come from God, and not from anyone else. We read that "she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord." Let's try to memorize this verse. When we are in despair, when things are hard, when things are confusing... pray to the Lord. When I am in the midst of tribulation or sin or addiction or guilt - when I am in the belly of the whale - let me pray to the Lord. She raises her heart to Him in humility and makes a promise - if You give me a son, I will dedicate him to You and he will be Yours. She is ready to give him to the Lord all the days of his life... despite how hard it would be. She is ready to consecrate him as a Nazirite.

One lesson that we can take from her prayer is that it was not meant to be seen by others, but spoken in her heart - only her lips moved. The prayer of the heart is more precious than that of the tongue - sometimes I only pray when others are around, like when I'm at church or in youth meeting or in OCCM or something. Eli the priest was so unaccustomed to seeing this high level of spiritual prayer and fervency in prayer, that he accused her of being drunk. But she responds to him with respect and reverence, as to a priest of God. And at the word of Eli the priest who said "Go in peace and the God of Israel grant your petition" - then she was comforted. This is the comfort from God through the mouth of the priest.

Finally, in the last section of the chapter, Hannah conceives and brings forth her son - Samuel. The name Samuel means "The Lord hears." She weans him and brings him up until such time that he is old enough to go to the Tabernacle; then she takes him with a sacrifice and dedicates him to the Lord. And this is a hard thing. She leaves him at the altar for the Lord, her son, her only son whom she loves, the joy of her heart, her baby who she just spent several years rearing. She knows she will only see him once a year. She knows that she will miss him. But the Lord comes before all, and her promise to the Lord comes before all. And we'll see in the next chapter that the Lord gives her three more sons and two daughters.

These are some meditations and interpretations from today's chapter. I encourage you to share with us anything you learned or benefited from. Make sure you read the chapter! Even if you listened to this recording, nothing can substitute the reading of the Scripture.

Blessed Holy and Great Fast to you and God bless you