Oct. 26, 2025

Saints & Sinners

Samuel

Primary Text: 1 Samuel 1:10-11                         

1)  A “Nazirite Vow” (Nazarite)

1 Samuel 1:4-6, 10-11:  Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.  But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the Lord had closed her womb.  And because the Lord had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her….  In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord.  And she made a vow, saying, “O Lord Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant’s misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.” 

DQ 1) What was a Nazirite/Nazarite vow (see Numbers 6:1-2)?

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2)  Asked of the Lord

1 Samuel 1:19-28:  Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her.  So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son.  She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”  When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the Lord and to fulfill his vow, Hannah did not go.  She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the Lord, and he will live there always.”…  After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh.  When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, “As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord.  I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him.  So now I give him to the Lord.  For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.”  And he worshiped the Lord there. 

DQ 2) What is the meaning of the name Samuel? 

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3)  Sons of Eli 

1 Samuel 2:12, 17, 22-25:  Eli’s sons were wicked men; they had no regard for the Lord….  This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt….  Now Eli, who was very old, heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.  So he said to them, “Why do you do such things?  I hear from all the people about these wicked deeds of yours.  No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear spreading among the Lord’s people.  If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?”  His sons, however, did not listen to their father’s rebuke, for it was the Lord’s will to put them to death. 

DQ 3) The sins of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:3-11) were functionally different from those of the sons of Eli.  Yet, what was the similarity between the sins of the two pairs?

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4)  Favor With the Lord 

1 Samuel 2:18-21, 26:  But Samuel was ministering before the Lord—a boy wearing a linen ephod.  Each year his mother made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.  Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, saying, “May the Lord give you children by this woman to take the place of the one she prayed for and gave to the Lord.”  Then they would go home.  And the Lord was gracious to Hannah; she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters.  Meanwhile, the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the Lord….  And the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men. 

1 Chronicles 6:33-34, 38, 48:  Here are the men who served, together with their sons: From the Kohathites: Heman, the musician, the son of Joel, the son of Samuel, the son of Elkanah… the son of Izhar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel.…  Their fellow Levites were assigned to all the other duties of the tabernacle, the house of God. 

DQ 4) Was Samuel an Ephraimite or Levite?  Why would his ancestry matter?

DQ 5) How does a person gain favor with the Lord?

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5)  A Young Prophet

1 Samuel 3:1, 7, 10-13, 17-21:  The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli.  In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions….  Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him….The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”  Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle.  At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end.  For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them.”…  “What was it he said to you?” Eli asked.  “Do not hide it from me.”…  So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him.  Then Eli said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”… The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.  And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.  The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22:  You may say to yourselves, “How can we know when a message has not been spoken by the Lord?”  If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the Lord does not take place or come true, that is a message the Lord has not spoken.  That prophet has spoken presumptuously.  Do not be afraid of him.

DQ 6) How does anyone begin to hear the voice of the Lord?

DQ 7) What is the test of a true prophet?      

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