The episode also brings to light the story of Hannah’s faithful prayer and the birth of Samuel, highlighting the power of prayer, commitment, and the influence of spiritual guidance. As we navigate through these compelling times, we understand how the lack of sound leadership and education on faith can lead to downfall, with profound insights relevant to contemporary issues. Dive into the conversations of past times and discover insightful parallels to today’s world.
The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s been said over and over again that those who cannot learn the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them. Now, I’ve come to the conclusion that hardly anyone believes that statement. Because so few have any interest whatsoever in history. Eyes glaze over when history is mentioned. You may even have started to reach for the button on your radio when I mentioned it. But if you’re still listening, consider this. It is entirely the fault of your teachers that you never acquired a taste for history. I’ll confess, I came to my interest in history late in life, and I blame my teachers for that. History is a set of fascinating stories, and who is it that doesn’t like a good story? But good stories have to be well told. And more than that, these excellent stories go a long way toward explaining what’s going on around us in the world. Great leaders always are students of history. If they weren’t, they would find themselves utterly lost in understanding what’s going on in the world around them. They are able to lead people because they understand what is happening. Their decisions are based upon a knowledge that those who never hit the books can never understand. Now notice also, I call them students of history. The teachers of history rarely attain to leadership roles, and that’s probably just as well. Now, if you happen to be a history teacher and you take exception to what I’m saying, I would be more than happy to hear from you. And if you are really good at your profession, I can only say I’m really sorry I didn’t meet you sooner. Now, why am I on a tear about history today? Because I’m about to launch on a new series of programs looking at one of the most pivotal times in all of history. When Israel came out of Egypt, they were a people exceptionally well-led. Moses, even if he wasn’t Charlton Heston, was a great leader. And before he died, he publicly invested the leadership of Israel and won Joshua, the son of Nun. Joshua, too, was a great man and a great general as well. He was the Tommy Franks of his day. Everyone knows that Joshua fit the battle of Jericho. But Joshua also led Israel all through the conquest of Canaan with very few hitches along the way. It was one of those hitches that would haunt them, though, for generations to come, and may do so to this day. The children of Israel first became aware of this hitch when an angel showed up at their camp. He said, I made you go up out of Egypt. I brought you to the land I swore to your fathers. And I said, I will never break my covenant with you. I also said, You shall make no league with the inhabitants of this land. You shall throw down their altars. But you have not obeyed my voice. Why have you done this? So I also said, I will not drive them out from before you. They will be thorns in your sides, and their gods will be a snare to you. Well, it came to pass when the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the children of Israel that the people lifted up their voice and wept. And they called the name of that place Bohim, which means the weepers. And they sacrificed there to the Lord. Now, I won’t go so far as to identify the Palestinians with this statement, but it’s true of them. They are a thorn in Israel’s side, and their God is the reason for it. Well, when Joshua let the people go, they went every man to his inheritance to possess the land. The land of Israel was divided up among them by a lot, and they all split up and went off in their different direction. Now comes a profound statement about leadership and education. Judges 2, verse 7. And the people served the Lord all the days of Joshua. and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the Lord that he did for Israel. Now, you can hear it coming. All during the days of the good, solid leadership, when they had a man like Joshua and the elders that had been his companions, all these people who had seen the great works of God, all the people served the Lord all those days. And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, a hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance, in the Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gash. And all that generation were gathered to their fathers, which means they all died. And there arose another generation after them that knew not the Lord, nor yet the works that he had done for Israel. Now, the only way this could have been true is for the generation of Joshua to fail to properly educate their children. Moses had warned them about this long before this. God, through Moses, told them that they were to teach their children diligently about these things. They were to talk about them sitting at the table. They were to talk about them when they got up in the morning. They should talk about them when they go to bed at night. They talk about them walking along the road together with their kids. The only way we could have come to this pass if they had ignored the education of their children in the matters of faith. Now what follows on this is the chaotic period of the judges. There were a few great leaders of this time and some true heroes. But it was a painful time for Israel because they forgot God and they suffered terribly for it. What they did was to stop teaching their children about the Lord and all His works that He had done for them. A lot of good people died during the period of Judges. People who need not have died at all. They died because they lost touch with their faith. They lost touch with their protector, with their guide. It’s a situation that we seem to be hell-bent for going down that same road today. During the period of the judges, there was no central government. Four times in the book, a point is made of the simple fact there was no king in Israel. And the book ends with this summary statement, Judges 21-25. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Taken by itself, that statement is not negative. The reason I say that is because it was never God’s intent for Israel to have a king, and there’s nothing in the world wrong with people doing what’s right in their own eyes, if it’s right. God seems to have followed the principle that he who is governed best is governed least. That said, the Israelites forgot who gave them their liberty. And there is to follow in this story one of the greatest lessons about government in all of the history of man. Music Samuel begins his story by saying, there was a man who had two wives, but the man Elkanah leaves the scene quickly and we don’t hear from him again. He had two wives, one named Hannah, the other named Penina. Penina had two children, Hannah had none. Now this was a much bigger deal in those days than in these where women get rid of their babies before they’re born. Hannah would faint dead away if she were to know about the 40 million or so abortions we have done in the modern world. She wouldn’t understand it at all. People assumed that, in those days, that if a married woman had no children, that there was something morally wrong with her. And children were also very important to take care of an aging mother in years to come, because we’re living in a time when there was nothing like Social Security or welfare. In 1 Samuel 1, chapter 3, this man, Elkanah, went up out of his city every year to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. Now, this was long before Jerusalem was the place to worship God. The tabernacle was in Shiloh. It’s an unassuming place in the gentle hills some 20 miles north of Jerusalem. A man named Eli was the high priest. His sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests as well. And when the time was that Elkanah was going to give his offering, he normally gave to Peninnah, his wife, and to all of her sons and daughters portions. But to Hannah, he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb. It’s an interesting statement. He seems to be saying here that it was God who did not allow Hannah up to this time to have children. Now, Hannah was Elkanah’s favorite. He tried really hard to make it up to her. But the other wife, whom Samuel calls her adversary, also provoked her sore to make her fret because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as he did so year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her. Therefore she wept and wouldn’t eat. You know, when a woman really does want children, it’s a great pain not to have them. And here to have someone who is actually continually provoking you on the issue, it’s just a little bit much. Elkanah tried to encourage her. He said, Hannah, why are you crying? Why aren’t you eating? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than seven sons? But Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had had their drink. And Eli the priest was sitting upon a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord. And Hannah, she was in bitterness of soul. She prayed to the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed a vow in her prayer, and she said, O Lord of hosts, if you will look upon the affliction of your handmaid and remember me, and don’t forget me, but will give to your handmaid a man-child, I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and there will no razor come upon his head. Now, as strange as this sounds to us, it wasn’t strange at all to Hannah. What she was saying was that the child would be a Nazarite, one who served God continually, who never drank alcohol, who never cut his hair. That’s what people who took the Nazarite vow do. Of course, her son was not going to take that vow. She was making it for him. Well, it came to pass she was there standing, praying before the Lord that Eli looked at her, looked at her face, noticed her mouth moving. Hannah spoke in her heart. Only her lips were moving and her voice was not heard. Eli assumed that the poor woman was drunk and he said, how long are you going to be a drunk? Put away your wine from you. Hannah said, No, no, my Lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. I haven’t had any wine. I haven’t had any strong drink. I’m pouring out my soul before the Lord. Don’t count your handmaid as a worthless woman. For out of the abundance of my complaint and my grief have I spoken hitherto. Eli answered and said, Well, go in peace. And the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him. And she said, Let your handmaid find grace in your sight. So she went her way and ate, and her countenance was no more sad. It meant a great deal to her, in fact, that the high priest, the high priest of God, had said, Go in peace. The God of Israel grant your petition. He didn’t even know what the petition was. But he actually granted it to her in God’s stead, and she accepted that. Well, they rose up early in the morning and worshipped before the Lord and went home to their house in Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. So it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, she bare a son and called his name Samuel, because I have asked him of the Lord, she said. One of the most striking things about this incident to me is the way God honored the blessing of the high priest in this case, in spite of the fact, we will learn, he was mortally displeased with this priest. God didn’t look down upon Eli, watch the way he and his sons administered in the office, and he was furious with them. And yet, when Eli, in his office, blessed this woman, The blessing was observed and the blessing was honored because Eli still carried the symbolic office of the high priest of God. Well, Elkanah, her husband, continued to go up to the Lord year by year and offer his sacrifice and his vow. But Hannah didn’t go. She said to her husband, I will not go up until the child is weaned and then I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and abide there forever from now on. Now, I will make a note here that children were weaned considerably later at this time than women do today. This is a little bit older child. Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Do what seems to you good. Wait until you’ve weaned him. Just let God establish his word. So the woman waited and gave her son suck until she weaned him. And when she had… She took him up with her with three bullocks and one ephah of flour and a bottle of wine, and she brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh, and the child was young. Again, there’s no doubt that he was quite young, just weaned, although there’s every reason to believe children were weaned much later. Well, they slew a bullock and brought the child to Eli, and she said, “‘O my Lord, as your soul lives, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by you here praying to the Lord.'” For this child I pray, and the Lord has given me my petition which I ask of him. Therefore have I lent him to the Lord as long as he lives. He shall be lent to the Lord, and he, that is Samuel, did obeisance to the Lord there. Which I presume he was upright, walking, and able to do so. This man, who came to the temple as just a boy, turns out to be one of the most powerful figures in the history of the Bible, one of the most influential in the history of the Bible. And he lived and worked for God a long time, having started as just a boy. At this point, the story records Hannah’s prayer on this occasion. My heart rejoices in the Lord, she began. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over all my enemies. because I rejoice in your salvation. There is none holy as the Lord. There is none beside you, neither is there any rock like our God. She is a woman exalted. She talks about her horn being exalted. The horn is a symbol of power. Her mouth is enlarged, which again suggests power. She then says, talk no more so exceeding proudly. I expect this is directed at Penina. Don’t let arrogancy come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have hired themselves out for bread. They that were hungry are not hungry, so that the barren has borne seven, and she that has many children is waxed feeble.” This is an interesting case in contrast. You know, all the big guys, they are broken. The poor are the ones now that are lifted up. The poor are now the winners. And, of course, all this is directed at this hard time she had gone through of no children, being put down, being made fun of. And now she says, who’s laughing now? “‘The Lord kills,’ she continued, “‘and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and brings up. The Lord makes poor, and the Lord makes rich. He brings low, and He lifts up. He raises the poor out of the dust and lifts the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He has set the world upon them.’ This is a great exaltation in the power of God. And I guess there’s not much like a major answer to prayer that enables a person to praise God as never before. He will keep the feet of his saints. The wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven he will thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth. and he shall give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. So Elkanah and his wife went home, and the child did minister to the Lord before Eli the priest. I’ll be back in just a moment with the rest of Samuel’s story, but get a pencil and a piece of paper and be sure and write down the address we’re going to give you.
SPEAKER 02 :
Listen to this important message. For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only and request the program titled The Book of Samuel, number one. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were a pair of worthless bullies. They did not know God. Now, I can understand why someone might ask, wait a minute, wait a minute, how could they be priests and not even know God? Well, you have to understand the office of the priesthood historically has been both hereditary and political. It really is not a question of knowing God. It’s a question of knowing who the civil leaders are or the important people. Well, the priest’s custom with the people was that when some fellow came up to offer a sacrifice to God. Now, what is not often understood is that sacrifices when offered involved food. There were parts of the sea animal. It was killed. It had to be offered to God. Part of it had to be burned on the altar. But you cooked your food. as a result of the sacrifice. Killed the animal, he got meat. Okay, the priest’s custom was, when people had come up there to offer sacrifice to God, the priest’s servant would come by while the flesh was cooking with a flesh hook of three teeth in his hand, and he would strike it into the pan or the kettle or the cauldron or the pot, and whatever he drug up, the priest took for himself. They did this in Shiloh to all the Israelites that came there to offer sacrifice. Now, you can think about this. You’re a person very sincere. Your sacrifice you’re offering to God is to glorify God, to honor God. Or it may be because of some sin you have committed and you want to get your life made right with God. And you come there with a full heart of worship. And these idiots come in. and command that they be given certain types of meat that you have prepared. It says in verse 15, Before they burnt the fat, the priest’s servants came and said to the man that sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest. He doesn’t want sodden flesh of you. He wants it raw. And the man would say, Well, okay, but let’s be sure and burn the fat, and then you can take whatever your soul desires. And they’d say, No, give it to me now, and if not, I will take it by force. Now, you can see what I mean when I say these two men were worthless bullies. They just walked right over people, because the law of God was really quite explicit. You can’t do that. You must burn the fat. I suppose, in a way, it was a health law. They shouldn’t have had the problems that we have. Now, along with this, it turns out that Eli was a very, very fat man. Well… Verse 17 says, Now that is so sad. It made people come to the place to where they no longer wanted to even go to the temple at all. They did not want to make offerings at all. These men left such a bad taste in their mouth that it turned them off from the worship of God. Out of this incident that we read here comes a great principle. If you’re a man of God, be you preacher, priest, teacher, whatever, if in the way you do your office and the way you carry out your features, you cause people to turn away from God because of your behavior, that’s a very heavy burden for any man to bear. So they did what they did, but Samuel ministered before the Lord being a child, girded with a linen ephod, a priestly garment. It was a simple little thing, a linen garment that had almost like a poncho. It had a hole in the center, and it was draped over both shoulders and came down as a rectangular garment a little below the waist, a little below the hips. So here’s this little boy, girded with his linen ephod, doing work around the temple suitable for a child. Probably kind of like a cute little miniature priest. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat. and brought it to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. It’s so touching to think of this, this little fellow, serving God in the temple, and his mother made him not just a coat, but a little coat, which again tells you he was very small when he came here. Well, Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife and said, The Lord give you seed of this woman for the loan which is lent to the Lord. And they went home. And the Lord visited Hannah, so she conceived and bare three sons and two daughters after this. Meanwhile, the child Samuel grew before the Lord. And strikingly, even though displeased as he was with Eli, his blessing upon Elkanah God honored. Now, Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all of Israel and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. I mean, there’s nothing new under the sun. Men have used religious office down through time to sleep with somebody else’s wife or to molest little boys. He said to his sons, why are you doing this? I hear of your evil doings by all these people. Don’t do it, boys. There’s no good report I hear. You make the Lord’s people to transgress. If one man sins against another, then the judge shall judge him. But if a man sinned against the Lord, who’s going to entreat for him? Didn’t matter. They wouldn’t listen to the voice of their father because the Lord would slay them. You know, you come to a place where God slams the door shut on you, and it had already happened with these two worthless louts. God had said no and did not even allow them to listen to their father or grant them repentance. And the child Samuel grew on and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men.
SPEAKER 02 :
Ronald Dart will be right back. If you would like more information or if you have any questions, write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. In the U.S. and Canada, call toll-free 1-888-BIBLE-44. That’s 1-888-242-5344.
SPEAKER 03 :
The series beginning here on Samuel and Kings is one of the most important that I’ve done. Understanding what happened in this little part of history will make all the difference in understanding the Bible later on. Be sure and get in touch with us. Request the programs we’re sending because we have some hard decisions to make about which radio stations we keep and which ones we have to let go. So protect your station. Give us a call or drop us a line. Our phone number is 1-888-BIBLE-44. That’s 1-888-242-5344. Our mailing address, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791.
SPEAKER 01 :
Christian Educational Ministries is happy to announce a new full-color Born to Win monthly newsletter with articles and free offers from Ronald L. Dart. Call us today at 1-888-BIBLE44 to sign up or visit us at borntowin.net.
