1 Sa 2

Now the prayer of Hannah does express a depth of spirituality.

And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord (1Sa 2:1),

Evidently Mary was familiar with this prayer of Hannah because actually the rejoicing of Mary when she came to her cousin Elisabeth, when she was expecting Jesus, is much the same pattern as this of Hannah. Mary said, "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit doth rejoice for He has regarded the low estate of His handmaid." And she goes on and you might want to compare the third chapter, or the second chapter of Luke there. The rejoicing of Mary called the Magnificat with this praising of Hannah. Hannah prayed and said, "My heart rejoices in the Lord."

my horn is exalted in the Lord: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed (1Sa 2:1-3).

Heavy statement. "By God actions are weighed." It isn't enough to do the right thing. You can do the right thing with the wrong attitude and it counts for nothing, because God weighs your actions. That is, what motivates your actions? Jesus said, "Take heed to yourself that you do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of men, for I say unto you, Ye have your reward". We are told that one day the secrets of the hearts are gonna be judged or weighed. God knows why you have done a certain thing.

Now there are people who pray, but they only pray in order to be seen of men, and thus their prayers really don't count as far as God is concerned. They have their reward. There are some people who give with such an ostentatious way so that their name will be on a placard or something. Well, I won't say it, but so that they might have their name up here. You know, "Up here that's my pew that I bought" or "my chair" or whatever. They give in order to advertise their name. Now when you get to heaven and you come before the Lord and the Lord goes through the books you say, "Wait a minute, Lord, You're forgetting something. My name was on that stained glass window. We paid a lot of money for that stained glass window, Lord. I don't see it on Your records here."

He'll say, "Nope, it isn't on the records here."

"Why not Lord, I—man that cost me a pretty penny."

He'll say, "You had your reward. Everybody that passed by that window saw your name. They said, Oh, isn't that marvelous he gave a stained glass window to the church." Now some people give in order to be seen of men. Your motive is wrong. God weighs the actions. "Why did I do it?" is really more important than what I do. Your attitude is far more important than your actions. So acknowledging that by Him are all of our actions 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; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. [Now I do detect in Hannah's prayer here a little bit of gloating over that woman that troubled her for so long.] The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh the poor, and he maketh the rich: he bringeth low, and he fiftieth up. He roister up the poor out of the dust, he lifts the beggar from the dunghill, and sets him among princes, to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them (1Sa 2:4-8).

Now it is foolish to take this picturesque speech of Hannah and say that the Bible teaches the ancient theory that the earth was set upon pillars. Because she uses this figure of speech, and speaks of the pillars of the earth, and the world set upon them. It's only picturesque figures of speech and it is not a kind of a divine revelation at all.

He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail (1Sa 2:9).

Here again is I think a very important scripture, "He will keep the feet of His saints." In the Psalms a lot is said about keeping the feet of His saints. The seventy-first Psalm, "My feet almost slipped, I almost had it." The walking in slippery places, "Keeping the feet of His saints," keeping me from falling, actually.

"For by strength shall no man prevail." What a valuable truth. "For by strength" that is by a man's own strength, you will never prevail. I am strongest when I am aware of my weakness. I am at my weakest point when I think I am strong. When I think, "I've got this wired, Lord, I don't need any help from You. I'm able to make it just by myself. You don't need to hold my hand, Lord. Just let me do it on my own. There's no problems here." That's when I'm at my most vulnerable position. When I'm standing there and saying, "Lord I don't think I can, Lord I know I can't make it. Lord help me I know that I'm not gonna be able to make it through this one. I need Your help." That's when I'm at my strongest position. "For by strength shall no man prevail." By your own strength you'll never know real victory. It is only as we learn to rely and trust in the strength of the Lord that we are really strong.

Now we go into a little bit of history of Eli's sons, and they were real rats. Eli was the high priest and his sons were greedy. They were priests representing God, but they were bad representatives.

Now it was a custom in those days when you would offer your sacrifice to the Lord you would be—it was actually—they were feasts. You would sacrifice the lamb, they would cut it up, they'd burn the fat as a burnt offering; the smoke would ascend up to God. Then they would oftentimes then boil the meat and then you'd eat it. You'd sit down and more or less eat it with God. But as the meat was being boiled, the priests would come along and they had little hooks, little forks with three hooks, and they'd reach in, and pull out and whatever they got out was theirs. That became the priests' pay almost. It was sort of the salary for the priests. They'd just put their forks in and pull out from the food that was cooking, and whatever came out they had.

But Eli's sons would come to them when they were just cutting up, butchering the meat. They'd say, "We don't want boiled meat, we want to roast ours. We want to take ours now."

The people would say, "Well, be sure and take the fat and offer it to the Lord."

They said, "Hey don't give us a bad time. You don't want to give it to us now? We'll take it by force." So they were bullying the people. The effect of it was that men began to abhor the offering of the Lord. Down in verse seventeen,

Thou the sin of the young men were great: because it caused people to begin to resent their offerings to the Lord (1Sa 2:17).

What a horrible sin that actually is, where you turn people off from God because of your attitude, because of greed and your own greed, you cause people to blaspheme. I really don't know who got me started on these evangelist's lists. But these evangelists sell their lists to each other. So you get on one, and pretty soon you get on all, because they'll sell their lists to each other. They'll do anything for a buck. So it seems that I'm getting more and more letters.

"Dear brother, a mutual friend told me about you, and I felt led of the Lord to write, and to share with you my needs. Now I'm enclosing a page of the Bible because the word of God is so powerful. If you'll just write your request on this page, and wrap it up, and send it back to me, enclose your offering in the page also. I'll take your request before the Lord, and I'll pray for you because the Lord tells me there's something wrong. You've got a problem in your life, just something that's not quite right. What is it, brother? Share it with me."

The other day a telegram came, "Urgent: Please send ten dollars immediately, I'll explain everything later."

"I've built a cross. Send me the names of four people that you want nailed to that cross."

"And enclose an offering of fifteen to twenty dollars." Can you believe it? It's unreal.

Now these men, their sin is really terrible. It's awful because they cause people to blaspheme God. They are deceivers. They prey upon people who have become more or less senile, living on pensions. They're nothing but rip-off artists. Their sin is as the sins of the sons of Eli, who caused people to abhor the sacrifice and the worship of God.

Now Samuel began to do little errands around the temple, and his mother made him a little linen robe like the priests. Though he was just a little tyke, yet he began to wear the robes of the priests, and began to do the errands around there. I imagine he was just a cute little guy there to see. There in his little linen robe and going around and doing some of the little duties around there. I imagine it was really quite a sight.

And every year his mother would make a little coat for him, and when she would come up each year to sacrifice she would bring him a new coat, [A little bit bigger naturally than the year before.] and visit with him there. So Eli the priest blessed Elkanah his father [That is Samuel's father] with his wife, and said, The Lord give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent to the Lord. And they went to their own home. And then God blessed Hannah, and she conceived, and had three other sons, and two daughters. And the child Samuel grew before the Lord. Now Eli was an old man, and he heard the things that his sons did; how that actually they were lying with the women right there at the gate of the temple (1Sa 2:19-22).

They were just perverse, though they were supposedly representing God as the priests. Yet they were immoral; they were crooked, they were real rats.

And so their dad said, Why do you do such things? I hear of your evil dealings from all of these people. My sons; it's not a good report that I hear: you make the Lord's people to transgress. If one man sins against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sins against the Lord, who's gonna pray for him? Notwithstanding they did not hearken unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them (1Sa 2:23-25).

In other words, they had gone so far the Lord was wanting to wipe them out. Therefore they just didn't listen to their dad.

But the child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the Lord, and also with men. Now there came a man of God to Eli, and prophesied to him how that God had promised to place the high priesthood into the house of Aaron for ever (1Sa 2:26-28).

However because of Eli and his sons who would not honor the Lord, God said,

For them that honor me, I will honor; but them that despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Behold, the days come, that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father's house, and there shall not be an old man in your house. And you will see an enemy in my habitation, in all the wealth which God shall give Israel: there shall not be an old man in your house for ever (1Sa 2:30-32).

And then the prophecy of verse thirty-five,

Thou shalt raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever (1Sa 2:35).

So the prophecy there of the new priesthood, Jesus Christ, the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek.