Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20011118.htm

1 AND 2 SAMUEL: GOD'S SOLUTIONS TO PROBLEMS IN OVERSIGHT
Part IV: Taking Stock Of God's SPECIFIC Dealings With Us To Edify Others
(1 Samuel 1:24-28)
  1. Introduction
    1. As Thanksgiving is less than a week away, we may be wondering what we might give as a testimony of God's goodness to us that will truly edify others.
    2. Hannah's recollection of God's past dealings at the very spot where she gave Samuel over to Eli gave her opportunity to testify of God's goodness that resulted in the High Priest worshipping God on the spot!
    3. Her example encourages us to take stock in the specifics of God's dealings to edify others effectively:
  2. Taking Stock Of God's SPECIFIC Dealings With Us To Edify Others, 1 Samuel 1:24-28.
    1. When Hannah brought her firstborn son, Samuel to the temple to deliver him to the High Priest in fulfillment of her original vow and prayer, her actions and words reveal she recalled God's PAST dealings with her AT the VERY SPOT where she had prayed and vowed to the Lord, 1 Sam. 1:24-27:
      1. After Samuel was weaned, Hannah took Samuel with her to the temple along with a bull for sacrifice that recalled the significance of the time of Samuel's birth, 1 Samuel 1:24a:
        1. Though the KJV reads Hannah brought three bullocks to the temple, the NIV footnote shows it prefers the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Septuagint and Syriac Old Testament readings over the Masoretic one to assert she gave a three-year-old, single bullock, 1 Samuel 1:24a KJV and NIV:
        2. The NIV has the better reading for several reasons: (a) The Masoretic Hebrew textual reading the NIV shows favor the "three bullocks" rendition undoubtedly considered Hannah's use of the flour and bottle of wine to be her offering of the completion of the Nazarite vow, cf. Ryrie Study Bible, KJV ftn. to Numbers 6:13-21: this is because the completion of this vow involved offering peace, grain, drink, sin and burnt offerings that would require three animals with this flour and wine. (b) Yet, the Nazarite animals offered were not bullocks, but a male lamb, a ewe and a ram according to Numbers 6:14. (c) Also, Samuel was not at the end of his Nazarite vow -- he was to be a lifelong Nazarite. Thus, the logical reading should be the three-year-old bullock offered only as a burnt offering in consecration to God (this fits the context of Hannah's consecration to God)!
        3. Since a Hebrew child was considered weaned from its mother around three years of age (see 2 Maccabees 7:27 as cited in the Ryrie Study Bible, KJV), Hannah apparently brought a bullock that represented what God had done in giving her a son three years before when Samuel was born.
      2. In slaying the bullock, Hannah was required to offer the carcass to the priest, cf. Leviticus 1:5. In doing so, she and Samuel approached Eli's chair located by the doorpost of the Tabernacle, the very spot where she had first prayed for Samuel in Eli's presence, 1 Samuel 1:25-26; 1:9.
      3. Recalling she was about to deliver Samuel, her answer to prayer unto Eli's care at the very spot where she had first prayed for a son, Hannah testified to Eli of the significance of the current event in view of that former prayer request that had been made at that very spot in Eli's presence, 1 Sam. 1:26-27.
    2. Accordingly, Hannah officially gave Samuel to Eli in the presence of God where she had first asked for him, and that as a testimony to God's goodness to her at that spot, 1 Samuel 1:28a,b.
    3. As a result of her testimony of God's goodness at that spot, the High Priest, Eli, overcome with emotion and marvel at God's goodness, broke out in worship to God at that significant spot, 1 Samuel 1:28c!
Lesson: Hannah saw the SPECIFICS of the ROLE God had played in HER LIFE, even tying God's working for her into a specific LOCATION. Referring to this PRACTICAL working of God left a tremendous impression on even the High Priest, leading him to WORSHIP God AT THAT SPOT!

Application: (1) Since the more SPECIFIC we can get as to how God has SHOWN us Himself in the DETAILS of our lives, the more EFFECTIVE our testimony will be on other people who long to see God's PERSONAL interaction in their OWN lives! (2) Also, the more PRAISE men will raise as they long for such an INTIMATE walk with God that His involvement in SPECIFICS offer! (3) Let us then note the DETAILS of God's working in our lives, and TELL of these DETAILS for God's glory and that other human beings may be moved to worship the Lord for His Person and Work!