THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

The Books Of Samuel: God's Shift Of Israel From Apostasy Under The Judges To David's Reign

I. 1 Samuel: From Samuel To The Death Of Saul

C. Learning From Hannah's Godly Rearing Of Samuel In An Apostate Era

(1 Samuel 2:11-26)

Introduction: (To show the need . . .)

Christian parents today need insight on rearing their children in godliness amid a notoriously apostate era:

(1) Last Wednesday, local radio talk show host Brad Davis on "The Talk of Connecticut" alluded to a report that last year, there were 72,000 reports of alleged abuse or neglect of children in the State of Connecticut!

With so many alleged reports of such abuses of children, one wonders how many adults have faced it as well!

(2) Substance abuse is also a state crisis: Mr. Davis last Tuesday on his radio show voiced dismay that state officials were considering establishing rooms where drug addicts could go legally to shoot themselves up with heroine while medical personnel present make sure the addicts don't kill themselves -- all in response to the drug epidemic!

(3) Our national leaders regularly morally lack due to political correctness: (a) critiquing the effort by the Justice Department to make North Carolina repeal its law that directs one to use the public restroom reflecting the gender of his birth certificate, David French of the National Review Online/The Corner in his piece, "The Department of Justice Just Declared War on North Carolina," May 4, 2016 wrote: "'Is there a single person who believes that the Congress that passed Title VII [of the 1964 Civil Rights Act] believed that it was doing away with the distinction between male and female -- making it completely dependent on individual preference -- and thus granting men access to women and girls in bathrooms, lockers, and showers?'" (Republican-American, May 6, 2016, p. 8A; brackets ours)

(b) Nevertheless, last Thursday's May 12, 2016 nytimes.com story by Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Matt Apuzzo ("U. S. Directed Public Schools to Allow Transgender Access to Restrooms") told how the Obama administration had just made a sweeping directive backing the Justice Department's move by ordering every public school in the United States to allow transgender students use the restroom of their gender identity with the implied pressure that failure to comply with the order will mean the withholding of federal funds.

The American people thus face bullying by government officials who enforce unbiblical wickedness.

Need: So we ask, "How can Christian parents successfully rear their children for God in today's apostate world?!"

I. 1 Samuel 2:11-26 tells how Samuel grew up from early childhood to be a godly man at the tabernacle in striking CONTRAST to the great wickedness that was around him, Bible Know. Com., O. T., p. 435:

A. 1 Samuel 2:12-17 claims the high priest's sons seized the shares of the sacrifices that Biblically belonged to the worshipers and to God and bullied any who resisted them, Ryrie St. B., KJV, 1978, ftn. to 1 Sam. 2:13-17.

B. In sharp contrast, 1 Samuel 2:18-21 tells of Samuel's being clothed in an ephod, a garment worn by priests as they served the Lord, and of his mother Hannah's yearly visits to the tabernacle when she gave him a new outer robe (meil) worn particularly by the priests (Z. P. E. B., vol. Five, p. 130-131), signifying his need to revere, heed and serve the Lord at the tabernacle, and of God's blessing Hannah with more sons and daughters!

C. Then in contrast to Samuel's family, 1 Samuel 2:22-25 reports on Eli's loss of his control of his sons and their ritual fornication with women at the tabernacle in line with Canaanite cultic practices, Ibid., B. K. C., O. T.

D. Returning in sharp contrast again to Samuel, 1 Samuel 2:26 reports how he grew in favor with God and man.

II. Yet, both Samuel and Eli's sons were under Eli's oversight while Samuel was growing up (1 Sam. 1:27-28), so the contrast between Samuel's good development and Eli's sons was due to Hannah's influence:

A. During the first three years of his life before he was weaned, Samuel lived under the close supervision of his mother, Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:22-23; Ibid., Ryrie, ftn. to 1 Samuel 1:22.

B. We know that Hannah continued to influence Samuel after she had left him with Eli at the tabernacle, for she yearly brought her son a new outer priestly coat for use in serving the Lord at the tabernacle, 1 Sam. 2:19.

III. We thus study Hannah's actions to discern how she impacted Samuel to develop so well amid much evil:

A. Elkanah's polygamous marriage by which Hannah had been increasingly persecuted by her husband's other wife due to Hannah's barrenness had left Hannah repulsed by such evil abuse as seen in her extensive descriptions of relief and victory over that troubling trial in her 1 Samuel 2:1-10 prayer; 1 Sam. 1:1-8.

B. In desperation, Hannah had searched the Scriptures to find the precedent of Samson's barren mother, so Hannah had applied that precedent, trusting and asking God to give her a son that she might give him back to the Lord at the tabernacle as a Nazirite for life, 1 Samuel 1:9-11 with Judges 13:1-5.

C. When the high priest Eli had learned of Hannah's prayer, he expressed his wish that God might grant her what she asked, so Hannah had drawn encouragement from Eli's words to wait on the Lord, 1 Samuel 1:12-18.

D. When God had answered Hannah's prayer in giving her a baby boy (1 Sam. 1:19-20), her appreciation for the Lord's deliverance from her great trial was so great, she was highly motivated to rear Samuel for God's glory:

1. Hannah avoided and would have taught Samuel to avoid substance abuse common to the era as seen in her correction of the high priest's presumption that she was another drunk woman, 1 Samuel 1:12-15.

2. Hannah deeply revered the Lord and taught Samuel to do so as well as seen in her offering three bulls [as we before learned] after weaning her son, a bull for each year she had missed attending the tabernacle due to her rearing of Samuel, 1 Sam. 1:24-25. Hannah's costly offering thus showed a great reverence for God that sharply contrasted with the disrespect Eli's sons had for Him and His offerings in 1 Samuel 2:12-17.

3. [Hannah's intense discipling of Samuel in his first 3 years shows the need for all parents to do the same!]

4. Then, Hannah's yearly gift of an outer robe to her son (1 Sam. 2:19 KJV "coat") that he would wear reminded him to keep revering and serving God as Hannah had taught him versus practicing the sins of Eli's evil sons that involved their disrobing when they committed cultic immorality at the tabernacle.

5. Hannah's influence via the robe she would make him helped impact Samuel to wear one throughout his life: even in 1 Sam. 28:14 when God let him be called up from the grave after he had died of old age, the Hebrew word me'il for the KJV "mantle" he was then wearing is the same word, me'il for the 1 Samuel 2:19 KJV word for "coat" that Hannah would make him, B. D. B., A Heb.-Eng. Lex. of the O. T., p. 591!

Lesson: Hannah harnessed her sense of revulsion toward the evil and pain she faced from Peninnah to turn to Scripture in desperation for guidance, to apply God's Word in a prayer of faith, to draw encouragement from the high priest's encouraging words to hope in God to where God gave her the son, Samuel! So appreciative of God's gift to her of a son that released her from so much evil and pain, Hannah was highly motivated to rear Samuel for God's glory, pouring herself into her son in his first three years by exampling and teaching him to avoid substance abuse, irreverence for God and immorality and to be committed faithfully and righteously to serve the Lord! Samuel thus grew to be in favor with God and man at the tabernacle opposite Eli's wicked sons!

Application: (1) May we trust in Christ to be saved, John 3:16. (2) To rear our children in today's godless era, may we (a) harness our sense of revulsion at the evil we face (b) to search Scripture for God's leading in responding to evil, (c) to apply God's Word in life (d) by faith in His enabling of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:16) (e) while revering Him and parting from evil around us, (f) especially in the earliest years of a child's life. (g) May we be encouraged by supporters God sends us and (h) consistently example and teach our children.

Conclusion: (To illustrate the message . . .)

When I was in high school, our family one time was visiting relatives on my Dad's side who lived in another state. I remember an event that occurred on that visit that impressed me greatly, an event in which my Father exampled for me an attitude that will always remain a part of me.

The head of household of the family we were visiting was sitting in a living room chair, my Dad across from him in another chair and I was sitting across from both of them listening to them doing what I often did as a teenager -- listening to the adults of the previous, fascinating generation converse. At one point, the husband of the family said, "Hey, Bob . . ." and he proceeded to tell a racial joke that demeaned black people!

I froze, wondering what would happen next, for my parents had been missionaries to Nigeria, giving of themselves to disciple Africans, so I glued my eyes on Dad, and when I saw that he realized the joke was racially demeaning to blacks, he acted as if he hadn't heard it and simply ignored the relative, looking the other way! At first, the other man tried to repeat the punch line of the joke, presuming that Dad had not understood it, but when he still got no response from my Father, the relative finally understood that Dad was offended, so he changed the subject!

Dad's example taught me the ugliness and evil of demeaning people of another race -- I'll never forget it! He also taught by that example the huge impact that a Father's good example in a sensitive situation can have on his son!

May we trust in Christ for eternal salvation, John 3:16. Then, to rear our children for God in an apostate era, may we (1) harness the revulsion we sense over the evil and abuse we see or face around us (2) to search Scripture for God's guidance, (3) to apply His Word in life (4) by faith in God's power, (5) drawing encouragement to practice what is right from godly supporters. (6) Then, may we revere God so as to part from the unsavory evil around us in our own lives, (7) consistently exampling and teaching these truths to our children (8) especially in their earliest years of life for their effective rearing.