Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): Ever wonder why God allows the trouble and strife we see all around us? Here's Pastor Jeff Johnson.

Jeff Johnson: God allows things to come into our lives. He allows this nation to be like it is. Why? To toughen us, to get us strong in Him, to get our eyes upon Him. Why? So we can direct others to get their eyes upon the Lord. Because we've been through it, and the Lord has sustained us, and we can comfort them with the same comfort that we were comforted with. Without this situation, Israel would have been pansies. They would have been wiped out.

Guest (Male): One of the most amazing things about studying God's Word is how these words written so long ago are so relevant to our world today. And there is no better example of that than the book we begin studying today on Sound Doctrine: 1 Samuel.

The people of God had been led into the promised land. Life was good. Were they satisfied? No. They didn't really know what they wanted. They wanted to be led by a judge. Then they wanted a king. Sound familiar? Let's join Pastor Jeff in 1 Samuel chapter 1 for today's introduction in 1 Samuel.

Jeff Johnson: I'm excited this morning because we're starting a new book in the Old Testament. 1 Samuel is our first morning. This morning we're going to look at that incredible book, or actually two books: the first book of Samuel and the second book of Samuel. Tremendous, tremendous illustrations and lives that we're going to be dealing with.

We're going to give you kind of an introduction, but then we're also going to tackle chapter one this morning. And we're going to look at prayer and dedication because that is exactly what this chapter teaches us. Believe it or not, Samuel to the Jew is the number two man. I don't know if you knew that. Moses of course is number one, and to the Jew, Samuel's second.

Earlier, Samuel was called 1 Kings in the Septuagint, or the book of the first of the kingdom. There were actually four books of the kingdom, and it was called 1 Kings and 2 Kings. The author many feel and say was Samuel to begin with, but of course we know that he died. And again, the author is really not clear who really penned this book. They have some suggestions of other folks that maybe have put it together, but we do know this: that it is Holy Spirit inspired and the Lord has given us this book to speak to our hearts.

This book is a transition period for Israel. As we see a lot of today's political jargon, one word that stands out the most is change, right? Everybody's saying, "You want change, or you want to keep it like it's been?" And that's the catchword: change. Well, Israel would change from a theocracy to a kingdom, to a monarchy.

From God's point of view, this is nothing. This is nothing wrong with this, changing from a theocracy to the monarchy because God says the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In other words, He sets up His kingdom. And so to God, a kingdom is not a bad thing. It’s not a bad thing to take place. But in man's eyes, when you take your eyes off the Lord, a theocracy, and then get them on a man, a human, you've got problems. And that's what we're entering into here.

And today when we look at our society and always wanting change, always talking about change, did you realize that everything is being prepared today for the Antichrist? And this change is not for the good. It is for the bad, and everyone is getting ready to worship this Antichrist. They're going to put him on a pedestal. Every heart is desiring this man to come on the scene to reign.

And our society's becoming more and more a godless society. And so the Antichrist is just really his arena is just really coming together and he's ready to come on the scene. I believe he is born. I believe he has already grown up and being prepared to enter the scene.

Now, there are three things that stand out in Samuel that we're going to see as we go through the book. One thing that I see as I go through the book is that there's a need for a king to reign with power and righteousness. There's that desire and that need there. And then number two, that there is a need for that king to depend upon God and Him alone. And number three, also for that king to be in total obedience to God.

And we really are looking at a book that is presenting what is coming, and that is our soon and coming God and Savior Jesus Christ, to set up His rule and reign in this earth. First in men's hearts today, and then coming soon to set up His reign throughout the world.

Now the book of Judges was a time of total internal anarchy. We see coming into Samuel that every man did that which was right in his own eyes. This now leads, of course, to an earthly king, as they said, "We want to be like all the other nations." God says, "Oh you do, do you? All right."

Samson now has died. Samuel is the last judge coming on the scene here. The priesthood is corrupt. Those things that they held very close to their hearts concerning God and their relationship with God is now corrupt all around them. The tribes were splintered. There was really no leader. They needed some kind of a cohesion. They needed some kind of a central government because they were just literally falling apart.

A judge would pop his head up and then they would all follow him in a certain section, and then he would go out of the scene and then fall apart. There was no bringing together of all of them. Now, it is interesting to me that as they go into the promised land, and here we have this promise, the promised land, and it's going to be great. "I'll be with you there. I'll fight your enemies there with you."

And so as they go into this promised land, and yet as they've been in the promised land for many, many years, their enemy is still there and still just as strong. And here in Samuel, we'll see how the Philistines are very strong. They are the ones with the iron chariots. They are the ones that really control the coasts, as the Israelites are up on the mountains and kind of afraid of those strong Philistines.

Why? Why has God allowed the enemy to stay in the promised land? The reason is to prove Israel. The reason is not only to prove them but to train them and to toughen them to survive what was ahead. And the same with us. God allows things to come into our lives. He allows this nation to be like it is.

Why? To toughen us, to get us strong in Him, to get our eyes upon Him. Why? So we can direct others to get their eyes upon the Lord because we've been through it and the Lord has sustained us. And we can comfort them with the same comfort that we were comforted with. Without this situation, Israel would have been pansies. They would have been wiped out. But because of their trials and their enemies, they became strong, strong in the Lord.

So look at your trials as James said we count it all joy. Look at them as what Paul said we count it glory to enter into different trials and tribulations. Why? Because they strengthen us. They cause us to depend more upon God. They get our eyes where they need to be. So many times we murmur and gripe about them. God help us to see them for what they are. In the same way here as Israel was in the promised land.

In 1 and 2 Samuel, we learn of a tremendous man. Today we're going to be introduced to him. His name is Samuel. Not only of Samuel, but we learn of Saul who becomes their first king, and Jonathan his son, who becomes good friends with David. We look at that friendship. And then we see David's young experience with Goliath. And then we see his bad experience with Bathsheba.

So we learn a lot. We get a lot of great men here. I would encourage those of you that have teenagers to bring them into this study. They need to hear these illustrations. They need to see what happened because they're going to be going through all of this. We start today with the dedication of a little baby, and then we see the growing up of these great men and the things that they experienced.

Tremendous lessons. We are going to be challenged, we are going to be changed by these giant men and by their giant teachings. Incredible things. First introduction to Samuel, a very powerful man who loved God very deeply. He had a tremendous upbringing. We are going to see how he became that man of God. And of course that's through travail, through prayer, and through dedication. God's man is revealed. He's brought forth through various hardships.

And in contrast, we're also going to see—and this is a quote that I can't believe, but it is true—that a child's greatest misfortune can be to have parents. And we're going to look at parental neglect. And we're going to see the way Samuel was brought up and the way some other children are brought up here. Very interesting.

In chapter one, in verse one of the book of Samuel, it says, "Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim, of the Mount of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, and the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite." Try that in front of a mirror.

What we're being introduced to here is Elkanah. He is Samuel's father from the Levitical tribe of Kohath, and you get this in 1 Chronicles chapter six and verse 27. The reason I bring this out is because many critics jump all over Samuel for giving sacrifice, and they say how can he give sacrifice if he's not a Levite? Because only the Levites were to give sacrifice. Well, you study a little bit further, you find out that he was in Ephraim, which was a Levite city. And so he was called an Ephraimite, but he had the priestly background. And that's important.

In verse two, "And he had two wives," so we know he's in trouble already. "The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other was Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children." He practiced polygamy. Now, that doesn't mean that God is condoning polygamy. He is not condoning it, He is just recording it.

It doesn't mean that everything that God puts down and records in the Bible He condones. He doesn't condone Satan, but He puts him down. And so the newspaper reporters report things and they write it down. It doesn't mean they condone it or whatever. So God writes it down. He had two wives. We do know this though: that it always brings trouble.

How do we know that? Well, we just look at some of these guys that had more than two wives, like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. These guys had big problems. And one of the reasons is of course they practiced polygamy. It's not God's original intent. We know that in the very beginning, and in fact Mark's gospel, let me read it to you in chapter 10 and verse six.

He says, "From the beginning of the creation God made them male and female. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife (singular, right?) and they two shall become one flesh, and they shall no more be two, but one flesh." So that's God's original intent for marriage: one wife, one husband, that's it.

The first wife's name was Hannah. She had no children. So it appears that he married his second wife, whose name means pearl, and she had children. But we are also told that Hannah was barren. In verse three, it says, "And this man went out of this city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there."

So first of all, we look at Elkanah, this man. He was a very devout man. He loved the Lord. He took he and his home on a yearly public worship in Shiloh. It's very important to come before the Lord publicly and worship Him. "If you confess Me before man, I will confess you before My Father which is in heaven." If you deny Me, public worship is very important.

So he went once a year to this religious center. Now they were to go three times a year. Evidently there was a reason because of their enemies or whatever; they were only able to get there once a year. This had been the religious center in Shiloh for 300 years. Shiloh is 20 miles north of Jerusalem.

Now, remember that Shiloh was very important because the Tabernacle was there. The Tabernacle was the place where remember the Ark dwelt and that was the presence of the Lord. So they would come there to worship the Lord. Notice this: that he was always on time. He made sure he and his family made it there. More than that, I believe that during the year, every Sabbath was a holy day too.

He was a devout man. He was a religious man. He sought the Lord. But as Christians, we know that every day is the Sabbath day. We are to look at every day as a special day that God has made and to rejoice and be glad in it. And we are to serve the Lord, but especially when it comes to going to church, public worship. We are to be devout as he was, and we are to come, not a forsaking of ourself assembling together, as the manner of some is in these last days, but more so especially as we see what's going on in our world, knowing that the Lord is coming back soon. How we need to come together in public assembly. So he did.

Number two, the object of his worship was the Lord of hosts. Now, this is the first time we see this term in the Bible: the Lord of hosts. And it simply means that He was the commander of all the angels and all of the armies in heaven. More than that, He was the commander of all Israel's forces. He was in charge. He was the Creator. He was the Redeemer. And so he came to worship a God that was intimate with him and he could relate to. Not just some being out there in space, someone who was in charge, someone who was overseeing them. And there was a relationship. So he came, notice, to worship.

Now, worship is also a two-way street. I mean, not only do we give to the Lord and respond to Him, but He feeds us and He ministers to us. So worship is a time where we receive and where we give, right? And it's just the way it is. As we fill up, we go out there and we dump out. And so worship is a beautiful experience, a reaction that we have unto the Lord as we gather together.

He brought a sacrifice. What is your sacrifice this morning? Well, the New Testament talks about our sacrifice is giving our bodies living sacrifices unto the Lord, which is a reasonable service after all that He's done for us. More than that, we can bring the sacrifice of our praise to the Lord. And let alone our tithes and our offerings as we lay our lives down unto the Lord. So he brought his sacrifice.

And then in contrast to this, we have Eli, who was the high priest at that time. He had two sons. We're going to learn about these guys. Unbelievable, this relationship with this father and two sons. But later on we're going to read that these were PK kids. You ever heard of that term? The term that I dread and my kids dread, and that's pastor's kids.

Sometimes they are the demonic ones. You pray not, but sometimes it happens that way and it's just crazy when it does. They call them PK kids. Well, these guys were sons of the devil, we'll find out. And they were just rampant throughout the temple. It's amazing. You see you can go to church, but church doesn't save you, does it?

These guys were always in temple with their dad. There's a lot of kids that just are in church because their parents brought them here. Going to church doesn't save anybody. In fact, it can be a very dangerous place in church. Did you remember the upper room? Satan was there, wasn't he, through Judas? Right in the presence of the holiness of God, the enemy is there. And girls, watch out for wolves in sheep's clothing. This can be a very dangerous place. There can be a lot of lying and deception and a lot of weird things going on. Beware. Be warned.

Verse four now. "And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife and to her sons and daughters portions" of the sacrifice. Because remember, the sacrifice was to be burnt on the altar, but they were to partake of half of it, and half of it was to be corban unto the Lord, burned up to the Lord.

So she was excited. It was a very intimate time where they were very affectionate to one another. And you can imagine all her sons and daughters around and she's there partaking, and they get a big portion of the sacrifice and they're just having a great time together, rejoicing and just carrying on in the feast of the Lord.

"But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion" or a double portion. "For he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb." She was over there in the back somewhere, just sitting there. Feast of the Lord! She's just sitting there. And he just felt so bad. He just give her a double portion and set it all up for her and try to bring her spirits up and get her to rejoice in this feast time.

What's something that got me here is that she has no children, but the Lord had shut up her womb. Control of our lives. Hannah she didn't have children. She was a woman that couldn't bear fruit. But it was the Lord that was in control. It's right here in front of us. So this was a sign by God for why? Why would You do this, God? Well, for good. All things work together for good, right, for those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.

You don't see it, but you sure know that God's doing something. And the reason I can't have this and the reason I'm not doing this and that is for good. And I just have to trust the Lord on that because the Lord's in my life. I gave my life to the Lord. He controls it. Now, during that culture, it was a real curse not to have any children.

Now today in our culture, kids are a nuisance. It's totally different. They're not wanted, they're things we throw away. But not back then. Over in the Psalms it says in Psalm 127 verse three, "Lo, children are a heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward." We are to be fruitful and multiply. Contrary to our society, we're to have children. It's to be a blessing.

And kids, when you really think about it, when they come into your lives, they're really great because they just kill selfishness. I mean, if you're a selfish person and you get kids, they just have some way of annihilating selfishness. They just need so much and they're just there to just cry out upon you and trust in you.

Hannah had no children. So evidently, Samuel being frustrated by that, married another woman who gave him many children. But he still loved Hannah, and we see that here. Notice verse six. "And her adversary," talking about Hannah's adversary, "also provoked her sore for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb."

With all the earthly prosperity that Hannah and this family had—I mean, they had a lot because not only able to travel to Jerusalem, they were very well-off as people during that time—with all their prosperity, this family still had problems. Like every family has problems. And you think that, "Oh, if we just had money, we wouldn't have problems." Give me a break.

I don't care how much money you got, you got problems. You got people. You know, where there's no people, the ox area where you keep the ox is clean. But when you got ox there, you got dung, right? So anytime you got people, you got dung. You got problems because people just bring it with them. It's just baggage we carry around.

This family had problems. There was jealousy, hatred. And Hannah's irregular person, if you want to call her that, with Peninnah as she taunted her all the time. And Hannah was a godly woman. And I'll tell you something: a Christ-like spirit goes a long way when you're being taunted and ridiculed and pressed on. Doesn't it?

Guest (Male): A Christ-like spirit. Does that describe you when trouble comes your way? We certainly hope so. This is Sound Doctrine, and today we brought you the first message in Pastor Jeff Johnson's new series in 1 Samuel. We pray you've been blessed by what you've heard today.

1 Samuel is filled with practical insights for Christian living. And if you'd like to hear this study again, go to sounddoctrineradio.org or listen through the Sound Doctrine podcast app. You can also hear Sound Doctrine on onepace.com and wherever you enjoy podcasts. That includes Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

If you'd like to get behind what we're doing and donate to this radio outreach, you can do so at sounddoctrineradio.org by clicking the give tab. And thank you very much for your support. It's greatly appreciated and will be put to good use, helping others build their lives on the sound doctrine found in God's Word. More from 1 Samuel chapter one next time on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson, a presentation of Calvary Chapel Downey.