Lesson 30 – A Boy in the
Temple
What is being
skipped?
·
The story of
Hannah
1.
Read -1 Samuel 1:9-20
2.
What did it
mean to be a nazarite?
1.
Read Numbers 6:1-21
2.
Create a list
of the requirements.
1.
Why was
Samuel reluctant to tell Eli?
2.
What do you
think of Eli's response?
1.
What do they
have in common?
2.
What is
different?
3.
Why do you
think Luke used this in his story?
Hannah prayed and said, 'My heart exults in the Lord; my strength is
exalted in my God.'
Bible
Background (taken from Journey
through the Bible, Christian Board of Publications, 1995, p. 96)
:Other important figures from the book of Judges had to be passed by: the Transjordan judge Jephthah and his tragic and terrible vow that led to the death of his daughter; the comic-tragic
Samson, with his great gifts and his
utter disregard for how those gifts might be put to good use; and the
unnamed wife of a Levite, who perished at the hands
of bestial citizens of Gibeah. Ruth and Naomi belong to this time also, according to biblical
tradition. As the story of Judges
ends, the situation in
2There are, as we see, some pious and God fearing families. Elkanah and his two wives
carefully observe their religious
duties. But Elkanah's wife Hannah, deeply loved by her husband, has no child, and her lack of children breaks her heart.
So she prays passionately for a
child at the sanctuary in
3So it was that when the child Samuel was born, he was taken by
Hannah and Elkanah to begin his life as a Nazirite in the service of the Shiloh temple, where Eli was
priest and where his corrupt sons served as priests with him. God protects the
boy, and presently, while Samuel is sleeping
beside the ark of the covenant one night, God
begins to call him and give him a message. The
story makes it clear that Eli has little experience with messages from God! When the voice of God first comes to
Samuel, he thinks that Eli is calling him. After Samuel hears the voice twice
more, each time reporting to Eli, Eli finally gets the point and tells Samuel
what to answer God. Then, on the fourth try, God communicates the message that
Eli's household is about to be destroyed because of the evil that Eli's sons
have been doing—taking advantage of the
women who came to worship, grabbing the food offered to God and taking the best of it for themselves, and
insisting on having the food offered to God cooked to their specifications.
4The next day, Eli
asks Samuel for the message, and Samuel is very reluctant to report this message of doom. When Eli
insists, Samuel tells him everything, and Eli simply accepts the message with resignation: "It is the lord; let [God] do what seems good to [God]" (1 Samuel 3:18b).
5Contrast Eli's simply
giving up and leaving his sons to their fate with Hannah's urgent and passionate
crying out to God for help! Hannah is an example of serious turning to God for help and blessing. And the
Song of Hannah, found in 1 Samuel 2:1-10, is
another very ancient poem composed
and sung by a woman, just as the Song of Miriam (Exodus 15) and the Song of Deborah (Judges 5) were. This Song of Hannah sharply contrasts the
rich and powerful of earth with the poor and lowly. Hannah is praising the God of Israel who is
always watching over those who have
no other champion in the world. This theme has shown up several times in our narratives in Genesis and Exodus. God
heard the cry of the oppressed
people of
6That too is Hannah's
experience. She had her child at last, and then she had to turn him over to Eli, as promised. So she
sang this prayer, a warning to all the proud and arrogant of the earth that they had better beware: God is
known to bring the proud and haughty
to their knees. And God raises up the lowly, the humiliated, the oppressed of the
earth.
7It is hard to
overestimate the value of this great biblical affirmation. This is a bedrock
conviction of
1 Samuel 1:9-20
N=narrator, H=Hannah, E= Eli, G=God
N: After they had eaten
and drunk at
H: "O LORD of hosts, if only you will look on the misery of
your servant, and remember me, and not forget your servant, but will give to
your servant a male child, then I will set him before you as a nazirite until the day of his death. He shall drink neither
wine nor intoxicants, and no razor shall touch his head."
N: As she continued praying before the LORD, Eli observed her
mouth. Hannah was praying silently; only her lips moved, but her voice was not
heard; therefore Eli thought she was drunk. So Eli said to her,
E: "How long will you make a drunken spectacle of yourself?
Put away your wine."
H: "No, my lord, I am a woman deeply troubled; I have drunk
neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the
LORD. Do not regard your servant as a
worthless woman, for I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation
all this time."
E: "Go in peace; the God of Israel grant
the petition you have made to him."
H: "Let your servant find favor in your sight."
N: Then the woman went to her quarters, ate and drank with her
husband, and her countenance was sad no longer.
They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD; then they
went back to their house at Ramah. Elkanah knew his
wife Hannah, and the LORD remembered her. In due time Hannah
conceived and bore a son. She named him Samuel, for she said, "I
have asked him of the LORD."
The LORD spoke to Moses, saying:
Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When
either men or women make a special vow, the vow of a nazirite,
to separate themselves to the LORD, they shall
separate themselves from wine and strong drink; they shall drink no wine
vinegar or other vinegar, and shall not drink any grape juice or eat grapes,
fresh or dried.
All their days as nazirites
they shall eat nothing that is produced by the grapevine, not even the seeds or
the skins.
All the days of their nazirite
vow no razor shall come upon the head; until the time is completed for which
they separate themselves to the LORD, they shall be holy; they shall let the
locks of the head grow long.
All the days that they separate themselves to
the LORD they shall not go near a corpse.
Even if their father or mother, brother or
sister, should die, they may not defile themselves; because their consecration
to God is upon the head.
All their days as nazirites
they are holy to the LORD.
If someone dies very suddenly nearby, defiling
the consecrated head, then they shall shave the head on the day of their
cleansing; on the seventh day they shall shave it.
On the eighth day they shall bring two
turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance of the tent of
meeting, and the priest shall offer one as a sin offering and the other as a
burnt offering, and make atonement for them, because they incurred guilt by
reason of the corpse. They shall sanctify the head that same day, and separate
themselves to the LORD for their days as nazirites, and
bring a male lamb a year old as a guilt offering. The former time shall be
void, because the consecrated head was defiled.
This is the law for the nazirites
when the time of their consecration has been completed: they shall be brought
to the entrance of the tent of meeting, and they shall offer their gift to the
LORD, one male lamb a year old without blemish as a burnt offering, one ewe
lamb a year old without blemish as a sin offering, one ram without blemish as
an offering of well-being, and a basket of unleavened bread, cakes of choice
flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers spread with oil, with their grain
offering and their drink offerings.
The priest shall present them before the LORD
and offer their sin offering and burnt offering,
and shall offer the ram
as a sacrifice of well-being to the LORD, with the basket of unleavened bread;
the priest also shall make the accompanying grain offering and drink
offering.
Then the nazirites
shall shave the consecrated head at the entrance of the tent of meeting, and
shall take the hair from the consecrated head and put it on the fire under the
sacrifice of well-
being.
The priest shall take the shoulder of the ram,
when it is boiled, and one unleavened cake out of the basket, and one
unleavened wafer, and shall put them in the palms of the nazirites,
after they have shaved the consecrated head.
Then the priest shall elevate them as an
elevation offering before the LORD; they are a holy portion for the priest,
together with the breast that is elevated and the thigh that is offered. After
that the nazirites may drink wine.
This is the law for the nazirites who take a vow. Their offering to the LORD must be in accordance with the nazirite vow, apart from what else they can afford. In accordance with whatever vow they take, so they shall do, following the law for their consecration.
N: Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The
word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread. At that
time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was
lying down in his room; the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was
lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.
Then the LORD called,
G: "Samuel! Samuel!"
N: and he said,
S: "Here I am!"
N: And he ran to Eli, and said,
S: "Here I am, for you called me."
N: But he said,
E: "I did not call; lie down again."
N: So he went and lay down.
The LORD called again,
S: "Samuel!"
N: Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said,
S: "Here I am, for you called me."
E: "I did not call, my son; lie down again."
N: Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the
LORD had not yet been revealed to him. The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up
and went to Eli, and said,
S: "Here I am, for you called me."
N: Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel,
E: "Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say,
'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'"
N: So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Now the LORD came and stood there, calling as
before,
G: "Samuel! Samuel!"
S: "Speak, for your servant is listening."
G: "See, I am about to do something in
N: Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of
the house of the LORD. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said,
E: "Samuel, my son."
S: "Here I am."
E: "What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me.
May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he
told you."
N: So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then
he said,
E: "It is the LORD; let him do what seems good to
him."
N: As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words
fall to the ground. And all
Hannah prayed
and said,
"My
heart exults in the LORD;
my
strength is exalted in my God. My mouth derides my enemies,
because I
rejoice in my victory.
"There
is no Holy One like the LORD, no one besides you;
there is no
Rock like our God.
Talk no more
so very proudly, let not arrogance come from your
mouth;
for the
LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.
The bows of
the mighty are broken, but the feeble gird on strength.
Those who
were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those
who were hungry are fat with spoil.
The barren
has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn.
The LORD
kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises
up.
The LORD
makes poor and makes rich; he brings low, he also exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from
the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he
has set the world.
"He will
guard the feet of his faithful ones,
but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness; for not by might does one prevail.
The LORD! His
adversaries shall be shattered;
the Most High will thunder in heaven.
The LORD will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king,
and exalt the power of his anointed."
In those days Mary set out and went with haste
to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted
When
And why has this happened to me,
that the mother of my Lord comes to me?
For as soon as I heard the sound of your
greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.
And blessed is she who believed that there would
be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord."
And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the
lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me
blessed; for
the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him from
generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm; he has
scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their
thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good
things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant