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01 - Introduction and Chapter 1

Introduction

  • 1 Samuel is one of the Historical Books
  • It's an amazing book that's also very easy because it's all stories
  • The beauty of it is that we see people like us living on earth, of whom some got close to God - how did they do it and what was the result; and seeing how God dealt with the people, etc.
  • Old Testament Structure
    • Torah/Pentateuch - Beginnings, the Law, etc.
      • Corresponds with the Gospels
    • Historical
      • Corresponds with the Book of Acts
    • Poetic/Wisdom Books - Written in poetic form and full of wisdom
      • Corresponds with the Epistles
    • Prophets - they preach repentance to the people, and tell them that the Messiah is coming; the joy of the New Testament, etc. They Prophesy
      • Corresponds with the Book of Revelation
  • Historical Books
    • In the Poetic Books, every verse can be a contemplation, a lesson, etc. but in the Historical Books, you'll be looking more at stories and characters and taking lessons from them as a whole, as opposed to a single verse
    • The easiest way of reading and understanding the Historical Books is by doing Character Studies
      • In 1 Samuel, we will see Samuel the Prophet, King Saul, King David
      • In 2 Samuel, we have the character of King David
    • Methods of Studying the Historical Books
      • It's good to ask "why did this happen" when reading the Historical Books
      • Put yourself in the story - if I was in the position of Samuel, or King Saul, or King David, what would I have done? The right or the wrong? Would I have done like him or not?
    • Why should we study the historical stories of the Old Testament?
      • Is God not the same God in the Old Testament?
      • So the Old Testament reveals to us about God e.g. what He likes and what He doesn't like
  • Background
    • Genesis starts with the creation of the world and Adam and Eve and takes us through those pre-history days until we reach Noah and in the days of Noah, the flood ended all, and the world restarted with Noah
    • Then we talk about Abraham - the chosen of God. And all of us are called children of Abraham because we walk as Abraham walked.
    • Abraham had Isaac, Isaac had Jacob, Jacob had twelve sons... the twelve tribes. They ended up in Egypt during the time of Joseph. The Nation of Israel - they aren't a Kingdom yet, but a nation.
    • In Exodus, 400 years later, Moses takes them out of Egypt and brings them to Canaan the Promised Land and gives them the Law and the Tabernacle
    • Joshua, the disciple of Moses takes over after Moses' death. Joshua takes them into the Promised Land and conquers it and divides it to the Tribes
    • After Joshua, the nation starts to go astray - they start to learn the worship idols from the nations around them. And then God allows them to be punished - they start to plead to God to help them and He has mercy on them and sends them a Judge. This is the book of Judges and it lasts around 400 years. The last Judge is Samuel the Prophet.
    • Samuel is considered the end of the Judges era and the beginning of the Kingdom era. Samuel will anoint Saul as King.
    • Our story starts at approximately 1100 BC
  • Characters
    • Samuel
    • Saul
    • David
  • Author
    • Samuel writes the first half
    • Nathan and Gad the Prophets write the second half
  • Structure
    • 1 Samuel starts with the birth of Samuel; ends with the death of King Saul
    • 2 Samuel starts with the enthronement of King David; ends with the death of King David
Chapter 1

13:55

1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the mountains of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. 2 And he had two wives: the name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children. 3 This man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of hosts in Shiloh. Also the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. 4 And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. 5 But to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb. 6 And her rival also provoked her severely, to make her miserable, because the Lord had closed her womb. 7 So it was, year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her; therefore she wept and did not eat.

  • In historical books, we find three characteristics:
    • They identify time periods by the reigning King (i.e. in the 7th year of Caesar; 8th year of Nebuchadnezzar, etc.). Nowadays we do the same thing - 2022 AD (Ano Domini - the year of the Lord)
    • They identify locations and geography of where this story is taking place
    • They identify Genealogy - this would identify which tribe they are from, but also whether they came from good parents or bad parents
    • All of these characteristics are also found in the Gospels
  • Ramathaim = Rama
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