Lessons from Samuel's Beginnings and Eli's Downfall

In this episode of the Daily Bible Podcast, the hosts delve into the book of 1 Samuel, discussing Samuel's birth and dedication to the Lord by his mother, Hannah. The conversation touches on Hannah's faith and the fulfillment of her vow to God. The hosts also examine the downfall of Eli and his family due to their disobedience, underscoring the importance of godly parenting and respect for divine ordinances. The episode concludes with a heartfelt prayer for the next generation of believers.

00:00 Introduction and Greetings

00:33 Upcoming Events and Church Activities

03:12 Discussion on First Samuel

03:38 Hannah's Story and Faithfulness

08:50 Eli's Family and Their Downfall

12:03 Samuel's Calling and Eli's Response

14:23 Parenting Lessons and Final Thoughts

14:44 Closing Prayer and Farewell

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey everybody.

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Welcome back to another edition

of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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What's happening, folks?

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It is Tuesday and we are in

another brand new book today.

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Yep.

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We're in the book of first Shamu.

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Rod: That's good.

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I like that.

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Yeah.

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That's the Hebrew pronun,

the Hebrew pronunciation.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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PJ: We na, we close enough.

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One of my kids' name's Samuel, so Yeah.

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Should know that.

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That's good.

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Call sch for short.

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Shimmy.

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Yeah.

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Shimmy.

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Shamu.

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Yeah.

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Samuel.

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Yeah.

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Anyways, we are, we're still in a

period of judges with Samuel, but,

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it's coming to a conclusion there.

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We're

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Rod: turning a corner though.

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We

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PJ: are

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Rod: turning, thank God.

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A corner.

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Thank God things are getting better.

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PJ: Yeah.

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Rod: Hey

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PJ: speaking of things getting better,

the weather's improving and we have the

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Compass Camp out this weekend, Friday

night into Saturday and I heard that

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Pastor Rod is super excited about it.

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I heard that he's gonna

be just, I love you.

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Can't wait to sleep under the stars.

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I love what

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Rod: our church does, man.

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I'm all for what our church

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PJ: is doing.

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Yeah, I know.

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Same.

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Rod: Yeah.

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I may not particularly enjoy the activity.

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But I'm also gonna baseball too.

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That's not my forte.

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Whoa.

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But because I love our church,

I love what our church does.

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PJ: Why'd you just have to

bring baseball into this?

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You could have just been

like, I don't love camping.

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I just left baseball out of this.

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I, let's

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Rod: just let our cards be

shown here, is all I'm saying.

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And I think it's important

that, I don't love everything.

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I, yeah, I don't love everything

that we do, but because I love our

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church, I love that we do it fair.

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And that's the way that we feel about

the church, is that no church is perfect.

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No church is gonna cater to your needs

or all, even all your wants, but that's

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part of what it is to be part of a, a.

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Varied body.

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It's a good thing for us to learn how

to adapt and to prefer one another.

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So yes, camping.

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I won't be staying overnight to

be clear, but I will be there.

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PJ: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I.

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No, it's gonna be a good time.

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We've got great numbers too.

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Like hundreds of people, mark,

hundreds of thousands, people

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of thousands are coming with us.

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Of people.

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That's right.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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We are saturating this this campground.

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So it should be a lot of fun.

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There's gonna be games.

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Apparently we're crowning the best family.

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Rod: Yeah.

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PJ: That's gonna

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Rod: be a controversial, I'm sure.

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Who's the best family?

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PJ: Yeah.

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I

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Rod: don't know.

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I don't know if their criteria

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PJ: is adequate.

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Yeah.

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My kids are already like, we can't

win because we're pastors kids.

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I'm like, you're right.

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You can't win.

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Sorry.

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That's right.

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You will not win.

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You can't be the best family.

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Rod: I was told that we don't even have

a choice of whether or not we can play.

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So we're playing, but we're not winning.

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We're playing, but not winning.

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That's talk about that's

the worst kind of playing.

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Isn't that the worst?

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We're gonna be participating, but

we certainly will not be winning.

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PJ: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Now that, that should be good though.

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And then what, we've got another

week and then it's Easter, right?

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Because it's Sounds about right.

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Yeah.

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'cause it'll be, by

then it'll be the 12th.

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Yep.

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13th is Sunday Easter Sunday is the 20th.

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So yeah we've got a, it's right around the

corner, but what's crazy is by this time.

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Last year we were done with Easter.

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Easter was behind us.

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Crazy 'cause it was so much earlier in

the year last year than it is this year.

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So Easter's late this year, but yeah.

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That just means for our kids after

Easter short amount of time before

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they're done with school, that's, my

kids are already counting down the days.

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They're like, it's only 30 days.

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That's great.

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That's coming soon though.

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It came up

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Rod: quickly.

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PJ: Snuck up on me.

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It did.

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School's almost done.

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Yep.

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Yep.

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Looking forward to the summer.

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It should be good.

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We're gonna get some time away.

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We're going to California to visit

Amanda's family for a couple weeks

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and I think you guys are taking

some time off and Little bit.

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Yeah.

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So looking forward to it.

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Yeah, it should be a good time.

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Not at the same time though.

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Let's just be clear.

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We'll.

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Rod: At some point, maybe at some point,

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PJ: yeah.

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But it yeah, we're excited.

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Let's jump into our text

for the day, brand new book.

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First Samuel.

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First Samuel is really to set

up the arrival of the monarchy.

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The monarchy being Israel's king.

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Kingdom King.

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King, time.

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King.

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Yeah, the monarchy.

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You have it.

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It's the monarchy.

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Yep.

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That's what it's about anyways.

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But it picks up during the time of

judges Samuel's kinda the last judge.

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He is the transitional figure

between the judges to the kings.

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And it opens in chapter one

with the, how we got Samuel.

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I.

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And it opens with a something that

is I think, relatable to a lot

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of people today in the church.

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It seems like infertility is something

that is an evergreen topic for a lot

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of people, and it's a very difficult

thing to, to walk through and to go

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through and what's so encouraging as

we see examples in scripture where

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others have gone there as well.

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And so chapter one in one, Samuel is

one of those situations where you have

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Hannah who it says in the text was Baron.

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And that had become a great

source of pain and shame for her.

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And she had consort who

was a rival, if you will.

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And this rival would mock her for this.

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And so every time they would go up to,

to worship the Lord at Shiloh, 'cause

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remember that's where the tabernacle was.

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It's not a Jerusalem, there's no.

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Mount Zion, yet there's no temple yet.

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And so when they would go up

to the tabernacle at Shiloh to

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worship she would pray that the

Lord would provide a child for her.

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She would pray that the Lord would

open up her womb and she would be

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able to conceive and bear children.

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And it, in one of these instances,

chapter one, the Lord hears her

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prayer and responds by giving her

Samuel and Samuel was probably.

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Two to three years old by the time

that he's fully weaned because the

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text says that she weaned him and

then brought him to the Lord because

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she had said, Lord, if you gimme a

child, I will give him back to you.

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And that's what she does here.

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She weans the child probably two to

three years old, takes him back to

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the tabernacle there and commissions

him into the care of the priests.

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And Samuel grows up

there in the tabernacle.

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But what's so encouraging is if you

look at verses 27 through 28 Hannah, I.

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Is she's a righteous woman.

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She says, I prayed for this child

and the Lord has granted me my

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petition that I made to him.

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Therefore, I have lent him to

the Lord as long as he lives.

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He has lent to the Lord.

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She doesn't get what she asked for

and then use it for selfish reasons.

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She doesn't get what she asked for.

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And then forget that the Lord

is the provider of good things.

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She gets what she asked for and having

Samuel without a guarantee necessarily

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that there's gonna be more after this.

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And she, in her faithfulness goes back

to the Lord and says, here he is I

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asked for him and said, I would give him

back to you, and I'm doing just that.

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So he is commendable.

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Despite

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Rod: the fact that he's married to two

women, I think Elana is, it seems to be

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a pretty godly guy because Hannah makes

this vow to the Lord that he could have

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said, no, we're not doing that he had

the authority, and we read about this, I

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believe in the book of Leviticus, where

a man making a vow is bound by that

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vow, but a woman making a vow if her.

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Head in this case her husband

doesn't negate it then it stands.

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And so he had the opportunity to

say, oh no, I don't like this idea.

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'cause he's, she's giving

away her firstborn son.

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And she's dedicating him with the

vow to become a nazarite, which is

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what's implied there at verse 11.

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No razor shall touch his

head, so she makes this vow.

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He endorses it and he affirms it, and

when it comes time to actually wean him

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and bring him to the Lord he's behind it.

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That's a pretty big commitment on his

part too, even though I know this is

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Hannah's story and I've, we've all

commended her for her godliness, but

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Elana doesn't get enough props for that.

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PJ: Yeah, just don't marry multiple women.

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Rod: That's a good start.

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Yeah.

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PJ: Yeah.

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Rod: But

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PJ: yeah, I think you're right.

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Those are good points too.

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In chapter two, then, Hannah, her

response continues in this prayer,

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this song that has a lot of parallels

to Mary's song in Luke, chapter one.

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In that it praises God's sovereignty

and attention to the needy, how he

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reverses the fortune of the oppressed.

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These are all things that we pick

up on in, in Luke chapter one

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with Mary's Magnifico as well.

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Her mention of the kingship

isn't cause for concern here.

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Some will reference that and be like how

would she have known about the kingship?

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But may in fact show her

deep knowledge of the Torah.

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In fact, if you remember back in

Deuteronomy chapter 17 verse 15, just

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to jog your memory, 'cause I know you

probably forgot that one from Awana.

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I know it was one of your memory

verses, but it says here, you may

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indeed set a king over you whom

the Lord your God will choose.

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And so I think.

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This rather than being something

that points and goes, ah, look,

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this is corruption of the text.

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I think this just shows that Hannah

knew the word, she knew the Torah,

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and she knew that there was, there

would be kings that would come.

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And so I think the reference to

the king here is in line with that.

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But it also appears to

be Messianic as well.

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And so I don't think there's reason

for us to say, wait a minute.

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Wait a minute.

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Wait a minute.

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This is a problem.

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I think this is a symbol of,

again, Hannah's character, her

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knowledge of the scriptures.

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This is a good thing that

we find here from her.

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Rod: Is there any sense in which you

would say that Hannah's prophesying

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right here, is that saying too much or

is that just being misdirected at all?

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PJ: No, And I think that's it.

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If this is Messianic then there is

an element of prophecy in there too.

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Rod: Hannah's prophesying then.

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PJ: Yeah.

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Oof.

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Yeah.

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She's not a pastor though.

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Rod: Yeah, that's true.

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That's true.

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Agree with that.

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Yeah.

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PJ: So again, I have no problem looking

at the Old Testament and going, yeah,

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Deborah led and, Hannah prophesied, and

yet I don't think that is a one-to-one

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correlation to go to the New Testament,

say, so we should have women pastors.

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It's no.

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'cause we have specific

instructions in the New Testament

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that prohibit that exact thing.

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And those were not pastoral

roles in the Old Testament.

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Those were unique roles,

unique callings that were.

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Different in so many ways than

what it is to be a pastor and a

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shepherd of the church of God.

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So I'm right on.

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I don't have any problem with that.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So if we had a female in our

church that's Hey, I'm, I just

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want you to know I'm a prof.

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Prof, proess.

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I think prophecy is ceased, which

is a different conversation that

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isn't about complementarianism versus

egalitarianism, but about sign gifts.

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Yeah.

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So that's why I would say no.

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Rod: Not the same.

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PJ: Yeah.

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As chapter two continues, though we are

gonna contrast these two families and the

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family that you would think would be the

upstanding family with godly intentions

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and godly leadership and godly parenting.

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Here would be Eli, because Eli was

the priest and yet we find out here

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is that Eli's family is disobedient

and unfaithful to the Lord.

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Not following the rules for

sacrifices, despising the

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Lord's offering in the process.

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Also signs that they were sexually

immoral, participating in illicit acts

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at the entrance to the tabernacle.

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And so as a result, the Lord hardens

their hearts to their father's advice

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who tries to pursue them, at least

probably all too late though, and decides

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instead to, puts them to, to death.

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And so Eli's sons and Eli's, I

think by extension his parenting not

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something that we would look to and

say, this is a good thing at all.

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This is bad and his whole household is

gonna be rejected as a result of that.

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Rod: Couple thoughts on this.

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Number one I just wanna

point out that this, that.

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Eli, he wasn't the perfect man

to be sure, but it looks like

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he's serving as the hype priest.

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At least that's my guess here.

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It doesn't specifically call him the hype

priest, but it seems like that's his role.

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He's raising sons who don't share the same

convictions that he has, or if they did

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at some point, they're no longer there.

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I think this is a warning to us,

not to presume upon the Lord too.

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Expect that God does a certain thing

in your kids just because they're

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around the church or that they go to

adventure Club or something like that.

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We need to pursue our kids with truth.

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We need to pray for them

and make sure that we're not

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again, presuming upon the Lord.

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That's one of the points.

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Secondly under that section that says

Eli rebuked his sons I just want you

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to remember that I don't know that.

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Scripture would agree that

he rebukes 'em all that well.

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He does say something like, oh man,

you guys aren't doing a good thing.

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What's wrong with you?

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But he doesn't go much further than that.

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In fact, this is what God holds

against him later on, just

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a few paragraphs from now.

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PJ: Yeah.

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And you make a great point.

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None of us can save our kids.

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And when we go to the qualifications of

an elder pastor in the New Testament,

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that's one of the reasons why we

don't agree with the translation

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that his children must be believers,

but rather, they must be faithful.

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They must be not.

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Out of line.

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They must be, kept in order, so to speak.

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Yeah, and I think we go back here.

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I think there's, while we would say,

yeah, Eli can't save his kids, Eli

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can't control whether or not they're

gonna share the same convictions

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that their father has, because

that's a work of God in their hearts.

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But I think Eli can instill

in them fear of disobedience

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to the extent that they did.

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I think Eli could have instilled in

them saying, Hey, you respect God's

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area, God's tabernacle, God's house.

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You do.

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Things according in accordance

with God's rules, right?

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If you're gonna walk away from your role

as a priest, okay, that's between you

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and the Lord ultimately, but while you're

here in this place, you're not gonna

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disrespect it the way that, that you have.

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So I, I think Eli could have done more,

and that's when it gets to the rebuke.

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I think we see some of that there too.

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Rod: I would even say he should have done

more, and that he should have said, look,

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you're not gonna serve as priest anymore.

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Yeah.

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They're sleeping with the gals at the

temple or the tabernacle at this point.

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And they're despising the Lord's

sacrifices by misusing them.

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So I think he should have

said, look, you guys are done.

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You're still my sons.

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I love you, but you're not serving

in this capacity 'cause you're

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clearly unworthy of the role.

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PJ: Yeah.

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And by the way, when you read

the word Phineas, the name

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Phineas here, different Phineas.

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Different Phineas.

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Yeah.

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Unfortunately his, if his

namesake was there, seeing

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what was going on, been dead.

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Yeah.

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They would be dead.

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They'd be pin cushions.

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Yeah.

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Chapter three.

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Then as we get into it Samuel is there,

he's been given over to the Lord's

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service and he begins to hear this

voice calling him, and he hears it three

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times, and the third time he responds

and receives the Lord's Commission Every

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time he was going to Eli saying I'm here.

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I'm here.

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I'm here.

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And finally Eli kinda figured

out what, what's going on.

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He says, Hey, next time, say, here I am,

Lord, speak your servant listening speak.

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And that's what happens.

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And the Lord commissioned

Samuel and says I'm gonna use

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you in this in a powerful way.

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And so Samuel's told in this same

encounter that God is going to

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reject Eli's house and that their

sins would not be atoned for now.

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That even goes back in verse 35 of

chapter two when it says, I will

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raise up for myself a faithful priest.

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Who shall do according to what is in

my heart and in my mind, and I will

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build him a shore house and he shall

go in and out before my anointed.

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Forever.

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I think there's a dual fulfillment there.

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I think in part that's Messianic,

it's looking forward to Christ.

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Christ is gonna be both

priest and prophet and king.

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I guess all three of those things, not

both, but all three of those things.

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But in the immediate context, this is

probably referring to Za o because za

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O is gonna be the priest that is gonna

be the better priest than Eli has been.

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And so Eli's line is gonna come

to an end, and that's the part of

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the message that Samuel receives.

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And Eli says, Hey, tell

me what the Lord said.

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Don't hold back.

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Samuel says it.

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And Eli seems to at least

accept it at this point here.

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As Samuel relays these things,

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Rod: yeah, there's something

ungodly about his response.

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It's such a strange combination

because you don't expect that from him.

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He just seems resolved to say, okay,

this is what the Lord is doing.

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He's just, he's righteous in doing this.

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But I wanna point out to you,

verse 13, he says here that, he

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says his sons were blaspheming

God and he did not restrain them.

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He expected God expected Eli to

do something active, proactive

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to stop their sinfulness.

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But before that, the man of God

says, you honor your sons above

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me by fattening yourselves on the

choices parts of every offering.

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So it seems like Eli was participating in

his son's sins by eating the fat, in fact.

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We get the sense because scripture tells

us that maybe he was eating so much

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of it, that he was a heavy set man.

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In the next chapter, we're gonna see

what happens to him because of that

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heavy set and we can't help but think

it's because he's fattening himself

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on the choices parts of the offering.

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Yeah.

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All fat belongs to the Lord

and his sons are taking it.

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He was taking it, enjoying it, and so God

expects expected him to restrain his kids.

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There's a parenting lesson in there for

us, but there's so many others as well.

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I just want you to see

that God cares about.

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The honoring of his name.

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He doesn't want people to blaspheme it.

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He wants us to restrain our kids, which

means more than just verbal correction,

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there is a correcting and directing that's

incumbent upon the parent to do that.

430

Even here as Eli's role as high priest for

his sons, his adult sons, it seems, who

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are blaspheming the Lord in their role.

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PJ: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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Let's pray and then we'll

be done with another episode

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of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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God, we, we acknowledge just that there

are lessons that we can learn as parenting

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parents here and even more than that,

but certainly we want to be faithful

438

as we think about the next generations.

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We want to teach them, train them

to respect you and revere you.

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We freely.

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Confess and admit that we

cannot save any of them, and

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yet that's our heart's desire.

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God, we would pray boldly and ask

that every single child that is a part

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of Compass Bible Church would name

the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior

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someday, that they would come to faith.

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True saving faith, and that you

would do that at a young age.

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In them, God, that you would raise up a

powerful generation, a wave, even from our

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church of future leaders of the church.

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And a lot of that comes back to how we

steward them as parents, as moms and

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dads, as grandparents, as we teach them

these things and point them to Jesus.

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And so we want to do that Lord

effectively and faithfully, and we want

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to trust you with the results of that.

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And so we pray that you'd be pleased with

our labors towards that end and that you

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would choose to save them for your glory

and that you do great things through them.

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In Jesus name, amen.

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Amen.

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Keep reading your Bibles.

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Y'all in tune in again

tomorrow for another edition

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of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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See you.

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Bye.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

464

You can find out more information

about ourChurch@compassntx.org.

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We would love for you to leave a

review to rate to share this podcast

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on whatever platform you happen to

be listening on, and we will catch

467

you against tomorrow for another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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PJ: Yeah.

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I would agree with

everything that you said