Sermon Tone Analysis

This week...

The passage for this week in from the Book of Samuel 1 Samuel is the next book after Ruth.

Some look at this book as misplaced from the Book of

This has been a tough week for your Pastor.

I studied and prayed and read and prayed some more.

I could not understand what God was trying to tell me about this passage.

I usually spend several constructive hours on Monday morning, praying for you all, reading the passage a “hundred times,” consulting several sources, commentaries, other sermons, books and authors about the topic or passage.

This week I could not get into it…into the very technical parts of the book and passage.

A look at the Hebrew basically confused me this week.

It was just not there.

After our very rich time at prayer at 11AM on Monday’s I usually dive headlong into beginning writing an outline of what the topics I want to cover and some the of the scripture, The Big Idea

This week…crickets.

I was talking with Pam about the lack of inspiration.

She had some wise advice.

She sent me home...

Home to clear my head, away from the distractions of the office, I retreated to my place.

Gradually God began to move my “fog” around and started bring some things into focus.

This is largely a product of that effort.

In spite of what we believe at the time, God is looking out for us.

He has our back and our front.

AND God is sovereign.

What he wants to come to pass will in fact come to pass by us or someone else

God uses certain people at certain times for His Glory and for His purpose.

In the past couple of weeks we have seen Ruth, a Moabite, used by God is a very special way to show us the concept of “Kinsman-Redeemer,” and it worked.

Ruth has to be one of the more beloved stories in scripture.

This week we begin to witness the beginning of the ruling Kings, Monarchs, God’s anger with Israel, that’s no surprise, right.

The very desire for a human king drives God to anger and disappointment in His chosen people.

In the next several weeks don’t get me wrong, God is mad, sad and dissapointed with Isreal.

BUT…they are still His chosen ones.

Once you’re His, really His nothing can change that relationship!

Nothing…That’s at the Intersection of Grace and Cross.

All that is taken care of once and forever.

Let’s get to the passage

1Sam

1sam1

This man came from Rama, from the hills around Jerusalem his name was El-kanah.

In Hebrew the use of

El = God, deity, Lord/lord

Kanah = possession, creation

So this man’s name indicates that the “Lord possessed Him or Lord Created Him”

Hannah =Grace

Penny = Jewel

So that we don’t get caught up in the passage and we miss the forest for the trees, don’t get stuck in the weeds and then you miss the punchline.

El-kan

So for the sake of clarity this is Hannah and Penny.

Penny had children, Hannah did not.

Children validated the worth of women in that culture.

Boy children further elevated that status.

There is a long history in scripture of women being unable to conceive, only to find out, in spite of their age, circumstance they become pregnant and the child is the next Billy Graham…sorry I mean next king, ruler, soldier, savior that saves the bacon of Israel.

He are some of those instances of infertility and what God did...

Abraham and Sara…Hagar entered the picture and then Jacob, who became Israel, who was leader of God’s people.

Issac and Rebekah

Jacob and Leah and Rachel

All needed special intervention from God to conceive.

God used infertility to show the people of Israel that he was able to continue on His pattern of redemption from sin through multiple intertwined relationships, lies, falsehoods, deceptions.

This all happened to the Glory of God.

Principle #1 - God can and does use our mistakes, our misfortunes, our sin for His Glory.

He can turn ANY circumstance that is completely upside down, right side up for the well-being of His people.

For our well being, for His Glory.

The problem is that we don’t stick with the plan long enough to see what God can do...

We marry and divorce with a whim

Bankruptcy is a quick fix to overwhelming debt

We move in and out of relationships so quickly no one can keep up

Our health fails us long before we planned it to and we become bitter to our families, friends and angry at God for it.

We want to see the end before we experience the ups and downs of the middles…

[DO NOT MISS HERE ME!! I’M ILLUSTRATING HOW FICKLE WE ARE.

I KNOW OF MANY INSTANCES WHERE MARRIAGES BROKE UP AFTER YEARS OF TRYING, BANKRUPTCY THAT HAD TO HAPPEN FOR VARIOUS ISSUES.

--- THERE IS NO CONDEMNATION IN WHAT I SAID FOR THOSE WHO HAD NO RECOURSE]

The story of the people of Israel recorded in the Bible is a living demonstration of the fact that the Lord does win the battle, that He is sovereign in all things.

People and events recorded in Scripture are part “salvation history,” God’s gracious plan to send the Savior into the world to die for sinners.

The story of the people of Israel recorded in the Bible is a living demonstration of the fact that the Lord does win the battle, that He is sovereign in all things.

People and events recorded in Scripture are part of what theologians call “salvation history,” God’s gracious plan to send the Savior into the world to die for sinners.

Let’s Continue...

1 Sam

At Shiloh because the temple did not yet exist in Jerusalem

This two characters Hophni and Phinehas

HOPHNI and PHINEHAS in Hebrew “tadpole and dark one”

HOPHNI hofʹnī, hofʹnē, and PHINEHAS finʹē-əs [Heb.

ḥop̱nî < Egyp ḥfn (r), “tadpole”; Heb.

pinḥās (1 S. 1:3), pîneḥās < Egyp pʾ nḥsy, “the Negro/Nubian”].

Sons of Eli, priests of the sanctuary at Shiloh.

Their character was wicked enough to merit the designation “worthless men” (AV “sons of Belial,” 1 S. 2:12).

Their evil practices are described in vv 12–17.

Twice Eli was warned concerning them, once by an unknown prophet (vv 27–36) and again by the lips of the young Samuel (3:11–18).

The curse fell at the battle of Aphek (4:1–18) at which the brothers were slain and the ark was taken; these events caused Eli’s death.

Phinehas was father of the posthumous Ichabod, whose name marks the calamity.

A remoter sequel to the prophetic warnings is seen in the deposition of Eli’s descendant Abiathar from the priestly office (1 K. 2:26f, 35).

Sons of Eli, priests of the sanctuary at Shiloh.

Their character was wicked enough to merit the designation “worthless men” (AV “sons of Belial,”

They lost the Ark of Covenant…The Holy Ark that contained the essence of Israel in a battle.

El-Kanah went and worshipped and sacrifice to these two worthless men.

Principle #2 - God will honor your efforts, if you give him the time and space to do that.

No one promised you a rose garden and most of us got a dandelion field.

There is power in the process of working our situations out.

We, all of us, want a quick fix.

God wants us for the long game.

We are His for eternity.

God also give us opportunities that we would not have had…ones we don’t even know about.

1Samuel1.

“…Because he loved her” Those four words made the difference in life and death to Hannah.