Author: Pastor Bob

Hopefully you can read this map which I took a  picture with my phone from my Bible.  I couldn’t find anything similar online.  Amazing!  Anyway, this is where we find ourselves as we begin I Samuel.  It is a great book of the Bible with amazing stories.  Guess who the protagonist is?  Most of us would say Samuel, and we would be right, up to a certain point, but his life ends in chapter 25.  We have Samuel but we also have the great kings of Israel as well as we make our way through  both I Samuel and II Samuel.  So, hang in there as we make our way through this very easy book of the Bible to read, and yet it is so full of God’s evident presence.

In chapter 1 the scene is set as it often is with a woman whose husband loves her and yet she is barren and is not able to have children.  Keep in mind that bearing children back in that day was considered a blessing from the Lord, so the converse was also true.  If you were barren and not able to have children then for some reason the Lord was holding back His hand.  Hannah, one of the two wives of Elkanah, goes to the temple to pray and ask that the Lord would rid her of her barrenness.  She is so emotional and distraught in her prayer that the high priest of the time, Eli, thought she was drunk.

As he chastises her she explains her predicament and promises that if the Lord were to answer her prayer that she would bring him back and pledge him to the temple for the rest of his life as a Nazirite.  Okay, what is a Nazirite?  Remember Samson?  He was a Nazirite.  They are pledged to the work of the Lord and they do not drink wine or any alcohol and they do not cut their hair.  All of that was a sign of their devotion and dedication to the Lord.

As we often see in the Bible stories Hannah conceives and as a result she brings her son Samuel to the temple and leaves him there.  Okay moms, how are you feeling about now?  Does this sound like something you could do with a son that you and your husband had a very difficult time in conceiving and you just never know if he will be the one and only son that you will ever have?  Yeah, it’s not that easy is it?  But Hannah once again gives us such an incredible picture of the faithfulness of these somewhat nameless characters who give so much and yet are credited so little for what they did.  She really strikes me as someone who even more than Mary was faithful in what the Lord gave to her to the point where she was willing to completely give it up because God had fulfilled His promise.  

What a great example of following through on our part of the agreement that we will love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and body…and children.  Elkanah disappears and Hannah emerges as a giant of the faith.  

Dear FPC family and friends,

            It is hard to believe that we are so close to finishing the entire Scripture together.  We started with the Gospels and since then have made our way through the entire New Testament and are very close to finishing the Old Testament.  How has the journey been for you?  We started back in the New Year of 2016 and we have made it very, very far, so far.  I can’t believe that it will be over 4 years since we started.  So, how has the journey been?  Have you gained a new appreciation of Scripture, or, as they say, is ignorance bliss?  Sometimes we run across Scriptures that are simply difficult and we would rather not read.  How come there is so much violence?  How come women are seen as nothing more than property in some areas?  How come Jesus says he comes to bring peace but then war seems to be the mainstay in some areas of Scripture.  I hope this blog will put things within context.  You can follow along at: http://www.straspres.org/90-day-challenge-viii on our website. 

            This journey will take us through the books of I and II Samuel, Hosea, Zephaniah, Zechariah, and Malachi.  As we continue along in our Old Testament keep in mind that these books of the Bible were primarily written to a people who understood God to be in control.  But, as God was in control, the prophets who speak in these books, or the priests and kings who act in these books, were first and foremost interested in making sure that God’s will was done, not the will of a leader, or the people, or even of the nation.  Sometimes God’s will was that the nation be punished, and so the prophets had to bring that message as well.  You will find that in some of these chapters it is easier to find modern day application, and in others not so much.  In all of it I pray that you will find an opportunity to ask the question: how does God want me to act in relationship to my neighbor as I read this Scripture?

            Happy reading and I pray that these next 90 days will provide you with a tremendous amount of insight.

Your servant in Christ,

Pastor Bob