1 Samuel 2:1-36
2:1 Hannah's Prayer:
My heart rejoices in the Lord;
Hannah's soul bursts with joy at the thought of her spiritual Father. His empathetic and generous nature inspires a visceral bliss; the impact of the realization of His beauty is staggering.
My horn is exalted in the Lord.
Hannah explains that her strength is deepened by God. She is empowered by Him for she has opened every part of soul as entrance to His ability.
I smile at my enemies,
God's children are unfazed by their opposition because they understand that His is the ultimate power. No matter how dedicated and capable our enemies, they are thwarted by God's protection over us. A child of God is able to smile at an enemy because their cup is full; their joy from Him overflows. For what is there to frown at when the will of God has promised joy?
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.
Hannah is able to smile in the face of her enemies because she has been restored by God. Saved by His compassion. Everything outside of her relationship with God is blurred as she places Him in the center of her life.
2:2
No one is holy like the Lord,
No force or entity compares in righteousness to our Creator. Justice is His nature. Love is His nature. Creation, restoration, life is His nature. Unmarred, unbiased. Selflessly motivated.
For there is none besides You,
There is no competition. There is no other place or person to turn to for a more pure, or genuine presence.
Nor is there any rock like our God.
There is no more secure foundation. Perhaps Hannah has experienced; we surely have. There is no place in which we are more firmly held or wonderfully made, Psalm 139:14. In our efforts to find security and hope, no thing compares to Him.
2:3
Talk no more so very proudly;
Shed arrogance. Made raw by depression, Hannah understands that humility is life-giving. The moment she poured herself out with humility, in the understanding that God is the creator and restorer, her life was created and restored. Hannah dismissed depression, she rips the reigns from its hands and gave them to God. Instead of planning, plotting or wishing she gave power to God... and with it, He gave power to her prayers.
In Hannah's personal life, she was tormented by another's arrogance. Penninah haughtily displayed her children before Hannah but Hannah's humility made room for God to grow a prophet.
In Hannah's personal life, she was tormented by another's arrogance. Penninah haughtily displayed her children before Hannah but Hannah's humility made room for God to grow a prophet.
Let no arrogance come from your mouth,
Life unfocused on God causes us to believe that we need to be over-confident in ourselves. We are made hard by the world. So many forget that... Elkanah: God has created. Every opportunity is provided by Him. Every choice has been given by His generosity.
For the Lord is the God of knowledge;
The creator of soul, earth and universe is knowledge, omnipotent wisdom. Nothing so much propels a life than the understanding that God orchestrates the details. The massive and the minute. Life in rejection to Him is difficult, for it goes against the current, the natural flow of life.
Jesus told us to forget the way of the world. For by the world are taught to fear and resist the power of the sea. But Jesus sleeps right through the storms. Understand that we do not need to chart a course if He is our captain. He can see the wave, every tumultuous roll. He positions us to survive and even thrive but only does so when we give Him permission. Do not fear or resist the storm because God navigates us through and transfers its power directly into us.
And by Him actions are weighed.
Allow the one who has given balance and order to the universe to give balance and order to your life. Inevitably, He is the scale. Allow His precise measurement into your life. He is in control; every person's action is known intimately by Him. He has taught us that our result is directly related to our process. Therefore sow what you know would give you joy to reap.
2:4
The bows of the mighty men are broken,
Hannah's prayer begins a lesson in the balancing nature of the universe. Corroborated by Proverbs 29:23, Hannah explains that our behavior determines our outcome. A humble and righteous lifestyle builds while an arrogant and wicked one destructs.
God delivered the 10 commandments to live by in Exodus 20. Many of us might feel as though we very easily follow those commandments - but there is more. In Proverbs 6:16-19 we learn more of what God expects us to refrain from.
16 These six things the Lord hates,Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
17 A proud look,A lying tongue,Hands that shed innocent blood,
18 A heart that devises wicked plans,Feet that are swift in running to evil,
19 A false witness who speaks lies,And one who sows discord among brethren.
And those who stumbled are girded with strength.
Paul taught us that when we are weak, we are strong for those who afflict the innocent cause the innocent to be defended and empowered by God. A humble and studious soul can be transformed by God. A humble soul knows how to listen, a studious soul knows how to work. God will provide the materials, strength and opportunity once servitude makes the request.
2:5
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
The proud and the evil, those swollen by pride and material wealth find themselves starved. For this life has a culmination for each soul; and at the end of our lives, we find that we were responsible for filling our own basket. Selfish lifestyles are evidence of having taken from others. God ensures that everything a person took is taken from them in return.
Therefore never take security, opportunity or self-esteem from another. Never take the provisions of another, literal or figurative. The communication lines of the righteous are unclouded by particles of wicked acts and subsequently, reception is clear and direct. A child of God never has to take to fill themselves, for God provides for needs and joy.
And the hungry have ceased to hunger.
God feeds the children who have a voracious appetite for His word. Because His word is the philosophy of life, the blueprint of a righteous lifestyle; the path and destination of compassion.
Even the barren has borne seven,
When it appeared to most people that Hannah was desolate, she bore a child, a prophet. God's children are frequently underestimated because of their humility... God ensures that their inevitable success cannot be estimated.
And she who has many children has become feeble.
Literal to Hannah's story but figurative to ours: those who have produced by their production is wicked, haughty or unjust will find that their actions have enfeebled them. The body, the soul, yearns to be in sequence with God. A life spent away from Him is a life spent absent from adequate nutrition.
The Lord kills and makes alive;Those willing to be reduced by Him to humility are given new life. Our Creator is a builder but rather than build additions, He starts from the ground up. He lays and cements the foundation and then He builds the house, the soul. Hannah poured her whole soul out for Him and His light rushed into that cleared space.
God's love and guidance gives purpose. Explanation. Impact. A person awakens to a new life, a life filled with reason and order, hope and fulfillment. The soul that first reaches out to God is dull in comparison to the soul He makes bright at the end. Hannah was transformed from depression to joy; a candle lit by His compassionate fire.
He brings down to the grave and brings up.
What is desolate He makes alive: From scant to abundant. From desert to jungle. A life separate from God is aimless. A soul who establishes God as the arches is an arrow, purposefully headed directly into the target. ELKANAH: God has created. God has created these bodies as vessels for our souls, this planet as a host for the vessel. Beyond it, God has created eternal, spiritual life. Live fruitfully here; become the jungle filled with life and enter the Spirit as a soul made whole by Him. Become a soul animated by His righteousness and His compassion.
2:7
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
God introduces a new kind of wealth in to a person's life. The wealth of Him. The eternal and abundant source of life and joy. The riches of the world lose their meaning and their control over our lives. We realize that there is a spiritual frequency in the earth and all of nature knows it too: the sun, the stars, the trees and leaves and ants. All follow His order precisely as He created it, Matthew 6:26, and therefore are cared and provided for by Him.
He brings low and lifts up.
Joseph was sold by his brothers into slavery, the lowest social category. God established Joseph as the mind and power of a king. Moses was orphaned in a river and God made him a prophet. Paul systematically destroyed his hope of life but God turned him around and made him the apostle to proliferate the word of God on the earth.
God is the platform on which he displays His children. The world may have discarded them as nobodies or nothings but God uses that humility to illuminate stars. He sets them in the sky.
2:8
He raises the poor from the dust
These bodies are made of the elements of earth - easily and inevitable reduced to dust. God draws the spirit out of the dust and creates a light. A life. Indestructible. Infinite.
And lifts the beggar from the ash heap,
Those who bring their needs to His doorstep are pulled from the fire of the world. The pain and sorrow is quenched by Light, the soul ignites in a new way. A love unquenchable.
To set them among princes
The warriors of righteousness here are royalty in Spirit. Those who have dirt on their calloused hands from the arduous work of justice are made into princes and princesses.
And make them inherit the throne of glory.
Beloved of God, they are entrusted with responsibility in the kingdom. Heirs and heiresses of righteousness. Those who God has learned He can trust, through their trust of Him, will hold glory in their hands. They will sit upon it, around it, within it, beside Him.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's,
The pillars of this earth are the children of God who uphold righteousness. Revelation 3:12 The one who is victorious I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. A victorious life is a life which rejected the world and absorbed all of God.
And He has set the world upon them.
Matthew 5:5 The meek shall inherit the earth. Why? Because the meek live selflessly. They have inherited everything because they gave everything in servitude to God's will: building justice in the world.
2:9
He will guard the feet of His saints,
God is present in every step a child of His takes. His protection is constant. Deuteronomy 31:8 The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged." God is your swat team. He busts into the location and has all of the intel about it before it is ever even discussed that you go in. He knows what to do, what and who is inside and how to get you out when and if necessary.
But the wicked shall be silent in darkness.
Evil is extinguished. Their voice and platform taken away. And what, anyway, would it have to say? Defeated. Reduced. Removed.
For by strength no man shall prevail.
God is the master composer. Life is made by Him. Nothing can prevails against Him. He made nothing and turned it into life. The power and the glory is His, Matthew 6:9.
2:10
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces;
Evil, by God, is deconstructed. It can no longer function.
From heaven He will thunder against them.
God is fierce against evil. His full power shakes and crumbles evil beyond even dust.
The Lord will judge ends of the earth.
There is not a corner or crevice on this earth His justice will not reach. He sees all. He knows all. And He visits every place.
He will give strength to His king,
A foreshadowing of Jesus' arrival. Jesus took responsibility for humanity; He took us under His wing as our teacher and advocate. By God, He is given strength to do the compassionate work He committed Himself to.
And exalt the horn of His anointed.
God gives strength, also, to those who live as blessed instruments of His compassionate heart. The righteous are strengthened, made able to do grand and impactful things while here on Earth.
With that, Hannah completes her song.
2:11 Elkanah returns to his home in Ramah but Samuel remains in the house of the Lord with the priest Eli. From a young age, Samuel is a devoted student of God.
2:12 We see God in the details again here: the children who are supposed to follow in Eli's footsteps as priests are corrupt. Through Hannah and Elkanah, faithful children of Him, God brought a righteous prophet in.
Eli's sons do not know God and therefore do not love Him. They do not listen to him. They do not trust in Him. They have no intention of becoming instruments of His will.
2:13-17 The son's of Eli ruin the custom of sacrifice to God. They take it for themselves. They also take advantage of women who are in the tabernacle. Breaking law made in Leviticus 7:34, the sons evidenced that their intention was not to follow the will of God.
Eli's sons do not know God and therefore do not love Him. They do not listen to him. They do not trust in Him. They have no intention of becoming instruments of His will.
2:13-17 The son's of Eli ruin the custom of sacrifice to God. They take it for themselves. They also take advantage of women who are in the tabernacle. Breaking law made in Leviticus 7:34, the sons evidenced that their intention was not to follow the will of God.
2:18-21 Samuel is devoted to God. Even as a child, he is attentive to God. Samuel wears a linen ephod, traditional dress for the priest and for religious ceremony. The uniform symbolism that he is set apart from society and a student of God.
2:22-25 Eli is troubled by the behavior of his sons. In the New Testament we learn that the teachers of the faith are strictly judged by God, James 3:1. This is because their work transforms the lives of their students. They are responsible not just for themselves but for what their behavior inspires. Eli's sons are not receptive to their father's caution.
2:26 As Samuel grows, the people and God fall in love with his character. He is a good and faithful servant of God. The fact that both the people and God find favor with Samuel tells us that Samuel is a kind, righteous soul. We are reminded of Jesus' growth in Luke 2:52.
2:27-29 A messenger from God confronts Eli. The messenger speaks of Aaron and of the established covenant between God with the priesthood, beginning with Aaron. God has always taken care of the teachers of the faith. It is explained that Eli, although cautioning his sons, has not actually disciplined his son's for their behavior.
This is why we place God above all things. God is able to teach us how to love and discipline the people are responsible for. Eli places his sons first and therefore allows their behavior to deteriorate; Eli does not want to lose favor with them. In turn, though, he is losing favor with God.
2:30 The priesthood will face discipline from God. God explains to Eli that He has been faithful but the covenant has not been respected by the Eli's family. For that reason, God explains that He will only fiercely protect those who honor His will. Moreover, the unrighteous will not have His respect.
2:31-33 The prophesy against Eli's household continues: they will no longer enjoy longevity (fulfilled in 22:11-19 and 1 Kings 2:26-27, 35). Their corrupt actions will allow the enemy to creep into their once protected surroundings.
2:34 Hophi and Phinehas, Eli's sons, will both die. There is no alternative outcome for evil.
2:35 God will raise a faithful priest to take their place. This priest will be righteous and faithful. God will anointed this priest and build a home for him (family and security) because he will follow the Mind of God (God takes care of His fellow-workers).
2:36 This priest will be highly respected throughout the region. This reference is to Zadok, 1 Kings.
