January 29, 2017 - Samuel the Last Judge is Born

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him.

Psalm 127:3

Are children important?  YES! How important are children? EXTREMELY IMPORTANT! Does God love children?  Yes, more than we could ever understand.  Can God use children?  Yes and He often does.  In fact, everybody God has ever loved or used has started off as a child (except Adam and Eve, of course (-;  ).

Last week we learned about Ruth and Boaz and the beautiful story that brought a very important family together.  Naomi had lost her joy when she lost her children.  She regained it when God gave her a grandson, Obed.  It is truly a privilege that God has given people to have children. Unfortunately, not all people have this joy...

During the time that the story of Ruth happened, the Bible says that "In those days there was no king in Israel." Judges

17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25.  Without a King, who ruled Israel?  Starting with Moses, God appointed people called Judges to rule over people.  Some were Judges over large ares, some smaller. Many of them were great heroes like Samson, Deborah, Ehud, and Gideon. But today we're going to talk about when Israel's LAST JUDGE was born.  

There was a man who was a Levite from the tribe of Ephraim named Elkanah.  

Elkanah had two wives (not a good idea).  One was named Peninnah and the other was named Hannah.  Now, Peninnah had children but Hannah didn't.  For some reason God had not allowed Hannah to have have them.  Peninnah would tease Hannah about it all the time and make her very

sad.  Hannah wanted children so badly and Peninnah making fun of her only made things worse.  It got so bad that Hannah would cry and refuse to eat!  Elkanah tried to comfort her but it was no use.

Every year, Elkanah would take his family to the town of Shiloh where the Israelites

had set up the Tabernacle in the Promised Land.  When Elkanah would make an offering to God, he gave meat to Peninnah and all her children but he loved Hannah so much that he gave her twice as much.  It didn't matter to him that she had not had any children for him.  

Hannah decided one year that she would go to the

Tabernacle and ask God to give her a son.  She promised God that if He gave her a son, she would give him back to God to serve Him for his entire life.  While she was praying, she was so sad that no words would come out of her mouth even though her lips were moving because she was praying in her heart.  This looked very strange to Eli, the High Priest.  He thought that poor Hannah was drunk!  

Eli said to her, "How long are you going to stay drunk? Put away your wine!"  But Hannah, who was not drunk, explained to him, "I'm not drunk.  I'm here pouring my heart out to God.  I look this way because I am so sad." Eli saw that she was telling the truth and said to her, "Go in peace and may God give you what you have asked for." 

Not too long after, God allowed Hannah to have a child and

she named him Samuel (which means Asked of God).  She raised him for a few years but always remembered her promise to God.  So, when Samuel was about three years old, Hannah took him to Shiloh to live with Eli the High Priest.  Every year, however,

Hannah came to visit Samuel and gave him a new robe she had made for him that looked like one of the priest's blue robes.

Eli taught young Samuel everything he would need to know to serve God.  God was about to start doing some wonderful things through Samuel, eventually making

him Israel's last Judge.  We will see what happens to Samuel next week.