Moody Publishers / FreeBibleimages.org
Welcome to Livin’ Light’s Bible-In-A-Year challenge of discovering God’s love for us and His purpose for our lives. Here is the format for this great adventure: The daily reading assignment is posted at 5 a.m. After each day’s reading, Leigh An Coplin, the blog host, shares observations and poses questions about difficult passages to Rob Fields, who studied Christian Education at Asbury Seminary and currently teaches Biology in the Orlando area. To start from the beginning, click on 365 Bible Readings and scroll down to Day 1. The reading schedule is taken from The One Year Chronological Bible NLT.
Today’s Reading
— 1 Samuel 1:9-4:11
(1100 BC) Click here for a timeline of the entire Bible.
Questions & Observations
O. (1 Samuel 1:19-28): We haven’t seen a person in the Bible like Hannah, who has the utmost reverence for God, for some time. It’s refreshing and uplifting to read her words.
Q. (2:1-11): Hannah’s prayer is beautiful. It has so much praise in it and telling of God’s treatment of others. This almost sounds like Hannah is a prophet. I must say that it is strange to hear such eloquence for a prayer. I’m just used to hearing and saying “Thank you for all of my blessings and here is all of my needs/wants.”
A. Her words are certainly prophetic, in the sense of declaring God’s justice and desires, but I would not go so far as to say Hannah is a prophetess. If you read Luke 1, you can see clearly the writer Luke records that the women of that story, Mary and Elizabeth, are very influenced by Hannah’s song. Anyway, as a person who clearly felt that God was against her because she couldn’t have children, she readily sings the praises of God when He turns her fortunes.
Q. (2:27-36): I don’t think we see that Eli does anything wrong except for not raising his sons with enough discipline. God has shown the Israelites that their actions affect the rest of their line. In Eli’s case, his sons conducted themselves with complete disrespect for the Lord. And, his descendants are being severely punished for it. You would think they would learn! The running theme to the demise of Israelite leaders seems to be greed and pride.
A. God warns Eli that he should be doing a better job of correcting his sons, and his failure to do so is the reason that HE is just as culpable as they are in what takes place. While both pride and greed do seem to play a part in this story, the real culprit is a lack of reverence for God — both Eli and his two sons are guilty of being too trivial with things that are sacred.
Q. (3:14): I have heard of the unforgiveable sin. Is this it, blaspheming God? Can you describe ways of committing an unforgiveable sin today?
A. You’re talking about Jesus’ reference to the unforgivable/unpardonable sin in Matthew 12 and Mark 3. It has to do with blasphemy, which at least partly has its origins in a lack of proper respect for God, as is described here. The situations are different, however, for reasons that, quite honestly, I don’t want to spoil at this time. So if you don’t mind, let’s file this question away for a later date. It is an important issue, but I want us to examine it within the Gospel stories for reasons that will become clear at that time.
Q. (4:1b-11): We know that God said Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, would die on the same day. Is this the main reason that Israel lost the battle? Many Israelites had to die for the sins of two priests. The tone I got from reading this was that the Israelites took God for granted, thinking that if they marched in with the Ark, that God was with them. God did not instruct them on the battle or mention that they should carry the Ark.
A. The sins of Eli’s sons contributed to the loss, but the larger issue was the Israelites believing they could use the Ark — and therefore God — as a weapon at their own convenience. It is likely that the warriors here were hoping to duplicate the victory at Jericho (from Joshua 6) where the Ark was instrumental in giving Israel victory, but in that case, God TOLD THEM to use the Ark. In this case, they tried to circumvent God and do what they wanted — rather than consulting Him — and lost not only the battle, but the Ark in the process. Wait until you see what happens when the Philistines try to do things with the Ark: its actually quite humorous!
For further study: How about you? Have you ever taken God for granted, maybe even on purpose? https://ymi.today/2017/04/have-i-taken-god-for-granted/
Shop: Christian shirts get noticed. Check out these conversation starters: https://livinlight.org/shop/
Tomorrow’s reading: 1 Samuel 4:12-8:22
