call

Setting Things Up For A King

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment

So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD.  And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, “O LORD of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget Thine handmaid, but wilt give unto Thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.”  1 Samuel 1:9-11
And they rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her.  Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, “Because I have asked him of the LORD.”
1 Samuel 1:19-29

First Samuel is seen, as is Ruth, of still being in the time of the Judges of Israel. The man Samuel being the last of the Judges.

In chapter one of First Samuel we have a man with two wives, Peninnah who had given birth to children, and the other was Hannah who had no children. Peninnah was mean and spoke harshly, and cruelly to Hannah, because she was without child. Hannah wanted a child, and preferably a son. Well, when they made their annual trip to Shiloh where the tabernacle, with the Ark of the covenant is, while there she was so grieved of not having a child that she would eat anything, and Elkanah saw her grief, and spoke with trying to get her to eat, but failed to do so.

Hannah had left the place of the meal, and went toward the tabernacle, and was near where Eli sat at the gate. She may not have even noticed Eli sitting there since she was grieving so terribly. Anyway she prayed the prayer that is above.

She asked the LORD specifically for a male child, and she made a vow to the LORD, that if He would bless her with a man child she would give him back to the LORD. I personally believe that every Christian mother and father ought to give their children to the LORD who is Most High, and knows how to deal with children. Going on now, God hears Hannah’s prayer and gives her a son who she gives the name Samuel. After Samuel is weaned she takes him to Eli, and gives him to the LORD, under the care of Eli.

Eli is a priest with whom the LORD God is not pleased, but God is doing a work preparing Samuel for bringing a king to provide leadership for the LORD’S people.

Hannah was God’s chosen vessel for giving birth to a man child who would grow to be a prophet and judge in Israel. Who would also be used to bring in the first king of Israel.

God, the LORD is still working in today’s world. Through the birth of a child, the broken heart of a woman desiring to have a child whether a son or a daughter. Through the deliverance of a man or woman from drugs, alcohol, smoking or just getting off the streets, and into a home to live. God is still calling people to Himself.

Today, no matter where you are physically, emotionally, or spiritually can you hear God calling you? Calling you, first of all to come to Him believing in His Son Jesus Christ, and His work of redemption by dying on a cross for the sins of the world, that He was buried, and that He rose from the tomb, and walked out alive to many witnesses. Calling you also to a place to serve Him, and to give your heart and life completely to Him.

If you hear Him calling you to Himself fall on your knees before Him, call on His name in repentance and faith in Him, and He will give you eternal life with Him.

God’s All-Knowledge

/ Tim A. / Leave a comment
The prophet, at least about to be, is sharing his call from God with us as we look at the rest of chapter one. Our verses today will just be verses four and five. I want to keep these articles relatively short. They are usually the ones which will be read, if most people are like me in that respect.

“Then the word of the LORD came to me saying: ‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” Jeremiah 1:4-5 (NKJV).

While Jeremiah was serving as a priest with his family it surely grieved his heart to see the wickedness in the land. Many times this is the way God moves and works in calling men to serve as pastors, preachers, teachers, and other works. He places a burden upon the heart, and you go and grow in that as you hear the Lord and see Him work you just find yourself enjoying what He has called you to do.
The Lord had this planned for the prophet from the time the world was established. One of the things that the man of God needs to know and realize about God is that He is Omniscient, and that simply means that He is AllKnowing. There is nothing that God, the Creator of all that is, does not know. Someone has asked the question, “Is there anything God can learn?” Well the answer to that, if God is AllKnowing, is NO! Because He already knows everything there is to know.
That means He is never surprised by events, “accidents”, incidents, storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, car wrecks, bombs exploding, or wars. You could put just about anything in there that you could think of.
God knew Jeremiah before he was conceived in the womb, and you could say, it was God who gave the seed that caused Jeremiah to be. There is a good thing we can see from this and that is that none of us are an accident. God made us to be.
These verses are often used by those who are pro-life, which I am, to show that there is human life in the womb of the mother, concerning the baby. It is not just a blob of tissue, a mass which has invaded the body of the woman. It is a special, ordained by God, individual whom He has plans for; whether the woman does or not. I guess her plans; the woman getting an abortion; are extinction.
The prophet is “Sanctified” which is set apart to be clean, appointed, prepared to do a task, and that task as we shall see is to proclaim the word of the LORD to God’s people of Judah, and to the nations.
He is “Ordained” by God to proclaim the message God puts in his mouth, and upon his lips. He is to speak what God tells him to speak, and not withhold one word. That is the work of the prophet of God. Speak the word of God and do it with all one’s strength, and then the strength of God.
God knows you. He knew you before you were conceived. Yield your life to Him.