Today we start a new blog series on the life of the great warrior poet king David of ancient Israel. We read about David’s life in the books of 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st Kings briefly, and in the parallel account in most of 1st Chronicles chapters 11-29. This blog series will primarily follow the account in 1st and 2nd Samuel, which is filled with all the roller coaster drama of an epic miniseries. I encourage you to take some time and read it for yourselves. It’s a page turner, seriously gripping and compelling, and altogether human, as people just like you and I wrestle with life, love, family, politics, and spirituality.
But it will be a few weeks before David enters the story. We have to work our way through some important material and this week meet the man who gives these two books its traditional name: Samuel. Let’s get started!
In 1 Samuel chapter 1, verse 1 we learn that, “There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.”
I know. Lots of names and places in there. Let’s step back a bit and place this story in biblical history. In the first book of the Bible, Genesis, we read about creation, the flood, and the origins of the nation of Israel through their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who was renamed Israel by God. In the next book Exodus, 400+ years have passed, and now the family of Israel has grown in the nation of Israel, but they have been enslaved in Egypt for centuries (See my Substack for a week-by-week study through the book of Exodus, starting here.). God miraculously brings the people of Israel out of slavery, enters into covenant with them, leading them back to the promised land of Canaan which is where their forefathers were originally from.
The books of Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua describe the covenant law and Israel’s military conquest of the Promised Land of Canaan. Next up, however, is a very harsh, tragic book, Judges. We learn in Judges that the conquest of the land is not complete, and the people cycle through a series of judges, both men and women, raised up by God to lead the people. This period in the history of the nation is so tragic because they people themselves are quite fickle. After starting to follow God’s ways, soon enough turn from him, worshiping false gods and idols, and they commit injustice, which leads neighboring nations to war against and persecute the Israelites. The Israelites cry out to God, and he raises up a judge who delivers them. But the people do not learn from their behavior, and the cycle repeats over and over In fact, Judges tells a story that grows progressively darker and more gruesome. The final sentence of Judges says, “In those days, Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit.”
There is a light in the darkness, though. The next book of the Bible is Ruth, the beautiful story from this time, describing people who are faithful to God. So not all is lost. Today, we learn about more faithful people in the book of 1st Samuel. We’ve already read the first verse. We met a man named Elkanah, and his immediate ancestors, of which the 4th generation back is Zuph, from the Israelite tribe of Ephraim. The tribal area of Ephraim is north of Jerusalem, with the smaller tribal area of Benjamin between.
In verse 2, we learn a vital piece of information about Elkanah. “He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah.”
We notice the polygamy, and wonder about it. Polygamy occurs in the stories of ancient nation of Israel in numerous places, but the original description of marriage in Genesis 2, verse 24, the passage we so often use in weddings to this day, describes God’s intent: “a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
The next sentence in verse 2 is critical, “Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.”
In ancient Israelite culture, as with so many places around the globe throughout human history and still today, a woman was considered only as good as her ability to produce children, and especially to produce a male heir. If the woman could not produce, it was her fault. The man would turn his attention to another woman who would produce an heir. This could become a very precarious situation for the barren woman. She was not only facing the shame of being barren, but she could be divorced, which could result in her becoming destitute or very, very vulnerable.
Now look at verse 3, “Year after year this man, Elkanah, went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord.”
So Elkanah is a religious man. He makes the regular trip to Shiloh, the town where the Tabernacle and Ark of Covenant were installed. The Jews did not have possession of Jerusalem at this time, and there was no temple. The priests observed the sacrificial system at the Tabernacle, the tent of God, not much bigger than a two-car garage.
God, in the Mosaic Law, asked all Jewish males to travel to the Tabernacle to worship him three times every year. Elkanah does so. This doesn’t mean that the women would not go, as we will soon see. The word worship here in verse 3 is a picture, an action of bowing down. But is Elkanah just going through the religious motions? Or does he mean it? Is he a genuine believer and follower of Yahweh his God?
Photo by Eddie & Carolina Stigson on Unsplash
Engaging Scripture 