#1samuel1

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1 Samuel 1:19-28; Hannah's Mother's Day

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1Samuel 1:1-18; Hannah's Prayer

[drrus]

Second Move of the Prophetic: Opening Wombs

During prayer on Mother's Day this year I sensed the Lord saying; "I am opening wombs of the barren this day, planting seeds and raising up the next generation of a prophetic people. Those who have been barren will see life formed in their wombs and they will set them apart to serve the Lord." One particular Scripture immediately came to mind. 1 Samuel 1 describes the birth of Samuel who grew up into a great Prophet in the nation of Israel. He also represents God's transition from a season when the "Word of the Lord was rare", to a time of when God spoke through his Prophet Samuel. (1 Samuel 3). In 1 Samuel 1 we discover Hannah was barren. The passage actually says "the Lord had closed her womb" (1 Samuel 1:5). However, she did not give up praying for a son! She actually made a vow to God saying, "Lord Almighty, if you will only look on your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the Lord for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head" (1 Samuel 1:11). The passage goes on to say Hannah "found favor" and "in the course of time she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, 'Because I asked the Lord for him'" (1 Samuel 1:20). The chapter closes with Hannah presenting Samuel to Eli at the temple. In other words, Hannah "gave him to the Lord and he - Samuel - worshipped the Lord there" (1 Samuel 1:28). I shared the above word via text with a couple leaders after receiving it during Sunday morning prayer on May 13, 2018. God quickly confirmed His word as they responded back saying God was speaking the same thing to them. The leader in Akron, Ohio said the same word came forth during their service after about 20 minutes of worship. The second leader in New Mexico shared how the Lord placed Luke 1 on her heart for the message. It's here we discover two birth narratives. The first is John the Baptist and the second is none other than Jesus. In both cases, God moved supernaturally in order to bring life, ushering in a season of transition for His plans on earth. What exactly is God up to? I believe He's telling us we are entering into a season of transition and He is preparing to raise up a prophetic people as part of what I started referring to about two years ago as The Second Move of the Prophetic. In September 2017 while ministering in Erie, Pennsylvania I released the word in connection with Ezekiel 37 and The Valley of Dry Bones. After the message I was told by a number of people at the conference that Bishop Bill Hamon from Christian International has been releasing the same word. Again, we see how God is confirming His Word in this day. Amos 3:7-8 says; "Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets. The lion has roared, who will not fear? The Sovereign Lord has spoken, who can but prophesy?" In this day, God is "opening wombs"! This is an encouraging word to Christian couples throughout the world. If you've been praying for kids, I hear the Lord saying, "Make preparations as soon your house will be filled with the giggling and laughing of sons and daughters. Make preparations for I am raising up the next generation of a prophetic people who will truly hear My voice and know where the Spirit is about to go. All you need to do is keep praying and determine to raise the child I am about to gift you with as one who follows after Me." Keep encouraged! Dr. Rus Read the full article

[toniadbenas]

Boom! Your focus: problem or the Solution? What's your perspective? #HannahMindset #1Samuel1 Per @shae_scott1969 at #TLCMarietta @ladieslinkedbylove Bible Study: 1) Pray to God consistently, honestly, & authentically 2) Once you've prayed, move on. Freshen up and keep living 3) Be in a state of expectancy for God to move 4) Continue to worship, praise, give & serve 5) Give back to God when He does give you the blessing! #ToniaDBenas #Author #MeditatingOnTheWord #MomentsOfReflection

[revdavidbsmith]

1Samuel 1, Hannah's Thanksgiving

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#1Samuel1

[heatherbusick]

We are beyond excited to share that we have another little valentine on the way! We are so thankful for this sweet blessing! #evviebeth #19months #gonnaBeAGreatBigSis #answeredPrayers #1Samuel1:27

[aliteralmess]

Eugene Peterson On 1 Samuel 1 and 2---Hannah’s story

This is worth your read...This is the story of a giant of theScriptures hidden away in the beautiful, true and paradigmatic narrative of 1 Samuel.  Eugene Peterson is a gift in helping us understand the specifics of and the larger beauty and reality of it...It is definitely worth spending time reading this...I will share it in four parts.

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Part 1

Read 1 Samuel 1:1-8

Hannah’s story opens with a strong assertion of place and person.  Nine proper names dominate the opening sentence, three referring to places and six to persons.  This is no ‘once upon a time’ story; this is no timeless moral lesson; we are firmly set down in a particular place in the presence of a man with four generations of history backing him up.  The place Ephraim, is fertile and beautiful, blessed with

The choice gifts of heaven above,

and of the deep that lies beneath;

With the choice fruits of the sun,

And the rich yield of the months.

(Deut. 33:13-14)

  And Elkanah, with four generations of backing, is clearly from a respected family—no Johnny-come-lately.

  The prosperous, ‘solid citizen’ picture of Elkanah is rounded out with the detail that will provide internal emotional dynamics to the plot as it unfolds:  There are two wives in Elkanah’s household, and they don’t get along, for the reason that one, Peninnah, has children and the other, Hannah, does not.  Hannah’s barren condition is the negative note around which the story forms.

  And so our attention immediately shifts from the fertility of place and family to Hannah’s bereftness.  The barren wife is an established biblical motif:  Hannah’s childlessness is framed by Sara in Genesis (Gen. 16:1 and 18:9-15) and Elizabeth in the Gospel of Luke (Luke 1:7).  The stark phrase, ‘but Hannah had no children pulls us into the story in a way that descriptions of fertile landscape and solid family, no matter how extravagant, could never do.  Even in our culture, where women are no longer defined and valued by their ability to bear children, the pain and sometimes bitterness of those who want to bear children and cannot is familiar.  We read ‘no children’ and are immediately in a world of longings and frustrations, tears and prayers.  This story is no longer outside us; it is beginning to get inside us—or we inside it.  And the way in, as in so much of life is through pain and prayer. 

  The scene shifts to the place of prayer and worship, to Shiloh, where Elkanah made a devout annual pilgrimage.  Shiloh, in the rolling hill country of central Palestine, was less than twenty miles from Elkanah’s hometown of Ramah.  It was the most important site for worship during the approximately two-hundred-year period from the completion of the conquest under Joshua to the establishment of the monarchy under David.  The tabernacle and the ark of the covenant were there.  All Israel assembled there annually for worship (Judg. 21:19).  In the 1920’s Danish archaeologists identified and excavated the site, so modern visitors to the Holy Land can now view the famous place of worship.

  In the normal course of things, a place of worship does not makes us into something we are not, but rather, intensifies whatever we bring to it.  And so we see it here:  Elkanah’s basic generosity is heightened.  Instead of blaming or shunning Hannah because she did not bear him children, he went out of his way to compensate for her loss, doubling her gifts from the altar.  At the same time and in the same place, Peninnah’s mean-spirited cruelty is given scope, using the occasion to lord it over her rival wife.  Smug with her own children, she would teasingly and relentlessly (‘provoke’ occurs twice in the passage) mock Hannah’s empty womb, reducing Hannah to tears.  It is an odd thing, but amply verified in any place of worship and among any gathering of worshipers, that religion brings out the best in some people and the worst in others.  Shiloh evoked generosity in Elkanah but meanness in Peninnah, with Hannah whipsawed between the two of them. 

  Elkanah tries to help, tries to alleviate her sorrow.  By asking four rhetorical questions (1 Sam. 1:8), he attempts to shift her attention from what she does not have, a child, to what she does have, namely, a loving husband.  Going against the grain of all cultural assumptions of that patriarchal society, Elkanah valued Hannah simply for who she was, her intrinsic personhood, and not for what she could produce. (italics mine)  Against the stream of the age, which viewed woman as instrument, Elkanah cried out to Hannah, ‘With or without sons, you are precious to me simply for who you are!’  It was a charged moment, woman not as instrument but person in her own right.  All these centuries later we are still trying to translate Elkanah’s ethical passion into normative living, rescuing women from imposed societal assumptions. (italics mine)

  (From First and Second Samuel Commentary by Eugene Peterson; part of the Westminster Bible Companion Series)