Samuel — 1 Samuel 25

0:00 Good morning. Good morning. I'm trying to do everything I can to keep you from being distracted today, but then I stood up and had my microphone grab the seat on the way up. So I'm trying to make sure I get all things back in order. So in order to keep...

0:17 Well, this is just not gonna work today. I'm telling you. So I'll just... Yeah. Special blessing.

0:23 Just for the record, I did check three times to make sure my zipper was up, and I... That... That's always like a a total fear of mine. I I did gain about 10 pounds from Christmas last year, and this is a ponytail that I'm trying to grow in the back. So, if you see something, that's what it's all about.

0:44 So, hopefully, we could focus today and let's let's pray. Father, we can we can only thank you so much. We prayed about grace that's greater than all of our sin. That's hard to us, hard for us to imagine when we can really be confronted by all of our sin. Lord, as we as we venture today, we pray that you will bless this time.

1:06 Help help the words that you prepared to be to be presented today. Help those that are not from you to be forgotten. It's in your son's name that we do pray. Amen. Okay.

1:20 We have a screen there, Timothy. There we go. Samuel. I wanna talk to you a little bit about Samuel today. We've been stomping around in the Old Testament the last several times that I spoke, and we're going to continue there.

1:36 I want to take this character study. Samuel was a priest, a prophet, judge. But when we're looking at Samuel, I also want you to think about the transition that's happening or the transition in the Old Testament history, if you will. Okay? So both Peter and Paul in their sermons during in the Acts of the apostles would refer to Samuel as a prophet, a pivotal person amongst the or in the history of Israel.

2:05 You got it there? Good? All right. So I thought we'd start out with this verse to begin with. First Samuel chapter 25 verse one says, Then Samuel died and the Israelites gathered together and lamented for him and buried him at his home in Ramah.

2:22 Now, why do you start at the end? Well, you know, if we look at it, it's really us considering a life well lived, if you will. You know, if we would look back at Samuel's life, as we look back at all of our lives, sometimes we have a funeral and we look back. I had the privilege of zooming into the funeral for Stacy Botters, those of you know him from Camp La La Lai. Father's funeral last night or yesterday.

2:48 What a testimony he had. If I only can, if people only talk to me about me at a third of what he did, I would be happy to say that. He was a wonderful person. I'm kind of jealous I didn't get to meet him. But at any rate, think us lamenting or sitting, if you will, around after remembering Samuel who had died and considering some of the stories of his life.

3:15 Okay? That's what we're gonna walk through today. And as we walk through that, we'll walk through a period of history for Israel. Now, I'm gonna give you a several H's. This is the first one.

3:26 You have homework. Go home and read first Samuel. Okay? I don't have enough time today to read all the verses that we're gonna talk about or pass through, But there's a lot in there and I would suggest you do that. So, one overview of the Old Testament.

3:42 This is what I put up previously and this is just my view. It's not the view, it is one view. All right? If you look at, go from creation, the flood, the patriarchs into the tribal time, then the Exodus from Egypt, the Promised Land when Joshua entered the Promised Land, divided up the land, Judges is a time of disarray, then the kingdoms where David and we have a split after that, the prophets, and it bounces right into the New Testament there, okay? It's all one story.

4:16 That's the point we were making before. That's the point I want you to take away. Don't forget that this is all one story divided into many books, two testaments, etcetera. It's one story about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if we look at the Old Testament, you're gonna see a lot of triumph, tragedy, some testing, but also a lot of wandering.

4:38 Wandering around in a desert, wandering away from God, where the Lord, while people were wandering particularly Israel in the example that we have primarily in the Old Testament, the Lord is pursuing them. Eventually they get into a position where they cry out, Please Lord, we need help! And He comes and He delivers them repeatedly over and over again. That's the story that we keep having. Okay?

5:06 If you remember back in May, we talked about an individual here. We did a character study there called, who is Naishon? Remember that? This was a leader of Judah during the time that the Exodus happened and in the build up as Moses was gathering and numbering people in numbers and creating an army, okay? Failed miserably, but this man, Naishan, was in the lineage of Christ.

5:32 In August we talked about three women, Tamar, Ruth, and Rahab. Also historical figures that taught us much about, again, the lineage of Christ and the love of God. In November, we took up the period of time, if you will, of Judges where things seem to go way out of control, but yet we can learn from all that was there. Today we're going to sit right here, okay, in the transition. The transition from the Judges to the King dom's period, if you will.

6:28 Okay? If we don't know our history, we're doomed to repeat it and this is important. Okay, the beginning of Samuel. Alright, beginning of Samuel starts with this guy, Elkanah. Anybody have a better pronunciation for that?

6:43 Don, what do you think? Elkanah, Elkanah, Elkanah. This is the guy. Okay? Here he is and we start off in first Samuel chapter one verse one and we learn two things about this guy.

6:56 He was living in Ramathaim Zophim in the Mountains Of Ephraim. And he has these folks. He was the son of Jeroham, Elohim, Elchana was the son of Jeroham, who was the son of Elihu, who was the son of Tohu, who's the son of Zuf. And you're thinking, oh he's not gonna go there again. Do we have to talk about these lineages?

7:22 You know, it... No, we don't have to be. Yes we do. It's important to do this. If you really look at it here, he was in the Mountains Of Ephraim.

7:31 Zuf is considered in the scriptures as an Ephraimite. So we would think, go back to our tribes now. This is the way that the land was distributed, right? There's the 12 sons of Jacob who were split when Joseph had his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh or Manasseh and Ephraim in that order. That's the way that the land was divided when they entered the Promised Land.

7:57 Okay, So from just this first bit of information we would probably conclude that he was an Ephraim. He was an Ephraimite or they were from Ephraim, had the lineage of Ephraim. But if we read a little other places we would go into first Chronicles and we see that David actually appointed a relative or a descendant of Elkanah as a singer, okay, in the service of songs. So this guy Heman, was a singer. Okay?

8:28 And he's got this lineage who had his father was Joel and his or Joel, however you say that. His father was Samuel, whose father was Elkanah. Right on down the line. If you read a little bit further and start it out a little bit more, it goes back to Levi. Okay?

8:45 He's a descendant of Levi through Levi's son Kohath. So really this guy is from the tribe of Levi. It's important to remember that because then he has a lineage. The Levites were considered priests. They were the ones that were the priesthood in this.

9:06 They were not given a land per se, but they were distributed throughout the land. So this guy was living, it appears, in Ephraim, in the Mountains Of Ephraim. You read about in the Old Testament, the Mountains Of Ephraim must have been a beautiful place. I don't know why but there's just some folks there and it seemed like a nice place to be. Maybe someday I'll get to go there.

9:28 So Elkanah has two wives. Not uncommon, we've talked about this before. He's got his first wife Hannah and his second wife Panina Penny. However you say that. And not uncommonly too, we've heard this story before, he loved Hannah.

9:47 He had great love for Hannah but again Panina had sons and daughters. Okay? Now in case we don't understand this clearly, sons and daughters means what? Two of each, right? Two sons, at least two daughters.

10:08 So if you know your biology, we all know that the gestation period of a human being is nine months. Okay. And a mother caring for a young baby usually doesn't have another baby for another, what is it? Nurse? Two years?

10:29 A year to two. Okay, so we're looking at at least two years. What's that? I think it's more about did they bottle feed or not. So at any rate, two years per at least four.

10:50 So that's eight. And it's a good possibility that he had Hannah as his wife first and took the second wife because his first wife did not have children. It's very important. Now we can go back and say it shouldn't be that way today. Okay, I'm not going to argue that.

11:09 That's not my point. It was that way then. Okay. It was that way then that in order to procreate, in order to populate the earth if you will, it was important in order to have an inheritance, it was important that you had a son. Okay?

11:28 Because that's, your inheritance was passed down. And when this land was distributed, that's how it got passed down from family to family. From son, or from father to son. So it's very important in this time for her to have a baby. Okay?

11:45 Now, is this remind of anything? Do you remember when remember we talked about these four women? And the jealousy and the rivalry and the difficulty that was there between them because of trying to raise a son. And this one was Rachel was the one that was so very loved by Jacob and she didn't have babies till the end. So Hannah is terribly upset about this.

12:12 Terribly upset about not having children, in particular a son. Okay? To make matters worse, Elkanah has this practice of going to Shiloh and sacrificing every year. Okay? So he takes his whole family there and they have to worship, sacrifice.

12:33 He's a devoted, probably a priest. It's a family affair. They have a big feast. And Peninnah takes this opportunity every year to agitate her rival and to really pour it on. I mean if you think you've had a bad time at Thanksgiving when you're discussing vax and no vax with your brother-in-law, well guess what?

12:55 This was even worse. Okay? Year after year, maybe a decade this has been going on where Penina is just digging it into her. Okay? So you could imagine, and Hannah was terribly upset.

13:11 Add to it the fact that because Elkanah really loved Hannah he would give her double of a gift I'll call it, then he gave to his other wife who had children. Okay? So that had to have added to the fuel to the fire. Okay? So the scripture says that because of that Hannah was provoked severely.

13:50 While she's there she meets Eli the priest. We'll talk a little bit more about him. He's sitting at the gate watching her come in. Watches her pour her heart out to the point where she says, lady you must be drunk. She said, No, no, no, no.

14:05 No, that's not it. It's not it at all. I was... My heart is terribly broken. I don't have a child.

14:13 And you don't understand, I've just poured my heart out to the Lord. And she prays and has makes a vow to the Lord. She submits to his will and says, Lord, if you will give me a son, I will generously loan him to you. She's very expressive about this and gives her honest opinion of where her heart is. She pours that out.

14:36 She's relieved. She's able to eat and she goes home. She's not sad any longer. Okay? The important thing I want you to remember about this slide is that it was her heart.

14:49 She had a change of heart. Oh, that we would all have a change of heart so that we might too admit that we have a bitterness of soul. We have trouble in our heart and that we're willing to accept what the Lord has for us even if it doesn't include... You answer the sentence there. In her case, it was a son.

15:10 Even if it doesn't include a son. Okay, moving on. Now we talk a little bit more about Samuel as he's recognized as a prophet. Okay? Remember we talked about Eli the priest.

15:24 Okay? So Eli is there sitting at the gate to come and practice for him to watch people coming in. He sees her, but he also has these two sons, Hophni and Phineas. Okay? Hophni and Phineas are not good guys.

15:41 They are priests, but they're corrupt. Okay? It says that they did not know the Lord. They stole from the offering essentially. They didn't follow the instruction.

15:53 The instruction was the meat that gets offered goes into the vat. They reach in sort of blindly hook it and pull out whatever comes out on the hook was was for them. These guys didn't do it that way. They said, know what? If you're going to offer that, don't put it in there.

16:09 We want it raw. We like it better this way. Okay? If you're gonna give, we're gonna take that. And if you don't want to give it that way, that's we're gonna take it from you by force.

16:20 Okay? So if there's anything we don't like, it's evil people, right? But is it anything worse when you see somebody like, think about it this way. Think about it when we hear about a police officer who is corrupt, who's on the take, right? Or looks the other way when somebody's getting hurt.

16:41 That's the person we teach our kids. If you see a man in uniform, go to him. He will help you. That's who we expect. And when it turns the other way, we really don't like that.

16:51 Right? Or, you've seen it in the news when a man of God, somebody that considers himself or purports himself as a man of God, or you know a priest or whatever, and he goes the wrong way. It turns our stomach in a special way, doesn't it? And so that's what these guys were doing. Okay?

17:12 Not only were they doing it, but they finally had gotten to the point where men abhorred the offering. They didn't want to bring it because they knew what was going on. It was awful. They felt terrible about what was happening here. Enter Samuel.

17:38 So but it means heard by God. See Hannah went home, she and her husband had a baby. They held off going back to that that's that time in Shiloh. She stayed back. She raised her child.

17:53 Says he weaned she weaned him. She gave up the ultimate sacrifice in some ways. She took her child back finally after he'd been weaned and gave him to Eli and said, for your service. For the service of the Lord. She loaned him back.

18:08 Can you imagine waiting a decade to have a baby and then saying, you know what? Now that he's big enough to work to be on his own, here you go. Difficult task, but she had promised and she did that. She says she fashioned a robe for him and would go and visit him every year. It's a beautiful story.

18:29 But she ends up having three sons and two daughters, we find out. So the floodgates released and there she was. So we find Samuel doing service to God. Right? He's there being trained by Eli.

18:45 Right? And serving every day in the temple, if you will. He ministers to the Lord and and it says as Eli gets old, Samuel is there to provide, in a sense, his legs and his feet and to do things that he couldn't do, the things that his sons weren't doing. Eli was training Samuel. And then we have this beautiful passage that I'll read portions of beginning in first Samuel chapter three.

19:11 It says, the Lord called Samuel and he answered. He says, here I am. So he ran to Eli and said, here I am, for you called me. He said, I did not call. Lie down again.

19:25 And he went and laid down. So imagine, here's a young, probably boy, man, young man, and he hears, Samuel, the only person he can imagine is calling him is who? His benefactor. His buddy. The guy that's been training him, Eli.

19:45 So he runs in, says, what do you need Eli? Probably something he'd done a 100 times a day prior to that, helping him out. What do you need Eli? What is it? Eli says, I didn't call.

19:56 So it happens two more times. Okay? And then we we see that in verse eight it says, and the Lord called Samuel again the third time. He rose and went to Eli and says, here I am for you did call me. Then Eli perceived.

20:10 Eli perceived. Wait a minute. He keeps coming back. I'm not calling him. What's going on here?

20:15 But Eli says, oh, he perceived that the Lord had called the boy. He seen something in him. He'd heard this before. Maybe he understands this must be what's happening. And so Eli said to Samuel, go lie down and it shall be if he calls you that you must say, speak Lord for your servant hears.

20:38 So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And that's what happened. Speak Lord, for your servant hears. And the Lord gave him a prophecy. His first prophecy.

20:50 Okay? Now we think of prophecy and we always think about it as telling the future. Okay? Not always the case. Sometimes it includes telling the future.

20:59 In this case it did. Okay? Where Samuel gets this prophecy from the Lord directly from him and he heard it specifically it appears in a spoken voice. Now so here we are. He hears that and what's the prophecy?

21:17 The prophecy is that the Lord is so upset with these three guys. Eli for not disciplining, if you will, Hophni and Phinehas for not addressing this, and Hophni and Phinehas for doing what they had done that they're going to be killed. That's it. He says, I'm going to reduce your lying to nothing. And there it is.

21:39 That's the prophecy that he was given. What a terrible thing to be given for a first time to a young boy, but there it was. So he tells... He ends up having to tell Eli this. Eli had been heard this before.

21:51 And so Eli's like, well, the Lord be the Lord. Let him go. It says Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. So you could imagine his words come out, everybody caught them, they heard them, they understood them. So how do you hear the Lord?

22:09 I'd like you to consider that today. We probably don't hear him in an audible voice most times. Most times we hear him in different ways. So Samuel heard the Lord and did what he asked him to do. Let's continue.

22:33 He he calls people through example and sacrifice to... Back to the Lord. Okay? They have a defeat of the Philistines during his time as a judge. But then it talks about these two gentlemen.

22:46 You know who Joel and Abijah were? Well they happen to be Samuel's sons, Joel and Abijah. Now certainly the same thing didn't happen as with Eli. Well unfortunately that's not the case. It said they did not walk in the ways like Samuel.

23:02 He turned aside through dishonest gain. They took bribes and they perverted justice. Not uncommon. Gideon's son did that. One of David's son did that.

23:12 Blood does not make faith. Finally the elders of Israel say, that's it. We want a king. This is not working, this judge thing. We like kings just like everybody else.

23:24 Give us a king. Samuel says, okay, I've talked to the Lord about it, but now you need to understand this. There's a warning. This is what a king is going to do. He's going to take your sons.

23:35 He's going to put them in chariots. He's going to make them horsemen. He's going to have them plow fields and serve you to the point where you cry out and say, I do not like this guy. I won't hear you. Okay.

23:48 That was the warning. They refused to obey that. Says that they rejected the Lord. Okay? On two ways.

23:55 Samuel says, they're killing me. They're rejecting me. Look what I've done for them. And the Lord says to Samuel, no no no. It's not you.

24:03 It's me they're rejecting. They want a king instead of me. They want a king to replace me. That's what's happening here. Don't...

24:12 It's not you Samuel. So enter Saul. He's a Benjaminite. Okay? The smallest tribe.

24:18 One of the reasons they were the smallest tribe is because in the Civil War near the end of the book of Judges, the tribe of Benjamin was all but wiped out. Okay? Because of the sin that they had done. Okay? This guy is very handsome.

24:32 He's very tall. He says he's this much taller than everybody else around. Big dude. Okay. Noticeable.

24:40 Loses his donkeys. He and his servant go looking for him. They bump into Samuel and the Lord says this. When Samuel saw Saul, the Lord said to him, there he is, the man of whom I spoke to you. This one shall reign over my people.

24:57 Important to hear this. It was God's choice. Not Samuel's, not anybody else, not a popular vote. The Lord said, it will be this man. Keep that in your mind.

25:09 He's anointed commander of the army. He... The spirit of God comes upon him. He prophesies. Okay?

25:17 He, unfortunately, is a shy man and he's in hiding when they come to anoint him as king... Pronounce him as king. So it sort of starts to give you a little idea about who he was and the insecurity that he felt. And it comes out later as as he grows. He does provide a defense of Jabesh Gilead.

25:38 There's a good story there for you to read. And the Lord ends up saying this, okay, about the institution of a king. If you fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God. Now there's this literary term called foreshadowing. Does this sound like it's gonna work out well?

26:08 I mean they give him a specific warning here. This is what's gonna happen. He tells them, you know, don't... And now this, if you will do this, to me it sounds like it's coming. Right?

26:19 We know it's gonna be bad. And if we... We've already read the story. We know that it goes bad. Right?

26:24 But it's interesting that the Lord does allow hardship to happen. Okay? We make mistakes. We make bad choices. We walk down paths that probably were not what the Lord would have us do, but he still allows it and he still uses it for his purposes.

26:58 He's waiting for Samuel to get there to give a sacrifice. Samuel doesn't show. Samuel doesn't show. So people start saying, oh, we're in trouble. I'm walking away.

27:07 I'm not gonna be here. And what happens? Saul says, I'm gonna take things into my own hands, and I'm gonna offer the sacrifice because Samuel's not here. Now that was not the way it was supposed to happen. He did wrong.

27:19 Okay? And and it cost him. Okay? And Samuel finally gets there soon after he finishes offering the sacrifice. And Samuel says what the Lord was thinking is, what have you done?

27:32 What have you done? And Saul starts in his inimitable way offering excuses and saying, well, you know, I was afraid of people walking away. I was concerned that they weren't. And we had to... And I just...

27:43 I had to do it. And Samuel says, but now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart and the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept. And the Lord has commanded him to be commander over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. So basically, your kingdom shall not continue.

28:07 You're you're done as a king. Now he continues on for a little while. But he tells them, you messed up so bad that you were not going to continue as king. You understand that? So he goes on to make an unnecessary rule.

28:22 While you're out there fighting today, you can't have anything to eat. Jonathan doesn't hear him. He takes a little honey. And pretty soon, it looks like they're gonna kill Jonathan. Everybody says, you can't do that.

28:32 He's our best guy. This is a stupid rule. So the wheels are starting to unravel here for Saul and he's not in a bad shape. But this is the worst. Agag.

28:43 Okay? Agag, whoever his name is. The Lord says, now go and attack Amalek. The Amalekites had treated the Israelites poorly when they come out of Egypt. So the Lord says, this is the revenge.

28:58 I'm asking you to go back. Go back, utterly destroy all that they have. Listen carefully. It's not easy on the ears. Okay?

29:07 Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey. Now, is there anything unequivocal about that? What's he want them to do? Wipe it out. Destroy it.

29:22 No more. So what does he do? He gathers the army. He gets warned again. And then he destroys almost all the people.

29:32 He captures the king. This is the guy, Agag. He keeps the best livestock, destroys all the despised and worthless stuff around. But keeps the best. It's an interesting picture when Samuel greets him and says, what have you done?

29:49 Again. And he says, Oh, what do you mean? He says, What's that bleeding I hear? I can hear the oxen and the sheep. What's going on?

29:58 What have you done? And he says, Well, I did what I thought was important. I mean, we're gonna worship the Lord by sacrificing these good animals. He's dancing again and making bad choices. So eventually the word of the Lord comes to Samuel saying, I greatly regret that I've set up Saul as king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments.

30:28 And it grieved Samuel, and he cried out to the Lord all night. Do we grieve when the Lord grieves like that? When he's grieved over something, we should be grieved over something. But here he's totally regretting it. Now, let's be careful about the way we use the word regret.

30:47 We're not saying mistake. Okay? I'm not saying God made a mistake. But he is lamenting. He is totally upset.

30:55 It hurts him that he sees his people suffering. He hurts him that this is the way it turned out. We don't want to the freedom of choice away from Saul. But at the same time, there's just a fine balance here that we have to find. Let's continue moving on.

31:46 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. Oh, that we take these words to heart. Think about it. He delights in obedience.

32:08 That's better than offerings and sacrifices. He... That's what he really wants is obedience to his word, to him. Rebellion is as if witchcraft, as if we go out and looking for somebody else to to worship. Rejected was the king.

32:29 So when he's confronted like this, Saul has another bunch of lame excuses. He finally repents. It's late. And he seems to say, well, okay, I'll worship your God. Almost a half hearted attempt to say I'll worship.

32:43 I I don't want to take it away from him. He may have turned and repented in truth, but there he was in a bad spot. So Samuel says, okay, let's let's talk about this. I I understand where you're coming from. He turns back towards him and and this is what happens.

33:00 He says, then Samuel said, bring Agag king of the Amalekites here to me. So Agag came to him cautiously and Agag said, surely the bitterness of death is past? But again, hard on the ears. But Samuel said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag in pieces before the Lord and Gilgal.

33:27 What what does God think of sin? How much does He want to deal with it? Well, here it is. Samuel hacks the object of Saul's sin into pieces. Sin's not something easy to play with, not something that's not important to the Lord.

33:47 It's so important that something like this would be written and happened. He hacked the object of his sin places into pieces. So Samuel goes on and continues. He eventually anoints David as king as a replacement to Saul. You know about that where he goes through the seven brothers and that sort of thing.

34:06 But want... We're not gonna talk about that today. That's for another day. But he ends up dying before David ascends the throne. Okay?

34:17 And there it is. A life of Samuel well lived and a transition in the period of Israel. This this thing of hacking, I mean, we thought today was the first time that people brought up hackers. Right? We know what hackers are.

34:33 Right? Well, about another hacker. Okay? And and think about what he did because of sin. So let's summarize it and try and apply it to our lives.

34:44 Right? Let's look at these five h's. Don't forget you have homework, but this is the first one. History. I'm continuing to challenge you to look at your Old Testament and to read it with the mindset of what's coming next.

34:58 To read it as a history that tells about the story of Jesus as it comes to fruition. Is it informing your future or is it forgotten forever? History is important. Young people don't believe that. I'm tired to tell you, it is important.

35:14 We need to know what our history is. Where's your heart? What are your motives? Can we trust the Lord for all outcomes? Just as the two hearts of the women were?

35:27 Right? Panina and Hannah. Can we trust the Lord? How does the Lord speak to you? If you haven't thought about that before, I'd like you to consider it.

35:37 How does He speak to you? Does He speak to you through answered prayer? Through others saying a kind word? Through reading His word so that you now say, oh, this caught my ear. When you pray, can you hear Him?

35:51 Do you do you do you feel something? Does it... Does something come to you? I want you to consider that. How do I hear the Lord?

36:02 Hardships we all face. Are they part of God's plan? Yes. You can't take that away. So I want you to remember, can we learn from them?

36:14 And do we learn from them? Or do we dismiss them and try and overcome them on our own? Hacking. How should we deal with sin? Are we playing with sin?

36:28 Do we think sin is just something that's not quite right? Do we do we do we get up close to it? Do we see how close we can keep it away from us? Or do we hack it out of our lives? Are we committed to removing it from our lives?

36:42 It'll never go away. I'm I'm not saying that you have the opportunity to be perfect, but are we willing to deal with it like Samuel demonstrated? So, as I finished this up, I started to think, what? Wait a minute. There's something else here.

37:34 Both sinful. Okay? What was the first prophecy that Samuel heard? It was about the sin of Eli and Hophni and Phinehas. And and the terrible things and what the price for that would be.

37:49 We have hardships. And you saw how Saul chose incorrectly. And finally, how sin was dealt with. And then as I remember thinking to this, this is not the way I want to end our conversation. Send you home with a total downer.

38:12 Right? This is awful. It's all about sin. But it is about sin, but it's also about redemption. Okay?

38:20 The Lord continues to follow, chase, pursue, look, provide. And we know because we've read through the end of the book that the Lord Jesus came for the specific purpose, to redeem us from the sin that we have. As awful as it is, as awful as each one of us are, and we talked about it earlier in our meeting earlier today. He has the plans of redemption. He wants to redeem each and every one of us from where we're at today.

39:21 Lord, we pray that we might hear you. Lord, we pray that we might endure our hardships and we might deal with the sin in our lives and many other things, Lord. We thank you for this picture of Samuel and ask you to continue to bless our time. It's in your son's precious name that we pray. Amen.