By: Tom Chantry on Wednesday 3/21/07

The Birth Narrative of Samuel

I Samuel 1 tells the story of a troubled family in which a godly woman is undergoing deep personal pain. No one who saw Hannah weeping outside the tabernacle in Shiloh could have guessed that God was at work in this trial - not only to bless her but to bless the whole nation. Through her prayers God would send Samuel - the last judge of Israel, the first great prophet of the kingdom, the preserver of tabernacle worship when the priests underwent catestrophic upheaval, and in all the moral conscience of the nation, constantly reminding the people and their kings of God's sovereign rule and of His inviolable law.