Lord, we thank you for being out here this evening.
So I see you blessed this offering to you,
blessed with a gift and a giver,
blessed with preaching the follow.
Jesus, we pray for you.
- See you this evening.
Turn with me in your Bibles to the book of 1 Samuel.
1 Samuel chapter one.
Off with chapter one, and as is our custom,
we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse one.
1 Samuel chapter one.
1 Samuel chapter one, the Bible reads,
now there was a certain man of Ramatheim Zophim
of Mount Ephraim.
His name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham,
the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu,
the son of Zoph, and Ephrathite.
And he had two wives.
The name of the one was Hannah,
and the name of the other, Penina.
And Penina had children, but Hannah had no children.
And this man went up out of his city yearly
to worship and to sacrifice
unto the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh.
And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas,
the priests of the Lord were there.
And when the time was that Elkanah offered,
he gave to Penina, his wife,
and to all her sons and her daughters portions.
But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion,
for he loved Hannah,
but the Lord had shut up her womb.
And her adversary also provoked her sore
for to make her fret
because the Lord had shut up her womb.
And as he did so year by year,
when she went up to the house of the Lord,
so she provoked her.
Therefore she wept and did not eat.
Then said Elkanah, her husband to her,
"Hannah, why weepest thou, and why eatest thou not?
"And why is thy heart grieved?
"Am not I better to thee than ten sons?"
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.
She was in bitterness of soul
and prayed unto the Lord and wept, sore.
She vowed a vow and said, "O Lord of hosts,
"if thou would indeed look on the affliction
"of thine handmaid and remember me
"and not forget thine handmaid,
"but will 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."
And it came to pass as she continued praying
before the Lord that Eli marked her mouth.
Now Hannah, she spake in her heart,
only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.
Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken
and Eli said under, "How long wilt thou be drunken?
"Put away thy wine from thee."
And Hannah answered and said, "No, my lord,
"I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit.
"I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink,
"but I have poured out my soul before the Lord.
"Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial,
"for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief
"have I spoken hitherto."
Then Eli answered and said, "Go in peace,
"and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition
"that thou hast asked of him."
And she said, "Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight."
So the woman went her way and did eat,
and her countenance was no more sad,
and they rose up in the morning early
and worshiped 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 bear a son
and called his name Samuel,
saying, "Because I have asked him of the Lord,"
and the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer unto the Lord
the yearly sacrifice and his vow.
But Hannah went not up, for she said unto her husband,
"I will not go up until the child be weaned,
and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord
and there abide for ever."
And Elkanah her husband said unto her,
"Do what seemeth thee good, tarry until thou have weaned him;
only the Lord establish his word."
So the woman abode, and gave her son suck, until she weaned him.
And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her,
and three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine,
and brought him into the house of the Lord in Shiloh.
And the child was young, and they slew a bullock,
and brought the child to Eli.
And she said, "O my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord,
I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord.
For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition,
which I asked of him; therefore also I have lent him to the Lord.
As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord."
And he worshiped the Lord there.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for this day.
Thank you, Lord, for this passage in your Word.
I pray that you'd help the pastor to say exactly what you want us to say.
Fill him and us with your Spirit so that we can understand.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Amen.
All right, 1 Samuel, good time to get in on the Bible study, or day one.
So again, I love the book of 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel, and in the New Testament, Paul is
like, you know, of course, Jesus is the best character in the Old Bible, but the Apostle
Paul is definitely my second favorite in the New Testament.
And then in the Old Testament, I would have to say that it is David.
So I think a lot of people, he's their favorite person in the Bible in the Old Testament
too.
There's people that have different choices, but just a brief overview, Samuel here is
starting to just, he isn't even born until the end of this chapter, but Samuel, he's
at the end of the time of the judges.
And Israel was under a system called the judges, and instead of having kings like all the other
people had, God was the king.
That's the way he designed it, and if they would have followed things the way they were
supposed to, then it would have been a good system, but they didn't.
So of course we're not there yet, but we'll get there.
But there's quite a few different male leaders in this book, and you have Eli here, and Eli
actually doesn't last much longer here as a leader, and how he failed is he was a failure
to his children because he wasn't correcting them like he was supposed to be, and God gets
angry and takes him, basically, his whole line out of the line of the priesthood.
But I don't think that Eli was an unsaved person or anything like that.
I think Eli had his good moments, like, you know, in this chapter he doesn't do anything
too bad.
I think he does fine, and he does raise Samuel, and Samuel, you know, is a great man of God
as he grows up.
But then Samuel, his sons, aren't very good either, so, but I just, you know, I don't
think that that necessarily reflects all the time on the parents.
Of course, we've talked about that quite a bit, but you have, you know, so, I mean,
I believe that Eli is a judge.
I don't know.
I'm pretty positive that he is.
I guess I should have cleared that up before I got up to study it, but I'm pretty sure
he is.
He's not a priest, for sure, and his sons are priests that help serve, and Samuel becomes
a priest and a prophet and a judge.
So he does all three.
He's got all three systems of government in his hand.
He's got the religious part.
He's also the leader of all of Israel while he's the leader, and so the checks and balances
all kind of the buck stops with Samuel as he gets older.
And then, you know, because Eli, he ends up dying and then Samuel takes over for him.
And it's kind of interesting because Samuel is supposed to be, you know, he's lent to
the Lord, but just because you're lent to the Lord doesn't mean that you're automatically
can be a priest.
But the thing about Samuel, and we'll get into this more later as probably next chapter
about how Samuel actually was okay to be a priest because his dad is a Levite.
And you only find that out by studying the book of 1 Chronicles because you're like,
"Well, how's he doing all this work for the Lord when you have to be a Levite?"
Well, he technically was, Samuel technically was a Levite.
So he was able to do these things and make the sacrifices.
So again, the last judge gets all of the...he's the priest, he's the prophet, and he's the
judge at the same time.
So normally there's some checks and balances that happen, like when David is king, the
kings aren't supposed to go in and make sacrifices.
That's not his job.
That's why Saul gets in trouble.
So Saul actually becomes king and then he doesn't do what he's supposed to be doing
and then God rejects him as the king.
And so then David, someone better than him, is chosen because of what Saul did.
So it's kind of interesting, I was thinking about this before I got here, how that Samuel
kind of pictures, I know that they're already under the law of Moses, but he kind of pictures
the time before the law because everybody was kind of doing that which is right in their
own eyes, even in the book of Genesis it was like that, until the law came because of transgressions.
But then Saul pictures the law.
I'm just talking about pictures and foreshadowing or whatever types, because Saul, he does wrong
stuff and then he doesn't really get mercy for those things.
He's rejected as the king and then discarded.
But then David gets in as the king and then he commits adultery with Bathsheba.
He kills Uriah the Hittite, which is pretty bad, but God just forgives him.
Basically they both have different ways that they ... Saul wasn't really sorry for what
he did.
He was just blaming the people like a terrible leader would.
"Oh, the people, it's their fault."
And then David, he blames himself.
So I think that does have something to do with it.
But there is that picture because David actually pictures Christ and Jesus Christ is called
the son of David.
So there's a lot of foreshadowing in here.
But anyway, let's get to it here.
And so the reason why this is one of my favorite books is because not only is it action packed,
but it also has a lot of great doctrine in it.
And a lot of great doctrine of how to deal with people and how, you know, these characters
are very complex.
And you know, sometimes, you know, we like this, you know, we might like stories where
it's like, this person is the good guy.
There's no doubt about it.
This guy is the good guy.
And this guy is the bad guy.
You know, no matter what, we know this guy is a bad guy.
He just does bad things.
We see him in movies and books and stuff like that.
And we know who's who.
But in these stories, you know, man is a lot more complex than just this guy's bad, this
guy good.
Because nobody's good, actually.
But in these stories, you have like Joab, who obviously is a murderer, and he does some
pretty horrific things.
He ends up getting, you know, dying at the end of it for betraying David in the end.
But there's also good things that he does in the book.
So it makes you think, well, you know, Joab is saved.
I mean, I personally think he was, but I mean, I could be wrong about that.
He definitely gets punished on the earth for the things that he did.
He finally gets killed for killing other people.
And you know, you have Jonathan, you have Saul, and Saul was saved.
Saul is a good man.
And then he started thinking he was as big as he really was in real life.
And his ego got out of control, and he just became a terrible leader.
And then, you know, so there's some good people and some bad people.
Even Ahithophel.
Like, it's kind of hard to know, is Ahithophel saved or does he just picture Judas Iscariot?
Because Ahithophel betrays David.
And the reason why he betrays David, because if you look in the genealogies also, which
you won't know unless you actually look in the genealogies, that Ahithophel, his grand--
I think it's his great-granddaughter is, I'll have to check into that, but is Bathsheba,
I think, or maybe it's he's related to-- I think he's related to Bathsheba somehow.
And so you wonder, like, why did Ahithophel betray David?
Well, he didn't really like what went on between Bathsheba and David.
So it seems like that would be a good reason to betray him.
But obviously, the Bible paints David as right in these situations.
Even when his sons betray him, God clearly shows what side he's on.
He's on David's side, even though David had some lapses in judgment, even when it came
to his own children.
So anyway, let's get into it here.
So the first point, I guess, would be God opens and closes the womb.
Let's look at verse number one.
The Bible says, "Now there was a certain man of Ramath-aim-zotham of Mount Ephraim,
and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jehorahm, the son of Elihi, the son of Tohu, the son
of Zeph, and Ephrathite.
And he had two wives.
The name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Penaniah.
And Penaniah had children, but Hannah had no children.
So it's the problem with having two wives coming up here, it says, "And this man went
up out of the city yearly to worship to the sacrifice and to the Lord of Hosts and Shiloh,
and the two sons of Eli, Hophni, and Phineas, the priests of the Lord, were there.
And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Penaniah his wife and to all her
sons and her daughters portions.
But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut
up her womb."
So the Bible indicates here that God is the one that shut up her womb.
And it seems like in situations where there's two wives married to one man, if he favors
the one over the other ones, then God shuts that woman's womb, and maybe it's because
she's getting more favor.
And this woman that he's married to, this other woman, there's like a really bad contention
between them, and she likes to mock her because she is fertile and Hannah is not.
It doesn't say that Hannah is a bad person or anything like that, but you have the same
situation.
Go ahead, let's keep your finger there.
Let's go over to Genesis chapter 29 real quick, Genesis chapter number 29.
And so this concept that God is the one that opens and closes the womb is very scriptural
in nature.
Genesis chapter 29 verse 30 says, "And he went in also unto Rachel, and he loved also
Rachel more than Leah, and served with him yet seven other years.
And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren."
See, you know, when he's playing the favorites, God's like, "Well, you know, I'll give her,
I'll give Leah some favor because she's not very well loved."
It says she's hated actually.
So Jacob wasn't expecting to marry her, obviously, if you know the story, it says, "And Leah
conceived and bear a son, and she called his name Reuben.
For she said, 'Surely the Lord hath looked upon my affliction, now therefore my husband
will love me.'
And she conceived again and bear a son and said, 'Because the Lord hath heard that I
was hated, he hath therefore given me this son also.'
And she called his name Simeon."
So see how Leah's like, she's calling, she's naming them these names because she's, what's
her problem?
Her problem isn't that she's fertile and having lots of children, her problem is that her
husband doesn't love her and she knows it.
And she's married to her sister, which is kind of weird.
But anyway, it wasn't necessarily her choice, I guess, that this predicament happened.
So anyway, it says, "And she conceived again and bear a son and said, 'Now this time will
my husband be joined unto me, because I have borne him three sons, therefore his name was
called Levi.'
And she conceived again and bear a son.
And she said, 'Now I praise the Lord, therefore she called his name Judah and left bearing.'"
So she's the one that has Judah in the end and he actually becomes, he's the one that
is of the line of Christ.
And so God gave her favor, didn't He?
And Rachel, who is beloved of Jacob, is the one that gets kind of kicked to the curb when
it comes to having children.
And actually, she's the one that dies on the side of the road and is buried on the side
of the road on the way to Bethlehem.
And I personally think that it's probably because of her grabbing those false gods that
belong to her dad.
She lied to him.
Then Jacob says, you know, whoever it is, let them die or something like that.
And you know, it's just Jacob didn't realize that his wife that he loved so much had taken
those stupid little idols or whatever, the GI Joes or whatever.
And why she would take those, I have no idea, but I mean, she did.
And then she died not too long after that.
She died early.
So, and then Jacob is buried with Leah in the end and not buried with Rachel.
So it's kind of interesting.
So in verse, let's turn over to Genesis chapter 30 verse 21, Genesis 30 verse 21.
It says in Genesis 30 verse 21, "And afterwards she bore a daughter and called her name Dinah.
And God remembered Rachel, and God harkened to her and opened her womb.
And she conceived and bore a son and said, 'God has taken away my reproach.'
And she called his name Joseph and said, 'The Lord shall add to me another son.'"
So in the end, she ends up getting to bear a couple children, but she wasn't as fruitful
as the other.
And to her, what was the reproach?
It's not like she didn't get enough love from Jacob.
Her problem was that she couldn't have children, and she called that a reproach.
Because there's two things that women really naturally want in this world.
And one is to have a husband that loves them, and the other one is to have children.
And that's a natural feeling for women to want.
You see that throughout the whole Bible where, you know, if a woman is barren, that it really
bothers them that they can't have children.
And so it's a big deal, and I guess maybe not in the world's eyes is this such a big
deal as much as it is to Christians, but I mean even people in the world want to have
children, you know.
They want to have heirs.
They want their name to be carried on in the earth.
It's just a natural thing.
Isaiah 66 verse number 9, you don't have to turn there, but it says, "Shall I bring
to the birth and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord?
Shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb, saith the Lord?"
So God is the one that brings people to the birth.
God is the one that forms us in our mother's womb, and He's the one that forms our, you
know, He's the one that does this process.
And, you know, people just think, "Well, God doesn't have anything to do with it.
That's not true."
And so, if God's doing that, and He's making sure that people are formed in the womb and
all this stuff, that means He cares about that person.
That means that person is a person to Him.
It's not a blob of tissue or something.
So, and fertility is a blessing from God.
There are women out there that are super fertile and don't want children.
And they wear stupid t-shirts that say stuff like, you know, "I had like 16 abortions"
or something.
And it's just like, "No, you murdered 16 of your children.
That's what you actually did."
Because in the book of Matthew, it says that Mary was with child.
So Jesus wasn't a blob of tissues until He was born.
Jesus was a child in His mother's womb.
So let's go back to 1 Samuel, chapter 1, verse number 6.
Now the Bible says that it's a blessing to have children.
And this is not something that we should think is a bad thing or something.
But obviously the women in the Bible wanted them, and the men, they want to bring forth
children so that their husband will be happy with them, it seems like.
And so let's see, 1 Samuel, chapter 1, verse 6 says, "And her adversary also provoked
her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb."
So and here's the problem is that that lady has now become her adversary.
Why?
Because he's favoring her as a wife, and that just automatically going to make them
an adversary.
And look, this is why God just said that we should just be married to one person, you
know.
He's not okay with this.
It's like people will say, "Well, no, it's okay to have multiple wives."
It's not okay, but under that it does happen, it's been a thing in times past, but it never
really seemed to work out very well.
I mean, Jacob ends up having four wives, two of them are concubine wives, and all their
kids are bad, the ones with the concubines.
And it's just not optimal.
I don't even know why you would want to have more than one wife, honestly.
I mean, I got enough to handle on the one I have.
So I mean, to have four or three other ones just like her, that would be too much.
It would be too much love to try to give, you know what I mean?
To love them all equally, I mean, it would be really hard.
But I mean, this is why God doesn't recommend us having, it says these quaint shall be one
flesh.
It doesn't say these four shall be five fleshes or something.
So God is not okay with, people would say, "Well, he's okay with it."
Well, they did it and so he had rules stipulating the things that they could do in these situations.
But you know, in America, you can only have one wife, and I believe that that's because
of Jesus Christ's direct influence in this world.
Only heathen nations allow that to happen.
Only Muslims are allowed to have multiple wives.
That's pretty much it.
So, and not even all the countries that they live in are allowed to have all these multiple
wives.
So, it's just not a thing.
And then the Mormons tried to, you know, make their cult of many wives and, you know, the
United States government actually made laws to protect, you know, people for that purpose
and they, you know, I believe that's God intervening though, doesn't want, you know, this madness
of all these different, I mean, can you imagine how bad America would be if men could have
multiple wives?
It'd be horrible.
It's already bad enough that they don't get married at all.
So, but anyway, so Hannah's adversary is the other wife here.
And as he did so year by year, she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked
her, therefore she wept and did not eat.
Then said Alcana to her husband, Hannah, or her husband to her, excuse me, not to her
husband.
Good night.
Then said Alcana, her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou, and why eatest thou not?
And why is thy heart grieved, and not I better to thee than ten sons?
And so, I mean, her husband's just naturally just trying to make her feel better and comfort
her.
You know, I mean, what else can he do?
He can't make, you know, he can't make this process happen any harder than he already
has.
I'm sure he wants to have children with her, but you know, she's just saying, obviously
she's crying every year they go there, and obviously she's going there with a purpose
and her adversary knows that she's going there probably to pray before the Lord.
This time that she prays before the Lord here in this chapter is probably not the first
time that this has ever happened.
It's probably, she's done this before.
So but here Hannah has a natural affection to want children.
It is a natural affection to want children.
It's normal, what's normal is that people don't want to have children at all.
And you know it's the brainwashing of this world or mind defilement, that's how I like
to say it, of you know only have two or you know 2.5 children and one dog or whatever.
But even that's getting crazy.
You know 2.5 children and 15 dogs or whatever is kind of more like it and 20 cats.
But the fathers, you know fathers want to have children too.
That's natural to want a son to carry on the family name like I said.
That's normal.
That's natural.
And what is not natural is to forsake having children and be one of these planned barrenhood
mothers or whatever.
And then you know and a lot of times you know people like this will get saved that have
had multiple abortions or they'll regret but you know sometimes you can do so much damage
to your womb and to your body that you're not able to have children anymore.
And so it's a really dangerous game and plus it's murder.
To have you know what they call abortion you know that's just a that's news speak.
That's softening the words it's you know I I'm even saying it.
I mean it's because that's what it's just drilled into us it's just abortion it's just
abortion.
You're just aborting you know abort the mission you know no you're you're murdering a child
in their mother's womb.
That's what this actually is.
The Bible says I'm not going to have you turn there but it says in 2nd Timothy 3.1 this
know also that in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their
own selves.
And here's the thing people love themselves so much to the point where they're too selfish
to even have children and they'll say well I don't want to bring a child into this world.
That's just an excuse.
I think that's an excuse or just the mind defilement that they get with all the brainwashing
and the Hollywood and the music and all this and the media, the media, you know how you
know the media is lying?
They open their mouth.
That's how you know.
And so like if you're just a heavy news watcher, unless you're getting some alternate type
of news and even some of that's malarkey, I mean I just saw Tucker Carlson talking about
the Nephilim on one of his shows, just like the cover up of the Smithsonian or whatever.
And maybe they're, I mean I'm sure there's giant skeletons that did get covered.
I think that that's true, but they weren't 450 feet tall like the book of Enoch says.
That's ridiculous.
They're not finding gigantic, huge 450 foot tall skeletons anywhere.
They found like some 10 foot skeletons and that just proves that giants were in the earth
after the flood.
It doesn't prove that, you know, that there's 450 foot tall people.
And Nephilim is not the word that's used in the Bible, it says giants.
That's another just trick that people, you know, because people, even King James only
people will be like, the Nephilim, it's like, where does it say that?
You know what Nephilim means?
It means giant.
That's what it means.
Does it mean human-alien hybrid or whatever, angel-human hybrid, like they say.
The demons came and had, and got married to human beings.
And then they had wives and then they had, you know, these giant 450 foot tall children
or something, but, I mean, I'm just saying that the news media, I mean, Tucker Carlson,
I think he was promoting the Shroud of Turin just recently.
I mean, that's such an obvious fake that it's not even funny.
I mean, here's how you just defeat that.
The apostle John, in the book of John, it says that Jesus had a napkin on his face.
It says that Lazarus had a napkin on his face.
That means just a piece of cloth.
So they had their burial clothes, but they also had a piece of cloth that was separate
from the rest of it.
And when they went in to see Jesus in the tomb in the book of John, it says that the
napkin that was on his face was folded and laid in the tomb.
That's a little detail that it gives us.
And that just proves that the Shroud of Turin is just malarkey because the Shroud of Turin
shows his whole face front and back on that thing and it's just not true.
If you believe the Bible, that's not true.
We like to just go into our little conspiracy theories, but you've got to be careful with
some of this stuff because if you listen to Tucker Carlson, you might just become a Nephilim
believer too, so just be careful.
Anyway, the Bible says that they're lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection.
Now, this could mean a lot of different things.
It could mean that they're homos too, but it's just saying they're without natural
affection, children not loving their parents, parents not loving their children.
I mean, it says that the aged women are supposed to teach the younger women to love their husbands,
to love their children.
Shouldn't that just come naturally, though?
I mean, we should do those things, but to me, it just seems like you get married, you
do love your wife.
You have children, you love your children naturally, but to me, that's natural.
I mean, even as an unsaved man, I still loved Sherri, and I still love my children.
It's just something that's natural in you.
And it says, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn
away."
And in this world today, we have people that would say that they're Christians, but believe
in abortion rights and all this stuff.
It's like, what are you talking about?
When I got saved, I'm not saying that everything, I just turned into the super saint or something
overnight.
That's not true.
That didn't happen.
But my politics did change.
They did.
I just don't see how you can still be a democrat and be saved.
I just don't see it.
I mean, because they're the abortion party.
They're the party that's for everything that Christians are against.
So how could you continue to be a democrat?
How could you continue to just call that healthcare?
That's not healthcare.
That's death care.
You're caring for the, yeah, they care.
They care to take care of the baby and then sell all the parts to whatever they want to
sell it to and use it for research to make vaccines.
So anyway, so now abortion, I believe is premeditated murder.
It's premeditated.
How?
Well, why would it be premeditated?
Well, you have to think about whether you're going to keep the baby or not, right?
Which to me, that's just not even a thought, but you know, that's kind of what people think
nowadays.
"Oh, I'm pregnant.
Are you going to keep the baby?"
Like, why would that even be a question?
Of course you should keep the baby, but premeditated means, because premeditated murder in the
Bible is a capital offense.
It is the death penalty.
There's types of murder in the Bible that are not the death penalty.
Like if you're just fighting and jealous or, you know, something happens in the heat
of the moment, you weren't like planning on trying to kill the person, but it just kind
of happens, then that would be like second degree murder and sometimes manslaughter.
But if you pre-plan something and you think about it like pre-meditating, just thinking
about it beforehand, right?
You know, I really think that I need to kill this person and you just start to plan it
in your mind and how you're going to get away with it, that's pre-meditated murder.
So and that is the death penalty.
That is first degree murder.
I looked this up, of course, to try to get a better definition.
It says pre-meditated murder.
I said what is pre-meditated murder?
Pre-meditated murder is a distinct and grave legal offense differentiated from other homicides
by the perpetrator's specific mental state.
It involves a killing that was not impulsive but resulted from prior thought and consideration
leading to the most serious penalties.
I'm not sure, I don't think Cornell University is a Baptist university, but I did get some
of the stuff off their website.
I think they're some kind of attorney school or something, but it says first degree murder.
First degree murder is the intentional killing of another person by someone who has acted
willfully, deliberately, or with planning.
Generally, there are two types of first degree murder, premeditated, intent to kill, and
felony murder.
This definition will focus on first degree murder involving premeditated intent to kill.
It is important that you note that the exact definition of first degree murder depends
on each state's statute.
Well, I mean, obviously we go by what the Bible says, but it says, and its definition
will vary by jurisdiction.
Most jurisdictions define first degree murder as cases involving premeditation and deliberation.
All other intentional murders are defined as second degree.
A premeditated intent to kill requires that the defendant had intent to kill and some
willful deliberation.
The defendant spent some time to reflect, deliberate, reason or weigh their decision
to kill rather than killing on a sudden impulse.
So prior planning and deliberation are often closely intertwined.
Courts focus on the pre and premeditation and generally look for evidence that the
defendant deliberated and subsequently formed the intent to kill prior to the act of killing.
This is justified because the defendant must have thought about the murder for a period
of time and did not change their mind.
There are several factors indicating premeditation and deliberation.
These include lack of provocation from the victim, actions and words of the defendant
before and after the killing, any threats from the defendant before and/or during the
killing, whether the victim and the defendant had a poor history, whether there was an additional
lethal attack after the victim was already helpless, evidently of brutality and the nature
and number of wounds.
However, many jurisdictions concede that there is no bright arbitrary line when premeditation
begins and ends.
Yeah, they're probably liberals.
Anyway, so would considering keeping a baby be deliberation?
Should I keep it?
Should I not?
Are you deliberating between that choice, of course, and is making a call to make an
appointment to have your baby killed at an abortion center?
Is that premeditation?
Yeah, it is.
Of course, Grock didn't seem to think so.
He was kind of on the fence about it because Grock is really, you know, kind of retarded
sometimes.
But he basically just said that some people believe that it's not, you know, some Christians
believe it's not.
And so he used like the Rockman excuse that babies don't have life until they breathe
their first breath.
This is what Rockman believed.
That's why Rockman, Peter Rockman, he is, you know, anyway, he's a Baptist preacher
from a while, he died a while back.
But yeah, he would teach that abortion is okay because they haven't taken their first
breath.
So it's just fine.
It's like, dude, that is sick.
But anyway, so look back at, are you back in first Samuel?
Look at verse, actually no, where do we go over this?
See, verse 9 says, "So Hannah rose up," verse 9, "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."
So again, afflicted by the fact that she can't have children, and she vowed a vow and said,
"O Lord of hosts, if thou will indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember
me and not forget thine handmaid, but will 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."
So she's essentially kind of bargaining with the Lord and then vowing that if God grants
her petition that she will give him to the Lord all the days of her life.
So when you vow a vow, the Bible says that it's better for you to keep the vow, or it's
better to not have vowed at all than to make a vow and not keep it, because it makes God
really angry.
And so that's why you shouldn't just say, "I swear to God," or "I'm vowing these things,"
and then you don't do them.
God gets really angry.
It is a sin to break a vow that you've made to God.
So just keep that in mind.
So anyway, let's move over to verse number 12, and here's the thing, like she's doing
the right thing.
Where'd she go?
Up to the Lord.
Where'd she go?
Up to the Lord's house.
That's a good place to try to get something done.
Obviously, in the New Testament, there's no, you know, God's house is when we're all
gathered together as believers, the congregation of the Lord.
But the Lord, if you're saved, is in you.
So she wouldn't necessarily have to go to church to do this or whatever.
But it's still, the picture is there that, you know, instead of just being depressed
and getting on, you know, some kind of, you know, program where she can be the octo-mom
or something, she decided to just go to God first.
And I think that if you're having a problem with fertility, you know, if God's the one
that opens and closes the womb, then that's probably the person that you should go to
first.
Before you go to science, before you go to some doctor, I think that it's the best thing
to do is what Hannah did.
Obviously, they didn't have some of the technologies they have today, but some of that technology
is wicked.
I'm not going to get on to the in vitro and all that other kind of stuff, but essentially,
some of that stuff, you're murdering a bunch of embryos that you produce and it's not right.
There's all kinds of different reasons and ways that people can stop from having children,
but then there's also kinds of wicked ways to have children.
Again, I'm not going to get into that tonight necessarily, it's just not in the scope of
the sermon, but it says, and it came to pass as she continued praying before the Lord that
Eli marked her mouth.
So she's praying and Eli's just kind of sitting there watching her pray and it says that he
marked her mouth.
Now, I've heard people say that this is a slap in the mouth or something, but I don't
believe that.
I don't think they just walked up, you know, she's praying, all of a sudden she's just
like, "Ahhh!
What are you doing?"
No, I just don't think that's what he did.
Because they have a normal conversation after that.
Usually if someone slaps, you know, he slaps somebody, there's going to be some harsh
words said back.
When it says he marked her mouth, I think that he's just watching what she's doing
with her mouth.
Like, you know, because you can mark people in different ways, but obviously I don't
think that it was like some, you know, like physical mark that he put upon her.
Because like the Bible says to mark and avoid people doesn't mean that we actually walk
up with a branding iron and go, you're marked for life, heretic, die.
So I just don't think that that's what it's saying here.
But you know, I mean, it'd just be kind of weird.
He just walks up, she's praying, eyes closed and just, you know, I mean, I just I can't
picture that happening.
But anyway, so he but now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her
voice was not heard.
Therefore, Eli thought she had been drunken.
So he's watching her do, he's watching her pray, he's seeing her lips moving, but no
words are coming out because she's praying intensely and he thinks she's wasted.
So you know, he's upset, obviously, about that.
And Eli said unto her, How long will thou be drunken?
Put away thy wine from me.
And Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I'm a woman of a sorrowful spirit.
I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord.
So she kind of corrects him here about what he's thinking.
And then she says this, Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance
of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.
So she's like, it's interesting how she equates that she would be a daughter of Belial to
walk into church drunk and try to pray or something.
Now obviously in the Bible just because somebody says something doesn't necessarily mean that
that's true.
Obviously I don't believe it just because someone drinks or got drunk that they're a
reprobate because that's essentially what she's saying because a daughter of Belial
would be someone that is given over to the reprobate mind, a son of Belial, same thing.
And so basically she's saying I'm not a daughter of the devil, you know, I'm not going to
come in drunk. But, you know, it's interesting that she puts those things together and, you
know, obviously as Christians, it's just a known thing that Christians are not allowed
to have people drunk inside church. And, you know, there's lots of other prohibitions
that would get you thrown out of church, but being drunk would be one of them. So if Eli
thought she was drunk, if she actually was drunk, he probably would have picked her up
and threw her out. But we were supposed to do the same thing in the New Testament, not pick
people up and throw them out unless they need to be, but just ask people to leave. And we've had
to do that before. And, you know, sometimes people come in drunk on other stuff too, like drugs and
things like that. It's hard, it's a lot harder to kind of discern those things unless they just like
freak out on a heroin binge and then just pass out in our church right during the middle of the
service, which just happened. But you know, and also, you know, I mean just people that are drunk,
they're not in control of themselves and so they can just do all kinds of crazy stuff. But you know,
think of Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron. God killed them because they offered strange
fire before the Lord. Now we don't really know what that strange fire was. They probably just
didn't do something right the way they're supposed to do it. I don't know. But then right after that,
God says that you're not supposed to drink strong drink and go into the house of the Lord.
And it's like, why would God, that's the first thing that God says to them right after they,
he kills them all because they were drinking before they went in. That's what I'm thinking.
I mean, it kind of makes sense. I mean, it doesn't directly say that. But I mean, why would God just,
God doesn't just say things out of the blue for no reason. You know, he's not like some something
happened and he's like, "Oh, squirrel," you know. God's not like that. He's deliberate in the things
that he says, and he said that for a reason, that, you know, you're not supposed to go into
the house of the Lord drunk. So, but she's sitting there saying, you know, "Count me not as a daughter
of Belial." So at that time, to be some drunk woman going to church, people would have just thought
you were crazy, you know. But nowadays, I mean, anything kind of goes in some of these churches.
And if they're not drunk, they're acting like they are. They're acting like they're on something
with all their flopping around and, you know, doing all this and dancing and, you know, I mean,
I've been to churches where they kind of put up with a lot of stuff, or someone's just acting weird,
you know, in a church service. And, you know, we ought not to let these types of things happen.
But anyway, just the Bible says that we're not supposed to have a drunkard in church in the New
Testament, still in the New Testament. It's not like Jesus died on the cross so people could get
wasted at church or come in wasted. You know, and even during the Lord's Supper, some people think
that it's supposed to be done with alcoholic beverages. It's like, why would you think that?
You know, the blood of Jesus was pure, just like a grape freshly squeezed as pure grape juice, right?
So why would you think that alcoholic wine would be the representation of the pure,
sinless blood of Christ? I mean, that just does not make sense. And then later on,
it's going to say that she comes back with a bottle of wine. So she thought that she would
be a daughter of Belial. She would look like a daughter of Belial if she had been drinking
earlier, but now she's going to bring an alcoholic bottle of wine up to the church service the next
time she comes. That doesn't make sense. So, I mean, there's a connection with wickedness
and drunkenness, obviously. Again, I don't believe that all women who drink are reprobates. Obviously,
I don't believe that. I just think that she's saying that it's not a common thing for drunkards
to show up at church. And it's probably unheard of in that time. So, and remember that the narrator
of the Bible is when you see something being said, it's the narrator of the Bible, that's the Holy
Spirit. Okay. So, when people say stuff, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're right all the time.
So, just like in Job and his friends are answering back and all these different chapters,
and then God comes and says, "They're wrong in everything they said." Job is the one that's
right. He's the only one that's spoken right, and it's just like they're totally crushed and
their whole ego is down the drain. So, let's look at verse 17. It says, "Then Eli answered and said,
'Go in peace.' And the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him."
And she said, "Let thine handmaid find grace in thy sight." So, the woman went her way and did
eat and her countenance was no more sad. You know, sometimes just caring about somebody else when
they're having a hard time is a good thing, you know? And obviously, she's having a hard time.
At first, he thought she was wasted, but then he realized that's not the case, and he gives her
some encouraging words. He actually blesses her. He says, "Go in peace. And the God of Israel grant
thee thy petition." You know, I mean, for the high priest of Israel to be saying that to her,
she probably meant a lot, you know, that the man of God cared for her, and then she even blesses
him back. And you know, as God's people, we should be blessings to each other. We should be blessing
each other, and then you should be blessing people back. It shouldn't just be a one-way street,
you know, where you're just the one always getting blessed, but you never want to bless anybody else.
And you know, comforting people when they're going through a hard time, you know, maybe you're not
the best comforter in the world, but you know, I'm sure you can say something to help people feel
better in a time of need, just like people do for you. So, and it says, "And they rose up early in
the morning, worshiped before the Lord, and returned, and came to their house in Rama,
and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her." So, of course, that's a euphemism
for them doing what husbands and wives do. And it says, "The Lord remembered her, wherefore it came
to pass, when the time was come, about after Hannah had conceived, and she bear a son, and called his
name Samuel, saying, 'Because I have asked him of the Lord.'" And so Samuel is kind of a, he's a
special kid, you know, and the Bible also has many stories where a son is chosen and rises up and
helps deliver Israel. And Samuel is not, that's not uncommon, and Samuel is also, remember how
she said that a razor will not come upon his head? Well, what does that mean? Well, he's going to be
a Nazarite. She's going to, she said that, she said that. She's like making choices for him
about his hairstyle. But like, obviously God honored those things. But, you know, I mean,
if his hair never gets razored his whole life, he probably had pretty long hair at the end.
He probably, it was probably just something, maybe some braided kind of hair that went back. I don't
know. Maybe he wore it under a hat. I have no idea. But she said that though, but maybe he didn't do
it. I don't know. The Bible doesn't really talk about it after that. But anyway, it says that she
bears son, calls name Samuel. It's kind of like, you know, it's kind of like a Messiah story. And
Samuel does picture the Messiah in the way that, because just like, you know, Jesus is also our
high priest and Jesus also is our king. And even though Samuel doesn't become a king, he's still
the ruler of Israel and he's a judge and God is the judge of the whole earth, right? And Jesus was
also called the prophet from Nazareth. So Jesus was all those things and so Samuel kind of pictures
Jesus. And, you know, in the book of Judges, if you read the book of Judges, it says he rose up
another savior. They're calling these people saviors because they're picturing, you know,
that Christ is going to be our savior. But they're saving them, you know, a lot of times in battle
and in war when people are coming against them. But it's still saying that they're called a savior.
But Jesus is the savior. Big difference. But Samuel does picture Christ. So I think that's
pretty interesting. And, you know, what I think, what I think Hannah is just an amazing woman in
the Bible. I like her name. One of my granddaughters is named Hannah. And, you know, I just think that
she's a picture of someone that, I mean, it must have taken a lot to give her son up. You know,
after she prays for him, then she's like, gives him back to God. A lot of people wouldn't do that.
And so, if you're maybe having a hard time having children, maybe you should go to God like Hannah
did, but maybe just keep that part out of it that like, he's lent to the Lord all the days of his
life if you don't want him to be. But God, and I'm sure God will still listen to your petition.
Maybe you just say, "Well, I want him to serve you all the days, or I want them to serve you all the
days of their life." But like, there's not really, I mean, there's no real situation where that would
happen where you're like, "I'm going to give him to the Lord," and then like some other person takes
care of him or something. We're just, we're in the New Testament. It just doesn't work like that.
So, and also, you know, your kid isn't going to be a Levite. So, it's just a totally different
system. But, you know, she had a meek, humble spirit, and God blessed her for that, and for
seeking God first. And, you know, we should expect blessings when we're doing the right thing. It's
a reasonable expectation to expect blessings. And God will bless us. He's rich in many different
things. And so, He's definitely liberal in giving out blessings to us. So, but the bad way to, you
know, if you can't get pregnant, or you're trying, you know, the worst thing you can do is try to blame
God for your problems. You know, a lot of people, if they have a death in the family, if they have
something happen in their life, and they want to blame God, it's just like, "God didn't do that."
So, you know, you're like, "Well, He did shut up the womb. Well, maybe He's shutting up the womb
for a reason." So, sometimes God has reasons for timing and things like that, but, you know,
don't give up. Don't give up and just pray to God and ask. I mean, Hannah went multiple times,
and in that time, He heard her, He remembered her. It's not like God doesn't forget. It's not like
He forgot, and then He's like, "Oh, yeah, now I remember." He's not like us guys, where we're
just like, "Where did I put the keys? Oh, yeah, now I remember where they were." It's like God
remembers in a different way. He's remembering the fact that He's going to be faithful to His
people when they call upon Him. Look at verse 21, "And the man, Elkanah, and all his house went up
to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice and His vow. But Hannah went not up, for she said unto
her husband, 'I will not go up until the child be weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may
appear before the Lord, and there abide for ever.' And Ocanna, her husband, said unto her, 'Do what seemeth
thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him, only that the Lord establish his word.'
So the woman abode and gave her son suck until she weaned him; and when she had weaned him,
she took him up with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine,
and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young."
So pretty young to the point where he's weaned. I mean, most children are weaned by the time they're
two years old or somewhere around there. So, I mean, she's giving up her son, who she probably
loves dearly, to somebody that she really doesn't know that well. I mean, that would be very
difficult. I mean, she definitely kept her word as we see here, but it says, "And they slew a bullock
and brought the child to Eli. And she said, 'O my Lord, as I so liveth my Lord, I am the woman that
stood by thee here praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my
petition which I asked of him. Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he liveth,
he shall be lent to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there." So, and this is kind of interesting
that people use these last two verses to teach baby dedication at church services. And I mean,
if you had your children dedicated at some point to the Lord, I'm not saying you're some bad person
or something like that. I just don't particularly agree with doing that. I'm not saying it's weird
or wrong or anything like that. It's just, I mean, does it sound like that they just had some
baby dedication where all the congregations showed up and they had some kind of ceremony
where they dedicated their child or whatever? It doesn't say that. As a matter of fact,
it's kind of a private deal. So when people come to me about baby dedication, I just tell them
about this and just say, "Hey, this was a private thing between her and Eli." It was just her and
Eli there when she made the vow and made that promise. And actually Eli didn't even hear what
she was saying because she was saying it in her monologue or whatever and her mouth was moving
and he just saw what she was doing. So her prayer was to herself and she tells him what she prayed
and that she had made that vow and so she had given her word her vow to God and she's keeping
it here. So it's good to do what you say you're going to do and keep your word and you know the
Bible says we shouldn't swear. We shouldn't swear oaths and in the New Testament because
we just shouldn't we shouldn't do that because you don't know whether you can keep it or not
and if you don't keep it then you're in trouble with the Lord so it's best to just say yes or no
I can do it or I can't do it anything other than that cometh of evil but when it comes to the baby
dedication thing so that's where they get it from 27 and 28 says for this child I prayed and the
Lord has given me the the petition that I asked of him therefore also I have lent him to the Lord
as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord and he worshiped the Lord there. So I mean I've
missed the baby dedication part right there. Did you guys see it? Because I missed it too. I actually
had to like google it after this I was like where's the baby dedication part because I know
that people use this chapter to do it and it's just been so long since I thought about it but
I thought it was this one but I just want to make sure it's like yep there it is right there in the
Bible baby dedication in front of the whole church right did you guys see it? I mean that's clearly
that's what it's talking about right? So no it's not that's not what it's saying and again I don't
I don't have a problem with people dedicating their children to the Lord or whatever or you know you
you want your child to grow up and serve God but you know sometimes you know if you're just like a
big baby dedicator at whatever church you're at and then all of your children don't serve the Lord
then it kind of just I don't know it just doesn't it doesn't sit right you know it just doesn't look
good and it just kind of shows that it's kind of a farce it's more of a spectacle yeah so anyway I
know there's people that have done it I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings when it comes to this
I just don't think it's biblical and that's why I don't do it so and if someone wants to come to me
and have me pray for their baby you know I'll do that I don't have any problem with doing that
whatsoever so we're just not going to do like uh I don't even know that I've been to a baby
dedication service I know that they exist but like the church the church that we've gone to in the
past I don't even know if I've seen I might have seen one but I don't know some of them are probably
more extravagant than others you know they're probably like a catholic christening or something
in some places so I don't know but some people really get down with the baby dedications and
they're like I think they get offended when I tell them you know yeah we don't really do that
what they were in their garments and I'm never coming back here again
but yeah so anyway that's the first chapter and it's kind of setting us up for what Samuel's
going to do from here on out and Samuel this is a great book I mean Hannah's a great woman
when it comes to and obviously it focuses a lot on her in this passage because you know it wasn't
Elkanah that was being a spiritual man it was actually Hannah that brought forth this man you
know it says a man child she wanted a man child not just any child a man child but you know the
you know the Bible talks about it being a blessing when a man child is born into the world
I mean it's a blessing when women children are born into the world too so don't get me wrong but
but I think that it has it really does kind of have to do with carrying on the family name
I think that's a big part of it so and I only have one grandson right now to carry on the Thompson
name but hopefully that will change and anyway let's pray Lord we thank you so much for the
blessings of this book here for Samuel I pray that you'd help me as I go along to study and
rightly divide it and I pray that you'd help us Lord to just love the Word of God and Lord just
put our pre-suppositions to rest and just look at what the Bible says and that we believe those
things instead of just things that man comes up with to be showy or just to be high churchy
and Lord let us not be like that but also Lord help us to be gracious to those people that
hold great stock in these types of things and let's pray that you just bless us all as we go our
separate ways and take us home safely and bring us back to church again healthy in Jesus name we
pray amen. All right close with a song 324 in the red or the green 324 draw me near.