1 Samuel 1-5

• Hannah prays to God when she goes through grief, not blame God (1:10)
• Notice her prayer in v11, she asks if God will (in accordance to His will), to give her a son that she will dedicate to God
• There maybe times where we make the wrong judgment with our observations. (v12)
• Pray, and God will provide you peace (v18)
• God answers her prayers (v20)
• Is Hannah just fulfilling her responsibility in rearing the child until he has weaned? (v22), or is she postponing her promise in offering Samuel to God?
• She honours her promise in v24-28, “he is lent to the Lord”

• God – rock (2:2)
• Samuel remains to be consistently with God even though he is near bad influences such as Eli’s sons (v21b, v26)
• Characteristics of Faithful priest: does according to what is my heart and in my mind. God will build him a sure house, anointed forever. (v35)

• Sometimes, we are a bit like Samuel, we are not clear who is calling us (3:1-9). We need to make sure we leave time for God to speak to us (v10)
• Eli accepts what God will be going to do and acknowledges he is the Lord, and we should let Him do what seems good to Him (v18)

• Israel got it all wrong. God did not defeat them, God left them. And they thought bringing the ark would me God will be on their side. They do not realise it is God who gives them power, not the ark! (4:3) Today, we often place our emphasis on the wrong things thinking God is with us when we possess something symbolic. The question should be where our heart is. If our heart is with God, he will be there with us. Failing to know this, they lose the battle, losing what was symbolically meaningful to him as well, the ark itself! (v11)