Prayer & Study Group
SAMUEL
Promise: 1 Samuel 1:19-28
Background
What is the central problem we come across, which sets everything into movement?
Verses 1-2 make that very clear: a man with an impressive genealogy faces the reality this will end with him.
What does this say about "future"?
The way forward seems a complicated one, misunderstandings are part of the story. Hannah and Eli are present but not on the same "wavelength": she prays while he assumes she is drunk. Not a great pastoral moment for the priest. The result is that the hopeless present one is now presented with a promise / future.
Today's reading
- The promise takes shape. How do you feel about the developments?
Hannah fervently had prayed for a child, now she has to deliver him. She nurses him for about 6 years (?) and then goes back to Shiloh. The child, the animals for the sacrifice and the offerings.
- What feelings are expressed?
- What do you feel about this scene?
The final sentence opens up the rest of the way for Samuel: "Now I am giving him to the Lord, and he will be the Lord's servant for as long as he lives.
- What does this first chapter tell us about God?
- What does this mean in the world today?