I sometimes wish some of you could stand on this side of the pulpit and hear all of you sing. It’s just an amazing thing to hear all the people of God gather together singing. It’s a wonderful privilege to hear that and to bring the Word to you this morning. We’re beginning a summer series on the life of the Old Testament prophet Samuel. In some ways the series will be expositional as we’ll be moving through the first 12 chapters of the book of 1 Samuel, but we’ll have a particular focus on his life, his role, and his ministry as a prophet within the larger context of redemptive history.

So you might be here this morning and think what is redemptive history? It’s going to be an important theme for us in this series. If you’ve never heard of redemptive history, it’s simply the revelation of God’s character, the unfolding of His promises, the unfolding of His covenant of grace in space and time as we see it in the Scriptures.

It tells us not only how God works in the lives of His people, but it tells us about God Himself, revealing His character.

So you might think of this series as something of a biography of Samuel, and that would be fine, but properly seen from a biblical perspective, a study on the life of Samuel is not ultimately about Samuel, but it’s about God, and that it is not just a neat and tidy story, but it gets at questions. Questions that are sort of lurking in the background of the text and questions that are probably lurking in the background of your life, whether they’re conscious or unconscious.

Questions about God’s character, questions about God’s providence, questions about God’s justice, questions about God’s mercy, questions about God’s faithfulness. These are all questions that we carry with us as we walk with the Lord, and the people of God are no stranger to them.

So I want to encourage you to keep those in mind this morning and as we walk through the series, beginning with this birth narrative of Samuel, so we’ll begin in 1 Samuel chapter 1 and read through the first part of chapter 2, this birth narrative of Samuel.

Hear the Word of the Lord.

“There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.”

“Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests of the Lord. On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, ‘Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?'”

“After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, ‘O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.'”

“As she continued praying before the Lord,