This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 9, 1997.

Once more we are in 1 Samuel 1. We are beginning our reading again at verse 1. Give your attention to God’s holy words. Now, there was a certain man of Ramath-e-Im Zophim, of Mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jehoram, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuth, an Ephrathite. and he had two wives, and the name of the one was Hannah and the name of the other Penina.

Penina had children, but Hannah had no children. This man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah, 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. 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 Alcanna her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou, and why eatest thou not? And why is thy heart grieved? Am I not 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 the seat by the post of the temple of the Lord, and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look upon the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a male child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life and there shall be no razor to 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 unto her, 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 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.”

Luke 8.43, and a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed by any, came behind him and touched the border of his garment, and immediately her issue of blood stanched. And Jesus said, Who touched me? When all denied, Peter and they that were with him said, The multitude thronged thee and pressed thee, and saith thou who touched me?’ Jesus said, Somebody hath touched me, for I perceived that virtue was gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she was not hid, she came trembling, and falling down before him, she declared unto him before all the people for what cause she had touched him, and how she was healed immediately. And he said unto her, Daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith hath made thee whole. Go in peace.

You make a grave mistake if, in reading your Bible, you see the people presented in it in only one light. You make a grave mistake if, in reading your Bible, you see the people presented in it in only one right. For example, we all know that Ahab was a wicked king. I dare say, a very wicked king. but you must not see Ahab merely in one light.

Did you know that there was a day in which Ahab looked good, looked very good? Now, you might well be asking me, Do we have the same Ahab in mind? Do you mean that husband of Jezebel, that persecutor of the Lord’s prophets, that enemy of Elijah, Elijah being that special and great servant of God? Yes, I mean that Ahab, the very same. Well then, exactly when, you ask, did Ahab look good? When exactly did he appear in a positive light?

I have in mind the story found at the end of 1 Kings chapter 18, verses 41 through 46. The account there given of the aftermath of the slaughter at Mount Carmel of those prophets of Baal. You remember the story. As you will recall in this context, the heavens had been shut up in judgment against Israel because of the sin of the people and because of the sin of their leaders. particularly Ahab. For over three years it had not rained.

The Lord’s blessing out of heaven had been withheld, but now, here at the end of 1 Kings 18, the Lord having rained down fire upon Elijah’s altar at Mount Carmel, and having exacted judgments on the 400 prophets of Baal at Kishon Brook, prepares his blessing for Israel.

Ahab is called to feast at Elijah’s command, as the prophet drives the king in the direction of his true royal significance. in that 18th chapter in 1 Kings. Irrespective, then, of his own personal depravity, Ahab wears the crown, and he exercises rule over God’s people. In his feasting now, Ahab is compelled to participate in God’s victory over his enemies, Bale and his henchmen, and to celebrate God’s gracious provision in the anticipated showers that are boundeth to come.

Meanwhile, Elijah, in this text, true to his own office, prays. Verses 42 through 44. And after seven inquiries, you remember the story, Elijah’s servant reports that he sees a little cloud, small like a man’s hand, rising from the sea. Elijah then sends word to Ahab, hurry home before the voyage bursts.

But as Ahab races in his chariot towards Jeb Jezreel, his royal city, Elijah, we are told, beneath the hand of the Lord, girds up his loins and outruns Ahab. Now, to appreciate just how good Ahab looks in this story, I want you to imagine yourself standing on Jezreel’s city wall as this drama unfolds.

You witness the approach of your king in his chariot. But this king has a forerunner. He has a forerunner, and that forerunner is none other than Elijah. And after them come the clouds and the wind, bearing the copious refreshment of showers of blessing, if not the portent of God’s approaching judgment.”

Let me ask you, just how good is Ahab made to look? the King preceded by Elijah, followed by grace and judgment. Ahab in this text has cast over him the shadow of no less a figure than Jesus Christ, who is himself the King, preceded by Elijah. Here’s the forerunner, John the Baptist, followed by Grace and Judges.

The message of 1 Kings 18, verses 41 through 46, is that Ahab serves Christ. And in the interests of Christ, he is made to appear in the best possible light. The message of 1 Kings 18, 41-46 is that we also serve Christ, and in the interests of Christ and for his sake, we dare not allow the moral category to control our interpretation of our Bible. That spirit that says Ahab is wicked and every Bible story about him must confirm this fact. His place in the Bible is to reinforce our understanding about what is right and what is wrong. That is his full meaning.

But as much as Ahab may instruct us about sin, and he does, In fact, as much as Ahab may instruct us about righteousness, it being conspicuously absent in his person, he ultimately serves the sovereign purposes of God, who, by saving his people and judging the world through his only begotten Son, Israel’s true King, brings glory to himself. we are on the road to mature Bible reading. Now there is much the same lesson in Eli.

You see where I’m going. For many, far too many, efforts to understand Eli leap too far forward in his story, and therefore miss the Scripture’s emphasis and interest. What I have in mind is the habit to see Eli, the Eli of 1 Samuel 1, in the same way that you see the Eli of 1 Samuel 2-4. In these later chapters, God’s wrath comes down hard on Eli, so much so that God tells him that he, God, is removing Eli from the priesthood, and he is rejecting his family from being the family from which the high priests would come, leaving Eli and his household desolate. But how many sermons have you heard? How many Bible studies and Bible lessons have you had to endure during the course of your life in which the main point of the Bible stories about Eli in purple is summed up to be this?

God judges fathers who fail to discipline their children. That’s the message. That’s it. You remember how Eli fails himself with regard to his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. But the sum total of our instruction from Eli is reduced to this, God judges fathers who fail to discipline their children. Now, that is indeed true. Make no mistake about it. But to suggest that this is the main point to the Bible’s presentation about Eli is not only to trivialize the biblical record by turning the Bible into a book of commonplace moral truisms, but to cripple us severely in our ability to hear the Bible on its own terms.

You see, given the first cycle to the Samuel story, that is, chapter 1, verse 1, through chapter 2, verse 11, you are provided no indication of Eli’s weakness, nor any indication of his son’s corruption. None. It’s not there. This is not to say that the readers and the hearers of 1 Samuel aren’t aware of these things. It is just to say that these elements are absent from the account as 1 Samuel begins.

But this silence about these matters speaks loudly. The very fact that we know about Eli’s sin and his son’s wickedness calls attention to the way in which they are presented here at the beginning of this book. they come across innocently, and Eli especially, comes across quite positively. Just how positively must be appreciated against the background of things we have emphasized before in our messages on this text. Remember, 1 Samuel chapter 1 is that unique chapter, for in it we find the first time in the Bible in which God is presented to us as the Lord of hosts. This chapter also provides us the first occasion in which the house of God is called the temple. Now, we have spent a great deal of time accounting for the appearance of these terms, especially the anachronistic use of the word temple in verse 9, when the temple proper doesn’t actually appear, isn’t even built for another hundred years in Israel’s history.

But these elements here in 1 Samuel are intended if you recall, to communicate the fact that God has now conquered his enemies. They are meant to state boldly the accomplishment of God in the conquest of the Canaanite tribes, as if the Lord now, in a way that he wasn’t formerly, the Lord now has become the Lord of hosts. the sovereign, not over all the nations of the world alone, but over all the angelic hosts, the one who has revealed his might and now has been enthroned in his sanctuary, his temple. The temple is his victory palace. Eli’s name memorializes God’s triumph. His name means high, h-i-g-h. It means up there. Eli’s name means pause, and is reflective of God’s very own ascension in victory and in triumph, God’s very own ascension in glory.

Eli’s presence, then, commented on in verse 9, Eli’s presence on that seat at the door of the temple has nothing to do, as one commentator suggested, with his age and his inability to stand. You see how silly this gets? He was simply an old, tired man. He had to sit down.

Eli’s presence upon that seat at the door of the temple has nothing to do with his age or his inability to stand, but with his position and his status, and the manner in which he in his person symbolizes the triumph of God. Eli sits as the priest-judge. a lord and a sentinel to the house of the Lord, a man in whom God’s triumph and exaltation reside.

He scrutinizes and interrogates those like Hannah who approach the throne of God so that the thoughts of their hearts are revealed.” His ministry exposes fraud and confirms integrity in the courts of the Lord, and he mediates peace, the peace of the kingdom of God, which in the realm of God’s glorious reign dispels the tortured anxiety and the grievous bitterness of all those who in despair appear before the Lord.

Thus Eli says to Hannah, go in peace. Verse 17. And Eli intercedes. He intercedes, interposing his blessing upon those making diligent and earnest inquiry, as in the case of Hannah. And may the God of Israel grant you your petition, which you have asked of Him.” Verse 17 again.

So remarkable. so extraordinary the concentrated spiritual intensity, so compact the summary of office and service of this priest-judge in the exchange between Eli and Hannah, that it is as if Hannah forgets herself. She blurts out, as if now brought to faith, in this very man’s person, as if now brought to faith in the efficacy of his ministry, she blurts out verse 18, “‘Let your handmaiden find grace in your sight.'” But Hannah, you have it wrong. You’re not Eli’s maidservant. It is not Eli’s grace you need, it is the Lord’s. But don’t you see? Don’t you see?

So remarkable, so extraordinary, the concentrated spiritual intensity of this text. so compact the summary of office and service belonging to the Lord’s priest-judge in this exchange between Hannah and Eli, that Hannah is made to perceive in Eli that superlative administration of that unique priest-judge who, although man, is also himself the Lord of hosts.

She whose name means grace, that’s the meaning of her name. She whose name means grace reaches out across centuries and touches that grace bestowed by the one whom Eli can nearly anticipate. A later distant relative to Hannah, receives that very grace by literally touching Jesus, only to be subjected to his scrutiny and interrogation, to the end that through his priesthood she would have her thoughts revealed, her integrity confirmed, her faith established, and be blessed with his peace. And Jesus said to her, Go in peace.

And Eli, Eli, whose name means high, exalted, ascension, despite his sinful weakness and foolishness brought to light in the coming chapters, here becomes, for this moment, one in whom we see the height of God’s saving intention, the lordly priesthood of Jesus Christ. A priesthood Eli and those of his line can only merely anticipate and shadow.

But one in whose full and final blessedness you are privileged to rest. Go in peace, and may the God and Father of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, grant to you your petition which you have asked of him. Amen. Father, may we glory in the great priesthood of our King. And Father, may we appreciate our Bibles as they are made, Lord, our entrance into the wonderful dimensions of his service and ministry for us, even in the Old Testament, so affirming your sovereignty as those who are unworthy are made servants to you so as to preach Christ. Lord, we have help in the mediation of none other. We are content in that, Lord, and may we dwell contentedly in your peace, even as we are encouraged with the confidence that our petitions are heard and shall be answered.

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.