1 Sam 1:17, Then Eli answered and said, "Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him." 
This morning, we begin our reading and consideration of the first book of Samuel. We have just concluded our time in the Book of Ruth which stands in the period between Judges and the books of Samuel. Ruth was set in the time period of the judges of Israel, which comes to its conclusion with the last judge, the prophet Samuel. Ruth is so set into scripture because it heralded the Davidic lineage of kings, which would come to fruition within the history recorded in these two Books of Samuel in the Bible. 
We will spend a few moments with some introductory remarks about 1 and 2 Samuel before proceeding into that which is ahead of us in these texts. It is generally accepted that these were written as a single book. However, the length of the actual manuscript, when in the format of a scroll, was too large and therefore separated into two scrolls. This then led to the designation of the first and second scrolls of Samuel, resulting in the first and second books of Samuel in the layout of our current Bible. 
With regard to the content and the purpose of these books, we will consider several quotes from Dr. Ronald F. Youngblood in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, with Frank E. Gaebelein as the General Editor. He will address several aspects of these books which will serve us well in our overall reading and initial grasp of why the Holy Spirit has set the substance of these two books before us.
In the first quote, Dr. Youngblood addresses the reason that the people sinned in their earnest demand to have a king to rule them. It was clearly evident, after the period of the judges that there was a need for a monarchy. This was absolutely indicated after the debacle of the people’s behavior and adultery and idolatry in their constant pattern of turning away from the Lordship of Jehovah. 
The Lord showed the need for His supply of that which would sustain this people in the more holy and righteous course of their habitation of the Promised Land. They were not able, as clearly indicated in their continual and obstinate disobedient breaking asunder of the covenant with God, to go on as they were. They constantly and aimlessly floundered amid all the trials and tribulations and testings. Everything they did showed just how desperately they needed the Sovereignty of the Hand of God upon them. 
Quoting Dr. Youngblood, A major purpose of Samuel, then, is to define monarchy as a gracious gift of God to His chosen people. Their desire for a king … was not in itself inappropriate, despite Samuel’s initial displeasure…. Nor were they necessarily wrong in wanting a king like “all the other nations” had…. Their sin consisted in the fact that they were asking for a king “to lead us and to go out before us and to fight our battles”…. In other words, they refused to believe that the Lord would grant them victory in His own time and according to His own good pleasure…. They were willing to exchange humble faith in the protection and power of “the Lord Almighty” … for misguided reliance on the naked strength of “the fighting men of Israel”…. End quote.
This need for a king and the results of that gracious gift by the Lord to His people is reflected in the way in which the nation as a whole developed and grew as recorded in the history of these two books of the Bible. The result was a drastic difference in place within the political and religious structure and strength of this nation. This is detailed in the course of the change that takes place within this nation of people as a direct result of the Lord’s intervention by the setting up of the Davidic monarchy. 
Quote, In terms of the political scene, Israel at the beginning of 1 Samuel was a loosely organized federation of anemic tribal territories scarcely able to keep the Philistines and other enemies at bay. By the end of 2 Samuel, however, Israel under David had become the most powerful kingdom in the eastern Mediterranean region, strong at home and secure abroad. As far as the religious picture is concerned, the opening chapters of 1 Samuel find Israel worshiping at a nondescript shrine presided over by a corrupt priesthood. The last chapter of 2 Samuel, however, records David’s purchase of a site in Jerusalem upon which the temple of Solomon, one of the most magnificent buildings in the ancient world, would soon be erected. Sweeping change, then, is a hallmark of the Samuel narratives – change guided and energized by the Lord Himself through fragile vessels of the likes of Samuel, Saul, and David. End quote.
Our final quote, this morning, from Dr. Youngblood details the manner in which the structure of the governance of the nation by the king was still under the auspices of the Lordship of God. The prophets were as vital to the growth of the nation and its governing as were the kings. The kings would enforce the political and social fabric of the nation in line with the spiritual guidelines and requirements of the Lord. The kings were never intended to be the final word as to how the people were to grow together as a nation. The Lord, through His prophets, stood as the final authority as to the governance and the directing of the manner in which the people held to His Laws and His covenantal authority.   
As Dr. Youngblood states, quote, The offices of king and prophet arose simultaneously in Israel. Saul, the first king…, was anointed by Samuel, who stands at the head of the prophetic line… as promised to Moses…. If the task of the king was to administer the covenant, that of the prophet was to interpret its demands. In matters relative to God’s will as revealed through His word, the submission of kings to prophets was self-understood…. To the end of the monarchy, the prophets protected with holy zeal their divinely authorized claims over kingship. End quote.   
As is evident, there is very much at the heart of these two books of the Bible with regard to the historical accounting of how God established both the Davidic Kingship and His Prophetic Sovereignty within the course of meeting the needs of His people. This is all the type of the institutions that were to be completely and perfectly fulfilled in Jesus Christ. He is both our King forevermore as well as our eternal high priest. All that is needed for our well-being is set in His complete sovereignty over the whole of His creation. 
We will obviously expand and expound upon this meager introduction as we move forward into these books of scripture, but this will suffice for the time being. We want to enter into some of the blessing that will be fully forthcoming in our spending time together in the Word as given by God. This is for our greater knowledge of Who He is and How He has so magnificently blessed us in the course of His ruling and overruling in the history of humanity. 
This morning’s passage, at the very beginning of the interaction of the kingly with the priestly history of Israel details how Samuel was the answer to the fervent prayers of his mother. She was earnestly seeking to have a son in order to meet the needs of her motherly heart. She knew unto Whom she needed to turn for deliverance from the heartache and the emptiness that she was experiencing as a barren, but loved wife. She sought refuge in the Lord and cried out to Him from the depths of her being. She did not give verbal voice to her beseechment, but emptied her heart unto Jehovah with every essence of her being. 
Eli, at first, because of the fervency of her silent petition unto God, thought that she was drunk and just a dithered and silly woman who should not be in the courtyard of the Lord in that condition. However, when she protested and explained her plight and her absolute cry to God to deliver her from this barrenness, Eli, did what he should have done from the very beginning. He recognized her dire distress before God and saw a heart that was earnest and broken and humble before the Throne of God’s grace and mercy. 
Therefore, Eli, as the high priest and the prophet of the Lord, the current judge of the nation of Israel, pronounced the Lord’s blessing upon her. He saw her suffering and anguish and he made known the voice of what God would do to meet her every need. Then Eli answered and said, "Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him."
Eli pronounced the course of what God was going to do for this woman, broken and distraught and humbled in the presence of the Yahweh. And this is something that happens in all our lives when we realize that the Lord has not only heard, but answered our prayers in His time and in His manner of deliverance. Hannah left that presence of the Lord with all hope that what Eli, the prophet and the priest of God had pronounced upon her, was the response of the Lord to meet the dire and deepest cries of her being. 
As we read in the very next verse of 1 Sam 1, verse 18, And she said, "Let your maidservant find favor in your sight." So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.
Where before this encounter before the Lord, we see her not eating and crying and miserable, afterward she was no longer suffering. She was able to eat and be at visible peace because of the assurance that God would deal with that which had so caused her anguish and distress.
That is how we are to respond to the Lord when we have sought Him with all our hearts and beings and essence. We do and will have those dire and severe times of anguish before Him, yes. But, when we have received the answer to our cries, when the Lord speaks to us, either through those who minister His Word as in the case of Eli, or through the quiet whispers of the Holy Spirit, calming our anguish and distress we will be at peace. We are to put away those mournful and distraught actions and attitudes. We are to watch expectantly to see how the Lord will answer those petitions of our hearts. We are to no longer be sad and pitiful, but rather rejoice in the goodness and the grace and the mercy and the salvation of our God as we come to that perfect peace in our relationship with Yahweh.
We can follow this expression which reveals that divine resolution to the conflicted moans and cries of our hearts as it was expressed to Moses by Jethro, his father-in-law. Moses had just finished his meeting with God at the burning bush which did not burn up. He was told, by God, to go back to Egypt and to confront Pharaoh in order to bring release to the Children of Israel. God had heard their cries and He was making the way of their release through Moses.
Yet, Moses was very much in distress over all of it. He had actually argued with Jehovah telling The Lord God Almighty that He was wrong. Moses could not speak to Pharaoh; Moses was not the right man for the job. He did not recognize how God had been at work in Moses since before his very birth to bring forth a man to release the Children of Israel from their captivity.
When he had finally submitted to the will of God, Moses had to go to his father-in-law, to whom he was so greatly indebted for all the provisions for his family and his flocks. He had to ask Jethro to allow Moses to go back to his people, taking his wife and his children. There were Jethro’s daughter and grandchildren. This was not an easy ask as Moses was taking the heritage of Jethro with him into what would be a very dangerous situation. 
As well, Moses might have even held some hope that Jethro would not agree to this. However, in Ex 4:18, we have the response to this most startling and unexpected request.
 Ex 4:18, Then Moses departed and returned to Jethro his father-in-law, and said to him, "Please, let me go, that I may return to my brethren who are in Egypt, and see if they are still alive." And Jethro said to Moses, "Go in peace." 
…"Go in peace."
This is really a most wonderful pronouncement when it is sincerely offered upon those to whom it is voiced. Moses was to go in peace because he was obeying the Lord. We have no real understanding of what Jethro’s relationship with the Lord God Almighty, Jehovah, Yahweh, was. However, he did not hold Moses back. He only responded with the heart of declaration that Moses was to go in peace. 
That was what was needed for Moses to cause him to know that Yahweh was going before him. He needed the peace of God to keep from falling to pieces under the stress and strain of going to one of the most powerful rulers of that day.
Moses was to demand the release of a whole nation of people who were being used to build up the infrastructure of that land. This was no simple task. This was putting the lives of himself and his family on the line for the sake of the rescue of a people who did not know him. They did not trust him. As well, they were extremely pigheaded and stubborn and enslaved to their own cravings and ideologies. Yes, they were crying out for help, but they wanted salvation on their own terms and in their own way, not necessarily the way that the Lord was going to do it through Moses. 
This brings to mind the way that Israel received the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. He came to this earth to bring forth salvation, to establish an eternal kingdom, to become Lord of the hearts of His people. But that was not what the people wanted. They sought and cried for the release from their enslavement to Rome. They wanted a warrior king who would overthrow the bonds of their Roman imprisonment. They wanted someone who would set up an earthly kingdom in which Israel would rule the world. Instead, they got a carpenter from Galilee whose only answer was to be hung on a cross, a most despicable and vile death which they could not comprehend. 
Jesus came to bring release from the bondage and the curse of sin. He came to establish His everlasting peace in the hearts and the minds of those who were captives of this age. Instead of overthrowing the political rulers of this earth, He brought that true, spiritual life which is the only one that will stand the test of all the ages upon ages. The people were so short-sighted that rather than fully rejoicing and accepting Jesus, they cried out for His death upon that cross. They were utterly disappointed and anything but peaceful in the depths of their beings because they, and through them, we, nailed Christ to the cross with their, with our sin and shame and trespass against the holiness and the righteousness of God. They, as do we, needed to learn that it is only the resurrection power of God, which raised Jesus triumphantly from the grave, that will forever make Him our peace!  
Lord willing, we will continue with this passage of consideration next time. We pray that our hearts and minds will be filled with the peace of God that sees us through all those times of distress and anguish, like that of Hannah and that of Moses. So be it!
Then Eli answered and said, "Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him." Amen.

This morning’s benediction is Matt 24:13+14. "But the one who endures to the end, he shall be saved. "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come. Amen.