1 Samuel 2: Old Hannah Asks for Saul, Mary Gets Priestly ☧

Rev. Charles Henrickson, pastor of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Bonne Terre, Missouri, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study 1 Samuel 2.

“My heart exults in the LORD; [...] He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.” Hannah sets a good example of thanksgiving after supplication, but why talk about an anointed king before there was any such thing? Chapter 2 continues to point ahead, building on wordplay between Samuel and Saul, who would be the first king anointed by Samuel because Israel “asked for him from the LORD.” Samuel connects ancient figures like Jacob’s son Joseph and Aaron’s sons Nadab & Abihu to Elizabeth’s son John and to Mary’s son—Jesus the Christ. Old age is God’s gift, contrasted here between old survivors who mourn what’s been lost to corruption and old forerunners who anticipate in faith a fuller realization of God’s promises, a “faithful priest” and the son of all Israel’s hopes & prayers.