{"id":4492,"date":"2024-02-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/reading-plan\/february-8\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T21:06:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T02:06:00","slug":"february-8","status":"publish","type":"reading-plan","link":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/reading-plan\/february-8\/","title":{"rendered":"February 8"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Insight from 1 Samuel 1\u20132<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cA number of years ago I was teaching through the historical narrative of Samuel. I grew to see that the initial two stories in chapters 1\u20132 introduce the message of the book by contrasting two episodes in the life of Israel. The first unpacks the principle that \u201choly YHWH helps those who honor him\u201d by recounting Hannah\u2019s God-honoring plea for a child and the Lord\u2019s gracious gift of Samuel (1 Sam. 1:1\u20132:11). In contrast, the narrative of Eli\u2019s rebellious sons stresses that \u201choly YHWH destroys those who dishonor him\u201d (2:12\u201336). Both narrative episodes include an extended drama (1:1\u201328 \/\/ 2:12\u201326) followed by a long speech (2:1\u201311 \/\/ 2:27\u201336) that climaxes with statements about the coming messianic king-priest (2:10 \/\/ 2:35). These long speeches capture the book\u2019s thesis. Hannah declares, \u201c[YHWH] will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness\u201d (2:9). Similarly, the man of God asserts to Eli, \u201cThose who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed\u201d (1 Sam. 2:30). The two stories of Hannah\u2019s exaltation and Hophni and Phinehas\u2019s downfall provide introductory examples to these truths.\u201d<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_crdt_document":""},"class_list":["post-4492","reading-plan","type-reading-plan","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan\/4492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reading-plan"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}