Here I am!

Previous: The Judges

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This is Day 20 of my 40 day Lenten Blog

There was once a woman named Hannah who desperately wanted a son but could not conceive. So she prayed to the Lord and begged Him and begged Him that if He would grant her a son, she would dedicate the boy to Him. And the priest Eli, who was judge of Israel, prayed for her too. And God answered her prayer and she had a son whom she named Samuel. Hannah brought the child to Eli to give to the Lord as she promised she would.

One day when Samuel was a boy he was sleeping and he heard someone calling his name. "Here I am!" he called, but when he got up to check to see what Eli wanted Eli told him that he had not called him so Samuel went back to bed. It happened again but that time Eli realized that it was the Lord calling Samuel. So when it happened again, Samuel said, "Speak Lord, for your servant hears."

The Lord told Samuel that He was bringing changes to Israel and was going to destroy Eli's house, because Eli's sons were wicked and did wicked deeds. And Samuel prophesied all that the Lord told him. The Philistines came against Israel and defeated them. In the battle both of Eli's son's died and the Ark of the Covenant was captured. And when Eli heard this he fell over dead, too.

When the Philistines placed the captured ark in front of the statue of their god Dagon the statue fell over on its face and its head and hands broke off. And terrible things began to happen to the Philistines so they brought back the Ark of the Covenant.

Samuel became the judge of Israel after Eli, but the people wanted to a king like all of the other nations around them. God warned the people through Samuel that kings were too oppressive to the people and that God was their king. But the people refused to listen to Samuel and demanded a king like the other nations. So Samuel anointed Saul as the king of Israel. After all, Saul was what people want in a king--he was big and strong and won a great battle for the Israelites. But as we discussed earlier, God does not choose the biggest and the strongest, but the meek and the humble. And even though Saul was anointed king, God had someone else in mind.

Next: David and Goliath

R.C. VanLandingham is a Catholic homeschool dad just trying to make it through this life and into the next! He has written a Christian children's fantasy series about a boy named Peter Puckett!