45 – The Prophecy Of Samuel’s Parents

NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORDING.

No King In Israel

The first several verses of 1 Samuel are very prophetic for YHVH’s ancient and modern people. These prophecies shed light on the fate of YHVH’s Betrothed Bride.

Before we study the prophecies of 1 Samuel 1:1-2, let’s start at the beginning by introducing Samuel.

One of the most significant changes in Israel happened during Samuel’s lifetime and he had a major role in the change. He ended the Book of Judges by telling us “there was no king in Israel” and “everyone did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

“There was no King in Israel” was Samuel’s segue into the account of how Israel failed as a nation. The national failure resulted in YHVH putting the entire weight of Israel’s continued existence on one man, a King. Israel was, and is, supposed to be a nation of individuals who are in compliance with and echad with YHVH through His Law. That is still true today even though Christians are taught that the “Old Testament” was done away with by the very same God who punished ancient Israel under for not obeying Him. This, then, makes our God not only changeable (which He declares Himself to not be) and it also makes Him unjust in that He would punish some of His people for non-compliance before the cross while letting the next group of people after the cross go Scot free not being required to do deliberate obedience to the Law of Moses.

“Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes” explained how Israel was not able to live under YHVH’s Kingdom structure of Judges. Judges are too close. They sit in your city gates. They are part of your community. They know who you are. They know your reputations. We don’t want them because we don’t want them knowing what we are doing. In those days, Judges were often just as corrupt as the people. Nonetheless, even corrupt Judges were too close for sinful comfort.

The implication by Samuel was that the people rejected the Judges by the end of the 369 year period that the Tabernacle sat at Shiloh. They did this using the excuse that they needed a King. Not a God-King; a human one, like the nations around them that had Kings. The way of the world is to covet what others have. Coveting was perhaps Israel’s first sin which led them into idolatry trying to get what they thought others had which the Israelites did not. The fact is that our ancient Israelite ancestors did not know what they had!

The end of the Judges period is not the end of the Judges model of governance in YHVH’s Kingdom structure. YHVH’s Plan A is a Kingdom of Judges to rule and reign with Him. We still live with the world’s form of government – Kings. Whether you live under a King, a Prime Minister or a President matters not. You are still living under a monarchy.

Here is what Isaiah prophesied in the first chapter of his Book:

Isaiah 1:26 I will restore your judges as at the first, and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called ‘The city of righteousness, a faithful town.’
Isaiah 1:27 Zion shall be redeemed with justice, and her converts with righteousness.

Isaiah’s prophecy has not yet been fulfilled. It will be fulfilled once Yeshua sits on His throne in Jerusalem and has those who rule and reign with Him throughout the earth.

Revelation 20:6 says: Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over these, the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and will reign with him one thousand years.

In the coming Millennium, Israel’s Firstborn Order of Melchizedek, i.e. Isaiah’s “priests of God”, will fulfill Isaiah 1:26’s prophecy of the earth’s return to a judicial Kingdom overseeing, the executing YHVH’s Law everywhere on earth, the enforcing said Law with a rod of Iron (Psalms 2:9, Revelation 2:27, 12:5, 19:15) and the return of the earth to God’s Plan A!

Samuel was one of Israel’s last National Judges. He was also a Nazirite (1 Samuel 1:11) and a Levite from the line of Kohath, the son of Levi (1 Chronicles 6:28). Samuel’s heritage was from the Kohathites who carried the Ark of the Covenant and the Tabernacle’s holy items. He was not from the line of Aaron.

The Two Wives

1 Samuel 1:1 Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of mount Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephrathite.

Mount Ephraim is a reference to the hill country in the territory of Ephraim which is referred to today as the West Bank.

Samuel was not an Ephraimite from the tribe of Ephraim but the wording in verse 1 is confusing because of a translation error. Some translations change the Hebrew word אפרתי “Ephrati” (Strong’s H673) to “Ephraimite”. The two words do not have the same meaning. An Ephraimite is from the tribe of Ephraim. An “Ephrati” was someone living in the territory of Ephraim. This person could be from the tribe of Ephraim or from another tribe living in the territory of Ephraim as the Levites were wont to do. This is simply a linguistic approbation to indicate where Elkanah lived similar to someone in America being called a “Floridian” or “Texan”, whether a native or a non-native to those states. In this case, it was a Levite from the line of Kohath, the son of Levi, living within the tribal territory of Ephraim.

H673
אפרתי
‘ephrâthı̂y
ef-rawth-ee’
Patrial from H672; an Ephrathite or an Ephraimite: – Ephraimite, Ephrathite.

Strong gets it wrong when saying ‘ayin pey resh tav yod’ can also mean “Ephraimite”. This confuses people. Ephraim, which is Strong’s H669 is spelled אפרים ‘ayin pey resh yod mem’. There is no ‘tav’ in ‘Ephraim’ and there is no ‘mem’ at the end of ‘Ephrati’. These two words are related but have different meanings as can happen with all words in any language. Let’s not confuse the issue. Samuel was not an Ephraimite.

1 Samuel 1:2 He had two wives.

I want to stop there because the “two wives” is an important issue for mankind and Israel and it is this subject which I will spend the rest of this time teaching.

There are no idle words in scripture and there is great significance to this phrase which has implications for the world and Israel from the beginning to the end of days. Only two times in scripture is it announced that a man had two wives. In each case, the man symbolized God’s situation with mankind, first with the entire world before the flood and then with Israel after the Mount Sinai covenant was breached. We should not overlook the significance of the meaning behind these two announcements of a man having two wives.

The first announcement of a man with two wives was for Lamech in Genesis 4:19. The second time is in 1 Samuel 1:2 with Samuel’s own parents. Both of these announcements are indicators of spiritual problems and are prophecies, as well. So, let’s study the issue of “two wives” for a bit because the condition of human marriage is a direct indicator of human relationship with God.

I will stay away from any lengthy discussion of concubines and stick with the issue of wives. Concubines break household rules and act against their masters when they sin. Wives break the marriage covenant when they sin. This is different and worse than concubines being unfaithful servants. But I have been discussing the issue of concubines in the past couple of teachings. I want to stick with the issues unfaithful wives create in today’s teaching.

Lamech’s two wives indicate a breach between man and God before the flood. Marriage between one man and one woman symbolizes the perfect relationship between God and man. God has one wife; man was given one wife. When man breaches the covenant with God, the breach shows up in human marriage.

A breach in the vertical relationship, Between God and man, is always the fault of man. God never breaches His covenants. Only people do this. Mankind, from the beginning, was intended to be God’s “wife”, the one more special to Him than any other species created by Him. Just look at the extraordinary lengths He goes to in keeping this species as His special creation after the fall of Adam.
Lamech’s two wives symbolizes the broken relationship between God and man, broken by man, before the flood. Then came Israel who would also have two wives.

The two wives of Elkanah prophesied about two wives in Israel. Before we get to that, let me touch on two men who had more than two wives: Kings David and Solomon. The greater the number of wives, the more numerous are the breaches between Israel and God.

King David had eight wives and no concubines, no outside religious influences or practices as symbolized by concubines (although wives can also be idolatrous). His son, Solomon, had 700 wives and 300 concubines. The more wives God’s men have, the greater becomes this prophesies of breaches between Israel and God.

David’s wives prophesy of how many breaches would happen to or by David in his Kingdom. These breaches were:

1. Michal forcibly removed from David by Saul.
2. Amnon raped his half-sister, Tamar.
3. Absolam tried taking the throne from David.
4. Adonijah tried to ascend to David’s throne before David gave it to Solomon.
5. David and Bathsheba’s adultery.
6. David murdering Uriah.
7. David using non-Kohathites to move the Ark from Philistine territory to Jerusalem.
8. Census breach.

These breaches opened up Israel to increased sins in her future. We see this in scripture with Solomon’s great idolatries from foreign wives some of whom brought their concubines, their religious systems, with them.

Solomon’s 700 wives prophesy of how splintered and broken, shattered really, the Kingdom would become because of his idolatry. And as concubines represent religious systems, which are opposed to the Kingdom, it prophesies of the religious state of Israel during Solomon’s reign and in the near and far future. Doesn’t Christianity alone have over 40,000 denominations? This is fulfilled in the prophesy of the concubines. The prophecy of the wives symbolizes the many ways in which YHVH’s own wife, Israel, created all kinds of breaches until YHVH divorced and widowed the two wives prophesied by Leah and Rachel.

The next time we read of a man with two wives after Lamech is in this account of Samuel’s parents. Elkanah had two wives. Lamech’s “two wives” symbolize the breaches between man and God before the flood. One of Elkanah’s two wives symbolizes the breach between Israel and God. The other symbolizes YHVH getting the wife He wants. Both of these breaches, the one between the world and God and the one between Israel and God, would be corrected by God’s own personal sacrifice of Himself on the Cross.

1 Samuel 1:2 He had two wives. The name of one was Hannah, and the name of other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

The name ‘Peninnah’ means “round”.

H6444
פּננּה
peninnâh
pen-in-naw’
Probably feminine from H6443 contracted; Peninnah, an Israelitess: – Peninnah.

H6443
פּני פּניןo
pânı̂yn pânı̂y
paw-neen’, paw-nee’
From the same as H6434; probably a pearl (as round): – ruby.

Peninnah was full of herself, arrogant, puffed up, round, as it were. She may also have been “round” in body.

Hannah’s name comes from the Hebrew word for favor and kindness, characteristics of YHVH toward his wife. Favor and kindness she gets and favor and kindness she gives to others.

H2584
חנּה
channâh
khan-naw’
From H2603; favored; Channah, an Israelitess: – Hannah.

H2603
חנן
chânan
khaw-nan’
A primitive root (compare H2583); properly to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior; to favor, bestow; causatively to implore (that is, move to favor by petition): – beseech, X fair, (be, find, shew) favour (-able), be (deal, give, grant (gracious (-ly), intreat, (be) merciful, have (shew) mercy (on, upon), have pity upon, pray, make supplication, X very.

The characteristics of Elkanah’s two wives are symbolic of the two Israels YHVH would create. Peninnah is a type. Hannah is a type.

Peninnah is like YHVH’s first wife, the original Israel from Mount Sinai to the Cross, the one who was the religious woman elevating herself as she bragged and boasted about her prowess as a child bearer when, in fact, her children were born to other gods, not to YHVH’s Kingdom. Hannah, the Kingdom woman, was constantly abused and provoked by Peninnah for her barrenness. She won’t bear a child until the Tribulation, until Revelation 12.

YHVH clung to Israel, his first wife, as did Abraham to Sarah, but ultimately, YHVH had to let her go. Israel had to be either divorced (northern Kingdom) or she had to die like Sarah (southern Kingdom) who died after the near sacrifice of her promised son. Yeshua really was sacrificed, but Isaac was not. His death was only symbolic of the death of God to come. But like Sarah who died thinking Isaac was dead, the southern House of Judah did die when Yeshua died. Sarah was part of the prophesy of the dying son of God.

Peninnah represents the arrogance of the old Israel while Hannah represents YHVH’s remnant people throughout history before the Cross and those who came after the Cross. She is the one who will sing!

Isaiah 54:1 Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD.

Hannah joined the ranks of the women chosen by God to be mothers of special sons. Peninnah was also called for special service but she failed to bear her children for YHVH. Instead, she bore them for the world.

The Old Testament wife, Peninnah, prophesied of the old, dying, and passing away of YHVH’s first wife while Hannah, the New Testament wife, symbolizes the coming of the second wife. Yeshua will have two comings and so does His wife have two comings.

The old wife passing away was taught to us in the Book of Hebrews.

Hebrews 8:7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
Hebrews 8:8 For finding fault with them, he said, “Behold, the days come”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

Hebrews 8:13 In that he says, “A new covenant”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

The word “covenant” in verse 7 and 13 was added by the English King James translators and it has stuck ever since. We know this word was added because it is in italics in the KJV, though often not in other modern translations. Anything they added was put in italics to let us know it was not in the Greek codex.

There should be no word there at all. But the sentence does not make sense in English without a word in that spot. “For if that first had been faultless”… If that first WHAT had been faultless? The KJV translators need a word for this Greek sentence to make sense in English and they were still Catholics by doctrine, albeit protesting Catholics, so they inserted the word “covenant” because that was and is the Catholic doctrine still today, even for protesting Catholics. The correct word to insert should have been “generation” or even “wife”.

Hebrews 8:7 For if that first generation/ WIFE had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.
Hebrews 8:8 For finding fault with them, [a covenant is not a “them”] he said, “Behold, the days come”, says the Lord, “that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah [which was to reunite and restore Israel to being a “one wife”, Hannah];

Hebrews 8:13 In that he says, “A new generation/WIFE”, he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away [Peninnah].

It was Elkanah’s wife, Peninnah, who symbolized the passing away of that arrogant first generation from Mount Sinai to the Cross. Hannah prophesied of the renewed Israel after the Cross.

Even though he did not live to see Solomon crowned King of Israel, Samuel knew what was coming. He understood the symbolic and prophetic significance of the nation of Israel in his day when he announced that his father, Elkanah, had two wives and what would come to Israel in the future because of those two wives. Samuel’s announcement was deliberate and came from prophetic insight.

Through Yeshua’s work restoring Israel back to her pre-golden-calf righteous state at Mount Sinai, YHVH has gotten Himself a Betrothed who, when married, will remain as only one wife.

Allow me to address one other issue related to multiple wives. There are men in the Hebrew Roots movement who have not seemed to grasp these concepts. Men who want multiple wives do not understand that they are agreeing with the breach between Israel and God. In taking additional wives, they undo the work of restoration completed by Yeshua on the cross, which was the reunification and restoration of Israel as a single wife for Him. He restored marriage for One God with one people which is symbolized on earth by one man with one wife.

Before Hannah could bear a child for Elkanah and YHVH, to be dedicated as a Nazirite for YHVH’s special service, she had to suffer. YHVH requires the suffering of His servants because that is the model He has set for Himself and us. As with the Messiah, so is His people.

John 15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
John 15:19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
John 15:20 Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

James 1:2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you fall into various temptations…

To conclude this teaching: the one thing God has continually spoken in my ear is that “as they were then, we are now”. Today, marriage is a farce, particularly in the West where a man cannot legally have multiple wives but a man can marry a man and woman can marry a woman and do so legally! This confusion indicates man’s confusion about God Himself and shows their hatred toward Him.

YHVH’s Betrothed Bride will be, and already has in Heaven, been reunited and restored as one wife for the coming Kingdom. There are no longer two wives in Israel since the time of the Cross. And when Yeshua returns, she will become one faithful wife for Him.

Amen.