Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Today we start our 10th book of the Bible and this book contains some of the

most beloved stories in the whole Old Testament. To backtrack a bit on how we got

here Israel started out as just Abraham. God promised him offspring and

land. God gave him the offspring little by little, but his descendants really multiplied during

the 400 years they were enslaved in Egypt.

God used Moses to lead them out of slavery

and followed that with 40 years of testing in the wilderness

to train their hearts to know that he is the one true God.

Then God brought them into the land he promised Abraham all those years ago.

They spread out in that land, but it was so nice not to be in slavery or in the

wilderness that this new life of luxury and ease made them forget God. They did whatever they wanted.

God raised up judges as military leaders to drive out the enemies who were leading them astray,

but this didn't deal with the problem of their hearts leading them astray.

They did whatever they wanted and things grew continually worse in the promised land.

The Israelites were sure their problem would be solved if only they had a king

and that's where we find ourselves today. It's approximately

1050 BC and we open with a couple, Elkhana and Hannah. They're Levites, the tribe of priests living in Ephraim, the tribe who love to fight.

And Hannah is Baron.

Elkhana has a second wife who is not Baron, but the text seems to indicate that he loves

Hannah more. That probably makes

Panina the second wife jealous. Every year when they go to Shiloh and offer

...