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,

Elkanah and Hannah. They're Levites, the tribe of priests living in Ephraim, the tribe who love to

fight. And Hannah is barren. Elkanah has a second wife who is not barren,

but the text seems to indicate that he loves Hannah more. That probably makes Penina,

the second wife, jealous. Every year when they go to Shiloh and offer sacrifices, which you may

recall they're required to do since that's where the tabernacle currently is. Penina would bully Hannah all the more.

In ancient times, it was customary for each wife to have a separate tent, so these trips may

have been a rare occasion of them having to interact with each other. Hannah's crushed by Panena's

...