By J.G. Bellet
There is a beautiful line of truth through 1 Samuel 1 - 7. It was a time of the full ruin of the whole system, standing, as it then did, in man's strength, and its restoration by the sovereign grace and power of God, who takes up the barren woman, and the babe, and suckling, to be the vessels and instruments of His gracious working. In the course of all this, the people are brought to repentance, and confession, and the sign of this is, the mystic action of spilling the water on the ground, denoting the good-for-nothingness of flesh, that all it is fit for is to return to the dust out of which it came. Jesus speaks of being "poured out like water," "brought into the dust of death." (Psalm 22)
I would just take leave to aid your meditations on this lovely scripture by the following short analysis of it.
1 Samuel 1. Israel's personal inability is here presented in a mystery, and God's interference in grace.
1 Samuel 2. Israel's progress in sin, while the Lord is preparing His mercy.
1 Samuel 3. The Lord gets His instrument of mercy and salvation ready.
1 Samuel 4. Israel's ruin.
1 Samuel 5 - 6. God rises to plead His own cause, the glory of His own name against the enemy, though His people had sold it.
1 Samuel 7. The Lord's instrument, already prepared for mercy and salvation, does its work effectually, and EBENEZER is raised.
