1 Samuel – Saul and David

Chapter 1

1:1-20 Make up and act a dramatic story about Elkanah and his family and their visit to Shiloh. It might have four scenes: 1:1-8; 1:9-11; 1:12-18; 1:19-20.

1:1 How do you know that Elkanah was a real person? What do you learn about Elkanah’s tribe and where he lived?

1:2 What do you learn about Elkanah’s family? What difficulties do you think that Elkanah had in his family?

1:3 Whom do you learn about here? What was the activity, or work, of each of these people?

1:4, 5 What do you learn about Elkanah? What was most important for him? What do you learn about God?

1:6-8 What do you learn about Elkanah’s two wives? What did Elkanah do? What do you think about all that?

1:9-11 What was Eli doing? Why might the writer have mentioned that Eli was sitting down? Eli was the High Priest. What work might he have done better? What do you learn about Hannah? What do you learn from her prayer? What do you learn about her attitude to God?

1:12-18 What do you think about Eli and Hannah in this verse? Eli did not understand Hannah. Whom do you know that people might not understand?

1:19, 20 Put this into your own words. What do you learn about what was important to Elkanah and his family?

1:21-2:11 Make up and act out a dramatic story about Hannah and Samuel. You might make up a modern example similar to Hannah’s prayer 2:1-11. You could read it in sections as a public prayer. People need to apply what is true to their own lives. There could be activities that would help people to do that.

1:21 What do you learn about Elkanah and his family? In what ways is Elkanah’s behaviour different from yours? What do you think about that? What changes will you make to your own behaviour?

1:22, 23 Put this into your own words. What do you think about Hannah and Elkanah’s behaviour? What changes might you want to make in your own family or neighbourhood?

1:24, 25a Put this story into your own words. What things about this story are different from the things that you do in your neighbourhood? What do you think about that?

1:25b-28 Put this story into your own words. What do you think about Hannah? What do you think about what she says and does? What will you do in a different way because of this story?