A PLACE CALLED SHILOH

Joshua 18:10 Joshua then cast lots for them in Shiloh in the presence of the LORD, and there he distributed the land to the Israelites according to their tribal divisions.

To my fellow readers, I just want encourage us spiritually to be in the place called Shiloh, where the house of Israel, the house of the Lord encamped.

In the beginning of the first book of Samuel, there is the mentioning of a certain man (Elkanah) who had a “certain” wife, named Hannah. She was a “certain” wife out of the two that Elkanah had, because of the “certain” promise that came to her once barren womb. She was the mother of one of Israel’s well known prophets named Samuel. We see in the beginning of how she prayed for a son and how she would give her only son to God. However, I have come to realize that as she was weeping prior to Samuel’s birth, when her womb was empty and unable to conceive any children, she transitioned herself from self pity to a fervent prayer warrior of promise, all because she was in a place called Shiloh.

I Samuel 1:9 Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh…

As I mentioned earlier, Shiloh was a unique place where Israel camped and the tabernacle as well. Shiloh is the place where the inheritance was given to Israel, from a word God spoken generations upon generations prior to their existence to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is where they divided the land to the children of Israel to inherit by promise, before the presence of the Lord. Joshua 18:10.

Also, Joshua 18:1 says The whole assembly of the Israelites gathered at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there (NAS). The country was brought under their control,

Now keep in mind that when the Tent of Meeting was set up AT SHILOH, the country was brought under their control! When the meeting of the children of Israel began, the meeting of the promise seed of God went up and took place, all the country, all of it’s inhabitants had to submit, because the meeting and getting together of God’s son’s was now in session! The meeting of Promise took place and all things round about was ceased and under control by God through Israel. It was inheritance time!

I Samuel 1:4-7 (4) And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions: (5) But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion; for he loved Hannah: but the LORD had shut up her womb. (6) And her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the LORD had shut up her womb. (7) And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she provoked her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.

Hannah was a loving wife, we see that she loved her husband and was faithful to him! She went with her husband to the house of God when he went, year after year, as every wife and husband should with their spouse. And despite the fact that God shut up the womb of his wife, Elkanah still loved her. So Hannah didn’t get a lack of love from her husband, even though he had two wives, but the problem was the fact that she received the provocative taunts from the husbands other wife. Now today that would be very understandable, since the Lord tells us to be with only one spouse.

Perhaps Elkanah’s other wife (Penniah) was jealous of the love that her husband was giving Hannah even though she was unable to gift him with children. Whatever the case was, it made its attempts to constantly provoke Hannah until she was unhappy. How many times have we allowed our adversary of affliction to come and whisper in our ears, of how insufficient we are to God, or how we may receive a word from God, but we aren’t yet full filling what God spoke, we feel barren, we feel like God forgot, and etc. Times we allowed Satan to rob us from the joy we first received when hearing God’s word over our lives of promise, by us allowing him to rob, then he goes in for the kill, to kill our confidence in Christ, then he goes in to destroy the very walk we obtained through the waters of baptism.

John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy…

Praise God it didn’t end in destruction for Hannah, but as the rest of John 10:10 says… I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. That is what Hannah believed God for! She believed God that life would be given into her womb!

This persistence in her spirit came forth right after she ate and drank at the place called Shiloh!

The Bible says in I Samuel 1:9 that Hannah ROSE UP, AFTER they had eaten IN Shiloh, and AFTER they had drunk! As she ate and drank along side with her loving husband, this together effort launched her into a place of strength through bitterness, of strength to be on the floor before the Lord in a great climax of prayer!

I believe since she was of the children of Israel from the tribe of Ephraim, and lived up in the mount, mount Ephraim; the Lord caused her to remember the very events Israel went through at Shiloh! As she drank from her cup, she had to be drinking up what God was making real in her heart about Shiloh, because the result was her weeping on the floor realizing that she is a covenant daughter of God, she is a mountain dweller, and therefore she has access to make a vow with the Holy of holies, she has access to climb up the spiritual mountain of prayer and negotiate with God in order to bring Glory unto His name! (See Preaching I blog, The Mountain of Fellowship and Dying at the Mountain Top). The surety of identity had to have first struck Hannah’s heart, the fact that she was of a covenant people had to have had blossomed within her mind! As she ate and drank in the place of Shiloh, the place where inheritance was given, she began to drink and eat of all the Lord was cultivating within her heart. As she began to embrace the place of Shiloh, the place where promise was fulfilled and given, she began to embrace the place of fervent prayer to obtain a promise from God, all within her heart and mind. See, it wasn’t enough for her to receive a worthy portion from a priest, but she wanted to receive a holy promise from the Lord, the Chief priest over the priests! She got in the position within her heart of desperation!

I Samuel 1:10-11 (10) And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. (11) And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.

Beloved, for too long at times we have allowed the adversary to taunt and provoke, trying to get us to question our identity and place in Christ! We see this especially within this generation, within the broken homes, the corruption brought to schools, and even the disorderly of families. We as a nation have idolized those who try to change their identity, by rebellion and even changing how they look, as if God didn’t do a good enough job in the first place. We allowed the adversary to have his way and metal first with Christ’s church and then through government and homes, the three institutions that should be Kingdom of God established! However, there is a place called Shiloh!

Only at the place where inheritance, power, and even repentance is given can the people of a lost generation, of a barren and unfruitful generation can receive the promise and true identity of covenant that the Lord has established in every life! Hannah went to the temple “church” yearly, but when she finally said within her self and through her bitterness “grief”, she said that “enough is enough; I must make a vow with the one I am in covenant with! I must fight to be fruitfull and fruit filled! I must apprehend the promises of God upon my kindred, upon my life, I must run to the mountain top of prayer, I must weep before His presence, all because I am desperate for the fruitfulness of God to come through this barren womb! I am going to the place called Shiloh! To the place where promises are given and fulfilled, a place where cities are conquered!” Beloved, as Israel set up the meeting tent (Tabernacle) in Shiloh, in the presence of the Lord, Hannah sought to it that she would enter the meeting tent with the Lord!

I encourage us to apprehend the place of fervent prayer! We have bore witness recently to the loss of those whom the world idolized; those noted as icons yet lived life with a loss of true identity. Obscured from false fortune and fame, in which this generation is after, as the adversary works through others, and we’ve allowed it. I do believe there is a mighty move of God on the horizon upon this generation! As God allows the idols in life to be taken down, one at a time, this generation will be stripped away with no choice but to lay hold of the power of the only living God, the only true King of all kings! May we all remember to enter the place of crying out to God, for Him to send forth the very fruitfulness of heaven to earth! For His Kingdom to come on earth, AS IS in heaven, for His Kingdom to come in the barren womb of this generation, AS IS in heaven!

Isaiah 38:17-19 (17) Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back. (18) For the grave cannot praise thee, death can not celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth. (19) The living, the living, he shall praise thee, as I do this day: the father to the children shall make known thy truth.

As God opened the womb in Hannah, so she would conceived a son noted as one of Israel’s most predominate prophets used to establish the conquering Kingdom of David in Jerusalem, so will God’s spirit pour out upon a generation that surely the sons and daughters shall prophecy establishing the unshakable Kingdom of God in this nation, in the earth!

James 5:16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

Matthew 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

God Bless