"The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall He thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and He shall give strength unto His King, and exalt the horn of His anointed" (I Samuel 2:10).

This is a remarkable prayer, uttered under divine inspiration by Hannah, thanking God for the miraculous birth of Samuel. It contains the first explicit reference in the Bible to the Messiah ("anointed," in the Hebrew, is Messiah, equivalent to the Greek "Christ"). Hannah's prophetic prayer predicts the ultimate exaltation of Messiah over all the adversaries of the Lord to the very ends of the earth.

Hannah also prophesied the coming of the Lord's great King. Yet this was during the time of the judges, long before the people of Israel even began to request a king.

In fact, the entire prophecy is the first of many similar prophecies throughout the Bible which look forward to the return of the Lord "out of heaven" to judge all nations, to destroy His enemies, and to establish His anointed one as King of the earth.

There is nothing comparable to this prophecy in the earlier books of the Bible, but it is a theme often emphasized in the psalms and in the books of prophecy, as well as in the New Testament. For example, note David's great prophecy: "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His anointed. . . . Then shall He speak unto them in His wrath. . . . Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion. . . . and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession" (Psalm 2:2,5,6,8).

There are many similar later prophecies, but it is significant that the first one also contains the first mention of Messiah, and it was from the lips of a humble, but devout, mother. HMM