I Samuel 1-3
Today we meet a tremendously important figure: Samuel. He is the last — and I daresay, best — of the Judges. Though this book and the next are named for him, Samuel is not really the central character, David is (aside from the LORD, of course). But I’m getting ahead of myself…
First, I’d like to offer a few clarifications:
- Reading I Samuel 1:1, one might easily conclude that Samuel is of the tribe of Ephraim, but he is not. He is a Levite, of the clan of Kohath. (See I Chronicles 6:16-28.) The reference to Ephraim is not one of genealogy, but of geography, telling us the place where Samuel is from, not his ancestry. Remember, the Levites live throughout Israel.
- Later it may seem that Samuel acts as a priest, but he is not a priest. He may be a Levite, but he is not a descendant of Aaron, and thus not eligible for the priesthood. Whenever it sounds like Samuel is doing priestly things, you can bet that there is another person there — a descendent of Aaron — performing those functions at Samuel’s direction. (Similarly, we may say that Eisenhower stormed the beaches of Normandy, but we all know thousands of other men did the actual storming.)
- Although not explicitly called a Nazirite like Samson, Samuel may well be one, as his mother, Hannah, swears that no razor shall touch his head. (I Sam. 1:11)
- Phinehas, the son of Eli, is not the same person as Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron. They may share the same name, but they are radically different characters.
Samuel enters full-time service in the Tabernacle in Shiloh as a young boy, just weaned, in fulfillment of his mother’s vow that she would give him to the LORD all the days of his life. (I Sam. 1:11) Samuel thus grows up in and around the Tabernacle, watching the daily sacrifices and rites of worship, and watching Eli and his sons. The LORD evidently has His hand on Samuel from the beginning, for Samuel escapes following the pattern of Hophni and Phinehas, who are thoroughly corrupt. Whereas they are worthless men who do not know the LORD (I Sam. 2:12), Samuel hears from the LORD directly and becomes established as a prophet.
The first message that Samuel hears from the LORD is a condemnation of Eli and his sons — the sons for blasphemy, and Eli for not doing anything about it. (I Sam. 3:10-14) It is a serious business when someone treats the LORD with contempt, and it is especially serious when that someone is in a position of spiritual leadership. It generally means abuse of the flock that the leaders are supposed to be shepherding. Unfortunately, Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas are not isolated cases. History is replete with examples of people in positions of spiritual authority — pastors, deacons, priests, bishops, archbishops, cardinals, popes — who are worthless men (and women) that do not know the LORD and who cause a great deal of harm.
Just as Eli should have corrected his sons long before they got out of control, we should do what we can to ensure that such positions of trust are filled by godly people who do indeed know the LORD. We need to fight against such abuses. But we must also trust that God Himself sees the abuse, and God Himself will bring things right, just as He declares regarding Eli’s house, first through the man of God that visits Eli (I Samuel 2:27-36) and then through the message given to Samuel. God’s judgments may be exceptionally swift (as with Nadab and Abihu earlier – Lev. 10:1-2) or not quite so fast but still with some fairly immediate consequences, as we shall soon see, or it may be that the LORD seems slow. (It is not until Solomon’s time that Eli’s descendants are fully removed from serving as priests. 1 Kings 2:27) In all cases, we must trust that God sees, God knows, He is more offended by abuses than we are, and He will bring justice.
One more thing…
I do not want to jump too far forward yet, but when we read Luke later in the year, we may want to look back at Hannah’s story a bit and compare her prayer in I Samuel 2:1-11 with both Mary’s Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) and the Song of Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79). For now, I think it is well worth noting that the last verse of Hannah’s prayer (I Sam. 2:11) speaks of the LORD’s “king” and “His anointed”, even though as of yet there is no anointed king. (And, by the way, “anointed” is the English translation of the Hebrew word that we render as “Messiah” or the Greek equivalent, “Christ”.)