1 SAMUEL 7
Read 1 Samuel 7:2-17
We now leave the adventures of the Ark and return to the story of Samuel. The Ark is now being looked after (perhaps with a bit of trepidation) by Eleazar and his son, and we hear no more of it until 2 Samuel 6 when David brings it to Jerusalem. Samuel appears in Verse 3 in his role of prophet urging the Israelites to do away with their false gods and to worship only the Lord. But he didn’t stop at that. He assembled the Israelites and led them in a service of repentance and confession. The threat of the Philistines was still present and the Israelites, by now fully confident in Samuel’s position as the nation’s spiritual leader asked him to lead the sacrifice to God and to pray to God for them. We now see Samuel in the role of priest as well as prophet. Samuel was hard on the people; turning away from your old established habits is not easy; confession and repentance are not easy. But the people did it and acclaimed Samuel as their leader (v6). Perhaps there is a lesson for today where people so often take the easy option. A hard-won faith is more authentic and enduring. Easy grace is no grace at all.
The Lord vindicated Samuel as the leader of the nation, and in a scene very reminiscent of the early days of Israel moving into the Promised Land, we see that God himself took part in the battle against the Philistines. We remember from the Book of Joshua that when the Israelites were in good standing with the Lord he fought for them; when they drifted away from him they fought alone and often with disastrous results. Now, under the stable leadership of the godly Samuel who had turned the people from false worship to true worship, God was once again with his people, and he delivered them from the enemy and brought peace.
Verses 15-17 speak of Samuel as judge over Israel. Samuel is sometimes said to be the last of the judges and as such, following the downward spiral of the judges in the Book of Judges, is portrayed as the best example of them all. But he was more than simply a leader of the people. As we have seen in this chapter he was also a prophet and a priest and both these roles will be evident as we read the following chapters. In some ways Samuel gives us a kind of foretaste of Jesus. Jesus is often described as having a three-fold ministry of prophet, priest and king. Samuel was never a king, although we see that he was designated by the Lord to be a king-maker. Samuel was however a prophet, priest and leader of the nation. He was also a judge in the sense of ruling on law cases (v16) which reminds us of Jesus and his eternal role as judge (Revelation 19:11). Samuel was only a man, but a man approved by God to serve him in leading his people away from idolatry and back to true worship. So often in the Old Testament we see pointers to the New and in Samuel we get a hint of what is to come with Jesus.