Old Testament Characters

Samuel

Text:  heard of God. The peculiar circumstances connected with his 
birth are recorded in 1 Sam. 1:20. Hannah, one of the two wives of 
Elkanah, who came up to Shiloh to worship before the Lord, earnestly 
prayed to God that she might become the mother of a son. Her prayer 
was graciously granted; and after the child was weaned she brought him 
to Shiloh nd consecrated him to the Lord as a perpetual Nazarite 
(1:23-2:11). Here his bodily wants and training were attended to by 
the women who served in the tabernacle, while Eli cared for his 
religious culture. Thus, probably, twelve years of his life passed 
away. 

"The child Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with the Lord, and 
also with men" (2:26; comp. Luke 2:52). It was a time of great and 
growing degeneracy in Israel (Judg. 21:19-21; 1 Sam. 2: 12-17, 22). 
The Philistines, who of late had greatly increased in number and in 
power, were practically masters of the country, and kept the people in 
subjection (1 Sam. 10:5; 13:3). 

At this time new communications from God began to be made to the pious 
child. A mysterious voice came to him in the night season, calling him 
by name, and, instructed by Eli, he answered, "Speak, Lord; for thy 
servant heareth." The message that came from the Lord was one of woe 
and ruin to Eli and his profligate sons. Samuel told it all to Eli, 
whose only answer to the terrible denunciations (1 Sam. 3:11-18) was, 
"It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good", the passive 
submission of a weak character, not, in his case, the expression of 
the highest trust and faith. 

The Lord revealed himself now in divers manners to Samuel, and his 
fame and his influence increased throughout the land as of one 
divinely called to the prophetical office. A new period in the history 
of the kingdom of God now commenced. 

The Philistine yoke was heavy, and the people, groaning under the 
wide-spread oppression, suddenly rose in revolt, and "went out against 
the Philistines to battle." A fierce and disastrous battle was fought 
at Aphek, near to Ebenezer (1 Sam. 4:1, 2). The Israelites were 
defeated, leaving 4,000 dead "in the field." The chiefs of the people 
thought to repair this great disaster by carrying with them the ark of 
the covenant as the symbol of Jehovah's presence. 

They accordingly, without consulting Samuel, fetched it out of Shiloh 
to the camp near Aphek. At the sight of the ark among them the people 
"shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again." A second 
battle was fought, and again the Philistines defeated the Israelites, 
stormed their camp, slew 30,000 men, and took the sacred ark. The 
tidings of this fatal battle was speedily conveyed to Shiloh; and so 
soon as the aged Eli heard that the ark of God was taken, he fell 
backward from his seat at the entrance of the sanctuary, and his neck 
brake, and he died. 

The tabernacle with its furniture was probably, by the advice of 
Samuel, now about twenty years of age, removed from Shiloh to some 
place of safety, and finally to Nob, where it remained many years 
(21:1). The Philistines followed up their advantage, and marched upon 
Shiloh, which they plundered and destroyed (comp. Jer. 7:12; Ps. 
78:59). This was a great epoch in the history of Israel. For twenty 
years after this fatal battle at Aphek the whole land lay under the 
oppression of the Philistines. 

During all these dreary years Samuel was a spiritual power in the 
land. From Ramah, his native place, where he resided, his influence 
went forth on every side among the people. With unwearied zeal he went 
up and down from place to place, reproving, rebuking, and exhorting 
the people, endeavouring to awaken in them a sense of their 
sinfulness, and to lead them to repentance. His labours were so far 
successful that "all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord." 

Samuel summoned the people to Mizpeh, one of the loftiest hills in 
Central Palestine, where they fasted and prayed, and prepared 
themselves there, under his direction, for a great war against the 
Philistines, who now marched their whole force toward Mizpeh, in order 
to crush the Israelites once for all. At the intercession of Samuel 
God interposed in behalf of Israel. Samuel himself was their leader, 
the only occasion in which he acted as a leader in war. The 
Philistines were utterly routed. They fled in terror before the army 
of Israel, and a great slaughter ensued. This battle, fought probably 
about B.C. 1095, put an end to the forty years of Philistine 
oppression. 

In memory of this great deliverance, and in token of gratitude for the 
help vouchsafed, Samuel set up a great stone in the battlefield, and 
called it "Ebenezer," saying, "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us" (1 
Sam. 7:1-12). This was the spot where, twenty years before, the 
Israelites had suffered a great defeat, when the ark of God was taken. 

This victory over the Philistines was followed by a long period of 
peace for Israel (1 Sam. 7:13, 14), during which Samuel exercised the 
functions of judge, going "from year to year in circuit" from his home 
in Ramah to Bethel, thence to Gilgal (not that in the Jordan valley, 
but that which lay to the west of Ebal and Gerizim), and returning by 
Mizpeh to Ramah. 

He established regular services at Shiloh, where he built an altar; 
and at Ramah he gathered a company of young men around him and 
established a school of the prophets. 

The schools of the prophets, thus originated, and afterwards 
established also at Gibeah, Bethel, Gilgal, and Jericho, exercised an 
important influence on the national character and history of the 
people in maintaining pure religion in the midst of growing 
corruption. They continued to the end of the Jewish commonwealth. 

Many years now passed, during which Samuel exercised the functions of 
his judicial office, being the friend and counsellor of the people in 
all matters of private and public interest. He was a great statesman 
as well as a reformer, and all regarded him with veneration as the 
"seer," the prophet of the Lord. 

At the close of this period, when he was now an old man, the elders of 
Israel came to him at Ramah (1 Sam. 8:4, 5, 19-22); and feeling how 
great was the danger to which the nation was exposed from the 
misconduct of Samuel's sons, whom he had invested with judicial 
functions as his assistants, and had placed at Beersheba on the 
Philistine border, and also from a threatened invasion of the 
Ammonites, they demanded that a king should be set over them. This 
request was very displeasing to Samuel. He remonstrated with them, and 
warned them of the consequences of such a step. 

At length, however, referring the matter to God, he acceded to their 
desires, and anointed Saul (q.v.) to be their king (11:15). Before 
retiring from public life he convened an assembly of the people at 
Gilgal (ch. 12), and there solemnly addressed them with reference to 
his own relation to them as judge and prophet. 

The remainder of his life he spent in retirement at Ramah, only 
occasionally and in special circumstances appearing again in public (1 
Sam. 13, 15) with communications from God to king Saul. While mourning 
over the many evils which now fell upon the nation, he is suddenly 
summoned (ch.16) to go to Bethlehem and anoint David, the son of 
Jesse, as king over Israel instead of Saul. 

After this little is known of him till the time of his death, which 
took place at Ramah when he was probably about eighty years of age. 
"And all Israel gathered themselves together, and lamented him, and 
buried him in his house at Ramah" (25:1), not in the house itself, but 
in the court or garden of his house. (Comp. 2 Kings 21:18; 2 Chr. 
33:20; 1 Kings 2:34; John 19:41.) Samuel's devotion to God, and the 
special favour with which God regarded him, are referred to in Jer. 
15:1 and Ps. 99:6.