Be an Example
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Key Verse: “The LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.” Selected Scripture: |
IN THE TIMES OF THE Judges, Eli was high priest and judge in Israel. He had two wicked sons who, as underpriests, took advantage of their office to commit various atrocities. It was then that God made preparations to raise up another judge for Israel.
God blessed Samuel’s mother, Hannah, who was barren, and she finally had a son. She had prayed for a child and promised the Lord that she would give him to the Lord and he would take the Nazarite vow. Thus Samuel was born, and Hannah, true to her promise, brought him to Eli when he was old enough to no longer require his mother’s care. There, according to her desire, he was placed in the Lord’s service.
“Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.” (I Sam. 2:18; 3:1) He assisted Eli in his priestly functions. As a child he “did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.” (vs. 7) It was during this period that God called Samuel. At night he would sleep in the proximity of Eli, and it was during the night that God called Samuel. Samuel awoke and ran to Eli, thinking that he had called him. Eli’s response was that he had not called him and that he should lie down again. Three times the Lord called him; and at the third call, Eli perceived that the Lord was calling Samuel, and instructed him how he was to answer. Samuel did as instructed, and the Lord took him into his confidence and told him that he was through with Eli’s house because of the wickedness of the sons.
Later, when Israel fought against the Philistines, they sought to turn the tide of the battle to their favor. Instead, they were tragically defeated. Eli’s sons were slain, and the Ark of the Covenant fell into the hands of the Philistines for seven months. They returned it to Israel and it was placed in the home of a Levite—Abinadab—where it resided for about one hundred years.
Twenty years after these events occurred, Samuel grown to manhood, became a Judge in Israel. First, he had Israel give up its idolatry and return to worshiping the Lord. (I Sam. 7:3-6) The Philistines went to this gathering of the people unto Samuel at Mizpeh to subdue them and scatter them. As Samuel prayed to the Lord, the Scriptures say, “the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them.”—vs. 13
We are not told in detail about the natural forces unleashed against the Philistines, but, as they fled in panic, Israel pursued and slew them, gaining a great victory. The Philistines were driven out of the coastal area they had taken over, “and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.”—I Sam. 7:13
The call of Samuel represents the call of the church during the Gospel Age, a time when corrupt worship of God by those pretending to be true worshipers is common. Eventually, however, the prophecy given by a man of God to Eli, will be fulfilled by the glorified Christ class.—I Sam. 2:35