Samuel: Heard of God. The peculiar circumstances connected with his birth are
recorded in
(1 Samuel 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 Samuel 1:23-28)
(1 Samuel 2:1-11) 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"
(1 Samuel 2:26) comp.
(Luke 2:52) It was a time of great
and growing degeneracy in Israel
(Judges 21:19-21; 1 Samuel 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 Samuel 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 Samuel 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 Samuel 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
(1 Samuel 21:1) The Philistines followed up their advantage,
and marched upon Shiloh, which they plundered and destroyed (comp.)
(Jeremiah 7:12; Psalms 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 Samuel 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 Samuel 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 Samuel 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
(1 Samuel 11:15)
Before retiring from public life he convened an assembly of the people
at Gilgal
(1 Samuel 12:1)ff 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 Samuel 13:1)ff
(1 Samuel 15:1)ff with communications from God to king
Saul. While mourning over the many evils which now fell upon the
nation, he is suddenly summoned
(1 Samuel 16:1)ff 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"
(1 Samuel 25:1) not in the house
itself, but in the court or garden of his house. (Comp.)
(2 Kings 21:18)
(2 Chronicles 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
(Jeremiah 15:1; Psalms 99:6)
