Samuel - Faithful Judge, Prophet and Leader of Israel
Samuel played a very important role in the history of Israel and in Christianity in general. He led Israel from the time that the people were governed by judges to kings. Judges were local leaders that resolved disputes between people and provided some governance but most of them provided no real spiritual leadership or military leadership. The nations around Israel were all led by kings and Israel felt increasing military threats from them so they wanted a king as well.
What was different about Israel is that they were “God’s chosen people” and they already had a king - God. The problem was they weren’t looking to God because as it tells us in the last verse of Judges - “everyone was doing right in their own eyes.” Since they had basically rejected God as their king, they wanted a “man king” that they could see to lead them. In other words, they chose to live by sight and not by faith in the unseen God.
While I wanted to give you a historical context for the time surrounding Samuel’s life, there are a couple of key traits of his that we can all learn from and apply in our own lives:
Rise above our circumstances
Pray first
Rise above our circumstances - Samuel’s mother Hannah gave him to the Temple priest Eli to be raised in the temple. She honored her promise to God to do so after she was barren and He blessed her with a son. Unfortunately, Eli and his two sons, were not faithful men. The sons were predators of women coming to the temple to worship and they stole choice meat from those coming to make sacrifices. Meanwhile, Eli appeared to just look the other way.
In spite of his surroundings, Samuel grew up as a faithful young man and was known all over Israel as such. One biblical description of him as that “his words never fell to the ground.” In other words, everyone respected him and listened to everything he had to say. His life is a great reminder that that “circumstances don’t make the man, they reveal him.”
Pray first - When the people of Israel came to Samuel demanding a king, he did not like it at all because he knew that they were rejecting God. It was a big ask by them and one that he was not in favor of. Scripture tells us what happened next - “And Samuel prayed to the Lord.” Before Samuel did anything, he prayed first. He was clearly a man of action but he knew the proper order of things in effectively leading the people - pray first.
We will all have many decisions to make in our lives - some minor and some that are life changing. Samuel gives us a great guide on how to go about making wise decisions before we act.
We can always do more than pray after we have prayed, but not until we have prayed.
Samuel anointed King Saul as the first king of Israel. When Saul flamed out as king, he later anointed David to replace him. Jesus was a direct descendent of David’s so, at God’s leading, Samuel played a significant role in the birth of our faith. Even 3000 years after his life, Samuel is a role model that embodies the character of a godly man we can all look up to.
Stay hungry,
Big E
Matt. 5:6