OVERVIEW:
God gives Samuel to Hannah; Hannah gives Samuel to God; Samuel gives himself to God; God gives Samuel to Israel; Eli misappropriates the tabernacle by permitting his sons to disobey; Eli misses God’s message; Eli misuses the ark of the covenant; Samuel lives; Eli dies.
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
The book of 1st Samuel begins at a time when “the word of the Lord was precious.” (3:1) It was precious for the same reason that gold or platinum are such “precious” commodities today; the simple fact that they are incredibly rare! If the Lord were making a declaration concerning our day, He would, no doubt, repeat these very words: “the word of the Lord was precious in those days!” (Amos 8:11–12)
Recognize, as we come into 1st Samuel today, that at this point in the history of Israel, God’s people were in the place He wanted them, the land that was promised, and yet, they hadn’t actually “possessed their inheritance”, or “possessed their possession”, the way He had intended. God had repeatedly warned them, in Deuteronomy 8 and 9, of the danger of forgetting Him after He had brought them into the land, and yet it becomes more than apparent, in the book of 1st Samuel, that God’s warning had totally gone unheeded. It resulted in two extremely unfortunate realities:
1) God’s people didn’t fear Him, and therefore, didn’t bring Him the honor and glory for which He was worthy; and,
2) God’s people weren’t experiencing the life He had designed for them to enjoy in the “land that flowed with milk and honey.”
Once again, keep in mind in these chapters that Israel is an Old Testament picture of New Testament believers who are “in Christ,” and therefore, obviously possess ETERNAL life, and yet, aren’t possessing the ABUNDANT life God intended their ETERNAL life to bring them. Just like in the days of Samuel, many believers today (dare we say, MOST!) simply do not fear the Lord, and therefore, don’t bring Him the glory that is due His name (Psalm 29:2; 96:8), choosing to live beneath the privilege God designed them to possess.
A bright spot in 1st and 2nd Samuel, however, is Samuel himself, the one for whom these books were named. He was the first of the prophets, the last of the judges, and the man God would use to usher in Israel’s earthly kings. He would faithfully serve God and His people, and yet, ultimately be rejected by the people. Though Israel rejected Samuel, God tells him not to take it personally, because it was actually Him they were rejecting! (8:7) Because of their rejection of God’s leadership, they sought out earthly kings to lead them, as had the other nations of the world. This didn’t come as a shock to God, however! Actually, He prophesied they would do this very thing back in Deuteronomy 17!
The book of 1st Samuel is fast-paced and layered with historical and spiritual significance. Notice in Chapter 1, that it is out of a rather sinful and precarious marital situation that Samuel is born to Hannah and Elkanah. As unfortunate as it is to say, Hannah is actually one of Elkanah’s two wives. Though polygamy had become CULTURALLY acceptable at this time, it certainly wasn’t BIBLICALLY acceptable! God’s intention has always been, and will always be, ONE MAN and ONE WOMAN for ONE LIFETIME! (Genesis 2:24; 1st Timothy 3:2) Because of this sinful marriage arrangement, some might refer to Samuel as an “illegitimate child”. Recognize, however, that in God’s eyes, there are no “illegitimate children”! There may be “illegitimate PARENTS”, but there is certainly no such thing as an “illegitimate child”! Samuel is a beautiful biblical example of that! Every child is formed by God Himself in His mother’s womb, is “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:13–14), and God has designed a “perfect will” for each of us, regardless of the marital status or immoral behavior of our parents!
In Chapter 2, when Hannah presents back to God His present to her, from a human standpoint, she is handing Samuel over to a priest who has long departed from God’s perfect will. He is a carnal, obese old man (4:18) who had allowed his own sons (who were the “sons of Belial”, or Satan—2:12) to run the tabernacle, and, run it they did! Right into the ground! God, however, would receive the offering of her only begotten son, and use him mightily in fulfilling His purposes in the nation of Israel!
Notice in 3:2–3, that it says of Eli, “his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see.” From this brief description, we can assume that Eli suffered from cataracts or some other condition that had caused him to become blind. In this case, however, it is a PHYSICAL picture of his SPIRITUAL condition. The greatest travesty concerning Eli’s inability to see wasn’t that he couldn’t see PHYSICALLY, but that he couldn’t see SPIRITUALLY!
We would do well to recognize that God tells us, in 2nd Peter 1:5–9, that if after coming to faith in Christ, we fail to give “ALL DILIGENCE” to add to our faith the seven things listed in 2nd Peter 1:5–7, the same thing that happened to Eli PHYSICALLY will happen to us SPIRITUALLY! Peter tells us that if we fail to faithfully follow this divinely inspired scope and sequence for our spiritual growth and development, we will become spiritually BLIND, and not be able to see “afar off”, which is another way of saying that we won’t be able to see the things in the eternal realm that can only be seen through the eyes of faith. (2nd Corinthians 4:18) Peter continues in verse 9 to say that failing to add these things to our faith will ultimately cause us to get to the place spiritually that we will even forget that we have been purged from our “old sins”. In other words, we will get to the place that as born-again, blood-bought, eternally-secure believers in Jesus Christ, we are living like we did when we were lost! Oh my! God forbid! May we be certain to heed Peter’s warning to give all diligence to add to our faith “virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.”
As we move into chapter 4, because of Israel’s disregard for the word of God, and their subsequent disobedience (note that disregarding the word of God will always result in disobedience to the God of the word!), the nation of Israel is annihilated in battle against the Philistines. Along with losing 4000 soldiers in the first battle, Israel lost 30,000 soldiers in the second battle, along with losing their most prized possession, the ark of the covenant, or the presence of God in their midst! By the end of chapter 4, God gives us a graphic, physical picture of the spiritual principle of Romans 6:23a: “For the wages of sin is death”. In the battle against the Philistines, Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, both DIED! (4:11) When Eli received word of their death, and that the ark of the covenant had gone into the possession of the Philistines, he fell over backwards, and DIED! When Phinehas’ pregnant wife got word that the ark of God was taken by the Philistines, and that both her father-in-law and her husband had died, the trauma was so great that it thrust her into labor, and in the process of delivering the child, she, too, DIED! Just prior to her death, she gave to her newborn son one of the saddest names she could have possibly given to him: she named him Ichabod, meaning, “the glory has departed”. With her final breath, she uttered these fateful words: “The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken.” (4:22)
Sadly, “Ichabod” is a perfect description of many 21st century churches: the glory of God’s presence, that is designed to be manifested through Christ’s body, has departed. While the people of the church gather on Sundays to celebrate the presence of Christ in their midst inside the four walls of their building, Christ stands OUTSIDE the church knocking on the door, as it were, waiting for someone to recognize that His presence is not there, and go and open the door to let Him in! (Revelation 3:20)
Can you hear Him knocking?
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
Through all that SAMUEL was intended to be – judge, priest, and prophet. (John 5:30; Hebrews 7:26; Acts 7:37)