Thursday
Thursday
The Life and Ministry of Samuel
The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground.
1 Samuel 3:19
Samuel was the last, and undoubtedly the greatest, of the judges. Dedicated to the Lord by his parents even before his birth, he was brought up at Shiloh under the tutelage of the high priest Eli. While he was still a young man, we are told that “all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD” (v. 20). As a judge he went on an annual circuit to the towns around his home (7:15–17), and he sometimes acted as priest as well. Thus he combined within himself the ministries of prophet, priest, and judge.
When Samuel was old, however, and appointed his sons as judges, they did not walk in their father’s ways but “accepted bribes and perverted justice” (8:3). So the elders of Israel demanded that Samuel should appoint a king to govern them, thus rejecting God as their king. For Israel had been a theocracy (a nation ruled by God) since its beginning some 250 years previously. Therefore Samuel remonstrated with the elders and warned them that their future kings would oppress them. But the people refused to listen to him and said, “No! … We want a king over us. Then we shall be like all the other nations” (vv. 19–20). Thus twice Israel demanded a king, and twice they gave the same reason: they wanted to be “like all the other nations.” And the Lord told Samuel to acquiesce in their demand.
But it was a tragedy. For Israel had been chosen out of the other nations precisely in order to be a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, different from everybody else. The same dilemma faces the people of God today. Our calling is not to conformity to the world around us but to a radical nonconformity.
For further reading: 1 Samuel 12:1–4