Samuel - The Great Prophet, Judge, Priest and Intercessor

So nice to be with all of you again.

You are well aware that in the Bible there are many types of prayers. And there is one scripture that actually mentions four types of prayers. And of course, for us, praying is conversing with God. We should do that every day. It's part of our exercises that we do to get closer to God. And let's go to 1 Timothy 2, verse 1.

I just want to highlight something that is mentioned here. I'm not going to be covering the subject of prayer, per se. But there's something here in 1 Timothy 2, verse 1. Paul says, Therefore I exhort, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of things be made for all men. So here we have four different types. The Believer's Bible commentary gives a good description of this. It says, Supplication has the thought of strong and earnest pleading, but here the thought is more that of specific requests for specific needs. Sometimes a person just needs to get so close and there's some special need. And so you really go to God in earnest prayer.

Then the word prayers is a very general term, covering all kinds of reverent approaches to God. So that covers general prayer. And then you have the third type, which is called intercessions. And these describe those forms of petition in which we address God as our superior in behalf of others. It's when we intercede, we pray for others. Also, those are sick. It's a type of intercession we do. And finally, the thanksgiving type of prayer describes what we rehearse about the grace and kindness of our Lord and pour out our hearts in gratitude to Him. That's a thanksgiving prayer. Now, I'd like to focus on one of those because there's an outstanding example in the Old Testament of someone that was famous for his intercessory prayer. He was known for that. And we can learn a lot from this person, how he became so effective in praying for others. He had a lot of different talents and abilities. But this one in particular stands out in the presence of God and is mentioned in the Scriptures. I'm talking about who? Okay, that's one that is very important. Yes. How about Samuel? The prophet Samuel is also known, along with Moses, as being a great intercessor for his people. And so, his life is a great example of praying for others. And there are many lessons to be learned about his example. So, let's analyze the life of the prophet, of the judge, and the priest named Samuel in the Bible. Because you're going to love his story, and there are so many practical lessons that we can apply in our lives. Again, we can analyze things better when we see examples of others. See how we are doing.

So, there are two books in the Bible named after the prophet Samuel. First and second Samuel. And actually, those two books, until the 1500s, was only one book. It was the book of Samuel, but they broke it up into two parts. It's a bit lengthy. And so, now we have first and second Samuel, but it's originally one book.

It's interesting, as we look into his life, how unique is the Bible to be able to take someone that lived around the 11th century before Christ. And here, two thousand years later, we can look at him and say, why he's just like any of us. And learning about God, and the congregation, what he went through, we have also gone through. And how he became a great servant of God and of God's people. I like what Unger's Bible handbook mentions about the story of Samuel, because we take it for granted. We pick up the Bible and we start talking, and all of a sudden it's like putting a mirror to ourselves. And we examine it. What other book that you have in literature does the same thing? And so, Unger says the following. This book was written as a historical biography.

This uniqueness of the biblical narratives, he says, differs from contemporary documents that you see in other countries. The Assyrian records, it mentions the Egyptian records, or the Hittites. See, they talk about events, about the kings and their conquests and the territory. But here, it's a biography. It's a person that you're going to get to know better and also learn lessons from them. Unger goes on to say, the events themselves are stressed, and the moral and spiritual repercussions of these events and of the persons involved are highlighted. It's not, oh, he conquered this, or look how great he is. No, it's talking about the spiritual development, what they learned, and also what were their mistakes, what they didn't do right. This book is called Break Your Law, before God, and Breaking Some of His Laws. Accordingly, these books have great ethical and didactic, which means teaching value, and that's the way we are.

We come here, we open the Bible, and here's this wealth of wisdom and knowledge that we can apply in our lives. Certainly, that is the case about the prophet, Saint Peter. And certainly that is the case about the prophet Samuel. Notice in 1 Corinthians 10, the Bible itself tells us that all of these were written for our benefit. These examples. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 11. It says, Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the age have come. Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. Because some did fall. And the examples that the Bible gives. And if we think that we can't fall, he says, be careful. Because if you become, drop your guard. If you become careless, you can face the same bad consequences as some of these biblical personages. So let's go to 1 Samuel. And of course, it's such an interesting story with so many lessons. I can't do it all in one sermon. So God willing, next week will be part two of Samuel, the great prophet, judge, priest, and intercessor. That's what we're going to study about. So let's go to 1 Samuel, chapter one.

And I'm going to give you the background and the lessons involved. 1 Samuel 1, verse 1, it says, Now there was a certain man of Ramath-in, also known as Rama, for short, of the mountains of Ephraim, that was one of the tribes, one of the areas. And his name was Al-Kana, the son of Jeoh-hem, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Suf, and Ephraimite. So he was born in that area, but he was a Levite because Samuel was a priest. The term Al-Kana means God has purchased. So when his mother gave birth to this son, she thought, God is going to do something with him. God has purchased him.

Notice, keep one finger here in 1 Samuel 1, and let's go to 1 Chronicles. That's a little bit ahead. 1 Chronicles 6, verse 22, it talks about Al-Kana and his lineage. This is part of the family of Levi. It says, the sons of Kohath, which was one of the priestly families, were Abinad, his son, Korah, his son, Aser, his son. And then verse 23, Al-Kana, his son. And verse 25, the sons of Al-Kana. And then it names him. And then verse 28, it says, the sons of Samuel were Joel, the firstborn. And so Samuel, as it says in verse 6, as for Al-Kana, he had a son named Al-Kana in verse 27, and his son was Samuel. And verse 38, it says, the son of Ishar, the son of Kohath, the son of Levi, the son of Israel. So these were all families. So even if they lived in the area of Ephraim, Samuel was a Levite. He had access to the priestly line. In verse 48 of this chapter 6, it says, and their brethren, the Levites, were appointed to every kind of service of the tabernacle of the house of God. Now we're talking about the time of 1,050 years before the time of Christ. And this is still a time of great unrest, tumultuous time in Israel. This is still the time of the Judges, where you had 12 tribes, and basically each one was fending for themselves. They had a central sanctuary, but they really didn't have somebody to be able to oversee everybody. It was a time when the Philistines, who had already taken over the coast land there on Israel, all the Israelites had to move to the high land, to the mountains. And now the Philistines were encroaching in their territory, and they were winning. And so Israel was on its heels. And so it's time for God to raise another judge, to defeat the enemies, and to strengthen Israel. They had a high priest called Eli, but he was a weak leader. He was over in Shiloh, where the tabernacle of the Lord was placed. And he really didn't do much to get out there and muster resistance.

So it is time now for God to raise up another liberator. 1 Samuel chapter 1 verse 2, it says about Elkanah, And he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Penaena. Penaena had children, but Hannah had no children. So that spells trouble, because one is always going to belittle the other. And this is exactly what happened. Apparently what happened was he had married Hannah, but she couldn't have children. And so in those days, the man could take another wife so that they could have children. Just like Abraham had Sarah and then Hagar. Although here they were both wives, it wasn't a concubine. And this man went up from his city yearly to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh. You can see in Deuteronomy 12, Deuteronomy 14, where it talks about that you're supposed to go up, especially for the Feast of Tabernacles after the harvest were all gathered that the male, and many times bringing his family to the Tabernacle, and they would celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. So every year he would come with his family.

Also the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, the priests of the Lord were there.

And whenever the time came for Elkanah to make an offering, he would give portions to Phineas, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters. So there was a number. And so he had all of these great offerings to give to everyone. But to Hannah, he would give a double portion for he loved Hannah, although the Lord had closed her womb. So he loved her, but he had a second wife, and there's always going to be rivalries and jealousies going on. And her rival also provoked her severely to make her miserable because the Lord had closed her womb. Now there are some times where they can at least get along and be respectful. But here the second wife was always humiliating the first one.

So it was year by year when she went up to the house of the Lord that she provoked her. So again, this is a biography. This is not talking about just events. It talks about attitudes. It talks about this poor woman, Hannah, being humiliated, and she couldn't do anything about it. Therefore, she wept and did not eat. She was so depressed, she didn't even have an appetite, because this other woman was goading her and humiliating her all the time. This is why it's not good for men to marry two women. In the Old Testament, God permitted it because of the carnal nature that they had the Israelites. In the New Testament, God does not allow it. But it never worked out anyways in the end, as you can see.

Verse 8, Then Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? Why do you not eat? And why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons? So a typical husband really didn't understand his wife very much. So he said, look, I'm doing so much, and I tell you I love you. Yeah, but you don't do anything about this other wife that is making my life miserable. And so she said, inside of her, I'm not getting any place with him. So Hannah arose after they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the tabernac of the Lord. And that's where he would judge Israel. That's where they would take issues to him to resolve. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord, and wept in anguish. My husband doesn't understand. He doesn't do anything about all of these humiliations that I'm suffering.

Have women ever felt that way by others? Being humiliated by other women? Sure.

Verse 11. Then she made a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant, and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon him, his head. Which means she was going to dedicate him to the Lord with the Nazarite vow, which is described in number 6. It could be for a short period of time. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul took the Nazarite vow for a while. It's mentioned in the book of Acts. But here, she says, it's going to be for life. And so it says in verse 12, as it happened, as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli watched her mouth, could see she was talking, but he didn't know why so long, why so fervently. Now Hannah spoke in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk, because she was just going on with such fervency, but he couldn't hear anything. He thought, well, typical of those days in the Judges, some people got drunk, and then they'd go to the sanctuary and just do make the motions of worshiping God even while they were intoxicated. And so Eli thought this was the case.

Verse 14, so Eli said to her, How long will you be drunk? Put your wine away from you. How dare you do this in the sanctuary there? But Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of sorrowful spirit. This is why I am gesticulating and motioning with so much fervor. It's not because I'm drunk. It's just that I'm pleading with God. This is what you call supplicating. This is the prayer of supplication.

I remember I just mentioned something about supplicating. Have you ever had to really supplicate for a terrible thing going on? And you need a God to intervene? I'll tell you what, it just occurred to me. So I was in Chile. I was pastoring the church there. And this young lady came to our home, and she was brought by her brother. And he said she is totally uncontrolled. Now this lady, she attended church, but he says she is just acting weird, speaking weird.

And so I said, Okay. And we sat there in the living room, and I talked with her in the couch. And then she started just hallucinating and talking gibberish. And I knew she had a spirit, a demon. And so I wasn't ready. I hadn't prepared myself. And I had to deal with it. So I said, We're going to pray in this very moment. And that was the supplication.

God, intervene right now. Because I can't do much about this. And you know what? That spirit left her, and she went back to normal. But I was really up against the wall at that time, just out of desperation. That was the supplication. Continuing on, it says, verse 16, Do not consider your maidservant a wicked woman, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief I have spoken until now. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition, which you have asked of him.

And she said, Let your maidservant find favor in your sight. So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. It's interesting, you're going to see many parallels between the life of Samuel and the life of Jesus Christ. Do you remember the prayer with Mary when the angel came and said, Are you willing to go through this?

And she says, Here's your maidservant. Let me do your will. And here Hannah submitted to God's will. Verse 19, Then there arose early in the morning and worshipped before the Lord, and returned and came to their house at Ramah. And Al-Kana knew Hannah, his wife, and the Lord remembered her. So it came to pass in the process of time that Hannah conceived and bore a son, and called his name Samuel, which means remembered by God.

That God remembered her prayer. Same because I have asked for him from the Lord. Verse, oh, by the way, yeah, the term Hannah in the Hebrew means grace. That's a nice name. Her name is Grace. And Penaena's name means Pearl. So they valued pearls in those days as well. They had people with their name Pearl, even up to today. Verse 21, Now the man Al-Kana in all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. A year went by, and here they are, going to the feast, presenting their offerings, thanking God for what they have received.

But Hannah did not go up that year, for she said to her husband, Not until the child is weaned, then I will take him, that he may appear before the Lord and remain there forever.

You can imagine the anguish. Here she had waited and waited. She finally has a son, and now she's going to have to give him up. She's not going to watch him grow, develop year by year as a mother enjoys so much. And so she kept Samuel. It says here in verse 23, So Al-Kana, her husband said to her, Do what seems best to you, wait until you have weaned him, only let the Lord establish his word.

Then the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him. In other words, where he can eat on his own. It doesn't have to be fed with a mother's milk. Verse 24, Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bulls, one ephah, a flower, and a skin of wine. So they were pretty prosperous to be able to do that, because a bull was about the most important animal you had. It was served for transportation.

It was used for plowing, carrying things. And so she did this as a Thanksgiving offering to God. And brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young, probably about three years old. That's how long it takes to wean a child, especially in those days. They didn't have all of this milk that you can buy and all kinds of other things.

So kids grew up with mother's milk for many years. Verse 25, Then they slaughtered a bull and brought the child to Eli. And she said, O my Lord, as your soul lives, my Lord, I am the woman who stood by you here, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition, which I asked of him. So again, you should never give up on prayer.

God knows the right time. You see, it wasn't just about Hannah. It was the time to liberate Israel. God had great plans. There had been about 300 years of the time of Judges that had been all of these same cycles that they had gone through of freedom and then prosperity and then opulence and then catastrophe, decadence, and then captivity to go back with the liberator, which brought freedom and prosperity.

But then too much of that creates degeneracy, and eventually they fell into slavery again. So it says here in verse 28, Therefore I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he shall be lent to the Lord. Which means here I made a commitment. He's not going to live with us in our house. He's not going to please me as my only son. I am fulfilling what I committed myself to do, even as painful and sorrowful as it was going to be. And so they worshiped the Lord there. And Hannah prayed. And just, I'm not going to read the whole prayer.

You can read it. But she is rejoicing that God has answered, and that those that humiliated her could no longer do so. In verse 11, he goes on the story, Then Al-Kana went to his house at Ramah, but the child ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest. So he was a Levite. He was taken as an apprentice to Eli.

And so we go to verse 12. Here's the sad part. What was going on at that time with the representatives of God? The priesthood. Verse 22. Now the sons of Eli were corrupt. They did not know the Lord. Here's this paradox that here you have the sons of the priest, and they're there with a tabernacle, with the ark, with all of these miraculous things that represented leaving Egypt and all the miracles. And here you have the chief representatives, Eli and his two sons. And these two sons, what does the Bible say about them? They did not know the Lord.

So you can go through the motions, but that doesn't mean you are truly converted. And these two sons, they had inherited the title. And they were taking advantage of their position as priests. And do you know what the word in Hebrew for corrupt is here? Sons of Belial. Belial, the same that is used in 2 Corinthians 6. Let me go there for a moment.

2 Corinthians 6, verse 15, talks about sons of Belial. And Belial is the devil. So here we have these unconverted men taking advantage of their religious privileges to satisfy themselves. So you see, it happens through the ages. It happened during this time with Eli. Continuing on, it says verse 13, The fleshhook brought up, so they did in Chiloh, to all the Israelites who came there.

Well, no, they weren't supposed to do that. They were supposed to take the breast of the animal and another part. But they were out there and they were just bringing the best of the meat out, leaving many of the scraps. And so they were stealing from God. That is not good policy, believe me. It goes on to say, So they didn't want boiled meat. They wanted to have their own roasted beef, which was prohibited.

It was supposed to be all boiled. And if the man said to him, they should really burn the fat first, then you may take as much as your heart desires. He would then answer him, no, but you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force. So here again, greed had a place. They were robbing from the offering that the person was doing toward God. And thirdly, it says, So what was the result?

People got turned off with religion. They got turned off with the priests. They saw the priests were taking advantage of what should have been offered properly to God. And so the people basically went back into idolatry. Instead of following God and his representatives, they were turned off by the examples.

And then you see the contrast with little Samuel, verse 18. But Samuel ministered before the Lord even as a child, wearing a linen ephod, which was one of the priestly dresses. Even if he was a little child, he took his job very seriously and always was there in the right garb, serving Eli and the other priests, despite what they were doing wrong. Verse 19, here's a very tender scripture. Moreover, his mother used to make him a little robe and bring it to him year by year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. It looks like she could only visit him once a year, but she would knit and prepare a robe, which is usually the overcoat, because it can get very cold in Israel during the winter time. And so she prepared a coat for him to keep him warm in the winter time. Going on, it says, verse 20, And Eli would bless Al-Kana and his wife. They were such a great example. And say, The Lord gave you descendants from this woman for the loan that was given to the Lord. Again, she lent her son. It was hers, but she gave it to God. Then they would go to their own home. And the Lord visited Hannah so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. It actually ended up with six children when she was barren. Meanwhile, the child Samuel grew before the Lord. So in the meantime, Samuel was giving an example of how a young priest should act. And again, we see the parallel with Christ. He grew in grace and knowledge before all people. Verse 22, Now Eli was very old, and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel. And this is the third great sin of Eli's sons, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. Now, you have in the instructions about the tabernacle, you actually had women that were there around serving, helping out in many things, especially with the fixing up of the tabernacles or the weaving of things. And so that was a community to take care of the tabernacle. And what were these two sons doing? They were telling the women, Well, if you lay with me or us, God is going to bless you. And we're going to have this blessing because we are priests. And just like they did with the surrounding nations, where it's called ritual fornication, which was a type of ritual where the women would do this so that they would be blessed by the God that they had in mind. So this was borrowed from Balaism, which was in the surrounding countries. Verse 23.

They're getting disillusioned. So this is a danger that we always have, people getting disillusioned about the religion. Verse 25. If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him? Nevertheless, they did not heed the voice of their father because the Lord desired to kill them. So it's very interesting. A commentary brings out here. It says, Eli's useless warning. It wasn't until Eli heard reports of immorality that he finally reproved his sons. But it was far too late for his mild verbal reproof to have any effect. They hardened their hearts, and so were judicially hardened, like Pharaoh of old. In other words, their hearts became very hard, stubborn, resistant, and God said, because of that attitude, I'm going to make it worse for them. Nelson's commentary gives this said comment about Eli. The joy of aged parents, such as Eli, is in the godly success of their children. Few pains are greater in old age than to realize that one's children are living in spiritual ruin, as Eli did. Here was a priest, and his children were destroying the credibility, the reputation of the family. And Eli never took actions and removed his sons from those positions and punished them, according to God's law. He didn't apply it. And so he enabled his children to get worse.

In verse 26, it says, And the child Samuel grew in stature, and in favor both with the Lord and men. So what lessons can we learn from this part of the account? There's still a lot more to go. The best part is still ahead. Number one, don't lose hope. Hannah is an example. You never know when the day comes when God says, enough is enough. I will intervene. But it's all according to his purposes. Israel needed a judge and a liberator at that time. Number two, God is not a respecter of persons. Even if these people had the title of priests, God judges them by his law like anyone else. And they were flaunting and they were more responsible for damaging Israel's faith than any other people. And God's justice is slow, but he will carry it out in due time. Number three, notice that some go through the motions of religion. But do not truly know God in a personal, with the proper fear of God that you want to obey him and apply his laws. Not because somebody is pushing it on you, because you've internalized those principles. They are part of you. It doesn't matter who you're around. You're going to keep those principles. And finally, Eli shows the end result of what that warning that he did, he lost control of his children. Don't ever lose control of your children. He never took firm actions, and so Eli was punished as well. Remember Paul's teaching about the days of unleavened bread, which we just concluded. A little leavening, a little tolerance of sin, will spread it farther. And Eli, because of his tolerance, spread the sin, not only in his sons, but in Israel. They went after false gods. And they always said, well, look what's happening in Shiloh. And you should never use that as an excuse. If you've internalized your principles, you're doing it because that's the right thing to do. Not because somebody else is going to be your guide or whatever. You do it because of your own convictions. Because every person is fallible. In Jeremiah 15 verse 1, I'll finish with this scripture. Talking to Jeremiah, the prophet. Jeremiah 15 verse 1, Notice God used those two intercessors. He said, even if they came, they have done so much evil that even their intercessions would not be sufficient. The next time we plan to continue more about the life and lessons of this great prophet of God, Samuel, the intercessor.