Samuel - The Great Prophet, Judge, Priest and Intercessor

We have a very interesting topic today. And as I was preparing it, I just marvel at how God can cram so much information and lessons in such a short story. When you think about it, like what we're going to be covering with all the material about this individual, it's probably less than 10 pages. It would take you maybe 10 minutes to go over, 10-15 minutes to go over it. And yet, it is chock-full of lessons, spiritual lessons. And even though this person lived approximately 3,000 years ago, he is as natural to us as the person that's sitting right here. Samuel could be sitting right next to us, and we would be able to talk with him and relate with the spiritual lessons that he learned. It's a beautiful story, but even more important, it's such a personal interest story for all of us. I hope you get to love the great prophet and priest and judge and intercessor named Samuel. Last week, we covered basically the first part of his life, and today we are going to cover the second and last part of his life. So this is part two about the great prophet Samuel. And last week, we covered four lessons just in those first three chapters of 1 Samuel. I mentioned actually four lessons, right? And the first one had to do with his mother, Hannah. By the way, we have Hannah here among us. Do you know who she is? It's Hannah. Hannah. That's what she's mentioned in the Bible. Hannah is a Hebrew name for Anna. So we have somebody named after her. And what was a great lesson from the mother of Samuel? Don't lose hope. You never know when God will say, enough is enough. I'm going to lift whatever is ailing you, whatever is hindering you. And I see your devotion and dedication. And he intervened powerfully for this woman that was barren, having a very hard time because the other wife was always taunting her and God intervened. And little Samuel was born and she had promised that she would dedicate him to God. He would become a minister in that sense. He was already a priest and she was willing to turn him over. As it says in the Bible, I'm going to lend him to God. And that takes a lot of courage, a lot of faith, a lot of sacrifice because that was her firstborn son. And here we are in Mother's Day and it should remind us all the mothers like Hannah, they have hopes, they have desires, and God listens. He loves mothers. They're a basic unit of any family. And Israel needed a judge and a Savior at that time and he used this barren woman to carry out his will. The second lesson we went through is that God is not a respecter of persons. In other words, he doesn't tilt the judgment favorable to somebody, whereas the other person doesn't get a fair hearing. With God, everybody gets a fair hearing. Notice what it tells us in 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 17, about God not being a respecter of persons. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 17.

It says, And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear with respect toward God.

And so God is not a respecter of persons and we are going to reap what we sow in our lives. He says, if you're with me, I'm going to be with you. You're going to go through different trials, but I will be with you and I am perfecting you through the trials that you will go through.

You are in good hands. The third lesson, some people go through the motions of being religious. But they don't truly know God in a personal way. They do not have godly respect for his laws.

In 1 John chapter 3 verse 18, let's go there, 1 John chapter 3 and verse 18. It says, my little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but indeed and in truth. Another translation has it, the God's word translation. Dear children, we must show love through actions that are sincere, not through empty words. So yes, some people, they act religious. They might attend, but are they truly showing their religion in their works or is it just with their words, with that appearance? And the last lesson, because I'm going over this third one, because Eli had two sons that were that way. They were going through their religious motions, but they truly did not fear and deeply respect God. And then the fourth lesson, Eli shows the end result of the warning when he lost control over his children. He never took firm actions to remove them from their positions because of their sins and punish them by applying God's laws. So he did not cultivate godly fear and respect in his own home.

And he suffered the consequences of what we will see in a moment. So let's pick up the story in 1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 22.

1 Samuel chapter 2. And by the way, this is great for young people to listen to, because Samuel was a young man, and I'm sure kids made fun of him. He had a lot of work to do in that tabernacle in Shiloh. His mother and father were away during most of the year. He had Eli and some of the others training him. He became an apprentice. He had to be there with the people that would bring sacrifices before God. So we pick up the account in 1 Samuel chapter 2 and verse 22. We see that there is a big problem in Israel. Religion there was not being respected because of the way Eli and his sons were carrying it out, and God was fed up. He had a moment when he just said, enough is enough, because Eli thought he could get away with it, and his children did too. It says in verse 22, Now Eli was very old, and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, in how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. I went over that last week. So he said to them, Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. He had many complaints. No, my sons, for it is not a good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people transgress. So again, people were turned off to religion because of the example they were seeing, the hypocrisy there. And then he says to them, If one man sins against another, God will judge him. There's a mediator there. But if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede? Who will be the mediator then? Because they were directly responsible. They had a duty, and they were derelict in that duty. Nevertheless, they did not heed the voice of their father because the Lord desired to kill them. God says, Eli, you're not going to do anything about it, and keep it up, and I will take care. And finally, God says, I'm fed up with the way Eli has been handling this. I'm going to intervene. But notice the contrast between this bad example and the good example that little Samuel showed. And the child Samuel grew in stature and in favor, both with the Lord and men. This is a scripture mentioned later about Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Verse 27, what does God do? He warns a person. He warns them in different ways, sometimes through circumstances, sometimes with someone that he puts in a person's path to wake him up. And that's the case here. He sent a prophet. Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, Thus says the Lord, did I not clearly reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? Because Eli was of the branch of the Levites, and he was also of the house of Aaron. So God is saying, do you forget the privilege that you have back in Egypt when I separated the when they left Egypt? I separated the house of Eli to be in charge of my tabernacle. He goes on to say, Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest? That's Aaron and Levites under him to offer upon my altar to burn incense and to wear an ephod before me, which was this breastplate that the high priest would wear with the different jewels that would actually, if they asked them a question to God, the jewels would shine and it was a code. They could go ahead and receive the message. So they were God's transmitters of his will.

He goes on to say, And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? I'm going to provide the food for you. And then God asks him, Indignated, Why do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering which I have commanded in my dwelling place? So he was despising that sacrifice. He was taking advantage of it. He was allowing his sons to take advantage of it. And honor your sons more than me. That's a key point.

Sometimes that's our mistake. We love them so much that we bend the rules for them. And they start getting used to bending the rules. And the parent eventually gives in, and the children are controlling them instead of them controlling their children. He says, To make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel, my people. So they were taking the best pieces. And let us remember, just like Andrew Jukes in that book about the law of the offerings, which is an old book, but it mentions how all these offerings pointed to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And that when they offered the sacrifices, it was a way to receive the acceptance of God and for God to accept in a sweet-smelling savor their sacrifice. Because Jesus Christ fulfilled every one of those elements of the different types of sacrifices, the seven types. And Jesus Christ was the perfect. So here, Eli was polluting that significance. He was polluting that proper sacrifice. And then it goes on to say, So again, God is not a respecter of persons. And here they've been given this great privilege, but that could be taken away. And it was going to be taken away from the house of Eli.

Verse 31.

Yes, the tabernacle at Shiloh had lasted from the time of Joshua, when he conquered the land, had lasted 300 years. And by the way, archaeological evidence in the recent digs, I would say they started about 70 years ago, but now they have last 10 years, they've been digging. And what have they found? They have found that there was an altar there. They look at all the remains and they find clean animal bones. None that are unclean. No pork was sacrificed there. But they were all clean animals. And so from all the evidence, it points, yes, Shiloh was the place where people would go and sacrifice. And so, of course, God said, after all these years, and now you have polluted my place, and you're going to pay a price for that. You will see an enemy in my dwelling place. And so God's going to allow the Philistines to come, take the Ark of the Covenant and destroy Shiloh. And there is this destruction level, this burnt level, which goes back to the time of Samuel. Verse 34.

Well, verse 33. But any of your men whom I do not cut off from my altar, shall consume your eyes and grieve your heart. They will not be respected. And all the descendants of your house shall die in the flower of their age. Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, on Hophni and Phineas. In one day they shall die both of them. Then I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. He will do my will. I will build him a sure house and he shall walk before my anointed forever. In other words, the place that God has anointed. And it shall come to pass, that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread and say, please put me in one of the priestly positions that I may eat a piece of bread. So they were basically being removed from their prime position. And now they're just going to be this branch of the Levites that would not have any real responsibilities and they couldn't earn their keep very well. Notice, keep one finger here in 1 Samuel and let's go to 1 Kings chapter 2 because here you see this prophecy is fulfilled. 1 Kings chapter 2 verse 26. This was one of Eli's descendants. It says, and to Abiathar the priest, the king said, talking here Solomon, go to Anathoth to your own fields for you are deserving of death, but I will not put you to death at this time because you carried the ark of the Lord God before my father David and because you were afflicted every time my father was afflicted. So Solomon removed Abiathar from being priest to the Lord that he might fulfill the word of the Lord which he spoke concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh. And who did he replace him with? In verse 35 it says, the king put Benaiah the son of Jehoi-dai in his place over the army, and the king put Zadok the priest in the place of Abiathar. And so here we have a different branch from the tribe of Levi who now is the one responsible. So Eli ruined it for all of his house and descendants. So there are these consequences and we have seen this through time how people think they can get away with things and God just intervenes. In the past we had a person that was in a high position and basically went against the Sabbath and the holy days. And from that moment when he said that it was no longer going to be kept, from that moment in 40 weeks he had a horrible bone cancer that ate away his body and in 40 weeks he was dead. And so God intervenes. He's patient. And we see Eli suffering such consequences.

In Ezekiel 44, 15, just jot it down, it talks about even when Christ comes back and establishes his temple in Jerusalem, who will be there? It'll be the house of Sadduck, who will be the priests because they were faithful when Eli and his family were not.

So going back now to 1 Samuel chapter 3, we see that despite God warning Eli, he did not repent. 1 Samuel chapter 3 verse 10, it says, Now the Lord came and stood and called at other times, Samuel, Samuel, and Samuel answered, Speak for your servant here. So God called him several times.

In verse 11, he finally gets his attention and Samuel realizes God was speaking to him. Then the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. Today it's burning ears.

Big news is going to happen and it's going to be horrible news. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, his dynasty, his children, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows because his sons made themselves vile and he did not restrain them. So again, these are principles. We have a responsibility and we love our children, but at the same time we have to keep that respect of God. He goes on to say, verse 14, And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. So, as in modern terms, great power requires great responsibility. And so, of course, Eli was going to suffer more than the typical Israelite that transgressed against God. Verse 15. So Samuel lay down until morning and opened the doors of the house of the Lord at the tabernacle, and Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son, he answered, here I am. And he said, what is the word that the Lord spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all the things that he said to you. So here Eli was very curious. He knew God was speaking to Samuel. But boy, did he ever regret having to hear all these words. In verse 18, then Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. So here Eli just said, well, I guess that's what I deserve. There was no repentance, no change of heart. There are people like that. They just, instead of repenting, waking up, they just resigned themselves. That shows why God could not get Eli's attention. We need to have, as the Bible tells us, a very educated ear. We're willing to be corrected that we listen to advice and correction when necessary. Because Eli was just saying, I can't do anything. My kids control me. I can't do anything about their evil deeds. And then it goes on to say in verse 19, so Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. Of course, in contrast with Eli, here was a man that truly respected and feared God. He carried out all of God's will. He did the sacrifices in the proper way. He didn't steal from God. He didn't take advantage of women at all. Verse 20, in all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord. They saw God was with him. Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. He was no longer using Eli. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. So this little boy, basically an orphan because his mother had to give him away, and yet now he became this great prophet and judge and priest of God. And he is in one of those heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11. You can read his name.

So we go to chapter 4, where it describes the terrible punishment carried upon the house of Eli and Israel, because they also weren't doing the right things. This is a type of excuse. Well, they're doing things wrong. I can do things wrong, as it tells us in Judges. Everybody was doing according to what they thought was right, and so were the sons of Eli. But that is no excuse. You can continue doing what God is telling you to do, what he commands us to do, whether other people do it or not. And so it says in verse 1, Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, their old enemies, and encamped beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped in Affic. Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel, and when they joined battle again, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about 4,000 men of the army in the field. And what happened? They panicked. The Israelites panicked, but you talk about a bad idea. They said, well, let's take the ark with us, because everybody feared the ark. The surrounding countries had known what God had done with Egypt and all the miracles, and so now they come, but guess what? They weren't spiritually ready. And so instead of God handing them a victory, he handed them a defeat.

Verse 10. So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent. There was panic. There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel 30,000 foot soldiers. Also the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, died, just like God said on that very same day. And what happened with Eli?

Verse 12. Then a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line the same day and came to Shiloh, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. Now when he came, there was Eli sitting on a seat by the wayside watching. For his heart trembled for the ark of God. He was the one that had allowed him to take it. And when the man came into the city and told it, all the city cried out. Been defeated. Now they're going to be conquering them. People were in a panic. The only thing you can describe similarly what's happening in Ukraine right now. The terrible toll of life, the fear in people. Well, this is what was going through Israel at this time.

Verse 14.

When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said, What does the sound of this tumult mean? And the man came quickly and told Eli. Eli was 98 years old, and his eyes were so dim that he could not see, virtually blind.

Then the man said to Eli, I am he who came from the battle. And I fled today from the battle line. And he said, What happened, my son? So the messenger answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines. And there has been a great slaughter among the people. Also, your two sons, Hophni and Phineas, are dead. And the Ark of God has been captured. So it had been safe for 300 years from the time that they built that tabernacle in the wilderness there in the Sinai Peninsula. And now it had been taken over by enemies. Then it happened when he made mention of the Ark of God that Eli fell off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken. And he died for the man was old and heavy. Yeah, he'd been having a lot of sacrifices and nice barbecues there in the backyard. And he had judged Israel for 40 years. So he was a judge, but not a good one. And so let's go to chapter 5, basically. It's a humorous story because when you're fooling with God and his people and the Ark, things are not going to go as you think. You might get away with things. You might attack God's people for a while, but don't rouse God's anger because these Philistines went through worse slaughters because they had the Ark. And so it was like a hot potato going from one city to the other, and there was a plague that accompanied the Ark. So it says, verse 1, then the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. One of the Philistine cities. When the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by Dagon. So Dagon was called the fish god. And it's interesting that in some of the Assyrian murals, they have a picture of one of the priests with this type of a dress of a big fish, kind of like with an open mouth at the top, and it's a fish head, and then the scales in the back. And that was one of the priests of Dagon. Do you know today anybody that's wearing one of these big tiaras and big hats with open, like a mouth of the fish head? Well, that's still there today.

And so it says, when the people of Ashdod arose early in the morning, there was Dagon fallen on his face to the earth before the Ark of the Lord. Nothing can face God. So they took Dagon and set it in its place again. And when they arose early the next morning, there was Dagon fallen on his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord. The head of Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold. Only Dagon's torso was left of it. Therefore, neither the priest of Dagon or any who came into Dagon's house tread on that threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day became a cursed place. But the hand of the Lord was heavy on the people of Ashdod, and he ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. Now, this term, tumors, are types of boils that would just fester in people.

And it's interesting from when you read in chapter 6 verse 4, when they finally gave up trying to keep the Ark, they went to their priests and others, and then they said, What is the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden tumors and five golden rats, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines, for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. And so it's interesting that the relationship between tumors and rats has to do most likely with the bubonic plague, because it's rats who bring that infected tick that bites a person, and it causes these boils, these tumors, to grow.

They are pus-filled boils, what they call buboes, where the word bubonic comes from, and this is called the Black Death. It killed at least a third of the population in Europe from the year 1346 to 1353. In seven years, that plague killed 25 million people, which was about a third of the population. Victims first suffered pain, then fever, then boils, then swollen lymph nodes and blotches on the skin. After that, they vomited blood and died within three days. It took them three days to die. And so it talks about here in verse 11 of chapter 5. It says, so they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, send away the ark of the god of Israel and let it go back to its own place so that it does not kill us and our people. So it wasn't just some fever they got. They were getting killed. For there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city. The hand of God was very heavy there and the men who did not die were stricken with the tumors and the cry of the city went up to heaven. About half of the people recover, but a half are killed within three days. And so they returned the ark. Notice in first Samuel chapter 7 verses 1 and 2. It says, Then the men of Kirjath, Jerim came and took the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadad on the hill and consecrated Eliezer, his son, to keep the ark of the Lord.

And so they returned the ark, but Shiloh had been destroyed.

And it stayed in this place now at this house. They set up the temple or the tabernacle there. It lasted for a hundred years until King David took it and brought it to Jerusalem. And finally it went into the Solomon's temple. So that was the fate of the ark.

Continuing on in verse 3, now Samuel takes over. Elie, his two sons, were dead. Samuel becomes the new judge, priest, and also prophet. Verse 3. It says, Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the storith from among you, and prepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.

You know which is the biggest word in this phrase? If.

If you do this. See, following God is conditional. You're not going to be blessed unless you do your part. And he's saying, If you do the right things, God will be with you. It's a simple lesson, but it's hard to apply during a person's life.

He continues on. So the children of Israel put away the bales and the storiths, and serve the Lord only. Here was the Reformation. Here was the cleanup campaign, where finally a man of God puts things into place, because it had been derelict. It had been deteriorated for such a long time, especially under Eli and his sons. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mispa, and I will pray to the Lord for you. This is one of the characteristics. Samuel was always praying for God's people, for the intervention. He wasn't praying so much for himself as for his people. So they gathered together at Mispa, drew water, and poured it out before the Lord. And they fasted that day and said, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mispa. Finally, they repented. Finally, they turned to God. Finally, they put away the pagan customs. Now, some people want to do both. They want to have the foreign customs and serve God at the same time. Well, God is a jealous God. He doesn't want competition. He wants us to put Him first, His ways, His laws first.

Verse 7. Now, when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mispa, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. Now, they had had great success before. The problem was these were not spiritual people. They didn't realize now they had a righteous judge and prophet and a ruler over them. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. They were very powerful. So the children of Israel said to Samuel, Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hands of the Philistines. They didn't trust themselves very much, but they knew that it was Samuel that got God's ear, that it was Samuel that could intervene before them. Verse 9.

And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Then Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. Isn't that great? And God answers that way. Now, as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with loud thunder upon the Philistines that day and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. Yes, when you got rain and lightning and it's following you around, they couldn't get away from it.

So Israel intervened, and the men of Israel went out of Mispot and pursued the Philistines and drove them back as far as below Beth-Kar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mispot and Shen and called its name Ebenezer, saying, Thus far the Lord has helped us. Ebenezer means that the Lord helps. So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come any more into the territory of Israel. Why? Because it was an Eli that was there. Now people were serious about their religion. There was a reformation and a restoration of the true religion, and that happened in the 20th century.

It happened in this country back in the 1920s in a place there in Eugene, Oregon, when a man called Herbert Armstrong basically came from a Protestant background. He learned about the Sabbath day, and then he learned about the holy days because God was showing him what he should do. And Herbert Armstrong kept the holy days for seven years with his wife, not knowing the real purpose, the spiritual meaning, because God was testing him. First you obey, then you learn, you understand.

And after that, why he started sharing, and through radio and television and publications, people came to the knowledge of the truth. And we all are part of that mission, and he was guided by God. He was a man. We don't elevate him to the point where the Bible is less important. No, the Bible is still above him. He's one of the servants. But just like with Samuel, people started getting rid of their pagan systems. And boy, his modern Christianity saturated with pagan traditions. He goes on to say, In the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

God blessed the work at that time. Verse 14, Then the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel. So the territory of Israel grew from Ekron to Gath. And Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. He went from year to year on the circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mithpa, and judged Israel in all those places.

But he always returned to Ramah. For his home was there. There he judged Israel, and there he built and altered to the Lord. He was a priest. In chapter 8, this is when the people wanted a king instead of Samuel. Verse 1, Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah. They were judges in Beersheba, but his sons did not walk in his ways.

They turned aside from dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice. Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. And it seemed like Samuel had been so busy serving people he neglected his own children, and basically they took advantage of their positions as well. The elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, Look, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations. But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, Give us a king to judge us.

So Samuel prayed to the Lord. He interceded. He always checked with God first. And the Lord said to Samuel, Heed the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. According to all the works which they have done since a day that I brought them out of Egypt, even to this day with which they have forsaken me and served other gods, so they are doing to you also.

Now therefore heed their voice. However, you will solemnly forewarn them and show them the behavior of the king who will reign over them. And so God told Samuel, This is the man that is going to be the first king. And that was King Saul. That's in chapter 9 of Samuel. And he proved to be a great disappointment. In 1 Samuel 16, we see the highlight of Samuel's ministry when he was sent to anoint David as king. And God said in verse 7 to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him.

For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And so David was a man after God's own heart. And in 1 Samuel 25, it tells us about the death of Samuel. He was a faithful man of God. And so here are the lessons that we can learn.

Number one, even as a young man, a young person can give a good example and be powerfully used by God if obedient and humble. Even a young man can give a good example and be powerfully used by God if obedient and humble. Proverbs 20 verse 11, I'd like to read it in the Good News Bible.

It says, even children show what they are by what they do. You can tell if they are honest and good. So here Samuel showed that he won the respect of the people through his actions and words. Number two, don't exceed the authority given to you. That's what happened to Saul with the sacrifices that Samuel had told him. Wait for me, I will carry it out. Saul got impatient and offered sacrifice like he was a priest. With King Agag, he left him, the king of the Amalekites, alive. God had told him, exterminate him and Saul's jealousy toward David.

So Saul was used to getting his own way, doing things his own way, and not God's way. And finally, be a great intercessor for others. Pray for God's people, for his work, and be about our Father's business. As it says in 1 Samuel 12 verse 23, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. He really cared for his people. And so we have this wonderful example of the prophet, the priest, and the judge named Samuel. And God put in the Bible to teach us such important spiritual lessons.