Scripture Reading: 1 Sam. 2:27-30, 35; 3:21; 12:3-5, 23; 18:1-4; 23:16-18; 9:1-2, 17; 13:13-14; 15:19, 23; 16:1, 12-13; 30:6-10; 26:19b
The books of Samuel, as books of history, are on Christ for our enjoyment that God may carry out His economy. These books reveal the right, the particular, and even the full way for us to enjoy Christ that we may be a part of God's economy. Concerning this we need to realize that God desires people who are according to Him, people who are His duplication. In the long period of history covered in 1 Samuel 1 to 2 Samuel 1, there are five major figures: Eli, Samuel, Jonathan, Saul, and David. We need to learn the lessons of these five persons in relation to God's economy.
A descendant of Aaron, who was chosen to be God's priest, Eli was a priest by birth according to God's ordination.
As a priest Eli had the right to enjoy the top portion of all the good land allotted to the twelve tribes of Israel (Num. 18).
Eli disregarded the priesthood in his loose disciplining of his two evil sons (1 Sam. 2:28-29). This caused the tragedy of the ending of his history, the termination of his enjoyment of the good land, and the fading of the priesthood in the divine revelation, that is, in the speaking for God. Today we need to learn of Eli to have a high regard for what God has given us in His recovery.
Samuel was faithful in all his statuses and offices. As a Levite, he served God his whole life. As a Nazarite, he kept his consecration without failure. As a priest-prophet, he spoke for God honestly and initiated the prophethood to replace the fading priesthood in the divine revelation. As a judge, he was faithful to God and just to the people, terminating the judgeship and bringing in the kingship for the changing of the age in the fulfillment of God's economy on the earth.
Samuel enjoyed his portion of the good land to the fullest for his whole life. He was therefore a person who enjoyed the God-allotted portion of the promised good land, that is, Christ. There was no defect in his enjoyment of Christ.
The only defect in Samuel's history was that he appointed his two sons as judges among the children of Israel. His sons did not follow in his ways, and this gave cause for the children of Israel to ask for a king (8:1-7). Humanly speaking, Samuel made a mistake in this matter, but this mistake helped God to manage the situation among His people for the fulfillment of His economy.
Jonathan loved David, covenanted with him, and predicted that he would be the second in David's kingdom when David would be the king (18:1-4; 19:1-7; 20:8, 14-17, 41-42; 23:16-18). Saul's intention was to preserve the kingdom for Jonathan. However, Jonathan was not willing to take the kingdom but recognized that David should be on the throne. Jonathan should have told his father about this and then should have left his father to be with David. In typology, for Jonathan to follow David would have signified our following Christ today and our giving Him the preeminence. If Jonathan had gone with David, Saul might not have suffered such a tragic ending. Saul might have been helped by Jonathan not to build up a monarchy for himself but to build up the kingdom of God.
Jonathan realized that David would be the king, but instead of going to follow David, Jonathan stayed with his father because of his natural affection toward his father.
Because Jonathan would not leave his father, he suffered the same fate as his father and died with him in the battle.
Jonathan lost the proper and adequate enjoyment of his portion in the good land promised by God because of his failure in not following David according to God's will due to his natural affection toward his father.
Saul was chosen by God and anointed by Samuel to be the king of Israel (9:17; 10:1, 24).
Saul disobeyed God's word at least twice so that he lost his kingship and his kingdom (13:13-14; 15:19, 23; 28:17-19). When Saul disobeyed God in chapter fifteen, he actually rebelled against Him. Thus, in this chapter Samuel told Saul, "Rebellion is like the sin of divination,/And insubordination is like idolatry and teraphim" (v. 23a). To practice divination is to have contact with evil spirits, something that is utterly contrary to God's principle. What Saul did in rebelling against God was like this sin of divination. Saul was not subordinate to God and in fact became an enemy to God. As a result, he lost his kingship.
Saul's ambition to have the kingdom for himself and for his son, with his jealousy of David, confiscated and ended his enjoyment of the good land promised by God (20:30-34).
First, David was chosen and anointed by God through Samuel (16:1, 12-13). After David slew Goliath he was praised by the women of Israel as higher than Saul (18:7).
With David there is no hint that he was made proud nor that he became ambitious for the kingship.
After David was anointed and before he was enthroned as the king of Israel, he went through the trial of Saul's persecution for about seven years, from about 1063—1057 B.C. While he was under the trial, he was approved to be the right one to carry out God's economy by establishing the kingdom of God on the earth.
When David was under Saul's persecution, he had two chances to destroy Saul. However, David would not do this because of his fear of God in that Saul was God's anointed (chs. 24, 26). The fact that David would not do anything to damage God's anointed indicates that David maintained a good order in God's kingdom.
Although David had slain Goliath, the giant of the Philistines, and could have been useful to Saul in utterly defeating the Philistines, Saul would not use David to accomplish this but instead persecuted him. David was forced, by Saul's seeking to kill him, to stay in the land of the Philistines (27:1-7).
At the death of Saul David did not rejoice but rather sentenced to death the reporter of Saul's death and then sang a dirge praising and uplifting Saul to the uttermost (2 Sam. 1).
No doubt, David learned a lot regarding not avenging himself but denying himself for the fulfilling of God's purpose, on the basis that he was a man according to God's heart (1 Sam. 13:14a).
David was a person who trusted in God and walked according to God's sovereignty in all his trials (17:36-37; 23:14-16; 30:6b-10). While he was under trial, he sought God's leading. He was one with God and behaved according to God.
David is a typical model of a genuine child of Israel in the enjoyment of the good land promised and given by God to His chosen people, by trusting in God and walking with God according to His leading and instruction. David expected to remain in the good land and share in Jehovah's inheritance and serve Him (26:19b). His sincere trust in God and his faithful walk with God qualified him fully to enjoy the good land to a high level, even up to the kingship in the good land according to God's heart with a kingdom which became the kingdom of God on the earth. David was one with God. What was his was God's, and what was God's was his. He and God had only one kingdom. Such a one enjoyed the good land, Christ, to the uttermost.
