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Scripture Reading: 1 Sam. 1:11, 28; 2:35; 10:1; 16:1, 13; 3:20; 7:3-17; 8:6; 15:11; 12:23
In this message we will begin to consider Samuel's ministry. Under God's sovereignty, Samuel was given to God by his mother, he grew up under the custody of Eli, he was educated and perfected, and his eyes were opened to see both positive and negative things. As a result, he became a person who was ready to be used by God to turn the age.
First Samuel 7:1 tells us that the men of Kiriath-jearim brought the ark of Jehovah to the house of Abinadab. "It was a long time from the day when the ark began to abide in Kiriath-jearim, for it was twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after Jehovah" (v. 2). Here we see a dividing line in the history of Israel. Prior to this time Israel's situation was upside-down; after this time the situation became right-side-up. According to verse 3 Samuel "spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If you are returning with all your heart to Jehovah, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from your midst, and direct your heart to Jehovah and serve only Him; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." Then the children of Israel removed the Baalim and the Ashtaroth and served only Jehovah (v. 4). Following this Samuel said, "Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to Jehovah for you" (v. 5). The picture portrayed in these verses is very beautiful. Here we have a people returning to God and a man — Samuel — who was one with God on earth. We may say that Samuel was the acting God on earth. At least we may say that Samuel was the representative of the very God in heaven to rule over His people on earth. As such a person, Samuel began to minister.
Samuel, who was by nature a Levite born of one of the descendants of the great rebel Korah (1 Chron. 6:33-38; cf. Num. 16:1-33), ministered in five statuses.
First, Samuel ministered as a Nazarite consecrated to God absolutely for God's fulfillment of His economy, a volunteer to replace any official and formal serving ones of God (1 Sam. 1:11, 28a). The Nazarite vow was initiated by his mother and completed by Samuel.
Second, Samuel ministered as a priest.
Samuel was a priest not by birth but by God raising him up particularly. Referring to Samuel, God says in 2:35, "I shall raise up for Myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in My heart and in My mind; and I shall build him a sure house; and he shall go before My anointed continually." This indicates that Samuel would be a faithful priest to act on behalf of God, even to appoint and establish kings for the divine government on earth. David was appointed and anointed by him. From this we see that Samuel was high in qualifications and great in capacity.
Samuel was faithful to God to do according to what was in God's heart and mind. His whole being and person, not just his doing, living, and work, were according to God. Samuel's being and God's heart were one. For this reason it is not too much to say that Samuel, a man according to God, was the acting God on earth. God's mind was Samuel's consideration. He had no other thought, consideration, or thinking. His living and working were for the carrying out of whatever was in God's heart. As a consequence, Samuel was one who turned the age.
As a priest Samuel replaced and terminated, in a sense, the stale Aaronic priesthood. He did not rebel against the house of Aaron, and he did not usurp anything of the house of Aaron. There was no revolution; there was only revelation. As Samuel was growing, God arranged the environment to perfect him and to build up his capacity to do everything that was needed for God to change the age. In the recovery the Lord will never allow any kind of rebellion, but He will bring in many changes, adjustments, and improvements, not through rebellion but through revelation.
Samuel had a clear view of God's economy and also of what the enemy had been doing to devastate God's economy on earth. Samuel was thus a person full of insight concerning God's economy and concerning the environmental situation. Eventually, God did something to match him, and there was a change among the people of Israel. The people returned to God, lamented before God, and were willing to remove all the idols. Before this change took place, there was preparation on two sides: on the side of the people, who returned to God, and on the side of Samuel, who was perfected, equipped, and qualified for God's move on earth. In this situation the Philistines, who knew certain things concerning Israel and God and who tried to bribe God with their kind of trespass offering, were defeated to the uttermost.
In this replacing priesthood, Samuel anointed Saul and David to be kings (10:1; 16:1, 13) as God ordained that he should go before His anointed continually (2:35b) to supervise the king, observing what the king was doing. This indicates that Samuel, the acting God on earth, was greater than the king. Samuel could be qualified to such an extent because for many years God had been perfecting him for His economy, not for anything else.
When God's economy is carried out among His people, they are blessed. This means that our welfare, our well-being, is altogether linked to the carrying out of God's economy. We should not seek our well-being apart from God's economy. Because this has been neglected and even lost, it needs to be recovered. I wish to say, especially to the young saints, that we should not expect to have prosperity for ourselves. Rather, as saints in the Lord's recovery, we should expect that through us the Lord will do as much as possible to accomplish His economy. Then we will be blessed.
Samuel ministered, or served, not only as a priest but also as a prophet. As a priest he anointed the king, and as a prophet he assisted the king.
Samuel was established as a prophet by God (3:20), and no one could overthrow him.
Samuel was established by God to speak the word of God to replace the teaching of the word of God by the old priesthood. In the priesthood the first thing that a priest should do is speak for God. The breastplate and the Urim and the Thummim worn by the high priest were the means used by God to speak to His people. In the degradation of the priesthood, God's speaking was almost lost. Thus, God needed to raise up a living person, a prophet, to speak for Him, and this is what He did with Samuel. In God's ordination Samuel is counted as the first prophet. Of course, Abraham was a prophet speaking for God, but in God's ordained way Samuel was the first prophet to set up a prophethood.
In the Old Testament the last part of the divine revelation is with the prophets, from Isaiah to Malachi. Apart from God's speaking the universe would be empty. We thank the Lord that, by His mercy, we have His continual speaking in His recovery today.
Samuel's first prophesying was his speaking to Eli (3:1-18). Samuel received the word of God and spoke it to the old Eli in the waning priesthood. This speaking should have gone forth through Eli, but he was waning, and God could not speak through him. Instead, God spoke through someone much younger.
"Now the word of Jehovah was rare in those days; visions were not widespread" (v. 1b). This indicates that Samuel's prophesying in chapter three was at the time when the word of Jehovah was rare and visions were not widespread.
According to verse 2, Samuel's first prophesying was also at a time when the waning Eli's eyesight was so dim that he could not see.
Furthermore, Samuel began to prophesy at a time when the lamp of God had not yet gone out in the temple (v. 3). God's speaking had stopped, but there was still some light. Applying this to today's situation, we may say that in degraded Catholicism and Protestantism there is still a little enlightening. This is God's mercy.
At the time of chapter three, Samuel "did not yet know Jehovah, and the word of Jehovah had not yet been revealed to him" (v. 7). As described in verses 4 through 9, Samuel had a new experience: Jehovah called to him, and he began to hear Jehovah's speaking.
The first prophecy spoken by Samuel concerned God's severe judgment upon the house of Eli (vv. 10-18).
Fourth, Samuel ministered as a judge. A priest served God, a prophet spoke for God, and a judge carried out God's governmental administration. Samuel stood on the earth to be the acting God — the one representing God and acting for Him — in his priesthood, prophethood, and judgeship. In the church life in the Lord's recovery today, we have the priesthood, the prophethood, and the kingship. As a result, things are not upside-down but right-side-up.
Samuel was established by God to minister as a judge (7:15-17).
Samuel was established as a judge to replace the judging of the people by the old priesthood. The judgeship actually belonged to the priesthood, for the priesthood included the two matters of speaking for God and administrating for God. But because the old Aaronic priesthood was waning, God raised up Samuel to be a new priest, a new prophet, and a new judge.
Through Samuel and his threefold responsibility in the priesthood, prophethood, and judgeship, a good order was brought in, and the Philistines were defeated and subdued. In this situation, God commanded Samuel to anoint David to be God's chosen king. Samuel brought in David, a crucial ancestor of Christ. Christ's coming to earth was the greatest event in the universe, and credit for this should be given to Samuel.
Today Christ is our good land, and now we are developing Him and laboring on Him. We are the members of Christ and the constituents of His Body, the church. This is God's accomplishment of His eternal economy, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. In order to accomplish His eternal economy, God needed a Samuel.
Fifth, Samuel ministered as a man of prayer.
Samuel prayed for God's elect, the children of Israel (7:3-14; 8:6; 15:11b).
Samuel prayed for the children of Israel to be kept in the way of God, to be one with God, not to be ensnared by the idols of the nations, and to enjoy God as Eben-ezer, which means "the stone of help." "Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen; and he called its name Eben-ezer and said, Thus far Jehovah has helped us" (7:12).
Samuel prayed for God's elect that God's desire of His will in His elect might be fulfilled. Up to this day God has helped us, but why has He helped us? God has helped us that His desire might be fulfilled. We need to realize that God's helping us is for His fulfillment of His economy and that we are enjoying the blessing in this fulfillment. Today God is blessing us in every way for the fulfillment of His economy to build up the Body of Christ.
In Samuel's consideration, ceasing to pray for God's elect was to sin against Jehovah (12:23). We also need to pray for God's people. In particular, the co-workers and elders need to pray for the churches every day.
God admitted to Jeremiah that Samuel, like Moses, was a man standing before Him for His people (Jer. 15:1). Moses was a priest, a prophet (Deut. 18:15, 18), and a judge, and he always prayed for God's people. In these matters Samuel was the same. He was a priest, a prophet, and a judge who prayed for God's people. In the Old Testament, only Moses and Samuel were qualified to participate fully in the priesthood, the prophethood, and the judgeship.
