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Scripture Reading: 1 Sam. 8
In this message we will continue to consider the history concerning Samuel's ministry.
In chapter eight we see the ending of Samuel's ministry.
Samuel made his sons judges over Israel (vv. 1-3). However, they did not follow in his ways (v. 3a) but went after unjust gain and took bribes and perverted justice (v. 3b). This was evil in the sight of God (Exo. 18:21; 23:8; Deut. 16:19) and contrary to their father's pure and just way in his whole life (1 Sam. 12:3-5). Hence, the sons of Samuel should not be considered judges among the people of Israel, and their father Samuel should be considered the last judge. Hence, Samuel terminated the judgeship.
The unjust ways of Samuel's sons gave the people of Israel cause to ask him to appoint a king to judge them like all the nations. The elders of the people said to him, "Behold, you are old, and your sons do not follow in your ways. Appoint now for us a king to judge us like all the nations" (8:5).
By asking Samuel to appoint a king to judge them, the people of Israel displeased him and caused him to pray for them (v. 6).
Samuel did not like to see that God's elect would reject God as their King. From the first generation of the human race, man has been rejecting God as the King, the Head, and the Husband.
Samuel also did not want to see that God's elect would follow the way of the nations. Israel had been chosen by God to be a particular people on earth, and therefore they should have been absolutely different in every respect from the nations. Yet, they took the way of following the nations by rejecting God.
The people of Israel not only displeased Samuel but also offended God by rejecting Him as their King for a replacement. "Jehovah said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people according to all that they have said to you; for it is not you whom they have rejected, but they have rejected Me from being King over them" (v. 7).
In 12:12 Samuel said, "You said to me, No; but a king will reign over us, though Jehovah your God was your King." From this we see that actually God was the King over the people of Israel.
Their asking for a king was equal to rejecting God for a replacement. This was a great wickedness, a great evil, in the sight of God (vv. 17, 19).
God charged Samuel to listen to the people's voice but to warn them solemnly and declare to them the king's cruel reign over them, telling them of the custom of the king who would reign over them (8:9).
Samuel did what God charged him, speaking "all the words of Jehovah to the people, who had asked him for a king" (vv. 10-18).
The people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel (v. 19a). Instead, they said, "No; but we will have a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles" (vv. 19b-20).
Samuel heard all the words of the people and then consulted Jehovah, speaking their words in the hearing of Jehovah. Then Jehovah told him to listen to their voice and appoint a king to them (vv. 21-22).
By insisting on having a king, the elect of God turned from God to a man. From this we should learn the lesson that no matter what we do, no matter how good, "spiritual," and even scriptural it may be, as long as we have a replacement for God, that is evil. We may do good things, but those good things are evil in the sight of God as long as we reject Him as our Head, our Husband, and our King. It is not a matter of good or bad, right or wrong; it is a matter of whether we take God as our King or reject Him. Even in small matters such as shopping, we often take a replacement rather than God Himself. This is why the Nazarite must always keep his hair long, covering his head with God Himself as his authority.
We need to learn to take God as our Head in our married life. When we argue with our spouse, the only way to settle the disagreement is to stop arguing and come to our King, our Head. Although I am the husband, I would not exercise my headship. Rather, I would go with my wife to my Husband, to our Husband, to see what our Husband, the very God, would say to us. Whatever He would say, we would take. This settles every problem and maintains a good and proper married life.
We need to learn the same lesson concerning the service of God in the church life. Concerning any problem related to God's economy, we should stop any quarreling, struggling, debating, and reasoning and go to our Head. We should stand on the position that we keep our hair long; we should keep our vow as a Nazarite.
I encountered rebellious ones at least three times in the past forty-four years. Every time, I told the brothers, "Let us stop and go to the Lord and pray together. Let us gather the leading ones in the Lord's recovery and come together to pray and fellowship." But they would never agree. We all need to learn from this to accept the Lord as our Head, our Husband, and our King. This is the only way to participate in the fulfillment of God's eternal economy.
Samuel was a man who turned the age in God's administration from the age of the priesthood to the age of the prophethood with the kingship. This was a great thing not only in the history of Israel but even in the history of humankind.
The proper prophethood is always an assistant to the kingship. This should be a lesson to us. In the church life today, the elders hold the kingship. If you are not one of the elders and you see something in the church that is not so right, you should never criticize, oppose, or gossip. You need to be a prophet by praying to the Lord to receive a word from Him. If you do not receive a word from the Lord, you should not say anything. But if, in His mercy to His church, the Lord gives you a word, a prophecy, then you should go to the elders and prophesy to them. The elders, realizing that they hold the kingship, should learn that they are not all-capable, that they may be deficient. Therefore, they should listen to this brother's prophecy. This is the proper situation in the church life.
Moses was a priest, and after him God's administration was centered on the priesthood.
The priesthood was to minister the word of God to His people and to exercise the authority of God over His people. We all need to learn to do these two things. However, one may be a prophet, having a vision of the riches of Christ, but he may not know how to exercise God's authority to take the proper way to deal with the lack of vision concerning Christ's riches. Troubles in the church life are often caused by those who do not know how to exercise God's authority.
Once again I wish to emphasize the fact that Samuel never did anything rebellious, and his turning of the age was not through a revolution. Rather, it was absolutely a matter of the divine revelation. He behaved, worked, ministered, and served altogether in a mild, moderate, and proper way of revelation. He was a man of revelation, and he did everything according to what he saw. Furthermore, he was a man according to God's heart; that is, he was a copy, a duplicate, of God's heart. As such a person, he would never do anything rebellious.
The Aaronic priesthood failed God in two things: in ministering God's word and in exercising God's authority. This is why the New Testament charges the elders to learn to do two things: to teach the saints (1 Tim. 3:2; 5:17), that is, to speak the word of God; and to take the lead among the saints (Heb. 13:7; 1 Pet. 5:1-3), that is, to exercise God's authority. If the elders teach the saints, they must take the lead to practice whatever they teach. This is to exercise God's authority by taking the lead.
When the priesthood was proper, the priests were patterns to the people. What the priests taught and what they exercised in the authority of God, they themselves did, taking the lead to carry out all the things regarding God's eternal economy. For example, the priests took the lead to step into the river Jordan and then to circle the city of Jericho. That was the proper way to exercise God's authority. Today, this is the proper way to take care of the church — teaching to speak for God and taking the lead to exercise God's authority.
At the waning of the God-ordained priesthood, God began a new age in raising up Samuel, a young Nazarite, as a faithful priest to replace the waned priesthood (1 Sam. 2:35). God ministered His word to His elect by establishing Samuel as a prophet in the uplifted prophethood (3:20-21), and He exercised His authority over His elect by raising up Samuel as a judge (7:15-17).
Samuel, as the last judge, terminated the judgeship, and, as the new priest, brought in the kingship with the strengthening of the uplifted prophethood, in which Samuel was established as the first prophet (Acts 3:24; 13:20; Heb. 11:32). This means that God had put aside the old priesthood due to its deterioration. The old priesthood had the word of God and exercised the ruling of God. God replaced it with the uplifted prophethood to speak God's word to His people and the kingship to rule over God's people.
Such a condition was built up among God's people through Samuel. He set up a kind of governmental administration in God's economy that God could fulfill His promises to all the foregoing fathers and accomplish His desire according to His economy — that is, to have a lineage of genealogy to bring Christ to earth. Surely, the bringing forth of Christ was the greatest thing. Today we are participating in the benefit from Samuel's service. Thank God for this.
