Chapter 9 SAMUEL
Samuel simply starts
There was a man named Elkanah, from the tribe of Ephraim, who lived in the town of Rama-thaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham and grandson of Elihu, and belonged to the family of Tohu, a part of the clan of Zuph. 120
Got That? So we have some questions like, Who is he? Where is he? This guy is not very well known, is he? I turned to a very helpful commentary that says, “There was a no-body in a no-place town and his name was Elkanah”.
The Bible is only boring if you don’t like treasure hunts. In Chronicles121, we learn Elka was from the Tribe of Levi, so he is not an Ephriamite by birth but a Levite living in a Levite town located in Ephraim. Now you will remember that the Levites were not given any land but were scattered among the tribes in forty-odd towns allocated to priests. These Levites received their wages from the temple tax and had only access to common grazing for a few sheep.122 So Elka and his wife lived in a Levite town and served the people in the mountain region of Northern Ephraim123.
As a Levite, he would have been on the temple rota to offer sacrifices. So once a year for a week or so, he would take his family across to the tabernacle which was still at Shiloh. You may remember from the book of Joshua, when the Children of Israel first crossed into the land, they took the Ark and the Tabernacle up to at a threshing barn on the heights of Shiloh for safe keeping while they rejoined the battle. That was nearly one-hundred-and-fifty-years before, and it was still there. It had become so permanent on the plains now, that the people starting to call it the Temple.
Perhaps you also remember from Joshua, the Hebrews pushed on down the Valley until they came to two mountains called Ebal and Gerizim124. There they ratified the treaty with God as Moses had commanded them to do. Half the tribes were to ascend the mountains either side of the valley. In a solemn ceremony for each side to remind the other of the blessings and curses written in the covenant. The object behind Moses” thinking was this landmark of two mountains would serve as to remind future generations it was the covenant that had brought them into the land. This was the place, but they had already forgotten it. The mountain had now been renamed Rama-thaim-zophim, which means twin heights. In the valley of the “shoulder blade”. In less than two-hundred years the place and the promise were all forgotten. How short are the memories of the people of God? Now as then!
So now we are in the last days of Judges. Everyone every one was justifying themselves. God looked down on this scene and decided it is time to take things in hand. So the spotlight zooms in, and we are introduced to Elkanah, and his wife Hannah. True to form, when the world is at its worst God will always find a devout couple somewhere in the land. Ah you say, now we are on familiar ground This is Hannah who prayed for Baby Samuel. Yes, but don’t jump too far ahead. This was a devout couple. Elka was a pious man and devoted to God in the midst of a corrupt nation. Elka had God’s heart and was concerned for this generation. He was faithful to his calling as a Priest. When he got to the temple, Eli’s two corrupt sons were acting in charge, but Elkanah’s heart was determined to be right before God and his purpose was to intercede for the nation bringing them back to repentance – “Oh, that the people would repent and return to God, then they could have revival”. That was his heart.
Hannah was also a believing person. Her prime thoughts were different. She had grown weary of this generation and her heart’s desire was for the next generation. Her overriding desire was for a baby who could influence the next generation. As far as she was concerned, God had abandoned this generation. Because she was a believer, she couldn’t just pass her situation off as luck of the draw. God could intervene in this situation if she had faith and prayed. That is what we are all taught to do isn’t it? But He hadn’t so why was God so cruel? She was one of a number of women who had preceded her with the same question. “Why won’t God heal Me”?
Elka was certainly not a very sensitive sort of person. Getting away for believer’s camp is always a good time to get sorted out with God, isn’t it? But he could be quite tactless. Hannah was not eating for distress, but when it came to the sacrifice he gave her a double portion to show how much he loved her. He could not see why that made her burst into tears.
“Hannah, why are you crying? Why won’t you eat? Why do you feel so bad? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?” 125
I cannot print what the modern woman’s answer might be. If I am generous, I expect the words came out all wrong, they often do when you search for an answer on the spur of the moment. A Freudian slip perhaps? Perhaps he really meant “Don’t you mean more to me than ten sons”? Moses was another man who was not good at expressing the heart. You can hardly pick up the heart of God when you listen to Moses:
Hear o Israel the Lord your God is one God and you must love the Lord your god with all your hearts with all your minds and with all your soul and love your neighbour as yourself.
Now hear Jesus express the same sentiment with so much more heart:
Oh Israel, Oh Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around you, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me! 126
This couple is laying the foundation for the book of Samuel. Samuel is going to pick up both the sentiments of his mother and the determination to stick with God’s answers even when it seem impractical. Samuel expresses the struggle in God’s heart. Should He cut this people off and start again with a new generation or give them one more chance. God has this dilemma from time to time. He discussed it with Moses when Moses said “wipe them out wipe me out too”. God said no! That is when baby Joshua was born. This time a baby named Samuel was to be Born.
Interestingly, the one man who had contributed in large part to the ruin of the nation was the Priest who was about to announce God’s Judgement. Eli had presided over the demise of the country and his two sons had facilitated its rapid downfall. Eli, the obese, timid priest, whose spiritual and physical eyes had grown dim. He who would not discipline his own sons for corruption, now pronounced to Hannah “The Lord has granted your request”. Samuel was to lead the next generation up the hill again and in just a few years Samuel would announce the finish of the old generation—starting with Eli and his sons.
I will carry out all my threats against Eli’s family, from beginning to end. I have already told him that I am going to punish his family forever because his sons have spoken evil things against me. Eli knew they were doing this, but he did not stop them. So I solemnly declare to the family of Eli that no sacrifice or offering will ever be able to remove the consequences of this terrible sin.127
And so it was that this era, when “Everyone did what he pleased”, had come to an end and the nation of Israel was set for the up. The next five books tell the story of Israel’s rise to an empire under David before it would decline again. How long did this era last? By the time of Jeremiah we will be back here again.
Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim. 128
Samuel is one book, it had to be split because the length of the papyrus scroll. When you write in Ancient Hebrew there are no vowels so when you translate it into Greek which includes the vowels, there is not enough room on the scroll. The book first shows how God provided one person, Samuel, to be the catalyst for returning to God and His ways. Then, after warning them of the dangers of a king, He allows them to choose one, so they can see the folly of their thinking and their ways. The book covers one-hundred-and-fifty-years of history. In our Bibles it is put in the history section. But in the Hebrew scriptures it is put under section called “Former Prophets”. That makes a difference as to how you view the contents. Prophetic books are written from God’s point of view, not mankind’s interpretation of History.
This one-hundred-and-fifty-years of history needs to be seen in the light of the previous thousand years. David came to the throne at the peak of the Israel’s history then, in just one afternoon and one man’s life, the whole empire turned into decline. Samuel not only slows this process down but also records it.
You will have noticed by now, Israel had four periods of five-hundred-years starting in two-thousand-BC.129 The first five-hundred years were led by Patriarchs, Abraham Isaac and Jacob, The next Five-Hundred years by Prophets Moses to Samuel, The third five-hundred years by Kings Saul to Zedekiah, and the closing five-hundred years of the Old Testament being led by Priests Joshua II to Ananias & Caiaphas.
The book of Samuel starts with Eli’s decline and the anointed of the first king. The second half records the rise and fall of David and the kingdom of Israel. Eli was a Levite and, as expected, entered the profession of priesthood. Eventually he worked his way up to be resident priest in charge of the temple. The Temple had attached to it a boarding school for priests to which Samuel was sent once he was old enough. Eli clearly has no good parenting skills and conjurors up images of a Victorian school-master without any real bite. His own two sons grow up without any respect for him to become at best yobs and at worst gangsters. Despite being warned by God to discipline or dismiss his sons from the priesthood, he rather accepts illegal and immoral meat which they had taken by force, not sacrificed but kept for their own roasting.
Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, they would say“Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw.’ And if the man said to him, it is not lawful they would take it by force. And they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting.130
As such, when he was old he became fat and lazy, unable to hear from God, and devoid of discernment. He would sit at the door of the tent to watch those coming in, as he did with Hannah. Into this man’s hands, Samuel was entrusted for his spiritual education. It was left to a twelve-year-old boy to tell Eli God’s final judgement on his life.
… your house and the house of your father shall end forever … I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so no one will ever grow old. You will be excluded from all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel. Your sons shall die by the sword of men starting with Phonic and Phinehas, you and both of them shall die on the same day.131
And so it happened! His sons boastfully took the ark down to battle against the Philistines, the Ark was captured and both sons killed. When the messenger told Eli the news, he was sitting at the same seat at the door of the temple. Because of his great girth he rolled backwards and broke his neck. Now, a young man, Samuel’s first real ministry was to tell the nation why the Philistines won that battle. It was because of the sin in you! He told them to get rid of their idols and put away their sin which they did, and the next time they won.
Samuel also warned the nation against choosing a King. He warned them kings come expensive, they will conscript your sons, make servants of your daughter. To pay for all this the king will also demand ever-increasing taxes. Saul was an insecure man. His insecurity would not allow him to let go of material things. Saul’s need to be significant meant he would not take orders from anyone else so there was constant friction between Samuel and himself. Saul’s low self-worth would not allow him to hear anyone else receiving praise so David was about to begin a hard time.
These three character defects were all overlooked because of his size and looks. The people wanted a big man to stand up against the Philistines. But his real size was revealed when they saw Goliath. The inner character began to work in his heart to produce fear and incompetence until it became evil. He fell out with his son for winning a battle; fell out with Samuel by keeping the spoils from the battle; fell out with Samuel over the need for ritual cleaning before sacrificing; fell out with Samuel who tried to curb his impatience, disobedience and pride; fell out with David time and again until David had to go into exile.
Things came to a head when he tore the priestly robe one day in anger. Samuel refused to speak him again while he is alive.132 Saul was a Benjaminite, so he was not even of the promised line. The sceptre will not depart from Judah but, as we have learned by now, the promised line usually needs an accomplice behind the scene. Boaz needed his brother Elimelech to go as a missionary to find Ruth. Moses needed Aaron, not to speak for him as God suggested but to spur him on to speak for himself. Saul needed a servant to lead him to Samuel before he returned home. So it is David, who carried the sceptre, has a way prepared for him by Saul, just as John prepared the way for Jesus.
Samuel is not of the seed line either, but he prepares the way for it. Samuel had cleared the land of Idols and united the tribes to a large extent. A lobby movement had been calling for a King since the days of Gideon. Samuel could see their folly, but the lobby was shouting louder now and Samuel had to ask God what he should do about it.
The confirmation Saul was the man for the job came in four signs: First Samuel was told specifically a Benjamin would call, (the clue is in the name because Saul means “called”), Samuel then told Saul to retrace his steps home and look for three distinct signs as he went. Go by Rachael’s tomb and two men would stop him to say,
When you depart from me today, you will meet two men by Rachel’s tomb in the territory of Benjamin at Zelzah, and they will say to you, “The donkeys that you went to seek are found, and now your father has ceased to care about the donkeys and is anxious about you, saying, ‘‘What shall I do about my son?”133
How would these men know about the donkeys? How would they know there was three? Next, Saul must take a slight detour to the oak at Tabor where three men going up to Bethel would join them on the path as another sign.
Then you shall go on from there farther and come to the oak of Tabor.