Samuel

Samuel
The last among the judges.
Nationality	Israelite
Tribe	Levi
Father	Elkanah
Mother	Hannah
Occupation	Judge of Israel

Samuel (Hebrew: שְׁמוּאֵל) was the last of the judges and a distinguished prophet. He gave the Hebrews their first kings, Saul and David. He was the son of Elkanah and Hannah, who was previously barren. While they lived in mount Ephraim, Elkanah is listed in the genealogy of the tribe of Levi, of the sons of Kohath (1 Chronicles 6:22-28).

In symbol, Samuel represents God the Father.

Etymology

According to Strong’s Hebrew Concordance Samuel means “his name is of God”. The Holman Bible Dictionary states that Samuel was a “[p]ersonal name in the Ancient Near East meaning, ‘Sumu is God’ but understood in Israel as ‘The name is God’, ‘God is exalted’, or ‘son of God’.”

Life Summary

Samuel’s mother Hannah was previously barren and as a condition for being given a son, she promised to dedicate him to the Lord. Samuel began to serve in the temple after he had been weaned under Eli the priest.

When Israel was defeated by the Philistines, the ark of God was taken. When Eli heard the news, he fell and died, and Samuel took over Eli’s role. His hometown was Ramah, but he also traveled to Bethel, Mizpeh, and Gilgal to judge and admonish the people.

When Samuel was old, he appointed his sons to judge, but they were corrupt, and the people demanded a king like the nations around them. Samuel warned them about the things the king would require of them, but the people still rejected God from being their King. God chose Saul of Benjamin to be Israel’s king, and Samuel anointed him in Mizpeh.

Later God sent Saul against the Amelekites, telling him to wholly destroy every person and all livestock. But Saul kept back the best of the cattle and sheep for the Lord, and he let Agag the king of the Amalekites live. Samuel confronted him, but Saul believed he had performed the will of the Lord. Samuel reminded him that “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Samuel 15:22), and told him that because he had rejected God’s commandments, God had rejected him from being king over Israel.

Samuel later anointed David son of Jesse to be king of Israel. He returned to Ramah and presumably resumed his service to the people there until he died.

Early Life

Samuel’s father was Elkanah, and he had two wives named Hannah and Peninnah. They were from a place called Ramathaim-zophim, of mount Ephraim. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children because she was barren. Hannah asked God to bless her with a child and made a vow that if God would give her a child, she would offer him to the Lord all the days of his life. God later gave her a child, whom she named Samuel saying “because I have asked him of the LORD” (1 Samuel 1:20).

His parents kept the Lord’s yearly feasts mentioned in Leviticus 23. But when Samuel was born his mother Hannah did not make the trips until he was a bit older, because he was still a suckling. When the boy was weaned, she took him to the temple where he was to apprentice under Eli who was the priest in the temple of the Lord.

“Samuel grew on and was in favor both with God and men” (1 Samuel 2:26) and “all Israel... knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD” (1 Samuel 3:20).

One night while both Eli and Samuel were asleep the Lord called Samuel and he woke up thinking it was the priest who called him; this happened three times. And Eli understood the third time that it was the Lord who was calling the child. The priest told the child that when the Lord called again, he should respond by saying “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth” (1 Samuel 3:3-9). When God called again as other times, the boy answered, and God told him what He was going to do to Israel and Eli’s house. He was angry at Eli’s sons who had “made themselves vile” and at Eli who had not restrained them (1 Samuel 3:13). After hearing this Samuel went back to sleep and told Eli in the morning everything that God told him.

Samuel Becomes a Judge

Later, Israel went out to war against the Philistines, and Israel was defeated. Eli’s sons were killed and the ark of God was taken. One of the soldiers managed to escape and reported what happened to Eli. When he heard that the ark of God had been taken, he fell from his seat, broke his neck, and died.

However, the ark of God brought a curse upon the land of the Philistines for seven months. They returned it back to the people of Israel and it abode in Kirjath-jearim where Eleazar the son of Abinadab took care of it.

Samuel took over as judge and priest after Eli’s death. He traveled extensively dealing with matters in Bethel, Mizpeh, Gilgal, and Ramah his birthplace. He urged the children of Israel to turn from their idols and return to God, who would save them from the Philistines; the children agreed and fasted, and God delivered them from their enemy.

Samuel Anoints Saul

When Samuel was old, he appointed his sons Joel and Abiah to judge Israel. They were judges in Beer-sheba. His sons did not follow their father’s teaching; they “took bribes and perverted judgment” (1 Samuel 8:3). The elders of Israel were not happy about this, so they complained to Samuel and asked him to give them a king like other nations.

Samuel did not like the idea, but God instructed him to give them a king, but also to “protest solemnly unto them, and shew them the manner of the king that shall reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:6-9). God sent them Saul of the tribe of Benjamin. There was a special sacrifice of the people that day, and Samuel invited Saul to join him for the banquet, giving him the chiefest seat and the best portion of food. The next morning Samuel called Saul so they could talk again privately before he left.

Then Samuel took a flask of oil and anointed him to be king of Israel. He gave him instructions and sent him away. Samuel called a meeting with the people to Mizpeh to tell them God’s message. He showed the people that God had chosen a man from the tribe of Benjamin to be their king since they had rejected Him. Saul was found to be the chosen one, and he tried to hide himself in vain. After the inauguration Samuel laid out how the kingdom would be structured.

Samuel renewed the kingdom with Saul in Gilgal after Saul had defeated Nahash the Ammonite, who had come against Jabesh-gilead and threatened to put out the right eyes of all the men of Israel. At the renewal of the kingdom, Saul was made king before the Lord, sacrifices were made, and there was great rejoicing.

Samuel Is Displeased With Saul

After Saul’s son Jonathan attacked a garrison of the Philistines at Geba, the Philistines challenged Israel at Gilgal. Samuel had previously instructed Saul to wait seven days for him and not to engage the enemy until he arrived to present the offering to God.. But Saul took upon himself to offer the offering instead of Samuel because Samuel delayed coming. Immediately after Saul had offered the offering, Samuel arrived and rebuked him for his foolish act; he told him that God would have established his kingdom forever, but now his kingdom would not continue. Because he did not obey what was commanded, God was going to look for another man after His own heart who would be king of Israel.

God remembered what Amalek did to his people Israel and sent Samuel to Saul with the instructions to smite all Amalek with his possessions, sparing nothing. Once again, Saul did not do all that was commanded, for he spared Agag the king of Amalek and the best cattle; he did not utterly destroy them. And God told Samuel that He regretted making Saul king because he stopped following His commandments. Samuel was also disappointed with the way the king of Israel acted.

Samuel confronted Saul and asked him why some of the cattle and sheep of the Amalekites were spared, and the king said the people wanted to offer the best cattle and sheep to God, but the rest they utterly destroyed. Samuel also told Saul that when he thought less of himself God lifted him up to be king of Israel. Then he asked him why he did not fully obey God concerning the Amalekites. Saul answered by claiming that he did obey what God said and made excuses blaming the people. The king realized the seriousness of his sin after Samuel told him that God had rejected him, and he pleaded with Samuel to forgive his mistake, but the prophet refused. When Samuel was leaving, Saul grabbed his garment, and it tore; Samuel told him that his kingdom was torn from that moment and someone better than him would take over as the new king.

Then Samuel finished the job which Saul failed to do and killed the king of Amalek. After that he went back to his hometown Ramah, and that was the last time he saw Saul. However, there is a unique event recorded whereby Samuel did see Saul again, on the day of Saul’s death. The day before Saul died, he found a witch and held a séance with her to talk to the dead Samuel. And Samuel came up out of the flames and rebuked Saul for disturbing him and finally prophesied his and his son’s death.

Samuel Anoints David

While Samuel was still mourning Saul for being rejected as king, God told the prophet to forget about him and go to the house of Jesse, where he would find the next king of Israel.

Samuel feared that Saul would kill him when he found out, but God told him that his visit would be as a priest making a sacrifice. He was to invite Jesse to the meal, and God would show him the man that he shall anoint.

When he arrived in Bethlehem, the elders of the town gathered with Jesse and his sons. Samuel thought Eliab was the chosen king because of his height, but God informed him that it was not him. Jesse called seven of his sons before the prophet, but none of them was chosen. But one of Jesse’s son was not present, as he was taking care of his father’s sheep, and the prophet asked to see him. And when he was brought in, God told Samuel that this was the man He had chosen. So Samuel anointed him and went back to Ramah. Samuel died and was buried in his house at Ramah.

The Symbolism Of Samuel

Everyone knows that David is a type of Christ. Using this information, you can discover who Samuel is a type of.

David was “a man after mine own heart” (Acts 13:22), meaning that Jesus had found a man after His own heart in David. Or you might say that Jesus was a kindred spirit with David. As an added reason to believe that they are “types” of one another, we have the fact that almost every psalm of David contains at least one clear prophecy of Christ, and of course, both were born in Bethlehem.

David was anointed by “the Lord God of Israel” (2 Samuel 12:7). Samuel, of course, performed the anointing on the Lord’s behalf, but it was the Lord who had chosen David. The word “messiah” is an untranslated Hebrew word that means “anointed”, so technically anyone who was anointed was a messiah – prophets, priests, kings, etc. The Greek word “Christ” also means “anointed one”.

Another thing Jesus and David have in common is that they were both anointed by God. Compare 2 Samuel 12:7 and Acts 4:24-27. It stands to reason that since they are types of each other, and they were anointed by the same person, then the physical person who performed the anointing is a type of the spiritual person who performed the anointing. So we can infer that Samuel represented God the Father.

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