Samuel: A Character Study Classroom Goals of this time together: * here to see and meet and learn of Jesus; * to grow TOGETHER in our own personal lives/relationships with Jesus * to grow in our daily day-to-day JOY IN Him * to grow in our vision /understanding of Jesus as our SAVIOR and REDEEMER everyday in the midst of our lives in a pagan world ROE: * all questions are encouraged all the time * TO LOVE ONE ANOTHER THROUGHOUT OUR TIME TOGETHER, WHETHER WE AGREE OR NOT ON ISSUES OF VARIOUS THEOLOGICAL THOUGHT, WE MOST CERTAINLY MUST AGREE ON THIS: THAT WE HAVE BEEN BOUGHT BY THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF A MOST LOVING SAVIOR AND BECAUSE OF THAT WE MUST LOVE EACH OTHER Today we're going to briefly examine the life and times of a man named Samuel. WHY do we study the lives of men, esp in the Bible?? It is NOT JUST to study THEM as if to somehow learn how to pick up a few good habits, although that could be done and there is some small dorect benefit to be found from that; BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, it is to study the character of GOD as it is revealed in the lives of these other men; GOD HAS NOT CHANGED! What was true for these biblical people even thousands of yrs ago will STILL hold true NOW because the God who is at the heart of all these events has reamined the same!! and will even so respond to US as He did those many thousands of yrs ago; This obviously will take us to the 1st book bearing his name, 1st Samuel. 1st, we'll get some background on him. 1:1-2:11 Sam was the son of Elkanah an Ephraimite from Ramah (the shorter more commonly known name for the long one given in vs1); Now there could have been a problem w/ Sam being a priest since his dad is described as an Ephraimite and NOT a Levite, the ONLY guys that God said could BE priests; HOWEVER, 1Chron 6:33-38 shows that Dad was a direct descendent of Levi, and therefore WAS qualified; he was Levite by lineage, and only Ephraimite by residence; Sam's dad was a bigamist, it was LEGAL to do this if the 1st wife was barren (Gen 16:1-3, 30:3-4, etc), but NEVER sanctioned by God as the BEST plan for a family; HERE's a GREAT example WHY in vs 4-8; One wife torments the other; Since a man's posterity was bound up in his having a son to carry his name, being a sterile wife was regarded by them then as a curse from God since Deut 7:13-14 says it's a blessing from God to HAVE children; (GOD NEVER says childlessness was HIS curse, THEY just ASSUMED this from the OPPOSITE blessing; a warning to us to NEVER try to ADD OUR "conclusions" to God's word as if it WERE God's word); Amazingly enough, Elkanah did NOT subscribe to this belief, (although he did marry again to insure his progression); he sought to reassure her of his love in deeds (vs5) and in words (vs8); MEN TAKE NOTE OF THIS! How did she deal with her grief? She sought the Lord; WHAT A GREAT HERITAGE TO GIVE TO HER SON! Vs19 "...and the Lord remembered her..."; Oh how deeply we need to grasp this truth; that the Lord NEVER forgets us or our sorrows; He is the God who hears AND REMEMBERS!! Sam was to be a Nazarite; Remember who these guys were? [SEE NUM 6:1-8]; She had promised him to serve the Lord; She named him Samuel; WHAT DOES THIS NAME MEAN? Remember, names ALWAYS were VERY important; Technically, it means "his name is God", or something similar, however, it SOUNDS like "samua el" which means "heard of God" because she had asked Him and He heard her prayer, She took him to the temple in fulfillment of her vow after she had "weaned" him; The word "weaned" LIT meant "fully dealt with", perhaps including the idea of spiritual training as well since Israelite women weaned their children around 2-3 YEARS of age; What an amazing sacrifice for her to make! To give up her ONLY child after she had been barren for SO long; BUT BEHOLD THE RESULTS OF HER FAITHFULNESS AND TRUST IN THE LORD: (See vs28) "And he worshipped the Lord there..."; WHAT a tremendous thing to able to say about a son or daughter; God rewards our trust in Him, EVEN IF IT SEEMS LIKE WE HAVE TO LOSE EVERYTHING TO HIM IN THE PROCESS! And SO often God honors us even MORE than we would EVER have thought to ask Him; SEE 2:21 God went on to give her 3 MORE sons as well as 2 daughters; 2:11-17 OK, so he's now 2 or 3 yrs old and living in the temple; He's now living with the High Priest Eli and his sons and being raised in this family; LOOK AT THE CONTRAST BETWEEN THESE 2 KINDS OF SONS; Sam ministered unto the Lord while Eli's sons were complete and utter BUMS! Eli was a reasonable, moral, good, well meaning priest (as witnessed by his concern for Hannah in 1:17); AND he WAS able to help raise Sam as a Godly man; BUT WHAT A BUNCH OF LOSERS HE HAD FOR SONS!! They were UNSAVED, they stole from GOD, and bullied the people; the summary was that they DESPISED GOD as only those who don't really believe in Him can do; Their sins went from bad to worse; They felt NO sense of restraint since they did NOT believe they would ever answer for it, SO they went from petty theft to GROSS acts of blatant PUBLIC sexual immorality in vs22; Some believe this was MORE than just a couple of guys looking for fast and loose times; To fornicate in the very precincts of the tabernacle a Shiloh was in accordance with Canaanite cultic practice: THESE "PRIESTS" MAY VERY WELL HAVE BEEN WORSHIPING DEMONIC GODS!! Oh Eli! Perhaps he was able to be a somewhat better father to Sam in his later years after seeing how horribly he had screwed up with HIS sons as a new father; 2:18 Sam ministered before the Lord, and the text made a point to show that even as a BOY, he wore the priestly garment and deservedly so; 2:21-26 Sam "grew up in the presence of the Lord..." (NIV) and was "...in favor both with the Lord and also of men." (KJV); This all occured in the SAME place that the sons of Eli lived, but WHAT a difference! Goes to show that it's NOT always WHERE you live but WHAT you make OF it; 2:27-36 There may be a temptation to excuse Eli and place the whole blame directly on the son's; I mean, after all, they WERE adults, able and willing to make their OWN sinful decisions; HOWEVER, the Lord was NOT willing to do that here, for when He sends a prophet (the "man of God") to Eli to tell him that his priesthood would end; WHY BLAME ELI?? Why slam HIM for what his SONS were doing?? I believe it is at least partly seen in vs24, where Eli himself states that their behavior AS THE PRIESTS was causing or at least encouraging the REST of Israel to "transgress" (KJV) as well; HOWEVER, The REAL Divine indictment came later in 3:13, where God says He will judge Eli "...for the iniquity which he knew..." (NASV) and yet did NOTHING DEFINATIVE about it! HIS failure to act was viewed by God as EQUALLY scornful as what the SONs were actually doing (vs 29)! What could or should he have done? SLAIN THEM!! Harsh sounding to us now, BUT it was for them under the law an absolutely clear cut mandated response! Eli had MIS-placed his love for his sons as a wrongful tolerence of their wickedness above his love for the Lord; 3:1 "ministering before the Lord..." seems like everytime Sam gets mentioned its always prefaced with this statement; DRY TIMES INDEED! apparantly there were drunks in the street as a common sight (as seen back in 1:14), thugs running the temple, whores staffing the temple, weak ineffectual leadership, and now this vs says that Gods word was rare, and visions few and far between; 3:3 BUT LOOK WHERE SAM WAS! RIGHT BY THE ARK: THE CLOSEST PHYSICAL PRESENCE TO THE LIVING GOD THERE WAS AT THE TIME; 3:7 and yet he didn't really "know" the Lord, YET; BUT he knew enough to minister and to stay close to what he DID know, AND GOD HONORED HIS WILLINGNESS TO DO WHAT HE COULD WITH WHAT HE HAD; HOW did God honor him? By giving him MORE revelation...and NOT because Sam was asking for it or apparently even knew he NEEDED it, but just because God desries to give it to us...we need to be working on what we have rather than fretting over what we think we're lacking/needing; 3:8-9 HOW IRONIC! Eli made a much better priest that he did a father; he recognized the word of the Lord when he heard it and he gave the right advice to Sam; "...Thy servant is listening...", the word trans "listening" means "to hear with a view to obeying"; Good advice indeed! 3:10-18 Sam's 1st test as a prophet was to bring an ear-tingling message of doom to Eli, the closest thing to a real father figure Sam had. He passed the test, with a little help from Eli; Here we read (as noted before) of Eli and the sins he knew about, and the GREATER sin of FAILING TO RESTRAIN EVIL WHEN IT'S IN OUR POWER TO DO SO!! 3:19-21 And because he did "pass", God validated and verified Sam's credentials; HOW did God do this? By satisfying the Divinely stated criteria for a TRUE prophet that is found in Deut 18:21-22: Sam was NEVER wrong; EVERYTHING he said ALWAYS came to pass EXACTLY as he SAID it would!! CHAPs 4-7 I call "Raidings of the Lost Ark"! And we don't hear about Sam for TWENTY YEARS (7:2)! 7:3 Sam didn't start the rivival nor did he cause the prople to see their need for the Lord; they were already headed that way courtesy of the Lord, HOWEVER, he WAS willing to offer guidence and direction to the people when they were finally ready to listen; Sam had learned that loyalty to the Lord was ESSENTIAL to secure to Israel deliverance from it's foes; And in order to become loyal again, they had to FIRST REPENT of their sins, CONFESS them to the One whom they had grieved, and RETURN to Him COMPLETELY in and for ALL of their lives; Sam didn't do any of that "I told you so" stuff to a hurting people; he just waited for the right time to speak and spoke guidence...REMEMBER, he was NOT what you'd call a "successful" man, since vs3 indicates that he was the leader of a religion that had fallen on hard times since apparantly darn near EVERYONE was worshiping down the street at the OTHER guy's church...until now; 7:4-15 Things were looking good for Sam, looked like he was going to be the real leader Israel had been needing for SO long; for the next 30 yrs he "judged" Israel apparantly to their satisfaction and the Lord's; 7:16 But look how he did it: this guy was gone from home ALOT; 8:1-3 What a bitter irony for Sam!! He failed at the very same thing that destroyed Eli and his family-lousy sons! But inspite of that he tried to get them put in charge and with disasterous results! BIG time judicial corruption, although they did not seem to committ the other moral impurity and false demonic worship as did Eli's sons; Sam seemed guilty of the same blind spots that plagued the one who raised him; Beware of seeing your sins reproduced in your children, and consider working extra hard to build them up in those areas that were real pitfalls in your own life; I don't know why God did not deal with Sam the same as he did with Eli here, unless it was that their sins were not as utterly out of control as the others, or perhaps Sam was never going to BE the priestly line, so his son's sins weren't as terrible as if they had been claiming to be priests serving before the very presence of the Lord; 8:4-22 After many yrs of service the people honor him by FIRING him; I mean he WAS old and needed replacing; BUT SEE THE CHARACTER OF GOD! At first , Sam was troubled, and vs 8 implies that he was hurt and grieved over what he percieved as a rejection of HIM, and failure is hard to take at ANY age; BUT GOD, instead of slamming Sam for his crummy sons, see's beyond the superficial issues, and tells Sam of the TRUE problem: Israels rejection of HIM as their TRUE ruler; SEE SAM's character: he spent a LOT of time telling the people the Lord's truth, although he was mostly ignored or disagreed with; BUT HE DIDN'T DO THIS JOB FOR HIS OWN SAKE, FOR THE FORTUNE AND GLORY; HE DID IT OUT OF LOVE AND HONOR FOR THE LORD; And because of this, the failure of the people didn't destroy him, because the God whom HE served NEVER let him down; WHY do WE do the "good" and "religious" things we do?? For the praise and recognition of MEN? Oh that we would learn from Sam, and place our focus of success and our desire for recognition IN HIM ALONE, for then we will NEVER be disapointed or let doen by those we are called to care for!! Chs 9-11 We see Sam do his best to do what the Lord directs of him in the whole King making business; CHAPTER 12: Sam's Reminder; instead of sour grapes, he STILL is trying to honor God and keep the people on track with God, the SAME folks that dumped him earlier; it's a sort of retirement speech, since he relinquishes his role as LEADER of the Nation to their King; he continues to act as priest and prophet, though; 12:23 See? He prays for them because he LOVES the LORD! So even when they treat him crummy, he is able to seek their blessing before the Lord out of OBEDIENCE to the LORD; He was a TRUE mediator for the nation! He gives the people the new operating instructions that came with their new form of government, but alas, again they didn't really listen to him... CHAP 12-16 Inspite of the fact that making Saul the king meant Sam's rejection, he develops a real affection for Saul, and deeply grieved over the consequences of Saul's sins in Ch 15-16; After ALL he did for Israel, what happens? Sam fades from view with his death only being a bit of after thought amongst all the chatter of Kings and their intrigues; The people mourned him, though their treatment of him while he was alive was uninspiring. BUT atleast they didn't murder him like alot of other prophets; Sam's life was characterized by tremendous contrasts of greatness and grievous failures.