Unlike his ancestor, Korah, who gainsayed against God
and incited the people against God (Jude 11 cf. Numbers 16:1-3,49); Samuel is mentioned with
Moses as one who called upon the Lord and interceded for the people before Him (Psalms 99:6
cf. Jeremiah 15:1)
Samuel's father, regularly went up to worship and sacrifice
to the Lord at Shiloh; where were Hophni and Phineas, the "priests unto Jehovah" (I Samuel 1:3)
Shiloh, "place of rest", is where the tabernacle
was laid to rest after Israel's conquest of the land (Joshua 19:51) and is also a reference to the coming of the Messiah (Genesis 49:10)
Samuel's father offered up a "worthy" (double)
portion of the sacrifices for his favorite wife, Hannah, who the Lord restrained from child-bearing (I Samuel 1:5)
Hannah's prayerful exultation
of her Lord contains the first occurrence of the Divine title - "Christ" or "Annointed" (I Samuel 2:10),
and anticipates Mary's prayerful exaltation of her Savior (Luke 1:46-55)
The priests consumed all the
flesh of the sacrifice (I Samuel 2:13-15),
rather than the priest's lawful portion of the breast and shoulder (Leviticus 7:31-35)
The priests seized the Lord's
portion for themselves (I Samuel 2:16),
rather than offer up the worshipper's portion to the Lord (Leviticus 3:14-16)
The priests, through their
greed and violence, caused people to abhor the Lord's offering (I Samuel 2:17)
The parents' faithful support of Samuel's priestly ministry
and their reward of a Divine priestly blessing (I Samuel 2:18-21,26)
Samuel's mother made him a little priestly garment (Exodus 28:4;
Leviticus 6:10) each year she and her husband
came up to offer the yearly sacrifice (I Samuel 2:18-19)
Eli's blessing resulted in
the Lord's giving Hannah more children and in Samuel's growing in more favor with both God and man (I Samuel 2:21,26)
- a type of Messiah, the God-man (Luke 2:40,52)
Eli's petition for the repentance of his wicked priestly
sons (I Samuel 2:22-25)
Eli pleads with his sons to
not by their example cause the people to transgress (I Samuel 2:23-24)
Eli warns his sons that sinning
against brethren results in human judgment, but transgressing against the Lord will bring Divine judgment (I Samuel 2:25)
God's pronouncement of judgment
on the wicked priests and His promise of a faithful priest (I Samuel 2:27-36)
Eli honored his sons above
the Lord (I Samuel 2:29); he should have stoned them
according to the Law for eating the Lord's portion of the sacrifices (Leviticus 7:21,25),
let alone for violating the Lord's worshippers (Deuteronomy 22:25-27)
God will not honor those who
fail to honor Him (I Samuel 2:30):
Eli's house will be cut off
(I Samuel 2:31) and replaced by God's faithful
priest, Samuel (I Samuel 2:35) - the sign of this judgment
would be the slaying of Eli's sons in one day (I Samuel 2:34)
An enemy will take Israel's
wealth including God's House (I Samuel 2:32)
The Philistines slew both of
Eli's sons in one day and captured the Ark (I Samuel 4:10-11)
Samuel will yet one day "walk
before the Lord's Anointed forever" (I Samuel 2:35),
as will the 144,000 - Israel's firstfruits unto God "which follow the Lamb whither soever He goeth" (Revelation 14:1,4)
God confirmed through Samuel the judgment upon Eli's house (I Samuel 3:11-15), which He before pronounced by the man of God (I Samuel 2:27-36)
for the same reason:
Eli told Samuel not to hide (I Samuel 3:17) anything from him, because he knew that Samuel would fear (I Samuel 3:15) to tell him what he already knew (I Samuel 2:31-34)
Samuel told Eli "every whit" (I Samuel 3:18) and he honored the witness of God's "faithful priest" (I Samuel 2:35)
His grief at the loss of the Ark and not at the death of his sons (I Samuel 4:16-18), showed that his heart remained true to God despite his failure to discipline the iniquity of his
sons (I Samuel 3:13)
Samuel never held back sny of his words (I Samuel 3:19) and all Israel from north (Dan) to south (Beersheba) knew that Samuel was the Lord's prophet (I Samuel 3:20)
Israel lamented the removal of the Lord's presence (the
Ark) from their midst for a long twenty years (I Samuel 7:1-2)
He that counts a thousand years as a watch in the night
(Psalms 90:4) also counts even twenty years of separation from His people as a long time
Samuel counseled Israel to remember the Lord's first commandment to them through Moses (I Samuel 7:3), "Thou shalt have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3)
Israel responded by putting away the other gods and "served the Lord only" (I Samuel 7:4)
The faithful witness of the Gentile believers in Thessalonica (I Thessalonians 1:8) was manifested in that they "turned to God from idols to serve the Living and True God"
(I Thessalonians 1:9)
Samuel interceded for Israel through prayer (I Samuel 7:5) and judged Israel through counsel (I Samuel 7:6)
As a prophet, he prayed for Israel (Genesis 20:7) and confessed "We have sinned"
As a judge, he counseled them to show their sorrow via a fast (Judges 20:26) and their weakness as "water poured out" (II Samuel 14:14)
Israel was gathered in Mizpeh unto the Lord (I Samuel 7:8) and petitioned there to Samuel that he "cry unto the Lord" that "He will save us"
out of the hand of the enemy (I Samuel 7:9)
Samuel offered up the "lamb of sacrifice" for the Lord's repentant people as God responded
with "thunder" and "discomfited" their enemies (I Samuel 7:10)
Israel will yet one day again "overcome" their enemy by the "blood of the Lamb"
(Revelation 12:11)
As God's faithful priest, Samuel had Israel engrave a
"stone" with the "Name" of their Helper (I Samuel 7:12) in victory (I Samuel 7:11,14) and so, Israel's enemy was subdued "all the days of Samuel" (I Samuel 7:13)
Israel's faithful overcomers during the Tribulation will receive a "white stone" from their
Lord with a "New Name" written in it (Revelation 2:17)
Samuel judged Israel "all the days of his life" (I Samuel 7:15) faithfully "year to year" (I Samuel 7:16), but lived apart in Ramah and worshipped there (I Samuel 7:17)
Like Abraham and his sons he lived as a stranger and pilgrim in the earth (Hebrews 11:13) and separated himself unto the worship of the Promiser (Genesis 12:7-8)
Samuel's sons did not follow their father's example (I Samuel 8:3) and caused Israel to want a king to judge them like other nations (I Samuel 8:5) and to reject God's reign as their King (I Samuel 8:7) through His judges (Exodus 22:9,28)
The end of the reign of the judges and the start of the reign of the kings was foretold by Moses (Deuteronomy 17:14-15) and occurred with Samuel's ministry (Acts 13:20)