1 Samuel 1-4

Lawrence Boadt provides the following introduction to the next section of the Hebrew Scriptures into which we are moving….

The two Books of Samuel and the two Books of Kings trace the last days of the period of the judges and the first days of Israel as a monarchy. It is a fateful moment of change, and the high drama is helped by the stunning reversal in fortune that the change made. The period of Samuel, the last judge, and of Saul, the first king, marked the most desperate moments of danger Israel had ever faced; the following reign of David and his son Solomon marked the highest success the nation would ever achieve in its long history. But kings would prove to be a mixed blessing for an Israel that prided itself on being a league of tribes with a great deal of local freedom and equality. While kings provided strong government, they did it at the expense of every Israelite’s jealously guarded rights. Since many of these rights were rooted in the covenant with Yahweh in which all the people shared, the religious meaning of kingship had to be worked out so as to preserve the more basic belief that Israel was a people subject to one king only, Yahweh himself.

The First and Second Books of Samuel form a transition from the loose tribal league in force since the time of Joshua to the strong, centralized state forged by David and Solomon. The major figure in this period of change was Samuel, a prophetic and religious leader as well as the most important political voice of the late eleventh century B.C.

1 Samuel opens at the shrine of Shiloh, where Eli the priest guards the ark of the covenant so that members of the twelve tribes can come to worship on the great feast days of the year. One mother, Hannah, whom God has blessed with a child after many years of barrenness, dedicates her child to serve at the shrine under Eli. There the boy Samuel receives a special call from God and develops into both a priest and a seer. In a desperate moment, Eli allows the tribes to take the ark into battle against overwhelming Philistine forces, and the Philistines destroy Israel’s forces, capture the ark and kill Eli’s sons. This terrible defeat leads to Eli’s own sudden death on hearing the news, and Samuel emerges as the one religious force in the country. He not only presides at sacrifices, uses his powers of “seeing” to find lost objects, and “judges” disputes, but effectively controls political decisions for the stunned and desperate tribes as well.[1]

Boadt also provides this outline of 1 Samuel:

1 Sam 1-3 The childhood and prophetic call of Samuel

1 Sam 4-6 The story of the Ark of the Covenant in battle

1 Sam 7-12 Samuel and Israel’s decision to have a king

1 Sam 13-31 Saul’s failure and David’s rise to power[2]

It struck me on this reading what a contrast Samuel presents to the picture of Samson in the book of Judges. Both were Nazirites (1 Samuel 1:22), but Samuel is far more holy. Perhaps, in a way, Samuel absorbed from his mother what it means to have a personal relationship with God. Hannah presents a beautiful picture of an Israelite woman seeking YHWH and surrendered to his will. Her prayer in 1 Samuel 2 bears strong similarities to Mary’s Magnificat in Luke 1.

Samuel’s first communication with YHWH in 1 Samuel 3 is most poignant. It teaches us that if we want to hear from the Lord, we need to stop, look, and listen. “Speak, for your servant is listening,” is a key verse (1 Samuel 3:10). I wonder, do we take time to be silent and listen for the Lord to speak in prayer, or do we spend our prayer time doing all the talking ourselves?

The two sons of Eli present quite a contrast to Samuel. Rather than seeking the Lord, they seem to spend all their time abusing their positions to seize what they can from God’s people. Their end, understandably, is rather inglorious. Perhaps the lesson is that if we want the Lord to be with us (1 Samuel 3:19), then we need to spend time simply being with the Lord as Samuel did.

[1] Boadt, Reading the Old Testament, 227-228

[2] Ibid, 230

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