And the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli.
And the word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no frequent vision.
And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.
And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.
And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh; for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.
And the men of Kiriath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord.
And it came to pass, from the day that the ark abode in Kiriath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
Then the children of Israel did put away the Baalim and the Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only.
And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray unto the Lord for you.
And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.
And Samuel said unto all Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said unto me, and have made a king over you.
And now, behold, the king walketh before you; and I am old and gray-headed, and, behold, my sons are with you: and I have walked before you from my youth unto this day.
Here I am: witness against me before the Lord, and before His anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.
And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any man’s hand.
And he said unto them, The Lord is witness against you, and His anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found aught in my hand. And they said, He is witness.
So Samuel called unto the Lord; and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.
And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not; for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king.
And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have indeed done all this evil; yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart:
And turn ye not aside; for then would ye go after vain things which cannot profit nor deliver, for they are vain.
For the Lord will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake, because it hath pleased the Lord to make you a people unto Himself.
Moreover as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you: but I will instruct you in the good and the right way.
Only fear the Lord, and serve Him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things He hath done for you.
But if ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that we, who were once sinners and rebels, deserved nothing but death. Yet through Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, because of the shedding of His blood and the breaking of His body, now we can come to Thee, accepted in the Beloved, with boldness, beholding Thee, the glory of the Lord, with unveiled face.
So, Father, we do thank Thee for this privilege that Thou hast given to us. As we are in Thy presence, we do pray that Thy word will be opened to our hearts. Speak to us, Lord. Deliver us, that we may be full overcomers, and to Thee be the glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
The first book of Samuel is a book of transition. In this book, we find that, in the history of the nation of Israel, there was a change from judgeship into kingship.
The children of Israel lived under the judges for some time, and it was a very unsatisfactory situation. We find that the people of Israel rebelled against God again and again. Because of their rebellion, God allowed their enemies to oppress them.
While they were under oppression, they cried unto the Lord, and God, in His great mercy, raised up judges, or saviors, to deliver them from their enemies. But when that judge died, the children of Israel went back to sin again. Then you find the whole thing went again and again in a circle.
During those days, there was no king, and everyone did what was right in his own eyes. Above all this, the one thing was that they rejected God and His government.
But now, you find in this book that God took the occasion of their sin and turned it into good. That is to say, when they asked for a king, they did an evil thing because they rejected God as their King. They wanted a king like the nations. They did not want God to be their King.
But thank God, He took the occasion of their sin and laid out a kingship that was according to His purpose. God gave them a king after His own heart, and eventually, through that king, God was to bring in the King of kings and the Lord of lords, even our Lord Jesus Christ.
In the ancient manuscripts, actually, First and Second Samuel were one book. It was entitled Samuel. Why? Because Samuel was the central figure in the whole book.
He was not only the last of the judges; he was the prophet raised by God, and through him God brought in the king and the kingdom. That is the reason why First and Second Samuel were both entitled Samuel, because he was the central figure.
If you read the first book of Samuel, actually you will find three leading persons there: Samuel, Saul, and David. In a sense, you can divide First Samuel into three parts very easily:
Of course, their histories overlap; the influence of one upon another overlaps. But you can see very clearly that these three men are the leading persons in this book.
According to Jewish tradition, chapters 1–24 were written by none other than Samuel himself. Of course, at the beginning of chapter 25, you find Samuel died, so he could not write the rest of the book. The remainder of First Samuel was written by Nathan the prophet and Gad the seer. This we know because, if you turn to 1 Chronicles 29, you will find it recorded there.
First Samuel, as we have said, is a book of transition from judgeship into kingship. As a matter of fact, in God’s original order, judgeship was not included. Judgeship was God’s temporary emergency measure.
God raised up the priest, and through the priest the people were to be brought to God. But the priesthood failed, and because of the failure of the priesthood, God took an emergency measure and raised up the order of judgeship.
Actually, God’s permanent order is kingship. But before kingship was brought in, God made an emergency measure in terms of the judges. Under the judges, the children of Israel never really returned to the Lord. Through the judges they came to the Lord, perhaps for a short time, but it was just for deliverance. Afterwards, you find they went back again because their hearts did not turn to the Lord.
But God was now going from judgeship into kingship. Another thing you will notice is that, in the turning from judgeship into kingship, God brought up another office and another order: the prophetic ministry.
Through the prophets, God was to change from the time of the judges into the time of the kings. If you read Acts 3, you will find Samuel was considered the first of the prophets. Of course, we know that, in a sense, Abraham was a prophet. But strictly speaking, Scripture uses Samuel as the first of the prophets.
From Samuel, you find a succession of prophets for a thousand years, until it ends with John the Baptist. These are the Old Testament prophets. Through the prophet, God was to make the change. The priest represents the people before God; the prophet speaks for God to the people.
Samuel was raised up by God as the vessel to make that transition. He was the last of the judges, and he was the one who introduced kingship.
During that time, we find Eli was the last of the priests. Now, historically speaking, chronologically speaking, Eli probably was a judge at the same time. You know, the judges did not rule over all Israel; they ruled over part of it. So very likely Eli was serving at the same time that Samson was judging.
But look at these judges. The judges were supposed to be raised by God to deliver the people, and God would use them to do that work. But look at the judges themselves. In the book of Judges, we read about Samson. What a character he was! His own life was a failure.
Now you look at Eli. Eli seemed to be a good man, but you find he was old, very old, very feeble, and weak. His eyes had become dim; he could not see very well. And he honored his sons more than God.
He had two sons who were very wicked. Because his sons were so wicked, they made sacrifice an abomination, abhorrent in the eyes of the people. They drew the people away from God instead of helping them to know God. Eli allowed his sons to continue like that. He honored his sons more than God.
In a sense, that represents the spiritual condition of the people at the end of the period of judgeship. During that time, the word of God was very rare. God very rarely spoke.
Now, we know that our God is a God of speech. He is not talking here, but He likes to talk. He never talks nonsense, but He talks truth. So we find that God loves to talk to His own people.
But His people’s condition was such that they nearly shut up the mouth of God. God could not talk to them. They could not take Him in. It was no use to talk.
The Bible says, “A vision was not frequent.” In other words, God did not appear to them very often. God withdrew Himself. God hid Himself—not because He wanted to do that. God loves to commune with His people. He loves to show Himself to His people. But the spiritual condition of His people was so repulsive to Him that He had to withdraw Himself from them.
That was the condition of the children of Israel during the time of the judges. It is true that from time to time they did experience some deliverance from their enemies, but their hearts never turned. It was a pitiful condition.
God’s judgment was already upon Eli. God said, “Because you honor your sons more than Me, therefore your time will come to an end.” Everything was done. There did not seem to be any hope for the people.
But God, in His greatness, was going to do something. That is, He was going to bring in, secretly, a person who would turn the situation. You know, that is the way God always does. Whenever He wants to make a move, whenever He wants to do something upon this earth, He first prepares a vessel.
So secretly, He was preparing a vessel for that dark time and to make the transition. It all happened with a woman. You know, the name Hannah means grace.
God took her up to such a degree that she had to prevail in prayer, and out of her prevailing prayer came Samuel. His name means “asked of God.”
This son was born out of the travail of prayer. Even when he was in his mother’s womb, he was to be a Nazarite. From Numbers 6, a Nazarite is a person who is devoted to God.
A Nazarite, during the period of his life, cannot drink anything of the vine. He cannot let a razor touch his head; he has to let his hair grow long. And he cannot get near any dead body to be defiled.
All these things mean one thing: a person who is holy, devoted, dedicated to live for God. Samuel was a Nazarite, even before he was born. His mother could not drink any wine.
Samuel was a child born, devoted and dedicated completely to God. When he was weaned, as a little boy, he was sent to Shiloh, where the tabernacle was. As a little boy, he was sent there to minister unto God.
Samuel ministered unto God under Eli, because Eli was the priest and the judge. The two sons of Eli were wicked men, and Samuel was just a little boy. You know how boys can easily be influenced and follow the big brothers.
But here you find Samuel. Even though he was a little boy under that kind of environment, yet he kept himself pure. He was not affected by the evil. He ministered unto God faithfully.
Of course, he could not do much. But as a little boy, he opened the door. You know, that was important, because if nobody opened the door, people could not come in and worship. You had to open the door very early in the morning. For a little boy to do that kind of work, it did demand some diligence.
Here you find Samuel diligently did all these small things, little things, in the house of God. He did them very faithfully. Because of his faithfulness, God noticed that faithfulness.
One night God called him. When God called him, he did not even know that it was God calling him. He had never heard from God before. He thought it was Eli who was calling him.
So he got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Eli said, “I did not call; go back to bed.” Then God called him again. He went to Eli again, and Eli said, “No, I have not called you. Go back to bed.”
Then God called the third time. He went to Eli, and Eli suddenly realized it was God who was calling him. Eli was an experienced person. Unfortunately, he was very weak now, but he had experience. So he told Samuel, “If you hear the call, say, ‘Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.’”
God called Samuel, and Samuel responded. God returned to speak to him and appear to him. The Bible says that the child grew in favor with God and man. He grew in the knowledge of God, and the word of God began to come to him.
Whatever he said came to pass. So all Israel, from Dan to Beer-sheba, knew that God had established Samuel as a prophet of God. The word of God began to come to the people through him, and God began to appear to the people again at Shiloh.
You find that God had raised up a vessel prepared for His purpose.
Now, brothers and sisters, do you know that we too are living at a time of transition? The children of Israel were living at a time of transition from judgeship to kingship, and Samuel was the vessel.
Under the judges, everybody did what was good in his own mind. There was no unity, no strength, and no peace. But under the king, the people were all brought together into one, and there would be peace.
Do you know we today are living in that kind of transition? What is our time? Our time now, we say, is the dispensation of grace. It is a time of grace. Thank God, this is the time of grace.
We are saved by grace through faith, and that not of ourselves; it is the gift of God. But even the time of grace is coming to an end. One day, the time of grace will be over, and the time of righteousness will appear upon this earth.
Brothers and sisters, one day the kingdoms of this age will become the kingdom of our God and of His Christ. In other words, one day the kingdom of God will come upon this earth. When the kingdom of God comes upon this earth, righteousness shall rule over the earth.
Today, lawlessness is ruling over this earth. But one day righteousness shall rule over the whole earth. The kingdom of righteousness shall arise, and we know that this day is coming soon.
When God is going to make that great transition, He needs a vessel. God is preparing an epoch-making vessel to make this change. Where is this vessel? Who is this person?
It is true that God’s thought is concerning the church, because the church is supposed to be the vessel. The church is to be the vessel to conclude this age of grace and to bring in the age of righteousness. The church is supposed to be the vessel to prepare for the coming of the King.
But unfortunately, the church has failed. The church has fallen for the world. So here you find God is raising up in the church what the Bible calls overcomers.
God is raising up a people in the church, a remnant people, a people who will be prepared just as Samuel was prepared.
How was Samuel brought into this world? He was brought into this world through Hannah, through the prevailing prayer of Hannah. Now, in spiritual principle, we know Hannah represents grace. It is through grace that we are born into the kingdom of God.
It is through the prevailing prayer of some people that we are saved. Brothers and sisters, if you look back, how did you come to the Lord? Probably, most likely, somebody had been praying for you. Probably it was your mother, your father, your husband, your wife, your children, or some of your friends.
Usually it is through prevailing prayer that people are brought into the kingdom of God. So, in a sense, we are all children of grace, like Samuel.
But that is not enough. We have to be Nazarites in a spiritual sense. Today, God does not want us to do all these physical things just as the children of Israel did. They were God’s earthly people, and now we are God’s heavenly people. With them, everything was physical; with us, everything is spiritual. But the principles are the same.
God’s purpose is that we be Nazarites. Brothers and sisters, every child of grace is supposed to be a Nazarite. In other words, our lives are redeemed and therefore belong to God. We are to live for God.
No matter what profession you may be in, you live for God. We are devoted to Him. We are supposed to be separated from the world. Wine and all the produce of the vine speak of worldly pleasure—that which the world can offer us to give us the pleasure of sin.
We are to be separated from the world because we are joined to the true Vine, to our Lord Jesus. We receive all our resources from Christ Jesus, not from the world.
We are supposed to have our hair grow long. In Scripture, hair is a covering. In other words, we need to cover our heads before our Head. Let Him be our Head. We are His body to carry out His will.
We are not to touch any dead bodies, lest we become defiled. Dead bodies, in Scripture, speak of the flesh. We are not to touch our own flesh, nor the flesh of other people, because flesh with its power is always corrupting.
So, in the same way, brothers and sisters, we are all supposed to be Nazarites: separated and devoted to God.
In the spiritual life, you find there is time to grow. You are not born, and when you come out of your mother’s womb, a grown-up man or woman. As a matter of fact, only one man came that way: Adam. When God created Adam, he was a full-grown man. But every one of us began as a baby, and gradually we grow. The spiritual life is the same. We need to grow.
We need to grow in favor with God. We not only need to grow spiritually, but we need to learn to minister, to serve, to serve God. I think we should begin by doing small things—perhaps opening the door, perhaps other simple services.
In these small things, as we learn faithfulness to God by ministering to God’s people, our faithfulness shall be proven. So God is looking for faithful people. God is not looking for talented people. God is looking for faithful people.
If we are faithful, then God will choose us. You know, one God gave five talents, another two talents, but the difference in talents makes no difference to God. What makes the difference is faithfulness.
We need to be faithful in the small things, because if we are faithful in small things, God will entrust us with more.
Then we need to hear the call of God. In other words, there needs to be a personal relationship with God. Our relationship with God must not be indirect. We have to have direct communication with God.
God is calling us. He has called us each to do what God has placed us in the body to do.
If we are faithful, and the word of God comes to us, then God will use us in these last days to make the transition, to conclude this age and bring in the age to come. God is looking for such persons. Brothers and sisters, every one of us can be included.
If we are really separated and devoted to the Lord, if we are faithful even in small things, if we walk in the light, then God can use us.
Today, that epoch-making vessel is a corporate vessel. It is no longer just one man, as Samuel was. It will be a number of people, a company of overcomers. These overcomers are like what we find in Revelation: the man-child, the corporate man-child.
This is the first stage of Samuel’s life, from chapter 1 through chapter 6. Then you find the second stage of Samuel’s life, from chapter 7 through chapter 12.
The children of Israel were in such a poor condition that, when the Philistines came to fight them, of course they could not fight, because God was not with them. But they were so superstitious.
They thought that if they could bring the ark of God before them, then God would fight for them. Why? The ark of God had gone before them before. When they entered the land, the ark of the Lord went before them as they surrounded Jericho, and Jericho fell.
So they thought, “If only we bring the ark of God before us, then God will fight for us, and the enemy will be defeated.” But God never respects superstition.
Because their minds were so darkened, God was not with them. God was not for them anymore. Even though they tried to bring the ark before them, thinking that because the ark represented the presence of God surely God would fight for them, God could not fight for them.
On the contrary, God even allowed His ark to be captured by the Philistines. The ark was captured—the testimony of God, the ark of the covenant.
When the news came to Eli, and Eli heard that the ark was taken, he fell backward, broke his neck, and died. His daughter-in-law was in travail, and she gave birth to a boy. But she called that boy Ichabod—that is, “The glory has departed from Israel.”
The children of Israel did not know how to protect God’s glory, but God knew. The ark was in the land of the Philistines for seven months, and during those seven months the Philistines simply could not stand it anymore.
Plagues came upon the land and the people. They put the ark into the temple of their god Dagon. You know, Dagon was a fish god. Dagon fell upon the threshold before the ark of God and broke his neck, and so forth.
The Philistines were so frightened that they had to send the ark back to the children of Israel. But when they sent the ark back, the children of Israel had no heart for the ark. The ark stayed in the house of Abinadab in Kiriath-jearim for twenty years.
So the prophet of God was speaking, and through his labor the hearts of the children of Israel began to return.
Then came deliverance. Oftentimes people look for deliverance, but their hearts are not for God. Even if God, in His great mercy, sends deliverance, the deliverance will be short-lived. What is more important is the heart. The heart has to return to God.
Under the judges, they were not able to bring the people’s hearts back to God. They were used by God to bring deliverance from time to time. But here God raised up the prophet Samuel, and through his speaking—or God speaking through him—the hearts of the children of Israel began to return to God.
They acknowledged their sin against God. Samuel called them together, and when Samuel prayed, God thundered against the Philistines. That was the difference. Samuel called that place Ebenezer: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”
Samuel was with the people; he was their last judge. But while he was judging them, you know this in chapter 7, he built an altar. He built an altar, and that is very important.
Gradually Samuel grew old. His sons, even though they were not as wicked as Eli’s sons, were not as good as he was. So the children of Israel came to Samuel when he was old and said, “You are old. Give us a king to rule over us like the rest of the nations.”
Samuel was grieved because he knew that, in such a request, they rejected God as their King. The children of Israel were a theocracy. From the time they came out of Egypt—from the time God made a covenant with them at Mount Sinai—up to this period, the nation of Israel was a theocracy. That is, God was their King.
Through the priests, God made known His mind to His people, but God Himself was their King. When they asked for a king to rule over them like the rest of the nations, it showed that they rejected God as their King. For this reason Samuel was grieved. They were more than rejecting Samuel; they were rejecting God.
Samuel went to God, and God said, “They are not rejecting you; they are rejecting Me, that they may know what kind of life they will have under a king like the nations.”
Samuel, even though he did not like the idea, told them, “All right, God will give you a king.”
Then you find Samuel challenging them. He said, “Now, I have lived before you from my youth up to now. If I have done anything wrong, if I have defrauded anybody, if I have taken anything from you, if I have done any unrighteousness, then I will restore it.”
And the children of Israel said, “You have never done anything wrong.” He lived such a life.
Samuel said, “Now you ask for a king. That is wrong, because you rejected God. So I will show you.” It was harvest time, and you know during harvest time you do not expect rain. Samuel said, “I will pray to God, and He will send rain and thunder.”
So rain and thunder came upon the people, and the people suddenly realized that they had really done a wicked thing in asking for a king. They said, “We have sinned. Above all our other sins, we have added this thing of asking for a king like the nations.”
Samuel said, “Yes, you have done wickedly, but you have already done it. From now on, if your hearts are toward God, God will still bless. But if you turn away from God, then you will perish.”
“But as for me,” Samuel said, “God forbid that I should sin against God in ceasing to pray for you, and to teach you the good and right way.”
Now think of it. Samuel was actually rejected by them when they asked for a king, yet Samuel was able to be faithful to the very end to the people. Oh, that was Samuel.
There are a few things during the second stage of Samuel’s life that I would like to repeat.
One is this: you find the work of Samuel the prophet, or his prophetic ministry, was not only to give the people the mind of God, but also to turn the hearts of the people back to God.
A prophet is to speak for God, but the speaking is with such authority that it touches the hearts of the people, not merely the minds of the people. It turns their hearts.
You remember, at the end of the Old Testament, God said that He would raise up Elijah. He would turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers. So the work of the prophet is touching the heart.
This is what Samuel did: not just an outward deliverance, but an inward turning. Any outward deliverance is temporary, but only the inward turning of heart will last.
Number two: you find he was at the same time a judge. But while he was a judge, he built an altar at Ramah. What does it mean? It means this: an altar is the place where you call upon the name of the Lord.
So here you find he did not judge according to his own wisdom. He judged by calling upon the Lord. He judged with the judgment of God.
He was a man flexible in the hands of God. Even though he was grieved by the request of the children of Israel—he knew it was wrong—when God spoke, he was flexible in the hands of God.
In order to be used by God, you have to be flexible. On the one hand, you have to be firm; you cannot compromise. Yet, on the other hand, you have to be so flexible that whenever God wants to bend you, you will bend in that direction.
Another thing: even though he was rejected by the people, he still prayed. He not only told them that they were wrong, but he said, “I will pray for you without ceasing.” Now, that is a servant.
That is the second stage of Samuel’s life. Then the third stage of Samuel’s life, from chapter 13 to chapter 24, was the time God used him to make the transition.
First of all, you find he anointed Saul. It was because the people asked for a king like the nations that God, as it were, gave in to their request. God gave them Saul.
Oftentimes, when we ask God for something that is really not His will, sometimes God will let us have it. But remember, at the same time, there will be leanness. It is not good to force God. It is much better to hear Him than to insist on having what we want.
Unfortunately, the children of Israel asked for a king like the nations. What kind of king would the nations like to have? Of course, they would look at outward appearance. So God gave them a king according to appearance, and there was a man called Saul.
The name Saul means “asked for.” Samuel was “asked of God.” Well, if it is really asked of God, then you get it from God; but if you ask for it from men, you get it from men.
Saul actually was not a bad man. So far as the world is concerned, from the worldly standpoint, he was a good specimen. He was a head taller than all the other people. He was handsome and tall.
As a matter of fact, he was a humble man. When Samuel talked to him and said that God had chosen him, he said, “Who am I? What are you talking about? I am the smallest in my family, and my family is the smallest in the tribe of Benjamin. Who am I?”
You find he was humble. When they cast lots and the lot fell upon him to be king, they could not find him. Why? Because he hid himself among the baggage.
When he was anointed king, some wicked men said, “Who is he? We will not follow him.” The people said, “Let us kill these people.” Saul said, “Do not do it.” He was a good man. He had a very good beginning, not a bad man at all.
But he was a man of the flesh. You know, in the flesh, in the sight of God, there is no good. But we do not see it. In our eyes, there is much bad in the flesh, but there is also much that appears good.
Do you think yourself pretty good? You know, you are not that bad. There is some good in you. Sometimes you are kind, sometimes you are gentle, sometimes you are generous—not every time. There is some good in you.
That was Saul, the man of the flesh. There was good in him. But the flesh can never please God. The things of God are foolishness to the man of the flesh. He will not, and he cannot, do the will of God.
So here you find a test came. Samuel told Saul, “You wait in Gilgal for seven days, and I will come and offer sacrifice.” The Philistines were gathering there, and Saul watched his people.
He waited and waited and waited until the seventh day, and Samuel did not come. Before the day was out, he could not wait anymore. He thought the Philistines were upon him, and he had to pray to God. He was religious, but legalistic.
So he forced himself to offer the sacrifice. That was something he should never have done. He was not a priest; he should not have done that. Just after he did it, Samuel arrived.
Samuel came at the very last moment. Because of that, God said, “The kingdom will be taken away from you and given to a person more worthy, a man after God’s own heart.”
Later on, in chapter 15, you find God gave him another command. God said, “Go and utterly destroy Amalek.” Saul went. He killed the people, but he kept King Agag alive. He spared the best of the sheep and the cattle.
Saul did not hear God’s will. He made a great thing out of it. He put up a monument for himself. When Samuel came, Saul went out to meet him and said, “I have done what God asked me to do.”
Samuel said, “What then is this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the cattle which I hear?” Saul said, “The people, the people—they wanted to keep the best for sacrifice to God.”
And you remember Samuel said, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” So God rejected Saul.
Samuel mourned before God. He lamented. He really loved Saul, you know. But God said, “Now that is enough. Go to Bethlehem and anoint another one.”
He went, and you remember the story of Jesse’s sons. When Eliab, the first one, came, he was a tall man too. Samuel looked at him and thought, “This must be the man.” He looked at the appearance.
But God said, “No. I look at the heart, not the appearance.” None of the sons was chosen, and finally David was the one. Samuel anointed David.
From then on, the story continued. You find how Samuel protected David, and how he loved Saul to the very end, how he loved the people to the very end, until in 1 Samuel 25:1, Samuel died. That was the conclusion of his life.
But anyway, you find one thing: this vessel was used by God to make the transition from judgeship to kingship.
It is true that the first king was Saul, not the right one. It is true that Samuel knew David was the one God had chosen. It is very strange, but it always happens that way: the flesh always comes first, and then the spirit; the law comes first, and then grace. So Saul came first, and then King David.
Saul was not in the purpose of God. Saul was in the plan of God, but not the purpose of God. There is a difference here; I hope you see it.
In the purpose of God, God’s kingship is according to David. One day a son of David shall sit upon His throne. That is God’s idea of kingdom.
Saul being king was not in God’s purpose. God had not purposed it that way. But it was an integral part of God’s plan. God planned it that way in order to show the contrast between the kings of the world, the kings after the nations, and the King after God’s heart. What a difference that is.
I have only shared with you about one person. There are two other persons. Of course, we do not have time to do that, but I will do a little more on Saul and then leave David for next time, God willing, because Second Samuel actually is the story of David. So we can group them together.
As to this man Saul, I think one brother put it very well. He said, “If you look at the life of Saul, his beginning was bright, but soon, very soon, it became overcast, and the sun set in blackest clouds.”
I think that is a summary of Saul’s life. He began right, but then you find it became overcast, and he ended very dark.
Why? He not only persecuted David and tried to murder David, but at the very end, because God would not answer him, he even tried to consult a witch. He fell on the battlefield. He died. That was the life of Saul.
So, brothers and sisters, I think as we read the life of Saul, it really gives us a warning. If we live according to the flesh, we are no different from Saul.
Saul was anointed, but he did not live under the anointing. He lived according to the flesh. Brothers and sisters, we are anointed Christians. The very word Christian means anointed ones.
We are all anointed. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. He is the anointing within us. If we live under the anointing, letting the Holy Spirit within us teach us all things, we will abide in Christ.
But if we do not listen to the Holy Spirit, if we do not live under the anointing, and instead live according to the flesh, wanting to have our self-will, remember: we will end up like Saul.
May God have mercy upon us.
Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank Thee for Thy precious word. We pray that these words may not be just history to us, but we ask that Thou wouldst, by Thy Holy Spirit, move in us, examining our hearts, that we may be, like Samuel, a vessel fit for the Master’s use.
We pray that Thou wilt not allow us to fall into the way of Saul. Oh, deliver us, Lord. Only Thy grace can keep us from falling.
So we just look to Thee for Thy keeping, and not only for Thy keeping, but for Thy working in us, that we may be walking in the way of David, to serve Thee and Thy purpose. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.