Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SAMUEL

(Heb. šĕmûʾēl)

Samuel gave leadership to Israel in the critical period of transition from tribal existence under the judges to the establishment of monarchy. He is the central character of the first half of 1 Samuel, which bears his name. In these stories he appears in multiple roles of authority: priest, prophet, judge, military leader. Samuel occupies a unique role in Israel’s story. He is the representative and defender of an older tribal covenant order in Israel, yet he is God’s prophetic agent for ushering in the new day of kingship.

It is difficult to determine which traditions reflect the historical Samuel. Older independent traditions have been reworked by historians incorporating the stories of Samuel into larger works with particular interests. It seems likely that Samuel’s prophetic role has been emphasized and enhanced by circles interested in the prophets as the legitimizers and confronters of kings (1 Sam. 9:1–10:16; 13:8-15; 15:1-35; 28:3-25). The Deuteronomistic historian, working at the time of Babylonian Exile, used Samuel to voice negative views toward kingship (1 Sam. 8:1-22; 12:1-25). However, what seems beyond doubt is that Samuel played a catalytic role in the establishment of kingship in Israel. He is a central figure in all of the stories on Saul’s elevation to the kingship. Samuel was also the key figure in keeping Israel’s identity and religious tradition alive during a period of defeat and occupation by the Philistines (1 Sam. 4). In this time of confusion and dissolution it may well have been possible and necessary for Samuel to exercise authority in roles that would normally not converge in a single individual (priest, prophet, judge).

Samuel’s birth story (1 Sam. 1) reports that his father Elkanah was an Ephraimite from Ramathaim-zophim. His mother Hannah was barren and was given the child Samuel as God’s response to her fervent prayer. In return she devoted the boy to the service of the Lord, and he came to Shiloh to serve under the priest Eli, presumably to take up priestly duties himself. In a direct revelatory experience from the Lord (1 Sam. 3) Samuel is given an oracle to deliver to Eli denouncing the corruption that Eli’s sons have brought on the priesthood and announcing judgment against Israel and the house of Eli (3:11-14). From this beginning Samuel becomes widely recognized in Israel as a prophet (1 Sam. 3:19–4:1a). When the Philistines defeat Israel and capture the ark, Eli’s sons are killed and Eli himself collapses in death (1 Sam. 4:10-18). Later texts indicate that Shiloh was also destroyed at this time (cf. Jer. 7:14; 26:9).

In the time of Philistine occupation, Samuel is portrayed as single-handedly maintaining Israelite tradition and identity. Assembling the people at Mizpah, he challenges them to maintain covenant obedience (1 Sam. 7:3-6). He is said to “judge” the people (1 Sam. 7:6, 15, 16), which includes traveling a circuit of towns in the central hill country and “administering justice” from his home in Ramah (vv. 16-17). When the Philistines threaten to attack, Samuel presides over sacrifices (1 Sam. 7:7-9) and calls to the Lord on the people’s behalf. The Lord sends a panic upon the Philistines and the Israelites win a military victory over them (1 Sam. 7:10-11). Samuel is credited with subduing the Philistines all his days (1 Sam. 7:13). 1 Sam. 7 is often said to picture Samuel as the last of the judges. His role is broader than that, and the portrait here is probably idealized to make the elders’ request for a king (1 Sam. 8) seem unnecessary.

Samuel appears as a key figure in all of the differing traditions on the beginning of kingship in Israel. The elders of Israel come to Samuel and request him to “appoint for us a king to govern us, like other nations” (1 Sam. 8:5; cf. vv. 19-20). Samuel interprets this as a personal rejection and is reluctant to comply. God tells him that the people’s request is a rejection of divine kingship but that he should make them a king after issuing a severe warning on the dangers of kingship (1 Sam. 8:11-18).

Three stories follow that show Samuel in the key role of designating or installing Saul as Israel’s first king. In the first (1 Sam. 9:1–10:16), Samuel appears as a seer encountered by Saul while seeking his father’s lost asses. God reveals to Samuel that Saul is the one God has designated to deliver Israel from the Philistines. Samuel privately anoints Saul, after which he is possessed by God’s spirit. This account stresses Samuel’s role as a prophet, anointing and authorizing Saul for kingship. In the second account (1 Sam. 10:17-27), Samuel assembles the people at Mizpah where Saul is selected king by the casting of lots. Samuel installs him as king in a public ceremony that includes instructions in the “rights and duties of kingship” (v. 25). Finally, following Saul’s heroic deliverance of the people of Jabesh-gilead (1 Sam. 11:1-13), Samuel “made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal” (v. 15).

In a final public assembly Samuel declares the integrity of his own leadership in Israel (1 Sam. 12:1-5) and admonishes the people and their king to give obedience to the commandments of the Lord (vv. 6-25). He promises to continue to pray for them and to instruct them in “the good and the right” (1 Sam. 12:23). Public addresses such as this often mark transitions between major periods in the Deuteronomistic history, and 1 Sam. 12 is usually regarded as the dividing point between the period of judges and that of kings.

Samuel appears as the prophet announcing judgment against Saul in two stories describing Saul’s rejection by God for failure to carry out God’s word as made known by Samuel. In 1 Sam. 13:8-15 Samuel condemns Saul for proceeding with sacrifices that Samuel was to have made. The rejection takes the form of denying future dynasty to Saul. In 1 Sam. 15:1-35 Samuel pronounces judgment on Saul for failing to carry out the full extermination of the Amalekites in a campaign declared by Samuel as God’s holy war. This time Saul himself is rejected as God’s king. Samuel, as God’s prophet, can withdraw divine authority from kings as well as bestow it.

Samuel grieves over the failure of Saul, and God must call him from his grief to undertake the mission to annoint a new king (1 Sam. 15:35–16:1). In Bethlehem Samuel wants to anoint the first of Jesse’s sons brought to him, but God chides him to look on the heart and not on appearances. At last Samuel anoints David, Jesse’s eighth son who was off tending sheep. Again, the emphasis is on the need for kings to be anointed and authorized by God’s prophet.

Samuel encounters Saul twice more. While Samuel is leading the group of prophets in his home of Ramah, Saul comes searching for David and is seized up in the frenzy of their prophesying, strips of his clothes, and lies naked before Samuel all day and night (1 Sam. 19:18-24). Although Samuel dies (1 Sam. 25:1), Saul is humiliated before the prophet one last time. Fearful over a coming battle with the Philistines, Saul has a medium call up the ghost of Samuel (1 Sam. 28). Samuel reiterates God’s rejection of Saul as king and predicts a Philistine victory in which Saul and his sons will die.

Bruce C. Birch

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

SAMUEL

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)