It is the design of the present discourse to show what was implied in God’s being with Samuel.
I. This implied that God preserved his life and health. While other children died, Samuel lived, and grew in stature and strength. He could gratefully say, “I am old and grey-headed.” Long life is often represented as the natural effect and temporal reward of early piety.
II. God’s being with him implied that he preserved him from moral as well as natural evil. He lived in an evil day. All orders and ages of men had grown corrupt, and every kind of error, delusion, and vice prevailed. Samuel, therefore, was greatly exposed to be carried away by the torrent of moral corruption, and nothing but the presence of God could preserve him from being overwhelmed and destroyed. But God was with him and he with God; for he lived as seeing Him who is invisible. A love to God, and a sense of His constant presence, made him hate and avoid every sinful course. This was certainly owing to God’s being with him, and restraining the native depravity of his heart. It is easy for God to keep the heart of those who constantly lean upon Him.
III. God’s being with Samuel implied his constant guidance in the path of duty. Accordingly we find that God did from time to time, direct him in duty. He directed him to bear His solemn messages to Eli and his house. He directed him to comply with the voice of the people, and anoint Saul to be king over Israel. And He directed him, at the hazard of his life, to anoint David, the son of Jesse, to succeed Saul on the throne which be then claimed and possessed. Besides directing him in extraordinary cases, whither to go, what to do, and what to say, He directed him in all his common and daily conduct.
IV. God’s being with Samuel implied that he afforded him assistance in the discharge of duty. Samuel was constantly dependent on God to enable him to do his duty, after he was led to the knowledge of it. He was called to many arduous and self-denying duties, which he would have neglected to perform if God had not inspired him with courage, resolution, and zeal. He was at first afraid to deliver the Divine messages to Eli. It was a dangerous duty to anoint David king over Israel, while Saul his enemy was on the throne.
V. God’s with Samuel implied that he succeeded, as well as guided and assisted, him in duty. Men may form wise and good designs, and pursue them with activity and diligence, but without success. In all their undertakings, it depends upon God whether they shall obtain the object of their wishes.
VI. That God’s being with Samuel implied that he made him eminently useful in his day and generation. God made Samuel uncommonly useful in various ways.
1. By his predictions. He early called him and ordained him a prophet, to reveal His will to His chosen people.
2. God made Samuel useful by his instructions. Though he was not a priest, yet he was an eminent instructor. He was the first that taught the school of the prophets; which was a most excellent institution, and continued in the nation until after the Babylonish captivity, when synagogues were first established and multiplied in the land. But, beside this, he taught the people at large, and restrained them from the gross practices and errors to which they were exposed, while there was no king nor faithful priests in the nation.
3. God made Samuel very useful, by clothing him with civil authority, and giving him opportunity to administer justice through the land. We read, “Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.”
4. God gave Samuel the spirit of grace and supplication, by which He enabled him to draw down national blessings, and avert national salamities. David mentions the efficacy of Samuel’s prayers, as an example to the people of God in the days of darkness and distress. “Exalt ye the Lord our God, and worship at His footstool: for He is holy Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name: they called upon the Lord, and He answered them.”
5. His example crowned and established his character in the view of the nation. He was called to visit all parts of Judea, which gave the people a peculiar opportunity of seeing his holy and exemplary conduct. This constrained them to believe that God was with him, for he carried the visible appearance of living near to God, and of enjoying His gracious presence.
Improvement.
1. It appears from the character and conduct of Samuel that pious and faithful parents may do much to promote the piety and usefulness of their children.
2. We learn from the character and life of Samuel the importance of parents being pious.
3. The character and conduct of Samuel show the peculiar obligations of those who have been the subjects of parental dedication and instruction, to make a personal dedication of themselves to the Lord.
4. In the view of the character and conduct of Samuel we may see the great importance of early piety.
5. We learn from what has been said that it is very criminal to obstruct early piety. (N. Emmons.)
Here to grow
We are not in this world merely to do the pieces of work, large or small, that are set over against our hand. We are here to grow in strength and beauty of character. And it is not hard to see how this growth may go on continually amid life’s daily toil and cares. If we are diligent, careful, faithful, prompt, accurate, energetic in the doing of a thousand little things of common life, we are building these qualities meanwhile into our soul’s fabric. Thus we are ever learning by doing and growing by doing. There is art unseen spiritual building arising within us continually as we plod on in our unending tasks. Negligence in common duties mars our character. Faithfulness in work builds beauty into the soul. (J. R. Miller, D. D.)
The character of Samuel
I. Consider Samuel in his early advantages. He was in a special and peculiar sense a child of prayer.
II. But let us come to contemplate the results of this early training, as they soon developed themselves in the person and character of Samuel.
1. Observe his attention to all appointed duties. This is seen in the promptness with which he rises to obey the fancied summons of Eli even at midnight.
2. Let us consider next the deportment of Samuel towards others. Thus we find it was always modest, and courteous, and respectful. We never find him elated by the honourable position to which he had been advanced.
3. But once more, notice among the personal qualities of Samuel his steady, uncompromising faithfulness. Removed at so early a period from the pious overse sight of his parents; left only to the instruct, ions of the feeble, and as it would seem now careless Eli; compelled to be a witness of the fruits of his master’s sinful negligence, and even to be the daily associate of that master’s profligate and abandoned sons--we could hardly have wondered if, infected by the surrounding contagion, this plant of early and holy promise had withered and faded sway. “But the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation.”
III. But let us consider Samuel, in the last place, as he stood high in the favour of God. This is especially observable in the circumstances of his prophetic calling. The latter times of the Judges were times of great spiritual decline. Good men were scattered like two or three berries on the top of a bough. (D. Moors, M. A.)
The ministry of Samuel
These passages (1Sa_12:23) bring out some of the most characteristic points in the life of Samuel the prophet. The child devoutly surrendered bee sins the first and greatest of the prophets, the man chosen to close the order of judges and inaugurate the government of kings. It is as the first of the prophets that he appears before us in our text: “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.”
1. First, our text tells us, he grew. What a child will become depends very much on its capacity of growth. There are some who never grow, or, if they grow at all, grow feebly or imperfectly. Their body is stunted, their mind is undeveloped, their character makes no progress. But where there is full power of growth there is hardly any degree of eminence which may not be attained. Growth mainly results from two things, vigour of life, and suitable culture. Samuel enjoyed both these. But this growth was aided by culture. That culture began in infancy. He was brought to the house of the Lord; he was placed under the care of Eli--the devout, the true, though too indulgent Eli. Nor were there other influences wanting. His mother never ceased to pray for him. His mother came up every year, we are told, to offer the early sacrifice, and brought with her a little mantle, or coat, woven by her own hands. Oh! the anticipation of that yearly visit. Oh! the joy with which she folded him in her arms, and clothed him in his new dress. Oh! the love which she poured into the susceptible heart from hers, with fondest kisses and tenderest prayers. The impression of these visits lived on from year to year, and more than any other influence served to keep his heart pure, and loving, and devout. Above all, God Himself took Samuel in hand, and completed his education by His own Spirit.
2. The second thing our text tells us is that the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him, a blessing of the most comprehensive and sufficing kind, a blessing which seems to include all other blessings in itself. Only thus is the man blessed who fears the Lord, and whom the Lord delighteth to honour. The Lord was with Jacob to keep him safely in all the places whither he went. The Lord was with Joseph, and all that he did prospered. The Lord was with Moses, “certainly I shall be with thee,” and with confidence before which even Pharaoh quailed, he wrought deliverance for Israel. The Lord was with Joshua as He was with Moses, and he became strong and very courageous, and with the people took possession of the land. Paul at his first examination before Caesar was left alone, all men forsook him, nevertheless the Lord stood with him, and his preaching was so fully known that all the Gentiles heard, and he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And so “the Lord was with Samuel, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.”
3. Thirdly, “the Lord did let none of his words fall to the ground.” Because he had the capacity which was revealed in growth, and because the Lord was with him, therefore his words were words of power and took lasting effect. His predictions came to pass because they were really the utterances of the Spirit. Perhaps we have never grown as Samuel did, never grown up to such an apprehension of Divine truth that it has become a living power in our souls, and therefore we cannot skilfully unfold it to others, Perhaps we have never felt that the Lord was with us when we spake, and so the one influence which alone could open the heart was wanting. And the other passages I have read as part of my text show us how this was. First, because he adhered to his purpose: “I will teach you the good and right way.” What Samuel taught he felt to be of the first importance, and he could not be sure that what he taught would, in the highest sense, be good and right, unless it were Divine. Like all the ancient prophets he kept his ear open to catch the words of the heavenly oracle, his heart open to receive the celestial fire. If his teaching were of God, it would be true in its substance, decisive in its affirmations, and, however severely tested, would firmly stand. When men speak of “advanced thought” in the present day, and mean by it thought which is simply human, wrought out by man’s unaided reason, and freed from the assumption of being Divine, they might be indulging in the severest irony. Thought that springs up in a feeble human mind in advance of that which flows from the Divine! Thought originating in perceptions which are dim, limited, liable to be distorted, in advance of thought originating in perceptions which are clear, illimitable, and unperturbed! Save us from such progress as this. To a noble soul there is something stimulating in the persuasion that God has spoken to man, and that we have His words. Then, secondly, our text tells that he tolerated nothing that was unreal. When Samuel saw the miserable dissimulation which Saul was practising in covering his self-will with the cloak of sacrifice, he scornfully said, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the blood of rams.” The deep sincerity of the man, his determination to unmask all that was hollow and unreal, his demand for substance, not show, was another element of power in virtue of which none of his words fell to the ground. And finally he continued instant in prayer. (J. Harrison.)
The growth of character
1. Let us reflect, first, upon this description as applying to the ancient seer of Israel. “And Samuel grew.” It was a saying of the poet Southey that, live as long as we may, the first twenty years are the longest half of our life. Why is this? There is a physiological and there is a moral reason for it. The physiological cause lies in the more vivid sensibility of youth--the soft wax is not yet set, the tender branch is not yet hardened. The moral cause lies in the greater variety of influences to which we are subject before life’s choice is made, and ere we have definitely cast in oar lot either with the good or the bad. And both these are gathered into one statement if we say that the first twenty years are the longest half of life because they are the period of vigorous and determining growth; that being the analysis of the growing process--vigour of life and determination of life. Hence the significance of the clause, “And Samuel grew.” There was the vigour of the lad’s life; wherefore the young limbs lengthened and the supple frame waxed strong, and he developed into a magnificent man. And there was the determination of the lad’s life towards wise and pure conduct; wherefore he eschewed the evil example of Eli’s sons, and set himself to walk in the good and right way. This persistent emphasis upon the growth of the prophet is intended to teach that the secret of his even and consistent life is to be found in his early piety. The visitations of God’s grace were upon him like the dews of the morning; he grew, and when he was old and grey-headed, he remained like a tree rooted in its place. Occasionally a wild, ungodly youth is followed by a consecrated manhood, for the grace of God can work miracles; and this ham been seen in such lives as Augustine’s, Ignatius Loyola’s, John Bunyan’s, and John Newton’s. But the law is that “whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap; be that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting.” And even those apparent exceptions to which I refer do really confirm the rule, since, as the greatest of ecclesiastical historians has pointed out, the men who are converted after a lawless and reckless youth usually become Christians of an ill-wrought and inharmonious type. Always the Christliest saints are those of whom it can be said, as of the first prophet, “And Samuel grew.”
2. The text goes on to speak of a second characteristic. “And the Lord was with him.” Alone, he would have fallen. Alone, his spiritual nature would have sickened in the atmosphere of unclearness; he would have learned to tolerate the crimes of his neighbours--it may have been to outdo them.
3. Once more the text tells us that “the Lord did let none of his words fall to the ground.” This was the natural and appropriate result. (W. J. Woods, B. A.)
