And all Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.
From Dan to Beer-sheba
That is to say, from Plymouth to Aberdeen--all the people in the towns and villages of Israel knew that there was come a new thing on the earth, that God was now speaking by the mouth of a little child. One of the first lessons which comes from the study of this story is, that bad men and bad things are doomed. Nothing can keep alive that which God has condemned. I look upon Hophni and Phinehas as representatives of that which was bad. “All Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord,” and at the same time, that Hophni and Phinehas were to be removed from the face of the earth. We are surrounded by evil; bad men and bad things are all around us. But I want those of us who believe in God to cheer ourselves with the thought that nothing will live forever but that which is good. No wrong thing can live foreverse Slavery was a giant. It is a giant yet in Africa; but its brother, American slavery, came down never to rise. Tyranny is a doomed thing. “Samuel is established to be a prophet of the Lord;” and I do not care who Hophni and Phinehas are if you will only do your duty. Be brave, and God will see you through.
2. The second lesson I want to teach today is this: Mothers, get your children ready, “that Samuel may be established to be a prophet of the Lord.” Oh! what honour came to Hannah through Samuel. We should encourage our children to have right ideas, and encourage them to propagate their ideas. Never was there a time when there was so much room for individual goodness.
3. I should say, further, that early consecration is the pathway to honour and greatness. What a great man Samuel became. (T. Champness.)
The call and prophetic work of Samuel
I. In the first place, we will consider the call of Samuel.
II. But in the second place let us consider the prophetic work or Samuel.
1. First, his work Was to announce the Divine mind by predicting future events.
2. In the second place, another pare of the prophetic work of Samuel was to revive religion and restore the worship of God among the nation. For at the time that Samuel was introduced to the prophetic office, religion was exceedingly low, indescribably low.
3. But, in the next place, another part of his work was to decide all doubtful cases, according to the will and the law of God. The most difficult of all those cases that came before him was the introduction of monarchy into the theocracy.
4. Another part of the work of Samuel was to introduce and to perpetuate a race of prophets, a series of prophets, in the Jewish church.
5. But again: another part of his work was to write a portion of the inspired volume--to communicate a part of the mind of God by inspiration.
1. Let us learn from this, in the first place, that early piety is of great influence in the Christian church.
2. And, in the second place, let us learn how a youth, in very disadvantageous circumstances, may be of great use in reviving religion in his day and generation (T. W. Jenkyn, D. D.)
Communications from God
1. What a dreary, hopeless state it is to live without any communications from God! Man did never in fact live entirely without such communications. God did reveal Himself “at sundry times and in divers manners,” sometimes dropping His communications for a long tract of time, but always renewing them again. It has indeed been said by doubters and unbelievers that God has given man a conscience and a moral sense, which speak to him in God’s name, and teach him what is right and wrong, and that this is quite sufficient communication from God to make us good and happy, and that we need nothing further. But what is it that our conscience, which is indeed the voice of God within us, teaches us first and before all things else? It is that we have gone astray from the rule of right. No man, without some better help than conscience lent him, ever lived fully up to the requirements of his conscience.
2. But again: “God revealed Himself to Samuel by the word of the Lord.” We may justly reflect that He has done this more completely to ourselves than He did to Samuel. Now, do we each one of us practically act as if we fully believed that constant revelations from God were necessary to make us holy and happy? Do we make daily devout use of the Holy Scripture, which is our great means of receiving revelations, or, in other words, communications from God? (Dean Goulburn.)
