Who was Samuel in the Bible?
Samuel stands at the hinge of Israel's history, between the disordered days of the judges and the rise of the monarchy under Saul and David. He was born in answer to a mother's prayer, called by name while still a child, and spent his life holding a failing nation together in the presence of God.
Asked of God
His name records the prayer that produced him. His mother Hannah, unable to have children, begged God for a son and then handed him back.
Ernst-August BremickerHis mother, Hannah, had asked for a son, and God had granted her request. She gave him the name 'Samuel', which means 'asked of God' or 'heard by God'. Both were true. She asked for him, and God heard and answered her prayer. Further, her appreciation of the value of fervent prayer was passed on to her son. Samuel was a man of prayer, as seen in the occasions on which he interceded for Israel.
The last judge and the first prophet
He belongs to two eras at once, and that is the simplest way to place him.
Arend RemmersThe books of Samuel represent the transition from the time of the judges to the time of the kings. Samuel, the central figure of the first book, is at the same time the last judge and the first prophet.
Why did a new kind of servant appear at all? Because the priesthood — the family line that was supposed to represent God to the people — had collapsed under Eli and his sons.
Leslie M. GrantSamuel is the first of the prophets who were raised up by God because of the solemn failure of the priesthood. Priests were successional, not so prophets; theirs was a call strictly and personally by God.
Called by name in a dark time
The famous scene of the boy in the sanctuary is usually told as Samuel's discovery of God. Commentators point out that the initiative ran the other way.
Hamilton SmithSolemn indeed for the people of God as a whole, or for any company of His people, when there is little ministry from the Lord to feed their souls; when they themselves lack spiritual discernment, and when the testimony to God among them is dying out. Such was the condition of Israel in the days of Eli. However, God is not unmindful of His people whatever their condition. We might have thought that, in such a low condition, the people — or the priest on behalf of the people — would have called upon the Lord. It was the Lord, however, who "called Samuel."
His answer that night was not a boy's enthusiasm; it set the pattern for everything after it, starting with the hard message he then had to deliver to Eli.
Mark GrassoIt is implicit in those words, and confirmed by his later carrying out of the difficult task of passing on God's message to Eli, that Samuel was not making a foolish and over-confident boast like Israel had in the past. Rather, as the Bible records, obedience generally marked the whole of his life.
A life of intercession
Prayer was not one activity among many for Samuel. It was his office, and Scripture later ranks him with the greatest intercessors.
The Bible TreasuryHe was one of the few who lived in the spirit of the words, "pray without ceasing." He was in the midst of a people who had become strangers to prayer. He would be alone to bear the whole burden, as Moses and Aaron were in their day. So he is named along with them in Psalm 99:6, "Moses and Aaron were among His priests, Samuel also was among those who called upon His name." It follows from his words that Samuel's ministry was made up of two parts — prayer and teaching; prayer first, teaching next; prayer the foundation, then the building up.
Rejected, yet still the servant
When the people demanded a king "like all the nations," Samuel took it personally at first. God corrected the reading.
J. N. DarbySamuel calls the people together at Mizpah. There he sets before them their foolishness in rejecting the God of their salvation. But he proceeds to the choice of a king, according to the command of God. God meets the wishes of the people.
He anointed Saul, and later, after Saul's failure, anointed the shepherd boy David — and then stepped back.
The Bible TreasuryNow the aged prophet's chief service was finished. He had witnessed the rejection of the priesthood in the line of Ithamar. He had seen the failure of the king for whom Israel had asked. He lived to anoint the king whose throne shall never pass away, though for a time it has been overthrown.
Summary
- Asked — his name means "asked of God" or "heard by God"; he began as an answer to Hannah's prayer and was given straight back to God.
- Called — in a period when God's word was rare, God took the initiative and called a child by name; Samuel's reply set a lifetime pattern of obedience.
- Bridge — the last of the judges and the first of the prophets, raised up because the priesthood had failed; unlike priests, a prophet was called personally, not by family line.
- Intercessor — Scripture ranks him with Moses and Aaron among those who called on God's name, and his ministry ran in that order: prayer first, then teaching.
- Anointer — rejected by a people who wanted a king like the nations, he still obeyed, anointing Saul and then David, whose throne, commentators note, will never pass away.