“He brought the tribe of Benjamin near by its clans, and the clan of the Matrites was taken by lot; and Saul the son of Kish was taken by lot. But when they sought him, he could not be found.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
This was Saul’s big moment. He’d been anointed by Samuel to be the first king of Israel. He’d now been chosen by lot—the process by which the people determined the will of the Lord. And when his big moment came…he was nowhere to be seen. Read the rest…
“When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second, Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. Yet his sons did not walk in his ways but turned aside after gain. They took bribes and perverted justice.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
How ironic and tragic it is that Samuel fell into the same error as Eli! While it appears he was even more faithful to the Lord as a judge than Eli was, Samuel’s sons were given positions as judges over Israel because of who their father was and, like Eli’s sons, were unfaithful failures in the positions as well. Read the rest…
“As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
A couple of things stand out here to me. This verse is an indictment of Eli as well as a commentary on how tragic his family situation was. Both of these are things we want to avoid being said about us. Read the rest…
“Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Hearing and recognizing the voice of the Lord does not come naturally. It is a learned skill. Let me offer one key application of this for you this morning. Read the rest…
“The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
I love this verse. The detail about the lamp of God functions in two ways. The first is entirely mundane. In the tabernacle (the reference to “the temple of the Lord” is anachronistic since the temple wouldn’t be built for over 100 years, and anyway, the Hebrew here refers simply to a large building or structure so tabernacle would be an acceptable translation as well), there was a special lamp, a candlestick more precisely, that was lit each night and burned until morning. The other meaning here is more special. Read the rest…
The Nexus 