SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS ESSENTIAL IN LOCALITIES
SPIRITUAL ELEMENTS ESSENTIAL IN LOCALITIES
1 Samuel 2:18,19; 1 Samuel 3:1-4; 1 Samuel 3:10-21; 1 Samuel 7:8-10; 1 Samuel 7:15-17; 1 Samuel 16:1-3; 1 Samuel 16:12,13
I believe, dear brethren, the history of Samuel presents certain spiritual elements which are essential in any locality for the prosperity of the testimony there, and shows how they may develop from small beginnings. The elements that I refer to are first what is priestly, then secondly the prophetic word, thirdly power with God in prayer and calling on His name, fourthly the element of spiritual judgment, and then finally the power to bring Christ in so that he acquires the place among God’s people that He should have.
I think we can see that all these elements are of great value in any locality, and there is no reason why they should not be present, for the days in which Samuel is introduced were about as bad as they could be. Indeed, they are referred to at the end of Psalm 78 in terms that show that the conditions among God’s people had at that time become as bad, as I have said, as they could be, but they afforded the background for God to intervene in His sovereignty to bring in David, and through him to establish all His thoughts concerning His people. But then, before he brought in David, there was this previous history having its rise in the exercises of a godly woman named Hannah. There is no reason why the spirit of Hannah should not be with us, for the conditions publicly in Christendom are morally the same as the conditions that obtained in Israel in Hannah’s day. That is, that which claims publicly to be in the position of the priesthood is utterly corrupt, and so much evil and corruption of every kind are now connected with what claims to be divine service that it is utterly nauseous to Him, so that the Lord’s word to Laodicea is, “I am about to spue thee out of my mouth,” Revelation 3: 16 - a very strong expression showing how the Lord regards the state of indifference to what is due to Himself and His name that marks the Christian profession at the present time.
But it was in the presence of such conditions that Hannah had her exercises, her husband apparently satisfied to go on with what was formal; the yearly sacrifice was quite sufficient for him, so that he could hardly understand Hannah’s exercise that she could be content with nothing less than a son. What God has in mind for His saints is that they should move before Him and serve Him in the character of sons, and Hannah desired a son. Elkanah said to Hannah, “Am not I better to thee than ten sons?” 1 Samuel 1: 8, but Hannah pursued her exercise and in due course God gave her the son that she had asked for, and he was named Samuel, which means, ‘Asked for of God’. Now this is a most important matter for us to bear in mind, beloved brethren, and it is always open to us to ask of God. Samuel represents what is brought in on the basis of asking of God, so that whatever needs may disclose themselves in a locality, whatever falling short there may be in the actual answer to the truth, there is always open to us this avenue of asking of God. God loves to give in answer to requests, as the Lord said, “how much rather shall the Father who is of heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” Luke 11: 13. Hence Samuel represents what is brought in on the principle of one exercised soul having asked of God, having had discernment of conditions, and intelligence of what was needed to meet those conditions. It says of Samuel that he ministered before the Lord being a boy girded with a linen ephod; that is, he morally displaced the priesthood that was so corrupt. Officially he was not a priest, for though a Levite he was not of the house of Aaron, but morally he was one. He ministered before the Lord girded with a linen ephod.
That is the first thing to be considered in any locality, what is priestly, what will minister to the pleasure of God, not doing it in a merely formal way, but as having the moral conditions that the service of God requires, because it says that Samuel was girded with an ephod of linen. That represents that the moral conditions suitable to the priesthood were found with Samuel, even though at this time he was but a boy. That is what God looks for in His people; it was being developed, though in but small measure as yet, and God could now set aside the official priesthood that was so corrupt and distasteful to Him. I believe it is always God’s way that, if He is going to set something aside. He has already there in existence what is qualified to replace it. So you remember when the disciples spoke to the Lord about the temple and called His attention to the fine buildings, He told them, “not a stone shall be left upon a stone, which shall not be thrown down,” Mark 13: 2. The Lord had there the widow who had cast in her two mites into the treasury, and therefore that which was only formal could be set aside; what was pleasing to God and devoted to His service was already there in the person of the widow. That is always a principle with God, and I would urge upon the young brothers and sisters to start young in considering what is pleasing to God so as to develop in what is priestly. We can only develop what is priestly by being in the presence of God and being attentive to the Holy Spirit. It is only thus that we shall develop in what is priestly, but that is what counts above everything else in His testimony, and everything that is pleasing to God develops out of what is priestly. What Samuel was as a great prophet, what he was as a great intercessor and one who had power with God as calling on His name, and what he was as a great judge, all flow out of his beginnings in priestly activities. He was not a priest officially but he was one morally, and it is exactly the same today with the saints of God who give place to the Spirit of God; they are characteristically priestly, and displace all that is formal and official in the priesthood around us. God passes over all that, and will shortly set it aside completely, because He already has in its place that which pleases Him.
So it says that Samuel’s mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year to year. How important this maternal element is in any company, the element that, as having already considered for God, will watch the growth of that which is young in the company. The suggestion is that there was normal gradual growth, and each year a fresh coat was needed, and it was the mother that brought it. It is most important that there should be this maternal watchfulness as to the spiritual growth of those who are younger, that there may be a steady development of what is priestly in the local company, because, I say again, what is priestly underlies everything else. There can be no power in the prophetic word, or with God in intercession, or in the spirit of judgment - there can be no power in any of these directions, save as it finds its roots in what is priestly.
In 1 Samuel 3 we find that it says, “the boy Samuel ministered to Jehovah before Eli,” verse 1. It is very interesting to notice how the Spirit of God presents Samuel in contrast to what was around. In chapter 2: 11 it says, “And the boy ministered to Jehovah in the presence of Eli the priest.” And then we have a section which describes the evil and utter wickedness of the official priesthood. In verse 18 it says, “And Samuel ministered before Jehovah, a boy girded with a linen ephod,” and in verses 22 and onwards we get the incapacity of Eli, his oldness and his lack of moral power, so that while he reproves his sons, he has no power with them. In verse 26 it says, “Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with Jehovah and also with men.” Then we get in the final section in that chapter the man of God coming to Eli and conveying to him God’s judgment of his house. Chapter 3: 1 reads, “the boy Samuel ministered to Jehovah,” that is, the Spirit of God is continually reverting to Samuel in contrast to all that is around, which is so displeasing and abhorrent to God. In chapter 3 the Lord honours Samuel and calls him by name, saying, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel was slow to understand who it was speaking to him, but eventually he says, “Speak, for thy servant heareth,” verse 10. It says, “Jehovah came, and stood, and called as at the other times, Samuel, Samuel!” That is, the Lord is now definitely taking account of what was there. I am seeking to apply this to the conditions that may obtain in our localities, because as the truth that God has ministered among us is responded to by us, there is that which provides a full answer to Him notwithstanding the corrupt state of things around us. So God is honouring Samuel. The Lord came and stood, and stood means took up His stand deliberately. He was standing in relation to Samuel. Judgment had already been pronounced on the system around, and the Lord was taking His stand in relation to Samuel. The point is, was Samuel going to fail Him, or not? That is the position now; the Lord has passed by that which is around us and has taken His stand in relation to what God has brought in vitally, though in smallness. The point is, are we going to fail Him, or are we going to answer fully to all that He looks for? He knows Samuel and calls him by name. He would give Samuel to know that He knows him by name, and Samuel says, “Speak, for thy servant heareth,” and then the Lord says a most remarkable thing to Samuel. We do not know exactly what Samuel’s age was at that time, but he was sufficiently young to be called a boy, and the Lord tells him what He was about to do in Israel, a thing, “at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle,” verse 11. That is, the Lord does not hesitate to say to the boy that the conditions around him, in the midst of which he was, were so bad that He was coming in in the most drastic judgment. He would have the boy understand all this. So it is important for the young to face these things; it is a question of understanding what the privilege of our position is, that through grace we are found in separation from evil around and in a place where the truth is known; and the question is what are we going to do with it. Are we going to see that the conditions provided are maintained so that the service of God can go on to the end? The Lord did not hesitate to tell Samuel what He felt about these things, and about Eli, and Eli’s house; the whole matter was laid out before Samuel. We can understand why Samuel would fear the Lord. We can understand how it would promote the spirit of fear in his heart, as he found himself in the presence of the Lord who spoke to him of doing such a thing in Israel.
The Lord was not sparing Samuel, so to speak; He was making him feel the seriousness of having to do with God, there is to be no trifling with the holiness of God. With a sense of that, Samuel is to speak, with spiritual power. It is a question of God, His house and His service, and the holiness that becomes it, and Samuel is to understand that God will maintain the holiness proper to His house. So Eli calls upon Samuel in the morning to tell him what Jehovah had said. Eli says, “I pray thee, keep it not back from me: God do so to thee, and more also, if thou keep back anything from me of all the word that he spoke to thee,” verse 17. And it says, “Samuel told him all the words, and kept nothing back from him,” verse 18. Samuel was faithful. In Jeremiah 23: 28 we read, “he that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully.” I believe it was this faithfulness on Samuel’s part in telling Eli exactly what Jehovah had said, although extremely painful and difficult to do, that established him as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord would say, Now I have one I can rely on, someone who will not water down my word to make it popular, someone who will convey my word faithfully. And it says, “Samuel grew,” verse 19. How encouraging all these statements are in the early chapters, the Spirit of God taking account of the growth that was going on, starting with what was small. The Spirit of God watched it and recorded it as it grew in priestliness and faithfulness in regard to the word of the Lord. There was at any rate someone in Israel who would pay attention to what He said. His words would all fall on good ground. “Jehovah was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, knew that Samuel was established a prophet of Jehovah,” verses 19, 20. So he is established a prophet, but what underlies it is priestliness, ministering to the Lord clothed with the linen ephod. What is needed is the prophetic word. It says in the prophet Hosea, “by a prophet Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved,” chapter 12: 13. The prophetic word is intended to deliver the saints from the world, and to preserve them as they pass through the wilderness identified with the service and testimony of God; hence it is always needed; so the epistle to the Corinthians encourages us to desire the ability to prophesy. We have to see to it that we are following after love, and then we may desire earnestly the best gifts. All our desires for ability to prophesy should be prompted by desire to see the saints prosper and to promote the pleasure of God in His people. If that is the basis of our desires, we may desire earnestly that we may prophesy. It is a question of bringing in what is needed, and so we get instruction as to the gift of prophecy, and one may mention at this point, how Isaiah in the 6th chapter tells us of his own conversion, and how one of the seraphim flew to him with a live coal taken with tongs from off the altar, and touched his lips, and said, “Behold, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin expiated,” verse 7; and then Isaiah heard a voice saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” verse 8. That is, someone is needed. Let us bear that in mind; someone is needed to convey the mind of God. It is a means by which the people of God are preserved. Isaiah says, “Here am I; send me.” The idea of being sent is that you have a message. So Samuel starts his history as a prophet by having a message, and telling it faithfully. It is important to recognise the need, and to get to the Lord about it, as ready to be available, not wanting to be someone, equally pleased that it should be someone else, but at the same time not holding back, but accepting responsibility. “Here am I; send me.” Now Scripture shows that sisters also may prophesy, and that they may have their part in conveying the mind of God. That is a feature that showed itself in the early days, it was there in Anna, it was there in the daughters of Philip, but we do not often see it now. It may be a question for sisters as to whether there is something lacking in this respect, whether that feature which ought to be found among the people of God is lacking, because evidently it has a place. Sisters may exercise an influence in the way in which they may convey the mind of God as having received it themselves, and as being marked by moral power as those who have to do with God. So this element of prophesying was found with Samuel, and it says that “the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord,” 1 Samuel 3: 21.
At the end of 1 Samuel 3, we find that the mind of God is now being manifested, and what is priestly having been secured and being maintained, this element of prophesy is greatly increased. So that when David flees from Saul to Samuel, and Saul hears that David is at Naioth by Ramah. Saul follows him there, and he finds a company of prophets prophesying and Samuel standing as president over them, and Saul is exposed, and he lies down naked. It shows what power there was, all springing from the early beginnings of which we have spoken.
In chapter 7 we find that what comes to light, is the power that Samuel had with God. In the beginning of the chapter he had told the people to apply their hearts to the Lord to serve Him only, and He would deliver them out of the hand of the Philistines. “And Samuel took a sucking-lamb, and offered it as a whole burnt-offering to Jehovah,” verse 9; he does not disguise the true state of things. The sucking-lamb denotes smallness, it was just a sucking-lamb, not a bullock, but very small, indicating the smallness of their measure at that time. He does not pretend that things are better than they are, but it is the beginning of recovery, and the whole burnt offering speaks of what is for God. The completeness of our acceptance in Christ remains unchanged, though our measure be small, and we can be brought in in the unchanged acceptance of Christ Himself and the value of His death, as indicated in the sucking-lamb. The measure may be small, but that does not alter the acceptance in which we stand before God. “And Samuel cried to Jehovah for Israel, and Jehovah answered him.”
He heard Samuel; the Spirit of God is stressing Samuel. If we are prepared to start with what is priestly, and go on growing in that, and seeking the pleasure of God in His people, what may not result from it? It says, “Jehovah answered him.” In the Scriptures Samuel is remarkably honoured hundreds of years afterwards; according to the prophet Jeremiah, it is recorded: that the Lord said to Jeremiah, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul would not turn toward this people,” chapter 15: 1, evidently alluding to the great power that Moses and Samuel had as intercessors, but the state in Judah was so bad that even they would not have availed to turn Jehovah toward His people. So God honours Samuel centuries afterwards.
In Psalm 99 he is mentioned also, “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name,” verse 6; so it is open to us to develop power with God. How valuable this can be in any local company, power to be able to call upon God; and to get an answer from God. We get other instances in Scripture of God taking account of what individuals are. He says, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” Genesis 18: 17. He was taking account of Abraham, and what Abraham was as walking with Him, and as pleasing to Him. “I know him,” he says, “that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of Jehovah, to do righteousness and justice,” verse 19. He knew Abraham and what he was in his house, and because of what he was in his house, it says, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am doing?” And he is called the friend of God. Then we get Daniel too, he was greatly beloved. And so it is open to us, brothers or sisters, beginning with what is priestly, to cultivate power with God as considering for God’s pleasure in His people, and who can tell what that may effect in any locality?
Then in the end of the chapter Samuel comes before us as marked by spiritual judgment, a most important feature in the assembly. We are to judge angels, and the world, and in view of our judging the world, God allows all sorts of matters to arise in the history of the assembly; they arise in localities, and have to be dealt with in localities according to the spirit of judgment, that is, right judgment. Judge not according to sight; but judge righteous judgment,” John 7: 24. First of; all, before any judgment is pronounced on a matter, the correct facts have to be carefully ascertained and a thorough inquiry made as we see in Deuteronomy 13: 14 and Deuteronomy 17: 4: then it is a question of bringing to bear upon these facts principles that are according to God.
So it says that “Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel”, that is, the house of God, a most important element in judgment, for in the .house of God, God requires that things should be suited to Himself. Paul says, “that thou mayest know how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house.” 1 Timothy 3: 15. We are always the house of God by virtue of the fact that God is dwelling in us by His Spirit, and that is a matter to bear in mind. You remember in Numbers that every leper and everyone that had an issue was to be put outside the camp, “that they defile not their camps, in the midst whereof I dwell,” chapter 5: 3, that is, the dwelling of God among His people was brought to bear upon them as the ground upon which they were to exclude everything that was not suitable to Himself. So Samuel went from year to year and judged Israel. He went to Gilgal: this place suggests the cutting off of the flesh, what God has effected in the death of Christ and what we are to maintain in the power of the Spirit; Samuel would bring that to bear on matters as they arose. How drastically God has dealt with the flesh in the cross of Christ, and the Spirit of God has come in, in order that we may be maintained in what has been done for us! So Samuel would bring Gilgal to bear upon matters that arise. Then he judged also in Mizpah. The meaning of Mizpah is ‘Witness’, and in Genesis 31 Laban says, “when we shall be hidden one from another: ...no man is with us; see, God is witness between me and thee!” verse 49, 50. Mizpah brings that side of the truth before us. God is looking on, that even when we are by ourselves, God is witness. If, at your leisure, you turn to Genesis 31: 45 - 50, where the place acquired its name, you will see the force of it. Samuel brings that to bear upon matters. Then, finally, it says, “his return was to Ramah; for there was his house, and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar to Jehovah,” 1 Samuel 7: 17. That was the place where he maintained his personal links with the Lord. It represents one of the elements of our maintenance, our personal links with God - a most important matter - and that also becomes the means of judging things that arise. If we cultivate personal links with God, we shall develop the power of spiritual judgment.
In chapter 16, I think Samuel represents another element. I do not go into the detail of that chapter, but it is particularly occupied with a locality, that is, Bethlehem. It is in view of conditions pleasing to God being found in Bethlehem, Saul (that is, the first man at his best) had been rejected by God, and speaking typically, the point is that Christ is to take his place. David was to be anointed, the man of God’s choice; that is, to put it simply, the first man is not to be in evidence in our locality. Christ is to be everything and in all. That is what God has in mind, and that is, what we should have in mind; we may say we are a long way from it, but let us keep the divine thought before us. Paul will admit nothing short of the divine standard in his labours, he says that he laboured to present every man perfect in Christ.
Samuel was to go to Bethel to anoint to Jehovah a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, to anoint the king He had provided. Samuel understands that if Saul is to be set aside, there is sure to be conflict. He says, “How shall I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me,” 1 Samuel 16: 2. If anything of the first man in any form has a place in any local company, and the Spirit of God is going to work with a view to displacing that and bringing Christ in, we may rest assured there will be conflict, and the point is how to go about it. It is like a general, considering the best mode of attack, how to achieve his end with the least possible loss; and Samuel said, “How shall I go? if Saul hear it, he will kill me.” God said to Samuel, “Take an heifer with thee, and say, I am come to sacrifice to Jehovah. And call Jesse to the sacrifice,” chapter 16: 2, 3, and we find in verse 5 that when Samuel moves to Bethel, he says to the leaders that he has come peaceably. “I am come to sacrifice to Jehovah. Hallow yourselves, and come with me to the sacrifice. And he hallowed Jesse and his sons, and called them to the sacrifice.”
The idea of sacrifice to Jehovah was to be set before the elders of Bethlehem. Every true believer would respond to the idea of considering for God, and providing conditions pleasing to God in his locality, and so Samuel was to come to Bethlehem with the object of providing conditions that were pleasing to God, that which God could take pleasure in, and all were to be drawn into it. Samuel would bring the elders in too, and Jesse and his sons; all were to be drawn into this matter of considering for God with just one object in view, that conditions pleasing to God should be brought in. That necessitates that Christ should be brought in. But then Samuel was also to take a heifer with him; and a heifer being a female animal represents, I believe, a certain subjective formation. What I take it to mean is this, that if we would help the saints in any place, we must not only bring in the authoritative word, the mind of God in prophecy, but be the exemplification of the thing; so Samuel was to bring with him the heifer, that which represented the subjective element. That is to say, he was not simply to go as a formal minister, but he was himself to exemplify what should be the result of the ministry in God’s people, a most important matter.
One has often referred in this connection to the way Paul moved in relation to the Corinthians, bringing in the commandment of the Lord to correct the conditions that were there, but also sending Timothy, who, he said, “shall put you in mind of my ways as they are in Christ, according as I teach everywhere in every assembly,” 1 Corinthians 4: 17. There was not only an authoritative message, but there was the idea of the exemplification of the ministry, by means of which they would be brought to the remembrance of Paul’s ways as they were in Christ, as he taught everywhere in every assembly. The Spirit of God will always support what is of Christ, as expressed livingly in a place.
I think the history of Samuel is of great interest to us as showing what spiritual elements may be brought in for the help of the saints in any company, arising out of what is priestly. If what is priestly is brought in, and maintained, then there can be the development of the prophetic word, power with God in prayer, the spirit of judgment, and the power of exemplifying the truth as it is expressed in His saints.
May the Lord encourage us to go in for these things, for His name’s sake!