READING (2)
[p. 13] READING (2)
1 Samuel 1: 21 - 28; 2: 1, 2; 3: 19 - 21
JT I had in mind that we might, in considering these scriptures, see how manhood according to God is developed, as in Samuel; and then manhood according to men, as in Saul. One is exercised at the present time as to the numerous local eruptions in various places, arising from personal feeling, and indicating a want of manhood according to God.
Hannah, I believe, is one who sees the need of manhood. She has priestly insight. Things seemed to be in order, outwardly, in her day; her husband went up yearly to worship and to sacrifice to Jehovah of hosts in Shiloh; religious observances were recognised; there was an official priesthood in Eli and his sons. But underneath all this there was distance from God which He felt. Hannah, representing the spiritual element underneath (for there was no ostentation about her), came in for persecution. There was opposition in Elkanah’s other wife, and the exercise occasioned by this opposition brought about in Hannah the desire for a male child; so that she develops a priestly state; and that in itself brought her into persecution, for even the high priest regarded her as a drunkard.
SJBC Who do you think her adversary was?
JT Peninnah.
Rem It was serious that the high priest had lost his discernment.
JT He regarded her as a drunkard; but she was the priest on that occasion, not Eli, for she was speaking to God. Then, moreover, she leads her husband into right lines, and the high priest as well, without any effort on her part; showing what priestly power is as it works unostentatiously; he is [p. 14] led to worship God by what she says. There can be no doubt when such conditions exist, that though things may appear right externally, yet when they are looked into, and examined, we can discern that there is distance from God. The priest was accustomed to sit down, and he was a fat man. These things indicate how matters stood when the true priestly element develops in Hannah; and the product of it, Samuel, represents the priesthood in its supplicatory service, for that was a great feature of his ministry; he was marked by prayer. Now I believe all these local sorrows arise from want of growth.
PL Men are trustworthy. The Lord speaks to the Father of “the men whom thou gavest me” (John 17: 6).
JT Yes; He had the men with Him. They were the main theme of His prayer, because they were to be responsible in His absence. So it will be found that in every movement of God, He begins with full maturity.
Rem He began with Adam in full maturity.
JT Yes; he never was a boy. The animals were brought to him “to see what he would call them”. His full maturity was manifested. Whatever Adam called a living creature that was its name. And so with Noah, and right down the line it will be found, until we arrive at the Lord Himself, that God operates on the basis of maturity, or full growth.
Rem Hannah’s faith is signally emphasised here. She had faith, and her request was granted, and she names the boy Samuel, that is, ‘asked of God’.
JT And then you see how spiritual instincts should show themselves; she would not take him up to the house of Jehovah, to Shiloh, until he was weaned; she would not have him depend upon nature when she places him in the house of Jehovah. That is not where the parent will hold a claim on his child; when he places him in the house of God he [p. 15] is not to be dependent on natural supplies. So Hannah waives her maternal rights; she hands him over entirely.
Rem One thinks of David’s words in Psalm 131: 2 in connection with this incident: “Surely I have restrained and composed my soul, like a weaned child with its mother: my soul within me is as a weaned child”.
SJBC She loans him to the Lord and He gives her good interest, five hundred per cent, so to speak:; three sons and two daughters. What we lend to the Lord always proves a good investment!
JT And she brings him up to the house of Jehovah at Shiloh, and with him three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a flask of wine, which indicates feelings of priestly appreciation. Notice, she takes them up; it is not her husband now.
SJBC The bullocks would suggest the burnt-offering, and the flour the meat-offering, and the wine, of course, would be the drink-offering.
JT You can see what an appreciation she had of what was suitable to Jehovah.
Rem She did not bring forward the priestly food till he was weaned.
JT Well, I think that indicates that he was now to be nourished on spiritual lines. One of the most painful things amongst the saints is to see the exercise of natural influence. Hannah relinquished that in refusing to bring him up until he was weaned. Natural influences interfere with the formation of the Spirit, so that in result we have babes, and fleshly-or carnal-mindedness, and personal feelings arise in that state, which is the very opposite of what is according to God.
Ques Might not that state exist in one who has been a long time on the way, as well as in a babe|?
JT The carnal state is the babe state, even though it be an old person. This marked those at Corinth: “I, brethren, have not been able to speak to you as to spiritual, but as to fleshly; as to babes in Christ”, the apostle says, “for ye are yet carnal”, 1 Corinthians 3: 1 - 3.
SJBC Trouble has often arisen from leaders disagreeing. In such cases would you say it is really a return to infantile conditions?
Ques Do you suggest that Eli’s failure was due to self-indulgence?
JT Well, he sat on the seat at the door-post of the temple of Jehovah. That is not the posture of a priest. The priest standeth in the house of the Lord. Then Eli was a fat man; he lived to be ninety-eight years of age, but that in itself was not a credit to him; his eyes were set, that he could not see, he was old and heavy, and “he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck broke, and he died” (1 Samuel 4: 18). All this indicates the opposite of a true priestly state in Eli.
Rem In bringing the bullocks, Hannah’s outlook was a right one; the coming in of Christ was the ultimate point in view.
JT Yes. She also brought to Shiloh a supply of priestly food.
Rem I would like to hear you say something about the three bullocks.
JT It was her great appreciation of what was due to God. It is a very interesting point, because it refers to the largeness of her outlook.
Rem It is very strikingly in contrast with the outward state of things at the time. And then Samuel was coming in.
JT Yes, to prepare the way for the king; because in her prayer — although it says she prayed, she really worshipped God — she says, “Jehovah ... will give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed” (1 Samuel 2: 10). The second chapter shows what the three bullocks mean, in her beautiful tribute,
[p. 17] poetic indeed as it is; it was the outgoing of her heart in appreciation of Jehovah. And then you have the flour, which would balance that — her apprehension of the perfect humanity of Christ.
Now those are the elements that build up a man according to God. And the wine, the drink-offering, is what makes glad the heart of God and man. Her offering contemplates a delightful state of things in the presence of God; her soul is in direct relation to God, in plenty and in joy.
Ques Would you say, typically, she went from Ziklag to Hebron?
JT Well, just so. In her prayer she discerns that the priest is to walk before Jehovah’s anointed. She has a prophetic understanding of what is coming in.
Ques How do you account for the fact that neither the weakness of Eli nor the bad state of his sons turns her from relinquishing her son?
JT I think she knew God. She was dealing with Jehovah really. If she had been governed by the ordinary religious feelings of the day she would probably have made her request to Eli; but she does not do that, she makes her request to Jehovah direct, and the offerings speak of her appreciation of Jehovah. That is the secret of deliverance. However feeble the priestly element may be, you can have direct relations with God, direct access to God.
Ques Does she not appear to ignore what was there?
JT She was not quarrelling with what was there, but she was dealing with God; that was her concern.
Ques Would it be like Psalm 84: 7 “They go from strength to strength; each one will appear before God in Zion”? There everything but God was eliminated from her soul.
JT Quite so.
PL The man of God is told to “Remember Jesus [p. 18] Christ raised from among the dead, of the seed of David” (2 Timothy 2: 8). Is the ideal of manhood, Jesus Christ, raised from among the dead?
JT Yes, that order of Man; He is approved of God as raised from among the dead. Resurrection is the evidence of divine approval: “God ... giving the proof of it to all in having raised him from among the dead” (Acts 17: 30, 31). He was heard, it says, “from the horns of the buffaloes” (Psalm 22: 21).
We are dwelling upon Hannah, however; she represents that priestly element which is unobtrusive, yet nevertheless produces results; so that her offerings have their counterpart in her prayer in chapter 2.
SJBC Would you say that for the formation of Christ and the reaching of manhood there would be personal exercises, and then the appreciation of Christ would be set forth in the offerings?
JT Yes. And although you may not be able to do much, you have the divine thought before you; you see that it is God’s way to use full manhood. That is a principle He begins all His dispensations with — full maturity. Christianity is not a development; it is perfection at the beginning. Hence everything is to be according to that which was from the beginning. So God would bring about maturity, and then work. And those who love God would have it that way. Normally the brethren do not commit themselves to babes; they wait for a man. Before the brethren at Antioch committed themselves to Saul of Tarsus he was a year there with Barnabas.
SJBC And then in 1 Corinthians 10: 15, Paul says, “I speak as to intelligent persons: do ye judge what I say”. And again in 1 Corinthians 14: 20 he says, “in your minds be grown men”.
Ques Do not we come into it?
JT We are brought to what God began with, as we see in 1 John. It involves growth in us until we [p. 19] arrive at the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ. It is a perfect idea at the outset. And so you find here that “Samuel grew before Jehovah” (verse 21); then in verse 26 it says, “The boy Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with Jehovah and also with men;” and then finally in chapter 3: 19 we read: “And Samuel grew, and Jehovah was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground”. You do not get that said of him until he reaches maturity. Here the references to his growth end.
SJBC There was a time in his history when it is said of Samuel that he did not yet know Jehovah. The apostle speaks in Colossians 1: 10 of “growing by the true knowledge of God”, not exactly in the knowledge of God (though I suppose we really do grow in knowledge, that is, so far as doctrine is concerned), but growing by the true knowledge of God.
Rem All this took time; so the outward situation would become very exercising, occasioned by the weakness that existed.
JT That is what comes out in chapters 2 and 3. There had to be patience in waiting for Samuel. But in chapter 2 we read of a man of God, indicating that whilst God waits for maturity He is not without resource; things have not to rest until Samuel grows; God ever has resources.
Rem We can accept the outward state of things, in the light of what God is doing at the moment.
JT Yes; and you will always find that God has resources. Here in verse 27 we read, “there came a man of God to Eli”. His name is not mentioned, but he is a man of God, available to Him while Samuel is growing.
The young believer grows in the house, and as he grows the saints are interested in him; he is not yet entrusted with anything, but as he goes on growing his circumstances become enlarged, and he is allowed [p. 20] more latitude.
SJBC The fact is he is developing spiritually in the house. Samuel learned a great deal of what was outside, no doubt; but the soul is developed in the house.
JT The mother takes notice of that. It is a yearly matter. You cannot notice a day’s growth, or a week’s, but you can notice the growth of a year, though God can notice the most minute growth. The maternal side is seen here; she comes every year with a little coat. There is a certain amount of latitude given to a young preacher, but as he increases in growth he knows better how to preach. It is a great mistake to entrust young believers with anything prematurely; the better way is to wait until manhood is developed. But, you may say, what shall we do in the meantime? God has His resources! Here is a man of God, and he must have grown, somewhere, though we are not told where; we are told, however, that he was a man of God and in introducing him thus the Spirit is indicating to us that God has His resources.
Ques Would you kindly say a little more about not entrusting anything prematurely to young believers?
JT Well, I mean that God commits or entrusts things to those who are fully grown. The Lord Himself is a good example of it. You see Him in the temple at the age of twelve years desiring to look after His Father’s business: “did ye not know”, He says, “that I ought to be occupied in my Father’s business?” (Luke 2: 49), but He does not take up the work until He is thirty years of age. And He was conscious of that, because you have it recorded in Luke 3: 23, “And Jesus himself was beginning to be about thirty years old”. That is more than merely an historical reference; it is, I think, an allusion to conscious manhood. Of course He was ever divinely perfect; but Scripture presents [p. 21] maturity in manhood.
Ques How would full growth spiritually be indicated outwardly?
JT In manly qualities. You can put away “malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envyings and all evil speakings” (1 Peter 2: 1), and all that belongs to a babe, and you are able to take account of everything that comes up in a broad way. A babe looks at a thing from one side, but a man would look at it from every point of view, and judge righteous judgment. I think it is most important to see that the service of God has not to wait till the young brother is developed or fully grown. The man of God was there, and he represents God’s resources. So you may rely upon it that God will always have His resources; He is never without someone to represent Him and His interests. Here you get things grouped together to show how God meets a condition like this. Samuel is not told to tell Eli of the mind of God; he only tells Eli what Jehovah said when pressed by him. Nor does he rebuke Eli; it was the man of God who did that, as we read, commencing at verse 27, “there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, Thus saith Jehovah;” and in the verses that follow you have an arraignment of Eli and his house. An awful condition of things existed which did not altogether appear outwardly; but it was now being exposed.
Rem It is encouraging, I think, to see that in a day of ruin like that, God had a man who would go and speak to Eli the word of the Lord. It is remarkable, too, that he is nameless.
Ques Would what we read at the beginning of chapter 3 exercise us as to continuation?
JT Yes. You see before this man of God is introduced it says, “the boy Samuel grew on, and was in favour both with Jehovah and also with men”. He is coming on now, and nearing the point where he can be trusted; God speaks to him, and reveals [p. 22] His word to him; He tells him about Eli and Eli’s house; He entrusts him with His mind. One has no power unless one has a communication from the Lord. A communication from the Lord cannot be gainsaid. It becomes apparent that a brother is not speaking from himself. It is one of the most interesting and important things conceivable to receive a communication from God, and that is what comes out in Samuel. The point is, he began to be trustworthy. There are very few that are trustworthy in this respect.
Rem Mary Magdalene would be one of them in Christianity.
JT Yes; and in 1 Corinthians 6: 5 you have the same thing. Paul has to say, “Thus there is not a wise person among you”. It would appear that there had been no growth there.
Ques Would you say that maturity is reached in some before others? David was a young man.
JT Yes; he matured early evidently, and was considered an old man at the age of seventy years. The question is whether one serves one’s own generation by the will of God.
SJBC We are told that the word of the Lord was scarce in those days, and the eyes of God’s priest began to wax dim, and the lamp in God’s house was burning low. It seems to be the breakdown of the priestly element.
JT Young brethren ought to see what God would use; to see the divine way there must be maturity. If one is thrust into service while he is a babe, the inevitable result is that he breaks down. I have to grow, and I have, so to speak, to get so many little coats; there is growing and coming into favour with God and with men.
Ques Would you say that the coat does not suggest restriction, but rather the thought of maternal care?
JT It is an evidence of maternal care. The coat [p. 23] would not retard growth, it would make room for it.
Ques How are we to understand what is written about babes having the unction in 1 John?
JT That refers to the fact that they have the Spirit. It means that you are not going to listen to men. It is most important that young believers should know that. You are there reminded that you are not to listen to men, or to antichrist.
Ques What is to be learned from the fact that God spoke to Samuel three times?
JT Well, I think that would show how patient God is. He waits on young men and young women; He will cause His voice to be heard. He is patient with all. Here He says, “Samuel, Samuel”. Now He gets his ear, and He speaks to him; He is communicating a most important thing to him, He is unfolding to him the actual situation as it exists. Think of what it must have been to Samuel to learn that Eli and his sons were such as they were! But the point to be specially observed here is, that Samuel had a divine communication. And in the morning he proceeded with his ordinary work; he opened the doors of the house of Jehovah, and it says he feared to declare the vision to Eli. That was becoming. There is no haste nor unseemly energy. His behaviour was most becoming in a young person!
Rem There was no thought in Samuel of displacing Eli.
JT Not at all. There was no pride in his heart, no desire to rival him. Then after this you find that he grew. Now he is beginning to speak. I think this reference to his growth (1 Samuel 3: 19) would indicate that he was mature, because not only does it say that he grew, but that Jehovah was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. That is to say, God is with you for service, and the first thing is that your words have some weight with your brethren.
[p. 24] You are not saying something you have borrowed; you have it yourself, and there is weight in what you say.
PL You have taken character from the One who speaks with authority, and not as the scribes.
JT Exactly; and when such is the case, as it says of Samuel, God will let none of your words fall to the ground. Jehovah is giving him weight amongst the saints; there is power with him.
Rem Samuel was instructed of Eli.
JT Well, there is much in an old brother that is helpful, and there was much in Eli; he reproved his sons and was concerned for the safety of the ark; and God would take account of that. The Holy Spirit recognises what is commendable in him. God would never overlook anything that is commendable. God’s communication to Samuel was more or less a secret one: it was to furnish him for service. It is essential that one should have the mind of God about a situation in which he is to serve.
Rem Samuel kept nothing back from Eli.
JT There is transparency with him, and Eli bows to what was said. I do not think the words of Samuel were to expose Eli. The man of God had exposed all to him. You can understand Samuel having the mind of Jehovah about the environment in which he was set. From the light he had got from God as to Eli and his house, he would never expect recovery for that order of things.
SJBC Prophecy began with Samuel, “all the prophets from Samuel and those in succession after him ... announced also these days” (Acts 3: 24). The prophets speak with convincing power, “all Israel, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, knew that Samuel was established a prophet of Jehovah”.
JT You see in these instances how God helps the young brothers; you have the mother, and the influence of the house of God, but now in view of [p. 25] service God Himself comes in. And how beautiful the stages of progress; first he is growing in favour with God and man, and then he gets the revelation to fortify him, that he might know that existing conditions are such that it is hopeless to look for recovery in that direction, and that God has to begin over again. So you find Samuel beginning in Mizpah — not in Shiloh; (1 Samuel 7: 6). Jehovah lets none of his words fall to the ground; He gives weight to his words among the people.
Ques To refer back for a moment, would what was expressed in Hannah’s offering need to be maintained all along?
JT It was maintained from her side. She would never ask Samuel back. These are principles that every young brother should take a note of, because the need of service is very great. God will give you a message. He will reveal Himself in some way so that you may see how things are; and then He says, as it were, I will give you a word for the brethren, and every one will recognise that it is right, so that it will not fall to the ground. How often our words do fall to the ground!
Rem So that we have to recognise what a young brother has got from the Lord.
JT Yes, that is right.
Ques Is it necessary to first gain the confidence of our brethren if you are to help them?
JT That is what comes out here. Samuel was in favour with God and man.
Rem When Timothy is first mentioned, it is said he was well reported of amongst the brethren.
Ques What is meant, exactly, by the statement that Samuel’s words did not fall to the ground? Is it that his words were carried out?
JT They were resultful. And it goes on to say that he was recognised from Dan even to Beer-sheba as a prophet. Because levitical service is never [p. 26] restricted to a locality; gift is always general. God has set certain in the assembly. To regard gift as local makes for metropolitanism. A man’s gift is to be known from Dan to Beersheba, so to say.
PL Is that why the revelation is given from Shiloh?
JT Quite so. The Lord appeared again in Shiloh; for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh, by the word of the Lord. This shows that there was an additional revelation, which we may expect in such cases.
PL Jehovah’s revelations are made at Shiloh; that is to say, they are not made for a locality; the disclosures God makes to one whom He has gifted are for the whole assembly.
Rem Shiloh was where the ark was.
Rem You were saying something with regard to local eruptions.
JT Well, it is a very humbling thing that there should be such. The enemy would seem to be generally forcing his attacks on this line at present; and it appears to me that the Lord would meet that by calling attention to spiritual manhood. Manhood would meet such a situation. Where personal feelings are manifested it indicates that there is a want of growth; a carnal state exists.
Ques But may not eruptions be caused apart from personal feelings?
JT I doubt it, if they are local. The enemy may of course attack general principles, or doctrine; but I think local eruptions are generally due to personal feelings.
Ques Did the attack of the enemy at Corinth come through the allowance of personal feelings?
JT Just so; Paul charges them with being babes, and he could not speak to them as to men. They were divided into parties, each [p. 27] having its leader.
SJBC They were making service an object, because of the distinction it brought.
Ques Would the way in which Paul was attacked at Corinth suggest personal feeling?
JT No doubt. There was a spirit of rivalry, “his letters, he says, are weighty and strong, but his presence in the body weak, and his speech naught” (2 Corinthians 10: 10).
Rem It may be they had personal feelings against Paul for some time before they gave expression to them.
Rem In cases of difficulty, as you were pointing out, God has His resource. So we can wait upon Him for the development of a man of God.
JT Yes; but in the meantime He has got a man of God available. The nameless man of God in Scripture would represent the resource that God has, while you may be waiting for some distinct movement in the work and testimony of God.
PL Would you say that Paul represents the idea of manhood in the two epistles to Corinthians? Sosthenes had suffered for the testimony, was not he a picture of manhood? And Timothy also?
JT Just so. I think that if there had been a developed man at Corinth, Paul would have called attention to him. He sends Timothy that they may learn in him the apostle’s ways as they were in Christ.
PL Paul says of Timothy in Philippians 2: 20 - 22, “I have no one likeminded who will care with genuine feeling how ye get on ... But ye know the proof of him, that, as a child a father, he has served with me in the work of the glad tidings”.
So that all care in the assemblies is entrusted to those who are mature.