Bible Characters: Samuel & the Savior

Perhaps more than anything, we need to be heard by God. That is, we need divine favor. We need God to look upon us sinners favorably. The problem is, we’re sinners, and the God whose eyes are too pure to look well upon evil must look away from our defiled selves (Hab. 1:13). One of the of the brightest lesser lights in the Old Testament of the Light of the World, Jesus Christ, is Samuel, whose name means “heard by God” (1 Sam. 1:20). To read the birth, calling, mission, roles, and actions of Samuel is to see the Savior without straining or squinting the eyes. Countless connections unite Samuel and the Son, but I want to highlight just one episode in Samuel’s life that climaxes this connection. This episode, unsurprisingly, takes place near the end of his life (1 Samuel 15).

In this vignette of the prophet’s life, the sad news of Saul’s rejection by the LORD is given on account of Saul’s faithless rejection of the LORD. As God laid out in his Word, every king over Israel was to devote himself to the law of God. The law of God should dwell richly in his heart all his days, so that he might know his God, lead God’s people in righteousness and wisdom, and not be proud of his God-appointed position (Deuteronomy 17:17-20). Lamentably, in the straw that broke the king’s back, Saul was given clear orders to “strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have” (1 Sam. 15:3a). Nothing was to be left in the wake of this devoted destruction. God granted Saul success in the defeat of Amalek, but Saul spared the Amalekite King Agag and his choice animals (vv. 7-9), imagining the beasts to be treasured sacrifices to God (v. 15), even while he shifts the blame to the people of God (vv. 15, 21). Here is a king who has shirked his service to the King over all.

Samuel has enough of Saul’s Adam-like self-defense and delivers the hard but just news that Saul is now rejected by God. Even if Saul is well-intentioned, the LORD delights more in obedience than sacrifice (v. 22). Saul confesses his sin, imitating Aaron in the golden calf incident and citing fear of man (v. 24). But the king of Israel is to fear the LORD over man, for what can flesh do to him? The judgment upon Saul is that, rejected by the LORD, he will no longer be heard by God (1 Sam. 28). The problem of Agag’s presence remains, and Samuel must clean up Saul’s mess. The arrogant Agag finds himself in pieces like a tree cut for firewood (v. 33). Ironically, Samuel, the prophet for the king and the judge to set up Israel’s first king, functions more like the ruler Israel needs than the one they received.

In this way, then, as Samuel approaches the end of his ministry, he shines a light on the Son of God who is always heard by God. As Samuel functions in the offices of prophet, priest, and forerunner to the king, Jesus leads the people of God in righteousness and wisdom. The Son, as the weeping Martha professed in the face of her dead brother, always has the ears of the Father (John 11:22). It is Jesus Christ as the Word of God who eternally has the Law of God written on his heart, and his food and drink has always been to do the will of the Father (John 4:34). It was the will of the Father for the Son to pick up the pieces of our sinful mess and to have every last one of them nailed to the cross, so that you and I would not bear them anymore, and that we would be heard by the Father, named as righteous in the Son. In the case of the Son, to obey the Father and to sacrifice was one in the same. The Son’s obedience in his self-sacrifice for us has the Father smiling above. And the Father’s countenance does not rest only on the Son, but now on all who are joined to the Son. What joy to know that the Son is heard by the Father, and that we can always come into God’s presence and be heard by the Prophet, the Priest, and the King.

Rev. Dr. Michael Mock is the Pastor of Grace Presbyterian Church (PCA) in Fresno, CA and an ACBC-certified Biblical Counselor. He’s the author of Hey, Dad, Why Do We…?: Kids Ask the Greatest Questions, Old Testament Introduction and Workbook, and New Testament Introduction and Workbook.

Art By Matthias Stom - Web Gallery of Art:   Image  Info about artwork, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=155618447