Introduction: Have you ever studied the life of Samuel? Each year as I study and think through the doctrines of Scripture I am stunned at the courage and faithfulness of Samuel. And I wonder if God has his Samuels today. I tend to think so. I tend to think that God raises up truth-tellers in each generation.

At the same time, some patterns seem to accompany the Samuels of each generation. Some of those patterns are gaslighting, defamation, and persecution. There are other patterns, of course, like ultimate vindication, but that is another topic for another time.

Samuel lived and ministered during a time of cultural tumult and a falling away from God. Yet Samuel was called to tell convicting, inconvenient, and uncomfortable truth to a nation and culture that did not want truth. The nation and culture wanted to be like the world, to be “like all the nations” (1 Samuel 8:5 ESV).

And I wonder if God has his Samuels today. I tend to think so.

Biblical context: Around 1000-800s B.C. were the centuries covered in the books titles 1 and 2 Samuel, of course. It was a time, as I referenced above, of cultural tumult and a falling away from God. Yet God called Samuel to such times. And Samuel’s roles were to be as a minister/prophet and judge. Israel was not yet officially a kingdom. God was supposed to be their king, but the people had rejected God as king. They desired to be just like the other nations.

Samuel’s birth: Hannah prayed for a son, even though God had closed her womb for a time (1 Samuel 1:6). Eventually Hannah conceived and gave birth to Samuel. He was given to the LORD “all the days of his life,” just as Hannah had promised the Lord (1 Samuel 1:11).

Corrupt clergy: As then, so now. When Samuel was still young, God had him come up in a time when there were “worthless men” who “did not know the LORD” in ministry (1 Samuel 2:12). One might sense what Samuel’s ministry was going to be like. He was not being equipped by the Lord for a life of ease or of tickling his heares’ ears. No, he was being raised up by God to tell the truth and to call the people back to God, but at the same time, he was told that the people would not listen. They loved comfort, not God.

Israel’s loss of the ark, & their loss of God: In 1 Samuel 4, the short version of the story is that Israel was defeated by the Philistines: “So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died” (1 Samuel 4:10-11).

More judgment followed: in 1 Samuel 6, we see the gospel in microcosm. God reveals his holiness to sinful people; sacrifice is made; restoration is witnessed–all granted by God’s longsuffering and grace towards a corrupt nation, a depraved people.

Intermediary: And in 1 Samuel 7 we see Samuel again in a crucial spot. He is the one to pray for sinners. He calls his people to repent and return to the truth: “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

Samuel’s prayer: And we see Samuel pray. He prays in repentance over his own sin and the sin of those he represents: “We have sinned against the LORD” (1 Samuel 7:6). How is that for a short but pithy prayer? Straight to the point; no fluff.

The chapter so many folks reference (with good reason): It’s chapter 8 of 1 Samuel that many folks have some familiarity with. Why? It is because this is where Israel, supposedly God’s nation, demands a king like all the other nations. And once again, there’s Samuel. In his position–ordained by God–to the perilous position of telling the truth to a wicked people. Samuel is warning the people that they are storing up wrath–just wrath–by rejecting God, by rejecting truth. As then, so now. Most people don’t want the truth; they want comfort.

God’s terrible answer was to give the people over to what they wanted: Samuel prayed against the people’s wishes (1 Samuel 8:6), but God told Samuel to give the people their desires as a form of judgment. That should terrify us, but I do not think it does–yet:

⁷ And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. ⁸ According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. ⁹ Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them” (1 Samuel 8:7-9).

God told Samuel that the people were rejecting him (God) and God’s messenger (Samuel). They go together. That’s the pattern, you see. Most reject God and God’s messenger. As it was then, so it is now.

Encouragement in spite of all: The good news, however, is that God still raises up Samuels. He has sent not just Samuels to each generation but has sent the ultimate judge/prophet/minister/king, and “the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5).