Ten years had passed since that memorable night when the Lord spoke to Samuel out of the sanctuary. Now he was grown to manhood, and already "all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD" (l Sam.3.20). The judgment pronounced ten years previously had not been executed: Eli, an old man of ninety-eight, was still High Priest. His profligate sons, middle-aged themselves, were still apostate from their high mission, and Israel still worshipped false gods. It was not that the true God was quite unknown; all the evidence is that there was always a substantial minority which served God and "sighed and cried for the abominations" that were done in Israel. But in the main the nation was godless. The Tabernacle, made by Bezaleel in the wilderness, still stood at Shiloh and the ceremonies and feasts were still celebrated in a more? or less perfunctory manner, but quite evidently the moral state of the nation was thoroughly bad. It was upon this unpromising material that the youthful reformer set to work, and with such vigour that his name and fame speedily became renowned throughout the land. The first sentence of chapter 4, belonging really to the end of chapter 3, tells us that "the word of Samuel came to all Israel". That does not demand that the people heeded Samuel to any extent: the next series of events in their national history, involving one of the greatest disasters they ever suffered, the capture of the Ark of the Covenant in open battle, is evidence that they did not; but the expression itself is sufficient to indicate that the young man was already in process of making himself a force to be reckoned with in Israel.

It was during this period that, as chapter 3, verse 21, tells us, "the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD". The expression "the Lord appeared again in Shiloh" implies that for a long time previously his presence had not been manifest there. If one reads the stories of Israel's national life during the latter part of the period of the Judges there can be little wonder at that. The sad refrain "In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes" intones its sorrowful message throughout those dark days after Joshua had died, and the Judges ruled, uneasily, one after another, with troubled times of anarchy in between. The Tabernacle had been standing at Shiloh from very early days. When they crossed Jordan and entered the land it had at first been erected at Gilgal, quite near Jordan, but before many years had passed a more suitable site was sought and found at Shiloh, in almost the exact centre of the promised land. Obviously Shiloh became the spiritual capital of the country—for Jerusalem was still the stronghold of the Jebusites and not in the possession of Israel at all—and it was to Shiloh that men looked for religious and political leadership. The High Priest, in the days when there were no kings, and the Judges rose, ruled, and passed away at frequent intervals, rarely exercising authority over more than a portion of the land at a time, was the most important because he was the only permanent figure in the national life, and the High Priest therefore had immense possibilities for good or for ill according to his administration of his sacred office. And for many years now, that office had fallen into disrepute and the nation was suffering accordingly.

What lesson is there in this for us? Is it not that strong spiritual leadership is essential for the community that would make progress in the things of God? Democracy is the cry of the day, but democracy is only good for those who are fit to govern themselves, and that is not true of mankind today. Hence the world, in which the masses are claiming and gaining more and more power, is becoming steadily more ill-governed and anarchistic. That was the condition of Israel under the Judges. And this is true to a great extent in the Church also. There are aspects of our communal Christian life together where democratic methods are out of place because the company of believers, for all their zeal and enthusiasm and loyalty to their Lord, are not yet at that stage of Christian maturity where they can fitly order their own course. Therefore God, in his wisdom, does provide pastors, teachers, "fathers in God", for the "perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ" (Eph.4.12). It is when such men are affording wise and clear-sighted leadership that the Church prospers; when their vision is fading, or their devotion to their calling is slackening, the people perish. We, no less than Israel, need the wisdom and reforming zeal of a Samuel if the conquests of Joshua are to be retained and maintained; conversely, if the elders of the assembly or the community have eyes that are waxed dim, as were those of Eli, if their faith and zeal has left them, if they have no longer the passionate devotion to the cause of Divine Truth that characterised their earlier years, then there is most surely cause for deep concern as to the spiritual health of the flock.

Samuel would be about twenty-five years of age when the Battle of Aphek took place and the Ark of the Covenant was captured. His own efforts to turn Israel to the God of Israel, to induce them to forsake their false gods and to renew their covenant with him, could not as yet have borne much fruit. He had become known as a prophet and men were conscious that God was speaking through him; but Israel was notoriously indifferent to the? messages of its prophets, and whilst the nation could go on its way without meeting utter disaster they were disposed to enjoy the good things of life they had and take little real notice of the young enthusiast among them. But the sands were running out. The Philistines, who had been off and on the oppressors of Israel for two or three centuries past, were gathering their forces for a fresh attempt to bring them into bondage. Had the nation been true to its Covenant with God there had been nothing to fear. Had it even shown signs of repentance and a desire to come back to its holy calling, God would have delivered; but there was no such trend. Despite? their half-grudging admission that God was speaking again in Israel at the mouth of Samuel they were still at heart apostate as ever, and the depth of their irreligiousness was shown up when, in consequence of their defeat at the first encounter with the enemy, they determined to take the Ark of God into the battle with them, "It" said they "may save us out of the hand of our enemies" (Chapter 4.3).

This was the most fearful act of sacrilege ever committed by the people of Israel in their history. They were relying on the belief that God, thus put to the test, would not allow the sacred symbol of his presence to fall into the hands of the uncircumcised heathen. What He would not do for his people He would do for his holy habitation. They would compel God to save them, even against his will. That was probably their line of reasoning, and it shows the depth of ignorance into which they had fallen. This was no repetition of those ancient days when the priests, bearing aloft the holy Ark on their shoulders, set forward with the consecrated people in their wake, and the fervent cry arose? on the still air "Rise up, Lord, and let thine enemies be scattered; let them that hate thee flee before thee". It might be that the age-old shout was heard again as the army marched toward the Philistine host with the sacred object in its midst, but the triumphant song must have been quickly changed to cries of dismay and terror as it speedily became evident that God was not going to intervene, and that the defeat of the previous day was nothing to the disaster that was now to overwhelm them. And to the weak, apathetic old High Priest, without whose permission the Ark could not have been removed from its sanctuary, came the terrible news that the revered symbol was in the hands of the alien, the Tabernacle shorn of its glory, the nation of its centre of worship. It was a tragic ending to a life that could have been mighty in God's service—for Eli had ruled Israel for forty years.

Samuel would have been no party to this, but he would have had no power to prevent it. The part he had to play was yet to come. For the next twenty years the land lay under the harsh rule of the Philistines, and the nation mourned, desolate. Evidently the Philistines had followed up their capture of the Ark by razing Shiloh to the ground, for the name drops out of history thereafter, except for one solitary mention as the place of an obscure prophet in the reign of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14.2). The fate of the little settlement is described graphically in Jer.7 and in Psa.78. The High Priest—dead. His son and successor—dead. The priesthood—scattered. The Ark—gone. The Tabernacle—destroyed or hidden away for safety. The nation—subject to a cruel enemy. That was the condition when Samuel entered upon his life's work.

The death of Eli obviously left Samuel in the position of leadership. During the twenty years that the Ark, restored by the Philistines after the series of plagues it had brought them, abode at Kirjathjearim (1 Sam.7.2) the young prophet sought diligently to turn the hearts of the people back to God. His message was an exhortation to repentance, but it also held practical promise. "If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts" he cried, "then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines" (1 Sam.7.3). His message was definite and without compromise, but it held hope.

And Israel turned! The example and preaching of the one who loved and served them so faithfully, because he loved and served God most of all, brought the nation back to God. "Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only". At forty-five years of age Samuel found himself at the head of a repentant and pious people.

What a lesson for us in these times of discouragement and faint-heartedness when we think all is lost! What an incentive to consistent and persistent witness, both within our fellowship, and outside it to the world! The apathetic Eli, without doubt a good man in his earlier days, had been the cause of national ruin and the loss of the nation's greatest treasure. Weakness of faith, dimness of vision, had palsied his hands and leadened his feet so that he no longer inspired and led the nation, and the people drifted from belief to open rebellion. So the wrath of God was visited upon them. There could have been no other sequel. Now Samuel, in faith and zeal and by dint of ceaseless endeavour, had restored the people to their rightful position before God, and God, as ever in such circumstances, waited, ready to bless.

The occasion was not long in coming. Samuel, sensing, as did Daniel in a much later day, that the time was ripe for God to intervene to honour his people's faith, summoned a great assembly at Mizpeh. There he said, "I will pray for you to the Lord". Can we not imagine how his heart must have beat fast in looking upon that confident host, so different from the fear-stricken armies that twenty years before had borne the sacred Ark into battle to their own destruction. Here was a people for whom the Lord could indeed fight, an army that trusted not in carnal weapons, not in the strength of its own power, but the superabundant power of Almighty God. And as the children of Israel publicly acknowledged their fault and repudiated the past, saying "we have sinned against the Lord", God drew near to act.

The Philistines, being made aware of this great gathering at Mizpeh, and fearing insurrection, gathered their forces and came up to quell the rebellion. There was fear in Israel, but there was also trust. "Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us" they cried to Samuel "that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines". That was a significant phrase. "The Lord our God". There was no fetish-worship of an inanimate object this time, no appeal even that Samuel pray to his God. "This is our God" was their instinctive thought. "He will save us". That speaks volumes for the untiring work of Samuel during those twenty years that had elapsed since the disastrous Battle of Aphek.

So God saved! He thundered with a great thunder upon the Philistines, and, wonder of wonders, utterly discomfited them, discomfited them so completely that they troubled Israel no more all the days of Samuel's judgeship. The deliverance that was wrought that day is comparable with the destruction of Sennacharib's host in the days of Hezekiah and of the Moabites in the days of Jehoshaphat. These are three memorable occasions on which God delivered in response to the prayer of faith without his people needing to strike a blow—although they did on this occasion pursue the defeated enemy and complete the work of destruction after God had given the victory.

But it was God that saved!

Thus did the last and the greatest of the Judges become firmly established in the seat of power. He was leader by common consent, and Israel willingly accepted his rule. At Mizpeh, and Gilgal, and Bethel, each in turn, year by year, he dispensed justice and ordered the everyday affairs of the people. At Ramah, his home, he guided the nation's destinies and gave Israel perhaps the only period of real peace it had known in all the troubled years that had followed the entry into Canaan. Israel, that forgetful people, never forgot Samuel. His greatness in rulership and in the dispensing of justice passed into a proverb, so that years later the Lord could say to Jeremiah the prophet "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight" (Jer.15.1). The little lad who had been given to God in the sanctuary at Shiloh had grown to be classed with Moses, the greatest man of all time in Israel's history.

And in the Temple services, throughout Israel's generations, the sweet singers of Israel chanted "Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name; they called upon the LORD, and He answered them" (Psa.99.6). Thus did Israel praise her most famous Judge.

AOH