1 Samuel 3:18

Resignation.

"It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good." The sentence which was pronounced on Eli and his house was almost as severe as can be conceived. But the manner in which it was received by him shows that, notwithstanding the defects of his character, he possessed the "spirit of faith," which shone like a spark of fire amidst the ashes and gloom of his closing days. He did not refuse to admit its Divine Author, did not question its justice, did not rebel against it and seek to reverse it, did not fret and murmur and give himself up to despair. His language expresses a spirit the exact opposite of all this. "When Samuel had told him every whit, Eli replied, It is the Lord. The highest religion could say no more. What more can there be than surrender to the will of God? In that one brave sentence you forget all Eli's vacillation. Free from envy, free from priestcraft, earnest, humbly submissive; that is the bright side of Eli's character, and the side least known or thought of" (F.W. Robertson).

I. HE RECOGNISES THE APPOINTMENT OF GOD . "It is the Lord," or "he is the Lord," who has spoken. He believed that the voice was really his, notwithstanding

II. HE JUSTIFIES THE RECTITUDE OF GOD . Such justification ( Psalms 51:4 )—

1 . Is implied in the acknowledgment that it comes from Jehovah, who alone is holy ( 1 Samuel 2:2 ). "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" ( Genesis 18:25 ).

2 . Proceeds from the conviction that it is deserved on account of the iniquity of his sons, and his own sins of omission ( Lamentations 3:39 ; Micah 7:9 ). They who have a due sense of the evil of sin are not disposed to complain of the severity of the sentence pronounced against it.

3 . Is not the less real because not fully expressed, for silence itself is often the most genuine testimony to the perfect equity of the Divine procedure. "Aaron held his peace" (Le 1 Samuel 10:3 ; Psalms 39:9 , Psalms 39:11 ).

III. HE SUBMITS TO THE SOVEREIGNTY OF GOD . "Let him do what seemeth him good."

1 . Very reverently and humbly ( 1 Peter 5:6 ). It is vain to contend against him.

2 . Freely and cheerfully ; not because he cannot be effectually resisted, but because what he does is right and good; the spontaneous surrender and sacrifice of the will.

3 . Entirely. "The will of the Lord be done" ( Acts 21:14 ).

IV. HE CONFIDES IN THE GOODNESS OF GOD . "Good." "Good is the word of the Lord" ( 2 Kings 20:19 ). Eli could not have spoken as he did unless he believed that—

Verse 19-4:1. (SHILOH)

Samuel the prophet.

"A prophet of the Lord" ( 1 Samuel 4:20 ). "A prophet was a man who drew aside the curtain from the secret counsels of Heaven. He declared or made public the previously hidden truths of God; and, because future events might chance to involve Divine truth, therefore a revealer of future events might happen to be a prophet. Yet, still, small was the part of a prophet's functions which contained the foreshadowing of events, and not necessarily any part of it". The greatest of prophets, and more than a prophet, was Moses ( Numbers 12:6-8 ; Deuteronomy 18:15 ; Deuteronomy 34:9 ). After him a prophet arose at rare intervals. With Samuel, who was second only to Moses, a new prophetic era began. He was called to a permanent prophetic work; a type of the future line of the prophets which he virtually founded, and "set for all time the great example of the office of a prophet of the Lord." "In Samuel—Levite, Nazarite, at the sanctuary of Shiloh, prophet, and destined founder of a mightier prophetic power—were united from the first all spiritual gifts most potent for the welfare of the people, and under his powerful control stood the wheels on which the age revolved He was truly the father of all the great prophets who worked such wonders in the ensuing centuries" (Ewald. See 'Davison on Prophecy;' 'Fairbairn on Prophecy;' 'Prophecy a Preparation for Christ,' by the Dean of Canterbury). The summary of his prophetic activity here given leads us to consider—

I. HIS QUALIFICATION . "And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him" ( 1 Samuel 4:19 ). "And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh ( 1 Samuel 4:10 ): for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord ( 1 Samuel 4:21 ).

1 . The possession of a holy character, which was the general condition of prophetic endowment. At the time of his call Samuel entered into a higher knowledge of God, and a closer fellowship with him than he had before; he gradually advanced therein, and his character became more and more perfect. "Equable progression from the beginning to the end was the special characteristic of his life." "The qualifications which the Jewish doctors suppose necessarily antecedent to render any one habilem ad prophetandum are truly probity and piety ; and this was the constant sense and opinion of them all universally, not excluding the vulgar themselves".

2 . The revelation to him of the Divine word —by voices, visions, insight, intuition, inspiration ( 1 Samuel 4:7 ). "For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake as they were moved (borne along as a ship by the wind) by the Holy Ghost" ( 2 Peter 1:21 ). The communications of God to men have been made in many ways (by dreams, by Urim, by prophecy), and one communication faithfully received and used has prepared the way for another. How long after the Lord first appeared to Samuel he "apeared again" to him is not stated.

3 . The conviction of its Divine origin, amounting to absolute certainty, and impelling him to speak and act in accordance with the revelation he received.

II. HIS VOCATION . "And the word of Samuel came to all Israel" ( 1 Samuel 4:1 ). He had not only to receive the word from God, but also to utter it to men. He was a spokesman for God, a messenger or interpreter of the Divine will.

1 . The nature and purpose of his vocation were—

2 . The persons whom his vocation immediately concerned.

3 . The manner in which it was fulfilled : diligently ( Jeremiah 23:28 ; Jeremiah 48:10 = negligently): faithfully (not according to his own natural wishes, but God's will); fearlessly; established = found trustworthy— Numbers 12:7 ; 1 Samuel 2:35 ), fully.

III. HIS CONFIRMATION . "The Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground". He attested, sealed him as his messenger—

1 . By bringing to pass the good or evil foretold by him ( Numbers 22:6 ).

2 . By providential and even miraculous occurrences, indicating his approval ( 1 Samuel 7:10 ; 1 Samuel 12:18 ).

3 . By clothing his word with power, so that it was felt by those to whom it was addressed to be the word of the Lord; for there is something Divine within which responds to the Divine without, and every one who is truthful perceives and obeys the voice of eternal truth ( John 18:37 ).

IV. HIS RECOGNITION . "And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord" ( 1 Samuel 2:20 ). The Divine word was no more rare ( 1 Samuel 3:1 ).

1 . His authority was universally admitted. It was familiarly known throughout the land that he had been appointed as a regular medium of communication between Jehovah and his people.

2 . His utterances were widely disseminated, and regarded with reverence. "The word of Samuel came to all Israel."

3 . His work thereby became highly effective. Its full effect appeared long afterwards. But even before the blow of judgment, which he predicted, fell (some ten years after his call), he doubtless laboured not in vain; and during the succeeding twenty years ( 1 Samuel 7:2 ) he "spent his time in a slow but resolute work of kindling the almost extinguished flame of a higher life in Israel."—D.