But it was long after Eli's failure before the new order was established. What was the divine provision meanwhile? Samuel. He—the man of God, “God's emergency man”—filled the gap, and became the link between the Lord and his desolate people. Truly our God is never without resource. The erstwhile temple child entered into the mind of God about the condition of things; the ruin of everything by the unfaithfulness of man gripped his soul, and he gave himself up to a ministry of intercession (1 Sam. 7:5, 8; 12:23). This at all times is very precious in the eyes of God. Many centuries later, when the kingly order had grievously failed and was about to be set aside until the day of the Lord Jesus, the Lord made reference to Samuel thus: “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). Notice the link with Moses. When the people ruined themselves by the worship of the golden calf, they were saved by Moses' pleading (Ex. 32:33). Later, when the priestly order broke down and ruin once more ensued, the people were maintained before God by the intercession of Samuel.
The value of a ministry of intercession thus stands divinely emphasized. It is God's delight. But this precious ministry can only really be exercised by those who enter into God's thoughts concerning the times in which they live. Thus, those who today have before their souls the divine pattern of the church as the Holy Spirit established it at the beginning-and who realize its utter failure as a witness for God in the world are alone able to intelligently have dealings with God about it. But this is open to us all. May the Lord graciously increase the number of those who are spiritually able to fill Moses' and Samuel's part in these last days of the Christian era.