Introduction
The book of Samuel is the continuation of the book of Judges and the book of Ruth. As it opens, the period of the Judges is not yet over: Eli the priest was one of these judges (1 Sam. 4:18), and Samuel, the first prophet (Acts 3:24;13:20), was also a judge over Israel (1 Sam. 7:6.). He thought he could establish his sons as judges after himself (1 Sam. 8:1), but their unfaithfulness put an end to this dispensation. Moreover, the period of the judges had a rather transitory character: the judges brought temporary relief to the wretchedness of the guilty people of Israel who, instead of exterminating the enemies of the Lord, had allowed them to live. Drawn away into iniquity and idolatry by these nations, Israel, as chastening for her disobedience, was obliged to bear their yoke. Under this tyranny, the people groaned and cried out to the Lord. Full of pity, He sent them deliverers who gave them respite by delivering them from the hand of their spoilers. Alas! this did not change their heart. “And it came to pass when the judge died, that they turned back and corrupted themselves more than their fathers, in following other gods to serve them, and to bow down to them; they ceased not from their own doings, nor from their stubborn way” (Judg. 2:19).
During the period of the judges, the priesthood remained the immediate and recognized link, the point of contact, between the people and God. It represented the people in their relations with God who was Himself the King of Israel. Sometimes in those days when “every man did what was right in his own eyes” (Judg. 21:25), the role of the priesthood might appear to have been eclipsed, but the link subsisted nonetheless.
The book of Ruth is inserted, as it were, toward the end of the history of the Judges, in order to reveal God’s secret thought concerning a new dispensation, that of kingship or the kingdom. There we see God preparing a king according to His own heart; like Shiloh in Jacob’s prophecy, he must proceed from Judah. Therefore this book begins with Elimelech, a man of Judah, and in closing it proclaims the name of King David, showing us beforehand who will be the Lord’s anointed.
Let us note here that the relationship with the Lord differs under the priesthood and under the kingdom. Under the priesthood, this relation was immediate, for the priest represented the people before God, whereas the kingdom is an authority established over the people. The people were subjected to the king who was to govern according to the mind of God. It was the king whom God expected to be faithful; he it was who was responsible before God for Israel’s unfaithfulness, and the destiny of the people depended on his conduct.
Until the final establishment of the king, we have in the First Samuel a period of transition. The first great fact noted in this book is that the priesthood had proven unfaithful and could no longer serve as the foundation of a relationship between the people and God. Without doubt, the priesthood was still necessary and could not he abolished, but it ceased to have the first place. A new basis of relationship was established in the kingship. God was about to raise up “a faithful priest, who [should] walk before [His] anointed continually, instead of being, as in the past, the link between the people and God (1 Sam. 2:35).
All this explains why the First Samuel begins with the tribe of Levi and the priesthood, and not, as the book of Ruth, with Judah and the kingdom.
Elkanah was a Levite. Eli was the high priest; thus we are on the ground of the priesthood. Had the priesthood remained faithful, there would have been no occasion for a change of dispensation; therefore it was necessary, first of all, to ascertain that it was ruined before the true king should enter the scene, for God could not remain in relationship to the people through the medium of a corrupted priesthood.
Eleazar, the elder of Aaron’s two sons, was the father of Phinehas who was “jealous with [the Lord’s] jealousy among [the children of Israel],” and on account of his zeal God gave him “and his seed after him, the covenant of an everlasting priesthood” (Num. 25:10-13). Thus the line of descent from Eleazar is the faithful line to which the promise pertains. This line continues through Zadok who exercised the priesthood under David and under Solomon (2 Sam. 8:17; 1 Kings 2:35), and through Azariah: “He it is that exercised the priesthood in the house that Solomon built in Jerusalem” (1 Chron. 6:10).
Ithamar’s descendant was Eli who appears in the first chapter of our book. At that time the high priesthood belonged to the family of Ithamar. Then came Ahimelech whom Saul slew together with all those who exercised the priesthood at that time. Abiathar alone escaped and took refuge with David. And so Ithamar’s descendants were much less numerous than his older brother’s (1 Chron. 24:4). Later Abiathar exercised the priesthood together with Zadok at the time of Absalom (2 Sam. 17:15), but he had previously been useful to David, “[having] been afflicted in all wherein [the king] was afflicted” (1 Kings 2:26). Later, this same Abiathar, when David was very old, made a league with Joab to substitute Adonijah as king in place of Solomon (1 Kings 1:7), whereas Zadok remained faithful (1 Kings 1:8.) Finally, Solomon thrust out Abiathar from the high priesthood, for he was worthy of death because he had conspired against him, and also “to fulfill the word of Jehovah, which He had spoken concerning the house of Eli in Shiloh” (1 Kings 2:27).)
But, on the other hand, it was necessary to show, now that God was introducing His king as the intermediary between Israel and Himself, that this relationship could not be established on the basis of the flesh. This is the reason for Saul’s entire history from 1 Samuel 9 to the end of the book. God could, without doubt, use a king according to the flesh to deliver His people, but this function did not qualify him morally to be the leader of Israel. The book of Judges presents the same truth in the history of Samson. The gift and the moral state of a man are two very different things. Saul, who was later reproved, might be “among the prophets”; Balaam might bless Israel; Judas might do works of power together with the other disciples and all the while be an instrument of the enemy to betray the Lord, his Master.