SAMUEL, THE CHILD OF PRAYER
_That was a grand action by Jerome, one of the Roman fathers. He laid
aside all pressing engagements and went to fulfill the call God gave
him, viz., to translate the Holy Scriptures. His congregations were
larger than many preachers of to-day but he said to his people, “Now
it is necessary that the Scriptures be translated; you must find you
another minister: I am bound for the wilderness and shall not return
until my task is finished.” Away he went and labored and prayed until
he produced the Latin Vulgate which will last as long as the world
stands. So we must say to our friends, “I must away and have time for
prayer and solitude.” And though we did not write Latin Vulgates yet
our work will be immortal: Glory to God._--REV. C. H. SPURGEON.
Samuel came into this world and was given existence in direct answer
to prayer. He was born of a praying mother, whose heart was full of
earnest desire for a son. He came into life under prayer surroundings,
and his first months in this world were spent in direct contact with
a woman who knew how to pray. It was a prayer accompanied by a solemn
vow that if he should be given, he should be “lent unto the Lord,” and
true to that vow, this praying mother put him directly in touch with
the minister of the sanctuary and under the influence of “the house of
prayer.” It was no wonder he developed into a man of prayer. We could
not have expected otherwise with such a beginning in life and with such
early environments. Such surroundings always make impressions upon
children and tend to make character and determine destiny.
He was in a favorable place to hear God when He spoke to him, and
was in an atmosphere where it tended to his heeding the divine call
which came to him. It was the most natural thing in the world when
at the third call from heaven, when he recognized God’s voice, that
his childish heart responded so promptly, “Speak, Lord, thy servant
heareth.” Quickly was there a response from his boyish spirit, of
submission, willingness and prayer.
Had he been born of a different sort of mother, had he been placed
under different surroundings, had he spent his early days in contact
with different influences, does any one for one moment suppose he could
have easily heard the voice of God calling him to His service, and that
he would have so readily yielded his young life to the God who brought
him into being? Would a worldly home, with worldly surroundings,
separated from the Church of God, with a worldly-minded mother, have
produced such a character as Samuel? It takes such influences and
agencies in early life to produce such praying men as Samuel. Would you
have your child called early into divine service and separated from the
world unto God? Would you have him so situated that he will be called
in childhood by the Spirit of God? Put him under prayer influences.
Place him near to and directly under the influence of the Man of God
and in close touch with that house which is called “the house of
prayer.”
Samuel knew God in boyhood. As a consequence he knew God in manhood.
He recognized God in childhood, obeyed him and prayed unto him. The
result was that he recognized God in manhood, obeyed him, and prayed
unto him. If more children were born of praying mothers, brought up
in direct contact with “the house of prayer,” and reared under prayer
environments, more children would hear the voice of God’s spirit
speaking to them, and would more quickly respond to those divine calls
to a religious life. Would we have praying men in our churches? We
must have praying mothers to give them birth, praying homes to color
their lives, and praying surroundings to impress their minds and to lay
the foundations for praying lives. Praying Samuels come from praying
Hannahs. Praying priests come from “the house of prayer.” Praying
leaders come from praying homes.
Israel for years had been under bondage to the Philistines and the ark
was housed in the home of Abinadab, whose son Eleazer was appointed to
keep this sacred testimony of God. The people had gone into idolatry
and Samuel was disturbed about the religious condition of the nation.
The ark of God was absent, the people were given to the worship of
idols, and there had been a grievous departure from God. Calling upon
them to put away their strange gods, he urged them to prepare their
hearts unto the Lord and to begin again to serve Him--promising them
that the Lord would deliver them out of the hands of the Philistines.
His preaching thus plainly to them, for with all else belonging to him,
Samuel was a preacher of the times, made a deep impression and bore
rich fruits as such preaching always does. “Then the children of Israel
did put away Baalim and Ashtoreth, and served the Lord only.”
But this was not enough. Prayer must be mixed with and must accompany
their reformation. So Samuel, true to his convictions about prayer,
says to the people, “Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for
you unto the Lord.” While Samuel was offering up prayer for these
wicked Israelites, the Philistines drew near to battle against the
nation, but the Lord intervened at the critical moment and thundered
with a great thunder, and discomfited these enemies of Israel, “and
they were smitten before Israel.”
The nation fortunately had a man who could pray, who knew the place and
the worth of prayer, and a leader who had the ear of God and who could
influence God.
But Samuel’s praying did not stop there. He judged Israel all the
days of his life, and had occasion from year to year to go in circuit
to Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpeh. Then he returned home to Ramah, where
he resided. “And there he built an altar unto the Lord.” Here was an
altar of sacrifice but as well was it an altar of prayer. And while it
may have been for the benefit of the community where he lived, after
the fashion of a town church, yet it must not be overlooked that it
must have been a family altar, a place where the sacrifice for sin was
offered but at the same time where his household gathered for worship,
praise and prayer. Here Almighty God was acknowledged in the home, here
was the advertisement of a religious home, and here father and mother
called upon the name of the Lord, differentiating this home from all
the worldly and idolatrous homes about them.
Here is an example of a religious home, the kind so greatly needed in
this irreligious, godless age. Blessed is that home which has in it an
altar of sacrifice and of prayer, where daily thanksgivings ascend to
heaven and where morning and night praying is done.
Samuel was not only a praying priest, a praying leader and a praying
teacher and leader, but he was a praying father. And any one who knows
the situation so far as family religion is concerned knows full well
that the great demand of these modern times is religious homes and
praying fathers and mothers. Here is where the breakdown in religion
occurs, where the religious life of a community first begins to decay,
and where we must go first to beget praying men and women in the Church
of God. It is in the home that the revival must commence.
A crisis came in the history of this nation. The people were infatuated
by the glory of a kingdom with a human king, and was prepared to reject
God as their king, as He had always been. So they came to Samuel with
the bold request, “Make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”
The thing displeased this man of God, who was jealous for the name,
the honor and the pleasure of the Lord God. How could it be otherwise?
Who would not have been likewise displeased if he were built after the
pattern of Samuel? It grieved him in soul. The Lord, however, came to
him just at that time with the comforting assurance so far as he was
personally concerned in the transaction, that “they have not rejected
thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.
Hearken unto the voice of the people, in all that they say unto thee.”
Then it was that Samuel followed the bent of his mind, “And Samuel
prayed unto the Lord.” It seemed that in every matter concerning this
people, with which Samuel was connected, he must pray over it. How
much more now when there was to be an entire revolution in the form of
government, and God was to be displaced as the ruler of the people,
and a human king was to be set up? National affairs need to be prayed
over. Praying men are demanded to carry to God in prayer the affairs of
government. Lawmakers, law judges, and law executives need leaders in
Israel to pray for them. How much fewer the mistakes if there was more
praying done in civil matters?
But this was not to be the end of this matter. God must show so
definitely and plainly His displeasure at such a request as had been
made for a human king, that the people might know what a wicked thing
they had done, even though God acceded to their request. They must
know God still existed and had to do with this people, and with their
king and the affairs of the government. So the prayers of Samuel must
again be brought into play to carry out the divine purposes. So Samuel
called upon the people to stand still, and he would show them what the
Lord would do before their eyes. So he called upon God, and in answer
God sent a tremendous storm of thunder and rain, which exceedingly
terrified the people, and caused them to acknowledge their great sin
in asking for a king. So afraid were the people that they hastily
called upon Samuel to pray for them and to spare them from what seemed
to be destruction. Samuel again prayed, and God heard and answered, and
the thunder and rain ceased.
One more incident in the prayer life of Samuel is worth noticing. King
Saul had been ordered to destroy all the Amalekites, root and branch,
and all their stuff, but Saul, contrary to divine instructions, had
spared King Agag and the best of the sheep and the cattle, and had
justified it because he claimed that the people wanted it done.
God brought this message to Samuel at this time:
“It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king; for he is turned
back from following me, and hath not performed my commandments.”
“And it grieved Samuel, and he cried all night unto the Lord.” Such
a sudden declaration was enough to produce grief of soul in a man
like Samuel, who loved his nation, who was true to God, and who above
everything else desired the prosperity of Zion. Such grief of soul
over the evils of the Church and at the sight of the abominations of
the times always drives a man to his knees in prayer. Of course Samuel
carried the case to God. It was a time for prayer. The case was too
serious for him not to be deeply moved to pray. So greatly was the
inner soul of Samuel disturbed that he prayed all night about it. Too
much was at stake for him to shut his eyes to the affair, to treat it
indifferently, and to let it pass without taking God into the matter,
for the future welfare of Israel was in the balance.