Good weekend to you my ‘Walking with Jesus” friends,
When you think about your old age, what some would call your ‘twilight’ years, what do you hope those years will be like? Where will you be living? What will you be doing? What will be the condition of your health? Who will be those friends or family who will be an important part of your life then?
Over the past weeks we’ve been walking with Samuel, the famous prophet of Israel, who lived from about 1100bc till about 1020bc. The story of Samuel’s miraculous birth and the vow of his mother Hannah is well known, and we looked closely at those events several days ago. Do you remember some of the amazing events during Samuel’s lifetime which shaped his legacy and the story of Israel? May I remind us of these…
* 1 Samuel 2 & 3 tell us of Samuel’s first encounters with God as a young boy and the message of judgement God gave Samuel to relay to Eli the high priest.
* 1 Samuel 4 & 5 tell us of the horrific time when Eli’s sons took God’s Ark of the Covenant out of the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle, which was at Shiloh, and took the Ark to the front lines of the battlefield. You’ll recall the Ark was captured by the Philistines and Eli and both his sons Hophni and Phinehas died on the same day, leaving young Samuel as the heir apparent to the spiritual leadership of a defeated Israel.
* 1 Samuel 6 & 7 tell us of the return of the Ark from the Philistines and the great spiritual revival among the Israelites, and God’s defeat of the Philistines because they were attacking the Israelites as Samuel led them in worship of Almighty God.
* 1 Samuel 8 & 9 tell us of the sad ‘defining moment’ in Israel’s history when the elders of the people came to Samuel in his old age to request a change of Israel governance. They wanted a human king to lead them like other nations! That major turn of events resulted in Saul becoming Israel’s first human king, inaugurated by Samuel.
Now today, will you join me, a few years later in Samuel’s lifetime, as he is now in those ‘twilight’ years. I’m guessing Samuel might be about 80 years of age when we find him in 1 Samuel 19:18. David was running for his life from King Saul, who as we saw yesterday, was very jealous and fearful of David and his growing popularity among the people of Israel. Following an attempt by King Saul to kill David, the record tells us: “When David had fled, he went to Samuel at Ramah and David told old Samuel all that Saul had done to him.” Now that is so very interesting to me, do you know why?
“Retirement” is a strange word, isn’t it? Depending on the country in which you live and the history of your family, you probably have some specific ideas and maybe even plans for what your ‘retirement years’ will be like? In many parts of the world there are ‘retirement destination villages’ which are towns built primarily to accommodate retirees and the lifestyles they work all their adult lives to be able to eventually enjoy in those retirement years.
For Samuel, he returned home to Ramah which was where he was miraculously born to his parents Hannah and Elkanah. We know God blessed them with 5 other children (1 Samuel 2:21) but we have no record if any of them and their families were living when old Samuel returned to live out his ‘retirement years’ in Ramah. We also know Samuel had two sons, Joel and Abijah (1 Samuel 8:1) but neither Samuel’s wife nor those boys are mentioned in Samuel’s retirement years. Thus we can’t say for sure that Samuel returned to live out his life in Ramah because family was there.
So, if being near family was not Samuel’s priority in retirement, what was it? I think I found a clue in David’s visit to Ramah. First, Samuel returned to his home because David and the elders of Israel would know where to find old Samuel when they needed wisdom from this man of God. Remember, Samuel had promised to never stop praying for them and to be available to continue teaching them how to live God honoring lives. (1 Samuel 12:23)
That is why David fled from King Saul and ran to Ramah to find and spend time with his old mentor and teacher Samuel. Oh, I would love to have a video recording of David and Samuel sitting together talking hour after hour as David described to Samuel what it was like for him to kill Goliath, and all that had happened in his life since, as he was being pursued by King Saul who was so jealous of David he wanted David dead! I wonder how often Samuel’s little home was visited by others, especially the elders of Israel, seeking wisdom, guidance and prayer with Samuel?
It appears after old Samuel and David had spent some time together, Samuel invited David to accompany him to a place called Naioth. Why? I think it was so David could see the other key thing Samuel was doing with his ‘retirement years’! Not only was Samuel spending lots of time praying in Ramah and being available to those who needed wisdom from God, Samuel was teaching and coaching younger prophets in Naioth!
The record says: “Then David and Samuel went to Naioth and stayed there. Word came to King Saul that David was in Naioth, so he sent men to capture David. But when they arrived, they saw a group of prophets prophesying with Samuel standing there as their leader...” (1 Samuel 19:19,20) Oh my dear friends please take special note of this!
Samuel was a unique man of God who had lived a unique lifetime leading God’s people Israel during a very challenging time in Israel’s history. From the time of Moses to the time of Samuel, almost 500 years, the God appointed leader of His people Israel was the PROPHET. God spoke TO these men, prophets, giving them the instructions God wanted the people of Israel to understand at that moment in time. Once the prophet understood God’s instructions then his role was to communicate to the people exactly what God had told him and teach them how to live in obedience to what God had said.
Often the prophet would write God’s instructions on a scroll and copies would be made for distribution to the towns and villages of Israel so the people would know what God was speaking to His people. As you know my friends, we have many of those scrolls in our Bible today. Some are lengthy like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, and some are short like Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obediah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk.
Evidently Samuel had a prophet school in his old age! It seems as God stirred in the hearts of young men with a calling to be a prophet, many of them had come to Naioth where Samuel was using his retirement years to raise up the next generation of prophets! It seems to me Samuel knew Saul the King had turned away from God and therefore the primary leader of Israel was not receiving guidance directly from God.
Nothing could be more disastrous for Israel than for the nation to be led by a leader who had no interest in seeking God’s guidance for His people! Now think about that as it relates to the country where you live my friends. Are those in key leadership in your nation hungry to seek guidance from Almighty God in knowing what is best for your nation?
Oh, I’m so glad God gives us this insight into how old Samuel is led by God to wisely use his ‘retirement’ years and it challenges me and I hope you, to ask ourselves what our plans are for the best use of our ‘retirement’ years, our old age? I see no evidence Samuel was prioritizing his own personal enjoyment or pleasure, but rather focusing his ‘retirement years’ on obeying God’s guidance and doing all he could to help his people, especially by investing in the younger generation, to raise up leaders who could lead well after Samuel’s death!
I think we need to pause right here and pray, asking God to speak to us about His plan for our retirement years, and I’ll meet you right back here tomorrow to see what God did with Samuel next!
Today’s Scripture: 1 Samuel 19.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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