A.
Find Out:
1.
What was Saul trying to do? v.11
2.
To whom did David flee? v.18
3.
What was Samuel doing? v.20
4.
What happened to Saul's men? v.20,21
5.
What happened to Saul? v.23
6.
Who assembled to mourn for Samuel? 25:1
B.
Think :
1.
What do we learn about what Samuel was doing in his last days?
2.
What do we learn about the presence of the Lord with him?
3.
What does it say about Samuel that David fled to him?
C.
Comment :
For this last study we jump some chapters (which you can read
in the next series of these Studies entitled "David on the Run")
to see Saul trying to kill David and David fleeing to the only sanctuary
he knows, Samuel.
First of all we see Samuel in old age as a
SANCTUARY for the needy. But observe what Samuel was doing. He was leading
the school of the prophets, so we see him next as the SPIRITUAL ELDER
to the prophets.
Not only that we also read that the presence and the power of
God was so with Samuel and his prophets that when others came to them,
(with far from spiritual motives!) the power of God overcame them and
they joined in the prophesying as well! If this happened today we would
say a revival was taking place.
We see Samuel therefore in the place
of SPIRITUAL BLESSING right up to the end of his life. What a picture!
No wonder, therefore, that the whole of Israel turn out to mourn for
Samuel when he dies. He is in fact the end of an era, the last of the
judges. He is the last of those who were both the spiritual headship
and also the political headship of the nation.
D.
Application?
1.
Will we be able to have a testimony like Samuel's when we die?
2.
God was with Samuel to the end. He is faithful.