#33 SAMUEL: THE LAST JUDGE OF ISRAEL (1060BC)
The story of Samuel, the prophet and judge of Israel, begins with the longing for a child. Like the story in the Gospel of Luke describing the conception of John the Baptist … an infertile mother, in this case another woman called Hannah, who is praying for a son. She promises that if she is given a son, she will give him back into God’s service in the Temple and never have his hair cut as a sign of his dedication.
Samuel, which means ‘asked of God’, was a prodigy of a child, and the perfect answer to her prayer. When she presents him in the Temple at Shiloh to fulfil her vow, her beautifully phrased song of praise is the forerunner of Mary’s Magnificat.
From the time he was weaned at three, Samuel stayed in the Temple at Shiloh, a city some twenty miles to the north of Jerusalem, where he would be cared for by the Temple women and the High Priest, Eli.
Once in the night, when Samuel was much older, God spoke to him. “Samuel,” His voice boomed. Samuel replied, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”. God described His dissatisfaction with the incompetent High Priest, Eli, and his scandalous and philandering sons. He wanted Samuel to take over. In the morning Samuel was afraid to discuss the noises in the night and repeat the Lord’s message, but because Eli the priest insisted Samuel tell him what happened Eli accepted God’s will and stood aside with his sons.
Samuel, like Abraham, Moses and Aaron before him, then became God’s mouthpiece. He would predict the future, like an oracle, using a process very similar to channelling.
But Samuel was more than a prophet; he was a religious judge who acted as the Israelites’ spiritual leader and tried to stop his people using other gods, Baal and Astarte in particular.
From the role of a local obscure seer, Samuel would eventually rise to a national figure, travelling all over the country, as the Judge of all Israel. He will continue to hear God’s voice and the Israeli people will recognise him as a prophet, the medium through which God issued His commands … “When Samuel spoke, all Israel listened.’ [1 Samuel 3:19]
But things weren’t going well. After successive defeats the Hebrews decided they needed a new system of national leadership to allow them to act more swiftly and decisively to counter their enemy’s threats. They asked Samuel, as their prophet and their judge, to anoint their first king. Samuel was adamantly against replacing a theocracy with a monarchy and detailed all the abuses that come with kingly power. Eventually Samuel succumbed to popular demand and anointed Saul, an aspect of Hilarion, a handsome and tall guerrilla leader, as the new king. The people cheered. It was a grave mistake.
Sidelined, Samuel established a school at Ramah and continued as a powerful priest. But King Saul’s days were numbered when he disobeyed God’s instructions in the war with the Amalekites. Samuel had to find a new king and God directed him to a teenager called David.
We are told that Samuel continued to hear God’s voice. He died at Ramah after David had slain Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, but before he was formally made the king.
Conversation with the Gatekeeper
The Gatekeeper was very excited to discuss Samuel and began without any of my questions.
“It’s now time to talk about Samuel. Let me begin: Samuel grew up in the Temple as a servant who slept on the floor. From this humble start, he would become the last President of the Israeli Republic, the last Judge to be elected by popular acclamation of the Hebrews. He will anoint Saul and then David as kings. It’s quite an impressive resume.”
“Was Samuel really a prophet hearing God speak or was he tricking his people like Joshua?”
“Samuel was a gifted channel, but sometimes, when he claimed it was God speaking, it was really himself. You should be able to accept this now after hearing how Moses, Aaron and Joshua used this tactic. It was a true and tested device. For example, it was Samuel, not God, who wanted to wipe out the Amelkites and commanded Saul to do so. When Saul saved the Amelkites’ king from death he hadn’t done as he was told. Samuel was right. The King had to die for the stability in the region.”
“Samuel sounds manipulative to me.”
“He wasn’t; just very clever and wise. Samuel was a very generous man, generous with his time, his counsel and everything he owned. Optimistic, he always saw the way ahead. Prophets are usually a forbidding lot, but Samuel was different because he had loads of personal charm and he was like your son, a beautiful dancer, mesmerising to watch.”
“What did Samuel bring into this incarnation from St Germain?”
“He brought intelligence with humility and great simplicity, naivety and a genuine desire to serve and please God. He cried at three when given in to service by his mother. He felt abandoned and deserted by Hannah, but he grew to love the simplicity of the monastic life and his periods in the desert in contemplation and purification. Samuel had physical grace and agility and all of St Germain’s charm.”
“What was his spiritual challenge?”
“His spiritual challenge was his impatience. He was always impatient for and greedy for virtue in his people. Their slowness in coming up to his perception of righteousness was his challenge. He was a great man, a great Judge and he offered his people considered and well-weighed judgements. He wielded enormous power and he never went one fraction into abusing it.”
“Towards the end of his life he established a school; it’s the first time we see the Count Saint-Germain as a teacher, although we have seen Lao Tzu, an aspect of the Imhotep line teaching.”
“At the school of Ramah, Samuel taught the law of Moses and all its ramifications. It was a school for rabbis with thirty or so pupils. The school lasted after him for over one hundred years although he only spent ten years governing it.”
“Samuel found and, against his better judgement, anointed Saul as king … ”
“The Israelites should have been happy when King Saul finally went. The Bible described how an evil spirit would inhabit him… this is an understatement. He had an anger management problem… his fits of rage were so extreme he was capable of killing people.”
“It seems to me Samuel had an anger management problem too. Didn’t he hack the Amelkites’ king to death?”
“No. Samuel did not do it in a fury. Yes he did it with a cold determination, which was even more frightening. This king represented an enormous threat to the monotheists. He was the High Priest of Baal, a man full of evil. Because the Amelkites had the better military structure at that time than the Israelites and by taking out their king, he coolly with precision chopped the head off the monster. Samuel couldn’t find any other way to stop the takeover of Judaism by the darkness of Baal.”
“And his greatest achievement?”
“Samuel’s greatest achievement was fulfilling his life’s purpose in getting the Israelites to give up their false gods; it was the purpose of his incarnation. He wanted to balance his karma from his previous life as Aaron where he had facilitated the construction of the Golden Calf, a false God and an image of Baal. Why do you think Samuel was almost born in a temple and raised as a priest in his very next life after Aaron? Why? Samuel had to complete the work he started and rectify his mistakes. He needed to get rid of his self-aggrandisement and his vanity which plagued him as Aaron. It was a good life and he lived it well.
It is now time to move forward about one hundred and fifty years to examine one of the Count’s most unusual lives and one he insists that we must study.” (Litchfield 2005)
