Samuel led the people of Israel to repent of their sinful idolatries and to turn again to serve the Lord (1 Sam. 7:1–4; 28:3). He led the people of Israel to worship the Lord and then, with a clear focus on the Lord as their true deliverer, led them to a great military victory over the Philistines (1 Sam. 7:12–14).

The story of the prophet Samuel begins with tears. Hannah was one of two wives of a man from Ephraim named Elkanah (1 Sam. 1:1–2). The other wife was named Peninnah. Penninah bore children to Elkanah, but Hannah was barren. A fruitful womb was a sign of God’s favor (Ex. 23:26; Deut. 7:14). Perhaps some thought Hannah’s barrenness was a sign of divine displeasure. Perhaps Hannah thought this as well, but Hannah was a woman of remarkable piety (1 Sam. 2:1–10). She cried to the Lord out of the anguish of her heart and laid before Him her desire for a son (1 Sam. 1:11). The Lord heard her prayer. Then, as He had done for Sarah (Gen. 21:1–7), Rebekah (Gen. 25:21–26), and Rachel (Gen. 30:22–23), the Lord opened Hannah’s womb and gave her a son (1 Sam. 1:19–20). She named the boy Samuel, because she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord” (1 Sam. 1:20). He was a gift from God to Hannah, but he was also a gift from God to Israel.

Samuel’s life and ministry stood at the crossroads of the troubled times between the end of the period of the judges and the beginning of the monarchy (Acts 13:20). The Philistines were a constant political and military menace to the people of Israel during this period, but the Philistines were not their primary problem. The primary problem was that the people were fickle and faithless (Judg. 17:6, 21:25), and the priesthood under Eli was ineffective (1 Sam. 2:22–25, 27–36). God’s judgment fell on the people of Israel in the form of a crushing defeat at Aphek at the hands of the Philistines (1 Sam. 4:1–11). Israel needed someone to deliver them not only from the hands of the Philistines but also from their idolatries that had made them indistinguishable from the people around them. This person was Samuel.

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