1 Samuel 2:26

The Child-Prophet

And the child Samuel grew on, and was in favor both with the Lord, and also with men. 1 Samuel 2:26.

If you look carefully at the text you will see that it tells us three things about Samuel. First it tells us that he grew, next that he was in favor with God, and lastly that he was in favor with men.

1. “Samuel grew.” He was just like other boys and girls. He grew in height. Year by year as Hannah brought him his new coat he would compare it with the old one to see how many inches he had grown. Some years the old one would seem shorter than usual because he had been growing faster. I wonder if he was ever measured against a wall or a door as we sometimes are, and if Eli kept a record of his height.

And then he grew in strength. Each year he was able to run faster and farther, and to do his work quicker and better. Sometimes, I daresay, he looked at his arms to see how powerful the muscles were getting. He could lift heavier weights and throw farther and straighter than he used to do.

He grew in wisdom. That doesn't mean that he just grew in knowledge. You may fill your heads with all kinds of knowledge and yet be much less wise than you were to begin with. Samuel learned a lot of things from Eli, but he knew how to use what he had learned, and he thought out things for himself and gained in common sense.

But Samuel grew not only in body and mind, he grew also in heart and soul. There is no use growing at all if you don't grow the right way. Some people grow big bodies and large minds and little, deformed, ugly souls. They grow backwards instead of forwards, so that their friends say of them: “I wish they were small again. They were much nicer and much better then.”

Samuel might easily have grown backwards instead of forwards. Perhaps we think that, living in the tabernacle with old Eli, he had no temptations and that it was easy for him to be good. But Eli was not the only man in the tabernacle. There were his two wicked sons Hophni and Phinehas. Samuel must have known something of their evil ways. Perhaps they laughed at him sometimes, and very likely they tried to tempt him to follow in their footsteps. But Samuel kept steadily on his own brave way. Day by day he grew into the great, wise, noble soul who was to rule and guide Israel, and then one night God spoke to him and all Israel knew that Samuel was a prophet.

2. Samuel was “in favor with God.” God loves us all, even when we hurt and spurn Him, but I think He loves in a special kind of way those who love and try to follow Him. It is just as if they were His very, very own, given back to Him to keep for ever. Samuel had been promised to God before he was born, he had been brought up very near to God in the tabernacle, and he had grown to love and own Him as his God.

3. Lastly, Samuel was “in favor with men.” That means that he was well liked by his friends and companions. He must have been a good sort, who would do another a kind turn if he could. And he must have been happy too and full of fun.

Remember three things. In order to be good you don't need to be ugly or ill-grown. In order to be good you don't need to be disagreeable. In order to be good you don't need to be unpopular. True, there are times when you must risk your popularity to stick up for the right. But the people who really matter will only admire you the more for it. The right people will always respect real worth. To be in favor with God you don't need to be out of favor with men.

Many hundreds of years later there was another boy who lived in the same land, of whom almost the same words were spoken. We are told that He “advanced in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men.” Samuel, like all boys, must have had his faults, but this other boy is our Perfect Pattern, for He did no sin; and if we strive to grow like Jesus then we shall come to a noble stature and to the likeness of a perfect man.