The Abiding Gift of Prophecy

Samuel Established as Prophet

It was while Samuel was administering the affairs of government for Jehovah that Israel rose in revolt. Samuel, it will be recalled, came into the world by divine providence. Said his pious, God-fearing mother, “For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him: therefore also I have lent [“returned,” margin] him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord.” 1 Samuel 1:27, 28. AGP 71.3

In due time the Lord imparted to Samuel the prophetic gift. “All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.” 1 Samuel 3:20. AGP 71.4

By the providence of God Samuel became Israel’s upright, incorruptible judge and administrator of the theocracy. AGP 71.5

“Since the days of Joshua, the government had never been conducted with so great wisdom and success as under Samuel’s administration. Divinely invested with the threefold office of judge, prophet, and priest, he had labored with untiring and disinterested zeal for the welfare of his people, and the nation had prospered under his wise control. Order had been restored, and godliness promoted, and the spirit of discontent was checked for the time…. The days of Israel’s greatest prosperity had been those in which they acknowledged Jehovah as their king,—when the laws and the government which He had established were regarded as superior to those of all other nations.” Patriarchs and Prophets, 603-605. AGP 71.6

What amazing ingratitude and blindness Israel manifested in rejecting God, their divine King, and choosing a faulty human being to take His place! Truly, this was, as Samuel declared, great wickedness. It was one of the supreme wrongs of the Israelites. By this desperate act Israel rejected God as their king. By the same act they also rejected the government God had established for the greatest possible benefit of His people. AGP 72.1