Samuel as Type of Christ

            Luke clearly had the beginning of Samuel in the back of his mind when he wrote his Gospel.  Consider the way that Mary’s song (Luke 1:46-56) echoes Hannah’s song.  Here are two woman, each of whom experiences a miraculous pregnancy, each of whom bear a son uniquely dedicated to the Lord, and each of whom sing about the saving power of God and the way that brings a reversal of fortunes—filling the hungry, sending the rich away empty; bringing down princes, raising the lowly.  Consider that Samuel serves the Lord from youth at the tabernacle and that Luke alone records the stories about Jesus’ circumcision and about his 12-year old encounter in the temple.  Consider that Samuel grows with the Lord with him and that Jesus grows in wisdom and stature with God and men.

            What’s Luke up to?  I’d suggest that he wants us to see Jesus fulfilling the story of Israel.  In Samuel’s day, you have chaos, disorder, Israel almost completely ‘off-mission.’  In Samuel’s day, you have a dearth of visions from God.  In Samuel’s day you have corrupt leadership.  Over the course of Samuel’s book, Israel will eventually discover her one great king, David, the shepherd-king, who has a heart like God’s (1 Samuel 13:14).  In Jesus’ day, all those conditions pertain, too:  corrupt leadership centered in the temple, Israel living ‘off-mission,’ a long time (400 years) since there was a writing prophet.  And as the Gospel progresses, we’ll discover the one great king, Jesus, the shepherd king, who will lay down His life for the sheep.  And He won’t just restore Israel’s earthly fortunes, He will fulfill her purposes for the whole world, beginning the establishment of the merciful reign of God over the earth.  1 Samuel 1-3 are important foreshadowings of the work of the Messiah.