First Samuel 25:1
‘Samuel died. And all the Israelites were gathered together, and lamented him — and buried him in his home at Ramah. Then David arose!’ First Samuel 25:1.
Samuel was by far the greatest Prophet between Moses and David. He had urged his people always to put God first in their lives — even politically. He had crowned their initial kings — first Saul, and then David.
Since Moses, no man had arisen to whom the covenant nation owed so much as to Samuel. For he had justly been called the Reformer and Restorer of the Theocracy.
And now, after accomplishing all his many achievements, ‘Samuel died.’ The death of Samuel occurred at the very time Saul saw his kingship ebbing away, and David standing in the wing to replace it.
At Samuel’s death, ‘all the Israelites were gathered together.’ And well they might! For without Samuel, there would never have been a kingdom of Israel.
And ‘all the Israelites…lamented him’ (First Samuel 25:1). Even later, long after ‘Samuel was dead…, all Israel had lamented him’ (First Samuel 28:3). This was a sign that all his labours as a Prophet were reverently recognized by the whole nation as being a great blessing for Israel.
Samuel died, was lamented, and then buried in his home at Ramah. This does not mean that Samuel was interred inside his own house, but probably in its courtyard — in a tomb, then erected especially for Samuel.
‘All the Israelites…buried him in his home at Ramah’ (First Samuel 25:1). ‘All Israel…buried him in Ramah, even in his own city’ (First Samuel 28:3).
Great were the lamentations at his funeral. For ‘all Israel’ — representatives of the totality of the entire nation — carried him to Ramah, and buried him there!
What would now happen to the nation? Would it too die and get buried like Samuel who had built it? Would it too now pass away into oblivion?
No! For then, ‘David arose’ (First Samuel 25:1)! And if the death of Samuel had predicted the later death of Christ to the nation — the fact that ‘David arose’ would now prefigure to the nation that Christ would rise up from the dead, and transform His aging nation into the international Christian Church! With Samuel the kingmaker dead, David the future king now arose!
Samuel died and was lamented and buried in Ramah. Then, the great Messiah’s ancestor David now arose!
