“Now Samuel was ministering before the LORD, as a boy wearing a linen ephod. And his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year when she would come up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice” (1 Sam 2:18-19).

These verses about Samuel are much like a scene in a movie that belongs to a much larger series. It not only alludes to a scene from an earlier movie, but also anticipates a scene yet to come in the continuation of the movie. Given all the parallels between the birth of Samuel and the birth of Joseph in the first chapter of the book (1 Samuel 1), it’s difficult not to see Hannah’s gift of a robe to Samuel (v. 8) as a parallel to Jacob’s giving of a tunic to Joseph (see Gen 37:3).

And for those familiar with the entire movie of 1-2 Samuel, it’s difficult not to be reminded of King David’s garments in 2 Samuel 6:14 when reading about Samuel “wearing a linen ephod” and ministering before the LORD, particularly since these are the only two people in the entire Hebrew Bible described this way (compare 1 Sam 2:18; 2 Sam 6:14).

This image of Samuel, a Joseph-like, David-like figure, combines two very important Messianic job descriptions into a single individual. With his robe (v. 19), Samuel is dressed like a king. With his linen ephod, Samuel is dressed like a priest (v. 18). Looking at Samuel in this brief but powerfully connotative scene in this movie of redemption, we look through eyes of faith and see Yeshua, our Melchizedekian King-Priest who is David’s Lord, and our eternal mediator.

“The LORD says to my Lord: ‘Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.’ … The LORD has sworn and will not change His mind, ‘You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek'” (Psa 110:1, 4). “[I]n these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Heb 1:2-3).

Show the world you are One for Israel!

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