The Lord had given Moses a supplement in chapter six of Numbers. This supplement was His special provision against the degradation of the priesthood. The Lord had appointed and ordained only the house of Aaron, of the tribe of Levi, to be the priests. The rest of the Levites who served in the tabernacle were not the priests.
God’s intention had been to make the whole nation of Israel a kingdom of priests; however, through Israel’s failure, the Lord chose the Levites as a tribe of priests to replace a nation of priests in Israel. But not all of the tribe of Levi were chosen by the Lord. Only those of the house of Aaron were to be the priests. But the house of Aaron eventually came to the point of being fully and utterly fallen at the time of Eli’s sons (1 Sam. 2:12-17). However, the Lord foresaw the situation. Besides His ordination of the house of Aaron as priests, He had made a supplement in the sixth chapter of Numbers. This supplement was given in case there should be an inadequacy in the ordained priests. When the house of Aaron fell, this supplement was put into practical use.
The principle of the Nazarite is voluntary consecration. It is not by being appointed, ordained, or even chosen by the Lord, but by voluntarily consecrating yourself to Him. At the time of Eli, the Lord was really poor as far as the priesthood was concerned; so Hannah lent Samuel to the Lord. She told the Lord that if He would give her a son, then she would lend him to the Lord (1 Sam. 1:11, “give...unto” in the original has the meaning of “lend...to”). When the situation is abnormal, the Lord becomes poor with respect to His administration, and there is the need for someone to voluntarily lend himself to the Lord.
Samuel was of the tribe of Levi (1 Chron. 6:33-38), of Mount Ephraim (1 Sam. 1:1-2). He was not of the house of Aaron. But he became a priest by being consecrated, separated, and lent to God. Samuel became a priest by coming through the side door, not by coming through the main entrance. He became a priest according to the supplement provided in Numbers 6, not according to an appointment or ordination. By the principle of the Nazarite he became a voluntarily consecrated person to replace the ordained priest.
Samuel was not only a priest, but also a judge. The judges were in the line of authority. He was a person both in the priesthood and in the kingship. In such a position he ended the age of the judges and turned the age into the age of the kingdom.
Samuel was also a prophet, one who spoke for God. First Samuel 3:19-21 says, “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord...for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.”
With Samuel there was the priesthood, the kingship, and the prophethood. Through him the age of degradation was turned into the age of the kingdom. Samuel could be so much used by God simply because he came into God’s administration through the principle of the Nazarite and became a voluntarily consecrated person.
In the section from Moses to Samuel, Aaron is the second important figure. In him we see the priesthood and all the offerings. Afterwards, in Joshua we see God’s power destroying the enemies in the land of Canaan and bringing His chosen people into the rest of the good land. Following this is the age of the judges where we see the confusion caused by God’s chosen people forsaking God and the revival gained by their turning back to Him. Next, we see the fall of the priesthood in Eli. Finally, in Samuel we see a person voluntarily consecrated as a Nazarite, replacing the ordained priests, ending the age of the judges, speaking for God as a prophet (prophesying for God), and bringing in the age of the kings.