And who was it that headed the long list of Israel’s Prophets? This is not an unimportant question: Acts 3:24 tells us: “Yea, and all the Prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.” Samuel, then, was the first of Israel’s Prophets. He was raised up by God at a most critical juncture in their history, when true piety had sunk to a very low level and when wickedness flouted itself in high places. So fearful had things become, so far