Schools of the Prophets

Samuel spent his remaining days preparing young minds to serve the Lord.

The early training of Hebrew children was stressed so they might learn the requirements of God and understand the history of His leading in the affairs of the nation. Solomon wrote: “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). The Bible is filled with examples of godly parents training their children to obey and reverence God. “Such was the training of Moses in the lowly cabin home in Goshen; of Samuel, by the faithful Hannah; of David, in the hill dwelling at Bethlehem; of Daniel, before the scenes of the captivity separated him from the home of his fathers. Such, too, was the early life of Christ at Nazareth; such the training by which the child Timothy learned from the lips of his grandmother Lois, and his mother Eunice (2 Timothy 1:5; 3:15), the truths of Holy Writ.” Additional training was provided at schools where youth were taught the Word of God by God-fearing teachers.

“In Samuel’s day there were two of these schools—one at Ramah, the home of the prophet, and the other at Kirjath-jearim, where the ark then was. Others were established in later times.” In these schools, Israel’s future religious leaders were taught a skill or trade and spent a portion of the day in manual labor in God’s creation.

The classroom curriculum consisted of the Mosaic Law, poetry, music, and history. “‘The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy is understanding.’ Proverbs 9:10. The great work of life is character building, and a knowledge of God is the foundation of all true education.” “It is a law of the mind that it gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is trained to dwell. . . . As an educating power the Bible is without a rival. In the word of God the mind finds subject for the deepest thought, the loftiest aspiration.” “And the education begun in this life will be continued in the life to come.”