1 Samuel 3

Well, good morning. I greet you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a thrill to be together every single time, to sing songs as we have just sung, and to be in the fellowship of those called to be in this place at this time, to be able to express gratitude to so many here in this room who helped to make this possible and to welcome to this campus so many new friends who are here just for this week and period of time and most consummately to turn to God’s word. So we’re going to turn to God’s word together and we’re going to turn to Daniel chapter three, except we did that last time… But three is the magic number. In this case Frist Samuel three. Gotcha. First Samuel three.

Let’s follow together in the text: “Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, ‘Here I am!’ and ran to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call; lie down again.’ So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, ‘Samuel!’ and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call, my son; lie down again.’

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant hears.’ Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.’

Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, ‘Samuel, my son.’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ And Eli said, ‘What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.’ So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, ‘It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.’ And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.”

This is the word of God, this incredible passage. I dare say those of us raised in the context of a Christian family, those of us with long experience in the Christian Church, those of us who were as toddlers and preschoolers and school children, read Bible stories by our parents, had them taught to us in Sunday school. We know this text, or at least we think we do. We certainly know this narrative. We know the story of the boy Samuel in the temple with Eli, the priest, but as is so often the case, we have to press back a bit and ask what we really know about what’s going on here. Because my guess is that even in the reading of this text, there were words that leapt out at you that you didn’t remember and may actually never have known.

This is one of those texts that reminds us that sometimes Scripture can reside in our memory in a way that reduces Scripture to something manageable. In one sense, this is a coping mechanism for human beings. We can’t take too much at one time, and so when we are given as children the account of Samuel, the boy there in the temple with Eli, we tend to reduce things down to something manageable. You don’t just tell children about fornicating, adulterating, priestly sons who are about to be massacred to the glory of God. That is not a Sunday school lesson you’re going to find in your local church. But that that kind of reductionism begins in the very beginning of this book.

I don’t think there are many Sunday school teachers who tell children that Eli thought that Hannah was drunk, that Eli confronted Hannah as she was in prayer because of the barrenness of her womb. She was experiencing a moment with the Lord. Her lips were moving and as she was there in the temple, Eli who was sitting at the doorpost saw her and thought she was drunk and went and scolded her for her drinking. Again, I wasn’t taught that.

Look at verse 13 of chapter one. In fact, go back a verse, go back to 12. “As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, ‘How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.’ But Hannah answered, ‘No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.’ Then Eli answered, ‘Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.’ And she said, ‘Let your servant find favor in your eyes.’ Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.”

Okay, then look at the next verses: “They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, ‘I have asked for him from the Lord.’”

Now remember that Hannah, in her prayer, prayed to the Lord that he would open her womb. And that the son that came from her womb, she would present to the Lord and she did so. And we know that she brought him so quickly to Eli that Eli had to tell her, “Uou must wean him first before you can present him to me.” And so Samuel, the emphasis here is he’s tiny, he is an infant. And of course the poignancy of this is that this sweet woman who was the wife of this man who was demonstrated to be understanding of his wife, even in her barrenness, she prayed to the Lord to open her womb and later as we know she had other children, sons and daughters. But when the Lord answered her prayer and she conceived and bore this boy and she gave birth to him, she named him Samuel for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.” And then she presented him back to the Lord and Eli had to say, just wait until he is weaned and then bring him to me. And then the boy grew in the service to Eli the priest.

Chapter two is one of the most remarkable chapters in all of Scripture. It begins with Hannah’s prayer. And again, what you have here is something very similar to the prayer of Mary in the New Testament. And you say, how could this young woman, how could this nomadic wife, how could this wife who we presume to be illiterate, unable to read or to write, which would’ve been the common state at that time, how is it that she is able to pray like this?

We don’t have time to look at the entire prayer, but know how it begins: “My heart exults in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation.”

Look at verse six: “The Lord kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and on them he has set the world.” The world is sitting on these pillars the Lord has set.

Okay, there’s the glory of that passage, the glory of Hannah’s prayer, the pillars on which the Lord has set the entire world, set the entire earth and this poetry, this praise and then we go immediately to the depravity of Eli’s worthless sons. And frankly, worthless is not an adequate adjective. They’re horrifying.

Look at verse 12: “Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord. The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, ‘Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw.’ And if the man said to him, ‘Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish,’ he would say, ‘No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.’ Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.”

They were robbing the Lord. That’s the bottom line. They were robbing the Lord of his sacrifice. They were perverting the sacrificial system into a delicatessen. It is a piece of grotesque, heresy, arrogance, and robbery. As I say verse 12 saying they were worthless men, that seems hardly quite satisfying and then it gets worse. As you know there’s more sin. But notice verse 18 of chapter two: “Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy clothed with a linen ephod.” Okay, this is so sweet. This is where the Sunday school pictures got it right. Here’s a little boy and he’s wearing a priestly ephod.

The wearing of the ephod was a great honor as the Lord will remind Eli shortly, and you’ll recall that his mother made a new cloak for him every year. His mother has not forgotten him. He is still her son. But just notice this, you have a contrast. Just don’t miss the contrast between the worthless sons of Eli and Samuel. While the sons of Eli are involved in gross sexual immorality and they are robbing the Lord of his sacrifice. There is Samuel living in the temple with Eli ministering to the Lord.

Okay, there’s a shift here. Ministering to whom? Ministering to the Lord, not just ministering to Eli but ministering to the Lord.

His mother used to make for him a little robe and take it up to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice, then Eli would bless El Cana and his wife and say, may the Lord give you children by this woman for the petition she asked of the Lord. So then they would return to their home. Indeed, the Lord visited Hannah and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters and the boy Samuel, this is it grew in the presence of the Lord. He is ministering to Eli, he is serving Eli. Then he’s ministering to the Lord and now he’s growing up. He grows in the presence of the Lord.

Okay, so this is a boy. He is growing up. He grew in the presence of the Lord. Look at the contrast with the very next sentence: “Now, Eli was very old.” How old? Very old. You look at him and you say, now this isn’t just your usual old. This is very, very old. Alright.

He kept hearing that his sons were doing evil. He kept hearing all his sons were doing to all Israel. That’s as comprehensive of a statement as you can get. This is just depravity, it’s corruption, it is sensuality how they lay with women who were serving at the entrance to the tender meeting. So they were robbing the Lord of his offering and they were robbing the Lord of the dignity of his worship and they were robbing the Lord of his law, violating his law. Horrifying sin known to the public. And he said to them, remember this is Eli speaking to his sons: “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people. No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad. If someone sins against the Lord, God will…” Hold on… What’s he going to say? What have we been singing?

If Christ is the promise, do we not see him here? “If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” Okay, do you not see it? Do we not see it? We don’t need merely a mediator for sins against each other. We need a mediator for sins against the Lord. Eli cannot even see such a mediator. We’ve just been singing his praises.

As for the sons, “they would not listen to the voice of their father,” Then notice the next words in the sovereignty of God, “for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death.”

Verse 26: “Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man.” Do you not hear it? Jesus grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. Well, you know what happens in verses 27 and following it is the rejection of Eli’s household. It is the absolute condemnation of the priestly family of Eli, such that it shall be wiped out. It’s just horrifying. Just for one thing, imagine here at Shiloh, how is it that things could go so badly? So quickly? How is it that things can fall apart so comprehensively?

This is the way sin works. It’s the particular catastrophic nature of sin when we’re talking about the priest of God and we’re talking about his sons.

Okay, now notice the promise of the Lord. We can’t miss this. Look at chapter two and look at verse 35. And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind, and I will build him a sure house and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. That’s Samuel, right? Wrong. That is not Samuel. Hold that thought.

But go ahead and go to verse one of chapter three, back to the scene, back to Samuel: “Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli.” Okay, so Samuel is growing up. We’ve been told that two or three different ways. And at least in the context of the narrative and with the facts we’re given, we need to reconstruct just a little bit, because it matters how old Samuel is, right?

I mean, it’s you’re not going to have a 4-year-old prophet of the Lord. Now you may have one who thinks he is in your house, but that is not what’s happening. And we know he was brought so early that Eli had to tell Hannah that she had to wean him first. But he’s been growing in wisdom and in stature and in favor. He’s now ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli.

The condemnation against not only Eli’s sons but against Eli for the behavior of his sons and the desecration of the priesthood. That all sets up the promise of a priest to come. And then all of a sudden the scene shifts back. And Samuel, who is still identified as the boy, the youth, was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli.

At two or three points in this passage, indeed, at least a couple of points within chapter three, there’s a fast forwarding. Time is compressed and all of a sudden there’s a leap of years. This happens here. It’ll happen at the end of the chapter as well. And now Samuel is evidently old enough that he is ministering on his own on behalf of Eli ministering to the Lord in the temple. The scene says Now to Samuel, the scene is not primarily on Eli and his depraved sons, it’s on Samuel. But notice how the context is set. Just don’t miss this. Look at verse one: “Now, the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” In the Old Testament, one of the key indicators of divine judgment is that the word of the Lord becomes rare. The word of the Lord becomes scarce. The word of the Lord is not heard in the land. It is an indictment of the people, but it is also a sign of the judgment of God. It’s an indictment of the people because they no longer deserve to hear the word of the Lord. And the Lord has withdrawn himself and the Lord has withdrawn his word.

The word is scarce. It’s rare in those days. But notice the next line. There was no frequent vision. Without a vision, my people will perish. So the absence of the word and the absence of the vision, this becomes the indictment of the people and a sign of God’s judgment upon them. Here at Shiloh, God’s judgment is falling upon the people of Israel because they no longer hear him and they no longer see his visions. And who do they have as their priest, Eli? And what’s the next thing we are told about Eli? His eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see.

The word of the Lord is rare. There is no frequent vision and the priest is blind. Okay, so you notice the dissent, God’s judgment. It’s just showing this is the way sin works. This is the way God’s judgment works. Things go from bad to worse to worst imaginable and then go beyond worst imaginable. But you also notice that in the literary structure of this book, the Lord is giving us a mixture of judgment and hope, a mixture of temporal references, past, present and future. Past, present, and future for Eli. Past, present, and future for Samuel. And yet Eli’s got a very short future. Samuel has a very long future. And when we go back to him, he is still a youth. He’s still a boy.

And then you look at this and you see the brilliance of what the Lord gives us in this text. Look again, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. “There was no frequent vision. At that time, Eli whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place.” And then look at the next verse. Look at verse three: “The lamp of God had not yet gone out.”

This is just incredible poetry. You see, sight and blindness, light, darkness. But in this context, the reference to the lamp of the Lord has to do with the time of the night. This means that the light had not yet dawned. And so in the service of the Lord, this lamp of the Lord is still shining. It is the light and the Lord calls to Samuel.

How did the Lord call to Samuel? We don’t know. We don’t know. Did the Lord cry out “Samuel?” We don’t know, but it had to be something like that because Samuel thinks it’s Eli. And what else would Samuel will think? What else would Samuel think? And so he does what he evidently did when he heard Eli’s voice, he went to attend to him. And you’ll notice the instantaneous obedience. You just have this picture of instantaneous obedience.

Samuel thinks he hears from Eli, so he leaps into action and goes to Eli. But what he finds is an old blind sleeping priest who tells him “I did not call; lie down again. So he went and lay down” and verse six: “And the Lord called again ‘Samuel!’” So now we know it. He said, “’ Samuel!’ and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call my son. Lie down again.’”

Okay, now look at verse seven. It’s a bomb. It is one of those things that’s about to go off. We read over it. It’s shocking: “Now, Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” Now what sense does it make that Samuel doesn’t yet know the Lord? What sense does that make? He’s ministering to the Lord. The text has repeatedly told us that he’s ministering to the Lord. He’s ministering to the Lord in the service of Eli, the priest. He’s there with the priest. He is a picture of perfect obedience, at this point, of covenantal faithfulness. At this point he is ministering to the Lord. And so it’s not just to Eli. We’ve already been told he’s been ministering to the Lord. How can it be said that he does not yet know the Lord?

Well, this is a problem with our language, even our religious language. We say, do you know the Lord? We don’t mean, “Have you heard of him?” We mean “Do you know him?” J.I Packer’s famous devotional work Knowing God. It is not about first and foremost knowing of him. It is a personal relationship knowing him. The distinction in this passage is that knowing the Lord in this sense means, I don’t even know what verb I can use here, it means somehow by God’s grace being given the favor of hearing the voice of God. Once Samuel hears God’s voice, he knows the Lord in an entirely different way because the Lord speaks to those whom he chooses. He chooses to speak to them and now they know him.

Okay, I spent some time looking at the background so you will notice something. And this is shocking to us. When you look at this verse, you see verse seven: “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” And you say, well, that’s the same thing that was said of Eli’s worthless sons. Look at chapter two verse 12: “Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.’ Same thing, right? They didn’t know the Lord. Samuel didn’t know the Lord. It’s the same thing. No, it’s not. There’s one word, there’s one different word for Samuel has said. He did not yet know the Lord. He didn’t yet know the Lord. And then notice the next phrase. The Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Oh my goodness, what a difference yet makes. It’s all the difference for eternity. The sons of Eli, these worthless men, they did not know the Lord. But for Samuel, he did not know the Lord yet. They did not hear from the Lord. But Samuel will hear from the Lord and the Lord will call him, that second call, by his name.

You look at this and you say, well, okay, let me just say it is one of the signs to me of the absolute perfection and inerrancy, infallibility and inspiration of the word of God. I think only the Lord could insert “yet” in such a way to make the contrast, if we will catch it, all the more explosive. The world is divided, you might say all of humanity is divided between those who do not know the Lord and those who do not know the Lord yet. Our story as Christians is that there once was a time when we did not know the Lord. And then there was a turning, a metanoia, a repentance, a knowledge, a faith, a gift. And it came to us in such a way that we did not know the Lord at this point yet.

And on this other side of that “yet” is salvation and all that God has promised. And on the other side of that “yet” is an absolute dependence upon the word of the Lord. And you say, well, Samuel is in a privileged position here and he’s in a privileged position because he hears directly from the Lord. No brothers and sisters, we are in the privileged position because we hear from the Lord every time we open this book. We have the Scriptures. You can say of the disciples how privileged they were to hear Jesus speak these words. But we are in a privileged position as the church of the Lord Jesus Christ because we have the word of God for us as individuals is for Christians and as for the church, all the distinction is between the not knowing the Lord and not knowing the Lord yet. And our missions and evangelism is entirely premised upon the fact that we are preaching the gospel because there are so many who do not know the Lord yet.

But there’s more in the text. Samuel is called a third time, and the third time Eli perceives something. So remember here in the context, Eli is old, he’s frail, he’s incompetent, and he’s blind, but he’s not done. In chapter two, Eli is presented as a pathetic failure as a father. But I just want us to notice by the mercy of God, he is not presented as a pathetic failure as a priest in chapter three. There’s still something of dignity and service and devotion left in Eli. He still knows what it means that God speaks. He also knows, he must know the Lord is not going to speak to him again.

But on this third call, when Samuel runs to him in service, he says, I’m not calling you son, it’s the Lord. And then notice his instruction, he says, he says, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say,” he gives him the word, “’Speak Lord for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and laid down in his place and of course the Lord came and stood calling out as at another time. So this is a vision of the Lord. So just catch this. Remember the first verse told us that the word of the Lord was scarce and the visions were infrequent. Well, here’s both at once. Both at once.

“The Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant hears.’” That’s what he was told to say. “Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Behold,’” shat is he going to say? “’I’m about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.’” Don’t you love that? I’m going to do something so that even speaking about it will make your ears move. “’On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.’”

Okay. I just want to tell you there’s more going on there than we see at first. There’s a lot more going on there than we know. There’s a lot more going on there than most Christians ever see. It’s right here in the text. God is speaking, he appears and he speaks to Samuel, and Samuel is given a message for another. Okay. At the end of this chapter, Samuel is going to be described as a prophet, but here he is already commissioned as a prophet who speaks for God. He is told what he is to say, and it is Eli who does not receive the prophecy directly from God. Eli is going to receive this horrifying prophecy through God’s prophet: Samuel, a boy.

The strangest part of the text to me is verse 15, “Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord.” How exactly do you go back to bed after that? The Lord spoke to him. The Lord appeared to him. The Lord basically makes of him instantaneously a prophet gives him a horrifying message of doom. You’ll notice it says he lay until morning. It doesn’t say he slept. Okay, so he does what he’s supposed to do. He opens the house of the Lord, he opens the doors of the house. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. You can understand that. But here is his prophetic role is demonstrated in an unusual way because it is Eli who senses that the Lord has spoken to Samuel and the message, the message must be for himself. And that’s made clear in the way he implores Samuel to tell him.

“’Samuel,’” he says, “’here I am.’ And he said, ‘What was it that the Lord told you?’” Remember Eli’s in his bed as well, and he knows the Lord is speaking to Samuel. What is the Lord telling him? Those were two interesting figures who lay in bed until morning. “Don’t hold anything back. May the Lord do to you and more if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” And then look at the next verse: “So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.” And he said, what is this old priest going to say? Eli says, “’It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.’”

What a figure, Eli… Complete failure as a father. And by the way, complete failure as a priest in restraining his sons and correcting his sons because his responsibility as a priest is to produce priests in his sons. He’s utterly failed to do that. He’s not producing priests. He’s producing God, robbing, adulterating, well, just horrifying, worthless men. And retrospectively that means that Eli is fairly worthless in terms of his role, but not completely worthless, not completely worthless. There’s still dignity in his role. For he is the priest of the Lord. There’s still dignity in his role and he still knows the Lord to the extent that he knows what he must say. It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.

And then in verse 19, another fast forwarding that comes at this point, the chapter comes to a close. And by the way, Samuel’s going to disappear for a couple of chapters thereafter. “And Samuel grew and the Lord was with him am and let none of his words fall to the ground.”

Okay. That verse is what captivates me most of all. This is a massive chapter. It takes some time to figure it out. But what it is said here of Samuel, “The Lord let none of his words fall to the ground” You know, brothers and sisters, I’m horrified by the thought that an awful lot of my words have fallen to the ground.

An awful lot of my words have fallen into the ground. I have said stupid stuff. I have said frivolous stuff. I have spoken words in frustration and in anger. I mean I’m 65 years old in a couple of days, I got 65 years of stupid stuff. An awful lot of stuff has fallen to the ground. But you know what? When the Lord allows me to preach his word, none of it falls to the ground. So I think of preaching here and I can’t help but think of preaching. And what I want to say to preachers is, whatever you say that’s not in the service of the word of God is going to fall to the ground.

If you take sermons and you figure out how much of this is going to last, well, what’s going to last is the Scripture. You’re not capable of saying anything that’s going to last. It’s all going to fall to the ground. So preach the word in season and out of season because everything else is going to end up in the dust. I want to say this not just to preachers, but to all of us who hear preaching. How should we listen to a sermon? We should listen to a sermon in order to hear the word of the Lord, and then we should let everything else fall to the ground.

We should be listening for the word of the Lord. We should be listening for the voice of God. If you hear something else, let it fall to the ground. Eli here is contrasted with Samuel, but it’s not just that because Eli is a priest, but Samuel was here, made a prophet. He’s a lad, he’s a boy, he’s a youth. And we don’t know how much time is compressed into these final verses. “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.”

How do they know that? Evidently, it was his compelling voice of the Lord as he shared God’s word, and God spoke through him that established him as a prophet. But here’s the interesting thing. He’s the first. They didn’t say of Samuel here comes another one, he is number one. “All Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.”

Thus, Israel survives. Israel only survives because God’s people only survive because the word is not withheld. The Lord appears again at Shiloh. The Lord reveals himself again to his people. But you’ll notice there’s a mediatorial role here. There’s a prophetic role here because what we’re told actually in verse 21 is that “the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.” As we close, it’s another, at least to our ears, strange construction. That last phrase, well, evidently it’s absolutely necessary, “the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.”

You want a vision? Read the Bible. You want a word? Turn to the Scriptures. How does God speak? Even through his prophet by his word. Brothers and sisters, let’s live on it. Let’s pray: Our Father, we thank you for every word. We live on, every word of Scripture. Father, we pray that to your glory you will draw us into your word, you will train us to hear your word, you will train us to let every other word fall to the ground because your promises your word will never fall to the ground. Father, thank you for your servant, Samuel, from whom we learn so much. May we also grow in grace to your glory. Amen.