1 Samuel 3:1-20
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 Lordwas 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.
Welcome to Getting ready for Sunday, a podcast of first Lutheran Church. Each week I introduced the readings for the upcoming Sunday with some notes and explanation so you can be ready for worship when you arrive. I look at the Old Testament, Psalm epistle and Gospel reading for the upcoming Sunday and offer a few notes and explanation. The Old Testament reading for Sunday, January 14, is First Samuel chapter three, verses one through 20.
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Ely. 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, were 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 rose 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. Here's. 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. Here's.
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 Leigh 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, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.
So Samuel told him everything, and he had 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. He runs the reading.
This is a rather famous reading from the book of First Samuel, often called the call of Samuel. So the young man, Samuel, the lad, probably, you know, 13 ish, was ministering to the Lord. And it says that there was no frequent vision. So this would have been a time in the history of God's people when there wasn't a prophet or an ongoing revelation of God coming to the people. Something that happened occasionally throughout the history of Israel. Eli was the high priest who was taking care of the temple. Excuse me, not the temple, it was the tabernacle. And Samuel would have been given to him by his mother when he was old enough to be raised in the temple.
So Samuel, He lives down and goes to sleep. And he hears the voice of God. Three times he runs to Eli and says, Here I am for you called me. And Eli says, No, I didn't call you. I can imagine that the second time. Eli might have been a little grumpy, having been waked up woken up in the middle of the night. But the third time he realizes something is up. So he says,
Go lie down. And if he calls to you say, speak, Lord for your servant hears.
So Eli, no
What's going on? He realizes after the third time that the voice had called for Samuel that something was happening. Samuel was not hearing things. Nobody was playing a trick. It must be God.
So it happens. Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel says, Speak for your servant hears. And here are the words of the prophecy that Samuel gets for the very first time. 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 declared 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.
Yikes.
This is not often where the reading ends. This is actually an optional part of the reading. Very often, the reading for this Sunday ends at verse 10. Where it goes, Samuel, Samuel, and Samuel says, Speak for your servant. Here's.
And that's much more fun, isn't it? You get you imagine the boy Samuel, he hears the Word of God, and He shall think, yes, I get to hear from God isn't this wonderful. And then we end the reading, and we can think it is wonderful and cute and be done.
But that's not where it ends, right? A prophet is not someone who hears from God. A prophet is someone who hears from God and speaks the message.
And Samuel gets one that will make everyone's ears tingle, their spines will shiver, when they hear about what happens to Eli, the high priest,
his house and his family will be destroyed, punished. That's because Eli, the bad father is allowing his sons, the priests, to use their offices for their own good to abuse the tabernacle to steal from the people. And he's not putting a stop to it. That is what it says when his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.
And God looks at his tabernacle, and his high priest, and he knows that something needs to be done.
And this poor boy, Samuel is the one who has to share this message.
Think about it. Samuel had been raised by Eli from right after he was able to be separated from his mother. He had lived in the tabernacle with Eli helped out all this time, worked with him taking care of him doted over him. And when Eli's became blind, he served him. And now he has this message.
And best of all, he can't hide it from Eli, because Eli wakes up Samuel, and he's like, tell me what the Lord said to you. And you better not hide a thing. He threatens him. He says, May God do so to you? And more. Also, if you hide anything from me of all he told you.
So Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him.
And here's something that I think we often overlook in this story, this little saying, and Eli said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.
There's a lot going on in this little passage. I think one is it shows that Eli is still a faithful follower of Israel. Yeah, he screwed up. He's a high priest, and he failed in his duties. But he still accepts God's judgment on him.
He still says it's the Lord. He knows what he's doing. He'll do what's right. And so he just takes it. And there's a there's a level of faith in there that just says, Okay.
And the other thing I think is Eli knows that God is right.
I'm sure that Eli has spent a lot of time like stressing out about his sons like wondering how did they fall so far from the tree? Why were they so evil and using their position as priests of God to extort from the people and do horrible things and blaspheme against God? He's like, didn't I raise them? Right?
Well,
he knows that God is punishing him justly. It's very simple. And I think that's going on here.
What's interesting, I think about this story, is that this one
What is halfway through the story, a very cute, loving, classic Christian story, the kind of story that you put in children's bibles to be like, yes, the children too can hear from God
flips into a judgement story, that being a prophet of God is not always fun and good news. Sometimes it's judgment. And so what we hear there, I think, is a
thing that we often have as Christians, as we sometimes leave out half the story of God's message to the world. We like to talk about Jesus's love. We locked it like to talk about his sacrifice. But we don't talk about his judgment. We don't talk about his law.
And what that means then, so often, we just get a whole bunch of saccharin sweetness. And everybody just miss it, that God is going to come and break judgment on the world, that all who are in Christ will be saved and all who are not will be condemned. The Gospel means nothing. Without without the law.
No one will flee from the coming judgment and turn to Christ for salvation. Unless they know the coming judgment is happening.
What we need to do is what Samuel did, tell, tell everything and hide nothing.
That's all we have for today. We'll see you on Sunday. Bye
Transcribed by https://otter.ai