1 Samuel 3:1–4:1a

Original Meaning

The Word of the Lord Was Rare (3:1)

EASILY LOST IN our familiarity with this narrative is the way the historian has framed the account with an emphasis on “the word” of Yahweh. The opening verse reminds us that Samuel is serving Yahweh under Eli’s tutelage. But there is no widespread prophetic ministry of “the word of the LORD” in those days.

To be more specific, the narrator informs us “there were not many visions” (3:1). The rarity of the prophetic word is of particular interest to our author, and this entire episode of Samuel’s call should be read in this light. Samuel receives a message related to Eli’s priesthood (3:11–14), but his calling has wider significance because it also initiates a new era in which God’s word is received and proclaimed. Under Moses and Joshua, God had spoken, and his word had led the nation, both in its great victories and through its miserable failures. But during the judges period, “all the people did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 21:25 NRSV). Now under Eli’s priesthood, the nation is languishing without an adequate prophetic ministry.

Our author—who may have been a prophet (see introduction)—has a special appreciation for the importance of living under the authority of Yahweh’s word. Without such direction, the nation (or any individual) will wander aimlessly and eventually fall into self-destructive behavior. The word of Yahweh is necessary if Israel is to survive this dangerous time. The author returns to this at the end of chapter 3 when he tells us that Samuel has matured into a “trustworthy” prophet (NIV “attested as a prophet”), whose words do not fall to the ground (i.e., they come true, 3:19–20). Furthermore, Yahweh continues to appear (“reveal himself”) to Samuel at Shiloh “through his word” (3:21). In this context, this episode is not simply about the end of Eli’s priesthood but about the beginning of Samuel’s prophetic leadership (“Samuel’s word came to all Israel,” 4:1a) and renewed communication between God and Israel.

The Word of the Lord Came to Samuel (3:2–14)

Bridging Contexts

TRUTHS ABOUT GOD’S WORD. The passage before us is about God’s call on the life of the boy Samuel and the effectual work of God’s revealed word. Israel had been without Yahweh’s preserving and rejuvenating word for some time (“the word of the LORD was rare,” 3:1). But with this episode, God is once again revealing his word through Samuel with good effect (3:21). The work of Yahweh’s word occurs on several levels in this chapter, since it has a transforming effect in Samuel’s young life and an informing consequence in Eli’s. The passage presents at least three timeless truths for us to consider.

(1) God’s Word is true and certain, presenting undeniable parameters in which life must be lived and enjoyed. The word for Eli, through the new prophetic role of Samuel, is a message of certain doom (3:11–14). In the message revealed about Eli, the Lord emphasizes that he will certainly carry out his judgment against the hapless priestly family “from beginning to end” (3:12). The prophetic word in the Old Testament is certain and sure, whether for good or ill. The Lord is free to change his course of direction according to the response of the people; genuine repentance leads to certain forgiveness while persistent sin leads to inescapable judgment (Jer. 18:1–10). But God is the one who sets the standard, and his Word announces the verdict. Either way, the Word of the Lord is true and will certainly find fruition in the lives of those for whom it is intended.

The Old Testament is clear that God’s Word is eternal, unlike ephemeral things of this life (“the word of our God stands forever,” Isa. 40:8). Jesus equates his message with the eternal significance of the Old Testament Word of Yahweh: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Luke 21:33; cf. Matt. 5:17–18). Without doubt, believers today can rest assured that God’s Word is still active as a warning for those who consistently reject his grace and as a comfort for those who hear his call.

(2) God’s Word represents a claim on individual lives, calling us to service and submission. This passage is not only about God’s condemnation of Eli’s house but also about God’s call for Samuel to serve in a new prophetic ministry. The author writes in order to legitimate Samuel as the new leadership, while delegitimating the old. In 3:9–10, Eli patiently instructs Samuel on how to respond to God’s call, and Samuel is totally dependent on Eli. But in 3:17–18, the roles are reversed. Now Samuel informs Eli of God’s message, and Eli is dependent on Samuel to learn that word.8 Sometimes a new beginning requires the end of an old way.

Samuel has entered into a new relationship with God and has learned a new service. He has been accustomed to his priestly responsibilities, but now he serves also as prophet. The text illustrates the work of God’s Word in summoning his people to submission to his will and way. It is about hearing the divine call and answering, “Here I am.” Like Samuel, many contemporary Christians must hear the call and enter into a new relationship with God, a relationship committed to proclaiming the Word to the world. The text of 1 Samuel 3 is meant to arouse us out of our lethargy, as it aroused Samuel from his early-morning sleep. Let our answer be like his: “Here I am!”

(3) God’s Word has a renewing and transforming force for all who respond to his call. The powerful spoken word of Yahweh in this passage transforms Samuel. At the beginning, he is a young intern priest who does not know the Lord or the Lord’s ways with humankind. He is unaware of God’s voice or call and seems naive about Eli’s leadership. But at the end of the chapter, he is a bold prophet announcing Yahweh’s intentions to the elder priest. He has become the regular means of prophetic revelation and is widely recognized in Israel as God’s authorized spokesman. Yahweh is with Samuel as he matures, and he continues to reveal himself to Samuel “through his word” (3:19–21).

Israel recognizes the importance of the transforming and saving work of God’s Word. The Old Testament prophets understood their ministry as a proclamation of his redemptive Word to the nation (Isa. 6:5–7; 40:6–9; Jer. 1:9–10; Ezek. 2:8–3:4; Amos 7:14–16). The eighth-century prophet Amos portrays the great day of Yahweh’s judgment as one in which the life-giving and transforming Word of Yahweh will be withdrawn. There will be a famine in the land—not a famine of bread or water but of hearing the words of Yahweh. The people will be left to wander from sea to sea, seeking a word of Yahweh, but they will not find it (Amos 8:11–12). Nothing is more terrifying because without Yahweh’s transforming Word, there is no hope.9

Contemporary Significance

TO INFORM AND to form. God speaks to his people of every generation. He does not often speak audibly, as he does here to the young Samuel. But he continues to speak clearly through his written Word to all who will listen.

In God’s appearance to Samuel, his Word functions in two ways: God speaks both to inform and to invite. His revelation to Samuel informs the young prophet of his intentions regarding the house of Eli. But God’s “Samuel! Samuel!” is also an invitation to enter into a new, deeper relationship with him. While Samuel did not know God prior to this point (3:7), henceforth he will.

The Bible pictures God’s Word with this twofold character throughout.10 As ancient kings spoke for two purposes, to enact laws and to link themselves to their people, so God’s Word in the Bible refers to things around us, but it also relates to us directly. He speaks both to inform us and to form us, both for information and for formation. As Creator God, his words come as sovereign fiat (“let there be …”). But he also speaks royal Torah, or righteous instruction, in order to bring us to himself. J. I. Packer has summarized the twofold nature of the Word of God as follows:

God, our Maker, knows all about us before we say anything (Ps. 139:1–4); but we can know nothing about Him unless He tells us. Here, therefore, is a further reason why God speaks to us: not only to move us to do what He wants, but to enable us to know Him so that we may love Him. Therefore God sends His word to us in the character of both information and invitation. It comes to woo us as well as to instruct us; it not merely puts us in the picture of what God has done and is doing, but also calls us into personal communion with the loving Lord Himself.11

The Word that God addresses to contemporary believers is both an instrument of government, whereby he informs us how we ought to live, and also a means of fellowship, whereby he invites us into personal relationship with him.

One of the greatest modern illustrations I have found of this inviting and transforming power of God’s Word is the life of the philosopher Emile Cailliet. He was born in a small village in France near the end of the nineteenth century.12 His early education was committed to naturalism, leaving no room for God or supernatural intervention in human affairs. But his naturalistically inspired studies in philosophy proved of little help during front-line experiences as a lad of twenty in World War I. Confronted with the horrors of war, he asked:

What use, the ill-kept ancient type of sophistry in the philosophic banter of the seminar, when your own buddy—at the time speaking to you of his mother—dies standing in front of you, a bullet in his chest? Was there a meaning to it all? A [person] can endure anything if only it appears meaningful. But what of the caprices of Fate, what of random killing, of senseless ordeal? Deep in the mud during long winter nights when silent knives became arms of predilection on both sides, I wondered. By then, my thinking had no longer anything to do with philosophy taken for the sake of a qualifying exam…. I too felt, not with my reason but with my whole being, that I was naked and—war or no war—destined to perish miserably when the hour came.13

The impact of the naturalistic presuppositions Emile had absorbed proved one of utter pessimism. “The moment came when I was overwhelmed by the inadequacy of my views. What could be done about it? I did not know. Who was I, anyway? Nay, what was I? These fundamental questions of human existence remained unanswered.”14

One night a bullet found Cailliet, too. An American field ambulance crew saved his life, and after a nine-month hospital stay, he was discharged and resumed his graduate studies. But he had to admit that the books no longer seemed like the same books, nor was his motivation the same. Reading at length in philosophy and literature, he found himself probing in depth for meaning. He testifies:

During long night watches in the foxholes I had in a strange way been longing—I must say it, however queer it may sound—for a book that would understand me. But I knew of no such book. Now I would in secret prepare one for my own private use. And so, as I went on reading for my courses I would file passages that would speak to my condition, then carefully copy them in a leather-bound pocket book I would always carry with me. The quotations, which I numbered in red ink for easier reference, would lead me as it were from fear and anguish, through a variety of intervening stages, to supreme utterances of release and jubilation.15

At last, the day came when he put the finishing touches on, as he said it, “the book that would understand me.” He describes a beautiful, sunny day, in which he sat under a tree and opened his precious anthology. As he read, however, he was overcome by a growing disappointment. Instead of speaking to his condition as he expected, the passages only reminded him of their context, of the circumstances of his labor over their selection. Then, Cailliet says, he knew that the whole undertaking would not work, simply because it was of his own making. It carried no strength of persuasion. In a dejected mood, he put the little book back into his pocket.

On that same day, Cailliet’s wife had come into the possession of a Bible by extraordinary circumstances. Emile had always been adamant that religion would be taboo in their home, and at the age of twenty-three he had never even seen a Bible. But at the end of that disappointing day, when she apologetically tried to explain how she had providentially (as he would later realize!) picked up a copy of the Bible, he was eager to see it. He describes what happened next:

I literally grabbed the book and rushed to my study with it. I opened it and “chanced” upon the Beatitudes! I read, and read, and read—now aloud with an indescribable warmth surging within…. I could not find words to express my awe and wonder. And suddenly the realization dawned upon me: This was the Book that would understand me! I needed it so much, yet, unaware, I had attempted to write my own—in vain. I continued to read deeply into the night, mostly from the gospels. And lo and behold, as I looked through them, the One of whom they spoke, the One who spoke and acted in them, became alive in me.16

Cailliet goes on to explain that the circumstances in which the Bible had found him were undeniable. While it seemed absurd to speak of a book understanding a man, this could be said of the Bible because its pages were animated by the presence of the living God and the power of his mighty acts. To that God, Cailliet prayed that night, and the God who answered was the same God of whom it was spoken in the Bible.

When I heard recently a similar incident involving a young couple in Germany, it made me marvel again at the transforming power of God’s Word. I have a friend who is the pastor of a church in Bietigheim, Germany, near Stuttgart. He related to me the story of a Chinese man named Xiao-Hu Huang, who together with his German wife, Kirstin, live near Stuttgart. He was Buddhist and she was an unbeliever. She went into a bookshop in search of a book in Chinese as a special birthday gift for him. The only Chinese book available was a Chinese translation of the Bible. Reluctantly, she purchased it for him, hoping it would nonetheless show the special thought she had given to his birthday.

At first, Xiao-Hu was not happy. But as he began to read, he was gradually persuaded of the truth contained in these pages. He began to speak to Kirstin about his new perspective, and this time she became angry. This was, after all, her cultural heritage, and she had chosen to reject it. The differences in opinion led to open conflict in their marriage. So Kirstin began to read the Bible too, not to understand her husband’s new faith but in order to refute his new beliefs. In the process, she also became persuaded of the truth of the message in God’s Word. They both began to grow in their Christian faith simply by studying the Bible. But they soon realized they needed the support of other believers. In 1996, they were both baptized in the Freie Christen Gemeinde, Bietigheim, where they continue as faithful disciples of Christ.

Such power and authority has led Christian thinkers through the ages to pursue the truths of God’s Word with unrestrained vigor. John Wesley longed to learn God’s truth with single-minded focus:

I am a spirit come from God and returning to God; just hovering over the great gulf, till a few moments hence I am no more seen—I drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing, the way to heaven—how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way: for this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God! I have it. Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri [“a man of one book”].17

The lessons of Samuel and Eli will continue to unfold in the spellbinding narratives of 1 Samuel. As they do, we do well to remember the tragic consequences of God’s Word against Eli and the transforming power of that Word in Samuel.

Original Meaning

The Word of the Lord Came to Samuel (3:2–14)

THE OPENING CHAPTERS of 1 Samuel appear to presuppose a semipermanent structure built around the ancient tabernacle.1 If it were similar to the later temple complex in Jerusalem, it would have included rooms or apartments as part of its outer court for the priests’ quarters. The reference to Samuel’s sleeping in the temple near the ark of the covenant does not mean he is actually sleeping in the Most Holy Place, only that he has a room with the priests, presumably adjacent or near Eli’s quarters.2 This arrangement is in case the infirm Eli (“he could barely see,” 3:2) needs the youth during the night. Thus, when Samuel hears a voice, it is only natural for him to expect that Eli needs something urgently. The fact that the lamp of God has not yet gone out indicates that the call comes in the early morning hours, just before the oil is gone (cf. Ex. 27:21).

Yahweh’s call of Samuel is narrated in 3:4–10, and the divine message conveyed to the prophet-in-the-making in 3:11–14. The call itself is the cherished picture of the young Samuel who responds to Yahweh (and Eli) in childlike fashion. But the message of doom delivered as part of the theophany is not childlike or endearing.

Samuel’s recurring self-announcement (“Here I am; you called me”) is the expression of those who volunteer themselves for service. He is placing himself at the disposal, at the beck and call, of his master. Samuel is willing to serve, but he is confused about the identity of the one calling him. The single Hebrew word translated “Here I am” (hinneni, 3:4) can be a common greeting, but it is often a more subtle indication that a servant hears and obeys. It is especially significant when someone hears and obeys the divine call (Gen. 22:1, 11; Ex. 3:4; Isa. 6:8).

Samuel is still inexperienced in the way of Yahweh (he “did not yet know the LORD,” 3:7). He has not yet experienced him in that way that leads to intimate and lasting relationship with God, which relationship will eventually make Samuel a great prophet: “The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him” (3:7; cf. 3:19–21). That is about to change. His willingness to serve, together with his holy parentage and his childlike acceptance of religious instruction, prepares Samuel to experience Yahweh in a new way. His lack of knowledge of Yahweh leads to confusion in this moment of call, but eventually Eli, a man who at some point in his past understood and appreciated the ways of Yahweh, discerns that it is God who is calling the youth (3:8). Samuel is about to enter into this new experience with Yahweh, a relationship that Eli’s sons never had: “They had no regard [i.e., did not know] the LORD” (2:12).

After calling Samuel three times, Yahweh now “came and stood there” (3:10). Apparently Samuel is now receiving not only a word but also a vision, significant because we have been told that both word and vision were rare in those days (3:1). The call of Samuel thus far has been an idyllic, childlike exchange. But when Yahweh reveals the message to Samuel (3:11–14), it is anything but idyllic or childlike.3 In the Old Testament, ears “tingle” when people receive news of approaching punishment (2 Kings 21:12; Jer. 19:3). Yahweh informs Samuel that he is about to fulfill his word spoken through the anonymous “man of God” regarding the end of Eli’s priesthood (2:27–36). There is no turning back now (“The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering,” 3:14).

Samuel the Prophet (3:15–4:1a)