See the Big Picture. Dig In. Live It Out: A 5-Day Reading Plan in 1 SamuelSýnishorn

The Big Picture

The shrine of Yahweh, the “Tent of Meeting,” resided at Shiloh. This was at the end of the period of the judges, which, as the book of Judges tells us, was a highly decadent time. Israel disregarded God’s commands against idolatry and fell into what may be fairly called moral anarchy. This probably explains the statement in verse 1, “In those days the word of the Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.” There were very few genuine prophets of God, and the priests, as is apparent from the behavior of Eli’s sons, were thoroughly corrupt. There was a great gulf between the people and God, and for that reason, God rarely gave them any messages. 

This is not to say that there were none at all. We saw in 1 Samuel 2:27–36 that a “man of God” came to Eli and pronounced a prophecy of judgment against his house. We should not assume, however, that this event took place while the boy Samuel was serving in the Tent. Eli was already very old by the time Samuel came to serve him, and Eli’s sons were well into adulthood. As such, the message from the anonymous prophet of 2:27–36 could have arrived some twenty years before God spoke to Samuel. For all we know, from the time of the anonymous prophet’s message to Eli until God spoke to Samuel, God may have sent Israel no messages at all. But Samuel, like his mother Hannah, faithfully served Yahweh. So, it was to this young man that God began again to speak.

Digging In

In verse 2, Eli was lying down in his sleeping chamber, indicating that it was night. It is surprising that the narrative tells us that his eyesight was very poor; he was probably what we would call legally blind. We are probably to understand from this that Eli had become heavily dependent upon Samuel. For this reason, Samuel had become very alert to any call from Eli and was now a light sleeper, with his ears open to any summons from his master. 

It is especially surprising that Samuel slept inside the sanctuary of the Tent of Meeting. The Tent (and later, the temple) was divided into two main chambers, a front room called the “holy place” (which contained a table for making bread offerings, an altar for burning incense, and the menorah), and a backroom called the “most holy place” (which contained the ark of the covenant). Verse 3 probably means that Samuel slept in the outer chamber, the “holy place” (the clause “where the ark of God was located” describes the entire sanctuary, not the room in which Samuel slept). But even the “holy place” was most sacred; it was where priests performed their rituals of worship. Possibly the main reason Samuel slept there was to tend the menorah, making sure that its lamps burned through the night (Exod. 27:20–21). Even so, it is odd that a servant would sleep in this holy chamber. This may be another example of how careless the priests had become about matters of holiness. In the next chapter, we see that the ark was taken out to a battle, something that should never have happened, and so it is clear that the priests were not scrupulously observant about such things. On the other hand, it was perhaps appropriate that Samuel was in the sanctuary when he heard God’s voice. 

The point that the lamp had not yet gone out probably means, on a simple, literal level, that the event took place shortly before dawn (the lamps of the menorah were kept burning from dusk to dawn).

Metaphorically, it may imply that although many people, including the priestly leadership, were without God’s light (symbolized by Eli’s blindness), there were still some who remained faithful to God, such as Samuel. 

The Bible relates, in close detail, God’s call of Samuel, repeatedly telling how God called Samuel and how Samuel ran to Eli but was told to go back to bed. Besides being a great narrative, this makes the point that God persistently and patiently called Samuel until he got an answer. The very first message Samuel received was a prophecy, a reaffirmation of the word given by the anonymous prophet of chapter 2. This tells the reader that the boy Samuel is now God’s prophet. Many years later, God would call the boy Jeremiah to be a prophet (Jer. 1:6–7; Jeremiah was from Anathoth, close to Samuel’s hometown of Ramah, and like Samuel, he prophesied in a time of upheaval and destruction). 

The prophecy affirmed that Eli’s family was about to fall from a terrible disaster. Because they had not repented, sacrifices would do them no good. For us, similarly, claims that we have faith in God and the gospel are pointless if we refuse to turn from our sin. Eli, however, is truly a tragic figure. He was not a godless reprobate, as his sons were, and he bravely faced and graciously received God’s judgment against him. His sins were not sins of commission (he did not participate in the depravity of his sons), they were sins of omission (he did not expel his sons from priestly service). He was a true worshiper of Yahweh, but his failure to defrock his sons was an affront to God. 

Inevitably, Samuel’s prophecy came to the attention of “all Israel” (1 Sam. 4:1a). Eli’s sons had publicly disgraced the priesthood, and the denunciation of Eli’s house was equally public. The public then waited to see if Samuel’s words would come true. This would fix in the minds of the people the reputation of both Samuel as God’s prophet and of Eli’s family line as repudiated by God.

Living It Out

No one lives in an ideal environment. The world seems to get more corrupt every day, and the church is filled with hypocrisy. But our generation is not unique. From the time Moses led the grumbling Israelites out of Egypt to Jesus’s confrontation with the moneychangers in the temple and unto the present day, evil has always been with us and indeed has been dominant in one form or another. But even in such times, God seeks out people who fear him. Samuel served under a high priest who, through his failures, lost the stewardship of the temple and witnessed the depravity of Eli’s sons every day. In his time, messages from God had become so rare he seemed to have abandoned his people. But God spoke to Samuel. For us, the lesson is obvious. We are to live as lights in a dark and perverse generation, even if we see that darkness inside the church sanctuary. Humility, obedience, integrity, and service are still traits that God seeks out. We may not audibly hear God’s voice, but he will guide us in his service if we are ready servants.