God Who Calls Samuel
Conversation between people begins with calling the other person. A friend calls a friend’s name, a parent calls a child’s name, and so a conversation begins. Among these calls is also the voice of God, who calls his children in a still small voice. When a person calls, we can answer at once, but God’s still small voice can be heard only with the spirit, so we must always stay spiritually awake. God called Noah, Abraham, and Moses, and many prophets and disciples besides. The prophets and the other forefathers of faith came to understand God’s will through his still small voice and were able to live by faith, and they were able to walk the path of martyrdom boldly. But God’s still small voice is not a sound the human ear can hear, nor can it be heard simply because someone wants to hear it. It can be heard only when God opens our spiritual ears. It was with that still small voice that God called Samuel.
Verse 1 of the text calls Samuel a “child,” and the Jewish historian Josephus records that Samuel was twelve years old when he received God’s call. To minister to Yahweh before Eli means that Samuel was taking part in earnest in the duties of the priesthood under Eli’s supervision, serving in the temple. Even though Samuel took part in the sacrifices, he was still a young child, and Eli the priest had become corrupt, so all that time there was no one to hear God’s still small voice. That is why it was a time when God’s word was rare and visions were not often seen. It is the same today: there is a church in every building and pastors and believers are overflowing, yet God’s word is precious because few fully understand the truth. For however many believers there are, if they do not live according to God’s will, they have no ears to hear what God is saying.
Verse 2 of the text records that Eli’s eyes had grown dim so that he could not see well, and that rather than being in God’s temple, he was heavy and lying down in his place. Eli’s eyes were dim. This may mean that his physical eyes had weakened because he was old, but it also means that spiritually he was not in the light but in darkness. People of the flesh who say, “It is good for us to be here,” and cannot be zealous for God are all, like Eli, spiritually dim-eyed and heavy.
By contrast, Deuteronomy 34:7 records, “Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died. His eye was not dim, nor his strength gone.” Moses, who had received the law, could not enter Canaan, which foreshadows heaven. So at God’s command he went up Mount Nebo and had to die looking out over the land of Canaan from the top of Pisgah. Yet up to that time Moses’ eye was not dim and his body was strong. Even so, because God said his mission was now finished, he obeyed the Word and met his death in this world. Moses had to die because the one who was to lead the people into the land of Canaan could only be Joshua, who foreshadows Jesus. Hidden in this is a deep meaning: no one can enter heaven by the law Moses received, and only through Jesus Christ can we enter by the gate of life. Moses knew this will of God. That is why he could obey God’s command even with Canaan, the destination of his whole life, right before his eyes.
Pastors and believers who carry out God’s work must live like Moses. Only by living by faith until the moment they leave this world can they lead souls into Canaan. Right up to the last moment, Moses taught the people of Israel who God is and proclaimed what God’s will is. The words he did his utmost to teach them, about how the people of Israel must live once they entered Canaan, are all recorded in Deuteronomy.
But Eli did not do his utmost as Moses did. While the young Samuel was in Yahweh’s temple, where God’s lamp was burning, Eli lay in his own place, even though he was the priest who should have been carrying out that duty. This is the difference between the faith of Eli and the faith of Samuel. Eli the priest, Hophni, and Phinehas left the young Samuel in charge of the lamp that must never be allowed to go out, and neglected their own duties.
Leviticus 24:3
3Outside of the veil of the Testimony, in the Tent of Meeting, shall Aaron keep it in order from evening to morning before Yahweh continually: it shall be a statute forever throughout your generations.
This passage shows that Eli did not obey God’s command. Keeping the lamps in order was the priest’s duty of lighting the seven-branched lampstand every evening so that the holy place would not grow dark. God clearly commanded that Aaron the priest keep the lamps in order and tend them from evening to morning so that they would not go out. Yet while God’s lamp had not yet gone out, Eli, Hophni, and Phinehas left the young Samuel there alone and lay down, each in his own place. They should have been checking whether the oil had run low or the lamp had gone out, but they were sleeping for their own fleshly benefit. Though they had gone ahead in faith, they failed to set an example and lay down in idleness.
The parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25 shows why God’s children must stay awake. The ten virgins could have the wedding only once they had met the bridegroom, so they all lit their lamps and waited for him. The five wise virgins thought that if the bridegroom came late, they might run short of oil for their lamps, and they prepared extra oil in other vessels. They prepared ahead in case. But the five foolish virgins, thinking they had already filled their lamps with oil, never thought to prepare any extra. Thinking they had filled them with enough oil, they left their lamps burning and fell asleep when the bridegroom was delayed. At midnight there was a cry to come out and meet the bridegroom. When they woke, the oil in the lamps the ten virgins were holding had run low, and the lamps that had burned so brightly were going out. The five wise virgins, who had prepared extra oil, filled their lamps again so they would not go out and kept them burning, but the five foolish virgins, because of their complacency, could not meet the bridegroom. Had they considered carefully beforehand what they needed to do to meet the bridegroom joyfully when he came, all ten virgins would have known the joy of meeting him.
What the virgins waiting for the bridegroom had to do was to focus on keeping their lamps burning until the moment they met him, and to give it their all. Those who prepare halfheartedly and carelessly, as they see fit, will end up suffering the misfortune of being unable to meet the bridegroom even when he comes. In the same way, Eli should have been faithful to his office as priest with all his might. But he forgot how precious the office he held was. Because of that his soul dried up, and his spiritual eyes grew dim until he came to the point where he could no longer hear God’s still small voice.
The pure oil obtained by crushing olive leaves foreshadows the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sent as he ascended after accomplishing the work of redemption. Only with the help of the Holy Spirit can you discern good from evil and be fully prepared to meet the Lord when he returns. Yahweh said to keep the lamps lit with pure oil so that they would not go out. This is a command to light up the world with the fire of the Holy Spirit and to help every soul receive Christ. Strive to obey the leading of the Holy Spirit, because you can reveal the glory of Christ only through the Holy Spirit. For only the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, fully knows God’s will.
Genesis 8:11
11The dove came back to him at evening and, behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters were abated from the earth.
Inside the ark, Noah could not tell how far the waters covering the world had gone down, so he opened the window and sent out a raven. Seeing that the world was full of carcasses and there was plenty to live on, the raven flew about the world and did not return to the ark. In the same way, a soul that loves the world, like the raven, never comes back once it leaves the ark of Christ and goes out into the world. Noah waited for the raven, and when it did not return, he sent out a dove this time. The dove found no place to stay in a world where the whole face of the ground was full of water and carcasses, so it came back to the ark, and after seven more days Noah sent the dove out again. This time the dove came back with a freshly plucked olive leaf in its mouth. The dove came back from a world covered with the waters of death carrying a freshly plucked olive leaf. This foreshadows the coming of Christ, who would give new life to a world of death.
Unlike the raven that flew off toward death, and like the dove that came back with the leaf of life, you must realize that there is no place to stay in a world drowned by the flood, and you must return to the ark of salvation. For God’s pure children, like the dove, have no place to stay in a world full of nothing but death. Just as there was no safe place for Noah outside the ark, you must know that the world is not a safe place for you, and you must abide in Jesus Christ alone.
Just as oil was obtained by crushing those olive leaves, the Holy Spirit came through Jesus’ redemption. Eli received the mission of guarding this precious fire of the Holy Spirit so that it would not go out, and the unfaithfulness he showed before God is something you must never show. Just as Eli was a priest who knew God’s will and his word, you too are believers who know well what God’s will is and what the truth is. You must devote yourselves to being filled with the Holy Spirit, for you know the Word. You must rely on the Holy Spirit to go beyond your own limits, and only when you have a faith that can discern darkness will you be able to hear God’s still small voice.
When Samuel first heard God’s voice, he did not recognize it. The young Samuel never dreamed that God was calling him. He thought Eli had called because he had something for him to do, and he ran to Eli. Believers too may not discern it well when they first hear the Word. It is hard for someone reading the Bible for the first time to understand the truth deeply. That is why people need someone to show them God’s will through the Word. Those who, like Eli, have gone ahead spiritually must teach the young Samuel, who cannot yet discern the Word well, so that he can walk the way of truth with ease.
If Eli had been spiritually filled, then when God’s presence came like this, he could have heard God’s still small voice together with Samuel and taught him God’s will more clearly. But Eli was so spiritually dark that Samuel had to run to him three times to ask whether he had called. One who is further ahead spiritually ought to be more sensitive to God’s still small voice, yet he could not hear the voice Samuel heard. The still small voice can be heard in prayer, in meditating on the Word, in listening to a sermon, in devoted service with one’s body, and in evangelizing. For those who understand the truth and live according to God’s will are the very believers who have heard the still small voice and obeyed. Hearing God’s voice does not mean hearing with the ears, as in a conversation between people. To hear God’s voice is to come to understand, in the midst of devoted service, the direction and the plans God desires.
Matthew 16 has a scene in which Jesus tells his disciples that he will go up to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, and be killed. He reveals the secret of heaven, that after being killed he will rise again on the third day, but Peter, who had no ears to hear, takes hold of Jesus and tries to hold him back instead. Hoping the Lord would not go that way, Peter protested that this would never be done to him. Peter’s reaction came from love for his teacher, but Jesus rebukes him. To Peter, who was worried about him, Jesus said in rebuke, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me, for you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of men.” From this we see that faith without understanding is nothing other than the thinking of Satan.
When Samuel came a third time asking whether he had called him, Eli perceived that God was calling Samuel. Yet he stayed lying in his place and told Samuel how to answer God. The word of Almighty God had come, and Eli taught Samuel while still lying in his place. That picture shows how corrupt his faith had become. Today far too many people live with this kind of faith. They do not serve faithfully with all their heart; they know the Word just well enough and carry out God’s work just well enough. But a faith that does not give all its heart and mind is not the whole faith God desires.
Churchgoers today sometimes even mock believers who strive to live by the Word and to look to the truth alone, calling it blind faith, and they show their distaste, saying there is something wrong with that kind of faith. People who say such things are lying in their place like Eli, who did not fear God. There was a time when Eli too was faithful to God, and he would have carried out his office as priest with all his might. Because there had been such a time, he was able to tell Samuel that it was God calling him.
How sad it is to see Eli, who had experienced everything, grow spiritually dull. He had heard the still small voice, and there had been a time when he was faithful to God. That means he knew full well what God’s grace and God’s wrath are like. If Eli had not done God’s work day after day out of mere habit, he would not have become proud, and God could have spoken more of the secrets of heaven through Eli than through Samuel. People become proud because, as they do God’s work, they give themselves credit. They know the Word well enough and come to experience what God’s work is like, and then they exalt themselves with that knowledge. That is how they become like Eli. They mistake that experience for faith, and when others do not recognize their faith, they complain and try to lecture them. So in the end they fall.
I hope that even as you carry out God’s work, you will not become proud. I hope you will be humble people who know how to accept counsel as you devote yourselves to service. If you stay faithful without change in a humble place until the day you meet God, God himself will lift you up. If only because he would not let such faith go to waste, he will entrust you with a mission and grant you a place to teach others.
In 1 Samuel 3:15, Samuel was so afraid of God’s word that he would judge Eli’s house that he could not bring himself to tell Eli. Eli knew that Samuel could not bring himself to deliver God’s word, yet with complete composure he said something like a threat: if Samuel did not tell him everything, he wanted God to punish Samuel. He knew he was receiving a word that he and his descendants would all be judged, yet he was not afraid. Such an attitude was possible only because he had already abandoned his faith. Eli likely had the thought in his heart that although his sons were doing evil, they were still under his wing as the priest, so surely nothing would happen. Eli’s attitude explains why his two sons had no faith, and why they sinned without any fear. Even when Hophni and Phinehas deceived the people and committed adultery before God with the women at the tent of meeting, Eli had no intention of rebuking them. The man who was to offer sacrifices bearing the sins of others was busy covering up the sins of his own sons. To love one’s sons more than God like this is the same as idolatry.
1 Timothy 4:1-2
1But the Spirit says expressly that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, 2through the hypocrisy of men who speak lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron;
When a spot is branded with a hot iron, it loses all feeling. When the conscience is branded, a person no longer knows even what they are doing wrong, or which words and actions are wrong. A branded conscience stops fearing God, as Eli did, but when a person abides in the Word, then, as with Samuel, all the words they speak bear fruit. As proof that God is with Samuel, the word is fulfilled in his life just as it was spoken. When you strive to live by the Word, the souls who are to be saved will trust you, and beyond that trust they will receive God.
1 Samuel 3:21 says that Yahweh revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by his word. God is the one who works through the Word and reveals himself through the Word. And John 1:14 records, “The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Jesus is that very Word, by which God revealed himself to Samuel, become flesh and come into the world. Jesus Christ took sin upon his flesh and washed it all away on the cross, and now he has ascended and is waiting for his return.
So we must not try to see Jesus with our eyes, but strive to meet him through the Word. The Word is power and life, and the Word is the Creator. The same Word that judged Eli’s household and blessed Samuel is with you now. If you listen to the still small voice he gives through the word of truth and through the work of the Holy Spirit, God will reveal to you the secrets of heaven. If you live by the Word as Samuel did, you will receive amazing blessings, but if you receive the Word and still live complacently like Eli, you will not be able to escape God’s judgment.
God’s grace is poured out equally on every heart, but only when the vessel to receive that grace is ready can one receive grace in full. If you always stay spiritually awake, you will hear his still small voice.
May you always stay awake like Samuel and obey according to the Word. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ.
1 Samuel 4:17-22
17He who brought the news answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and God’s ark has been captured.” 18When he made mention of God’s ark, Eli fell from off his seat backward by the side of the gate; and his neck broke, and he died; for he was an old man, and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years. 19His daughter-in-law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered. When she heard the news that God’s ark was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth; for her pains came on her. 20About the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, “Don’t be afraid; for you have given birth to a son.” But she didn’t answer, neither did she regard it. 21She named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel”; because God’s ark was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. 22She said, “The glory has departed from Israel; for God’s ark has been taken.”