1.2 The Young Samuel[1]
Although called an Ephraimite, Elkanah was a Levite who happened to live in Ephraim. He held no duties as a priest, but his lineage was through Levi’s son, Kohath, a grandfather to Moses.[2] This lineage, coupled with the dedication of Hannah, his mother, bode well for the youth.
Even as a child, Samuel wore a small version of the ephod, the sleeveless garment worn by the priests as they performed their duties. And each year on the family’s annual pilgrimage, Hannah brought him a robe, a garment that declared that the youth was set apart.
For her part, Hannah was blessed, as well. She bore her husband three more sons and two daughters. And although the darkness and silence and emptiness still existed in the world about her, she no longer felt their oppression. By giving away that which mattered most to her, her spirit soared high above in freedom from her fears.
Samuel grew in the service of the Lord as Eli aged in His service. If Hophni and Phinehas felt any rebuke by the presence of the faithful young Samuel, they did not show it. They continued to act for their own gain to the detriment of the people. Their withholding did not harm God, of course, but only served to ensure their separation from Him. Samuel felt discomfort in the brothers’ presence and avoided them, perhaps because he was embarrassed by them for Eli’s sake.
Eli was of the family of Aaron’s fourth son, Ithamar. To this line had fallen responsibility for the ark. As high priest, he also had the responsibility for representing the nation before God. But respect for Eli had fallen as awareness of his sons’ evil had risen, and respect for the position of High Priest and for the tabernacle had fallen, as well.
As he watched Samuel grow in all ways, including faith, the aging Eli could not help but see more clearly the wickedness of his own sons. He began to listen to what people told him of his son’s actions while before he had always made excuses or avoided the issue. He could no longer turn a blind eye, but how was he to change a building whose foundation already had been laid?
Eli’s rebukes were mild because he did not know that the power to create change already existed with God. Each time he attempted to bring up the subject, he found he had no strength in his voice. He gave no commands appropriate for the evil, only humble suggestions. God’s presence had been evident in the example of Hannah, but Eli looked only within himself, and there he saw weakness.
One day, Eli called his two sons to come and sit with him. Hophni and Phinehas responded to their father’s call in the hour just after noon when they were still full from the midday meal and preferred to have some quiet moments. They came to Eli’s quarters and sat upon a mat across from their father.
Eli gathered up his courage because he had practiced this speech and knew it must be given. He looked at the two men across from him, younger versions of himself with their full black beards and broad bodies that had grown too round in the middle. He cleared his throat and proceeded with his speech.
“Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons! For it is not a good report that I hear. You make the Lord’s people transgress. If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?”
Hophni smiled at Phinehas as their father spoke, but then he responded to his father with a serious tone. “No, my father. You hear false reports from those who begrudge the Lord His due. You know that these are a stiff-necked people and they must be shown how to revere the Lord.
“Do not worry about the things that you hear. We perform the tasks of the Lord and help the people to make their offerings as God desires.”
Eli hoped this was true, for he preferred to believe his sons' report. He nodded and said, “It is well. Only be sure that you obey the Lord.”
His sons assured him that they would do so. Eli looked again at the two men, no longer his small children playing in the courtyard but grown men who were almost like strangers to him. He could not see them as his own children, and he could not see the service to God shining within them.
Indeed, all Eli could see in the world was hopelessness, dark clouds of despair that blotted out the light from above. Men like Elkanah were but candles in a cavernous darkness. Even the evil that men did was a sign of hopelessness, their not trusting in anything more than what their own hands could create. Eli could not see the light of hope, but he looked no farther than the hands of men.
In those days, there were men who wandered about the countryside, proclaiming themselves prophets. These itinerant prophets had an easy time in identifying the sins of man, but the condemnation and prayers that many of them offered were simple exchanges for bread, nothing based on a relationship with God, or with anything beyond themselves for that matter. The Word of the Lord was rare in those days.
For his part, Samuel understood the words of Eli as his mentor spoke of the world, but he listened to another voice within him to understand how the world was meant to be. He did not remember the voice of his mother from those first two years when she had taught him at her home before he came to Shiloh. But he saw her each year and she spoke of his first years and the lessons and stories that she had told to him. If he had no memory of her teachings in those first two years, she reinvented the memories for him so that they seemed real.
His mother had trained him well in remaining open to God, committing less to his own thoughts and more to the voice that spoke with clarity and direction. This voice, like an echo of the instruction of his mother, was always with him. He must only listen for it.
There came a day when he heard this voice through the speech of one of the itinerant prophets. Samuel was in the background when the man came up to Eli and confronted the old man with the wickedness of Eli’s sons.
The conclusion of the man’s speech left no doubt as to what lay in the future. “Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die, both of them. Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do what is according to in My heart and in My mind. And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread and say, ‘Please put me in one of the priestly positions, that I might eat a piece of bread.’”
Eli listened to this man. These days of Israel were so dark that to hear the Word of God spoken was rare, but Eli had not forgotten the sound of His voice. Through this man’s lips, Eli heard the Lord’s condemnation. His heart knew of it, but for his ears to hear the truth was painful to him, and his heart groaned beneath the burden of these words.
Samuel’s heart sank as he listened to the rebuke, watching the pain on his mentor’s face. He knew the truth of the words and was grieved for Eli.
Over the next days, Samuel watched for the changes that Eli would surely make. But the old priest changed nothing. Weeks went by, and then months, but the prophet’s challenge went unanswered.
As Samuel grew, so did his responsibilities. The daily tasks assigned to the child were menial, but he saw them simply as service to the Lord. Hauling wood or cleaning the area after the sacrifices seemed no less an honor than performing the preparation of the sacrificial animals or conducting the business of the Levite community.
And so the boy Samuel grew in service to the Lord. His lengthening hair was an outward sign of his dedication, but his spirit showed the strength of his inner commitment.
A night came when Samuel was sleeping in his place, and Eli lay in his space in the court of the tabernacle. And Samuel heard a voice calling him, wakening him from his sleep.
Samuel quickly ran to where Eli lay in the predawn darkness. Eli heard him coming but could not see the boy, the old man’s eyes so weakened that this light was hardly worse than the full light of day. Samuel said expectantly, “Here I am, for you called me!”
Eli said, “I did not call. Lie down again.”
And Samuel returned to his place. He went back to sleep, only to be awakened by the call again. Once more, Samuel hurried to Eli, only to be told that Eli did not call and to return to his sleep.
When Samuel went to Eli a third time in response to the call, Eli realized that the boy was hearing a call from God. Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay in his place.
When Samuel heard his name being called as before, “Samuel, Samuel,” he answered as instructed, “Speak, for Your servant hears.”
The Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning His house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I will judge His house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them. And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”
Samuel stood and waited in the quiet, but there was no more. Finally he lay back down, but sleep would not come in this predawn hour as he thought of the words he had heard.
When Samuel rose in the morning, he did not go to Eli. He did not wish to confirm the itinerant prophet’s prediction, but it was inevitable that Eli would call to inquire of Samuel, and so he did.
Eli called for Samuel and asked, “What is the word that the Lord spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He said to you.”
Then Samuel told Eli everything and hid nothing from him. Eli listened and nodded, resigning himself to the words. “It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him.”
Samuel waited to hear what Eli would do in response to God’s revelation, but Eli said no more than this. Indeed, he said no more about the revelation, but his inaction with his sons spoke volumes to the young Samuel. Although God had pronounced judgment, Eli still had the opportunity to right his wrong, to correct his sons and, if necessary, remove them from power.
Samuel watched and waited, but again there was no change in Eli. God had spoken, yet Eli did nothing. Although not yet a man, having not reached his twelfth birthday yet, and even less a priest, Samuel understood that between the pronouncement of a prophecy and its fulfillment, there was a space of time, there was an opportunity to prove the prophecy true or to change its conditions. If the actions of today lead to destruction tomorrow, then the actions of today must be changed.
But Eli continued to choose his sons.
Such was God’s first revelation to Samuel. And God revealed more to the youth as he grew older, and the Lord let none of Samuel’s prophecies fail.
Samuel laid before the people the consequences of turning away from God, and he laid before the people the blessings of returning to God. God had given the freedom to choose, and Samuel foretold the results of each choice.
For Samuel, each moment was a point in time from which diverged two paths leading into the future. As clearly as the destination of a physical road, Samuel saw where the choices of men would lead through time. Although the words or acts of a moment might indicate one thing, Samuel saw the destination of the path of the heart, the intent of the will. At this level, man determined his future, and he must be touched at this level to change his outcome.
Word of Samuel as a prophet of God spread throughout the land, but Eli remained as high priest of all Israel. The aging priest’s successor would be the eldest of his sons. Surely the words of the prophecy would come true before the death of Eli. How could faith in God survive Hophni as high priest?
[1] 1 Samuel 2:18-3:21
[2] 1 Chronicles 6:34:38
Although called an Ephraimite, Elkanah was a Levite who happened to live in Ephraim. He held no duties as a priest, but his lineage was through Levi’s son, Kohath, a grandfather to Moses.[2] This lineage, coupled with the dedication of Hannah, his mother, bode well for the youth.
Even as a child, Samuel wore a small version of the ephod, the sleeveless garment worn by the priests as they performed their duties. And each year on the family’s annual pilgrimage, Hannah brought him a robe, a garment that declared that the youth was set apart.
For her part, Hannah was blessed, as well. She bore her husband three more sons and two daughters. And although the darkness and silence and emptiness still existed in the world about her, she no longer felt their oppression. By giving away that which mattered most to her, her spirit soared high above in freedom from her fears.
Samuel grew in the service of the Lord as Eli aged in His service. If Hophni and Phinehas felt any rebuke by the presence of the faithful young Samuel, they did not show it. They continued to act for their own gain to the detriment of the people. Their withholding did not harm God, of course, but only served to ensure their separation from Him. Samuel felt discomfort in the brothers’ presence and avoided them, perhaps because he was embarrassed by them for Eli’s sake.
Eli was of the family of Aaron’s fourth son, Ithamar. To this line had fallen responsibility for the ark. As high priest, he also had the responsibility for representing the nation before God. But respect for Eli had fallen as awareness of his sons’ evil had risen, and respect for the position of High Priest and for the tabernacle had fallen, as well.
As he watched Samuel grow in all ways, including faith, the aging Eli could not help but see more clearly the wickedness of his own sons. He began to listen to what people told him of his son’s actions while before he had always made excuses or avoided the issue. He could no longer turn a blind eye, but how was he to change a building whose foundation already had been laid?
Eli’s rebukes were mild because he did not know that the power to create change already existed with God. Each time he attempted to bring up the subject, he found he had no strength in his voice. He gave no commands appropriate for the evil, only humble suggestions. God’s presence had been evident in the example of Hannah, but Eli looked only within himself, and there he saw weakness.
One day, Eli called his two sons to come and sit with him. Hophni and Phinehas responded to their father’s call in the hour just after noon when they were still full from the midday meal and preferred to have some quiet moments. They came to Eli’s quarters and sat upon a mat across from their father.
Eli gathered up his courage because he had practiced this speech and knew it must be given. He looked at the two men across from him, younger versions of himself with their full black beards and broad bodies that had grown too round in the middle. He cleared his throat and proceeded with his speech.
“Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons! For it is not a good report that I hear. You make the Lord’s people transgress. If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?”
Hophni smiled at Phinehas as their father spoke, but then he responded to his father with a serious tone. “No, my father. You hear false reports from those who begrudge the Lord His due. You know that these are a stiff-necked people and they must be shown how to revere the Lord.
“Do not worry about the things that you hear. We perform the tasks of the Lord and help the people to make their offerings as God desires.”
Eli hoped this was true, for he preferred to believe his sons' report. He nodded and said, “It is well. Only be sure that you obey the Lord.”
His sons assured him that they would do so. Eli looked again at the two men, no longer his small children playing in the courtyard but grown men who were almost like strangers to him. He could not see them as his own children, and he could not see the service to God shining within them.
Indeed, all Eli could see in the world was hopelessness, dark clouds of despair that blotted out the light from above. Men like Elkanah were but candles in a cavernous darkness. Even the evil that men did was a sign of hopelessness, their not trusting in anything more than what their own hands could create. Eli could not see the light of hope, but he looked no farther than the hands of men.
In those days, there were men who wandered about the countryside, proclaiming themselves prophets. These itinerant prophets had an easy time in identifying the sins of man, but the condemnation and prayers that many of them offered were simple exchanges for bread, nothing based on a relationship with God, or with anything beyond themselves for that matter. The Word of the Lord was rare in those days.
For his part, Samuel understood the words of Eli as his mentor spoke of the world, but he listened to another voice within him to understand how the world was meant to be. He did not remember the voice of his mother from those first two years when she had taught him at her home before he came to Shiloh. But he saw her each year and she spoke of his first years and the lessons and stories that she had told to him. If he had no memory of her teachings in those first two years, she reinvented the memories for him so that they seemed real.
His mother had trained him well in remaining open to God, committing less to his own thoughts and more to the voice that spoke with clarity and direction. This voice, like an echo of the instruction of his mother, was always with him. He must only listen for it.
There came a day when he heard this voice through the speech of one of the itinerant prophets. Samuel was in the background when the man came up to Eli and confronted the old man with the wickedness of Eli’s sons.
The conclusion of the man’s speech left no doubt as to what lay in the future. “Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas; in one day they shall die, both of them. Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do what is according to in My heart and in My mind. And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread and say, ‘Please put me in one of the priestly positions, that I might eat a piece of bread.’”
Eli listened to this man. These days of Israel were so dark that to hear the Word of God spoken was rare, but Eli had not forgotten the sound of His voice. Through this man’s lips, Eli heard the Lord’s condemnation. His heart knew of it, but for his ears to hear the truth was painful to him, and his heart groaned beneath the burden of these words.
Samuel’s heart sank as he listened to the rebuke, watching the pain on his mentor’s face. He knew the truth of the words and was grieved for Eli.
Over the next days, Samuel watched for the changes that Eli would surely make. But the old priest changed nothing. Weeks went by, and then months, but the prophet’s challenge went unanswered.
As Samuel grew, so did his responsibilities. The daily tasks assigned to the child were menial, but he saw them simply as service to the Lord. Hauling wood or cleaning the area after the sacrifices seemed no less an honor than performing the preparation of the sacrificial animals or conducting the business of the Levite community.
And so the boy Samuel grew in service to the Lord. His lengthening hair was an outward sign of his dedication, but his spirit showed the strength of his inner commitment.
A night came when Samuel was sleeping in his place, and Eli lay in his space in the court of the tabernacle. And Samuel heard a voice calling him, wakening him from his sleep.
Samuel quickly ran to where Eli lay in the predawn darkness. Eli heard him coming but could not see the boy, the old man’s eyes so weakened that this light was hardly worse than the full light of day. Samuel said expectantly, “Here I am, for you called me!”
Eli said, “I did not call. Lie down again.”
And Samuel returned to his place. He went back to sleep, only to be awakened by the call again. Once more, Samuel hurried to Eli, only to be told that Eli did not call and to return to his sleep.
When Samuel went to Eli a third time in response to the call, Eli realized that the boy was hearing a call from God. Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if He calls you, that you must say, ‘Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay in his place.
When Samuel heard his name being called as before, “Samuel, Samuel,” he answered as instructed, “Speak, for Your servant hears.”
The Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning His house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I will judge His house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them. And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”
Samuel stood and waited in the quiet, but there was no more. Finally he lay back down, but sleep would not come in this predawn hour as he thought of the words he had heard.
When Samuel rose in the morning, he did not go to Eli. He did not wish to confirm the itinerant prophet’s prediction, but it was inevitable that Eli would call to inquire of Samuel, and so he did.
Eli called for Samuel and asked, “What is the word that the Lord spoke to you? Please do not hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He said to you.”
Then Samuel told Eli everything and hid nothing from him. Eli listened and nodded, resigning himself to the words. “It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him.”
Samuel waited to hear what Eli would do in response to God’s revelation, but Eli said no more than this. Indeed, he said no more about the revelation, but his inaction with his sons spoke volumes to the young Samuel. Although God had pronounced judgment, Eli still had the opportunity to right his wrong, to correct his sons and, if necessary, remove them from power.
Samuel watched and waited, but again there was no change in Eli. God had spoken, yet Eli did nothing. Although not yet a man, having not reached his twelfth birthday yet, and even less a priest, Samuel understood that between the pronouncement of a prophecy and its fulfillment, there was a space of time, there was an opportunity to prove the prophecy true or to change its conditions. If the actions of today lead to destruction tomorrow, then the actions of today must be changed.
But Eli continued to choose his sons.
Such was God’s first revelation to Samuel. And God revealed more to the youth as he grew older, and the Lord let none of Samuel’s prophecies fail.
Samuel laid before the people the consequences of turning away from God, and he laid before the people the blessings of returning to God. God had given the freedom to choose, and Samuel foretold the results of each choice.
For Samuel, each moment was a point in time from which diverged two paths leading into the future. As clearly as the destination of a physical road, Samuel saw where the choices of men would lead through time. Although the words or acts of a moment might indicate one thing, Samuel saw the destination of the path of the heart, the intent of the will. At this level, man determined his future, and he must be touched at this level to change his outcome.
Word of Samuel as a prophet of God spread throughout the land, but Eli remained as high priest of all Israel. The aging priest’s successor would be the eldest of his sons. Surely the words of the prophecy would come true before the death of Eli. How could faith in God survive Hophni as high priest?
[1] 1 Samuel 2:18-3:21
[2] 1 Chronicles 6:34:38
