It is a dark time: “the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision.” The high priest is nearly blind, his sons are corrupt, and the lamp in the sanctuary is almost out. Then a voice wakes a boy in the night. Three times he runs to Eli’s bedside; three times Eli sends him back. On the fourth call the boy answers as the old man taught him: Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. And the first thing God gives him to say is a word against the house that raised him.
A study in 1 Samuel 3 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
The Word Of The LORD Was Precious In Those Days
“And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision… and ere the lamp of God went out in the temple of the LORD… the LORD called Samuel.”
1 Samuel 3:1-4
“Precious” here means rare — God had gone quiet. No open vision, a priesthood that had shut Him out, the sanctuary lamp guttering. It is the low point of the whole era of the judges. And it is exactly there, “ere the lamp of God went out,” that God speaks — not to the priest, but to the child who had been quietly ministering in the dark all along.
“God could not communicate with the high priest and his sons; their sins, like a thick cloud, had shut out the presence of His Holy Spirit. But in the midst of evil the child Samuel remained true to Heaven, and the message of condemnation to the house of Eli was Samuel’s commission as a prophet of the Most High.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 581
The LORD Called Samuel
“And he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I; for thou calledst me… Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him… And Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child.”
1 Samuel 3:5-8
Samuel is faithful — every time he thinks he is called, he gets up and goes — but he “did not yet know the LORD.” He had served in God’s house for years without having heard God’s voice for himself. Growing up around holy things is not the same as knowing God, and the boy needed the old man’s help to tell the difference. Eli, for all his failures with his own sons, gets this one right.
Speak; For Thy Servant Heareth
“Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth… And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.”
1 Samuel 3:9-10
Eli teaches him the words, and the boy uses them — though so awed that he leaves off “LORD” and just says “Speak.” That is the whole posture of a prophet in one line: listen first, speak after. Samuel’s life work is going to be carrying God’s words to kings, and it starts with him lying still in the dark saying I am listening.
Samuel Feared To Shew Eli The Vision
“And Samuel feared to shew Eli the vision… And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good… And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.”
1 Samuel 3:15-19
The first message Samuel is given is judgment on Eli’s house — the family that took him in. He is afraid to say it; Eli drags it out of him; and then Eli answers with quiet submission: “It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good.” A prophet’s work is often to say the hard thing to people he loves. From here on, the narrator says, God “did let none of his words fall to the ground” — every word Samuel spoke for God came true.
“The Lord had passed by His chosen servant, the man of hoary hairs, to commune with a child… No feeling of envy or jealousy was awakened in Eli’s heart.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 581
