Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 1-3.

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When Hannah cried out to the Lord for a son and vowed that if God gave her that son, she would dedicate him to serve the Lord his entire life, she received peace after Eli blessed her.  It reads to me that it was what Eli said to her after her prayer which gave her peace.  I think the writer is telling us that, despite his failings as a father, Eli was a good priest who gave comfort to the people.  Unfortunately, Eli did not see the way in which his sons were abusing their authority as priests until after his sons had “learned” that no one would hold them accountable for their sins.  God sent a man to tell Eli what would happen.  After telling Eli what God’s judgement on his household would be, this man of God made a Messianic prophecy.  He tells Eli that God would set up a faithful priest who will go in and out before God forever.  A casual reading might lead one to think this refers to Samuel.  However, later in this book we learn that Samuel’s sons behaved much like Eli’s sons.  So, this passage clearly refers to someone else.  I see it as a prophecy of Jesus, but I understand if others view it differently.

Now I want to look at the night when God first spoke to Samuel.  When God first called to Samuel, Samuel thought that it was Eli calling him.  As an aside, it seems likely that Samuel was a caretaker for Eli, just as many time children become caretakers for their elderly parents, and thus Eli calling for him in the night was not uncommon.  On the third occasion Eli realized what was going on and explained it to Samuel.  So, when God called to Samuel a fourth time in the night, Samuel responded by saying, “Speak, for your servant hears.”  At which point, God gave Samuel the same message about Eli which He had previously given through the man of God.  In the morning Samuel was afraid to tell Eli what God had said to him and only did so because Eli insisted.  And again we see that Eli was a good man, even though he was a poor father.  Eli accepted the Lord’s judgement on his family and calmed Samuel’s fears.  We learn two things from this incident.  Sometimes God needs to repeat His call before we realize He is speaking to us.  When we realize that God is speaking to us, we need to listen.  Oh, and there is a third lesson: sometimes we will not want to hear what God has to say to us, but we should listen anyway.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.