God’s Plan for Samuel

Dei Break

1 Samuel 3:1 – 21

"And word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent." But God was about to change that through his servant Samuel. Though he was an assistant to the priests, Samuel had not yet personally experienced the presence of the Lord (vs.7) and at first the boy didn't realize that it was God speaking to him.

Just before dawn ("The lamp of God had not yet gone out") the Lord spoke to Samuel for a third time. Eli had instructed the lad to listen to God, and God's first message to Samuel was hard—the prophecy against Eli's family (2:30-31) would not be revoked. His family, over the coming years, would be removed from the priesthood.

Eli reacted to God's pronouncement like a servant of God. In today's culture, it is likely that a man would rebel, stomp, and deny any chastisement from God, even though justified. People don't like the idea that God has the right to do as He sees fit in our lives. As poor a leader as Eli had been, he knew God and knew that even in the midst of punishment God would be his God. He knew that his sons were evil and that he had failed to control their sin.

Much was about to happen in Israel. Samuel grew into the man who would be a bridge between the age of Israel's judges and priests and the age of God's prophets. In a few years, the first king in Israel would be crowned.

The prophets, like Samuel, sometimes announced the future as revealed to them by God in dreams and visions. That was part of what a prophet did, but their primary mission was to be God's spokesmen to the people, telling them the truth, no matter how painful. Sometimes the prophets' messages could even endanger their lives. They told the people God's messages concerning not only the future of the nation, but the current condition of the nation's relationship with God. Unlike the priests, they were of no specific family, but were individuals simply chosen by God to serve Him.

Next time: The Philistines Win