I doubt that Samuel realised just what was in store for him as he began his service of God in the Temple with Eli. No doubt it began as a fairly simple routine of lessons and chores with plenty of time for games. As a young child he would have been looked after by the many people who worked and lived in the temple precincts. You can imagine the way they might have responded when they saw him wandering around, knowing that his family had gone home and left him in the care of Eli and the other priests. The community would have pulled together to care for him the way godly communities should.
But as he grew older, the lessons and training would have increased. The time for play would have diminished. His calling as a lifetime servant of God meant that he had much to learn. But in fact it wasn’t the lessons of Eli and his sons that would shape him. It was the voice of God. And that shaping would happen in a very short time in the dark of night.
The Messenger
God was about to give him the first of many messages for his people. Samuel was about to become the first prophet in Israel since the days of Moses. We’re told, as this episode begins, that the word of the Lord was rare in those days and visions were not widespread. What was about to happen to Samuel was totally out of the ordinary. He was about to be given a message from the Lord that would highlight, in the clearest of ways, the seriousness of his role as a prophet of God.
His mother Hannah, we’re told in ch 2, now has 5 children. God has blessed her and given her other children to take the place of Samuel. So we can guess that Samuel might be about 10 or 12 years old. He’s still a boy, but growing up.
Samuel is sleeping in the tabernacle court just outside the Holy of Holies where the Ark was kept. It’s the middle of the night. The lamp that was lit at night and allowed to burn until the oil ran out just before daybreak is still alight. A voice calls out to Samuel and wakes him. He thinks it’s Eli so he runs to see what he might want. I guess he would have been used to being called on to help Eli with things that his failing eyesight made it difficult to do. But it wasn’t Eli who had called. So Eli sends him back to bed. This happens 2 more times before Eli realises that it isn’t just Samuel imagining noises in the night. It must be God calling. So he tells Samuel to go back and lie down and if the Lord calls again, to say "Speak Lord for your servant is listening."
This time we’re told the Lord comes and stands there and calls: "Samuel! Samuel!" Well, finally Samuel has worked out what’s happening, so he responds as Eli has suggested: "Speak Lord for your servant is listening." And so God delivers his message.
But before we look at the message we need to think about the significance of God speaking to Samuel with this message which is actually for Eli, rather than speaking to Eli directly. There are probably 2 reasons, in fact. First he speaks to Samuel rather than Eli, because Eli’s inaction, as we’ll see in a moment has meant that he’s lost God’s favour. God is not going to speak to him. Rather he uses an intermediary. But secondly, God speaking to Samuel is a sign that Samuel does enjoy the favour of God. Samuel is God’s chosen spokesperson, his mouthpiece. A new order is being inaugurated at this moment as God chooses out Samuel to act as his prophet, to bring his word to the people of Israel in a new and fresh way. And so God speaks his message.
The Message
He begins: "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle." This is an earth shattering message, a horrifying, perhaps even an embarrassing message. The house of the high Priest, Eli, is about to be wiped out.
You see things weren’t right in Israel. As would happen again and again in their history, they thought things were OK but just below the surface there was an illness, a cancer, that needed to be dealt with, cut out. Right at the centre of their life together, in the Temple, their worship had been corrupted. And worse than that, the source of that corruption was the family of Eli, the High Priest. Eli knew what was going on but he was powerless to do anything about it.
I spoke a few weeks ago about the critical role of a father in the discipline of his children, and here we see just how bad a situation can arise when a father fails in that responsibility. Eli’s failure, of course, was magnified by the position of responsibility he and his sons held in the worship life of Israel. He’s been warned and he’s failed to correct the situation. And now God speaks to Samuel with a message for Eli, telling him that he and his family are about to be judged, wiped out.
The Reason
So the messenger is Samuel, the newly appointed prophet of God, the message is that Eli and his family are about to be judged by God. But we need to understand the reason for the drastic nature of this judgement.
We actually need to go back to chapter 2 to understand what it is they’ve been doing. Look at 2:12. Eli’s sons are described as scoundrels, or wicked men and the degree of their wickedness is shown by the procedures they’d introduced around the sacrificial system. What was supposed to happen, you see, was that the breast and the right thigh were to be given to the priest and the rest was either burnt as a burnt offering to God or was boiled and the meat used for the family feast. Well, these young men weren’t satisfied with the bits they were allocated,. They wanted more. So before the meat was even cooked they’d come along and stick a three pronged fork into the pot and whatever they managed to skewer was theirs. And you can imagine that if all you’d brought was a small bird then you might end up with nothing to eat, while the priests fattened themselves up on the best they could get.
But then even that wasn’t enough for them. They even when to the extent of forcing the people to give them the raw meat, before it was sacrificed at all. Even when the people begged to be allowed to at least burn the fat as an offering to God, they were refused.
There’s a great danger for anyone who’s in a position of authority in the church to use that authority, that power, for their own ends rather than for God’s ends. It’s a danger for me as Vicar, it’s a danger for the wardens and vestry. And it’s a danger for those who have that unspoken, informal authority in the congregation that comes from the length of time they’ve been here or from their own spiritual experience and maturity. We need to watch ourselves to make sure our motives are pure. And we need to watch those among us who exercise authority over us that the way they exercise that authority is according to God’s word, not just their particular biases or interests.
Now you would have to say that these priests were not the first, nor were they the last people to use their power to extort goods from those under them. There’ve been plenty of people throughout history and there still are, who have used strength of arms, military might, political power, to control others for their own ends. But these men in particular attracted the anger and, ultimately, the judgement of God.
You see they weren’t just oppressing those under them. Their sin was directed at the worship of Israel. Their sin was a direct offence to God. Look at 2:17: "the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD; for they treated the offerings of the LORD with contempt." And look at the warning Eli gives his sons in v25: "If one person sins against another, someone can intercede for the sinner with the LORD; but if someone sins against the LORD, who can make intercession?" It wasn’t just that they were taking advantage of those to whom they should have been ministering. They were directly offending God by undermining the people’s worship. They were guilty of the worst blasphemy possible.
And because Eli had failed to restrain them from this blasphemy he and his family line was to be all but wiped out. The priesthood that had been theirs since the days of Moses and Aaron was to be taken away and given to another. Even though God had promised that Eli’s house would minister before him forever, it wouldn’t happen. Their failure was too great. In fact their failure is just another example of the continuing failure of family lines to maintain faithfulness to God through the generations.
The Problem
You see it in the family line of David and Solomon. It happens all the way through the book of Kings, where a good king is inevitably succeeded by one who again leads the people after false gods. But of course it’s been happening since the beginning, since Adam and eve bore Cain and Abel. And again with Noah’s children.
And we ask ourselves, how does something like this happen? How could a godly man who’s been serving God faithfully for all these years, fail when it comes to raising children who will follow in his footsteps? Why is it that even Samuel fails to raise children who will be faithful followers of the Lord (1 Sam 8:1-3)? Well, I think the answer lies in what we read in Romans last year. We human beings are innately flawed. No-one is righteous, no not one. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. No human line, no matter how well it starts out can be relied upon to consistently obey God. And even when God says in 2:35 "I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed one forever" we wonder how it might be possible.
The Solution
But it is possible isn’t it? By the time Samuel died he’d instituted a new royal line in Israel, a line that would continue until the coming of Jesus Christ, who would be the king whose reign would never end. But that line would culminate, not just in a king, but in one who would be both king and priest. Hebrews puts it like this: "We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, 20where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." (Heb 6:19-20)
Those who rely on human saviours will always be disappointed in the end. But those who rely on the only begotten Son of God, who has died for our sins and has risen again for our glorification will never be disappointed. That’s why we need to be praying for our leaders, that they’ll be led by the Holy Spirit in the way they lead us. That they’ll be so in tune with Jesus Christ that we won’t be let down.
Again, listen to what Hebrews has to say: "Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. 15For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin. (Heb 4:14-15)"
Samuel was chosen to bring God’s word, first to Eli, then to the people of Israel, but ultimately to us who read it here in 1 Samuel, looking back with all the benefits of another 1000 years of Biblical revelation. God chose to reveal his plans for the world progressively over that 1000 years or so. I guess he did it that way to give us time to take it in, and to realise that by ourselves we’ll never manage to do what God requires of us. There are so many examples of people who started well, but finished badly or whose children finished badly. But there is one example of a person who was tempted in every way as we are, yet without sinning and who continues to intercede for us at the right hand of God as our great high priest.
Well, as we read through this first book of Samuel over the next few weeks, let’s keep in mind that this is just one instalment in a much longer story of God’s redemptive purposes for his people and let’s pray that we might be enabled to serve God faithfully as Samuel did as God empowers us by his Holy Spirit and that our leaders would be so attuned to Jesus Christ that they would lead us well despite their human failings.
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