The Book of 1 Samuel

Word Study

"precious," Hebrew yaqar (יָקָר), "rare, costly, precious, scarce." "The word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision." The word means both "rare" and "precious", the two go together, for what is scarce becomes costly. In the dark days of Eli's failing house, God had grown largely silent; prophetic vision was uncommon. This was itself a form of judgment, for "where there is no vision, the people perish" (Proverbs 29:18), and the famine Amos foretold is "not a famine of bread... but of hearing the words of the LORD" (Amos 8:11). Yet into that silence God speaks, and He speaks not to the aged priest but to a child. When the word of the LORD is rare, it is most precious; and God is never so silent that He cannot raise up a fresh voice. The scarcity of God's word in Eli's day makes the call of Samuel shine all the brighter.

Explanation

The setting is heavy with meaning: Eli's eyes "wax dim" (his physical blindness mirrors his spiritual dullness), the lamp of God has not yet gone out (barely), and the word of the LORD is rare. Into this dimness God calls "Samuel," and the boy, ready and willing, runs to Eli, "Here am I." Three times he mistakes God's voice for Eli's, "for Samuel did not yet know the LORD." This is tender and instructive: Samuel was serving faithfully in the house of God, yet did not yet personally know God's voice. It was old Eli, for all his failures, who discerned that the LORD was calling and taught the boy the right response: "Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth." Even a failing mentor can point a young heart to hear God.

Gospel Focus

Samuel's story reminds us that faithful religious service is not the same as knowing God's voice, and that God often calls the young and the overlooked. The boy who "did not yet know the LORD" was the one God chose to speak to, over the established but dull priest. And the heart of the chapter is the posture we all must learn: "Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth." Notice the order, "Speak, LORD," then "thy servant heareth", God speaks, and we listen and obey. Too often we reverse it, "Hear, LORD; for thy servant speaketh." The soul that would know God must come, like Samuel, ready to hear and ready to obey. "My sheep hear my voice... and they follow me" (John 10:27). Have you learned to say, and mean, "Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth"?

Word Study

"the LORD came, and stood," Hebrew vayyityatstsab (וַיִּתְיַצַּב), "stationed Himself, took His stand, presented Himself." This is more than a voice from afar: "the LORD came, and stood, and called." The LORD presented Himself in person, standing by Samuel. It is one of many Old Testament appearings in which the invisible God makes Himself visibly and personally present to His servant, the same LORD who "stood" before Abraham, who spoke face to face with Moses, who came as the Angel of the LORD to Gideon and Manoah. For the Apostolic reader these are all foreshadowings of the incarnation, the one God drawing near in personal, visible form, which He fully accomplished when "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" (John 1:14). The God who "came and stood" by a sleeping boy is the same LORD who would stand among us in flesh and call His own by name. He still comes and stands near those who say, "Speak, LORD."

Explanation

God's first word to Samuel is a hard one: the confirmation of judgment on Eli's house, so terrible that "both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle." The reason is stated plainly, and it indicts Eli personally: "his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not." Eli knew his sons' wickedness and did not stop it; his sin was not gross immorality but a failure to restrain evil he had the authority to judge. So grave is it that "the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever", the judgment is fixed. God gives this weighty word not to the priest but to the child, entrusting Samuel with a message that would test his courage. A true prophet must be willing to carry even the hard words of God.

Gospel Focus

Eli's condemnation, "his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not", is a sobering word to all who hold responsibility over others, parents, leaders, shepherds. Silence before sin we have the power to check is itself sin. Love restrains; indulgence that will not correct is not kindness but a share in the wrong. Yet the most sobering line is that Eli's iniquity "shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever." There are sins that presumption pushes past the point where the old sacrifices could reach. But this only magnifies the gospel: what no bull or goat could purge, "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7). Where Eli's sacrifices failed, Christ's one sacrifice avails. Do not presume on God's patience; flee to the blood that can purge what nothing else can.

Word Study

"the LORD revealed himself," Hebrew niglah (נִגְלָה, "revealed, uncovered"). The chapter ends with a profound statement: "the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD." The verb is one of uncovering: what had been hidden is drawn back and laid open. The chapter opened with days when "the word of the LORD was precious" and "there was no open vision"; it closes with God uncovering Himself again, and doing it to a boy at Shiloh.

"by the word of the LORD," Hebrew bidbar YHWH. This is the means by which the uncovering came. God makes Himself known through His word; to receive the word of the LORD is to receive God Himself, for His word is not separate from Him. This truth reaches its fullness in the New Testament, where "the Word" is not merely a message but a Person: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word was made flesh" (John 1:1, 14). The God who revealed Himself "by the word of the LORD" to Samuel revealed Himself finally and fully in the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, "God... hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son" (Hebrews 1:1-2). To hear God's word is to meet God; and the Word is Christ.

Explanation

Samuel, though he "feared to shew Eli the vision," when asked, "told him every whit, and hid nothing." His first act as a prophet was faithful, courageous truth-telling, even a hard word to his mentor. And Eli, to his credit, receives it with humble submission: "It is the LORD: let him do what seemeth him good." Then the chapter marks Samuel's establishment: "the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground", every word Samuel spoke from God came true, the mark of a genuine prophet (Deuteronomy 18:22). So "all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba" recognized him, and God, once silent, now "appeared again in Shiloh" and "revealed himself to Samuel... by the word of the LORD." The famine of the word is ending; God has raised up a faithful voice.

Gospel Focus

"The LORD... did let none of his words fall to the ground." This is the hallmark of God's true word: it does not fail. "So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void" (Isaiah 55:11). What God says, God performs; not one of His words falls unfulfilled. And Samuel models the faithful servant of that word: he received it, he did not soften it, and he delivered it whole, "hid nothing." Every minister of God is called to that same faithfulness, to declare "all the counsel of God" (Acts 20:27), the hard and the sweet alike. And the deepest note is that God reveals Himself by His word, and His Word is a Person. To open the Scriptures with a heart that says "Speak, LORD," is to meet the living God who has spoken finally in His Son. Draw near to the word, and you draw near to Him.