The Lord Calls Samuel
Study Scripture: 1 Samuel 3: 8 – 20
Background Scripture: 1 Samuel 3: 8 – 20
Lesson 9 October 31, 2026
Key Verse
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. So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
1 Samuel 3:9
INTRODUCTION
The Study lesson reminds us of the incredibly difficult job that it is to manage the world and take it to the final conclusion that God intends. We know about the magnitude of this work in which God is engaged because we have been told in Job Chapters 38 through 41 about all of the great works of God when God challenged Job in His answer to the questions about God and how God operated that Job had raised. In Chapter 38 we have this remark by God in this very interesting passage, “Who is this that darkneth counsel by words without knowledge?
Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.
Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the day spring to know his place;
That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the kid might be shaken out of it?
After giving Job a lecture about how God designs the universe, has structured it, and takes care of it in all its complexity, God continues in Chapter 40, “Will thou also disallow my judgment? Will thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?”(verse 8)
“ Look on every man that is proud, and bring him low, and tread down the wicked in their place..
Hide them in the dust together; and bind their faces in the world below?”(verse 12-13)
At this challenge by God of course we know that Job stated the very logical conclusion in Chapter 42 that he knows that God can do everything and that no purpose of His would be withholding from Him and so Job said he abhorred himself and repented in dust and ashes.
Would all men be like Job?
As we therefore examine the plan of God for the nation of Israel and for all the succeeding people of God, we are taught to trust in God’s sovereign will
The context of our Study Chapter is therefore extremely important for it is set in the time of the godly woman named Hannah whose pain brought out of her prayer her peace. Her prayer was used by God to bring to life one of the greatest prophets in Israel who would become the spiritual guide and mentor of the first two great kings of Israel.
We are therefore forced to remember prayer’s fruitfulness. We are forced to consider the state of our heart and whether it matches the words of our prayers.
We therefore should ask ourselves whether we engage in honest prayer from the heart, laying our heart before Him and to trust in His sovereign will.
When we look at the experience of Hannah and we examine her prayer we face the particularly difficult subject of childlessness which of course is hard in any age but in the age of Hannah it was one of the toughest experience possible. It was much worse than how we regard childlessness in our time. Then there was shame and the life of a childless woman was miserable.
So Hannah struggled in her misery.
Great good came out of her struggle for God heard her prayer and she was allowed to bear 6 children and one of them was the great Samuel who turned Israel from its darkness back toward the light.
We are reminded by this experience of the very deep and troubling questions that the disciples of Jesus asked Him when they met a blind man. They asked Jesus, “Who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind” : John 9:2.
The disciples like us wanted the Lord to explain suffering and sorrow and so like other human beings when difficulties come and they are assigned to us for no reason that we can discern, we do not know how to approach God in such circumstances.
The answer of Jesus is quite astounding for Jesus pointed out that it was neither the man or his parents that were responsible for the man’s blindness but God had so planned it that in this encounter with him the glory of God would be displayed and we would learn a lot about how God works and how God carries out His plan.
In the case of Hannah she cried out to the Lord in her misery and bitterness and hopelessness. She could not escape the voice of the rival wife Peninnah who regularly boasted of her children and made in every way a point of focusing on Hannah’s inadequacy. She rubbed salt in the wounds.
Then we read that Hannah’s husband was a religious man and he went to the sanctuary in Shiloh on an established day of festival for worship, gift giving, and enjoying a festival atmosphere. Within this holiday setting Hannah was made more miserable every time the holidays came around.
Then we see an sample of bad pastoring for when Hannah decided to turn to the Lord the institution that was supposed to help her was not helping. A leader named Eli, the High Priest, thought she was drunk, scorned her struggle and rebuked her. So we know that the church can disappoint you and spiritual leaders you’d expect better things from are often not the people that will do you the most good,
Then in this context we are made aware that Hannah’s husband loved her but that didn’t help her for her husband could not fix what she was suffering from. Her marriage to a good man was not enough.
So everywhere Hannah looked her needs were not met and life was getting harder. In her shame she resented her life and desperately was afraid of what the future was going to bring.
But in all this Anna decided to go directly to God. We read, “In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the Lord”.
Note however that the prophet Micah in 6:7 has given praying people this warning,
“ Will the Lord be pleased with 1000 of rams, with 10,000 rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul”,
David in Psalm 51 confirmed this statement by Micah when he addressed God, “You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart”.
So notice what Hannah did as she lived in a dark time. In her misery she came to God and told Him that she had nothing to offer except her misery and as such if He was listening to her she could only offer Him whatever she could for she did not know what would lead God to act on her behalf. So with nowhere else to turn and acknowledging her need she offered up the most important thing in her life, and that was the son Samuel for whom she had been praying
She had nothing but would give to God whatever He gave to her. She asked the Lord for Samuel, the subject of our Study.
Hannah did not know that it was the Lord that had closed her womb But she was therefore brought to the point where she would turn to Him and ask Him for help directly. She came to God with nothing but a heart, offering herself, and she was willing to be changed by God’s answer.
So we can learn that our difficulty existed for the glory of God as much as that of the blind man in John 19 was. As a result Hannah was able to pray a great prayer of thanks which was a great prayer of encouragement to those that God cared for and who suffer. God raises up the downtrodden, she states.
When you are in a place of barrenness and despair as the nation of Israel was at that time God would act towards His people the same as when the whole world as well as the nation of Israel had fallen into a condition of darkness and the nation had endured 400 silent years.
Then in that darkest of the hour the angel Gabriel was sent to Mary to tell her that the fullness of time was come.
In the life of Hannah, in the darkest hour and in the darkest moment her turning to God offering herself would bring the response that God wanted.
One of the most beautiful things in the Bible therefore teach us as one writer puts it:
- Our problems are given to us of the Lord.
- Our circumstances come from his hand.
- Our difficulties are of his making.
God gives our difficulties to us so that we will bring them right back to Him as Hannah did, putting them in God’s hands, and letting God lead us through the greatest solution that He has in mind all along. This will lead inevitably to join at last in the great song of praise, like the song of Hannah, and the Magnificat of Mary.
It is an amazing thing for the peace of God we are told will pass all understanding and will keep us until the hour of God’s solution so that there we will be born, and integrated into God’s program, into God’s plan, and into God’s answer
In this Study Lesson we also come across a very difficult matter for we will be faced with the problem of an unrepentant High Priest, the sad story of Eli.
We are therefore faced with the problem of grace and the problem of judgment and we will have to balance the seeming opposition with great care as we study.
We will be forced to come up with an explanation of what life means or should mean for the people of God. Should it be a passive experience, with laziness exhibited, indulgence, content with the status quo, and fumbling around?
Or should the life of the people of God at every level be lived with intentionality, answering the call of God to intentional living and not just wanting to get saved and waiting to die.
In the time of Hanah, Samuel, and Eli the nation of Israel was in a condition of moral and spiritual turmoil and the people were not living according to Yahweh’s command but were only doing what seemed “ right” to them.
So the book of Samuel is the story of a man whose name is included in its title. It deals with the transition from rule by Israel’s Judges to kinship told through the lives of four men giving us a realistic picture of how they felt and, their motivations, their passions, their aspirations, and as well their successes and their failures.
Samuel is the only person in the Old Testament of whom we are told the essential things about him prior to his birth and it continues after his death. So we are not surprised when we are told that he led the transition to the monarchy and the placing on the throne of Saul of the tribe of Benjamin and David from Bethlehem Judah.
But as we study let us not forget that behind it all there was this fifth character, God who was behind the scenes shaping individual destinies to further His divine plan.
God had a divine plan and we will see how this came about as we look at the events at Yahweh’s sanctuary in Shiloh, where Hannah poured out her heart to God when she and Elkanah’s family made a pilgrimage to Yahweh’s sanctuary at Shiloh, God answered Hannah’s prayer resulting in Samuel’s birth in Ramah and early life in Ramah, and Samuel’s return to Shiloh to work for God.
The transition which is revealed under the plan of God involves leadership changing over from Eli to Samuel, and Samuel living as a priest, a prophet and the last Judge of Israel.
It is very interesting for us to think of the fact that Hannah is only one of several barren women in the Bible who with the intervention of God had sons that were given a mission that they had been given to fulfill in salvation history.
There was Sarah the wife of Abraham who after a long time as a barren woman became the mother of Isaac.
Then there was Rebecca the wife of Isaac who was barren for a long time but who eventually became the mother of Jacob whose name was changed to Israel.
Then there was Rachel the wife of Jacob or Israel who was the mother of Joseph who played an incredible role in the salvation of the nation.
Then there was Manoah’s wife who was the mother of Samson, a Judge who played a pivotal role against Philistine domination in the time of the Judges.
And later we know about Elizabeth the barren wife of Zechariah the priest who was the mother of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ.
In every case God had closed up the womb of the barren woman and then opened their wombs in His own time to further His divine plan. One writer lists some of these events for us:
“Sarah bore Isaac with whom God’s covenant with Abraham continued. Rebekah bore the twins Esau and Jacob; God’s covenant continued with Jacob whom He remained Israel. Jacob- Israel was the father of the 12 tribes of Israel. Rachel bore Jacob’s son Joseph who saved his family from famine by bringing them to live in Egypt. He was the father of Ephraim whose descendant Joshua was chosen by God to succeed Moses, and to lead the Israelites in the successful invasion of Canaan. Manoah’s wife became the mother of Samson who began the deliverance of Israel from the Philistines.
Two of these men, Isaac and Jacob, became the ancestors of the covenant people and of the Redeemer-Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.
Elizabeth was the mother of John the Baptist whose important mission was to prepare Israel for the advent of Jesus the Son of God and promised Redeemer-Messiah.
In each case these women played an important role in salvation history by giving birth to sons whose destiny was to move forward God’s divine plan for the nation of Israel and for the salvation of mankind. Hannah’s son will also fulfill a divine destiny”.
1 Samuel 2 tells us about the sons of Eli who were scoundrels and who cared nothing for Yahweh or what it meant to be priests. The sacrifice was instituted by God and an animal was offered to God who then shared the sacrifice with the priests and with the covenant people. The fat was given to God and burnt on the altar of burnt offering which was in the courtyard of the sanctuary. The blood of the animal was poured out at the base of the altar. Part of the animal was given to the priest who officiated according to Leviticus 7 and the rest of the animal was returned to the one bringing the animal in sacrifice. It was cooked in a pot and eaten by the person offering the sacrifice and his family and other people of Israel who were at the sanctuary,
But Eli’s sons were contemptuous of the law of God and ignored the regulations in the law which determine what belonged to Yahweh from the sacrifices and what belonged to the priests as their rightful share of the sacrifices. They also ignored what portion of the sacrifices belonged to the people. The sons of Eli ignored the instructions of Leviticus 7: 28-, 29; Numbers 18:8-19, and Deuteronomy 18:3-4. These evil sons of Eli placed their desires ahead of what rightfully belonged to Yahweh, and so served themselves and their desires rather than serving the people or serving God.
In contrast 1 Samuel 2 18-21 describe the young Samuel’s life at Shiloh where he wore a linen loin cloth or ephod and obediently served Eli.
The chapter tells us that Eli heard everything that his sons were doing. They were demanding the best of the sacrifices brought by the people and not waiting for it to be shared as stipulated in the law. In addition they were having sexual relationships with the women that came to the sanctuary and so we know the degradation of the sanctuary of God and the people of God continued unabated.
Although he was old Eli heard about everything that his sons were doing and that it was not good. Eli did make an attempt to warn his sons pointing out to them that sinning against God was far more serious than anything else for nobody was living with the authority to stand up for them against God. They are sinning against God and sinning against the people and so were in fact denying God’s divine authority over them.
But Eli’s son did not listen to Eli warning and their many sins against God and His covenant stipulations and covenant people led to God’s divine judgment being declared against them.
God even sent a man of God to Eli warning him that if he did not correct his sons and bringing them before the Council and stripping them as priests with no authority he was in fact despising God and dishonouring God. As a result of this there would be judgment on the sons for their failures and at the same time there would be judgment on their father for his failure concerning his sons and their violations of the priestly offices. The judgments of God were listed:
- The death of Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas were foretold
- Eli would become blind and spiritually desolate
- There would be no future for Eli’s family line and none of his surviving family members would live to an old age but would all die violently, and
- The last of his descendants would be so poor that they would have to beg people for their survival and their living.
So here we have the story of a disobedient priest who did not repent. He lived all his life in the service of God and appeared to be a somewhat godly man but his personality showed his tendency to made bad mistakes such as he did when Hannah was praying to God pouring out her soul to God.
It is important to recognize that Israel’s identity rested on their religious beliefs and their ritual practices. The priesthood was an important part of this for a priest was supposed to serve God and the people of God by acting as a mediator between God and the people.
The priest would be teaching the people that their sin had separated them from God. The sacrificial system was designed to remind them over and over again about this separation and the priests were therefore responsible for the sacred duty of ensuring that the sacrificial system was done properly. They were in the position of priests to teach the people of God how to know and follow God in every way.
Remember therefore that priests in Israel were most important people for the people went to them to understand God and His will for their lives. They were the real leaders in the community.
They were all to be descendants of Aaron and so their rule was hereditary. The sons of these priests were to serve God as priests after their fathers and so on throughout the generations.
They were handler of holy things which, included the sacrifices, the altar, the tabernacle the local shrines that God had established and later of course the temple in Jerusalem. They had to be very careful in dealing with the things of God for in so doing they established the correct way of life for the people of God.
The priests were the rulers who cared for the people in both their words and their lives. They were to be a model of a godly life and they were to teach and care for the people of God.
But instead of following those requirements of the priesthood faithfully it appears that Eli in his entire life as the High Priest was simply going through the motions of his religious duties. So even though he presided over the official worship services at Shiloh he did not seem to be in any position to rebuke people like Elkanah who though they were religious had two wives contrary to the instructions of the law.
When Eli saw Hannah speaking in her heart with her lips not moving Eli took her to be a drunken woman and she had to point out to Eli that she was not really drinking. Only then Eli told her to go in peace telling her then that the God of Israel would grant her petition that she has made. He was obviously not seeking the direction of God before he arrived at his conclusions,
This fatal trait of Eli reflected in how he treated his sons and so he allowed his two sons Hophni and Phinehas to sin by stealing from the sacrifices of the people, eating what they wanted for themselves in direct contradiction to God’s directive in Leviticus 7.
In addition, he did not stop them from sexually molesting the people that came to the sanctuary. He did confront his sons verbally but that’s all he did. Eli failed to use his position and his authority for good though he was in a very patriarchal society and culture. As head of the family he had the authority in the family to restrain his sons and he also had the authority to call on the civil authority to straighten out his sons. But he chose not to restrain his sons and in so doing he hurt the people of God. He knew what he was doing for even though he confronted his sons he did not restrain them. He was simply going through the motions in his job as High Priest and in his parenting.
So what do we say about unrepentant priests or pastors who go through the motions, not raising godly sons even though they were priests by heredity. He allowed the sexual appetites of his sons to be unrestrained and he allowed them to seduce the worshipping women who came to Tabernacle services. So God’s judgment against Eli and all his descendants was inevitable after God warned Eli to change his ways.
We therefore have to consider grace and judgment.
The judgment came eventually for the behaviour of Eli and his sons were such that they would never be forgiven by sacrifice or by offerings according to 1: Samuel 3: 14.
This is a rather sad story.
It stands as a warning to us for we are all called by God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit to be priests of God offering spiritual sacrifices.
Do not therefore like Eli or Eli’s sons be so foolish not to take the warnings from God seriously and assume that Yahweh will not destroy those who violate the commands of God.
We knew that the precedent had already been set in God’s divine judgment in the death of their ancestor Aaron’s two elder sons for abuses in the liturgy of worship. We therefore should be careful.
Now we will see in our Study Lesson that God had to call Samuel so that the transition from the desperate times of the Judges would begin.
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THE TEXT
This was the time when we read that the revelation of God was rare. Eli’s house stood in judgment. And the child Samuel who God had given to Hannah and Elkanah had been given back to God so that he would be engaged in the service of God. The Lord therefore called Samuel and entrusted His word to Samuel.
God would establish Samuel as a prophet accepted by all Israel, and God would restore the prophetic revelation at Shiloh.
The first lesson we note now is that the Word of God cannot be silenced by a corrupt leadership. The priesthood at Shiloh was corrupt and Eli’s sons of Hophni and Phineas abused the sacrifices and exploited their office and committed sexual immorality right at the entrance to the Temple of Meeting without Eli going beyond a rather mild rebuke and exercising effective restraint given his entrusted authority.
The times were dark and Samuel was given to Hannah who had asked the Lord for him. She received Samuel as a gift from God and she dedicated Samuel to lifelong service in the sanctuary according to 1 Samuel 1: 9-28.
So we know that Samuel was not self appointed. He was not promoted by any institution. He was not in that position because he was naturally talented and insightful. The Lord God Almighty personally called him and gave him a difficult message to carry to Eli’s house and the people of God and God confirmed Samuel’s prophetic ministry by honouring every word that Samuel spoke.
Notice therefore that God called an inexperienced boy and will repeat a previously announced judgment and test Samuel’s willingness to report it.
So never forget that the central person in this Study is the Lord. One writer therefore states: “He calls comes, stands, speaks, judges, accompanies, confirms, appears, and reveals Himself. Samuel’s response is humble listening followed by complete truthfulness.
So Samuel ministers before the Lord under Eli during a period of severe spiritual decline.
The sanctuary still operates, sacrifices are still offered, and priestly titles are still held, but outward religious activity has not produced faithful leadership.
Eli’s sons do not know the Lord and treat His offerings with contempt (1 Samuel 2: 12,17). Eli knows their sin yet honors his sons above God by allowing the corruption to continue (1 Samuel 2:29; 3:13)
The rarity of divine revelation therefore belongs within a setting of covenant unfaithfulness and impending judgment”.
We read therefore that as Eli lies down in his room with his eyesight severely dim, Samuel is living in the place in the sanctuary where the Ark of the covenant was located so his job seems to be to tend for the lamp of God so that it does not go out.
The events we will look at therefore occurs for the lamps are located in the section of the sanctuary before the section that the priests would minister in once a year. The lights had to be tended according to Exodus 27: 20-21 and Leviticus 24:2-4.
The Lord who would be present behind the curtain where the Ark of the Lord was located called Samuel and Samuel answered “ Here am I” assuming that it was Eli that had called him.
The voice was real but because Samuel had not previously received any direct revelation from God he did not seem to know the voice of the Lord. But he was ready to respond and did not delay and rushed to the aged priest Eli.
Note that the voice called Samuel’s name. Samuel was summoned by God and had to respond before he would be entrusted to deliver the message of God faithfully.
Eli denied that he had called Samuel and told Samuel to go back to bed. But the Lord called Samuel again and Samuel went back to Eli and Eli sent him back to bed.
So we know that Samuel had not previously encountered the Lord in this way and the language expresses the idea that the word of the Lord had not yet been disclosed to Samuel. Samuel was inexperienced.
Eli denied calling him and told him to go back to bed
Verses 8-9. Then came the third call and when Samuel rushed to Eli again insisting that he had called him Eli realized that it was the Lord calling the boy Samuel and so Eli told Samuel therefore to go back to his bedroom and answer as a servant, “Speak Lord; for thy servant heareth”.
Samuel obeyed Eli and went back to his bed.
Verse 10. We are told that the Lord came and stood over Samuel and called him again,, this time saying Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, “Speak Lord for thy servant heareth”.
Note that Eli despite his failure as a servant of God is capable of giving true instructions. Eli was a compromised leader but he still had words that were useful and accurate. He could still advise Samuel to identify himself as the servant of the Lord and under God’s authority, ready to listen and carry out the message of God.
It is interesting to note that the language indicates that this was a real divine manifestation but it does not explain the form that the Lord took when standing by Samuel. The language does not indicate that Samuel saw a bodily shape. This reminds us of what happened when God stopped Abraham from sacrificing Isaac or speaking to Jacob before the family moved to Egypt or as well God commissioning Moses at the burning bush.
Verse 11. Though Samuel was still only a young child the Lord did not mince words but announced a judgment on Eli and his house that was so shocking that everyone who saw what happened to Eli and his house would have their ears tingling in horror at God’s judgment.
The tingling of the ears therefore spoke of dreadful news according to 2 Kings 21:12 and Jeremiah 19:3.
Verse 12. The judgment was targeted at Eli’s house. One day soon God would perform all the things that He had warned Eli about from that unnamed man of God.
Notice therefore that God’s judgment was not an impulsive one. God had watched the evil doings of Eli and his sons and warned them through a man of God. God was ready to confirm the sentence through Samuel making Samuel understand that there would be a complete execution of the judgment of God.
Verse 13. The Lord made it clear that He intended to perform all the things that God had warned him about. He would make an end to the house of Eli. He had warned Eli about the iniquity that Eli well knew about. Eli and his sons had blasphemed God, made themselves vile in the sight of God, made themselves contemptible. God indicated that the sons had brought a curse on themselves for their conduct at profaning the sacrifices, sexually exploiting the worshippers who were women, exploiting the worshippers, and persisting in sinning despite being warned
Eli had been told that his house would be judged for the iniquity that he well knew about so Eli was not ignorant and his sons were not ignorant. Eli had been confronted with the truth and he had confronted his sons verbally but had not used his authority to restrain them. He was therefore deeply disloyal to God honouring his sons above the Lord.
All believers should know therefore that being aware of what is against the command of God and even disapproving of them verbally is not sufficient in the eyes of God.
When God has entrusted you as a person enabled to offer spiritual sacrifices you have the lawful authority to check serious ongoing evil.
So we all know that the parents, leaders in the church, elders and pastors must act faithfully for God has given them that responsibility.
They are not told that they must exceed their authority but if they passively allow sin to continue they are giving permission and so they will be culpable.
Verse 14. It is important to note that the Lord warned Samuel that there were no sacrifices that could cancel the sentence that God had declared. The Lord had sworn that because of the iniquity of Eli and his house they could not be purgedby sacrifices or offerings. These could never atone for the sins and iniquity of Eli’s house for the family had corrupted the entire sacrificial ministry knowingly and persistently and so they came under the sentence of God that could not be reversed.
Note the warning is that by simply performing rituals you cannot cancel the sworn judgment of God. In the case of Eli rituals or sacrifices could never be regarded as magical payments that protected these unrepentant priests from the sworn judgment of God.
Note also that this verse does not tell you that every descendant is eternally beyond mercy. The subject in mind here is explicitly regarding the guilt and judicial fate of Eli’s house for that house is a priestly dynasty. The sentence of God would begin with the death of Hophni and Phinehas and it would be fulfilled when Solomon removes Abiathar from priestly office according to 1Samuel 4:11 and 1 Kings 2:26-27
The judgment on Eli and his house is not to be regarded therefore as a detailed type.
It simply establishes the broader truth that rituals cannot save and that a true atonement is found only in the ultimate sacrifice that God provides.
Verse 15. The poor young boy Samuel was faced with a serious decision. He laid down until morning and then did his required duties of keeping the worship candles in the sanctuary alight and opening the doors of the sanctuary. But he was afraid to report the vision to Eli not because he doubted it but he knew that giving such a message to the man that was supervising him and caring for him and looking after him would be a tremendous blow to Eli. So Samuel returned to his regular work Samuel remained a servant.
Verse 16. But Eli knew that something was afoot and so in the morning he called Samuel and Samuel dutifully answered, “Here am I”.
Verse 17. Eli immediately confronted Samuel and asked him what the Lord had told him and he warned Samuel not to hide anything from him. If Samuel tried to hide anything from him God would do to him what he would do to Eli in judgement.
Verse 18. So Samuel told Eli everything that the Lord had told him. Eli had demanded the complete message and had invoked judgment on Samuel if he hid anything and so Samuel had concealed nothing.
Note that Samuel now functioned as a faithful prophet, not editing any message to preserve Eli’s feeling or to maintain peace between them. Samuel speaks the entire word that God had entrusted to him.
It is rather disturbing to see Eli’s answer. “He is the LORD. Let him do what is good in his eyes”.
Eli’s confession clearly indicates that he knew who God was, and he knew that God had a sovereign right to act according to what was good in His sight.
Yet there is no indication that Eli was willing to reform himself and his mental position and attitude after hearing the judgment of God.
He certainly expressed submission to God’s sovereignty but his submission did not include full repentance.
There was no acceptance of the truth. There was no humility and full repentance. There was no fear of God, no affection for God, and no respect for God’s authority. It is almost as if Eli was either defiant or he did not care what God wanted to do.
We do not of course know whether Eli was a saved person or not. We simply have to leave that judgment to God.
But we do know that this is not the way that one should approach God.
Verse 19. Samuel will continue to grow and God never left him and none of the prophetic words that God gave to Samuel ever failed.
Samuel had authority and since his word rested on the Word of God its force was undeniable.
Verse 20. Time went on in Shiloh. All Israel from the north to the south recognized that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of God. The word of God from Samuel produced nationwide recognition.
Samuel’s role in this transition to the king was as prophet, judge, intercessor, and the Anointer of Kings.
CONCLUSION
So here comes the time of serious reflection. How responsible are parents for the bad or good decisions their children make in life?
Eli raised his sons and he raised Samuel as an adopted son. But one writer points out that yet Eli’s sons were very different from his adopted son in their sense of morality and in their relationship with God.
So how much is “nurture” and how much is “nature”?
Think about that carefully.
Also think about your responsibility. You are not to look at known sin and fail in restraining it.
Think carefully about what you do for understand that corrupt leadership cannot silence the purposes of God.
Once sin is revealed to you and you are disparaging of the covenant of God you are accountable for your sin.
Do not think that religious ritual can shield the judgment of God on defiant sin. Sacrifice cannot be used as a cover for rebellion.
Your sacred office as a spiritual priest of God can never place you above the Word of God.
Samuel heard God’s word even though this was the age when revelation was rare and so do not think that the times you live in are so evil that you do not have to pay attention to hearing the word of God. You should never allow your dim physical eyes to keep you in spiritual darkness. You should hear and you should obey no matter what your situation.
Corrupt leaders will face severe judgment. Those that corrupt worship will face severe judgment. God will remove unfaithful branches.
God sees when Hophni and Phinehas turn God’s appointments into theft, corruption of the people, and into sexual malpractice, and contempt for the offerings of God.
Be careful that you know that honouring family above God is idolatry. Loyalty to the family does not authorize disloyalty to God. One writer comments that parents and leaders honor neither God nor their loved ones when they protect unrepentant wrongdoing from necessary truth and discipline
Remember there is only one mediator between you and God the Father, and therefore you should ask yourself the question, “Who will intercede for me when I continue in sin?”
Remember that the Lord Jesus Christ will save those who will draw near to God through Him. Also think carefully about the fact that God will raise up faithful servants, for God has a purpose and that purpose is moving salvation history toward God’s appoved appointed King.