1 Samuel 3:1-21: God Speaks to Samuel

1 Samuel 3:1-21: God Speaks to Samuel

We’ve been working our way passage by passage through the book of 1 Samuel, and today the next passage we come to is 1 Samuel 3:1-21. It says,

¹ Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision. ² At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. ³ The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. ⁴ Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” ⁵ and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. ⁶ And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” ⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. ⁸ And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹ Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. ¹⁰ And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” ¹¹ Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. ¹² On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. ¹³ And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. ¹⁴ Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.” ¹⁵ Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. ¹⁶ But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹⁷ And Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” ¹⁸ So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.” ¹⁹ And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. ²⁰ And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. ²¹ And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

May God bless the reading of his Word.

Let’s pray: Father, we know that in order to rightly understand both what this passage is teaching and how it connects to our lives, we need the Holy Spirit. So please, send your Spirit to minister to us through this passage today in a most powerful way. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

 We live in a world in which there are all kinds of voices speaking to us and trying to influence the way we think and behave. These voices speak to us from the podcasts we listen to, the social media feeds we scroll, the news articles we read, the YouTube videos or streaming shows we watch, the advertisements we’re exposed to, the emails we receive, the music we listen to, and even the good old-fashioned books we read and face-to-face conversations we have. By any measure, there are a stunning array of voices speaking into our lives and seeking to influence us in one way or another. The barrage of these voices is constant and virtually endless.

And I have to wonder—even for those of us who are Christians—how often this constant barrage of other voices hinders us from hearing the most important voice of all—which, of course, is God’s voice. You might compare it to being in a loud public area—such as an airport, perhaps—in which there’s so much happening all around you and so many different sounds that you don’t hear your phone as it’s ringing. And it’s quite problematic when we don’t hear God’s voice—because there’s no voice more critical for us to hear than the voice of God. 

And as we see pictured in our main passage today of 1 Samuel 3, God is indeed speaking to us. Although, admittedly, I’m not sure we should expect God to speak to us in exactly the same way he spoke to Samuel in this passage, make no mistake: God’s still speaking to us in certain ways today. The question, though, is whether we’re ready to hear God’s voice and whether we’re actively seeking out his voice in the midst of all of the other voices calling out for our attention. And we’ll talk a little later about how exactly we hear God’s voice today.

But first, let’s turn our attention to this passage and see what it says about God speaking to Samuel. By way of review, Samuel’s mother dedicated him at a young age to the service of God in the temple. This means Samuel actually lived in the temple and was raised in the temple by the priest Eli. And even though Eli was generally godly himself, he was terribly negligent in raising his own sons, with the result that both of Eli’s sons—Hophni and Phinehas—were thoroughly corrupt and utterly unqualified to serve as priests or have any kind of leadership role in the nation of Israel.

However, in this chapter, we see God raising up Samuel and preparing him for the role he would have later in his life of leading God’s people. To state it concisely, the main idea of this passage is that, from an early age, Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. That statement quotes directly from verse 20. From an early age, Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. So, let’s walk through this passage together and see what it says to us about God’s interactions with Samuel.

Look with me first at verse 1: “Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” Now, this statement about “the word of the Lord [being] rare in those days” is intended to be a decidedly negative statement about the current spiritual condition of the Israelites.

Without a completed Bible, their spiritual welfare depended upon hearing from God. And the way God would speak to them was through prophets, who would serve as God’s mouthpiece and speak to the Israelites on God’s behalf. So, prophetic ministry consisted of hearing and speaking the words of God. Perhaps the best contemporary comparison would be the press secretary of an elected official or perhaps the spokesperson for a large company. These individuals have the responsibility of speaking to the general public about the positions and intentions of the leaders they represent.

Similarly, prophets had the sacred duty of proclaiming to the Israelites whatever message God had given them. This would usually involve a combination of both foretelling and forthtelling. A prophet would, first of all, frequently engage in foretelling by predicting what would happen in the future—such as perhaps an invading army that would come or some other way in which God’s judgement would be manifested in response to his people’s rebellion. Yet most of the prophetic words recorded in the Bible actually aren’t foretelling but rather forthtelling, in which the prophet would make a statement about Israel’s current spiritual condition and, quite often, call the Israelites to repent of their wicked ways and return to God.

However, as we can see here in verse 1, such an occurrence had been very rare during this particular season of Israel’s history. And that was a terrible thing for Israel and potentially even a sign of God’s judgment on the nation. Yet…that’s about to change. God’s about to break his relative silence and speak to the young boy Samuel.

Look at verses 2-3: ² At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. ³ The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.

So, we’re told that Eli’s “eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see.” This is undoubtedly a reference to his physical eyesight, but we also have to ask ourselves why this detail about Eli is highlighted here. Perhaps the author of this narrative is subtly indicating to us that Eli not only had dim physical eyesight but that he also had dim spiritual eyesight. He lacked the spiritual perceptiveness and vision that were necessary for leading the Israelites in a godly manner.

We’re also told that “The lamp of God had not yet gone out.” This was a particular lamp that was located in the temple and that God had said should burn from evening until morning. God prescribes that in Exodus 27:21. So, since this lamp “had not yet gone out” here in 1 Samuel 3, it seems likely that it was the middle of the night or perhaps close to dawn. Yet again, there may very well be a reason why the narrator highlights this detail. He doesn’t just say that it’s night but goes out of his way to say that “The lamp of God had not yet gone out”—perhaps in order to indicate that, even though the nation wasn’t at all in a good place spiritually and that the word of the Lord was indeed rare in those days, God hadn’t abandoned his people. There was still hope for the nation.

The end of verse 3 then tells us that Samuel’s lying down. And while he’s lying down, something very unexpected happens. Verses 4-7 state, ⁴ Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” ⁵ and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down. ⁶ And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” ⁷ Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

Now, it would seem that God called out to Samuel in an audible voice. We don’t know if anyone else heard the voice or not, but Samuel certainly heard it and thought it was Eli. After all, who else would be calling out to him? And Samuel demonstrates a high level of responsiveness to this voice—even though it’s the middle of the night—and dutifully presents himself to Eli. I have to admit that I probably wouldn’t be that responsive at that hour of the night. As my family can tell you, I’m usually less than enthusiastic about my sleep being disturbed. But Samuel, by contrast, is quite responsive and appears before Eli but is then told to go back to bed. The same thing then happens again, and we’re told that Samuel didn’t recognize it was God’s voice since God had never spoken to him before.

After that, the story continues in verses 8-10, ⁸ And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. ⁹ Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. ¹⁰ And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”

We then read what God says to him in verses 11-14: ¹¹ Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. ¹² On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. ¹³ And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. ¹⁴ Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

So, this is a terrible and devastating message that Samuel receives from God. The negligence of Eli and the outrageous and downright blasphemous behavior of Eli’s sons has been so bad that, God says, “the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.” Since Eli’s sons had despised the very sacrificial offerings by which their sin could be atoned for, God declares that there will be no atonement for their sins. What a sobering thought.

And I feel compelled to point out that the same is true for us if we reject the provision God’s made in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for the atonement of our sins. Hebrews 10:26-27 tells us, ²⁶ For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth [that is, the truth of Jesus dying on the cross to pay for our sins], there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, ²⁷ but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. So, anyone who rejects Jesus faces the same judgment that’s decreed for Eli’s sons in our main passage. If we despise the provision God’s made for the atonement of our sins, then there will be no atonement and no forgiveness.

Then, after Samuel receives this devastating message from God, verses 15-18 tell us, ¹⁵ Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. ¹⁶ But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” ¹⁷ And Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” ¹⁸ So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”

As we discussed, the job of a prophet was to faithfully relay to people what God had said, regardless of how unpopular that message might be or what kind of consequences it might bring for the prophet. And Samuel bravely does this with Eli and tells Eli everything God said the previous night.

Likewise, it’s good remember that all of us who are Christians are called to a similar kind of ministry as well. Although we may not be “prophets” per say, we’re nevertheless called to a kind of prophetic ministry as we share the gospel message—that is, the message of Jesus—with those who aren’t yet Christians. Although it’s true that there’s a chance that people may not always respond to this message in the way we’re hoping they will and that they’ll even, at times, be rather offended by some aspects of the gospel, such as the realities of sin and judgment and the need for repentance, our calling is nevertheless to relay to them the truths that they so desperately need to hear—even if it isn’t always what they initially want to hear.

In that regard, we’re a lot like the mailman. The mailman has one job, and that is to deliver the mail. He doesn’t have to stay up at night worrying about whether people will read the mail or what they’ll think of the mail. And he certainly doesn’t try to alter the contents of the mail he’s delivering. Instead, he simply carries people’s mail to their houses and puts it in their mailbox. That’s his job—to deliver the mail. And that’s the role we’ve been given as well. God’s entrusted to us something of infinite value—the message of the gospel. And he expects us to be faithful in relaying to others that very same gospel message without altering it in any way.

And in our main passage, that’s what Samuel does in relaying to Eli the message he had received from God. Thankfully, Eli seems to receive it well enough.

We then read a summary of God’s hand continuing to be on Samuel as he grows older in verses 19-20: ¹⁹ And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. ²⁰ And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. So, from an early age, “Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord”—and everyone in Israel recognized his legitimacy.

Now, this raises several very interesting questions about whether we can expect anything similar to this to happen today. After all, the New Testament does speak in numerous places of the spiritual gift of “prophecy.” It tells us that there are certain individuals in the church who have this gift of prophecy and who are called to deliver words of prophecy to others.

Of course, there’s a tremendous amount of debate, first of all, about the exact nature of the gift of prophecy in the New Testament—namely with regard to whether New Testament prophecy is the same as Old Testament prophecy. Some say that it is, while others say that New Testament prophecy isn’t infallible the way Old Testament prophecy was but instead maintain that those who legitimately have the New Testament gift of prophecy can sometimes be mistaken about the precise nature of the message God would have them share. So, that’s one aspect of this that’s heavily debated. Is New Testament prophecy fallible or infallible?

Another matter of significant controversy is whether the gift of prophecy is still in operation today or whether it effectively ceased back in the first century. I’ll just say that there are a variety of views about these questions within our church and even among our church’s elders. And I’d certainly love nothing more to share the “right” view with you this this morning, but time unfortunately doesn’t allow for that.

One conclusion I’ve drawn, though, after extensive dialogues with people that I’ve honestly found to be quite helpful is that, I think, a big portion of this debate actually boils down to terminology. One person who believes that the gift of prophecy still exists today might call a particular experience the gift of prophecy, while another person who doesn’t believe the gift of prophecy still exists today might view that very experience as simply the Holy Spirit impressing something on a person’s heart. So, at least among Christians who are firmly committed to both the authority and sufficiency of the Bible, I think a lot of this often boils down to a disagreement about terminology—in which we’re simply using different terminology to describe the same spiritual experiences.

And even though time doesn’t allow us to do a deep dive into questions about the New Testament gift of prophecy and whether such a gift is still in operation today, I would like to give you some practical guidelines that I believe people on both sides of this issue should find helpful. Three guidelines for seeking to hear from God.

First, understand that God speaks to us today primarily in and through the Bible. Of course, I imagine we’d all acknowledge that there are certain things we can learn about God from nature and that there are plenty of helpful ways we can learn from other Christians, but the primary way God speaks to us today is in and through the Bible.

Unfortunately, it seems as though some Christians—especially of a more Charismatic persuasion—can become rather preoccupied with seeking out the latest words of prophecy or guidance from God to the neglect of the timeless truths we find in the Bible. In some circles, professing Christians seem to have relatively little interest in what God’s revealed in the Bible and are instead fascinated with the new and novel. They want to get the latest revelation from God rather than what they view as “yesterday’s news” that we find in the Bible.

So, instead of feasting on the truths and teachings of the Bible that have the power to transform us from the inside out, these professing Christians have a much greater appetite for new and novel “revelations” from God outside of the Bible. And that, I believe, is a grave mistake. Even if some of those revelations happen to be consistent with the Bible, such an approach is still the spiritual equivalent of trying to survive on a diet consisting exclusively of candy and soda.

In reality, the Bible is our source of spiritual nourishment. And it’s in the pages of the Bible that God speaks to us today in the clearest and most powerful way. Just consider the words of David in Psalm 19:7-11: ⁷ The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; ⁸ the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; ⁹ the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether. ¹⁰ More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. ¹¹ Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. So, it’s the words of God in the Bible—rather than anywhere else—that are “more to be desired…than gold” and “sweeter also than honey.”

 So, if there’s anything you want to know more about such as being a man or woman of God, having a healthy marriage, raising godly children, navigating conflicts in a healthy way, overcoming anxiety or depression, coping with grief, dealing with an addition, thriving at school or the workplace, or literally any other life issue, I can’t encourage you enough to immerse yourself in the Bible and discover the power found in the Bible alone. That’s the primary way in which God speaks to us today. So, the single greatest way you can apply our main passage of 1 Samuel 3 to your life is to go home today, open your Bible, and pray, “God, let me hear from you.”

In addition, a second guideline is to cultivate sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. In reality, it’s the Spirit of God who has to illuminate the Word of God and help us see the significance of the Bible and how it applies to our lives. The Bible itself talks about this ministry of illumination of 1 Corinthians 2:10-12. So, just as we see Samuel in our main passage learning to be receptive and sensitive to God’s voice and to recognize God’s voice for what it was, we also need to cultivate a sensitivity to the Holy Spirit.

You know, it’s very easy to be so concerned about the unbiblical excesses of the Charismatic movement—and even the outright heresies that are sometimes tolerated in Charismatic circles—that we fall into the opposite error of having hardly any appreciation at all for the Holy Spirit’s ministry and not being receptive to various truths and realities that the Holy Spirit often impresses upon our hearts or sensitive to the Spirit’s promptings as they relate to our everyday circumstances.

Perhaps the Holy Spirit puts it on our heart to talk to a particular person about Jesus or gives us a clear sense that a particular Christian we know needs to hear a particular truth from the Bible or be ministered to in a particular way. We need to learn to be sensitive to the Spirit’s promptings and responsive to the Spirit’s guidance in our lives. To not be sensitive and responsive to the Holy Spirit in this way would be—in the words of 1 Thessalonians 5:19—to quench the Holy Spirit. And of course, we do this with the understanding that the Holy Spirit will never impress anything upon our hearts or lead us in any direction that’s contrary to the Bible. In fact, he’ll primarily—if not exclusively—simply show us specific ways to apply the Bible to our lives.

Then a third and final guideline is to avoid saying that God told you something unless you’re quoting the Bible. Perhaps you’ve heard the story of the Christian guy who went up to the Christian girl he was attracted to and said, “God told me I’m supposed to marry you.” Fortunately, though, the girl was very wise and thanked him for letting her know that but then politely informed the guy that God hadn’t yet told that to her—and that if God ever did tell that to her, she’d be sure to let the guy know.

In all seriousness, though, I believe it’s very unhelpful and even presumptuous to say things like “God told me this or that” or “God said this or that to me” with regard to things you believe the Holy Spirit has laid on your heart. I think I understand what a lot of Christians are trying to say when they say things like that, but that kind of language can easily be taken in a way that significantly undermines the authority and sufficiency of the Bible.

So, my advice is to avoid saying things like that. Instead, you might consider saying, “The Holy Spirit seems to be giving me a distinct impression of this or that” or “The Holy Spirit seems to be prompting or leading me in this or that direction” or “The Holy Spirit laid a burden on my heart for this or that” or “The Holy Spirit helped me see this or that.” All of these phrases and ways of speaking are much more helpful than saying “God told me something.”

And as we consider in our main passage the way God spoke to Samuel and also the ways he speaks to us today, it’s important for us to remember that the ultimate way God’s spoken to us and made himself known to us is in and through his Son Jesus. Hebrews 1:1-2 states, ¹ Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ² but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. So, in Old Testament times, God spoke to his people through the prophets—such as Samuel. But now, as we’re told in verse 2, God’s spoken to us “by his Son.”

Verse 3 then tells us that the reason Jesus is able to reveal God with unique clarity is because he himself is “the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.” Moreover, Jesus reveals God to us not only by virtue of who he is but also through what he’s done. The end of verse 3 says that Jesus made “purification for sins.”

When sin had corrupted every aspect of our nature and made us thoroughly deserving of God’s punishment, Jesus came to our rescue. After becoming a man and living a perfectly sinless life, Jesus suffered on the cross the punishment our sins deserved. Essentially, God’s righteous wrath against sin came down on Jesus so it wouldn’t have to come down on us. It’s in this way that Jesus made “purification” for our sins before rising from the dead three days later.

As a result, the Bible tells us that we can be rescued from our sins if we’ll turn away from them and put our trust exclusively in Jesus for that rescue. And if you haven’t yet done that, let me be clear that there’s nothing more important or urgent for you to do than to put your trust in Jesus for salvation. And maybe you can sense God pulling you in that direction even now. Maybe you can sense him speaking to you and even, as it were, calling out your name—just as he called out Samuel’s name in our main passage—in order to draw you to himself. Will you, like Samuel, listen to his voice? Will you, even today, turn your life over to Jesus?

And for all of us, we’d do well to be reminded that, even though Jesus is the ultimate revelation of God, it’s through the Bible that we learn about Jesus. So, we again find ourselves coming full circle and returning to the Bible as the supremely valuable gift that God’s given us to know him and enjoy an all-satisfying relationship with him for all eternity. As John Wesley has so famously said, “I want to know one thing, the way to heaven—how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to teach the way: for this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down in a book. O give me that book! At any price give me the Book of God! I have it. Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri [“a man of one book”].”