“For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them.”
~ 1 Samuel 3:13
Hi James and Ellen,
Samuel was probably about twelve years old when what is recounted in 1 Samuel 3 happened. It was still dark outside the morning of the day when Sammy woke up hearing a voice saying something to him. The sky had not yet begun to make the change from its star dotted nighttime black robe to its multihued morning time new day robe. The gold oil lamp that was situated in the Holy Place opposite the table where the bread of the Presence was placed in the Temple of God was still burning when Sammy suddenly woke up hearing a voice call him. Sammy thought Eli had called him. Eli had become a blind, fat old priest who no longer did a good job at what he was supposed to do as the temple priest. Eli was not Sammy’s dad. Sammy’s dad was a guy by the name of Elkanah. Sammy’s ma’s name was Hannah. Hannah had not been able to have kids. During an annual visit with her husband to the Temple of God, Hannah promised God that if He ever let her have a kid that she would give the kid back to Him. Hannah really was desperate to become pregnant and have a kid. God heard Hannah’s plea. After God gave Hannah a kid of her very own, Hannah did what she told God that she would do – which was to give her kid back to Him. Sammy was maybe about two years old when his ma took him to the Temple of God to leave him with Eli for Eli to raise him. Even though Eli had a couple of boys of his very own, Eli’s boys were older than Sammy plus they were not the kind of kids who would have had a healthy influence on Sammy. Your grandpaa does not know what the first ten years or so were like for Sammy as he lived in the Temple of God – with Eli as his teacher and mentor. Your grandpaa thinks that Sammy had to have felt very alone at times. Your grandpaa thinks that Sammy had very little that he could call his very own. Your grandpaa does not think that Sammy had toys, played games or . . . your grandpaa thinks that Sammy had to learn to do most of the jobs or chores that were related to or associated with the Temple of God.
Have you ever heard a voice seemingly coming from nowhere calling you? If you were Sammy, what would you have done if you had heard a voice calling your name early one morning? Where Sammy had to sleep had to have been still pitch black. Because Sammy thought that Eli had called him, Sammy went in the dark to the room where Eli was sleeping to ask Eli why he had called him so early in the morning. Eli told Sammy to go back to bed after he told Sammy that he had not called him. Right after Sammy got back to his room to go back to sleep, Sammy heard the same voice call his name again. Because Sammy really thought that Eli had called him, Sammy went in the dark back again to Eli’s room to ask Eli again why he had called him. Eli told Sammy again to go back to sleep in his room after he had told Sammy again that he had not called him. When Sammy heard the same voice for the third time call him and after he went again in the dark to Eli’s room – because he really did think that Eli was who was calling him, to ask Eli again why he called him, Eli finally realized that it had to have been the Lord God who had called Sammy for one reason or another. Eli told Sammy this time that if the Lord God called him a fourth time to just say to Him ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’ God did call Sammy again early that morning. Sammy said exactly what his teacher and mentor had told him to say when he heard the voice – which was ‘Speak, LORD, your servant is listening’. God got right to the point in telling Sammy what He wanted to tell him. God passed on to Sammy a couple of really tough messages that He told Sammy that he was to pass on to Eli. God told Sammy that He was going to do something in Israel – which was the land that God gave to His specially chosen guys and gals to always to have to live in as their own land, that would have the ears of His specially chosen guys and gals tingling. God also told Sammy that because Eli had not made his kids live their lives the way that He expected Eli to raise them to live their lives that . . . verse 13 says, “For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them.”
How is your dad helping you to live your lives to serve God? Your grandpaa’s dad helped to insure that your grandpaa learned how to serve God. When your grandpaa was twelve years old, your grandpaa was a sixth grader in the Christian School that is located in Volga, South Dakota. One way that your dad is insuring that your lives are being influenced these days with Christian values is that he has you going to Christian schools. Your grandpaa’s dad expected your grandpaa to learn the catechism that the Christian Reformed Church adheres to as their faith doctrine. Your grandmaa’s dad expected your grandmaa to learn the catechism that the Orthodox Presbyterian Church adheres to as their faith doctrine. It is very important to learn and to be able to articulate clearly to other kids and guys and gals that what you really believe are Biblical absolutes. Your grandpaa is quite sure that by the time that Sammy was twelve years old that he could recite perfectly the Levitical laws that God gave through Moses to His specially chosen guys and gals while they were encamped at the base of Mount Sinai on their exodus to the land that God had told them that they would always have to live in as their very own land if . . . by the time that Sammy heard God’s voice distinctly calling him early one morning, God’s specially chosen guys and gals – the Israelite people group’s guys and gals, were checking out on worshipping only God while at the same time worshipping the inanimate idol gods that neighboring people groups of guys and gals worshipped. Sammy became over 3100 years ago God’s spokesman to His specially chosen guys and gals. Would you like to have God’s voice call you to be His servants?
1 Samuel 3 (522)