1 Samuel 3:12

_IN THAT DAY I WILL PERFORM AGAINST ELI ALL THINGS WHICH I HAVE SPOKEN CONCERNING HIS HOUSE: WHEN I BEGIN, I WILL ALSO MAKE AN END._ In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house - i:e., at the time appointed; and in the course of Providence, which was between 20 and 30 years of this prophetic denunciation, the judgments threatened by the man of God (1 Samuel 2:27) began to be inflicted. WHEN I BEGIN, I WILL ALSO MAKE AN END. Judgment being God's strange work, He long delays it, and in the exercise of long-suffering patience affords ample time for repentance. But when the period of grace expires, the judicial infliction commences, and will be carried on until the vial of divine wrath is emptied....

11-18 What a great deal of guilt and corruption is there in us, concerning which we may say, It is the iniquity which our own heart knoweth; we are conscious to ourselves of it! Those who do not restrain the sins of others, when it is in their power to do it, make themselves partakers of the guilt, and will be charged as joining in it. In his remarkable answer to this awful sentence, Eli acknowledged that the Lord had a right to do as he saw good, being assured that he would do nothing wrong. The meekness, patience, and humility contained in those words, show that he was truly repentant; he accepted the punishment of his sin....

Verse 1 Samuel 3:12. _I WILL PERFORM - ALL THINGS WHICH I HAVE SPOKEN_] That is, what He had declared by the prophet, whose message is related 1 Samuel 2:27, c. _WHEN I BEGIN, I WILL ALSO MAKE AN END._] I will not delay the execution of my purpose: when I begin, nothing shall deter me from bringing all my judgments to a conclusion....

WHEN I BEGIN ... - literally, as in the margin: meaning, I will go through with the performance from first to last....

EXPOSITION THE CALL OF SAMUEL (1 Samuel 3:1). 1 SAMUEL 3:1 THE WORD OF THE LORD WAS PRECIOUS IN THOSE DAYS. Or rather _rare_;_ _it came but seldom, and there was no proper order of persons from whose ranks the "speakers for God" would naturally step forth. It was this which made the revelation of Jehovah's will to Samuel an event so memorable both for the Jewish nation and for the Church; for he was called by the providence of God to be the founder of prophecy as an established institution, and henceforward, side by side with the king and priest, the prophet took his place as one of the three factors in the preparation for the coming of him who is a king to rule, a Prie

IN THAT DAY I WILL PERFORM AGAINST ELI ALL THINGS WHICH I HAVE SPOKEN CONCERNING HIS HOUSE,.... Or family, that is, by the man of God, 1 Samuel 2:27 as that he would cut off the strength of it, that there should not be an old man in it; and such as remained should be reduced to the utmost poverty and meanness; this shows that that prophecy was antecedent to this, contrary to the sense of some: WHEN I BEGIN, I WILL ALSO MAKE AN END; not immediately, and at once, but by degrees; he began in the death of Hophni and Phinehas, and went on in the slaughter of Abimelech, and the eighty five priests at Nob, in the times of Saul, and finished in the thrusting out of Abiathar from the priesthood, in the times of Solomon, whereby that family was brought to disgrace and poverty....

4. SAMUEL'S CALL AND PROPHETIC MINISTRY CHAPTER 3 _ 1. Samuel's call (1 Samuel 3:1)_ 2. The message from Jehovah (1 Samuel 3:10) 3. Samuel the prophet (1 Samuel 3:19) After the priesthood had so completely failed and divine judgment had been pronounced, Samuel receives his call to the prophetic office. He continued his ministrations as a Levite during the time that the word of the Lord was precious (literally, rare); there was no vision. Up to this time Samuel had not known the Lord nor had the word of the Lord been revealed to him (verse 7). It must have been near the hour of dawn, for the tabernacle lamp was not yet gone out, when the voice of Jehovah called Samuel by name. He kn

IN OBEDIENCE TO THE COMMAND OF THE LORD, SAMUEL ANNOUNCES TO ELI THE DOOM OF HIS HOUSE. Parallel to the Deuteronomic section (1 Samuel 2:27). 1 SAMUEL 3:12. Probably an addition by the Deuteronomic writer to connect with 1 Samuel 2:27 ff. 1 Samuel 3:13. I have told: read, thou shalt tell. 1 Samuel 3:19 to 1 Samuel 4:1 A. ALL ISRAEL. SAMUEL ESTABLISHED AS PROPHET....

Announcement of the Doom of Eli's House 11. _I will do_ I AM DOING. The catastrophe is certain. With God the future is as the present. _at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle_ This expression is found again in 2 Kings 21:12, and Jeremiah 19:3. In the latter passage there may be a tacit reference to this passage, suggesting a comparison between the destruction of Shiloh and the destruction of Jerusalem, such as is found elsewhere in Jeremiah (1 Samuel 7:12-14; 1 Samuel 26:6). The appalling catastrophe thus predicted was the impending defeat of Israel by the Philistin

WHEN I BEGIN, I WILL ALSO MAKE AN END— God declares to Samuel, that he will execute upon the house of Eli all that he had threatened against him by the prophet whom he had heretofore sent; that he would not delay it; nor would he discontinue it till the just measure of his chastisements was fulfilled. Eli and his sons perished first; eighty-five priests of this family fell afterwards by the sword of Doeg; then Abiathar was degraded; and thus the house of Eli was reduced to the greatest misery....