1 Samuel 3 - Introduction
III. (1 Samuel 3:1) The Lord appears to the Boy Samuel.... [ Continue Reading ]
III. (1 Samuel 3:1) The Lord appears to the Boy Samuel.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHILD SAMUEL MINISTERED UNTO THE LORD. — The writer of this history, although well aware of the great revolution accomplished in Israel by the prophet whose life and work the Holy Spirit bade him record, gives us but the simplest and shortest possible account of the child-days of him who was onl... [ Continue Reading ]
ERE THE LAMP OF GOD WENT OUT. — There is a Talmud comment here of singular interest and beauty: “On the day that Rabbi Akiva died, Rabbi (compiler of the Mishnah) was born; on the day when Rabbi died, Rav Yehudah was born; on the day when Rav Yehudah died, Rava was born; on the day when Rava died, R... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ELI PERCEIVED THAT THE LORD HAD CALLED THE CHILD. — The whole story of the eventful night is told so naturally, the supernatural wonderfully interwoven with the common life of the sanctuary, that we forget, as we read, the strangeness of the events recorded. The sleeping child is awakened by a v... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD CAME, AND STOOD. — Then before the boy, as he lay and waited for _the voice,_ came _something,_ and it stood before him. The question naturally occurs to us, _What_ came and stood before the boy’s couch? As a rule, we find that generally, when the Lord was pleased to take some form, the... [ Continue Reading ]
THE EARS OF EVERY ONE THAT HEARETH IT SHALL TINGLE. — The calamity which is here referred to was the capture of the Ark of the Covenant. Neither the death of the warrior priests, Hophni and Phinehas, nor the crushing defeat of the Hebrew army, would have so powerfully affected the people; but that t... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE HIS SONS MADE THEMSELVES VILE. — The enormity of the sin of Eli and his house, which was to be so fearfully punished, must be measured by the extent of the mischief it worked; well-nigh all Israel were involved in it. The fatal example the priests had set at Shiloh filtrated through the enti... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL NOT BE PURGED WITH SACRIFICE. — No earthly sacrifice, bloody or unbloody, should ever purge on earth the sin of the doomed high priestly house. A great theological truth is contained in these few words. in the sacrificial theory of the Mosaic Law we see there was a _limit_ to the efficacy of s... [ Continue Reading ]
AND OPENED THE DOORS. — This is another notice which indicates that the sanctuary of Shiloh was enclosed in a house or temple. We have no record of the building of the _first_ house of the Lord, but from the references contained in the record of Samuel’s childhood it is clear that the sacred Taberna... [ Continue Reading ]
IT IS THE LORD. — Such a reply, and such a reception of the news of the terrible doom twice communicated to him by a direct message from the Eternal, indicates that Eli, in spite of his weakness and foolish partiality for his sons, was thoroughly devoted to the Lord in his heart. He saw how deeply h... [ Continue Reading ]
AND SAMUEL GREW, AND THE LORD WAS WITH HIM. — Again in a brief sentence the life of Samuel was contrasted with another: this time with that of his predecessor in the judgeship. As the boy grew up to manhood, we hear that while, on the one hand, as, no doubt, in earlier days with Eli, so now with Sam... [ Continue Reading ]
A PROPHET OF THE LORD. — Then from the northern to the southern cities of the land the fame of the boy-friend of the Eternal was established. The minds of all the people were thus gradually prepared when the right moment came to acknowledge Samuel as a God-sent chieftain. On this rapid and universal... [ Continue Reading ]