The childhood of Samuel must be considered against a background of darkness and declension in Israel. Since re-establishment of the nation in their promised land, conditions had deteriorated to such an extent that on numerous occasions, by the imposition of punitive measures, God had to remind them of the necessity for sole allegiance to Him. Sadly, any revival through leaders raised up by God was short-lived, only to be followed by re-adoption of evil practices and idolatry. The situation cried out for ‘a saviour’ of special quality, and God in mercy made provision of that saviour in the person of youthful Samuel.
Dedicated to the service of God, and in childhood unspoilt by the worst excesses of the world, Samuel stood in stark contrast to others of that time. Eli the priest ‘was very old’ and failing in that his sons were immoral and sacrilegious ‘and he restrained them not’, 3. 13. With such evidence of breakdown in the priesthood, how refreshing to read of the child Samuel that he ‘ministered before the Lord … girded with a linen ephod’, 2. 18. The earnest efforts of the ‘unlearned and ignorant’ were acceptable to God, whereas the hypocritical postures of those nominally accepted as His servants were anathema to Him.
God would speak through His young servant, but, first, Samuel must learn to recognize, and personally respond to, the voice of God. Initially, his slumbering mentor, Eli, was of no help to him and his recommendation was to sleep on! Lax in the fulfilment of his priestly office and duties of parenthood, nearly blind and heavy with sleep, he appears in stark contrast to a Samuel who was awake, alert, aware and attentive.
Samuel’s eventual response to God’s instruction showed him to be truly ready, for the shackles of slumber were easily cast off. He was responsive – his response was as Jehovah’s ‘servant’, 3. 10. He was reliable, faithfully relaying God’s message of judgment to Eli, v. 18. Thereafter, he was recognized by all men in Israel as ‘prophet of the Lord’, to whom again God could ‘reveal himself’, vv. 20-21. In a day and age of spiritual blindness and wilful ignorance, it came to be that God would reveal His wisdom through a child; cf. 1 Cor. 1. 27; Matt. 11. 25-27.
