Samuel Called to Be a Prophet

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: I Samuel 3:10
Psalters: 257, 121, 389, 88
  1. The grievous setting.
    1. Eli, high priest of tabernacle at Shiloh, experienced great spiritual griefs.
      1. First, he lived a very spiritually difficult time in the history of the church: end of the period of the judges.
      2. Second, his spiritually difficult ministry was because of his evil sons and the fact that he did little about it.
    2. But Eli had one great joy in his older years in the child Samuel who ministered before him (1).
      1. Samuel had been brought to the tabernacle by Hannah while still a small child (1:24-28).
      2. Additionally Samuel was a Nazarite for life (usually for a limited period of time).
      3. Samuel believed that he was there to do service, and he did so quickly and obediently.
      4. In Samuel Eli had a great companion, though he was an old man and Samuel so young.
  2. Now God calls Samuel to be a prophet so He can give more constant revelation to His people.
    1. At that time the ?word of Jehovah ?precious? (rare, scarce) because there was no ?open vision? (1).
      1. Open vision is God being readily available to any question and to giving communication.
      2. Since Moses almost 400 years earlier there was no revelation spread abroad to the whole nation by one who was a prophet
    2. Now that is going to change as God comes to Samuel (3:19-4:1).
      1. Samuel had grown to be a youth, sufficiently matured mentally and spiritually to receive the revelation.
      2. It began during a night when Eli and Samuel were asleep.
      3. God called out Samuel?s name, but he was not acquainted with the audible voice by which God spoke to His prophets.
      4. The old priest began to think about the repetition, and knowing Samuel?s character discerned it to be the Lord.
    3. At the fourth call, Samuel responded as directed by Eli and the Lord ?came and stood? in an objective appearance (15).
    4. The revelation was a prophecy of condemnation against the person closest to him (11-14).
    5. Of what Samuel is a picture, we have perfectly in the Lord Jesus.