Here I am, Lord

Background: Even as a child, the future prophet Samuel heard the voice of God. Tended by Eli in the Temple, the boy slept near the Ark of the Covenant, which housed the tablets of law God had given to Moses.

Physically, the priest Eli had begun to lose his vision, but spiritually, the whole Hebrew nation had begun to lose sight of God. Visions and the word of the LORD came rarely, but even so, someone had to see or hear. Someone had to be open, childlike, and receptive to God.

So the LORD called the boy Samuel.
By name, God called, “Samuel, Samuel,”
and immediately
the boy got up and ran to Eli, saying,
“Here I am for you called.” But
Eli said, “No, I didn’t. Go back to bed.”

Samuel obeyed, but again
the LORD called, “Samuel!”
So again Samuel got up and
hurried to Eli, saying, “Here
I am for you called me.” But again
Eli said, “I did not call you, my son.
Go back to bed.”

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD,
nor did he know the word of the LORD,
but the LORD called the boy a third time.
And again Samuel got up and went to Eli,
saying, “Here I am for you called me.”

Finally the priest discerned
what was happening.
The third time Eli learned
the LORD called,
and so he said, “Go back to bed,
and if the call comes again, say,
‘Speak, LORD,
for Your servant is listening’.”

Obeying, the boy hurried to bed,
and soon the LORD came to the child
and said, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel said, “Speak, LORD,
for Your servant is listening.”

So the word of the LORD, the plan
of the LORD came to Samuel, a child,
and that night a prophet
was born
in a child – an obedient child,
who heard the word of the LORD
and listened.

Post Script: The word God gave to Samuel that night was hard to hear! In essence, God told the child that Eli and his blasphemous sons would be punished for their disobedience and lose their place in the Temple forever!

Poor little Samuel didn’t sleep that night! He surely did not want to be the one to tell this hard news to Eli – the very priest who had tended him since early childhood! Eli probably sensed this but did the right thing, insisting that the boy hide nothing from him but tell him everything God had said.

Samuel did, and most likely, that hard decision strengthened the boy. Instead of depending solely on Eli as he grew up, Samuel grew closer and closer to God in his life-long dependence on the LORD.

©2013, Mary Harwell Sayler prayer-a-phrased 1 Samuel 3:1-21 from today’s Daily Bible Readings.

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