The Reality of Revelation and the Preparation for Receiving It
Dean Goulburn. 1 Samuel 3:10 And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for your servant hears. Why did the Lord call Samuel four times before He told him what He had to tell him? 1. The plan which God adopted was well calculated to convince both Eli and Samuel that the call was no delusion. When God makes any important revelation, He always gives to the people concerned some means of assuring themselves that it is indeed He who is speaking. He takes care there shall be no reasonable ground for saying that the revelation is a mistake, a fancy, a delusion. 2. The call of Samuel would have failed in one of its objects, if Eli had not been convinced that it was from God. Eli was to be censured by it. The call of Samuel was therefore the first step towards superseding Eli, and putting another and more faithful person in his room. It was absolutely necessary therefore that Eli should be assured that, Samuel's call was from God, and that it was the beginning of the fulfilment of God's threatenings against himself. And how could this be done more forcibly or more naturally than by allowing Samuel to mistake God's voice for Eli's, end bringing him to Eli's bedside in unsuspicious simplicity three times in the course of the night? 3. There was this great object in the delaying of the message communicated to Samuel, until he had been three times called by name, — that he was duly prepared to receive the message. If God had given him the message on the first occasion of calling him, Samuel might not have known what to make of a thing so utterly new and strange to him. (Dean Goulburn.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth. WEB: Yahweh came, and stood, and called as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said, "Speak; for your servant hears."