Communications from God
Dean Goulburn. 1 Samuel 3:20-21 And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD.… 1. What a dreary, hopeless state it is to live without any communications from God! Man did never in fact live entirely without such communications. God did reveal Himself "at sundry times and in divers manners," sometimes dropping His communications for a long tract of time, but always renewing them again. It has indeed been said by doubters and unbelievers that God has given man a conscience and a moral sense, which speak to him in God's name, and teach him what is right and wrong, and that this is quite sufficient communication from God to make us good and happy, and that we need nothing further. But what is it that our conscience, which is indeed the voice of God within us, teaches us first and before all things else? It is that we have gone astray from the rule of right. No man, without some better help than conscience lent him, ever lived fully up to the requirements of his conscience. 2. But again: "God revealed Himself to Samuel by the word of the Lord." We may justly reflect that He has done this more completely to ourselves than He did to Samuel. Now, do we each one of us practically act as if we fully believed that constant revelations from God were necessary to make us holy and happy? Do we make daily devout use of the Holy Scripture, which is our great means of receiving revelations, or, in other words, communications from God? (Dean Goulburn.). Parallel Verses KJV: And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD. WEB: All Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of Yahweh.