The Child Samuel
A. Maclaren, D. D. 1 Samuel 3:4-10 That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I.… "Child" is not a precise equivalent for the Hebrew word so rendered, which is considerably wider in meaning, and includes adolescence. Samuel was probably a youth when called. He had been growing quietly in ago and goodness, while Eli's sons were growing in licentiousness. The two growths are strikingly contrasted in the previous chapter, where, after each statement as to their wickedness, a clause comes in telling how Samuel advanced in his ministry before the Lord. His word was "precious," which does not mean highly valued, but seldom heard, because ears were too much clogged with earth, and there was no prophetic "vision" open — that is, widely spread — because there were few eyes purged to see it. A prophet was needed to arrest the growing evil, and the needed prophet was in training. The best place for a young life to dwell is the temple of God. "They that are planted in the house of the Lord" will grow fair and straight, and be sheltered from distorting influences, and from many a gnawing enemy that works havoc among the young shoots. A youth that keeps austerely remote from the vileness of Eli's sons will be saved from their fate, and will receive messages from the ark as authentic as that which woke Samuel. "The Lord called Samuel." No magnificent apocalypse of divine glory shone on the youth's opening eyes. Simply his name was spoken in the tone of one bespeaking his attention and about to give him commands. Whoever spoke knew him, claimed authority over him, and had something for him to do. In a word, the speaker was his master, and needed him. God often assimilates His call to the voices with which we are familiar. A stage comes in every young life when the sense of responsibility is wakened, when the thought of a vocation to battle for the truth starts up. Samuel's mistake tells a great deal, both as to the nature of the voice he heard and as to his relations to Eli. Evidently he had been accustomed to be roused from sleep, to attend to the old man whose blindness would make him need kindly ministrations. As evidently, he had been accustomed cheerfully to answer the call. His loving readiness to spring from sleep and do whatever was needed, are seen in his running to Eli. No holier office can be entrusted to youth than to care for helpless age; and even if the dependent old man or woman has failings, as Eli had, which the younger hates, the duty of service is still plain, and its blessedness will be the greater, But Samuel's mistake has another lesson; for we, too, may think that it is only Eli speaking, when it is really God. There is something very pathetic and beautiful in Eli's quick and ungrudging recognition of God's call to his young attendant. He had had no such communications himself, but he knew them when they came to others. Poor Eli had a bitter pill to swallow when he knew that the boy whom he had trained as his attendant was elevated to the position of a prophet; but he was not offended nor jealous. There is dignity and peace for the old when they heartily acquiesce in the Divine choice of the young to carry his work a stage farther. Samuel had no thought of anything extraordinary, and the explanation of his slowness of apprehension is given in the statement that he "did not yet know the Lord," which can only mean that he had not received any Divine communications; for absolute ignorance cannot be supposed in one who had ministered to the Lord all his life. Youth should be slow to believe that its impressions are divine messages. They must be tested well before they are trusted as such. One test, though an imperfect one, is their persistency. When some conviction of duty keeps returning again and again, and forcing us to hear it, we should at least not dismiss it without careful consideration; for it may be the voice of the patient God, who does not let our carelessness silence him. "Thy servant heareth" — an open ear for God's commands and revelations will never be left empty. "Speak, Lord," is a prayer; and it is never offered in vain when it is accompanied, as Samuel's was, by "For thy servant hears." Such a disposition is a prevailing reason with God. If we are ready to listen and obey, He is more than ready to speak. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: That the LORD called Samuel: and he answered, Here am I. WEB: that Yahweh called Samuel; and he said, "Here I am."