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The Boy Samuel | |||||
The boy Samuel, Hannah his Mother and Eli the Priest in high resolution Bible art and free lessons all ages. Searchable lessons with Bible verses and Bible people. Sunday School and Church resources.
What Came Before While Eli was the priest and the judge, a man was living at Ramah in the mountains of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah. He had two wives, as did many men in that time. One of these wives had children, but the other wife, whose name was Hannah, had no child.
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Samuel was all the more a help and a comfort to Eli because his own sons, who were priests, were very wicked young men. Eli had not trained them to do right, nor punished them when they did wrong, when they were children so they grew up to become evil, to disobey God's law, and to be careless in God's worship. Eli's heart was very sad over the sins of his sons, but now that he was old he could do nothing to control them. One night Samuel, while yet a child, was lying down upon his bed in a tent beside the Tabernacle. He heard a voice calling him by name. It was the Lord's voice, but Samuel did not know it. He answered, "Here I am" and then he ran to Eli, saying, "Here I am. You called me. What do you wish me to do?" And Eli said, My child, I did not call you. Go and lie down again. Samuel lay down, but soon again heard the voice calling to him, "Samuel! Samuel!" Again he rose up and went to Eli, and said, Here I am, for I am sure that you called me. No, said Eli, I did not call you. Lie down again. A third time the voice was heard, and a third time the boy rose up from his bed and went to Eli, sure that Eli had called him. Eli now saw that this was the Lord's voice that had spoken to Samuel. He said, Go lie down once more, and if the voice speaks to you again, say "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears." Samuel went and lay down, and waited for the voice. It spoke as if some one unseen were standing by his bed, and saying, "Samuel! Samuel!" Then Samuel said to the Lord, "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears." And the Lord said to Samuel, "Listen to what I say. I have seen the wickedness of Eli's sons. And I have seen that their father did not punish them when they were doing evil. I am going to give to them such a punishment that the story shall make every one's ears tingle who hears it." Samuel lay in his room until the morning. Then he arose and went about his work as usual, preparing for the daily worship and opening the doors. He said nothing of God's voice until Eli asked him. Eli said to him, "Samuel, my son, tell me what the Lord said to you last night. Hide nothing from me." And Samuel told Eli all that God had said, though it was a sad message to Eli. And Eli said, "It is the Lord, let him do what seems good to him." And then the news went through all the land that God had spoken once more to his people. And Hannah, the lonely mother in the mountains of Ephraim, heard that her son was the prophet to whom God spoke as his messenger to all Israel. From that time God spoke to Samuel, and Samuel gave God's word to the twelve tribes. Navigation and Searching – Terms of Use |
