1 Samuel Chapter 3

I'm sorry.

I'm gonna read chapter 3 and then I'm gonna include verse 1 of chapter 4.

You know the chapter and verse separations are not inspired.

The separation part and the reason being is it actually fits better with chapter 3 than 4 and I'll explain why when we get to that point.

So let's read.

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli and the word from the Lord was rare in those days and visions were infrequent and it happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well and the lamp of God had not yet gone out and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was that the Lord called Samuel and he said here I am and he ran to Eli and said here I am for you you called me but he said I did not call you lie down again so he went and he lay down the Lord called yet again Samuel so Samuel arose and he went to Eli and said here I am for you called me but he said I did not call you my son lay down again now Samuel did not yet know the Lord nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him so the Lord called Samuel again for the third time and he arose and he went to Eli and said here I am for you called me then Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy and Eli said to Samuel go lay down and it shall be if he calls you that you say speak Lord or your servant is listening Samuel went and he lay down in his place then the Lord came and he stood and he called as at other times Samuel Samuel and Samuel said speak to for your servant is listening and the Lord said to Samuel behold I'm about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears and everyone who hears it will tingle and that day I will carry out against Eli and all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end for I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which I knew because of his sons had brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them therefore I've sworn to the house of Eli the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever so Samuel lay down until the morning and he opened the doors of the house of the Lord but Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli and then Eli called Samuel and he said Samuel my son and he said here I am he said what is the word that the Lord has spoken to you please do not hide it from me may God do so to you more also if you hide anything from me all the words which he has spoke to you so Samuel told him everything and he hid nothing from him and he said it is the Lord let him do what seems good to him the Samuel grew and the Lord was with him but hang on back up thus Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail all Israel from Dan even to bear Sheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the Lord and the Lord appeared again at Shiloh because the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord thus the word of Samuel came to all of Israel now Israel went out to me oh and we'll stop there that I add that first part of chat verse one because it doesn't fit with the narrative and we'll talk about that next week it just doesn't fit if you remember just real quick chapter 1 through 7 is the rise of Samuel but we're fixing to 4 through 6 will actually go from Samuel and we'll deal with the ark but it's still the rise of Samuel so when you at the end of chapter 3 we don't hear anything about Samuel for these chapters right here that's why it really is in an odd place for three chapters we're not gonna anything more about Samuel after we go through chapter 3 till we get to 7 so we see that Samuel was ministering before the Lord or before or with Eli and it says that it was rare or infrequent in those days I think some translations may say precious meaning that it was just it wasn't happening God was not speaking to his people through prophets the prophethood had not yet been fully established yet but he wasn't speaking he wasn't giving visions to anyone so when this happens this is a very unique thing that will take place when he begins to speak to Samuel and it says in verse 2 that it happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well and it says that the amp the lamp of God had not yet gone out my understanding of this would be the word they were lying out it says they were lying in the the temple of the Lord and this is the second time the word temple issues it's used early on with with Hannah which says that she was in the temple of the Lord understand that the temple the word just means palace or dwelling place the temple has not yet been established that is established by Solomon where it is the word used for palace and dwelling place a call but it's not Mishka which means tabernacle so it just means that they were in the plate the dwelling place of God where the ark was okay and they were lying down there and it says the lamp of God had not yet gone out anybody know what the lamp of what the the instruments or the the the what vessels were inside this for the inner sanctuary the first sanctuary human well yeah that's the you had this say this was the tabernacle you'd come through the door here you'd have the showbread here you'd have the altar of incense here this has been a tabernacle not the temple because something else comes here you have the ark here and then you had the menorah here this is the lamp of the Lord you're talking about that glowed from evening to morning they would come in they would fill it up with fresh beaten olive oil and it would glow it says it had this had not yet gone out meaning it was not it had not dawned yet so when the dawn would come in the morning they would open up these we're going to talk about Samuel's role in all of this they these screens would have been over because there was doors here a curtain like so that would let the what the daylight in so that this didn't have to glow okay that's what was taking place so in short it was still nighttime okay and it said that the Lord spoke to him or he called out to Samuel he gets up he goes to Eli he says hey it ain't me come on is it three times the third time he says he had discerned this is in verse 8 discerning that it was the Lord that was calling the boy Eli said to him go lie down and it shall be that if he calls you again that you say speak Lord for your servant is listening so Samuel went and lay down in his place now Samuel didn't understand who was calling him we all do agree with that right okay when it says that Samuel had not yet known the Lord does this mean that Samuel did not believe in Yahweh how would how does some of y'all understand that yeah it's qualified but it says the Lord had not yet been revealed to him so did he was he carrying out the duties of this young Levitical quote priesthood he was carrying out those duties but he had not yet at that time the Lord had spoken to him and read special revelation to him yet that had not taken place until now Eli understands it but I wouldn't say going through the motions because he was being trained to do what his calling by the mosaic legislation and we're going to get to that towards the end he was doing what he was called to do and he was doing what his his mother had dedicated him to the service of the Lord to do he did not yet had heard the voice of God spoken I mean he thought it was Eli calling him I mean if you and I if I heard Tim call me and then I heard Andy call me I would know the difference I would know the difference well he didn't know because it has the voice of the Lord had not yet been revealed I thought about this and I was in Sunday school as a kid I was reading through this months ago preparing what we were going to do and I don't know if y'all any of y'all were in Sunday school as a kid you know they in the kids curriculum it says that Samuel did not yet know the voice of the Lord that's how it was translated in your in for the for the kids and I go well yeah no I mean I understand what they're trying to say he didn't he did not know but it says it's qualified that he the Lord had not yet been revealed to him by special revelation and that special revelation as we get the end is that he's going to be a prophet so he says listen to this is what imagine hearing the word from the Lord the first time and this is what you hear verse 10 then the Lord came and stood and called as as other times and he said Samuel Samuel speak for your servant is listening Samuel said behold I'm about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle in that day I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end you may remember what was said by the man of God last week we don't even know who that dude was he shows up on the scene he drops the hammer on Eli do you may remember what was said about hot fine Phineas they're gonna die the same day and and daddy too and daddy too well he didn't say the daddy too but the daddy will we'll get to that he says I in that day I will carry out we've spoken against Eli that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end on verse 13 for I have told him what I was about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever or in some translations may even say in this age or the age to come you understand what the condemnation that goes against Eli's sons is that there will never be forgiveness granted to them so for someone that says that they don't believe in the limited atonement that's it when I was at first Baptist downtown having a conversation in the Sunday school class there was more than a Sunday school class be 80 people and guys if you can show me one place in the Bible where God said he wasn't going to die for them or their son their sins can't be forgiven I'll believe it that's the passage that I went to I said you gonna believe that now oh you know it says right here it's very clear their sins will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering their sins were unforgivable because of what they had done and you know what were the sins that they had committed just a few yes sir front of the tabernacle yep well yeah they dishonored the father and mother certainly did that they extorted the people for the for the offerings which made those people that were coming however we see that whether it was the the priest that would come or whether it was the actual worshiper they despise the offering of the Lord because they know when they gave that whatever it was the meat that it was not going to be accepted before God because it wasn't done in the the the the manner away the ritualistic I kind of weird but the way that God prescribed to be done a certain way step by step today it wasn't accepted and it said they despised it so that was their sins they extorted the people they they filled their own bellies and God said because of that I'm gonna I'm gonna not atone for their sins in verse 15 so Sam you lay down again to the morning then he opened the doors of the Lord remember what I said opening the doors because this would have burned out this is going through the night okay this only glowed at night you can go to I think it's in hexes chapter 27 it talks about what's supposed to be done with the malt manure and how it was but that's this would be the manure how it's supposed to be lit supposed to glow from evening to morning they know what they're why evening to morning their daytime started in the evening I mean their days didn't start like hours at 6 a.m.