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Punishment: The Ark Taken
This chapter is based on 1 Samuel 3 to 7.
God could not communicate with the high priest, Eli, and his
sons. Their sins had shut out the presence of His Holy Spirit. But
the child Samuel remained true to Heaven, and giving the message
of condemnation to the house of Eli was Samuel’s first task as a
prophet of the Most High.
“While Eli was lying down in his place, and when his eyes had
begun to grow so dim that he could not see, and before the lamp of
God went out in the tabernacle of the Lord where the ark of God
was, and while Samuel was lying down, ... the Lord called Samuel.”
Thinking that the voice was Eli’s, the child hurried to the bedside
of the priest, saying, “Here I am,; for you called me.” Eli answered,
“I did not call, my son; lie down again.”
Three times Samuel was called, and three times he answered in
the same way. Then Eli was convinced that the mysterious call was
the voice of God. The Lord had passed by His chosen servant, the
man of gray hairs, to speak with a child. This in itself was a bitter
yet deserved rebuke to Eli and his family.
No envy or jealousy stirred in Eli’s heart. He told Samuel to
answer, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.”
Once more the voice came, and the child answered, “‘Speak, for
Your servant hears.’”
“Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Behold, I will do something
in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In
that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning
his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I will
judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because
his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them. ... The
iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering
forever.’”
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