Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 266. Samuel and Eli

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Greater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 266. Samuel and Eli


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Samuel and Eli



1. As a child Samuel was a dutiful boy. We read of him opening the doors, and lighting the lamps, and doing other things connected with the temple service. He was placed as a son and as a servant under Eli, the head priest of the temple. Let us note this example of his readiness to do what Eli wished: When he heard a voice calling him by name, he answered at once, “Here am I.” He did not doubt that it was Eli who had called him. Immediately he got out of bed, and we are told that he ran to Eli to know what it was he wanted him to do. He was surprised when Eli told him he had not called him. But when the priest told him to go back to bed, he went at once and lay down again to sleep. To his amazement the voice came a second time. But Samuel was as ready as before, and went again to Eli. Yet again he was told that Eli had not spoken, and returning to his couch he heard his name called out a third time in the stillness of the night. A third time he got up and went to see what it was, and the priest now knew that it was God who had spoken thus. “Therefore Eli said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came,” and spoke to Samuel, and told him of things that were to happen to Eli and to Eli's house.



2. Samuel was dutiful also to God's commands. When Eli asked next morning what God had said to him, Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. Observe exactly how Samuel acted. He did not run to Eli to tell him what had happened, proud of what he had heard, and anxious to grieve the old man by bringing him bad news; but when he was asked, he would not allow any consideration whatever to keep him from telling the truth exactly as it was. Here was a severe test for Samuel. Eli had survived his ministry, and Samuel received the first call to take his place. This was as trying to the sensitive child as to the saintly veteran-perhaps more so. The test came with the call-a test of faith towards God and of fidelity towards Eli. What might not be expected of the lad who responded so soon and so faithfully to the high and trying demands of the occasion, who first kept silent notwithstanding the great pressure of his terrible secret, and then uttered his message with such fidelity and firmness at the call of urgent duty? Having thus spoken to Eli, he will find no difficulty in subsequent life in speaking to the people. This was the crucial moment, when he was to rise to the courage of a prophet.



3. Samuel was kind-hearted towards his protector Eli. He had no wish to cause him distress. Knowing that it would vex him, he “feared to shew Eli the vision.” He felt it was not right to keep back anything when Eli asked, “What is the thing that the Lord hath spoken unto thee?” But he felt for Eli, and was not in haste to say what would make him sad. Yet how many are there who are pleased to say something which is unkind, and which they know will hurt the feelings of others? They like to say something that is bitter, and to do something that annoys. Even their jests are often arrows that have poison, and it gives them positive pleasure to see others made unhappy by the things they say and do. Samuel, as a child of God, could not relate his vision to Eli, without feeling how he would suffer. His sense of duty did not dull his sense of human sympathy.



I have known a malignant human being throw in the face of two poor broken-hearted parents the certain truth that their son had fallen into sin and shame, and been compelled to fly his native land; and I have thought that truth may sometimes be spoken in a way that shows the very spirit of the devil in the individual that speaks it. And if, in finding fault with people, young or old, you show that malignant exultation at having found a sore subject,-at having found the place where a touch will always make the poor creature wince, in the wretched remembrance of something wrong or foolish,-it need hardly be said that the truth spoken in that fashion will never do good, but evil. But oh, how different it is if the truth be spoken in love, as St. Paul would have it! If the Christian minister speaks the truth in love; if he speaks as one who is preaching to himself as much as to any other, and who knows he needs to be reminded of all truth as much as any other; if he speaks with that humility wherewith we all should be clothed, and with a heart full of kindly affection towards the flock entrusted by God to him: pointing out errors to be corrected in no fault-finding spirit, and setting forth the terrors of God's law as one whose best prayer is that every one who hears should flee unto Jesus and be safe from them: oh, how much more likely it is that the truth so spoken will go home to the heart, and be honoured by God's good Spirit as the means of converting, edifying, and comforting!1 [Note: A. K. H. Boyd, Sunday Afternoons in a University City, 227.]



One way in which disciples wash one another's feet is by reproving one another. But the reproof must not be couched in angry words, so as to destroy the effect; nor in tame, so as to fail of effect. Just as in washing a brother's feet you must not use boiling water to scald them, nor frozen water to freeze them.2 [Note: D. L. Moody.]