Links for today’s readings:
Read: 1 Samuel 3 Listen: (3:03) Read: 2 Timothy 1 Listen: (2:37)
Scripture Focus: 1 Samuel 3:1, 12-13
1 The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
12 At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. 13 For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them.
Reflection: Rare Visions and Blind Priests
By Erin Newton
Do you think God ever needs time to “recharge his social battery”? Is he ever at a loss for words? No, that’d be ridiculous. The God of the universe does not grow tired or weary.
So why is the word of the Lord during Eli’s priesthood a rare occurrence? Koowon Kim points out that just as Eli’s eyesight was failing, so too was his spiritual vision (1 Samuel, Asia Bible Commentary).
The text says, “There were not many visions.” So there had to be some. God was still speaking to his people, just as he had been doing during Abraham’s sojourn, Moses’s wildnerness wandering, and so on. God wasn’t suddenly mute. God’s leader simply stopped listening.
The apprenticeship of Samuel meant fresh eyes toward God. In fact, notice where Samuel was sleeping—in the temple. He was in the prime location to convene with God. However, when God called once, twice, and a third time(!), Samuel was unaware of his voice.
What exactly had Eli been teaching his young protégé? Lessons must have been centered around the liturgical duties he’d need to perform someday: sacrifices, cleansing, blessings, intercessions, burning, washing, etc. In all of his lessons, Eli must not have mentioned that God liked to talk to his own people. The priesthood for him was simply going through the motions.
But God doesn’t give up. Koowon Kim notes that God would have called Samuel over and over and over until he responded. He is that persistent with us. If Eli was going blind (spiritually and physically), God would grab the attention of those fresh eyes—someone willing to jump up in the middle of the night to answer the call of his master.
If God never tires of speaking to his people, why was the word of the Lord so rare? Based on the vision given to Samuel of the impending judgment for Eli, Koowon Kim suggests, “As it turned out, the corrupt leadership constituted the obstacles that prevented the words and visions of God from making it to the nation.”
And so it is today. Some Christian leaders are blind to the vision of God. Like Eli, they ignore “the sin they knew about” and tolerate those who yoke our God with sinful practices.
We can be Elis or Samuels: obstacles or prophets. We can snuff out the Light of the world in our lives or we listen to God calling us.
Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
The words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined from ore and purified seven times in fire. — Psalm 12.6
– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle
Read more: God Starts In The Dark
Samuel’s light that brought judgment and exposed corruption…banished his mother’s shame but shamed Eli’s wicked sons.
Read more: Where Judgment Falls
Samuel comes to remind us that judgment is coming for the Hophni’s, Phinehas’s, and Eli’s of the world…