Chapter 3 of 1st Samuel begins with a sad state of affairs. It says, “The Word of the Lord was rare in those days.” It’s really sad because we find that there was an awful lot of religious activity taking place, and the Priests and Levites were busy with the service around the Tabernacle and making sacrifices and all the other religious activity, but God, for the most part, was silent. One commentary suggests that it was “Because of the hardness of heart among the people of Israel and the corruption of the priesthood. God will speak and guide when His people seek Him, and when His ministers seek to serve Him diligently.”[1] God spoke through his prophets and priests in those days, but they were corrupt. One of the most important tasks of the priesthood was to intercede with God on behalf of the people by way of prayer and sacrifice and to bring to God the needs of the people. They were to guide people to God and to help them cultivate their personal relationship with Him. Eli and his family of priests had failed the people. Instead of leading people to God, they were using their office to their own benefit.
Then, we see that the silence is broken in the first ten verses of Chapter Three. Because of the sin of Eli’s sons at Shiloh, God stopped talking to His people. It was at Shiloh, however, that the word of the Lord came to Samuel. The “Word of the Lord” came to Samuel four times. Samuel thought it was Eli calling him. One of the marks of a faithful servant is an attentive ear and an immediate response. He rises each time and runs to Eli. Even though Eli was a dreadful example of what a man of God should be, young Samuel submitted totally to his authority. Because Samuel was faithful to his earthly master, even though he was an undeserving one, he became a mighty instrument in God’s hand.
By the beginning of the next chapter, “The Word of the Lord” was going out from Samuel to all of Israel. As Reid observes, “What started with a spiritual famine became a flood of spiritual wealth and productivity. God, in his grace, fulfilled his people’s greatest need—his word. For God knows that his people do not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from his mouth (Deuteronomy 8:3).”[2] Amos, Chapter 8, Verses 11-12, prophesied a great silence from heaven also. “Amos says, Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord God, when I will send a famine on the land— not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.” There were four hundred silent years between Malachi’s prophecy of the coming of John the Baptist and His arrival, pronouncing the Messianic arrival of Jesus. But Jesus is God’s Word, become flesh. Jesus offered the woman the well water that would quench her eternal thirst for God. He explained to his disciples that He, Himself, was the bread of life that comes down from heaven. It, and only it, will completely satisfy man’s thirst for God.
[1] Guzik, David. 2013. 1 Samuel. David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible. Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik.
[2] Reid, Andrew. 2008. 1 & 2 Samuel: Hope for the Helpless. Reading the Bible Today Series. Sydney, South NSW: Aquila Press.