In the days of the Judges, the people were not used to hearing the voice of the Lord. Given their habit of sinning from one generation to the next and the dissolute condition of many of the priests, it is not surprising that the Lord withheld his voice. Chapter 3 is the account of the Lord calling young Samuel to be his prophet. It is a fitting answer to Chapter 2 in which the Lord rejects the house of Eli. Samuel, trained and ministering before the Lord as a priest, will now take the role of prophet.

His first task is to deliver the news that God’s judgment upon Eli’s household will commence. It is a sober reminder that the word of the Lord is not always comforting. Indeed, great sin must be answered by divine discipline and judgment.

Even though the Lord has chosen to judge Eli and his progeny, his promise to preserve a righteous line in Israel remains. The rise of Samuel signals that the Lord is going to begin speaking to his people once again. From north to south, Israel will know that the Lord is speaking through Samuel the prophet.

The account of the Lord speaking to Samuel is not meant to teach contemporary believers that they can expect the same sort of experience. Indeed, the writer of Hebrews states, “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (1:1-2). God’s greatest Word to us was his eternally begotten Son; the Word made flesh. And it is in God’s written Word that we hear him speak.