IMITATE THEIR FAITH

"Speak, for Your Servant Is Listening"

One night, such questions met an answer. It was nearing morning but still dark; the flickering light of the tent's great lamp was still burning.  In the stillness, Samuel heard a voice calling his name. He thought it was Eli, was was now very old and nearly blind. Samuel got up and "went running" to the old man. Can you see the boy in your mind's eye, hurrying barefoot to see what Eli needed?  It is touching to note that Samuel treated Eli with respect and kindness. In spite of all his sins, Eli was still Jehovah's high priest. -1 Samuel 3:2-5. 

Samuel woke Eli, saying:  "Here I am, for you called me."  But Eli said that he had not called and sent the boy back to bed. Well, the same thing happened again and then again!  Finally Eli realized what was going on.  It had become rare for Jehovah to send a vision or a prophetic message to his people, and it is not hard to see why.  But Eli knew that Jehovah was speaking again-now to this boy! Eli told Samuel to go back to bed and instructed him on how to answer properly. Samuel obeyed.  Soon he heard the voice calling: "Samuel, Samuel!" The boy answered: "Speak, for your servant is listening." -1 Samuel 3:1, 5-10. 

Jehovah did, at last, have a servant in Shiloh who was listening. That became Samuel's life pattern. Is it yours?  We do not have  to wait for a supernatural voice in the night to speak to us. Today, God's voice is always there for us in a sense. It is there in his completed Word, the Bible. The more we listen to God and respond, the more our faith will grow. So it was with Samuel. 

That night in Shiloh was a milestone in Samuel's life, for then he began to know Jehovah in a special sense, becoming God's own prophet and spokesman. At first, the boy was afraid to deliver Jehovah's message to Eli, for it was a final  pronouncement that the prophecy against that family was soon  to come true.  Before long, everything Jehovah had said was fulfilled. Israel went to war with the Philistines, and  Hophni and Phinehas were killed on the same day. Eli himself dies upon hearing that Jehovah's sacred Ark had been captured. -1 Samuel 3:10-18, 4:1-18. 

However, Samuel's reputation as a faithful prophet only grew.  "Jehovah himself proved to be with him," the account says, "adding that Jehovah let none of Samuel's prophecies fail. -1 Samuel 3:19. 

Next time: IMITATE THEIR FAITH - "Samuel Called to Jehovah" 

From the Watchtower magazine, 2010