Eli was Samuel's spiritual mentor but almost missed recognizing God's call on Samuel's life. God called Samuel three times, but each time Samuel went to Eli, thinking he had called, until Eli realized it was God. If Samuel had missed the call due to Eli's negligence, Israel would have been under a faulty priesthood longer. However, under the new covenant established by Christ, all believers can hear God's voice with the Holy Spirit's empowerment. We should help each other accurately hear and respond to God's individual calls.

2. SAMUEL AND ELI
Background
- At this point Israel is under the entirety of the Law of Moses
- Missed out the opportunity to be a nation of priests under a model of
the New Covenant at Sinai (Exodus 19, Deuteronomy 5:23-27)
- Even though the nation of Israel found out that they could hear the voice of the
Lord and live, they decided that they didn’t want to hear it anymore!
- Granted a kinship covenant with the 10 Commandments
- Deuteronomy added later as an addendum to the covenant and was not placed
in the ark of the covenant but beside it as a witness against the nation
- First verse of Chapter 3 describes the word of the Lord being rare; possibly due to Eli
and his sons’ disobedience mentioned in the first two chapters

3. SAMUEL AND ELI
Background continued
- Eli was Samuel’s spiritual father
- More experienced in the ways of the Lord than his spiritual son
- Mentor/father figure to Samuel as they served the Lord together
- Biggest problem with Eli was that he almost missed recognizing the call that
God had on Samuel’s life
•

4. GOD’S CALL
God calls Samuel
‘The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the
ark of God was. 4 Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.”’ – 1 Samuel 3:3-4
- Samuel rightly recognizes that someone is calling him, but he’s still inexperienced at
hearing the voice of the Lord (for the record, I don’t exactly blame him, that was quite a
rare occurrence in those days)
- So he runs to his spiritual father thinking that Eli had called for him
- Eli’s response? Go back and pretend nothing happened!
- It took 3 times through this cycle before Eli recognized that maybe God was speaking to
Samuel

5. ALMOST MISSED THE TRAIN
- Eli, the spiritual father of Samuel, almost missed God’s call on Samuel’s
life because of his own compromise within his family
- Think of what the ramifications would have been if Samuel had missed
God’s plan for his life due to Eli’s negligence! Israel would have been
under a faulty priesthood for another decade or more
- Samuel wouldn’t have been doing anything wrong if he had missed God’s
call
- After all, he still would have been serving the Lord, but not to the full
measure of glory that the Lord wanted for Samuel
- God recognized Samuel’s response and granted that none of Samuel’s
words would fail to pass (1 Sam. 3:19)

6. A NEW COVENANT
- Thankfully, we don’t live in the times that Samuel did nor under the
covenant that he lived under
- Christ came and established the new covenant that enabled us to
become children of God
- God’s offer to make a royal priesthood of the entire nation of Israel was
finally fulfilled at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit empowered the believers at
large, and the world has never been the same since!
- We all can hear the voice of the Lord, and hopefully we are all within mature
community that further equips us to accurately hear what the Lord is speaking
to each and every one of us and honor what He’s revealing to us

7. HOW DOES THAT MAKE YOU FEEL, SAINTS?
• You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a
precious thing to the Creator of the Universe!
• What should our response to that look like? And, more
importantly, how can we help to equip those around us
to hear and respond to the Lord’s call for each of us?