and on them he has set the world.
“He will guard the feet of his faithful ones,
but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness;
for not by might does one prevail.
The LORD! His adversaries shall be shattered;
the Most High[17 (#litres_trial_promo)] will thunder in heaven.
The LORD will judge the ends of the earth;
he will give strength to his king,
and exalt the power of his anointed.”
11 Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, while the boy remained to minister to the LORD, in the presence of the priest Eli.
12 Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they had no regard for the LORD
or for the duties of the priests to the people. When anyone offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand,
and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself.[18 (#litres_trial_promo)] This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the one who was sacrificing, “Give meat for the priest to roast; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.”
And if the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat first, and then take whatever you wish,” he would say, “No, you must give it now; if not, I will take it by force.”
Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the LORD; for they treated the offerings of the LORD with contempt.
18 Samuel was ministering before the LORD, a boy wearing a linen ephod.
His mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year, when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, “May the LORD repay[19 (#litres_trial_promo)] you with children by this woman for the gift that she made to[20 (#litres_trial_promo)] the LORD”; and then they would return to their home.
21 And[21 (#litres_trial_promo)] the LORD took note of Hannah; she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up in the presence of the LORD.
22 Now Eli was very old. He heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
He said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people.
No, my sons; it is not a good report that I hear the people of the LORD spreading abroad.
If one person sins against another, someone can intercede for the sinner with the LORD;[22 (#litres_trial_promo)] but if someone sins against the LORD, who can make intercession?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father; for it was the will of the LORD to kill them.
26 Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and with the people.
27 A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus the LORD has said, ‘I revealed[23 (#litres_trial_promo)] myself to the family of your ancestor in Egypt when they were slaves[24 (#litres_trial_promo)] to the house of Pharaoh.
I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to offer incense, to wear an ephod before me; and I gave to the family of your ancestor all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel.
Why then look with greedy eye[25 (#litres_trial_promo)] at my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded, and honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’
Therefore the LORD the God of Israel declares: ‘I promised that your family and the family of your ancestor should go in and out before me forever’; but now the LORD declares: ‘Far be it from me; for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be treated with contempt.
See, a time is coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your ancestor’s family, so that no one in your family will live to old age.
Then in distress you will look with greedy eye[26 (#litres_trial_promo)] on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed upon Israel; and no one in your family shall ever live to old age.
The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep out his[27 (#litres_trial_promo)] eyes and grieve his[28 (#litres_trial_promo)] heart; all the members of your household shall die by the sword.[29 (#litres_trial_promo)]
The fate of your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you—both of them shall die on the same day.
I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed one forever.
Everyone who is left in your family shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread, and shall say, Please put me in one of the priest’s places, that I may eat a morsel of bread.’”
3 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD under Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room;
the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.
Then the LORD called, “Samuel! Samuel!”[30 (#litres_trial_promo)] and he said, “Here I am!”
and ran to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.
The LORD called again, “Samuel!” Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.”
Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
The LORD called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy.
Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
GOD’S VOICE
We all go through periods of dryness in our prayers, don’t we? I doubt (but ask your directeur) whether they are necessarily a bad symptom. I sometimes suspect that what we feel to be our best prayers are really our worst: that what we are enjoying is the satisfaction of apparent success, as in executing a dance or reciting a poem. Do our prayers sometimes go wrong because we insist on trying to talk to God when He wants to talk to us.
Joy tells me that once, years ago, she was haunted one morning by a feeling that God wanted something of her, a persistent pressure like the nag of a neglected duty. And till mid-morning she kept on wondering what it was. But the moment she stopped worrying, the answer came through as plain as a spoken voice. It was “I don’t want you to do anything, I want to give you something”: and immediately her heart was full of peace and delight. St. Augustine says “God gives where He finds empty hands.” A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift. Perhaps these parcels are not always sins or earthly cares, but sometimes our own fussy attempts to worship Him in our way. Incidentally, what most often interrupts my own prayers is not great distractions but tiny ones—things one will have to do or avoid in the course of the next hour.
—from a letter to Mary Van Deusen, March 31, 1958
For reflection
1 Samuel 3:1–21
