Introduction: Here is an abbreviated version of the beautiful "prayer of Hannah." Not only is it beautiful, it sets the theme for what will happen in the books of Samuel, and even the books of Kings.

My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance, for the LORD is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed.

The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength. The LORD brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. For the foundations of the earth are the LORD's; upon them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his saints, but the wicked will be silenced in darkness.

It is not by strength that one prevails; those who oppose the LORD will be shattered. He will thunder against them from heaven; the LORD will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Samuel is a book partly about humble people becoming proud, and proud people being humbled. We will see all of this we go along, but it is interesting how it is almost previewed here.

Eli was older and could no longer see very well. Some speculate that he had cataracts. Because he couldn’t see well, he probably called for Samuel often. Samuel was his assistance and apprentice, so when Eli needed help he called for Samuel. So when there came a time when God spoke to Samuel, it was natural that Samuel mistook the Lord's call for Eli's voice.

As chapter three opens, there is this interesting little announcement that during the time when Samuel was an apprentice with Eli, "there were very few messages from the LORD" (TEV).

Many students of the Old Testament think that this happened because things had gotten bad in Israel, not many people were willing to listen to God, so God didn’t say much. That could be true, but don’t forget that God does not babble on like one of us on a telephone. He speaks when it is needed, sometimes in "clusters" - and He has spoken to us once and for all, the Book of Hebrews tells us, in His Son Jesus Christ.

This is a very interesting place in the Bible - one of the few places where we get an idea of how direct revelation from God came (at least one way it came).

What is it like to be a prophet of God? In other words, how doe it work when you receive a direct message from God? Samuel heard an audible human-like voice. On first hearing (vs. 7) its origin was unknown, but it was unambiguous. He didn’t have to guess what God was saying or what God meant. God spoke - out-loud, you might say - to Samuel in the language Samuel normally used and understood.

1 Sam. 3:10 describes the episode of God speaking to Samuel with the words "The Lord came and stood there." This probably means (it’s that anthropomorphic language again) that this was to be distinguished from God speaking to people in a dream or some other way. It is in some ways an account of events that are almost "cute." Samuel is lying down and he hears a voice calling his name. Naturally he rushes to the aid of old Eli, but old Eli has not called him. This happens repeatedly until Eli - who seems to have had direct experience with this himself - realizes what is happening.

Samuel (vss. 11-18) turns out to be the right kind of person to be God's messenger.

Some unnamed "man of God" (that is, a prophet) had already delivered God’s message of judgment against Eli's family. But God sends it again through the first message he speaks to and through young Samuel, the new prophet. I’m completely guessing here, but maybe - just maybe - God was trying to give Eli as much comfort as He could with a message of judgement by sending it through his friend Samuel.

When asked by Eli, Samuel had the courage to deliver the Lord's message to Samuel. It would take some courage for the young fellow to tell this to his old teacher. Who could be sure how Eli might react? And Samuel, knowing the situation, was no doubt was sympathetic to Eli..

There is a very rather pathetic side of Eli which comes up in verse 18: he had been a very inadequate father to his sons, and a very poor supervisor of them as chief priest when they were priests. But even though this brought disaster on his whole family, when he heard God’s judgment in the end he was submissive to God's will.

I get one of those between-the-lines impressions here that Samuel and Eli were very close. Perhaps Eli saw Samuel as the son he wish he had. You can almost imagine Eli thinking that, since he had to get this terrible news, it was nice to get it from his best young friend and assistant, Samuel. You can also imagine the young Samuel being very sorry for his old friend and mentor.

Samuel is the final judge of Israel. There had been a long succession in the book of Judges. At this point Eli is still the "judge" of Israel, but that is about to change.

Notice how (vss. 3:19-4:) 1 Samuel's words become identified with the word of God. God spoke through Samuel, or in other words, Samuel was God's prophet (one who speaks for another).

War began with the Philistines. The Philistines were apparently migrant people of Greek descent. At some point they came to the Mediterranean show of Canaan and were rivals of the Israelites for that area.

Israel did not do well in this war. When this happened, instead of turning to God, they did something which is still often done by religious people: they took something of God and tried to turn it into a kind of "lucky charm" - which is just another work for an idol. The ark of the covenant was something God had commanded to be made and used in a certain way. There was nothing wrong with it per se. But - very much unlike the Hollywood version in "Raider of the Lost Ark" - the ark of the covenant was not some kind of magical device for getting what want from God "automatically."

Israel lost this war, with many Israelites killed. The Philistines capture the ark of the covenant. The sons of Eli were among those killed, and when Eli heard of all this, he fell off his chair, broke his neck and died. One of his daughters-in-law was giving birth about this time. She died in childbirth, filled with remorse. (She had a lot of reasons for remorse - remember that her husband was more than a little bit unfaithful to her.) The son she died giving birth to was named "Ichabod" (which means, "the glory has departed").

The Philistines - of course - also thought of the ark as a magical item. When the ark was brought into the battle (4:7) the Philistines thought of it as "a god" coming to the aid of the Israelites. There were wrong, of course, but they were consistent. When the had the ark, they put it into their temple along with the other "gods" - as though one could have an ever-improving "collection" of gods! God made a little point with them by reeking a bit of havoc in their temple on some of the statues in there.

So ended the very flawed leadership of Israel by Eli and his family. It was now time for Samuel to take the role of Israel’s last judge.