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the continued series of Samuel and today will be reading Samuel chapter 3
meanwhile little Samuel is helping the Lord by assisting Eli. Messages from the Lord were very rare in those days, but one night after Eli had gone to bed in (he was almost blind with age by now), and Samuel was sleeping in the temple near the Ark, the Lord called out, “Samuel! Samuel!”
“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” He jumped up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. What do you want?” He asked
” I didn’t call you,” Eli said. “Go back to bed.” So he did. Then the Lord called again, “Samuel!” And again Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli.
“Yes West and Mark” he asked. What do you need?”
“No, I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go on back to bed.”
(Samuel had never had a message from Jehovah before.) So now the Lord called the third time, and once more Samuel jumped up and ran to Eli.
“Yes?” He asked. “What do you need?”
Then Eli realized it was the Lord who had spoken to the child. So he said to Samuel, “go and lie down again, and if he calls again, say, “yes Lord, I am listening.” So Samuel went back to bed.
In the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”
In Samuel replied, “yes, I’m listening.”
Then the Lord said to Samuel, “I’m going to do a shocking thing in Israel. I’m going to do all of the dreadful things I warned Eli about. I have continually threatened him and his entire family with punishment because of his sons are blaspheming God, and he doesn’t stop them. So I vowed that the sins of Eli and of his sons shall never be forgotten by sacrifice and offerings.”
Samuel stayed in bed until morning, then open the doors of the temple as usual, for he was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said to him. But Eli called him.
“My son,” he said, what did the Lord say to you? Tell me everything. In May God punish you if you hide anything from me!”
So Samuel told him what the Lord had said.
“It is the Lord’s will,” Eli replied; “let them do what he thinks best.”
A Samuel grew, the Lord was with him in people listened carefully to his advice. And all Israel from Dan to Beer-Sheba knew that Samuel was going to be a prophet of the Lord. Then the Lord began to give messages to him there at the Tabernacle in Shiloh, and he passed them on to the people of Israel.
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