HERE AM I! II

We continue from yesterday on the ‘call of Samuel.’
“Samuel continued serving the Lord under Eli’s supervision” (1 Samuel 3:1). Then we see the conditions of that time under this corrupt priesthood: “Receiving a message from the Lord was rare in those days; revelatory visions were infrequent.” (3:2) Nobody was hearing from the Lord! No revelation, no prophecy, no words of wisdom or words of knowledge, no miracles, no healing, no speaking a message from God… nothing but traditional religious nothingness.
There were three visits from the Lord in the night speaking to Samuel and he thought it was Eli and finally listened to the Lord speaking. Eli told him to answer, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” (3:9) The Lord told him, “Look! I am about to do something in Israel; when anyone hears about it, both of his ears will tingle.” (3:11) Don’t you love that phrase? We could sure use a double dose of an ear tingling message!
The Lord’s message was that Eli and his house (family and priesthood) would be destroyed because he did not correct his sons. “You should tell him that I am about to judge his house forever because of the sin that he knew about. For his sons were cursing God, and he did not rebuke them.” (3:12-13)
Josephus (37-100) the historian wrote that Samuel was probably 12 years old when the Lord called him. Out with the old and in with the new. Out with the corrupt and in with the clean. (Continued)
“You will cry and grind your teeth with pain when you see Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and all the prophets in God’s kingdom, but you yourselves thrown outside.” Jesus