Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

This evening we jump into and the passage we refer to as the “call of Samuel.”

This is a story that has made every Sunday school curriculum, and it goes something like this:

Young Samuel is awakened by a voice during the night that he presumes to be that of Eli the Priest.

When we reports to Eli, he is sent back to bed.

This happens three times before Eli perceives that the voice is actually God’s and gives the boy further instructions for responding on the next reprise.

Samuel does as instructed, receives a pronouncement of judgement on Eli and his family, and everyone lives happily ever after…well, except for Eli and his family!

The moral of the story is “listen to and obey God and you too will live happily ever after.”

I could probably even make this into a passage about surrendering to missions!

The problem with this synopsis is that it’s incomplete.

It misses the big picture of what is happening in Israel and what this story of Samuel’s call actually teaches us.

It’s important to understand that in narrative (story) passages, the story told almost always fits into a broader narrative.

The key to understanding the smaller passage is to understand how it fits into the bigger story.

In this case, the bigger story is that Israel had been given judges to judge the land and restore Israel from political or physical captivity to freedom and to lead Israel to repentance of sin.

If you recall anything about the era of the judges, you know that sin and captivity were repetitive.

And if you consider the lives of the judges themselves, you see that even these people, called to lead Israel to political and spiritual restoration, had some real struggles.

Following Gideon, who himself became self-conceited (he named his son a name meaning “my father is king”), there wasn’t a judge who ended well.

So it really isn’t surprising to see what you saw at the end of chapter two, the pronouncement of judgement on Eli’s family, and it really isn’t surprising to read what we see here in chapter 3, the call of Samuel and the further pronouncement of Eli’s judgement.

Here’s the big idea:

So let’s dig into the passage.

Setting:

Opening:

Declaration:

Instructions:

Proclamation:

Follow up:

Ascension:

Setting:

The boy Samuel is serving in the temple under Eli ()

Age: under the age of 12

Favored ()

The word of the Lord was precious or rare ()

Why would Israel not have received the word of the Lord?

Sin ()

Prophetic vision was rare in the days of Samuel’s youth.

So for Samuel to receive this word from God was a statement.

Eli heads to bed ()

Eli heads to bed ()

The verse tells us that his eyesight was failing, and that he slept in his usual place.

We’re not sure where his usual place was, but it’s fair to say that his chamber was separate than that of Samuel’s.

Early in the Morning ()

Eli