THE K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
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time, was trained to serve in the Tem ple and took the place of Eli’s wayward sons. Sleeping in the Temple, his daily duty was to extinguish the sacred lamps and open the doors of the tabernacle. He was a Levite, but not a priest. God has His own ways and His own way. “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord” (Isa. 55:8). Eli was old and nearly blind. Sam uel, perhaps twelve years of age( the age at which a Jewish boy became a son of the law; the age at which the child Jesus talked with the lawyers, (Luke 2:42-47), waited upon him. He was environed with holy associations, for Eli, although he was weak, was a true man of God, and there grew up between the man of God and the lad a tender and holy affection. There are those who criticise the re ligious training of young children, fear ing the warping of the child’s mind, but they seem to have no fear of the world ly warping of children. Well, here we get a beautiful lesson, well worth pon dering. God wanted a man in Israel and He found him in a boy. No one in Israel would have chosen Samuel. Have you ever thought of the strangeness of God’s choice of men? Not a selection in the Scripture, that would have been approved by human wisdom. Look at the list: Abram, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, the Apostles! Saul seems an ex ception, but God did not choose him. Who would have looked for the father and founder of a nation in the home of an idol-maker, in Mesopotamia? For the Law-giver in a basket, or the Psalmist King in a sheep field, or Apos tles in a fishing boat? These were solemn times in Israel. The Word of God was rare. Only two prophets are mentioned (Judges 4:4; 6 :8). Visions from God were infre quent, for there were so few ready to receive them.
(1) The Child Samuel. (2) The Call of Samuel. (3) The Curse of God upon Eli’s^ Sons. (1) THE CHILD SAMUEL. (a) Seeking a Child from God. Samuel was born in Ramah (The Highest). He was a Levite (1 Chron. 6:21-28). His father’s name was El- kanah and his mother was Hannah , (grace). Elkanah was a godly man and paid a yearly visit to Shiloh to worship Je hovah. Hannah was childless and longed for a son as did every Jewish woman. The story is told in the first chapter. She was a wise woman for she took the burden of her heart to the Lord. She took it in conscious desire, and with a definite purpose to honor the Lord in its answer; a lesson for us all. (b) Surrendering the Child to God. Hannah was a mother in Israel. She had faith in,God and a heart for God’s Word, believed in prayer, had only holy desires and a self-sacrificing spirit. She had a consciousness of the need of the times, the need of godly men, and a de sire to do her, part in supplying this need. The prayer of her heart was answered, and at the age of three years she sur rendered the child to the Lord for life service. We need not be surprised that Sam uel, the child of a praying mother, whose love for the Lord outweighed her love for her boy, was—-next to Moses— one of the greatest of all the men whose names are recorded in Old Testament history. (2) THE CALL OF SAMUEL. Lent to the Lord at three years of age, having his home with the old father in Israel, Eli the High Priest,-—the young child, girded with a linen ephod and a coat which his mother renewed each year upon her visit at the feast
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