Scripture Daily

Context No. 3097 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 2:16-21: in context

16If the man said to him, “Let the fat be burned first, and then take as much as your soul desires;” then he would say, “No, but you shall give it to me now; and if not, I will take it by force.” 17The sin of the young men was very great before the LORD; for the men despised the LORD’s offering. 18But Samuel ministered before the LORD, being a child, clothed with a linen ephod. 19Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. 20Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, “May the LORD give you offspring from this woman for the petition which was asked of the LORD.” Then they went to their own home. 21The LORD visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. The child Samuel grew before the LORD.

The contrast could hardly be sharper. Eli's grown sons, who are priests, despise the LORD's offering and seize the meat by force, threatening those who resist. Their sin is very great before the LORD. But right beside this, the boy Samuel simply ministers before the LORD in his little linen ephod, and his mother brings him a small robe she has made, year by year, when she comes up to sacrifice.

Set against the corruption of the established priesthood is a small child growing up in quiet, faithful service. The grown men in high office treat holy things with contempt; the boy in his mother's homemade robe ministers faithfully. And Hannah, who had given her only son to God, is not left empty; the LORD gives her more children. The one who gave her son away in devotion received back abundantly. God was quietly raising up, in an obscure and faithful child, the very one who would one day replace the corrupt house.

Amid corruption in high places, am I, like the boy Samuel, quietly growing in faithful service where God has placed me, trusting him to work through the small and faithful?

Sources