Scripture Daily

Context No. 857 of 4322 · 1 Samuel

Context · Reflection

1 Samuel 3:11-16: in context

11The LORD said to Samuel, “Behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end. 13For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he didn’t restrain them. 14Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be removed with sacrifice or offering forever.” 15Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of the LORD’s house. Samuel was afraid to show Eli the vision. 16Then Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son!” He said, “Here I am.”

The boy Samuel has just learned to recognize God's voice in the night, answering, speak, for your servant is listening. And the very first message God gives him to carry is a crushing one, and it is about the old man who raised him. God tells Samuel he is about to do a thing that will make the ears of everyone who hears it tingle: he will bring against Eli everything he has spoken against his house, because Eli's sons had made themselves contemptible and Eli, who knew it, did not restrain them. There would be no sacrifice that could atone for it. This is the first word of Samuel's whole prophetic life, and it is a word of judgment against his own guardian and mentor.

And Samuel, we are told plainly, was afraid. He lay awake until morning and then went about his ordinary duties opening the doors of the house of the LORD, because he was afraid to tell Eli the vision. Who would not be? It is one thing to speak a hard truth to a stranger or an enemy, and another entirely to speak it to someone you love and owe and revere. But Eli calls him, Samuel my son, and Samuel answers, here I am, and when Eli presses him to hold nothing back, Samuel tells him everything. The fear was real, and he delivered the word anyway. There is a particular courage, and a particular cost, in being the one who must say the hard, true thing to a person you honor, rather than swallowing it to keep the peace.

Samuel was afraid to tell his mentor the hard truth, and told him all of it anyway. Is there a difficult, true word I owe someone I love or respect, that I keep swallowing out of fear of what it would cost?

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