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This time it was not just a voice, it was a Person. It might have been thought that the
voice would have come from the Shekinah glory in the holiest of all beyond the veil, but
here we read that it was the Lord Who came and stood there, and called "Samuel!
Samuel!". His name being called twice. In the O.T. there were only three others who
were called this way: Abraham, when he was about to slay his son Isaac (Gen. 22: 11);
Jacob, after the news was broken to him that his son Joseph was still alive and had invited
him down to Egypt to live (Gen. 46: 2); and Moses, when he turned aside to see the
burning bush in the wilderness, and received from God his great commission (Exod. 3:
4).
Samuel now obeys Eli's instructions, but not quite. He forgot to say the word "Lord",
but as verse 7 tells us "he did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet
revealed unto him". From this time forth, however, Samuel was to know Him well, and
to hear His voice often, for he became God's mouthpiece to the nation of Israel. At the
time he first heard that Voice, however, he would be uncertain who was speaking to him.
Later, when he had come to know the Lord we are sure he would have given Him His
rightful title as all true men of God have done. This is something we should all
remember when we speak to Him or of Him, and honour Him with His rightful title
"Lord".
The message that the Lord had for Samuel was a very painful one:
"And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the
ears of everyone that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all
things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end.
For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth;
because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not, and therefore I have
sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with
sacrifice nor offering for ever" (I Sam. 3: 11-14).
The statement in verse 11, "I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of
everyone that heareth it shall tingle" are repeated twice elsewhere in Scripture, and both
references are a prophecy of the judgment of Jerusalem at the hand of Nebuchadnezzar,
king of Babylon. The first reference is found in II Kings 21:, where Manasseh, though
his father Hezekiah was one of the greatest kings of Judah, he himself was one of the
infamous. Not only had he done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, but he made
Judah also to sin with his idols:
"Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon
Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle. And I will
stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I
will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, and turning it upside down" (21: 12-13).
The second reference is found in Jer. 19::
"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this
place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. Because they have forsaken
Me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom
they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with
the blood of innocents" (Jer. 19: 3, 4).