No Sleep, No Priest, No Glory, No Good

1 Samuel Chapter 3

- The key verse is the word of the LORD was rare in those days, there was no frequent vision. GOD was not communicating with the High Priest Eli because of his sons.

- Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle (temple) close to, but not inside, the Holy of holies where the ark was located.

- The LORD called Samuel three times and Eli finally clued in that it was the LORD calling to the boy because as the High Priest, GOD use to talk to Eli, so this wasn’t an out of the ordinary occurrence for Eli, it had just been a while. That's why Eli doesn't brush it off or chalk it up to bad dreams or an undigested bit of beef.

- Verse 10 reads, the LORD came and stood and called to Samuel again.

This was the psychical manifestation of GOD standing before Samuel. So why is that important? 

- First GOD came to Samuel and floated there? Hovered there? was a cloud? No he stood there, like a man, a vision is something you see. 

- Second Samuel is a kid, he is not the High Priest, he is not a Levite from line of Aaron, he is not suppose to be in the Tabernacle, let alone sleeping there.

- The irony here is that the people that were allowed to be there demonstrated by their lives and actions that they didn't believe or respect GOD.

- Conversely the one who didn’t deserve to be there would become a great Prophet and Judge of Israel and GOD wanted him there.

- This goes to show you that it’s not the clothes that make the man, but GOD who stands beside you and calls you by name that makes you his man.

- It was written of Samuel, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.

- Now Eli was old and blind, but he wasn’t stupid, he realised the LORD had talked to the boy and he knew it was concerning his family, Eli was aware of the problem he just did nothing to fix it and when he realised the consequences it was to late. Samuel told Eli everything, but Eli was resigned to the inevitable. “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”

- The chapter starts out by saying the word of the LORD was rare in those days and ends with the LORD appeared again at Shiloh by who? The word of the LORD, revealed himself to Samuel. All of Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew GOD had established him as a prophet. The Priesthood again takes a backseat, interesting.

- This makes me wonder about the heavenly tabernacle, the one the earthly one was patterned after. Were the things that happened with Eli and his sons an open demonstration to certain elohim that GOD can get his plans accomplished even when the “High Priest” of a particular Tabernacle is not doing the job.

Continued No Priest, No Glory, No Good