Elkanah and Hannah went home and left Samuel at God’s temple to serve Him. Samuel was there with Eli and his sons.

 

 

 

 

Hannah made new clothes and brought them each year to Samuel as he stayed at God’s temple.

 

God gave Hannah and Elkanah more children, 3 boys

and 2 girls.

 

Eli’s sons were grown up and didn’t know the Lord. They followed the bad one did bad things at the temple.

 

 

They stole for themselves from the presents that people brought to God and did other bad things. They sinned really bad before God.

Eli told them to stop. He said, If we do bad to other people we can go to God and He will forgive us but who will help if we do bad things to God?

But Eli’s sons wouldn’t listen and stop doing bad things because God wanted to take them away from the earth for their badness and all the hurt they were doing.

 

God sent a man to Eli who said, The Lord says to you, Didn't I appear to the house of your fathers when you were in Egypt and chose him from all the families of Israel to by My priest and offer gifts and burn incense and wear the special clothes before me?

 

 

Didn’t I give you the best of the offerings of all the children of Israel? Why do you kick at my offerings and put your sons above Me? And make yourselves fat from all the gifts people bring to me?

 

This is what the Lord God of Israel says, I said your family would serve before Me forever, but no way, not now. I honor those who honor Me. And those who think little of Me will be little thought of.

Days are coming when I will cut off your house. None in your family will live long lives and you will have enemies at My temple. The men in your family who live long will be a sadness to see and a hurt in your heart.

 

 

The sign that I give you that all this will happen is that both your sons will die the same day.

 

 

I will raise up to Myself a priest who will be faithful and do all that is in My heart and in My mind.

 

 

I will build him a safe and sure and large family and he will always walk before My forever king.

Anyone left in your family will come and beg him and his house for a coin and a bite of bread.

 

 

 

 

 

As a child, Samuel served God in His temple.

 

God wasn’t talking to the children of Israel much in those days because they weren’t close to Him.

 

 

Eli’s eyes couldn’t see much any more and he lay down to sleep.

 

 

Before the lamp of God went out, Samuel lay down also.

God came and stood by Samuel and called to him, Samuel. Samuel thought it was Eli calling and said, Here I am, and ran to where Eli was laying down.

 

 

 

 

Samuel said to Eli, Here I am. You called me. Eli said, I didn’t call, go lie down. So Samuel went and lay down again.

 

 

The Lord called to Samuel again, Samuel! Samuel got up and went to Eli again and said, Here I am, You called me.

Eli said, I didn’t call you. Go lie down. So Samuel went to lie down. Samuel didn’t know the Lord yet and the Lord’s word had not been revealed to Samuel yet.

 

 

 

 

The Lord called to Samuel again a third time. And he got up and went to Eli and said, Here I am. You called me.

Then Eli knew that God was calling Samuel and told Samuel what to do. He said, Go lie down. And if He calls you say, Speak Lord for your servant hears.

So Samuel went and lay down. Then the Lord came and stood like before and called like before, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel answered, Speak Lord for your servants hears.

 

 

Then the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I am going to do something in Israel that will make both the ears of everyone’s who hears it tingle.

I will do to Eli and his family what I have said. I will start it and I will finish it. I will judge his house as I have said, for the bad things that he knows; because his sons have done much bad from the bad one and he did not stop them.

Because of this I have sworn to the house of Eli that their bad things will not be cleaned away by the sacrifices or offerings for ever.

 

 

 

 

 

Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the temple of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli what the Lord had said.

Then Eli called to Samuel and said, Tell me, my son, what the Lord said to you. Do not hide it from me. The Lord do to you all that He said if you hide any of it from me.

 

 

 

 

So Samuel told Eli every bit of what God had said. He hid nothing. Eli answered, It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him.

 

 

 

And Samuel grew up at the temple of the Lord and the Lord was with him. And the Lord caused every word from Samuel’s mouth to happen. Not one word fell to the ground and didn’t happen.

All the nation of Israel knew from the top to the bottom of the nation that Samuel was the person in the nation who told them words the from the Lord God.

 

And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh where God’s temple was; for the Lord showed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.