1 Samuel 3 – During Samuel’s
childhood, the “word of the Lord was rare [and] visions were not widespread” (3:1).
Samuel was lying down in the temple when he heard someone call him, “Samuel!
Samuel!” (3:4) Samuel answers “Here I am!” and thinking the voice was Eli’s, he
runs to see what Eli wants of him. But
Eli has not called. Again, he hears the
call and again he runs to Eli, and learns Eli has not called.
“Now Samuel did not
yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him” (3:7). This time, Eli
instructs him to respond differently if he hears the voice again—to say, “’Speak, Lord, for your servant is
listening’” (3:9).
The
next time we are told “the Lord came and stood there, calling as before” (3:10).
But this time Samuel responds as instructed and the Lord reveals to him that He
is about to do something in Israel “that will make both ears of anyone who
hears of it tingle” (3:11). He is going to punish the blasphemy of Eli’s
sons. At first Samuel is afraid to tell
Eli what God said, but he does and Eli
accepts it. “’It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him” (3:18).
As
Samuel grows, the Lord is with him. He
does not let any of the Lord’s words “fall to the ground” (3:19). He gains a
reputation as a trustworthy prophet at the Shiloh sanctuary.
1 Samuel 4 – The
Philistines are Israel’s great enemy at this time. They are in conflict now—the Israelites
encamped at Ebenezer and the Philistines at Aphek, due west of Shiloh on the
eastern part of the Plain of Sharon.
When
they lose in battle, the Israelites call for the ark to be brought to them “so
that [the Lord] may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies” (4:3).
Eli’s two sons bring it. When it arrives
the whole camp shouts “so that the earth resounded” (4:5). The fervor of the
Israelites makes the Philistines anxious.
Again
they fight, and again the Israelites lose; they flee “everyone to his home” (4:10).
There is a great slaughter and the ark
is captured (4:11). The two sons of
Eli are killed. One of the men runs
back to tell Eli who is waiting in Shiloh, “his heart trembl[ing] for the ark
of God” (4:13). Eli is 99 years old and blind.
The news kills him (4:18).
Phineas’
wife, who is pregnant, gives birth and then dies too. The son’s name was Ichabod (meaning “the glory has departed from Israel”). Eerdman’s suggests
the city of Shiloh was probably destroyed by the Philistines at this time as
well.
Augustine (354-430 AD)
Confessions
13 - Did I not, then,
growing out of the state of infancy, come to boyhood, or rather did it not come
to me, and succeed to infancy? Nor did my infancy depart (for whither went
it?); and yet it did no longer abide, for I was no longer an infant that could
not speak, but a chattering boy. I remember this, and I afterwards observed how
I first learned to speak, for my elders did not teach me words in any set
method, as they did letters afterwards; but myself, when I was unable to say
all I wished and to whomsoever I desired, by means of the whimperings and
broken utterances and various motions of my limbs, which I used to enforce my
wishes, repeated the sounds in my memory by the mind, O my God, which You gave
me. When they called anything by name,
and moved the body towards it while they spoke, I saw and gathered that the
thing they wished to point out was called by the name they then uttered; and
that they did mean this was made plain by the motion of the body, even by the
natural language of all nations expressed by the countenance, glance of the
eye, movement of other members, and by the sound of the voice indicating the
affections of the mind, as it seeks, possesses, rejects, or avoids. So it
was that by frequently hearing words, in duly placed sentences, I gradually
gathered what things they were the signs of; and having formed my mouth to the
utterance of these signs, I thereby expressed my will. Thus I exchanged with
those about me the signs by which we express our wishes, and advanced deeper into the stormy fellowship
of human life, depending the while on the authority of parents, and the
beck of elders.
Interesting analysis of the way we incorporate into us the
particular language we are raised with and the universal body language and tone
that all people share. We all also “advance [as Augustine did] into the stormy
fellowship of human life.”
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