While reading through 1 Samuel 3-4, I was struck by a couple of interesting things just prior to God’s call of Samuel:
1 Samuel 3:33 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. (ESV)
1. Note that “the lamp of God had not yet gone out.” If you have a cross-reference Bible, it will probably point you to Exodus 27:20-21 to the description of the lamp in question. There, we find that the lamp was tended by Aaron and his sons (i.e., the Levitical priesthood), “from evening to morning before the Lord.” Since, in 1 Samuel, it had “not yet gone out,” we can conclude that God’s calling of Samuel happened just before dawn. I don’t know if there is any significance to the time of day, but I am still amazed by the this level of detail in the stories in the Bible.
2. The other thing that struck me was where it says Samuel was lying. “Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.” It’s not entirely clear whether Samuel was actually sleeping in the Most Holy Place, inside the veil, or simply nearby. Still, the implications are pretty staggering, especially since we are told later in verse 7 that Samuel “did not yet know the Lord.” Could this be another indication of Eli’s disregard for the holiness of the temple?
