Speak, Lord — I Am Listening

In those days you hardly ever heard a word from the Lord. It was rare and precious, like something you might go your whole life without seeing. Nobody had visions any more. Old Eli’s eyes had gone dim, so that he could hardly see at all, and he was lying down in his own place. And the lamp of God was still burning in the holy place, where the golden chest was — and Samuel, who was still only a boy, was asleep in there.

And a voice called in the dark: “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, ‘Here I am!’ — and he jumped up and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am. You called me.” And Eli said, “I did not call you. Go back and lie down.” So he went back and lay down. And the voice called again: “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli a second time and said, ‘Here I am. You called me.’ And Eli said, ‘I did not call you, my child. Go back and lie down.’ Now Samuel had never yet heard God speak, and he did not know what it was. So when the voice called the third time and he went stumbling in to Eli again, the old man finally understood what was happening in his house that night. And he said, “Go and lie down, my child. And if he calls you again, say this: Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

And the Lord came and stood there, and called as he had before: “Samuel! Samuel!” And the boy said, “Speak — for your servant is listening.” And God told him what was going to happen: that everything he had said about Eli’s house was going to come true, because Eli’s sons had been speaking evil, and their father knew it and had not stopped them.

Samuel lay awake with that until morning. Then he got up and opened the big doors of the house of the Lord, the way he did every morning — and he could not bring himself to tell Eli what he had heard, because he loved the old man and it was a dreadful thing to have to say. But Eli called him. “Samuel, my child.” And Samuel said, ‘Here I am.’ And Eli said, “What was it that he said to you? Do not hide it from me. Tell me every word.” So Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing at all. And the old priest sat quiet for a moment, and then he said, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.”

And Samuel grew up. And the Lord was with him, and never once let any word of his fall to the ground — everything Samuel said came true. And all Israel, from the very top of the country to the very bottom, from Dan all the way down to Beersheba, came to know it: the boy who used to run in the dark saying ‘Here I am’ had become a prophet of the Lord.