Daily Manna, Year Two · Day 41 · February 10
Learning the Voice
“And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.”
Shiloh, before dawn. An old priest whose eyes had begun to wax dim; a boy asleep on the floor of the house where the ark of God was; and one lamp still burning, because Israel had not quite let it go out.
The word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision. Precious there means scarce. Into that a voice says a name, and the boy gets up and runs to the wrong man three times.
Stay with how little help the text gives on the question you brought to it. Samuel could not tell the voice of God from the voice of the man across the room, and he was already the one ministering unto the LORD. Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, neither was the word of the LORD yet revealed unto him.
No sign is described, and no quality of the voice named. What sorts it out is Eli, half blind and about to be judged, handing him words: Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth. The man who taught him to listen was the subject of the message.
The message was not comfort. Samuel lay awake with it until morning and feared to shew Eli the vision. Notice what he leaves out when the voice comes back. He drops the name. Speak; for thy servant heareth. The chapter does not explain why, and it does not tell you how to be sure either.
Speak. Your servant hears badly and has run to the wrong door more than once tonight. We would like a sign we could describe afterwards. None is offered here. Say the thing anyway. If it takes a person we do not much respect to tell us it was you, we will take it that way. Amen.
Daily Manna runs on a two-year cycle. The year one reading for day 41 is Always Peace (2 Thessalonians 3:16).