Forming Faith Blog

The Word of the LORD (1 Samuel 3)

Posted on October 1 2025 by Gregory Rawn

While a focus on “calling” in the story of God calling Samuel is both obvious and important, this story also emphasizes a major transition point for both Samuel and Israel: from ignorance to knowledge of the word of the LORD.

Image of a microphone. God gives Samuel the word of the LORD.
Photo by Aaron Johnson
Since Last Time

The first five readings in the Narrative Lectionary come from the Torah (Genesis to Deuteronomy). The stories in the Torah move from creation through God’s choice of a particular family/nation, that nation’s deliverance from Egyptian enslavement, and forty years wandering in the wilderness. The next section of the Bible is the Histories, which takes the story of God’s chosen people from the conquest of Canaan under Joshua, through the period of the judges, the establishment and division of the kingdom, the exiles, and the return of Judah (Joshua to Esther).

Since the manna-and-quail incident last week, the people have received the 10 Commandments and the rest of the Torah (instructions) and wandered through the wilderness because of their lack of faith and disobedience. Finally, once the generation who had left Egypt was dead, the people crossed the Jordan River, conquered the Promised Land, and lived through cycles of disobedience and deliverance in the Book of Judges. Now God is doing something new.

Called by God

At the beginning of the Book of 1 Samuel, a woman named Hannah is unable to have children. So, she prayed to God for a son, promising to commit him to God’s service. God granted her a son, Samuel, and she fulfilled her promise when the boy was probably around three years old. That’s how our main character came to be ministering (and sleeping) in the tabernacle. 

The clearest direction that you can take when teaching and preaching about this passage is the concept of “calling,” specifically God calling Samuel (and us) into service. That, along with the intergenerational nature of Samuel and Eli’s ministry, is the focus of this lesson in most of our ten NL products. After all, the word “call” is used 11 times in these 21 verses. This is a great way to go in your faith formation ministry and was the focus of this blog’s posts in 2017 and 2021.

[Interesting tidbit for this approach: Samuel’s response to God and Eli is often translated “Here I am” but is actually just a particle that is usually translated “behold!”]

The Word of the LORD

But I often like to approach the text from a different perspective than what is most obvious. What caught my attention this time was the half-verse:

The word of the LORD was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.

1 Samuel 3:1b

In the middle of the story, the narrator paused to interject:

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

1 Samuel 3:7

And the story ends with:

As Samuel grew up, the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the LORD. The LORD continued to appear at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.

1 Samuel 3:19–4:1a

Structurally, this type of repetition and bracketing is often used to emphasize something.

A Transition Point

I don’t know much about the Hebrew language or literature, only what I’ve picked up from 12 years working with the Narrative Lectionary and dimly remember seminary classes. But the repetition of “the word of the LORD” at the beginning and end of this passage highlights the story and indicates a theme. What struck me most was the middle mention in verse 7. The three mentions (counting the last three as one) act as a starting point, an ending point, and a hinge point.

  1. Zoom out: No one knew the word of the LORD (verse 1b)
  2. Zoom in: Samuel specifically did not know the word of the LORD (verse 7)
  3. Zoom out: Samuel and all Israel knew/heard the word of the LORD (verses 19 through 4:1a)

Not only does this episode of God calling the boy Samuel in the temple describe a transition for Samuel from assistant minister to prophet, but it also describes the transition for Israel from a period of ignorance to a period of knowledge. 

The Word of the LORD Is Rare

The word of the LORD was not just something God said to someone. Looking for the Hebrew literary technique of parallelism helps us here if we haven’t gotten it already:

The word of the LORD was rare in those days;
visions were not widespread.

1 Samuel 3:1b

“Rare” and “not widespread” are synonyms. So that means that “the word of the LORD” and “visions” are also synonyms or quasi-synonyms. 

You can see this again in the middle mention:

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD,
and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

1 Samuel 3:7

The logical conclusion here is that knowledge of God is given by the revelation of the word of the LORD.

The Word of the LORD through Samuel

The final section talks both about the word of the LORD (verse 21) and the word of Samuel (verses 19, 4:1a). The word is again connected with a vision (appearance) and revelation of God, and Samuel was known to all Israel as a trustworthy prophet. Samuel’s words are therefore not different than God’s word: they are both God’s revelation.

Samuel’s call had an enormous historical importance, as his ministry marked the end of the period of the judges and the beginning of the kingdom of Israel. And through the reign of the first king (Saul) and most of the reign of the second king (David), Samuel continued to be a prophet of God, bringing the word of the LORD to the Israelites.

Faith Formation Connections

As I mentioned before, the clearest direction to go with this text is as a call story. And the repetition is so obvious that you need to address it (if not focus on it). But, if you have the opportunity, I would suggest that you reflect on the transition from ignorance to knowledge, for Samuel, for Israel, and even for us.

In God’s amazing grace,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

Download a FREE activity for 10/12/2025
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