Gen 27:18, 1Sa 3:4-8 | TSK

Genesis 27:18

1 Samuel 3:4-8

called Samuel.

Ge 22:1; Ex 3:4; Ps 99:6; Ac 9:4; 1Co 12:6-11,28; Ga 1:15,16

Now Samuel.Or, Thus did Samuel before he knew the Lord, and before the word of the Lord was revealed unto him.

did not yet.Samuel was not destitute of the knowledge of God, in that sense which implies the total absence of true piety, as Eli's sons were; for he knew and worshipped the God of Israel: but he did not know him as communicating special revelations of his will to him, in the manner in which he made it known to the prophets.

Jer 9:24; Ac 19:2

the third.

Job 33:14,15Although Samuel did not apprehend the way in which God reveals himself to his servants the prophets--by the "still small voice"--yet when this direct communication from the Almighty was made the third time, in a way altogether new and strange to him, it seems astonishing that he did not immediately apprehend. Perhaps he would have been sooner aware of a divine revelation, had it come in a dream or a vision. Those who have the greatest knowledge of divine things, should remember the time when they were as babes, unskilful in the word of righteousness.

1Co 13:11,12