This week's text tells the familiar, moving story of a boy's call by the Lord. In some ways this text is almost too rich and deep in detail, tempting interpreters to read layers of meaning into words and images that might not have been intended by the author. We need to remember that if we would "listen in" on Samuel's call into a life of active service, we had better listen carefully.

Only after keeping in mind that the divisions between chapters and verses were much later additions to the biblical text does the "cause" for the extreme rarity of God's word "in those days" (as described in 3:1) make sense. Chapter 2 had set forth all the sins and shortcomings of Eli's sons. They broke the established traditions of the shrine at Shiloh, greedily taking for their own consumption the best pa…