Living Tabernacle

The Tabernacle and High Places in the Book of Samuel (3)

In the days of Eli, the word of God was “rare” (1 Samuel 3:1), but now comes to Samuel as he lays near the ark of God (1 Samuel 3:3). That we are explicitly told of his nearness to the ark alerts us to its thematic importance- any reader familiar with even the basic contours of the Torah would know that to lay in the sanctuary was to lay near the ark of God. In the midst of the night, Samuel- raised in God’s family home- is reborn as his firstborn son- such that we are told that he “opened the doors of the House of the LORD” (1 Samuel 3:15). As Samuel’s natural birth was announced as Eli sat at the doorpost of the tabernacle, so also are the doors of the tabernacle now swung open as Samuel experiences rebirth. And as the word of God came to Samuel and brought him a new birth, we now find that the words of Samuel go to all Israel, initiating the transfiguration which is the heart of the book (1 Samuel 4:1). The era of the Shiloh tabernacle is almost complete- and as such, the center of gravity in Israel’s liturgical cult moves to Samuel himself. Samuel was linked with the ark of God in his prophetic call, and now he has become a kind of ark. The unifying principle of Israel’s worship was the presence of God dwelling at the sanctuary, but the heart of the sanctuary is about to go into exile.