Samuel was regarded in his day as a man of God (1 Sam 9:6-10), and rightly so. Matters were critical in Israel when he appeared upon the scene. When Moses laid down his charge, the priesthood was established as the link between the Lord and His people, the civil and military leader held only the second place. “He shall stand before Eleazar, the priest, who shall ask counsel for him after the judgment of Urim before the Lord” (Num. 27:18-21 JND). But in the person of Eli, the priesthood had utterly broken down. Although personally a pious man, he permitted iniquity of the gravest kind in those nearest to himself (1 Sam. 3:13). “His sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.” To the ruin of all, natural affection predominated in his mind rather than faithfulness to the Lord.
The people were as wrong as their high priest. Those were the days when “there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25). The closing chapters of the book of Judges reveal to us the appalling conditions that prevailed in the land.
Nor were things right in the household from which Samuel sprang. His father was a Levite, descended from Korah, whose children were so mercifully spared from destruction in the day of their father's rebellion (Num. 26:11), and who were afterward made doorkeepers and singers in the house of the Lord. Such grace should have filled their hearts with the deep gratitude to God, and should have disposed them to be devoted to His will. But what do we find? Elkanah “had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other Peninnah” (1 Sam. 1:2). Did he not know better than this? It bred unhappiness in the home, reminding us of the unrest in Abraham's surroundings when he took Hagar in addition to Sarah.