“Hannah… said to her husband, ‘After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always’… The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli” (1Sam 1:22; 3:1).
Samuel ministered unto the LORD at the tabernacle. How lovely a picture! The little child growing up in such a holy place, his first impressions of his surroundings a blend of reverence and delight. Before him was gradually opened, day by day, that “illustrated book” which was the Tabernacle. As idea after idea unfolded, God would appear in everything around him: the garments, the sacrifices, the lamps, the shewbread, the incense rising noiselessly toward the heavenly throne. With solemnity he would contemplate the veil which hid the holiest place, tracing on it the figures of the cherubim — the “living creatures” that mutely declared the unfailing purpose of the Almighty to fill the earth with His glory! All this Samuel saw, and more.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One