Who Was Samuel? The Boy Who Heard God Call
Samuel enters the story not as a prodigy but as a boy serving in the sanctuary who does not yet know the Lord. His identity is shaped by the God who calls him by name and by his answer as a servant.
Eli in 1 Samuel 3: Insight Without Restraint
Eli could recognize God's voice in a child but had not restrained the sin in his own house. The Bible presents him as a man of real insight and real failure, judged for what he knew and tolerated.