The theophany we look at now came very close to the last one chronologically, as Samuel was born just six years after Samson, according to Ussher. This means that the judgeships of Eli and Samson were concurrent when the Philistines were still the chief Canaanite enemies of the children of Israel. This period in the history of God’s people is marked by a strange and sobering juxtaposition of blindness and vision, darkness and light.