Scripture
7Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. 8So the Lord called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?” Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. 9So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed. 10And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.” 11Then the Lord said to Samuel, “I am about to do a shocking thing in Israel…” 1 Samuel 3:7-11
Observation
The chapter sets the stage for one of my favorite moments in scripture with this, “Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.” The Hebrew phrasing for rare is better translated “precious or of high value”. Because Eli and his sons had stopped valuing God’s voice they no longer heard Him. Because they treated the precious will of God as worthless and treated their own will as precious they no longer had a prophetic vision for the future. I was quite surprised when I looked at the Hebrew meaning for the phrase “no open visions” to discover the word “breakthrough” or “to open up and increase.” Because there was a breakdown in communication there was no breakthrough in the land. The people of Israel depended upon their priests, judges, and prophets to give them a vision for the future and direction for the present. In other words, when there’s an increase in listening there’s an increase in leadership. When we value what God is saying we will see what He is doing and participate in the breakthrough we have been longing for. There’s a reason God had to give His message for Eli to Samuel. Eli had stopped listening to God a long time ago and had only been serving his own agenda. Samuel was there for one purpose and that was to serve the Lord. Thus, Samuel was able to hear the Lord and what he heard wasn’t happy news. In fact, when Eli demanded that Samuel share what he heard, Samuel was reluctant because it was about the destruction of the present priesthood. Could it be that sometimes we don’t want to listen to God because we actually don’t like being accountable to what He tells us?
Application
This morning I had the joy of journaling on these verses with my boys. I told them this was one of my favorite passages because when I read it as a young man I realized some truths that changed me forever:
1. God wants to speak to me right now. Not just to my parents. Not just to my pastor. Not just to those who had gone to Bible College. Not just to those who were a lot older than me. God wants to speak to me. This blew my mind. It’s very difficult to have a relationship with someone who doesn’t want to give you the time of day. Believe me. I know. This revelation opened my eyes to see that God wanted to have a relationship with, I just wasn’t paying attention. God was speaking all the time and I was blowing Him off because I didn’t think He would talk to someone like me. My youth pastor reminded me of Christ’s promise, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (Jn. 10:27)
2. God wants to speak to me right here. Not just at church or during a worship service. Not just during a prayer meeting with other believers. God wants to speak to me anywhere and everywhere. His direction, correction, and affection are accessible wherever I give God my full attention. In fact, when Samuel says “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.” from his bed he is telling God, “you have my full attention. I’m taking notes. Nothing else is as important as what you’re saying right now.” I remember walking in my back yard as a boy and realizing God was walking with me in the same way He did with Adam and Eve in the Garden prior to the Fall. This is Christ’s reminder to all of us who are following the “stay at home” orders during this Pandemic. In the same way we would hear God when we gathered at the House of God, God will speak to us at our houses. “3The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice.” (Jn. 10:3-4). Notice that God’s Word is speaking as we are going.
3. God wants me to learn His voice right now. Like Samuel who mistook the sound of the Lord’s voice for Eli’s voice, my boys were asking how they could tell the difference. I told them there were three voices that we hear on the inside: The voice of the enemy, our own voice, and the voice of the Lord. Jesus told his disciples, “They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” I told my boys the more time I spend in God’s Word, journaling like we were doing this morning, the easier it is to recognize the whisper of God’s voice from the clamor of other voices. I also said, “When I hear a voice leading me to serve someone when I don’t feel like, to give sacrificially, to put someone else before myself there’s a pretty good chance it’s not the Devil and it’s not me.” When what I’m hearing from God lines up with what I’m reading in God’s Word it’s usually God’s voice.
4. God wants me to obey His voice right now. Samuel had to share bad news. God’s called me to share the Good News. Sometimes, God will call us to do something we would rather not do and it’s usually at that point that we explain His voice away as “just the pizza”, “just me”, or “just not now.” Obedience is not the same as agreement and this is something I’m still learning. I think if we’re honest we stop listening to God because we don’t want Him to mess up our plans. Now, in a season, when everyone's plans have been obliterated, it might be a really good time to start listening again and doing what He says… no matter what.
Prayer
“So Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.” (1 Sam 3:19) I’ve been praying this would be true of me since I was a boy. I’ve been praying it over my boys. Now, today, I pray it afresh again. Let me grow closer to You in this time of quarantine. Let me listen to Your Words of life in a season of death. I fall to the ground and listen to Your Words so that when I speak my words won’t fall to the ground. The world does not need more words right now. The world needs Your Words!
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