The Call of Samuel

Reading: 1 Samuel 3 v1-20

Some of you like me may have been brought up hearing this story as a child at church and it may have been expanded upon in a variety of different ways. As a child growing up where adults were very much in charge it was encouraging to read something that has God calling to a young boy. For me it shows that there are no age limits to being in Gods service – He is in effect the only equal opportunities employer and He certainly does not need a recruitment consultant or HR department to get workers – He recruits directly and by personal interaction as we see here.

In this passage I would like to expand on the following three points:

• First of all we see that Israel is unknowingly on the verge of a national disaster as because of those tasked with leading the people are in fact unfit to lead – much like certain politicians today.
• Second, what is God’s plan in this situation?
• What is the response of God’s servants – Eli and Samuel?

Before we discuss that I want to dwell for a moment on the main characters in this story.

Eli – The man who was called to be both be a priest before the Lord and a Judge over Israel. It is worthy of note that in the first four chapters of 1 Samuel wherever there is mention of Eli the passage also makes note of the fact that he was either sitting or lying down. In addition to this in chapter 3 v2 there is mention made that Eli was losing his sight. For me these two parts about Eli’s posture and sight gives us an insight into his overall spiritual demeanour in life. No doubt you have all seen signs for approaching roadworks for mile after mile on a journey only to find that there is nothing there apart from a load of cones and maybe if you are lucky somebody on the phone staring into a hole – all road and no work! Eli was a man who was employed in God’s service, but not really working living a life that reflected his calling and was turning a blind eye to his son’s sin.

Hophni and Phineas – These two sons of Eli were a symptom of the condition of the nation. They were abusing their position as priests. As c2 v17 says: ‘This sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.’ They had no fear of God or of their earthly father – what is more Eli like countless loving parents before and since probably excused them with the phrase ‘They are good deep down.’ God knew otherwise.

Samuel – The apprentice. An answer to his mother’s prayer, name means ‘Asked of God.’ Pledged by his mother Hannah to God from birth. At around eleven years of age he was to become the unlikely instrument of God when he prophesied divine judgement on both Eli, his two sons and beyond. At some point or other in our work we may have been apprentice to a more senior member of staff – can we honestly say we would have had the brass neck to tell that person that they were wrong especially in an environment like this where respect for elders was ingrained.

Israel on the brink of national disaster as a result of the spiritual state of its leaders.  

In chapter four of 1 Samuel we see just how this works out as Israel are in battle with the Philistines and as a result lose the Ark of the Covenant.

Proverbs 29 v2: When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan. 

The question is whether we really are aware of what is really going on in our nation/world? Or are we only aware of what the media chooses to tell us. I am not advocating jumping on the bandwagon of every conspiracy theory ranging from the Royal Family being lizards from another planet to Elvis still being alive and working in a supermarket.

Some years ago a friend and I attended a seminar in London given by Intercessors for Britain. Here we were told about various items of legislation that could be used to stifle freedom of speech and expressions of faith. On the whole these items of legislation were not widely known in the public domain. Today we don’t have to look very far to see how these laws have been enacted and how they are being used to effectively gag the Biblical truths of mans depraved state and the need of salvation through Christ. Now in the UK we see preachers being arrested in public for preaching ‘All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.’ Simply because that divine truth upset somebody.

When you look at the successive corrupt governments we have had and still have, which in turn are served by corrupt officials. Is it any wonder that the truth of the gospel is something they do not wish to be challenged by? This is nothing new as we read in:

Ephesians 6 v12: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Each and every day we see God’s word, laws and church increasingly being marginalised, mocked and deemed irrelevant by the media and the law of the land. This is nothing new; it began with the early church in the first century. When you read Luke 21 Jesus tell his followers that these deceptions will come about and there will be a general Godlessness of which these things are just the beginning.

Are we blind to new age heresies that are creeping into our churches in the form of things like the enneagram, crystals, meditation, so called 'Progressive Christianity' (which is nothing more than atheism in a religious format. Are we even giving room to false teachers who deny the divinity of Christ, the authority and divine inspiration of the Bible just because their church produces really good worship music?

But we are told to watch and pray and not to accept these things as believers. We are to be on the alert, how can we be alert if we as believers are like Eli and can only be found either lying or sitting down and our eyes have become dulled to the deteriorating environment around us? If we are not on our guard against these things and have a holy fear of doing things that are contrary to His will and teaching we like Eli and the nation of Israel will find ourselves heading over the precipice of spiritual peril.

 

What is God’s plan in this situation?

Amidst this backdrop of impending catastrophe of not only a humiliating defeat by the Philistine nation but also the loss of the Ark of the Covenant which was so central to the whole system of Jewish worship. God does not raise up judge who like in times past was the sort of person armies would unite and rally behind, He raises up a child in the form of Samuel as Israel’s last judge. Not this time to fight a victorious war against an enemy but to pronounce judgement first of all on the house of Eli and Israel. After this he was do much greater things as we can read in further chapters.

1 Corinthians 1 v27: God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.

Yet we fast forward many centuries and we again see God’s people in a desperate situation as a slave to the might of the Roman Empire. This time God sends His son Jesus in the form of a child then to become a man to save us from the eternal disaster of separation from God.

1 Samuel 3 v4-10 Calls Samuel three times before Eli realises that it is God that is actually calling to him. This in a way is almost comedic situation, where Samuel runs back and forth to Eli. As we are told in v7: Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. How many times have we had a phone call from a stranger and we have had to ask who is this? More often than not it is somebody trying to sell you something you don’t want but all the same it is a voice we do not know offering something you don’t need.

It was only until the third occasion did Eli realise that this was God speaking to the child – it had been so long in Eli’s life that he had become unfamiliar with the voice of God, indeed the nation as a whole was in that situation. Just consider for a moment the condition we were in before the Lord Jesus came into our lives. We may well have been living a respectable religious life trusting that the works of religious observance would get us to heaven. Or we might have been like the Prodigal Son, living a life far away from the love of Jesus and with no interest in Him.

Yet like Samuel God called to us but we were unsure of what voice this was we were hearing. He kept calling and calling until we came to the point where we were compelled to submit to the call of God on our lives.

What are the response of God’s servants – Eli and Samuel?

Chapter 3 v 27-36 ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’

It is now God gives the child Samuel a message to give to Eli of God’s judgement upon his family.

Not the easiest message to give to anybody. In effect giving his ‘earthly master’ very bad news. We can scarcely imagine how we would fear a situation where we were asked to go into our boss one day and tell them that all their underhand dealings had been discovered and that they were to face the consequences. It is an unenviable situation to have been placed in especially as here Samuel is the apprentice pronouncing God’s judgement on the one who is his earthly master.

The thing is that God has already prepared the way for this message to be received. Eli has heard this before from an unnamed man of God in c2 v 27-36. Although God has also been preparing Samuel for this moment and by pronouncing this judgement on Eli and his family he starts the work for which he has been trained for in a very dramatic fashion.

It appears that there are two different responses to this news, Eli reacts with something approaching fatalism and in the coming chapters he seems to be going with the flow and is continuing in the ways in which he has become comfortable. Samuel though responds with obedience and a deep desire to follow God, irrespective of the difficult message he has to deliver.

How are we as a church or as individuals going to respond? Are we going to be like Eli or Samuel? Do we proclaim Christ as the only way of salvation to a lost and dying world by having those difficult conversations with those we meet as we declare our faith in Christ? Or do we take the path of least resistance like Eli and just accept that God will save those He wants to, so we don’t have to speak and live out the transforming truth of Christ. But this is what Jesus says and this applicable to how Eli has been acting and continues to act.

Matt 5 v13-16: ‘You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.'

Each and every one of us here is being called to by God to be active for the Kingdom – as I have said previously, the only equal opportunities employer. God is calling His church to do the same as it should do throughout the centuries. History is filled with those men and women who were moved by God to make a difference by putting their faith into action. William Wilberforce, John Wesley, Oliver Cromwell, Gladys Aylward and William Booth. To name but a few all stood for what God had called them to do. Still today there are organisations that put Christ first, irrespective of who or what they are for God’s Kingdom.

If this isn’t speaking and challenging anyone who is reading this, I can say that it is certainly challenging the one writing it. I know what it is like to stick your neck out for God and His truth and then face the mockery and hostility of the world. This is what each and every believer is called to do in some way.

Or is God asking you to turn back to Him and rededicate your life afresh. Or more importantly is God speaking to you to trust the death and resurrection of His Son Jesus with your life for the first time – if so I urge you to do it.