Hello?
Discerning the
Call – the story of the boy Samuel
I Samuel 3:1-10
1 The boy Samuel ministered
before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there
were not many visions. 2 One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak
that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. 3 The lamp of God
had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD,
where the ark of God was. 4 Then the LORD called Samuel.
Samuel answered, "Here I am." 5
And he ran to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me." But Eli said, "I did not call; go back
and lie down." So he went and lay down.
6 Again the LORD called,
"Samuel!" And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I
am; you called me."
"My son," Eli said, "I did
not call; go back and lie down."
7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD:
The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.
8 The LORD called Samuel a third time,
and Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, "Here I am; you called me."
Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling
the boy. 9 So Eli told Samuel, "Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say,
'Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down
in his place.
10 The LORD came and stood there, calling
as at the other times, "Samuel! Samuel!"
Then Samuel said, "Speak, for your
servant is listening." 11 And the LORD said
to Samuel: "See, I am about to do something in
15 Samuel
lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He
was afraid to tell Eli the vision, 16 but Eli called him
and said, "Samuel, my son."
Samuel answered, "Here I am."
17 "What was
it he said to you?" Eli asked. "Do not hide it from me. May God deal
with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told
you." 18 So Samuel told him everything, hiding
nothing from him. Then Eli said, "He is the LORD; let him do what is good
in his eyes."
19 The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of
his words fall to the ground. 20 And all
New International Version
Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
Hello? That’s the first
question one asks when answering the phone.
When I answer my cell phone I usually say “Hi, this is Larry.” The next thing I hear is “Larry?” Isn’t that what I just said?
Then there’s caller id. My
mother would call me and I’d see it was her calling and I’d answer the phone
“Hi Mom.” For the longest time she
thought I had ESP, extra sensory perception and could tell what she was up
to.
Samuel got a call from God only he didn’t recognize the voice. Sadly it says in v.7 that he didn’t know the
Lord. He couldn’t discern the voice of
God. That’s the biggest hinderance we
have to receiving a call from God.
In the previous chapter of our study we looked at Abraham’s call
and saw how it involved leaving where he was, going where God had called him
and then God fulfilling his promise to provide him with what he needed to do
for that calling. But our challenge is
to know when it is God calling and not just our own desires calling.
I have known more than my share of supposedly sincere Christian
men who thought they heard God calling them to leave their wife. Sometimes in abuse cases that may be
true. The call of God involves
discerning one voice out of all the voices that whisper, shout or talk in our ears. The story of Samuel is a good starting place
for learning how to discern the call of God.
Historians believe that Samuel was just a boy of about twelve
years of age in this story. But he was
born to an unusual circumstance. His
mother Hannah was a godly woman with one huge problem; she couldn’t get
pregnant. In I Samuel 1:10-20 we read
10 In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to
the LORD. 11 And she made a vow, saying, "O LORD Almighty, if you will only
look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant
but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his
life, and no razor will ever be used on his head." 12 As she kept on
praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth. 13 Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were
moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk 14 and said to her,
"How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine."
15 "Not so, my
lord," Hannah replied, "I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have
not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD. 16 Do not take your
servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish
and grief." 17 Eli answered,
"Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of
him." 18 She said, "May your servant find favor in your
eyes." Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer
downcast. 19 Early the next morning they arose and worshiped
before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with
Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her. 20 So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave
birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, "Because I asked the LORD
for him."
Hannah prayed until she heard from God. She said “I
have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.” Have you ever prayed like that? Most of us when we say we’re going to pray
about something will quietly mention it in a short prayer. But Hannah had something burning within her
to have a child. That burning desire was
coming from God. That can be a sign of a
calling.
When
I first became aware that God was calling me to himself I was 16 and a junior
in high school. I had a great desire to
figure out who God was and how I could know her. In reality I had suffered an athletic injury
and was struggling with depression. One
of the biggest killers of American teenagers then and today is suicide. If you’ve ever struggled with depression or
“great anguish and grief” as Hannah had you want the pain to end. Instead of turning to drugs some turn to
intense prayer, praying until they hear from God. I first tried to drown out the depression by distance
running until my body collapsed and had to go a hospital. That’s when the intense prayer began for
me.
In
Hannah’s case she had run out of options for having a baby. Then one day after the intense period of praying
she became pregnant and knew that God had heard her cries. When the baby was born she took him to the
temple and dedicated him to the Lord’s service where he grew up among the
priests. Samuel’s call was as much his
mother’s call as it was his own. I
believe that’s why Hannah had that burning desire within her, to flfill God’s
calling in Samuel. But just because you
grew up among the priests doesn’t mean that hearing the voice of God is your
normal way of life.
While Samuel was growing up it says in 3:1 “In those days the word of the Lord was
rare; there were not many visions.”
Samuel was only twelve living at a time when there weren’t many visions
or words from the Lord. That’s how a lot
of us are today. At the First
Presbyterian Church we don’t often hear people stand up and say “I got a word
from the Lord this week and this is what it is.” We don’t expect to hear from the Lord. Unless we have difficulty and struggle we
rarely seek to hear the Lord as Hannah did.
In his book, Befriending the Stranger, Jean Vanier
says: "We tend to think that it is impossible for God to call us and to
love us as we are today. We feel we are not good enough, that we are
totally unworthy of that love. Yet if we listen, God constantly reminds
us, 'I love you just as you are, and I am calling today, Come and be with me.'
"
Your birth was no more an accident than Samuel’s birth. You didn’t earn that call anymore than Samuel
earned his. God has a calling for you
and wants to let you in on what it is.
The first step in listening to God is to learn to
recognize his voice. God was calling Samuel to be a prophet. A prophet is someone who speaks words for God
to God’s people. When the Bible says the
word of the Lord was rare in those days we don’t know if that was because God
wasn’t speaking or people weren’t listening or a little of both. We do have a
couple of examples of prophets speaking God’s word during the time of the
Judges, but not many. With Samuel we have the beginning of a new era of God
speaking through prophets. In fact, Samuel is credited with beginning a whole
school of prophets from which men like Elijah and Elisha come. That is all
because Samuel learned to recognize God’s voice.
How do we recognize God’s voice? (and distinguish
it from the other voices, both ours and others who might try to lead us astray)
1.
God’s voice will always be consistent with what he has said in the past. God
will not lead you in a way that is contrary to what has already been clearly
revealed before. That is true of Samuel. He was to make a pronouncement against
the priest Eli’s house but it was exactly what God had already said to Eli
based on Eli and his sons’ failure to be faithful to the commands God had given
them in the past. There are occasions later when the message God gives Samuel
is new, but it is still consistent with what God had already revealed.
2. God’s voice will always
be consistent with God’s heart. God’s purpose is to reveal himself to humanity
in such a way as to bring about their ultimate redemption. The reason Eli and
his sons’ sins were so serious is that it was exactly the opposite of what God
was ultimately trying to do.
The strange thing is that
Eli recognized God’s voice but didn’t respond to it. Eli’s sons were guilty of
all kinds of sins, including sexual sins and offering sacrifices to idols. Even
though Eli confronted his sons about it, he did not stop them. As a result, the
Lord accused Eli of honoring them above him (1 Sam.
3.
God’s voice will always be consistent with what he has told others. When Samuel
shared the message of judgment on Eli’s house with Eli himself, he immediately
recognized it as true. When God speaks to us about something, there should be
other believers who will affirm what God is telling us. It should ring true
with them as well as us. We can’t make others the test of whether or not God is
speaking to us in a certain way because sometimes God may lead us to do
something that others don’t understand. But there should be some affirmation
from God’s people that we are hearing Him right. We need to learn to recognize
God’s voice. Then we need to respond to it.
Responding to God’s Voice
It all begins
with the way Samuel responded when he was called. He said, “Speak, for you
servant is listening.” That is the attitude we need to respond to God’s voice
as well. Sometimes I wonder if God doesn’t speak to us because we aren’t
listening or perhaps because He knows we aren’t going to do what he wants us to
anyway! We will never hear God’s call in our lives until we first come to the
point of being willing to respond. Depression brought me to that point twice in
my life. A great loss in your life will
also do it.
Report
God’s Voice.
The next step for Samuel was to report on
what God had told him. The next morning he did all he could to avoid talking to
Eli, but finally the moment came. Eli asked and Samuel told him the bad news.
God was going to bring judgment on Eli and his household for what his sons had
done. Eli knew it was true. It would be the first of many messages from God
that Samuel would report—both bad and good. The message that God was going to
give the people of
Conclusion:
John
Hubley is the founder and director of a ministry to the disabled called Kingdom
Online. After a disappointing end to a career in public education
administration, John developed a brain tumor and spent two agonizing years
recovering from surgery. During that time, he became angry with God and bitter
about all that had happened to him. One day at church, the pastor asked for
people to sign up for an all night prayer vigil. John volunteered for the only
time that was left—
On
Sunday, John asked the pastor if he could make an announcement. He told the
congregation he wanted to start this ministry and asked them for any old
computers they might have. He really didn’t have a clue about how to do this,
but He knew God had called him. That week, a man called to say that his office
was buying all new computers and he had 45 computers in perfect working
condition to give if he wanted them. John said yes but still didn’t know what
he would do with them. Then another person came to him and helped him develop a
simple program which could be utilized by just about anyone. And a lady called
to say she wanted to be the first one to sign up. They installed a computer in
her house and taught her how to use it and she was the first of hundreds who
have become a part of the Kingdom Online ministry. That ministry continues to
grow and John continues to hear God’s call to do even more. He has begun a new
ministry relating to worship called the Mindheart Foundation.
All
of this started when John was at the age when most people retire and check out
of serving the Lord actively. John would be the first to tell you that it has
added life to his years and years to his life. It all goes back to the night
that God got hold of John’s heart and he began listening to what the Lord
wanted to say to him. Are you listening for God’s voice this morning? Have you
learned to say, “Speak, for your servant is listening?” like Samuel? Are you
willing to respond and report on what God is calling you to do? If not, you’re
missing out on what God has for you. Are you listening?
In her book, Cry Pain, Cry Hope, Elizabeth O'Connor
addresses the nature of "call." (1987,
Samuel was called before he was
born through a burning desire on his mother’s part to have a child. Hannah didn’t give up the calling and God was
faithful to fulfill the calling. Samuel
heard an audible voice of God as a young boy to leave the past and to go tell
the priest a word from the Lord. Like
every call God promised to provide everything he would need to do the job. Leave, go, and God’s promises will come
true.
Do you feel today that God has called you to himself? Feelings come and go and you may not feel
very called today. Have you received
Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord? If
you believe that Jesus is your savior that’s your primary calling. God revealed that to you so that you would
leave your old world of sin behind and go to the place and the task that God
has called you to go.
What is burning in your heart today? If you were up at
Study Guide
Name some things that you have had
a burning desire to do in your life.
What is the difference between a
burning desire for something that is driven by lust and one driven by a call of
God?
Do you think God still speaks to
people audibly as Samuel heard the voice of God? Why or why not?
Why do you think God spoke to the
boy Samuel and not to the established priest Eli?
Daily Bible
Monday I Samuel
How did the priest Eli respond to
God’s prophecy against him?
In what ways might the Lord be with Samuel or be with
you in your calling?
Tuesday I Samuel
What did Hannah do with her son?
Why did she do this?
Wednesday II Kings 25 especially vss. 1-4 & 9-10
God promised
What kinds of
injustice bother you?
Thursday Romans 9:1-4
Paul is
saying “Lord, if I could lose my salvation and every Jewish brother come to
know You, I wouldn’t hesitate to make the trade.” What would it take for us to have that kind
of heart?
Have you ever
driven down the road or seen groups of people and wondered how many of them
know about Christ or have been turned off by religion?
Friday Philippians 2:5-8
What was
Jesus doing before he came to earth?
What caused
Jesus to come from heaven and take on the form of humanity?
Saturday Psalm 51 especially vss. 10-12 & 17-19
How might our
heart be broken because of our own situation?
How might we
find the Joy of our Salvation because we have a broken and contrite (repentant,
apologetic) heart?