Scripture: 1 Samuel 2: 12-17 and 3: 1-19
Sermon: Hearing God
Topics: prayer, voice of God, Eli, Samuel
Preached: November 3, 2002
Rev. Mike Abma
1 Samuel 12: 12-17
Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord13or for the duties of the priests to the people. When anyone offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, 14and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
15Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the one who was sacrificing, ‘Give meat for the priest to roast; for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.’ 16And if the man said to him, ‘Let them burn the fat first, and then take whatever you wish’, he would say, ‘No, you must give it now; if not, I will take it by force.’ 17Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord; for they treated the offerings of the Lord with contempt.
1 Samuel 3:1-19
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.
2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his room; 3the 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. 4Then the Lord called, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ and he said, ‘Here I am!’ 5and ran to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call; lie down again.’ So he went and lay down.6The Lord called again, ‘Samuel!’ Samuel got up and went to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call, my son; lie down again.’ 7Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. 8The Lord called Samuel again, a third time. And he got up and went to Eli, and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.9Therefore Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” ’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
10 Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’ 11Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make both ears of anyone who hears of it tingle. 12On that day I will fulfil against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13For I have told him that I am about to punish his house for ever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. 14Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be expiated by sacrifice or offering for ever.’
15 Samuel lay there until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16But Eli called Samuel and said, ‘Samuel, my son.’ He said, ‘Here I am.’ 17Eli said, ‘What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also, if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.’18So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. Then he said, ‘It is the Lord; let him do what seems good to him.’
19 As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
In those days the word of the Lord was rare.
There were not many visions either.
That is how the third chapter of 1 Samuel starts. Spiritually, things were bleak. These events were taking place near the end of the era of the Judges. This was the time of such judges as Jephthah and Samson. And as was noted this morning, the book of Judges goes from bad to worse. More and more people did whatever was right in their own eyes. In other words, they had become blind to God’s will and deaf to his commands. The spiritual malaise affected the judges of this era causing them to become more and more flawed. Here in 1 Samuel, we see how this spiritual malaise had even infected the priesthood. Eli was an aging, overweight burnt-out priest. It was not that he was evil. It was more that he was inept.
His ineptness was most evident in the parenting of his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. Hophni and Phinehas walked all over their father. They used the temple to feed their greed and satisfy their lusts.
When people brought their offerings, Hophni and Phinehas demanded to have the choice parts. Religion was a way for them to make a buck.
When women came to work at the temple, they took advantage of them. Religion was a way to satisfy their desires.
Eli was old but not too old to hear about the terrible things his sons were about to. Not too old to warn them. But these sons, who wouldn’t even recognize the voice of the Lord, did not even listen to the voice of their father.
You know, in churches we talk a lot about missionaries. When we use that word, missionary, we often have an image of a person who has gone off to Borneo or the Philippines, or some exotic faraway country. We often fail to see ourselves as missionaries. We often fail to see that the greatest and in many ways most important missionaries are the fathers and mothers, the aunts and uncles, the grandfathers and grandmothers, who devote their lives to leading their children, their nieces and nephews, their grandchildren, to know Christ, to love Christ, and to serve Christ. More people have entered the church through the faithful service of parents, or grandparents, or attentive family members, than any other way.
But the missionary zeal in Eli’s household had grown dim.
Eli, in his old age, seemed to be going through the motions.
Hophni and Phinehas were worse. They were more mercenary than missionary. They saw religion as a means to an end – it was a means to get rich. It was a means to satisfy desires.
Eli “tut-tutted” his two sons but he did not fire them. He kept them on staff even though he knew they were an affront to God.
The result was that not only had the father lost all influence on his sons, but that these sons had also lost respect for their ineffectual father.
THE LAMP OF THE LORD
Perhaps we are beginning to see why the text of 1 Samuel 3 begins in the dark.
The word of the Lord was rare – people were deaf to it anyway.
The visions were few – people were blind to them anyway.
But The lamp of the Lord had not yet gone out.
That detail in the story acts something like a metaphor for the way things were. The golden lamp stand was part of the furniture of the Holy Place. According to Exodus 27, it was to be kept burning from evening until morning (Exodus 27:20f). So we know that when God called Samuel it was in the wee and dark hours of the morning. But the flickering flame that was barely still going serves another purpose in text. It serves as an image of the light of God’s presence. The light of God’s presence was barely alive but it was still burning!
THE VOICE OF THE LORD
It was into this dark and silent setting,
both physically dark and silent
but also spiritually dark and silent
that a voice calls the name of Samuel.
Eli the old, half-blind, half-deaf priest does not hear the voice.
Hophni and Phinehas — who are probably out carousing – do not hear the voice.
The only one who hears the voice is a boy of about 12 years of age. He is merely an assistant around the temple, a helper, a lackey.
But Samuel hears his name called two times. Each time he runs to Eli, his master, saying, “Here I am.” Each time Eli must tell Samuel he has not called. The reason Samuel does not know it is the Lord is because he did not know the Lord yet – not in such an intimate way that the word of the Lord would be revealed to him (vs 7). He was used to getting his orders via Eli, not directly from God.
By the third time Samuel comes running to his bedside, Eli has clued in to the very real possibility that God may be calling Samuel. So Eli says, “Go back and lie down and if he calls you again, answer, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”
Unlike his own sons, Samuel listens to Eli and obeys.
EMPATHY FOR ELI
Not so long ago, Will Willimon, the dean of the chapel at Duke University, wrote a short essay on how his reading of this passage has changed. He writes that because he was brought up in a Christian home, and because he took on leadership positions in the church at a rather young age, he had always identified with Samuel in this story.
But then he turned 50.
After he turned 50, he realized he began looking at Eli differently.
He began identifying with Eli.
Eli had served in the temple for decades.
He had been a pastor for decades.
And yet, in this passage, God by-passes Eli and speaks directly to this novice, this young boy, Samuel.
Willimon then writes, here I am, a pastor in his 50’s and I am surrounded by all these young pastors, many only in their 20’s, telling people that the Lord had spoken to them, the Lord had called them.
Willimon then notes beginning to feel for poor old Eli.
Beginning to realize that it would have been natural for Eli to look at Samuel the way he was beginning to look at all the upstart young ministers. He began to realize that perhaps he needed to make room for these young ministers the way Eli had to make room for Samuel.
In ways, we need to see how 1 Samuel 3 represents a quantum-shift in leadership. Where before, Samuel was dependent on Eli, from now on, Eli would be dependent on Samuel. This becomes almost embarrassingly obvious when in the morning Eli needs to ask, almost beg Samuel to tell him his vision. Samuel, who is nervous and even a little afraid to tell it, knows he must. He tells Eli everything. He tells Eli the rather terrifying news that Eli’s family would not carry on the priestly tradition. He tells Eli the horrifying news that his family would be wiped out. The news is so harsh, that it made a person’s ears tingle.
HEARING GOD
Over this past week I’ve been reading quite a bit about hearing God. Almost everyone has heard of an experience of someone hearing the voice of God. This is as old as the church itself. It is as old as the apostle Paul falling to the ground and hearing a voice from heaven ask, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
It is as old as St. Augustine hearing a voice in a garden in Milan saying, “Tolle et lege – pick up and read” causing him to pick up Paul’s letter to the Romans and reading 13:13 which in turn caused him to surrender to Christ completely;
That God can and at times does speak to us is something we all believe.
But how he speaks to us and what he has to say is something we have a wide range of views on.
This week I reread some of Neale Donald Walsch’s book Conversations with God, a book he contends is the result of an actual conversation with God. It is amazing how this book presents a God who is our equal – something like a witty and wise uncle. This book presents a God who is as non-threatening as tissue paper. The God presented is like a friendly coach of a pre-school tee-ball team, never saying a discouraging word but only encouraging us to make better choices.
It is always tempting to hear only the god we want to hear.
It is always tempting to hear only the message we want to hear.
But the reality is that when it is really God speaking, we need to be ready to listen to the very things we don’t want to hear.
Not so long ago, Andy Crouch, one of the contributing editors of Christianity Today, wrote an article about hearing God when he was a senior in college. At the time he was involved in what he calls a “precarious” relationship with a girl. This girl moved to Boston and Andy wanted nothing more than to move to Boston too. But he knew this was a huge decision and being a conscientious Christian, he decided he needed to pray about it. He remembers praying long and hard for some answer from God. Then, quite suddenly and even unexpectedly, he actually heard the words “Don’t go!” He thought he must have misheard. He decided to pray some more. And again, after some more prayer, he distinctly heard the words, “Don’t go!” At that moment he decided to stop praying. He also decided to go to Boston.
At the time he thought these words couldn’t be from God. He was living under the illusion that the voice of God comes to underwrite our dreams and put a stamp of approval on our plans. Now, years later, he has come to realize that the voice of God often comes at the most inconvenient times. The voice of the Lord comes to end things we want to continue, or to continue things we want to end. Sure, the voice of the Lord can soothe our ears, but his voice can also cause our ears to tingle and burn.
When Eli hears the harsh news, he responds
He is the Lord. Let him do what is good in his eyes.
For all of Eli’s failings, for all the ways he could have done a better job of parenting his sons, there is still something redeeming about these words. Eli hears the word of the Lord as it is relayed by Samuel. He hears it and he obeys. He allows God to be God.
The image of that early morning temple staff meeting between Eli and Samuel has a poetic beauty to it. Here is the old man and the young boy both surrendering to the word of the Lord. They both acquiesce, the both obey, they both accept the verdict of the Lord.
But the focus of this passage does not linger on the end of the house of Eli. The focus quickly moves to the new beginning that is represented by Samuel. Samuel is soon recognized as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord lets none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground – in other words, everything Samuel says comes to pass. And through Samuel, people can begin to dream dreams again even in the face of the stark realities of their lives.
CONCLUSION
This is a story of the old and the new.
This is a story of God doing what it takes to shake up his people and keep faith alive.
This is a story of God calling who he needs to call to bring his word into the world.
In each generation, in every corner of the world
God has called those whom God calls.
God insists that he will be heard.
God insists that he will be obeyed.
God insists that he will be followed.
So over the centuries he has called such unlikely people as
Saul who hears the voice of God and becomes Paul the Apostle,
And Augustine, the philandering philosophical seeker who hears the voice
of God and becomes St. Augustine the church leader.
And Julian of Norwich, the reclusive nun who hears the voice of God and
writes of the overwhelming the beauty of God’s love
And Martin Luther, the troubled monk, who hears the voice of God and
powerfully preaches about the grace of God;
And neither last nor least, He has called such unlikely people as you and me.
He has called us by name
To hear his voice, to follow his command
To nurture the next generation in his mercy and love
And to go into all the world to proclaim his goodness and his power.
And so, when he calls, may we simply say, “Here I am.”
Amen.
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