- When Sovereignty Meets Prayer: The Faith of Hannah
- God Still Speaks: Will You Listen?
The third chapter of 1 Samuel marks a turning point in the history of Israel. God had not spoken to his people for a very long time. Sin was so rampant among his people that he chose to remain silent:
Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision. (1 Samuel 3:1)
That was about to change. The word “boy” in verse 1 can be misleading. Samuel wasn’t a preschooler in this passage. The historian Josephus says he was twelve years old, and he may have been a teenager.
Whatever the age of Samuel, on this particular night, God once again spoke. Only this time, he didn’t talk to the priest Eli, who oversaw both the Tabernacle and the worship that took place there. The time of God speaking through priests was over. He would now speak through prophets, starting with the sleepy teenager Samuel. Expect God to work through anyone at any place any time he chooses. Don’t put him in a box and limit him to your expectations.
Samuel is lying in his bed and hears someone calling his name. He figures it must be Eli calling him, so he runs to Eli’s room to see what he wants. But Eli, confused, says, “I did not call; lie down again” (v. 5).
It happens a second time. Samuel hears someone calling his name, runs to Eli’s room, and Eli says, “I didn’t call you. Get back in bed.”
Hannah, just as she promised, had brought Samuel to the Tabernacle and offered him into God’s service. He’s being raised and mentored by the priest Eli and watched over by God. But even though Samuel is growing up in the Tabernacle, he has never heard God’s voice.
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. (1 Samuel 3:7)
So it’s no surprise when, for the third time, Samuel hears someone calling his name at night and doesn’t recognize the voice as the Lord’s.
This time, though, when Samuel runs to Eli, the priest realizes something special is happening.
Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. (1 Samuel 3:9)
So that night, when God called Samuel a fourth time, Samuel said, “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.” Samuel now understood what it was like to hear from God audibly. The young boy had become a prophet of God as God spoke to his people for the first time in a very long time.
And this first prophecy wasn’t an easy one. God didn’t slowly bring Samuel along, like, “Tell Eli that tomorrow there will be a storm,” and there was a storm. Or something like, “Make sure Eli knows that tomorrow a man will bring an extra large offering to the Tabernacle” and it happened. No, this first prophecy was extremely difficult for everyone involved, and Samuel didn’t want to say anything to Eli. Here’s what God told Samuel:
Then the Lord said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them. Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.” (1 Samuel 3:11-14)
Back in 1 Samuel 2:12-36, God had promised Eli that he would remove Eli’s family from the priesthood and judgment was coming. Read chapter 2 and you’ll see that Eli’s sons had sinned horribly, and Eli knew what they were doing and did nothing to stop them. Don’t let your work for God cause you to neglect your job in your home. If you neglect your family, they will suffer the consequences.
God’s judgment was about to come, he told Samuel, and when it did it would be so shocking that “the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle” (v 11), in other words, there would be great fear and sorrow.
Samuel didn’t want to tell Eli God’s message, but the next morning Eli called Samuel to him and said, “Tell me everything God said to you.” So Samuel gave him the message, as difficult as it was. Sometimes it’s difficult to speak the truth of God’s Word, but we must still do so. Eli’s only response was, “It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him” (v. 18).
This was the beginning of the ministry of Samuel as a prophet to his people.
And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. (1 Samuel 3:19-20)
The Lord was with Samuel from the moment of his conception to the end of his life. The sign that he was a true prophet was that God “let none of his words fall to the ground;” everything he prophesied happened. God’s Word never fails. That’s a reminder we need today.
Israel had now entered into a new era. It was no longer the time of judges and God speaking through priests. God was transitioning Israel away from judges and was now speaking through a prophet.
Today, Christians don’t need a prophet because we have God’s Word, the Bible. God speaks to each of us through his Word, which is why it’s so important to read it, study it, and meditate on it. His Word is true and reliable and never fails, and we must be willing to obey it. But how will we know what God is saying if we don’t read what he says?
Believers also have the Holy Spirit within us, and he’s there to speak to our hearts and guide us in all we do. Do you listen to him? Would you recognize his promptings when he gives them? Just as we must obey the Bible, we need to follow the promptings of the Spirit.
We should test everything with the Bible because the Holy Spirit will never direct us in a way that opposes what God has already said in his Word. When the leading of the Holy Spirit does line up with the Bible, though, we must listen to and follow him.
It might be awkward to do so, it might be scary, it might take us out of our comfort zone, and it may even bring consequences we don’t like. It’s essential, though, that we strive to follow God as he leads us. Read your Bible, and just before you read, pray the prayer of Samuel: “Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.”
That’s how you can be and do all that he’s calling you to be and do.