1 Samuel
3:1-10 (11-20)
1
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; 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!" and he said, "Here I am!" 5 and 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. 6 The 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." 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the
Lord had not yet been revealed to him. 8 The 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. 9 Therefore 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." 11 Then 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.
12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his
house, from beginning to end. 13 For I have told 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. 14 Therefore I swear to the
house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be expiated by
sacrifice or offering forever." 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. 16 But Eli called Samuel and said, "Samuel, my son." He said,
"Here I am." 17 Eli 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." 18 So 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. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew
that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the Lord.
I
swore I heard something, something other-worldly. I asked my cousins if they
had heard it, and they all said no. I asked my aunts and uncles, and they all
just looked at me like I was some crazy little boy who needed to go outside and
play. When I asked my dad, well, he just did what so many parents do when it
seems their son is being annoying in the rush of preparing Sunday dinner, he
told me to go sit in the living room with the rest of the “youngins” until the
food was ready.
You
see, for a very brief period of my life (maybe the first four or five years),
my family all got together on Sundays to go to church and, afterwards, meet at
Grandma’s house for dinner (not lunch, because as you likely know, the noontime
meal in the South is called dinner). I can remember one particular Sunday
hearing this great growling, this mysterious mumbling. It didn’t sound like any
language nor did it sound like any animal: it was a low, rumbling, what I
thought to be…well, I thought it was the voice of God. Maybe the sermon that
Sunday had been about God’s voice or the way God speaks to us, but I was
certain after hearing this noise and questioning everyone in the house that the
noise I heard was surely God speaking to me, trying to communicate through this
strange grumbling that apparently only I could hear.
When
it came time to eat, we gathered around the table, elbows flying everywhere and
wooden spoons diving into bowls of butterbeans and potato salad—that’s when I
heard it again. So with my “outside voice” I said, “What do you want God?!”
Elbows ceased flailing, dishes no longer clattered with the sound of
silverware. Everyone looked at me, and my dad said, “Boy, what in the world is
wrong with you?!” I looked at him, serious as anything and said, “God is trying
to talk to me. But it just sounds like growling.” That’s when my uncle David
started to laugh and said, “Boy, that’s just my stomach!” Instead of a divine
calling, it turns out I was hearing digestive discomfort. There is, however,
something to be said for the way young ears are tuned to listen for the voice
of God.
Samuel was a young boy
when he first heard something, a voice calling his name. His mother, Hannah,
had been barren before she prayed to the Lord in the presence of the priest
Eli, who observed her prayer and told her that God had heard her petition and
she would at last bear a son. When Samuel was born, Hannah offered him to be
set apart for the Lord that he might stay in the temple with the priests and
grow to become God’s servant.[1]
Samuel grew “in stature and favor with the Lord and with the people”[2] as
he stayed in the temple with Eli, but it was during a time when “The
word of the Lord was rare [and]…visions were not widespread”[3]
that Samuel heard his name. Is it any wonder then, that when Samuel
hears the voice calling in verse 4
the boy assumes it is Eli’s? It happens three times until Eli realizes what’s
really going on in verse 8. He tells
Samuel (in verse 9), “Go,
lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak Lord, for your servant is
listening.’” Samuel does exactly as Eli had told him, and in verses 11 through 14, the Lord tells
Samuel about the coming punishment to Eli’s house. You see, Eli’s sons (also
priests) had been abusing their positions: they had been eating the fat of the
sacrifices, which was specifically reserved for God, and taking advantage of
the women who came to worship at the tent of meeting.[4]
Their corruption and disobedience drew the judgment of God upon the house of
Eli, and the news of this judgment was to be delivered to Eli by the boy who
lived there in the temple with the aging prophet.
One
can surely understand Samuel’s hesitation at delivering such a message to Eli.
After all, Eli practically raised Samuel; Eli was the one who was charged with
caring for Samuel and brining him up as one dedicated wholly to the Lord. Eli,
however, commands Samuel to tell him everything, to hold nothing back from him.
Eli wanted to know every word, no matter how harsh. “So Samuel told him everything
and hid nothing from him” in verse
18. It is immediately after this that we’re told in verse 19 and 20: “As Samuel grew
up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all
Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet of the
Lord.” Samuel’s faithfulness to relay God’s message to Eli, stands in
stark contrast to the ways in which Eli’s sons have abused their calling as
servants and priests to the Lord.
There
is something to be said here about Samuel, even though he is young, even though
this is only the beginning of the new work God is going to do in Israel through
this prophet. There is something to be said about the way Samuel responds to
God’s calling. In this brief story, this short glimpse at the beginning of a
life lived in obedience to the call of God, we see—not the rose-colored picture
of a vocation lived in the admiration of many and the joy of proclaiming
comfort, prosperity, and happiness to those who eagerly gather to listen—but
the reality that a life lived in obedience to God’s call can be a life lived
with the duty to deliver a hard word to those who may not be so anxious to
listen. In other words, a call from God is not a call to a glamorous life of
prestige and honor, but a call to be the bearer of God’s words, the proclaimer
of God’s good news and a witness to the ways of God’s kingdom. This call is not
always an easy one to answer.
If
I had been told twelve years ago, when I first felt called to ministry, that as
a pastor I would be constantly criticized, cussed out in hospital rooms,
cornered by ego-driven church leaders, menaced by anonymous letters, bullied by
Bible-thumpers, yelled at in a church parking lot, insulted behind my back by
fellow believers, or threatened by wealthy givers to have their money taken
away so my salary would be cut unless things started going their way, I may
have told God that he had the wrong number! As it turns out, God doesn’t always
give us an easy word to share; God doesn’t always give us a clear and easy path
to tread when God calls us to the work of the kingdom. Sometimes (maybe most
times), when God calls us, it is because the work to be done requires someone willing
to do it, one who can stand and deliver a difficult word to those who may not
want to hear it. Often the word God has for God’s people is a harsh word, one
born out of apathy, hatred, or injustice, and when the one called by God stands
to deliver such a word, those whose ears that were once tingling with the good
news of heaven and the sweet bye-and-bye take their attendance, money, and
their comfortably-conformed opinions, and leave for what they see as greener
pastures, places where hard truths are not spoken, where their own idolatrous
ideologies are upheld and proclaimed as God’s own truth.
Often
the call of God is not to just proclaim the good news to unbelievers: it is
often the call to proclaim the whole
gospel to those who call themselves believers. It is a call to proclaim a
difficult message to those who don’t want to hear it in the first place. And this calling is not just for those of us
with the title “Reverend.” God is calling all of us to stand and deliver
the message of God’s kingdom, that the ways of this world—ways that so many of
us see as comfortable because we have been privileged by a culture and its
systems that have denied justice and opportunities to so many others—are no
longer acceptable, that Christ has come to set the world right-side-up so that
the love of God may reign, and all people may know that the God who created the
universe loves each of them beyond the power of death and sin.
We are all called by God.
Whether we hear that calling in the growling of hungry stomachs, the pain of
those suffering with illness, the eyes of those longing for compassion, the
trials of those who society has cast to the margins, or the cries of those
longing to be free from oppression, we are ALL called by God. To be called a
Christian is to be called by God. It is not always easy. It is not always
wonderful or filled with accolades and admiration. But to be called by God
means that God will surely use you to change the world, to change the world for
the good, for the gospel, for God’s kingdom. Today, God is calling you, just as
he called Samuel. May you respond just as Samuel did. May you say this morning,
“Here
I am…Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening,” and may God call you
by name to the work of God’s kingdom. Amen.
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