Sunday February 23, 2020 | David Morrow
The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lordcalled Samuel.
Samuel answered, “Here I am.” 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.
Again the Lordcalled, “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.”
Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: The word of the Lordhad not yet been revealed to him.
A third time the Lordcalled, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”
Then Eli realized that the Lordwas calling the boy. 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.
The Lordcame and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”
Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
And the Lordsaid to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.’ ”
Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, but Eli called him and said, “Samuel, my son.”
Samuel answered, “Here I am.”
“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.” 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.”
The Lordwas with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lordcontinued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.
God is still speaking, offering an invitation to dialogue with him. However, this dialogue will be as unique as you as an individual are. The question for us is whether not we will take up this challenge and learn how to listen, or if we will simply go with the status quo.
God is not done speaking. This is the core message of the sermon provided by David this weekend. He asks, “How do I hear?” so that we might enter into the reality that God is speaking to us in a personal way. How anyone hears in a personal way will be unique to that person, and therefore there are a few layers to each person that we must navigate in order to better hear God’s voice. The first layer is that of one’s individual, unique personality. Then there is our family or origin and things like our culture. When we combine all of these together, we can better understand that God speaks to each person uniquely. There is not one uniform standard way that God speaks to all people.
The challenge we face in hearing God today is the reality of the noise saturation that we experience in our culture. We are overwhelmed with sounds that fill our minds and hinder us from hearing God’s voice.
In order to capture an imagination about how we might hear God today, David walks us through the story of Samuel when as a boy hear first heard God’s voice. This is found in 1 Samuel 3. When God’s spoke to him, we are told that the word of the Lord was rare, meaning that few actually heard God’s voice. Many today share this experience of the rarity of God’s voice. But it was actually in the midst of this reality that God speaks.
Samuel hears God speak to him three times, but each time Samuel ran to the priest Eli. After the third time, Eli told him that God was calling out to him. This was a reversal of order, where Eli was going blind—both physically and spiritually—God was speaking to a young man without position or stature. And God did so in a personal way.
This sets the stage for us to better understand how God speaks to us in a personal way. David shares five different ways that one can hear from God, as there is no one-size-fits-all pattern. These are:
David concluded with some challenging questions that offer a way forward into hearing the voice of God. They are:
The challenge for each of us is to embrace the process of learning how each of us hears God in the unique way that God is specifically communicate to each person.