Tag: hearing god

1 SAMUEL #23. THE CONTENT OF GODLY CHARACTER

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment
Photo by Brett Jordan on Pexels.com

There was a tragic contradiction between the integrity of David, and the insecurity of Saul. While David was not perfect, he had a heart for God and took responsibility for his failures with a repentant heart, which was very unlike Saul. He also made sure to take care of his family. Though we sometimes think that David’s life unfolded exactly the way it should have, from David’s perspective, everything was uncertain. He didn’t know how it would all turn out. He simply did the best he could, repenting when he failed, and put all of his hope and trust in the Lord alone.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 23

1 SAMUEL #23. 1 Samuel 22:3-23

The Bible calls David a man after God’s own heart. We have already seen why on several occasions. He trusted the Lord to do battle with Goliath. Later he gave Goliath’s sword to the priests, because he saw it as God’s victory, not his own. He held on to his integrity even when Saul went back on his word to him. David ran not to his family, but to the Lord when he was in trouble. His orientation was toward God, and all his hope and trust were in the Lord.

But this does not mean that David was perfect. Most of us probably know about his major sins in connection with Bathsheba and her husband. But that wasn’t the only time he messed up, and it certainly wasn’t the first. Two weeks ago we looked at 1 Samuel chapter 21, and saw that even though David ran to the Lord when he was in trouble, he gave in to fear and lied to the priest Ahimelech. Now in chapter 22, we see the horrible results of that lie.

Before we get to that, however, I want to point out some unrelated positive things. At this point, David was in the cave with some of his relatives, and a number of other desperate men. It is unclear whether his parents had also joined him there or not. In any case, he knew his parents were likely to be in danger from Saul, and he could not expose them to the kind of harsh conditions that he would have to bear for the foreseeable future. So he took his parents to the kingdom of Moab.

There are two special things about this action. First, is the relationship David’s family had with the Kingdom of Moab. The book of Ruth is a short history (four chapters) of David’s great-grandmother Ruth. She was the grandmother of David’s father, Jesse. It is a sweet story about a family that went through hard times, but still trusted in the Lord. It shows us that David came from a family of people who had a heart for God. But the important thing for this particular passage is that Ruth was originally from Moab. Jesse may have grown up hearing stories about Moab from his Nana. So David did not just randomly dump his parents on the first foreign dignitary he could find. He took them to people who were actually relatives, albeit distant ones.

Second, this highlights something we don’t talk about much in modern western society. Both Old and New Testaments are clear that we have a responsibility to take care of our families, and even particularly, the elderly members.

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, they should first learn to fulfill their duty toward their own household and so repay their parents what is owed them. For this is what pleases God. (1Tim 5:4, NET)
If any believing woman has widows in her family, she should help them, and the church should not be burdened, so that it can help those who are genuinely widows. (1Tim 5:16, HCSB)
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1Tim 5:8, ESV)

David took his responsibility to his family seriously. He could have said, “Look Ma and Pa, I’m just really busy these days. I’m trying not to get killed, I have this band of men to lead, I am God’s chosen instrument in this generation, and oh, by the way, I have a kingdom to win.” Those things might have easily been more pressing than taking care of his parents. But he didn’t feel right doing anything else until he knew that they were safe and well cared for. We sometimes forget that both retirement and social security are relatively new developments. In all of history until about 50 years ago, elderly people did not have these. Instead, they had children. Where I grew up in Papua New Guinea, it is still that way. When someone gets too old or infirm to provide for themselves, their family takes care of them. It may have to be that way again in America before too long. That isn’t the end of the world. It worked pretty well for most of human history. And David managed it, even in his precarious situation. (I really hope my kids are reading this.) By the way, this didn’t mean, in David’s case, that he was always there. He was for a while, and then when he left, he made sure they were going to be OK even while he had to do other things.

When David left his parents there, his words to the king of Moab were very humble: “Please let my father and my mother stay with you, until I know what God will do with me.” He was not arrogant. Even though he knew Samuel had anointed him as God’s chosen instrument, and to be the next king, David did not presume upon God. He humbly admitted that he was in a pretty uncertain situation. I think this is also important because sometimes we read the Bible and we think faith was easy for the people that we read about. But this shows that David felt he had no guarantee of how his life would turn out, or even if he would survive the next few weeks. It is easy in hindsight to see how powerfully God worked in his life. It seems inevitable to us, reading it three thousand years later. We might feel that this was exactly how things were meant to go. But when David lived it, he had no more reason to trust God than you and I do today. He had no special guarantee. He didn’t know what was going to happen. This should help us to have confidence that God is still working in our lives, even when we, like David, can’t be sure how things will turn out.

Now, it appears that David stayed there in Moab for a time. In fact, it says that David himself took care of his parents (they lived with him) while he was “in the stronghold.” Then the prophet Gad (this is the first time we’ve heard of him since the very first chapter) says, “Don’t stay in the stronghold, but return to Judah.” “Judah,” of course, means the area belonging to the tribe of Judah in southern Israel. It can be confusing, but obviously then, the “stronghold” doesn’t mean the cave (because that was in Judah), but rather, the stronghold of the king of Moab.

The presence of the prophet Gad is interesting. If you remember from the first message on  1 Samuel, Gad was one of the three sources for the books of 1 and 2 Samuel. Remember that Samuel the prophet was Saul’s advisor for a time, but Saul never really listened to him. Finally, they parted ways forever. By the time of the events narrated in chapter twenty-two, Samuel was very elderly indeed, and would have been unable to live the hard life David was living. So the Lord sent David another prophet – this man named Gad. Fittingly enough, Gad appears to have been one of those original desperate, in-debt malcontented men that joined David. But the Lord gifted him to speak prophetically into David’s life. And unlike Saul, David listened and immediately responded to the Lord. This wasn’t necessarily an easy choice to make. The Lord was telling David to go back to a place where he would be in jeopardy from Saul. David did not want to fight Saul or any Israelites, yet he was supposed to go there where they wanted to kill him. Frankly, it didn’t make a lot of sense to go back there – what was the purpose of putting himself and his men in such a precarious situation? It doesn’t seem reasonable. Even so, David didn’t hesitate. Here again, we see David’s sensitive heart toward God.

Meanwhile, the text gives us a glimpse into what was happening with Saul around that time. It looks like Saul had, by this time, completely given himself over to hatred and jealousy of David. He verbally abused his own son Jonathan, as well as his men, accusing them of conspiring against him. He thought David had bribed them with promises of land and military commands. This was pure fantasy – how would David even speak to them? So we can see that Saul had moved from insecurity to almost full blown paranoia.

It is at this time, through Saul, that David’s lie to the priest brought forth its terrible fruit. Doeg, the man from the kingdom of Edom (not an Israelite) spoke up. He told Saul what he saw and heard when David came to the sanctuary at Nob. He mentioned that not only did David get bread, and the sword of Goliath, but Ahimelech the priest “inquired of the Lord” for David. “Inquiring of the Lord” at the very least meant a brief worship service and then use of the Urim and Thummim (– the “holy dice,” so to speak). It may have included a more thorough time of worship, and a sacrifice. So here is our proof that David went there not mainly for physical help, but to hear from God and worship in his presence.

Saul summoned Ahimelech (the high priest) and all the priests of Nob. He confronted Ahimelech, who tried to remind Saul that David was his good and loyal son-in-law, a faithful captain in his armies. Of course, Ahimelech knew nothing of the rift between David and Saul, because David had lied to him. It may well be that he would have helped David anyway, but David never gave him the chance to do so honestly. So, Ahimelech freely admitted that he had helped David. However, by insisting to Saul that David was a good and faithful servant, he only provoked Saul’s irrational paranoia and rage.

Saul erupted with wrath, and ordered his bodyguards to kill Ahimelech and all the priests. They balked. To kill the priests was an abomination. Even Saul’s faithful followers knew that he was ordering a horrible crime. Saul’s Israelite followers would not go through with it. I picture Saul screaming and raging, and then Doeg, who was not an Israelite, but who was cunning, unscrupulous and ambitious, did the deed. He murdered 85 priests that day. He continued on afterwards, and directed the murder of all of their families and the destruction of the village at Nob. With eighty-five men, plus their wives and children Saul, through Doeg and Doeg’s men, murdered two-hundred people or more. Not only that, but the text says they slaughtered all the livestock as well.

Does this remind you of anything? When the Lord called Saul to destroy the Amalekites, among other things, he was supposed to kill all of their livestock also, but Saul would not do it. He kept it for himself and his men, because livestock represented wealth in those days. Now, however, when the Lord definitely did not command Saul to do this, Saul tried to ensure the killing of every last person, including women and babies, and he also ensured that all of their livestock was also killed. What a horrible contrast! He will not engage in holy war for the Lord, but he will do so on his own behalf, for mere revenge.

However, they missed a priest. Actually it’s possible they missed two. Much later we will learn that Zadok, son of Ahitub, was a priest during David’s reign. Ahitub was the name of Ahimelech’s father, so Zadok might have been his brother. Of course, however, it could be a different Ahitub. However, we do know clearly that Abiathar, son of Ahimelech, escaped, and he took his priestly garment, called an “ephod” with him. The important thing about this is that the ephod was where a priest kept the Urim and Thummim. These were the “lots,” or “holy dice” used to determine God’s will. Abiathar fled to David and told him what happened.

22 Then David said to Abiathar, “I knew that Doeg the Edomite was there that day and that he was sure to report to Saul. I myself am responsible for the lives of everyone in your father’s family. (1Sam 22:22, HCSB)

David’s response was remarkable. Saul was the one who ordered the murder of the priests. Doeg was the one who carried it out and did the actual killing, probably assisted by some underlings. But David said, “this was my fault. I am responsible for the loss of those lives.”

You see David had a heart that God loved. It wasn’t because David was perfect. He lied to Ahimelech. But he was open, willing, humble and, when confronted with his sins, truly repentant. When Samuel confronted Saul about the sins he committed, Saul’s response was always something like: “Well I had to do it,” or, “Circumstances demanded it,” or, “My men made me do it.” David could easily have said, “I had to lie to save my life.” He might have said, “It was an extreme situation, calling for extreme measures. Besides, I’m not even the one who killed them.” But instead, his response was: “I was responsible for this great tragedy.” He willingly accepted the blame, and repented.

This is not to say that David was blind to the evil of Saul and Doeg. After hearing of this horrible crime from Abiathar, he wrote Psalm 52, in which he castigates the evil of Doeg, and by implication, Saul. In David’s eyes, their biggest sin is this:

Here is the man who would not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, taking refuge in his destructive behavior. (Psalm 52:7)

Even more amazing is what David wrote next. Remember he was still hiding in fear of his life. Remember, he had no more reason to trust the Lord than you and I do.

But I am like a flourishing olive tree in the house of God; I trust God’s faithful love forever.

I will praise you forever for what you have done. In the presence of your faithful people, I will put my hope in your name, for it is good. (Psalm 52:8)

David did not say that because he was now out of danger, and in a secure situation. Instead, David was seeing with the eyes of faith. He trusted that God’s goodness and his faithful love meant that he was indeed secure, no matter what else was happening.

As always, the Lord brought some good out of every terrible situation. David was his chosen servant. Now David had both a prophet (Gad) and a priest (Abiathar, son of Ahimelech) to worship with him, and give him godly counsel. And unlike Saul, David humbly and willingly received what God said through them.

Now what does all this mean for us today?

Maybe you need to hear the specific practical advice that you should take care of your family, and even your parents when they are unable to take care of themselves.

Perhaps you face the temptation that Saul had, the temptation to give in to insecurity. Do your fears drive away the people you love, or cause them harm? I doubt anyone reading this has committed murder on the scale that Saul perpetrated that day. Even so, the difference between faith and doubt is huge, and it matters a great deal. Without trust in the Lord, if we trust only in ourselves, like Saul, we are doomed to hurt those around us. See how much better it is to be like David and put your trust in the Lord alone.

Like David with Gad and Abiathar, do you have godly spiritual advisors who listen to the Lord and have permission to speak honestly into your life? If not, ask the Lord to send you a few.

For me, and possibly some of you, it might be that we need to learn to see with the eyes of faith, to recognize that whatever might be going on in our lives, we can trust the faithful love of God, and feel secure in Him.

There is one last thing. Last time we talked about the concept that in the Old Testament we find people or events that remind us of Jesus, or show us what Jesus is like, or what following him is like. There is another one this week. More than two hundred people lost their lives for helping David. So today and throughout all history, people around the world have been persecuted and killed for following Jesus. It is a reminder that we should pray for those who are persecuted today, and also that we should be ready to make a choice between our own life and our obedience to Jesus.

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you about all this right now.

1 SAMUEL #3. THE BOY WHO LISTENED

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Old Testament, Podcast, Religion, SermonLeave a comment
Photo by Ketut Subiyanto on Pexels.com

Samuel shows us the importance of seeking God diligently, and the power of listening to God when we do so.

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

For some people, the player above may not work. If that happens to you, use the link below to either download, or open a player in a new page to listen.

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 3

The boy Samuel served the LORD in Eli’s presence. In those days the word of the LORD was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.

1 Samuel 3:1

Times were bad in Israel. There was an old man who was supposed to teach everyone about God, kind of like a pastor, except he was the pastor for the entire country. His name was Eli. Eli had two sons, named Hophni and Phineas. These two sons were grown men, and they were supposed to help their father Eli with the work of teaching people about God and leading them in worship. Instead, they took advantage of their positions. They took food from people who had saved up all year so they could bring the food to the place of worship and celebrate with God. When people complained, Hophni and Phineas told them that they were working for God, and so the people had to do what they said. They did even worse things than that. They either seduced, or coerced the female workers at the tabernacle to sleep with them.

Their father Eli told them that what they did was wrong, but they didn’t stop doing those things, and Eli didn’t take any more action to put an end to it. As we look at 1 Samuel chapters 1-3, it seems like Eli is not a bad man, but he was weak-willed and he did not do a good job raising his own children.

This wasn’t the only reason times were bad. The text says, “In those days the word of the Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.” In other words, no one was paying attention to God, and so no one knew what he wanted to say or do. No one seemed to be seeking God. I think one of the things we can learn from these chapters of 1 Samuel is the importance of seeking God. Many, many years later, King Asa of Judah wanted to do the right thing. God brought the prophet Azariah to him, who said this:

The LORD is with you while you are with him. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. 3 For a long time Israel was without the true God, and without a teaching priest and without law, 4 but when in their distress they turned to the LORD, the God of Israel, and sought him, he was found by them. 5 In those times there was no peace to him who went out or to him who came in, for great disturbances afflicted all the inhabitants of the lands. 6 They were broken in pieces. Nation was crushed by nation and city by city, for God troubled them with every sort of distress. 7 But you, take courage! Do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded.” (2 Chronicles 15:2-7, ESV)

The time that Azariah was speaking about was roughly the time of our text today – the time right before the boy Samuel began to seek God, and listen to him. The future of an entire nation was changed because a few people, like Hannah, and her son, were willing to seek God. Throughout the history of God’s people, he has reminded them that he will be there for those who truly seek him:

But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29, ESV)

6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call upon him while he is near;
7 let the wicked forsake his way,
and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him,
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

(Isaiah 55:6-7, ESV)

17 I love those who love me,
and those who seek me diligently find me.

(Proverbs 8:17, ESV)

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD

(Jer 29:13-14, ESV)

Jesus Christ put it this way:

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

(Luke 11:9-10, ESV)

So God says, if you look for him, you’ll find him, if you are looking with all your heart. If you want to hear what he says, you will, if you really, truly want to. He will speak to you through the Bible, and he will affirm it in your heart. He will use circumstances and other people. But your seeking must be genuine.

However in the days of Samuel’s childhood, no one was doing that. It wasn’t that God was ignoring his people. People didn’t hear from God because they weren’t listening. They did not really truly want to know God better; they didn’t really want to know what he had to say to them. Probably, they just couldn’t be bothered. The result was four hundred of the darkest years in the history of God’s people.

But one person started to listen. It wasn’t Hophni or Phineas, the bad priests who were abusing their power and position. It wasn’t Eli, the old man who was supposed to lead the country in following God. It wasn’t a mighty warrior or a great scholar.

The one person who started to listen was a young boy. His name was Samuel. In the first of this series we learned how his mother held on to her desire to have a son, but also surrendered that desire to God. Because of that, after Samuel was born, when he was between four and six years old, she let God adopt him. Of course it was Eli, the old chief priest who took care of him and taught him at the house of God, but it was really as if Samuel was adopted by God.

It wasn’t necessarily right after he came to live at the sanctuary that Samuel first heard the voice of God. But it is clear that when Samuel started to listen to  God, he was still only a young boy. Both the Hebrew Text and the Greek Old Testament (called the Septuagint) agree on this point. The Greek uses a word that means “young child.” The Hebrew uses a word that can mean any child younger than thirteen years old. So he is definitely not a grown up; not even a teenager. It isn’t any more specific than that. He could have been twelve years old, or he could have been six. But we know he was only a kid.

Many of us know the story. It is right there in 1 Samuel chapter 3. One night Samuel was sleeping and he heard a voice call him. He thought it was Eli, the old priest. Now Eli took care of Samuel, and made sure he was fed and washed, taken care of and educated. But Samuel also took care of Eli, because Eli could not see very well. So Samuel thought it was Eli who called him. Maybe he thought Eli needed some help finding something or walking somewhere in the dark. Probably there were times when Eli did call him to come help for things like that.

So Samuel got up to see what Eli needed. Only Eli had not called him. He sent Samuel back to bed.  A little while later, Samuel heard a voice calling his name again. He got up and ran to Eli once more. Once more Eli sent him back to bed.

Then it happened again. Eli had his problems, but he wasn’t an entirely bad person, and it seemed like when he was caring for Samuel, he avoided the mistakes he must have made with his own sons. Eli realized that it must be God speaking to Samuel. So he sent Samuel back again, but this time, he told Samuel to ask God to keep speaking, and to listen to what God says.

Now there is something interesting about this story. I think a lot of people feel that if God speaks to them, it is going to be easy to hear him and easy to know that it IS God who is giving them the message. But that wasn’t the case with Samuel. It really was God. He was even speaking in a voice that Samuel heard audibly. Even so, it took both Samuel and Eli several tries until they realized that God was at work.

Many times, I think we don’t hear God because we think it should be easy. We think, “if God wants to say something to me, well, he can.” But that isn’t really seeking God, like Jeremiah and Jesus talked about. And even with Samuel, it took some time and energy to discern that God was speaking. You can see here again, one of the important things is that Samuel really wanted to hear God. He was willing to put in the time and effort.

It is not good to assume that everything that comes into our heads came from God. But at the same time, it is good to take a little time and energy to evaluate unusual thoughts or experiences, in case the Lord does want to speak to us through them. We evaluate it first of all through comparing what we think we heard, with the Bible. If it came from God, it won’t contradict the bible. Of course there are some things that aren’t in the bible, like what job we should take or where we should go to school. We should pray about those things too, and ask for God to speak to us, and then listen. When we think we hear something, we should talk with other Christians about it, and pray about what we heard, asking God to confirm it or not.

In Samuel’s case, what he heard was very much like something that another man of God had heard a few years before: Eli and his sons were going to be judged. The sons would be judged for the evil they were doing. Eli would be judged for allowing that evil to continue. This wasn’t actually a very nice or comforting thing to hear from God.

This is where Eli did teach Samuel an important lesson. The next morning, Samuel didn’t want to tell Eli what God said, because it was all about Eli and his family, and it was bad news for them. But Eli told Samuel that when God speaks, it is important to tell others what he said – even if it may be hard for some of them to hear. This is still true today. In fact, I think one of the biggest mistakes that many American pastors make is that they try to avoid saying challenging or difficult things to their churches.

I have to admit, I don’t like saying things that I know will be hard for people to hear. I don’t actually enjoy it when people are upset with me. In this day and age, the hardest things to say are about sin. People have conveniently “forgotten” that God does indeed care about our behavior, and that he judges certain things to be wrong. They expect churches to be places where they only hear things that are encouraging and accepting, and never anything that challenges or confronts them. So when pastors say anything like: “The bible says it is a sin for people to have sex outside of marriage,” or “The Bible says it is a sin to get drunk,” or “Greed is a sin,” it is offensive to individual people, and to the culture at large.

While pastors and Christian leaders have a special responsibility to say what the Bible says, all Christians share that responsibility to a certain degree. Teachers of the Bible will be judged more stringently by God (James 3:1), but all Christians are called to bear witness to what they know, when the opportunity arises. I don’t mean we should go looking for fights, but if someone asks, “Do you think it’s OK to ________ (fill in the blank)?” we need to be honest about what the Bible says. I have heard many Christian celebrities fail, in public, in this way, apparently mostly because they don’t want to lose their popularity. I am concerned that such people will be held accountable for leading others astray.

1 Jesus said to his disciples, “Things that make people fall into sin are bound to happen, but how terrible for the one who makes them happen! 2 It would be better for him if a large millstone were tied around his neck and he were thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin.

(Luke 17:1-2, NLT)

Eli coached Samuel, however, and with his encouragement, Samuel told him exactly what God said. Even though it was hard for Eli and his grown sons to hear, it was actually a very encouraging message for the rest of the people. Eli’s sons were bad men, and no one was stopping them. It was  a good thing for the people to hear that God himself was bringing their evil ways to an end. It meant that God cared about his people, and would not let someone treat them unjustly.

So what can we learn from all this? Are you like the people of Israel in those times? Could it be that you don’t hear from God and you don’t see him at work in your life because you really haven’t devoted much time or energy to seeking him? I don’t mean this to sound judgmental or condemning. I just mean that this passage shows us a connection between hearing God and seeking God, and we saw many other passages that show the importance of seeking God with our entire heart. It shows that even when God is speaking to us, it takes some effort and focus to realize that, and to hear what he is saying. It isn’t like a lightning bolt spelling something out in letters in the sky. We need to devote our attention to it.

Here’s another thing. It doesn’t matter who you are, or how old you are – God can speak to you. Samuel was a young boy. He was not an adult. He did not have the respect of a grown up or any relevant experience to convince people that they ought to listen to him. But God spoke to him. He chose him, out of all the people in Israel, to listen to God and to tell others what God was saying. You may think, “I’m just a kid,” or “I’m not a preacher” or “I don’t know much about the bible.” But all those were true of Samuel also. God can use any of us. In fact, he wants to use each one of us, in different ways.

I mentioned in the first sermon that these were some of the darkest days in the history of Israel. But because of one young boy, all that was about to change. People were going to begin to hear God again. I pray that we can all be like the young boy Samuel.

The Boy Who Listened

On By Pastor TomIn 1 Samuel, Bible Teaching, Faith, Old Testament, Sermon, Uncategorized1 Comment

1 SAMUEL #2. 1 SAMUEL CHAPTERS 2 &3

samuelHEARS

To listen to the sermon, click the play button:

To download, right click on the link (or do whatever you do on a Mac) and save it to your computer: Download 1 Samuel Part 2

 

1 The boy Samuel served the LORD in Eli’s presence. In those days the word of the LORD was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.

Times were bad in Israel. There was an old man who was supposed to teach everyone about God, kind of like a pastor, except he was the pastor for the whole country. His name was Eli. Eli had two sons, named Hophni and Phineas. These two sons were grown men, and they were supposed to help their father Eli with the work of teaching people about God and leading them in worship. Instead, they made everyone do what they wanted them to. They took food from people who had saved money all year so they could bring the food to the place of worship and celebrate with God. When people complained, Hophni and Phineas told them that they were working for God, and so the people had to do what they said. They did even worse things than taking food.

Their father Eli did not stop them. He told them that what they did was wrong, but they didn’t stop doing it, and Eli didn’t do anything more about it. As we look at 1 Samuel chapters 1-3, it seems like Eli is not a bad man, but he was weak-willed and he did not do a good job raising his own children.

This wasn’t the only reason times were bad. The text says, “In those days the word of the Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread.” In other words, no one was paying attention to God, and so no one knew what he wanted to say or do. Jeremiah 29:13-14 says this:

You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD (Jer 29:13-14, ESV)

Jesus put it this way:

And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (Luke 11:9-10, ESV)

So God says, if you look for him, you’ll find him, if you are looking with all your heart. If you want to hear what says, you will, if you really truly want to, and you listen to what he says in the Bible, and when he speaks in your heart. But in those days, no one was doing that.So it wasn’t because God was ignoring his people. People didn’t hear from God because they weren’t listening. They did not really truly want to know God better; they didn’t really want to know what he had to say to them.

But one person started to listen. It wasn’t Hophni and Phineas, the bad priests who were abusing their power and position. It wasn’t Eli, the old man who was supposed to lead the country in following God. It wasn’t a mighty warrior or a great scholar.

The one person who started to listen was a young boy. His name was Samuel. Last week we learned how his mother held on to her desire to have a son, abut also surrendered that desire to God. Because of that, after Samuel was born, when he was about three years old, she let God adopt him. Of course it was Eli, the old chief priest who took care of him and taught him at the house of God, but it was really as if Samuel was adopted by God. When Samuel started to listen to God, he was still only a young boy. Both the Hebrew Text and the Greek Old Testament (called the Septuagint) agree on this point. The Greek uses a word that means “young child.” The Hebrew uses a word that can mean any child younger than thirteen years old. But he is definitely not a grown up; not even a teenager. It isn’t any more specific than that. He could have been twelve years old, or he could have been six. But we know he was only a kid.

Many of us know the story. It is right there in 1 Samuel chapter 3. One night Samuel was sleeping and he heard a voice call him. He thought it was Eli, the old priest. Now Eli took care of Samuel, and made sure he was fed and washed, taken care of educated. But Samuel also took care of Eli, because Eli could not see very well. So Samuel thought it was Eli who called him. Maybe Eli need some help finding something or walking somewhere in the dark. Probably there were times when Eli did call him to come help for things like that.

So Samuel got up to see what Eli needed. Only Eli had not called him. He sent Samuel back to bed. A little while later, Samuel heard a voice calling his name again. He got up and ran to Eli once more. Once more Eli sent him back to bed.

Then it happened again. Eli had his problems, but he wasn’t an entirely bad person, and it seemed like when he was caring for Samuel, he avoided the mistakes he must have made with his own sons. Eli realized that it must be God speaking to Samuel. So he sent Samuel back again, but this time, he told Samuel to ask God to keep speaking, and to listen to what God says.

Now there is something interesting about this story. I think a lot of people feel that if God speaks to them, it is going to be easy to hear him and easy to know that it IS God who is giving them the message. But that wasn’t the case with Samuel. It really was God. He was even speaking in a voice that Samuel heard audibly. Even so, it took both Samuel and Eli several tries until they realized that God was at work.

Many times, I think we don’t hear God because we think it should be easy. We think, “if God wants to say something to me, well, he can.” But that isn’t really seeking God, like Jeremiah and Jesus talked about. And even with Samuel, it took some time and energy to discern that God was speaking. It is good to not assume that everything that comes into our heads came from God. But at the same time, it is good to take a little time and energy to evaluate unusual thoughts or experiences, in case the Lord does want to speak to us through them. We evaluate it first of all through comparing what we think we heard, with the Bible. If it came from God, it won’t contradict the bible. Of course there are some things that aren’t in the bible, like what job we should take or where we should go to school. We should pray about those things too, and ask for God to speak to us, and then listen. When we think we hear something, we should talk with other Christians about it, and pray about what we heard, asking God to confirm it or not.

In Samuel’s case, what he heard was very much like something that another man of God had heard a few years before: Eli and his sons were going to be judged. The sons would be judged for the evil they were doing. Eli would be judged for allowing that evil to continue. This wasn’t actually a very nice or comforting thing to hear from God.

This is where Eli did teach Samuel an important lesson. The next morning, Samuel didn’t want to tell Eli what God said, because it was all about Eli and his family, and it was bad news for them. But Eli told Samuel that when God speaks, it is important to tell others what he said – even if it may be hard for some of them to hear. This is still true today.

And even though it was hard for Eli and his grown sons to hear, it was actually a very encouraging message for the rest of the people. Eli’s sons were bad men, and no one was stopping them. It was a good thing for the people to hear that God himself was bringing their evil ways to an end. It meant that God cared about his people, and would not let someone treat them unjustly.

So what can we learn from all this? Are you like the people of Israel in those times? Could it be that you don’t hear from God and you don’t see him at work in your life because you really haven’t devoted much time or energy to seeking him? I don’t mean this to sound judgmental or condemning. I just mean that this passage shows us a connection between hearing God and seeking God. It shows that even when God is speaking to us, it takes some effort and focus to realize that, and to hear what he is saying. It isn’t like a lightning bolt spelling something out in letters in the sky. We need to devote our attention to it.

Here’s another thing. It doesn’t matter who you are, or how old you are – God can speak to you. Samuel was a young boy. He was not and adult. He did not have the respect of a grown up or experience to convince people that they ought to listen to him. But God spoke to him. He chose him, out of all the people in Israel, to listen to God and to tell others what God was saying. You may think, “I’m just a kid,” or “I’m not a preacher” or “I don’t know much about the bible.” But all those were true of Samuel also. God can use any of us. In fact, he wants to use each one of us, in different ways.

I mentioned last time that these were some of the darkest days in the history of Israel. But because of one young boy, all that was about to change. People were going to begin to hear God again. I pray that we can all be like the young boy Samuel.