"A Glimmer of hope" | 1 Samuel 3:1-9

Welcome and greetings

Welcome to all and good morning. acknowledge the Lord for His grace and blessing for us to see half of 2024 (6 month of the yr.)

The Text

1 Samuel 3:1-9 ( reading from NLT)

BACKGROUND

Samuel is considered the last “judge” of Israel. The period of judges is characterize by one line “In those days, Israel had no king,everyone did as they saw fit.”(Judge 17:6) A period by sin , lack of communication from God due to His displeasure with His people.

Samuel - a young man (teenager) was serving in the temple(house of God) under Eli the Priest an elderly and most experienced.

The text introduce this young men to us as someone who is always as ministering before the Lord- serving God.

The word of the Lord was rare

and prophetic visions were not widespread

A sign of hopelessness and desperation - God was not communicating with his people regularly or was it that people did not want to listen to God.

I believed the Word of Lord was rare not because God did not want to communicate with Israel but that Israel did not want to hear their God. - In 1 Samuel 8:6–7 “ When they said, “Give us a king to judge us,” Samuel considered their demand wrong, so he prayed to the Lord. 7 But the Lord told him, “Listen to the people and everything they say to you. They have not rejected you; they have rejected me as their king.”

The Word of the Lord that suppose to gives guidance and direction was few and far in b/w because the people “REJECTED” God.

Yet there was a glimmer of hope in a young men who was faithfully serving the Lord.

Spiritual Dullness in the Temple

This spiritual dullness of the people was manifested in the temple- the Priest(considered Pastor today) was also spiritual dulled and passive - physically the Eli the priest is described as ( now his eyes had begun to grow weak)

A glimmer of Hope

Someone maybe wondering at this moment - but pastor Michael where is the glimmer of hope in all this? the text says “The lamp of God had not yet gone out” (v3)

A small flicker of light in this vase darkness -the Lamp of God had not gone out there hope - The Lord came in that darkness and found a young men who was faithful serving the Lord at his level.

God can call anyone, at anytime at any level if we can remain faithful to your service to the Lord.

When feel like the Lord is speaking to you, remains faithful in serving God in any capacity. God is attracted to faithfulness

Lamp- represents -God’s guidance. Psalm 119:105 says “Your word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path.”

As long as there are faithful people serving God day and night there’s a glimmer of Hope that God will visit his people by name.