God Calls: Samuel

Intro

Setting

Last week we read about the Israelites at the beginning of their wilderness journey, learning how to trust God and live in God’s kingdom ways. After forty years, and a transition from Moses to Joshua, they stood on the banks of the Jordan river and crossed into the land God promised them. It took some time to settle down and there were many conflicts and mistakes along the way.

Once settled, there was no leader or king, and each person did what they wanted or felt was right for themselves, and the situation deteriorated as over time the people forgot what they had learned about being God’s people.

In our Old Testament journey this fall, we’re skipping entirely over the books of Judges. And this is a book that catalogues Israel’s total failure to live according to the covenant. God raised up judges to be leaders who reminded people of God’s ways, but they had only limited success. By the time we get to today’s story, the people had built a shrine in Shiloh to house the ark of the covenant that they brought from their wilderness years, and there was a high priest there, someone who could help conduct worship and interpret God’s word to the people. His name was Eli.

vs 1-10 - Sunday school, Children’s Bible or Youth Camp

vs 11-21 - takes a darker turn, things get complicated

A comedy, but then the hint of a turn towards tragedy. One of those moments we remember that our Bibles are not a collection of neat and tidy stories.

Human cast of characters:

Samuel - the miraculous child of Hannah, longed for, prayed for, pleaded for, but also promised by his mother to be set apart from birth. So, received with gratitude and then released to live at the temple, in the care of the high priest (who wasn’t the best father, so this must have felt risky?) and the same high priest who mistook Hannah’s fervent praying for early morning drunkenness… so clearly there’s some developments that aren’t included by the biblical writers.

Eli - Eli served as the judge for 40 years and was the high priest at Shiloh. He’s old now, has lost his eyesight, and is nearing the end of his career.

The priesthood was a hereditary thing, and so Eli’s sons Hophni & Phineas also served as priests at Shiloh. However, where we know Eli to be flawed but faithful, these two were not only flawed, but actively terrible and unwilling to repent. That will be an important factor in the story.

Now, God is also a character in this story with a speaking role.

Though, in the comedy of things, the people listening don’t realize it is God calling until a ways into the story.

I love that there is a story in the Bible about someone being called by God and them not knowing it’s God calling.

So, young Samuel. Old and blind Eli. And God who is going to speak.

Al, would you come and read for us?

1 Samuel 3 (CEB)

1 Now the boy Samuel was serving the Lord under Eli. The Lord’s word was rare at that time, and visions weren’t widely known. 2 One day Eli, whose eyes had grown so weak he was unable to see, was lying down in his room. 3 God’s lamp hadn’t gone out yet, and Samuel was lying down in the Lord’s temple, where God’s chest was.

4 The Lord called to Samuel. “I’m here,” he said.

5 Samuel hurried to Eli and said, “I’m here. You called me?”

“I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go lie down.” So he did.

6 Again the Lord called Samuel, so Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, “I’m here. You called me?”

“I didn’t call, my son,” Eli replied. “Go and lie down.”

7 (Now Samuel didn’t yet know the Lord, and the Lord’s word hadn’t yet been revealed to him.)

8 A third time the Lord called Samuel. He got up, went to Eli, and said, “I’m here. You called me?”

Then Eli realized that it was the Lord who was calling the boy. 9 So Eli said to Samuel, “Go and lie down. If he calls you say, ‘Speak, Lord. Your servant is listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down where he’d been.

10 Then the Lord came and stood there, calling just as before, “Samuel, Samuel!”

Samuel said, “Speak. Your servant is listening.”

11 The Lord said to Samuel, “I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of all who hear it tingle! 12 On that day, I will bring to pass against Eli everything I said about his household—every last bit of it!13 I told him that I would punish his family forever because of the wrongdoing he knew about—how his sons were cursing God, but he wouldn’t stop them. 14 Because of that I swore about Eli’s household that his family’s wrongdoing will never be reconciled by sacrifice or by offering.”

15 Samuel lay there until morning, then opened the doors of the Lord’s house. Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16 But Eli called Samuel, saying: “Samuel, my son!”

“I’m here,” Samuel said.

17 “What did he say to you?” Eli asked. “Don’t hide anything from me. May God deal harshly with you and worse still if you hide from me a single word from everything he said to you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him.

“He is the Lord,” Eli said. “He will do as he pleases.”

19 So Samuel grew up, and the Lord was with him, not allowing any of his words to fail. 20 All Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was trustworthy as the Lord’s prophet. 21 The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh because the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh through the Lord’s own word.

Prayer of Illumination

Light of God

We want our ears to tingle

and we don’t want to let any of these words fall to ground

because You, O Lord, are revealed through this word. 

“Speak Lord, we are listening.”

(And all your servants said…) Amen

Hearing God

In Gordon T. Smith’s book The Voice of Jesus, he posits that there are two questions that a Christian should be able to answer… So. This is not a test. But here are the questions… ready?

What is Jesus saying at this point in your life? And how do you know it is Jesus?

In essence, how are you paying attention to God? Being attentive to a God who is at work not only in the stories in this book, not only “out there somewhere” but also in the daily ups and downs of your life. How are you listening to your own life and hearing God speak in it and through it? How are you showing up whole-heartedly - or as whole-heartedly as you can?

Today, we begin a four week series I’ve entitled God Calls. Stories of how God called Samuel, then David, then Solomon and finally Elijah. So we transition into this 4 week journey, but we also do so from a place of transition even in the story of God’s people. As we trace that story throughout the Old Testament, we pick up with the people of God as they are ending the time of the Judges and are about to enter into a monarchy. But we’re in the liminal space between. No longer quite still in the time of Judges, but not yet in the time of the monarchy. In between.

Hearing God when it’s dark...

There is a phrase in the first part of this text that I find fascinating…

Vs 3 says The lamp of God had not yet gone out (Alter, Hebrew Bible)

A lamp which would have been kept burning through the night, while this could indicate that it was almost dawn, it could also indicate that while God’s presence was hard to see, God was still at work in the Israelites and the world.

You see, not only is this story taking place in the middle of an actual night, but it’s also taking place after a season of great darkness for the people of Israel. The time of the Judges is DARK. Read it. But be warned… it’s not pretty. The book of Judges mostly catalogues the epic failure of God’s covenant people to live as God’s covenant people.

And so, even as the first two verses indicate

The Lord’s word was rare at that time, and visions weren’t widely known.

It’s a dark time. And it’s been dark for awhile. And maybe God is still speaking… still keeping the Divine promises in the covenant… or maybe God has given up on God’s people. I mean, at this point, no one would blame God.

And then we have Samuel - starting out, learning to listen and we have Eli - nearing the end… a failure? But also still serving… it’s easy to get stuck on Samuel as young and Eli as old. But let’s look beyond that, okay?

Note a few things about Samuel beyond his age and stage.

He is IN the house of God. In tabernacle. Near the Ark of the Covenant.

And he doesn’t know God.

7 (Now Samuel didn’t yet know the Lord, and the Lord’s word hadn’t yet been revealed to him.)

Samuel is near the things of God. But Samuel doesn’t know God. And why doesn’t Samuel know the God to whom his mother poured out her anguish? Why doesn’t he know the God he’s already serving? Because God hasn’t revealed it to Samuel yet. We see God, we know God, when God reveals it to us.

Note that Samuel however is attentive. He’s paying attention. And when he thinks Eli is calling, he comes running. Here I am! he says.

When Eli eventually realizes what is happening, Samuel does what Eli tells him, responds to God’s call with the words Eli gives him… “Speak, for your servant is listening.” (Some scholars note that Eli uses the name Adonai for God, Samuel omits it. Perhaps because he still doesn’t know this God…)

And note a couple of things about Eli.

Eli, who I imagine is tired of being woken up by the young Samuel, but I might be projecting seeing as I still have smallish people in my house who sometimes come running in the middle of the night.

Eli does realize that God is calling to his young protege. And he instructs him in a way that allows Samuel to encounter God for himself.

After Samuel’s encounter with God, Eli also gives Samuel permission to be totally honest with him. He knows that he has failed. As a father, perhaps. But also as a priest. He has not stood up strongly enough in the face of his sons’ abuse of their religious authority. He has tried. But he has not succeeded. And he knows the consequences are coming. Perhaps Eli even feels relief that God is raising up the “next” … seeing as his biological sons are clearly not up to the task.

There’s a wholeheartedness to Eli that I really admire. He’s trusting God, even in his failure. And God’s judgment is not resisted. And it enables Samuel to speak everything to him, hiding nothing, the text says. What a gift.

So what about us?

How do we know God? How do we hear God? How do we respond to God and to one another?

How do we know God?

How do we hear God?

How do we respond to God and to one another?

How do we know God? By God’s own revelation. (So we have to practice ATTENTIVENESS)

This also means that when someone in our midst doesn’t know God… and there are always those among us who don’t. We still practice being attentive. So that when God reveals… we don’t miss it.

How do we hear God? By learning to recognize the voice of the Divine. (And we cannot do this alone!) We need community. (So we have to practice LISTENING and LISTENING TOGETHER)

Both Eli and Samuel are needed for God’s call to be heard and responded to.

Samuel hears it, but Eli understands it

This is true in our lives, too. There is very likely something that you can hear, that I can’t. But maybe there’s something I can hear, that you can’t. But you, can understand what I’m hearing. What if this way of being isn’t because we’re unable to be independent - as though independent hearing and understanding were the goal. What if the goal is to hear and understand in community. TOGETHER.

How do we respond to God’s voice? With whole-hearted presence (Samuel’s “Here I am” - to God and then at the end to Eli…even after he “knows what Eli has done”) (So we have to practice WHOLE-HEARTED PRESENCE)

These three questions invite three practices:

ATTENTIVENESS, LISTENING (& LISTENING TOGETHER) and WHOLE-HEARTED PRESENCE)

As we learn to be attentive, and to listen - on our own and in community, and as we grow as whole-hearted followers of Jesus… we will be invited again and again to contemplate the questions we asked at the beginning…

What is it that Jesus is saying to you at this point in your life?

And how do you know it’s Jesus?

At the beginning of things. Near the end of things. Before we’ve had a chance to fail. And after spectacular failures. Even in the dark. Even when morning feels like it won’t come. God continues to speak to us. Holy Spirit, help us to hear and to be the kind of community that listens together to the voice of God.