Sermon Tone Analysis
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Intro:
We take many things for granted in life.
We often do not appreciate the goodness of these things until we lose them—good health, caring parents, freedom, friendships …
The list could be extended.
So long as such things are part of normal life for us, we give little thought to their importance.
It is also true that those who have never known some of these good things in their experience may not really know how good they are.
One good that is taken for granted by some, and unknown to others, is the word of God.
The Old Testament prophet Amos issued a terrible threat to the people of Israel in the eighth century b.c.
It is difficult for us to sense the horror of Amos’s warning because we do not readily appreciate, on the one hand, the brilliant goodness of the word of God and, on the other, our profound dependence on God’s word.
This may be because we have come to take the word of the Lord for granted or because we have never known its goodness.
As we return to the days of young Samuel at Shiloh, we learn that those days were somewhat like the days that Amos, a couple of centuries later, would proclaim were about to come again to Israel.
These were days when “the word of the Lord was rare.”
The reason for this famine of the word of the Lord has been presented in the previous chapter.
The priests at Shiloh, in particular Eli’s sons, “did not know the Lord” and behaved with an outrageous contempt for both God and the people
Read 1 Samuel 3:1-5
I. Word of Lord was Rare vs. 1
This is the fifth time we have heard a brief statement about Samuel and his activities at Shiloh.
These statements have been five bright spots in the otherwise dark and gloomy account of the goings on at Shiloh
In the very setting of the degeneracy of Hophni and Phinehas and the failing competence of Eli, Samuel progressed from being the lad who served the Lord under the direct supervision of Eli “the priest”.
to taking on the priestly garment himself in 1 Samuel 2:18,
to personal growth “with the Lord” (literal translation) in 1 Samuel 2:21,
to a youth in good standing with God and the people in 1 Samuel 2:26,
to the one we will now see at Shiloh serving the Lord, still “under Eli,” but with Eli no longer called “the priest”
The word was rare and there was no vision
Without a vision the people perish
When Disciples go without the word of God they starve their souls
It stunts their spiritual growth and clouds their judgment
Israel was a nation doing what was right in their own eyes
God would punish them by sending invaders, but would then raise up a judge
He is now raising up the final judge
Chapter starts with saying the Word of the Lord was rare and ends with a recognized prophet
Samuel was less a judge like Moses and more a prophet like Elijah
He was a young boy and need to learn to hear the Voice of the Lord
II.
God Speaks to Samuel vs. 2-9
Eli is getting old
His eyesight is growing dim
This is part of growing old but the author correlates this with the lack of vision
Eli’s physical condition was a reflection of the spiritual reality.
He could not see the light of day, nor could he “see” the word of the Lord.
His darkness was deep
He was lying down
He obviously had his own place in the temple
lying down, is part of a picture that is being built up of a man too old to do much at all.
All we have seen him do in the whole story so far is sit, speak, hear, and now lie down
Eli was lying down “in his own place.”
There is nothing wrong with that, of course.
But “in his own place” will make quite a contrast to the place we are about to see young Samuel
We ought to sense the growing crisis.
Israel had always needed a mediator to receive God’s word, to offer sacrifice for their sins, and to represent them before God
Here we see Israel’s mediator as feeble and frail.
What will happen when Eli is gone?
vs. 3 Lamp not gone out
On the one hand, this was the lamp that burned “from evening to morning” in the tabernacle
If it “had not yet gone out,” it was still nighttime.
On the other hand, in the darkness represented by God’s silence and Eli’s blindness, the news that God’s lamp “had not yet gone out” suggests that God had not yet abandoned his people.
There was still hope.
Young Samuel lying down “in the temple of the Lord.”
The temple of the Lord (that is, of course, the tabernacle) represented God’s dwelling among his people.
This was where one would expect the word of the Lord to be given, the sacrifices to be offered, and the priest to represent Israel before the Lord.
The decline of Eli and the corruption of his sons threatened these necessary expressions of Israel’s relationship with God.
But the lamp of God had not yet gone out: young Samuel was there, in the temple of the Lord.
vs. 4-7 Unrecognized Word
The Lord Called Samuel
It is clear that on this occasion the word of the Lord came, to Samuel at least, in an audible voice.
If God called Samuel in an audible voice, Samuel’s reaction is not at all surprising: “… and he said, ‘Here I am!’ and ran to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me’
Notice his energetic responsiveness.
It was immediate and fast.
He ran to Eli
Eli’s affectionate way of speaking to Samuel as “my son” is poignant.
His actual sons had defied him and brought God’s condemnation
Neither Samuel nor Eli yet understood what was happening
vs. 7a Samuel did not yet know the Lord
This is a strange thing to say.
After all, have we not been told that Samuel was ministering to the Lord, that he was growing with the Lord, that he enjoyed the favor of the Lord?
What does it mean, “Samuel did not yet know the Lord”?
The key here is the word yet
Hophni & Phineas did not know the Lord because they had rejected knowledge of God by their contempt for God’s Law.
Samuel did not yet know the Lord because “… the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him”
In the case of Hophni and Phinehas, we see that it is not possible to know God at the same time as defying him.
You cannot know God and live in disobedience to God.
On the other hand, in the case of Samuel we see that it is only possible to know God when God acts to make himself known
vs. 8-9
Old Eli realized that something was happening that had not happened at Shiloh for a very long time.
His sight had grown dim, but he was not yet completely blind.
He instructs Samuel on how to respond when the Lord speaks the next time
Speak Lord, for your servant hears
III.
The Lord Visits vs. 10-14
This time there seems to be more than the voice.
The Lord “came and stood.”
The Lord was present, this was no dream on Samuel’s part
It has taken half the chapter for the word of the Lord to be heard.
But at last there was a servant at Shiloh who was hearing.
When God speaks, it is not some kind of mystical experience, in which it is the experience of hearing that matters.
When God speaks, what matters is what God says.
On the occasion what God has to say was terrible
vs. 11 Ears will tingle
This phrase happens a couple of times in the OT
God was about to do something “in Israel” (therefore an event of national significance) that would have that effect on the ears of everyone who heard it!
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