1 Samuel 3

1 Samuel 3

Thielicke addressed modern issues and problems in his sermons, “he sought to answer the question, ‘Is there any word from the Lord?’” Isn’t that what each of us is seeking today? What has God said that will strengthen and guide us through the difficulties and opportunities we face? First Samuel 3 describes a time when “the word of the Lord was rare” (v.1). When God spoke to young Samuel, the boy mistakenly thought it was the aging priest Eli calling him. Eli told the boy to respond to God’s voice by saying, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears” (v.9). Samuel listened, and he became known as a man who lived faithfully and fearlessly, “for the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (v.21). God who formed worlds by the power of His word Speaks through the Scriptures His truth to be heard And if we read with the will to obey He by His Spirit will show us His way. —D. De Haan God speaks through His Word to those who listen with their heart. SANCTIFY A godly life can develop in spite of ungodly influences surrounding it. So it was with Moses in Egypt, Daniel in Babylon, and our Lord in Nazareth. Samuel was not isolated, but he was separated. He belonged to the Lord. Daily, he was in contact with sin, and yet he was not contaminated by it. He was a “living sacrifice” and experienced God’s transforming power (Ro 12:1,2). Authority. Even though Eli was not the most godly example or mentor, young Samuel submitted to his authority. We submit to man’s authority “for the Lord’s sake” (1Pe 2:13-25), for we serve God, not men. We trust Him to protect us and work out His will even in the lives of ungodly people. Fidelity. God gave His message to Samuel because He knew Samuel was faithful. The lad was accustomed to being alert to Eli’s voice and to obeying immediately, so when God spoke, Samuel was ready. Being faithful in a few small things prepares you for bigger things (Mt 25:21). Hearing the voice of God did not keep Samuel from doing the work of God (v15); he went right back to the old tasks. The nation would now listen to Samuel’s words, for they knew he was God’s spokesman. Matthew Henry Concise - Verses 1-10. The call which Divine grace designs shall be made effectual; will be repeated till it is so, till we come to the call. Eli, perceiving that it was the voice of God that Samuel heard, instructed him what to say. Though it was a disgrace to Eli, for God's call to be directed to Samuel, yet he told him how to meet it. Thus the elder should do their utmost to assist and improve the younger that are rising up. Let us never fail to teach those who are coming after us, even such as will soon be preferred before us, John 1:30. Good words should be put into children's mouths betimes, by which they may be prepared to learn Divine things, and be trained up to regard them. ILLUSTRATION OF NO WORD FROM THE LORD - October 7, 1969 the Montreal, Canada police force went on strike. Because of what resulted, the day has been called Black Tuesday. A burglar and a policeman were slain. Forty-nine persons were wounded or injured in rioting. Nine bank holdups were committed (almost a tenth of the total number of holdups that occurred the previous year) along with 17 robberies at gunpoint. Usually disciplined, peaceful citizens joined the riffraff and went wild, smashing some 1,000 plate glass windows in a stretch of 21 business blocks in the heart of the city, hauling away stereo units, radios, TVs and wearing apparel. While looters stripped windows of valuable merchandise, professional burglars entered stores by doors and made off with truckloads of goods. A smartly dressed man scampered down a street with a fur coat over each arm. With no police around to reign in crime, anarchy reigned! (A modern day picture of the book of Judges!) Walter Kaiser - An Illustration of Preaching a Narrative Text: 1 Samuel 3:1–4:1a - from "Preaching and Teaching from the Old Testament" The text is 1 Samuel 3:1–4:1a. It is entitled, “The Power of the Word of God.” This title comes from the focal point found in 1 Samuel 3:19—“[God] let none of his words fall to the ground.” Our major points will follow the four scenes that were mentioned above: (1) The Previous Days, v. 1; (2) One Night, vv. 2–14; (3) Next Morning, vv. 15–18; and (4) Subsequent Days, vv. 19–4:1a. I believe that this text informs us as to what (the interrogative for our message) are the characteristics (our homiletical key word) that demonstrate the power of the Word of God to this very day. Let us examine the exposition of this text as a typical Sunday audience would hear it. ※ The motto of Geneva, Switzerland in the early 1500s was “After darkness, light!” It was a bold affirmation of Calvin and his generation that “light” came to God’s people through the preaching of God’s Word. Therefore, in order for the darkness of that town to be dispelled, six sermons from the Bible were mandated for each citizen each week. One sermon was to come at dawn on Sunday and another at the usual hour of 9 A.M. that day. Catechism for the children followed at noon with another sermon at 3 P.M. (Apparently there was no NFL football on Sunday afternoons back then!) On the working days, additional sermons came on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The argument of Calvin and the city fathers of Geneva was the same as that of Proverbs 29:18. It warned that “Where there is no vision [the Hebrew word stood for “divine revelation”], the people perish [or, as translated in Exodus 32:25, “the people run wild” or “become ungovernable”]” (KJV). Can we in our day and generation recognize that the very same results come from biblical and theological illiteracy? Surely, there is deep concern about a society that seems to have lost its moorings. Our cities and towns have become more like human jungles in which we devour each other for little or no apparent reason. Only a word from God can save us from the path of self-destruction that we seem to be on. But how does such a transformed state of affairs come about? The answer is this: It happens just as it did in Samuel’s day. It happens when God shows us the first characteristic of his powerful word, or message, namely, God can make that word just as scarce for us as he did for those in Samuel’s day (v. 1). God can withdraw his teachers from the scene so that the hearing of his Word becomes a rare commodity. And when he does, society seems to come unglued, and all the fury of evil breaks loose. The cohesive bonding of our relationships gives way with such force that we are astounded at how brutish human beings can act. Schools suddenly become just as unsafe as the killing fields of Vietnam. Much of this takes place because we have decided we can make it on our own without God’s revelation or his help. Second only to the gift of God’s Son was the gift of his Word. But that is all too easily forfeited in life and in the pulpit for some other substitute. Individuals cannot substitute anything in place of the basic necessity of living by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. We cannot manipulate that word, manufacture another form of it, or duplicate it. It is unique; it is life-giving. Only the Lord can give it. Therefore, we say, that word can become scarce and rare in its exposure to people with the result that we, along with previous cultures, witness what we have seen in recent days. Our Lord can also make that word scarce in its effects on us and our times. Amos 8:11–12 warns of a time when the Lord will send a famine, not of bread and water, but “a famine of hearing the word of God.” Therefore, when God grows silent, the darkness thickens, and often the depths of our gloom and sadness become almost unbearable. The second characteristic of the powerful word of God can be seen in the ways in which God can make that word startling to us (vv. 2–14). We can be startled by the way that word calls us, as it did Samuel. Eleven times in verses 4–10, some form of the word “call” appears as our Lord tries to get the attention of young Samuel. Meanwhile, Eli was losing his physical eyesight, if not, more seriously, his spiritual vision. It was Samuel who was needed to make sure the lamp of God did not go out in the tabernacle. God had providentially provided Samuel through Hannah’s earlier agonizing petitions to our heavenly Father. It took four calls from God to get through to Samuel. Was it that Samuel was a little dull and somewhat dim-witted here? I doubt it, for in explaining his response, verse 7 does not seem to blame Samuel. The point is that such was the state of religious affections at this time that a boy raised in the house of God was ignorant of the person and work of God. Before we castigate those men and their times, consider the state of biblical illiteracy in our day for people who have grown up in the center of our evangelical churches! That is not the case with all, mind you, but it is common enough to sound the same warnings found in this text for our day as well. But note the kindness and gentleness of the Lord. He does not heap piles of scorn on Samuel; rather, he “stands there” as at other times, calling Samuel. There is no tirade such as, “Boy, you never get anything right.” Instead, we see a Savior who is patient, tender, and kind! Our Lord can make his word startling not only in its call, but also in its content. In fact, so startling were the contents of Samuel’s call that it would make the ears of all that heard it tingle. Judgment would visit the house of Eli because he too had failed to act on the word that God had sent to him in 1 Samuel 2:27–29. Eli had done nothing to restrain the wickedness of his two priestly sons. Trivializing the holiness of God is serious business indeed. His sons had literally “blasphemed” the Lord (v. 13 in the Greek version of this Hebrew text). So severe was the sin and guilt that it could never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering! It is this dual nature of the message that we hear from Scripture that is sometimes troubling. The message both attracts and repels. Dale Ralph Davis’s book on this passage has an illustration from Andrew Bonar.16 The story is about a Grecian artist who painted a picture of a boy carrying a basket of grapes on his head. So glorious was the painting that all demanded that the artist place it on display in the Grecian forum. So graphic and real were the grapes in the basket that the birds flew up to the canvas and tried to peck at the grapes. The citizens of the city heaped volumes of praise on the artist, for they said even the birds were fooled by the depictions represented on the canvas. But the artist declined all their praise, saying, “No, I should have done a great deal more. I should have painted the boy so true to life that the birds would not have dared to come near.” He thought it should have been both attractive and repelling at the same time. Therein lies precisely the tension found in the Word of God. To smother people with the comfort of the gospel while never telling them about their sin is lopsided. But to preach angrily and focus only on judgment with no encouragement or care for persons is likewise missing the point of revelation. God’s messengers must hold high the truth of God in both its judgment and its comfort. We must afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted as teachers and ministers of the gospel. A third characteristic of the powerful word of God is that it is sovereign over us (vv. 15–18). Our Lord is sovereign over the speaker. That sovereignty rules over all, for most speakers have a natural tendency to fear announcing judgment. Clearly, Samuel shared this fear (v. 15), but when Eli called Samuel to learn what God had said, Samuel “told him everything” (v. 18). Why should we hide the word God has spoken, for it is true and it will come to pass whether we are faithful in announcing it or not. In fact, the text suggests that if we as God’s messengers hold back the truth, then the guilt that falls on the audience also falls on us for failing to sound the warning so that they would have a chance to change and avoid the threatened calamity. But God is sovereign over the audience as well. Eli did not reject, argue, or dispute the validity of the message Samuel gave to him. To his credit, he simply said, “He is the LORD” (v. 18). God’s people are taught to say “Amen” to the judgments of God as well as to the blessings from above. He is Lord indeed. The reason is fairly straightforward: If God did not judge evil, then the good and the righteous would be discouraged. God is not a paper tiger who threatens but never carries out his threats. Should the pulpit pull punches, as it were, the moment it did so would be the very moment that God would despise the pulpit and give it no standing before a watching world or even before his church. The final characteristic of the powerful word of God found in this passage is that God’s word secures and accredits the servants he sends to us. It is no secret that many pulpit ministries are lightly regarded by both friends and foes alike. That is why even the word preach is used in a pejorative way. For example, people say, “Don’t preach to me,” or “Don’t get preachy with me.” But there is no need for worrying about such opinions if one is focusing the message on the Word of God. Nothing spoken from the revelation of God by his servants will fall to the ground (v. 19). It will no more fail in its task than the snow and rain will fail in the task they are sent to do from heaven (Isa. 55:10–11). The question is this: Is our confidence in the Word of God that strong? Do we think that God in his revelation centuries ago will be a match for the crises we face here today? Is it adequate to reach our own young people, the unreached peoples of the earth, or even the modern cynic that feels no one has the right to tell another what is right or wrong, true or false? Despite all the odds of our day and that day in Israel, everyone knew that Samuel’s work and message were accredited by God. This raises the whole question, What really validates our ministries as teachers and preachers of the gospel? Is it growth in the physical plant? Is it growth in the number of attendees? Is it growth in income dollars? Or are we best validated, as this text teaches, by the words taught and the ability those words evidence to effect change in persons’ lives to the glory of God? One thing is for sure: When such authoritative announcements come from the Word of God, its power will be seen by all. A by-product of such effective preaching is that its relevancy and effectiveness will be apparent to all (4:1a). So what shall we say to all of this? Can the light of revelation shine through the present darkness? And if it can, as we are bound to say, how else can it break out except through the faithful preaching of the Word of God? The truth is, where there is no vision [i.e., input of the revelation of God], the people go wild (Prov. 29:18). And the price for allowing a famine of the word of God to fester is that an outbreak of evil appears in almost all the other areas of life. It is high time that teachers and preachers return to the basics once again. Whereas many had thought that the teaching of the Word in a straightforward exposition was now too dated to be effective, it is time to repent and change the menu on the table of the teachings that we spread for the general populace, as well as for the people of God. Let us covenant before God that we will be faithful to the Word of God, longing only to see in evidence the power that Word promises. Let us determine not to cater merely to the current appetites of the pew or join the fashions of the day with what is in vogue as far as proclamation methods are concerned. Instead, let us form a whole new cadre of men and women: “Proclaimer-Keepers” to the glory of God. Only then will a new and unique power be seen in the church as God shows us anew the power of himself in his Word! 1 Samuel 3:2 It happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well), his eyes: 1Sa 2:22 4:15 Ge 27:1 48:19 Ps 90:10 Ec 12:3 1 Samuel 3:2 The Child Samuel's Prayer - Spurgeon 1 Samuel 3 Resources - multiple sermons and commentaries IN THE PROVIDENCE OF JEHOVAH It happened at that time - Nothing "just happens!" The Omnipotent, Omnipresent, Omniscient God of glory is in full control of all happenings that happen, all the time! As Ripley said "Believe it or not!" The truth of God's sovereignty (and providence) can be either very disturbing or very comforting, depending on your perspective. THOUGHT- The word "providence" (pronoia) is found only once in the Bible in a context which refers to human providence (Acts 24:2+), and yet Divine Providence permeates the pages of Holy Writ from Genesis to Revelation! This great truth ought to cause all of God's children to shout "Hallelujah! Our God Reigns!" Amen. Indeed a healthy understanding of God's providences should produce praise from His people (and assurance of the promise in Ro 8:28+), for as John Piper rightly said "In all the setbacks of your life as a believer, God is plotting for your joy." And certainly this proved true in Hannah's life as it would in Samuel's life. See The Providence of God. As Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well) - As a physician, my diagnosis of his physical eye disease is that he most likely had cataracts (at 77 I am in need of cataract surgery!) But as with every soul created in the image of God, he also had spiritual vision, but sadly his spiritual vision had also begun to grow dim and he could not see well enough to see the incredible harm the unholy acts of his worthless sons, Israel's "priests," were committing against the Holy One of Israel. And it was just as true then as it is now that Eli (and all of us) do well to "not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For (A VITAL TERM OF EXPLANATION - DON'T MISS IT! WHAT'S PAUL EXPLAINING?) the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life." (Gal 6:7-8+) Eli's spiritual blurring prevented him from seeing that there would be a reaping in his own house and on the nation, because of the sowing of corruption in the priesthood! THOUGHT - Dear reader, how is your vision? I'm not speaking of your physical vision, but your spiritual vision. Is it "20/20"? Or is it blurred by unconfessed sin, sin that you are covering over, but which will surely bring corruption to your soul? Confession is the remedy and is to be a believer's lifestyle for the verb "confess" (homologeo) in 1Jn 1:9+ (cf Jas 4:8+, Pr 28:13+) is in the present tense (calling for continual, habitual confession, an act that fallen flesh continually resists and which therefore calls for continual reliance, submission to and sensitivity to the promptings of the Holy Spirit to accomplish confession daily. And the active voice calls for us to make a choice of our will, even that choice being energized by the Spirit, to confess). As an aside, a great preventative and/or antidote for "blurred spiritual vision", is maintenance of "Vertical Vision," and a "Maranatha Mindset," for this quality of looking and thinking will function to produce the "Expulsive Power of a New Affection" which will (should) radically affect your daily living. If your spiritual vision is dim, then like David, the man after God's own heart, beseech the Almighty God to "Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way." (Note the 6 "commands" - not that puny man can command the Almighty to do anything, but in context surely reflecting David's intense desire and desperate need for God to carry out these acts. Do it LORD! PLEASE!) (Psalm 139:23-24)