Speak, Lord

When I was a child, I remember being taught the story of Samuel hearing from God. And I always thought it was a pretty cool story. I mean, first of all, what kid gets to have a job away from home? That sounded awesome. And then to have God show up one night and talk to you? As a kid? That would be amazing.

And that's where the story always ended. We never heard about the actual message God shared with Samuel. And the point, the lesson, was usually something like "make sure you listen up for the voice of God when He speaks to you."

Well, as we're going to find out today, the story of God speaking to Samuel is a whole lot richer than that. And it has a much sharper point than we might think. And I'm not going to say a whole lot more than that by way of introduction, because I can't wait to just get into this wonderful, challenging, beautiful chapter with you.

1. The Call (vv. 1-10)

Verse one of chapter 3 brings us back to Samuel. We've heard a lot about Eli and his sons, with little reminders about Samuel growing up all throughout. Here, the story returns and zooms in on the little boy who was still ministering to the Lord—serving as a priest-in-training—in the presence of Eli.

Then we get a second statement in verse 1 that reminds us about the time in which he lived. “And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision” (1 Samuel 3:1).

The days of the judges were bleak and barren, and God's words through his prophets were rare. What happened last week, with the man of God announcing judgement to Eli, wasn't all that common.

Verse 2 zooms us in from this general scene to a particular night. Eli, who can't see very well, is lying down. The lamp of God in the tabernacle was still burning, and since it was lit at night and burned until the morning, this is perhaps in one of the dark hours before dawn. Samuel is lying down in the "temple of the Lord," a word that probably points to whatever structures had been set up there in Shiloh where the ark of God was.

Then comes the call. “Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, ‘Here I am!’” (1 Samuel 3:4). "Here I am!" Words of ready response that connect Samuel to a long line of people called by God. This is how Abraham and Jacob and Moses all responded when God called them by name. And Samuel is now added to that list, though he doesn't yet know it's the Lord. He can only assume that it was Eli who called him. So he runs to Eli and says “‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call; lie down again.’ So he went and lay down” (1 Samuel 3:5).

And then it happens again. “And the Lord called again, ‘Samuel!’ and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call, my son; lie down again’” (1 Samuel 3:6).

And here we get an interjection: “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him” (1 Samuel 3:7).

He didn't know the Lord, which was sadly common in the Old Covenant, but the word "yet" points to the fact that this is going to change. Just like where it says that the "word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him." The point isn't so much that if Samuel had known the Lord, he would have recognized His voice. The point is that verse 7 builds our anticipation for what's about to happen. Samuel is about to have the word of the Lord be revealed to him, and from this point onwards he will know the Lord.

And that sets us up for the third time. “And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy” (1 Samuel 3:8).

It took Eli the third time to catch on to what was happening. And all of a sudden it sinks in: the Lord is calling the boy. Often in the telling of the story this is highlighted as an exciting moment, like a coach who realizes his star player is getting drafted by a professional team.

But maybe this wasn't the happiest moment for Eli. Put yourself in his shoes for a moment. Eli is the old priest and judge who has led Israel for many years, probably longing and aching for a word from the Lord. And it finally comes—not to him, but to the little boy that he's been mentoring. That's humbling. Why not him?

And second, don't forget that Eli has already heard from the Lord, and it was a word of absolutely devastating judgement. God's word is not necessarily a welcome thing to Eli. Whatever message the boy is about to receive, Eli can probably guess it's not good news for him.

But still, the counsel he gives Samuel is wise. “Therefore Eli said to Samuel, ‘Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’ So Samuel went and lay down in his place” (1 Samuel 3:9).

Speak, Lord, for your servant hears. Whatever you want to say, I'm all ears. This is really good instruction. And so Samuel goes to lay down, no doubt his heart beating hard and fast, maybe wondering if he's going to hear the voice again, maybe wondering what's going to happen next. Imagine the anticipation of knowing that God has come to speak to you. Am I in trouble? Is it good news? Is it bad news?

And then it happens. “And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’” (1 Samuel 3:10).

The language of God "standing" suggests that, like at other times in the Old Testament, God's appearance may have been in some human form. Maybe the Angel of the Lord, or like the guest at Abraham's tent. But past this point, the whole focus in this passage is not on any physical manifestation, but totally on the words that are communicated.

The Lord calls to Samuel twice for emphasis, just like Abraham and Jacob and Moses. And Samuel responds as instructed: "And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant hears.’"

Oh, Samuel. Are you sure you mean that? Do you have any idea what's coming? Do you have any idea what a heavy message this will be?

2. The Message (vv. 11-14)

And here it is. The Lord's message, which comes in two parts: a message for Samuel, and a message for Eli.

The message for Samuel is in verses 11-12: “11 Then the Lord said to Samuel, ‘Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end’” (1 Samuel 3:11–12).

This is a striking word picture, used a few times in the Bible, about something happening so dramatic and startling that when your ears hear the news your very ears vibrate or tingle in response.

It's kind of like when we say, "That song made my ears bleed." Same kind of idea. This news is so bad that your ears will be affected by the hearing of it.

And this ear-tingling news has to do with Samuel's mentor: God is about to bring judgement upon Eli's house. The judgement foretold—which Samuel might not have even known about until now—is going to be executed upon Eli's house, completely and fully.

This is God's opening message to Samuel, who, let's be reminded, is still a boy. A stark announcement of ear-tingling judgement.

Next, God conveys to Samuel a message to be shared with Eli. "And I declare to him," says verse 13. This is God's message for Eli, which he is giving to Samuel to pass on. "I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them."*

What we read here is much the same as what we heard from the man of God to Eli in the last chapter, with some aspects of Eli's sin even more sharply described. Eli knew about his son's sins, and he should have restrained them. He could have restrained them. But he didn't, because, like we heard in the last chapter, he was honouring his sons above the Lord.

By not restraining his sons, he participated in their sins, and will be judged for them. And there's no escaping from this. Verse 14: “Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever’” (1 Samuel 3:14).

Eli and his sons have committed unforgivable sins. And this makes tragic sense if you think about the fact that forgiveness was only possible by sacrifice and offering. Since their sin was despising and profaning the very offerings that could have brought them forgiveness, they've bared the door to their own salvation. They've cut off their one means of escape.

And don't miss again that this devastating message is being delivered to a boy. About his mentor.

3. The Message Shared (vv. 15-18)

Which means that verse 15 is perhaps the greatest understatement in the whole passage. "Samuel lay until morning." Of course he did. Nobody is going back to sleep after that.

And then Samuel gets up and does his job. He opens the doors of the house of the Lord. Goes about his day. But he's heard things from which there is no going back. He has crossed a threshold in his life and nothing is going to be the same for him anymore.

And, for reasons that are more than obvious, he's afraid to tell the vision to Eli.

But Eli isn't dumb. He knows something is up. So, verse 16, he calls Samuel, and charges him in the strongest possible way to tell him the content of the vision. Verse 17: “And Eli said, ‘What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you’” (1 Samuel 3:17).

Samuel has just heard terrible things from the Lord about his mentor, and now his mentor is threatening him with an oath of destruction if he doesn't tell him everything he heard?! Poor kid. This is a lot in a few hours.

But Samuel does what he's been told to do. Was he shaking? Was he crying? Was he staring at the ground? Was he meeting Eli's gaze? Oh, I'd love to see these moments. All we know is that the boy tells the old man everything he heard and, verse 18, hid nothing from him.

And Eli, for all of his sin, is wise enough to know that he's heard the truth. “And he said, ‘It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him’” (1 Samuel 3:18).

Eli submits to the justice of God because he knows he deserves it. Just like everybody eventually will. When Philippians 2 talks about every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord, that doesn't mean everybody gets saved. It means that even the judged recognize the reign of Jesus and know that He has done nothing wrong in condemning them for their sins.

"It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him."

4. The Messenger Established (vv. 19-21)

So, Samuel has received the message. He has shared the message with Eli. And in the last few verses in our passage today, we see Samuel be established as a messenger of the Lord in Israel.

“And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground” (1 Samuel 3:19). What a great description of a faithful prophet. Deuteronomy 18 says that this was the test of whether someone was a genuine prophet or not—did the things they foretold happen or not?

And when Samuel spoke from God, the things he said happened. None of his words fell to the ground like waste products. And his reputation grew. “And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord” (1 Samuel 3:20).

Israel had been waiting for this. They'd been waiting for their Lord to speak to them again. And it's happened. The whole nation—from Dan in the far north to Beersheba in the far south—knows that Samuel is a prophet who reliably speaks for God.

And it all started there in Shiloh. So the chapter ends in verse 21 with a bookend that sums up the chapter by showing what has changed since verse 1.

We started with a time in which “the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision” (1 Samuel 3:1). But then, as this chapter has described for us, “the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord” (1 Samuel 3:21).

Truths for Today

So, that sums up the events of this chapter. But what do these events mean? We know what they meant for Israel at that time: they had a prophet again. But what does this have to do with you and me today? What are the truths we can and must take home with us from this passage today?

I want to suggest four. Four key truths, each related to one another, that speak loudly into our lives today.

1. We Can't Love our Family More than God

The first has to do with Eli's sin, and the reminder that we can't love our families more than God. Could you and I forget that, and sin in the same way Eli did? Of course we can, which is why Jesus commands us to get this straight right at the outset of our relationship with Him. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37).

What makes Jesus' words go so hard is that parents have a built-in love for their children. Children have a built-in love for their parents. We can be so sharp with other people's sins and so soft when it comes to our flesh and blood.

Parents, here's a test for you. If your adult child was claiming the name of Christ, was claiming to be a disciple of Jesus, but was living in some form of public, open sin, and you confronted them on it, like Eli did last week, and they didn't listen to you, what would you do next?

Lots of parents, I fear, would "just pray about it" and do nothing. Instead of doing what they should—treating their adult child like any other Christian and going back to them with one or two others, and if they don't listen to even them, then telling it to the church. And, if they refuse to listen to the church, following through by treating them like an outsider.

Now at this point, there are some theologians whom I respect who say that, at this point, you stop treating them like a Christian, but you don't stop treating them like a family member. In other words, 1 Corinthians 5:11 doesn't apply to family members when it says “But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one” (1 Corinthians 5:11).

I don't agree with that. I believe that 1 Corinthians 5:11, and the rest of that chapter, does apply even to family members.

And that's because Jesus taught us that allegiance to Him supersedes our allegiance to our family members. "Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead” (Matthew 8:22). “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26). “34 Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:34–35).

Time and time again, our allegiance to Jesus and His family takes priority over our biological family, not because our biological family is nothing, but because Jesus is that much greater.

And that's really where it comes down to. If you're struggling with this, the answer isn't to try to start caring about your family even less. It's to ask for the Holy Spirit's help to love Jesus even more. To love Him so much that you would, tearfully but willingly, choose Him over your family because He is such a priceless treasure to you. To say to the Hophnis and Phinehas' in your family, "I love you, and because I love you, our relationship can't be the same until you repent."

That's our first take-home truth from today's passage, which comes right from the message that God gave to Samuel.

2. Kids Can Handle a Lot More Than We Think

Second, we want to think about the fact that this message came to Samuel. To a boy.

One of the lessons I take from this is that kids can handle a lot more than we often think. Children are capable of handling more than many Christian publishing companies think they are.

Which is ironic, given that most of the time that this story is taught to children, we cut out the stuff about judgement. Which is so wrong. Parents, grandparents, Sunday school teachers, note well that God was very okay entrusting a boy with a severe message of judgement. We must not be afraid of teaching our kids the meat of the word, even the parts that are hard to chew on.

I love the curriculum we use here in our children’s ministries and how, down to the 2-and-3-year-olds, it doesn't whitewash over the strong stuff. My wife teaches 2-and-3-year-olds about the judgement of God. My eight-year-old is learning theology. We're teaching our kids how to connect the Bible stories together into a vision of a big, strong, sovereignly steadfast God.

Parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles—you get to do the same thing. Open the Bible and read what's there. Resist the temptation to make it all cute or easy to swallow. Teach them that the Lord is a lion, good, but not tame. And if you don't know what I mean by that, then also you need to read your kids "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" by C. S. Lewis.

Who knows if there are future Samuels among us? And we get to be a part of entrusting them with the Lord's word.

And kids, keep gobbling it up! Keep learning the word. Keep chewing on the tough stuff. Keep asking hard questions. You're not too young to think big thoughts. Every time we open our Bibles, we get to hear from the same God Samuel did.

3. God is Revealed and Known Through His Word

And that leads us into our third key truth today, which is that God is revealed and known through His word. Didn't we see that in this passage? Samuel didn't know the Lord because the word of the Lord hadn't been revealed to him. When God did appear and was revealed, it was through His word.

This is how God words. He told His people not to make images of Him. He is revealed through His word.

For Samuel, that was a spoken, audible word, communicated right to him. And there are some today who would have us believe that this is how God still communicates with all of His children. There are some who would use this story as an encouragement for all of us to keep listening for that still, small voice of the Lord to wake us up at night.

There's a problem with that. The first problem is that God's voice in this passage wasn't still or small. Samuel didn't just receive an impression. God didn't just lay something on his heart. I believe He can do that. I believe God has impressed things on my heart. But that's not what was happening here.

God is speaking audible words to Samuel, which he was to hear and pass on to all of Israel. And none of those words fell to the ground.

Do you know what would have happened to Samuel if his words had fallen to the ground? If he had said, "God told me this will happen," and that didn't happen? He would—or at least should—have been killed.

“20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him” (Deuteronomy 18:20–22).

So people who want to run around saying God told them this or that need to be really careful. If you want to say that God speaks to you the same way He spoke to Samuel and other prophets, you need to be okay accepting the same fate that the prophets had to face when their prophecies didn't come to pass. And suddenly you're not so sure, are you?

Which leads us to the second problem with trying to use this passage as an encouragement for private revelations from God. Hebrews 1:1: “1 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2).

God spoke in all kinds of ways to the prophets, like Samuel, but now He has spoken in the final, climactic word of Jesus. Jesus's life and words have been recorded for us, explained to us by the apostolic writings known as the New Testament. And based on Hebrews 1:1, we should not expect to hear more prophetic words from the Lord because Jesus is the final word, and what more could He say than to us He has said?

God's word, which reaches its peak in the word of Christ, is all that we need. “16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). Every good work. Scripture is enough for all that we need.

Now notice that I'm not talking about what God can do. I am not a cessationist in the sense of limiting what God can or will do. But we have to ask, what has God told us to expect in His word? And we have to ask, are we content with what God has told us? Are we content with this vision of Jesus? Have we so studied every chapter and verse that we really need more?

There's a call here for us, right? A call to read, and preach, and be captivated by this majestic and final word. In Samuel's day, the word of the Lord was rare.

Sadly, that's true in many homes and hearts and churches today as people ignore the sufficient word of God and chase after something that feels more exciting.

Would you know God? Would you have your Creator revealed to you? Read, study, receive the preaching of this book. And pray for the living and active Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our heart, giving us spiritual vision to see the glory that's revealed in this living and active word.

4. God's People Receive His Word, Whether We Like It or Not

There's a final note for us to end on here: God's people receive His word, whether we like it or not.

As we think about Samuel receiving the word, this was a hard word for him to hear. And he wasn't the first. Think about Abraham's call to leave it all behind. Think of the struggle that came into Moses' life when God spoke to him.

Think about Jesus' call to us to pick up our crosses and follow.

Are we okay with God speaking to us whatever He wants to say? Will we tune Him out or change the channel if we don't like it, or do we say, "Speak, Lord, your servant is listening?"

Last week we talked about consumerism in the church.

The truth is, people have always been tempted to be consumers with God's word, hearing what they want and ignoring or reinterpreting the rest. "Did God really say?" said the snake. "Speak to us smooth things," the people of Israel said to the prophets in Isaiah's day (Isaiah 30:10). Paul warned Timothy that “the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions" (2 Timothy 4:3), and that this would result in wandering away from the truth entirely.

We face that danger all the time here in North America with all of the various Bible teaching and preachers and resources and even designer Bibles available to us. We can assume our preferences are reliable, that hearing from God should make us feel a certain way or fit a certain profile. If we don't like something, there must be something wrong with it, and we'll find something wrong with it if we have to. And we'll go shop around to find something that makes us feel good.

Maybe your problem isn't that you like the smooth stuff. Maybe you like it edgy. Maybe you get restless and bored with the comforting, encouraging parts of God's word. Maybe you feel like you need to feel guilty to have had a good time with God. That's just as big of a problem.

And this all so is poisonous, especially when we consider the billions still out there with no access to God's word at all, who are so eager to receive His word, whatever it says, like we heard at the missions conference this weekend.

The question for all of us is: when we encounter something in the Bible, whether we're reading it or hearing it being faithfully preached, and we don't like what we hear for one reason or another, how do we respond?

I think that our passage today has shown us the way: "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears." God reveals Himself to us through His word, and His servants receive His words with gladness. Because this book reveals Him in whose presence there is fullness of joy, and at whose right hand there are pleasures forevermore. We want to know and delight in that God, not a false God of our own imagination.

So we read and study and listen to the preaching of the whole Bible, because this is how we know God, which means, this is how we know eternal joy.

So speak, Lord. Your servants hear.