1 Samuel

by

Hearing Voices

“Hearing Voices” was the title of lesson 4 in the 1 Samuel study I am leading on Wednesday evenings at Deer Run.

Have you ever answered a phone call where the caller immediately launches into a full-speed conversation assuming you know who they are — and you don’t?  You listen intently for clues to the caller’s identity.  There’s a familiarity to it but you just can’t place it.  Your mind races through a mental checklist of the people you know.  The name . . . the name is on the tip of your tongue but it just won’t quite come out of your mouth.  And then it happens.  The pause.  The awkward silence just before the inevitable statement/question that you know is coming, “You don’t know who this is, do you?”.

“Wow!  I should have known.”  “How did I not know?”  “I’m so embarrassed.”  “How could I have not known?”

Granted, sometimes it is all about the phone connection and poor acoustics which make the person not really sound like themself . . . sometimes.  More often than not, we must admit that we were not as familiar with the person as we thought.  Regardless of the amount of time spent together, we’ve not really listened to them.  We’re not used to the sound of the voice.  The words spoken do not flow in a manner that we recognize.  The “voiceprint” is strange and unrecognizable to us.

While this can be mildly embarrassing and somewhat awkward when it takes place between friends, what about when we don’t recognize God’s voice?  This was the case with Samuel as he came to serve God as he lives with Eli the priest.  We read that “the word of the LORD was rare” in those days.  It is in that setting that God calls to Samuel with a message.  As God calls Samuel’s name, he does not recognize the voice and assumes that it must be Eli calling him.  It took three attempts before even Eli surmised that it must be God calling to Samuel so on the fourth call Samuel finally acknowledges God and listens to what He has to say.

Before we come down too hard on Samuel, what about us?  How often do we miss the message God is trying to speak into our life?  How often do we struggle with the questions of life and how God should be involved in each aspect of it?  We have the advantage of God’s Word and His Spirit to lead us and teach us about the very nature of God.  Yet still we wonder, we question, we even doubt if God has anything to say at all.  

We hear many voices in our life but struggle to recognize which belongs to God.  So many of them sound reasonable, but which one sounds most like God?  Which one really is God?  If we’re trying to figure it out with our own reasoning or intellect, we will likely fail every time.  The way we know isn’t that complicated.  We spend time with God.  We read His Word.  We listen to what He says to us through it.  We allow His Spirit to fill us and continually remind us of the nature of God revealed through His Word and the life of His Son, Jesus.  The more we know God, the easier it becomes to recognize His voice.  In John 10, Jesus calls himself the “good shepherd”.  He says that the sheep will follow the shepherd that they belong to, and that cares for them, because they recognize his voice.  It is time with the shepherd, and the shepherd with the sheep, that makes this recognition automatic and without question.

As you consider the direction of your life, are you hearing voices?  Are you spending deliberate time with God with the purpose of knowing Him?  I pray that you and I are “sheep” that hear His voice, recognizing and obeying it because it is a voice we are very familiar with.

by

Bad Boys

Our third lesson from 1 Samuel is subtitled “Bad Boys”.  As Samuel grows up serving the LORD under the care of Eli, the sons of Eli the priest are living in ways that treat God, and the people of Israel, with great contempt.  They use their positions for personal gain and for their own pleasure at the expense of the people they were supposed to serve.  They used their authority to “bully” any who would question their tactics and requirements.  They counted on the people fulfilling the requirements of God’s law in bringing their sacrifices while they ignored the rules and regulations God had set for them as priests in accepting and offering the sacrifices to God on behalf of the people.  They were the poster boys for the phrase, “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”!

As I read through this story in 1 Samuel, the question, “Where’s dad?”, keeps running through my mind.  As the reading continues, it becomes obvious that “dad” is there all along.  Eli is living life and going about his daily tasks; perhaps oblivious to the actions of his boys at times, but more often deliberately turning a blind eye to their activities because he is benefitting from some of what they do!  When the public complaints reach a critical mass and begin to tarnish his image, he makes a show of reprimanding his sons — but in a “too little, too late” manner.  I can almost hear him now . . .  “They’re really good boys at heart.”  “They don’t really intend to cause so much trouble.”  “Deep down they mean well — I mean, look at all the nice meals they bring me.”

Take away the Bible names and references and what do you have?  It’s a story that is far too familiar and lived out far too often in our world today.  If  I look at it in the large-scale picture, I see so many of our modern-day politicians — using the power and influence of their position for their own benefit.  Yet even knowing that, how often do we as voters look the other way because we benefit from some of the “special projects” they support?  Everyone is opposed to government waste, pork projects, and whatever else you want to call it, until it directly benefits them and then don’t you dare talk of cutting it!

But I digress! 🙂  It is easy to look at others, point fingers, and say, “shame on you”.  But what about closer to home?  Where to you see yourself in the story?  I would say for most of us it is probably at different, and even multiple, places at varying times in our life.  At times it is easy to be the bad boys — the disobedient children who don’t care because we like the perceived benefit that comes from our actions.  We have the power and ability to do what we want and no one is going to stop us!  At other times we may be more like the dad — those near and dear to us are doing wrong and everyone knows it but they’re just too cute to really do much about it.  Besides that, the “supplies” they bring home from work help stretch an already tight budget — I sure wouldn’t want them to get all “legalistic” on me now, would I?

God calls us to be holy as He is holy.  Not an easy task.  As a matter of fact, an impossible task without the indwelling power of His Spirit within us.  Part of the job of the Holy Spirit is to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgement. (John 16:8)  When we are faced with decisions regarding those things which are good and just and the things which are only for our temporary selfish benefit, God’s Spirit and His Word speak to us to guide us in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.

It is easy to look around and take the path that everyone else seems to be travelling.  A path where we blend in and we hope no one notices just how far off course we really are.  My prayer and challenge for each of us is that we look higher and take that narrow path, the path that few find.  It is this path that shows the world that our purpose is much higher . . . our destination is eternal life with our Lord and Saviour!