When God Calls Your Name: Samuel Series

When God Calls Your Name… Twice: Samuel

Scott Bayles, pastor

Blooming Grove Christian Church: 8/14/2016

Hearing your name called can evoke different responses depending on the circumstances. For instance, there’s a sense of fear and anxiety when you’re a student and you hear your name called over the intercom followed by “please report to the principal’s office.” On the other hand, there is a sense of pride and accomplishment when you’re wearing your cap and gown and you hear your name called before rising to receive your diploma.

For the last few of weeks, we’ve been talking about how you might respond if God called your name—not just once, but twice. As I mentioned before, God calls plenty of people in the Bible often by name, but I’ve only found seven times where God calls out someone’s name twice in a row—Abraham, Abraham! Jacob, Jacob! Moses, Moses!

Each time that God calls someone by name twice, he follows it with something profound and powerful. He called Abraham to remind him that God must be first in his heart and life. He called Jacob in order to calm his fears and assure him that God is always with him. He called Moses to tell him that he sees the suffering in our world, and he wants us to do something about it.

The fourth person God calls by name twice is Samuel.

You may remember that Samuel's mother was Hannah, who prayed and asked God for a son—promising that if God did indeed give her a son that she would give him back to God, committing him to a lifetime of service in the Temple. God, of course, answered Hannah's pleas and blessed her with the birth of Samuel.

Hannah kept the vow she had made to the Lord. When Samuel was about 7 years old, she brought him to live in the Temple and be raised as a Levite, dedicated to serving God. Samuel was trained to be a priest by a man named Eli.

As the story goes, one night after Samuel had gone to bed, he thought he heard Eli calling for him. He got out of bed, ran to where Eli was lying down and said, “Here I am. Did you call me?” Eli looked at young Samuel, and said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” Samuel, of course, complied. But moments later, he heard his name again. “Samuel!” the voice called. Samuel rose from his bed, hurried to Eli’s side and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Again Eli told the boy he was wrong. Again Samuel returned to his bed. When it happened a third time, the old man finally realized what was going on. So Eli instructed Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening’” (1 Samuel 3:9 NLT). And so, Samuel returned to bed a third time.

Then the Bible says, “The Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:10 NLT).

What followed was a prophetic promise that would radically impact Eli and his family. But the content of that message is not nearly as important as the simple fact that God spoke to Samuel and Samuel listened. You see this chapter starts off by reminding the reader: “This was at a time when the revelation of God was rarely heard or seen” (1 Samuel 3:1 MSG). Another translation says, “In those days the Lord did not speak directly to people very often” (NCV).

In a time when people rarely hear from God, a boy asleep in the tabernacle hears a voice calling him in the middle of the night.

“Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel’s life would never be the same. After this night, Samuel becomes the mouthpiece of God to a nation—a prophet, a judge, and a priest. This would be the first of countless conversations between Samuel and God. It’s all because he took Eli’s advice and actively listened to God.

I wonder how many times God has spoken to us and we were not listening. I wonder how many times He had something specific we needed to hear, but we were too preoccupied to pay attention.

I believe that one of most valuable lessons we can ever learn is how to listen to God. In the midst of our complex and hectic lives, nothing is more urgent, more necessary, or more rewarding than listening to what God has to say. And I believe that God speaks just as powerfully today as he did to Samuel. His voice waits to be heard, and having heard it, we are launched into the greatest, most exciting adventure we could ever imagine. God may not speak to you through a burning burn like he with Moses or through a vision like he did Jacob—but God still speaks!