Growing up Christian is not as easy a task as one might think. There are dangers and temptations unique to growing up within a Christian family and within the church and sadly these difficulties are often downplayed or misunderstood by those who have been converted later in life. "Church kids face some unique challenges...Though surrounded by the things of God, we can still be drawn to sin and live double lives. We can easily assume that we are saved even if we are not; or we may be driven by a desire to be popular more than a desire to live according to biblical values. While it is a great blessing to grow up in a Christian environment, if we are not careful we can make some dangerous assumptions about ourselves, which have serious consequences". If you are like me and grew up in a Christian home, there were definitely some advantages that you should be thankful for. I know from my own perspective I have seen both the advantages and disadvantages of growing up in a Christian home. I am so thankful that I had the privilege of being raised by Godly parents who had a concern for our families spiritual well being. But as often as I have seen this type of blessing, I have seen the opposite, where the children of Christians fall away or live lukewarm at best, living with the mistaken assumption that they are somehow saved through their parents faith or guaranteed salvation by the decision they made years earlier. Please do not get me wrong, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages, but we need to make careful note of both. Today we meet a man by the name of Samuel; he grew up in a Godly home and faithfully answered God’s call at an early age. In the great judge and prophet we see someone who exemplifies the idea that when God calls faith answers.
I. The advantages Samuel enjoyed by being raised by God-fearing parents.
A. Samuel was blessed to be raised in a Godly home.
1. Elkanah was a Levite who lived in Ramathaim-zophim (Ramah) in the hill country of Ephraim.
2. While basically a godly man, he had taken two wives. The notation that Hannah had no children suggests that her infertility had driven Elkanah to marry a woman (Peninnah) who could produce an heir.
3. Elkanah would take his family each year to the annual feast at the Shiloh tabernacle some eighteen miles north of Jerusalem. The trips were most painful for Hannah. Her husband showed his greater love for her by giving her an extra portion at the sacrificial meal. Peninnah, however, made life miserable for Hannah, using her fertility to lord it over her rival.
4. While at Shiloh on one occasion Hannah finished the ritual meal. Near the entrance to the temple she wept and poured out her heart to “Yahweh of hosts.” She approached him reverently as can be seen in her threefold reference to herself as “handmaid” of the Lord. She vowed that if the Lord would give her a son, she would dedicate him all the days of his life as a Nazirite.
5. The Lord “remembered” Hannah, and granted her petition. She conceived and bore a son. Hannah named the child Samuel, which means “name of God.” She knew that this baby was truly an answer to prayer.
6. Hannah elected not to go to the sanctuary until she had weaned the child and could present him to the Lord. Elkanah agreed that this would be the wisest course.
7. Eastern women nursed their babies up to three years. When the child was weaned, Hannah took him and a generous offering to the sanctuary.
8. The family first offered their sacrifice. Then Hannah presented the young boy to Eli.
B. Samuel was blessed with having a Godly mentor.
1. Eli was not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, he was greatly overweight and apparently he was not a very good father.
2. When one looks at the original Hebrew you discover that the adjective used to describe Eli’s sons (Belial) meant worthless or good for nothing.
3. The boy Samuel was quite a contrast to the sons of Eli. He wore a linen ephod and ministered before the Lord. Each year his mother would make him a little robe and take it to Shiloh. Eli would pronounce a blessing on Hannah for having given Samuel to the Lord.
4. Eli encouraged Samuel to be faithful to the Lord’s call although it meant unpleasant circumstances for his own family.
5. While the priests were declining, Samuel was increasing. Theirs was an evil reputation, while Samuel’s was favorable. The boy Samuel was growing up to be the kind of spiritual leader that God desired and the people needed.
II. Samuel was blessed with a personal encounter with God at a young age.
A. Samuel was very young when he was privileged to have a personal encounter with God.
1. During the days when the sanctuary of Yahweh was at Shiloh prophetic revelations, whether auditory or visionary, were rare. For this reason the narrative goes into some detail about the first revelation received by Samuel.
2. Only the fading light of the lamp of God from within the Holy Place gave any illumination to the area where Samuel would sleep. Three times in the darkness Samuel heard the voice of God but mistook it for the voice of Eli.
3. The narrator excuses this mistake by saying that Samuel did not yet know Yahweh experientially, nor had he received any revelation.
4. Three times he rushed to the side of the old man. Finally Eli recognized that God was calling the boy. He instructed his protégé to respond to any further call of his name by saying: “Speak, O Yahweh, for your servant is listening”
B. Samuel faithfully responded to God’s call.
1. At this point the Lord came and stood and called to Samuel as he had done before. In the previous calls the voice appeared to proceed from a distance; now the sound was as if the speaker stood beside him. In Old Testament times God often assumed bodily form in order to come and speak to his servants.
2. The Lord revealed to Samuel that he was about to do something so shocking that the news of it would make everyone’s ears tingle. The catastrophe was the impending defeat of Israel by the Philistines, the death of Eli’s sons and Eli himself, the capture of the ark of God, and the desolation of the national sanctuary at Shiloh.
3. Samuel lay down until the morning. He performed his usual chores, all the time trying to avoid a confrontation with Eli. He was afraid of hurting his beloved mentor should he be forced to divulge what he had learned during the night.
4. Eli sent for the boy and put him under a solemn curse if he withheld any part of the revelation. So Samuel told him everything.
5. Eli accepted the disconcerting news with godly resignation. He knew Yahweh had revealed his will to Samuel. He believed that Yahweh would only do what was right.
6. As Samuel grew to physical maturity, Yahweh was with him. The Lord let none of his words “fall to the ground,” that is to go unfulfilled. Yahweh continued to “appear” at Shiloh to Samuel. He revealed himself again and again “by the word of Yahweh.”
III. Lessons we can learn from the life of Samuel.
A. Never take for granted the blessing of having Godly parents.
1. As we get older we remember the good old days and seem to forget that things were not always perfect and perhaps could have been better.
2. Honest reflection will usually lead us to the realization that our parents and congregation we grew up in did a lot of things right.
3. If you were blessed to be raised by Godly parents that raised you to know the Lord, count your blessings. They were not perfect but most of the time they did the best they could.
4. Take some time if you are able to thank your parents for helping to introduce you to the Lord.
B. If you came to the Lord at an early age, do not be tempted to doubt the reality of your experience.
1. Many times when a person comes to the Lord at a very young age when they get older they have the tendency to doubt the validity of their conversion experience.
2. Throughout the Bible we can see examples of God using people at a very young age. God called David to fight Goliath as a teenager; God placed Josiah on the throne at the age of eight.
3. Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity. (1 Timothy 4:12—NIV)
4. God can use the experiences of faith you had as a child to bring Him glory.
C. If you were raised in a Christian home, remain faithful.
1. If you’ve been a Christian since you were young you may be tempted to look at the world and wonder what you have missed.
2. Others often decide to take an extended walk on the wild side intending to ask for forgiveness later.
3. The best way however is for us not to take any chances of exploited God’s grace and to be able to echo Paul’s sentiment.
4. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (2 Timothy 4:7—NIV)
5. When you hear God calling your name regardless of your age answer in faith like Samuel, “Speak Lord, for your servant still hears.”
A Japanese legend says a man died and went to heaven. On a sightseeing tour of his new home, he was shown all kinds of mansions. It was all beautiful, exactly as he had pictured it, until they came to what looked like a merchant’s shop.
On the shelves were piled what looked like dried mushrooms. Looking closer, he saw they were actually human ears! His guide explained that these were the ears of those who went diligently to church, listened with pleasure, yet did nothing about what they heard. . . So only their ears went to heaven.
A pilot was having difficulty landing his small plane since fog hid the runway, so the airport decided to land him by radar. As he received instructions he remembered a tall pole in his flight path. Overcome with panic he radioed to the control tower. A blunt reply came back, “You obey instructions, we’ll take care of the obstructions.”
