Night Calls – Part One: “A Call to Serve”
1 Samuel 3:1-21
Introduction: God’s word declares that “God is light and in Him is no darkness at all” As such we often equate times of trouble, of difficulty, of spiritual lows with the night. We speak of the thief coming in the night; of death stalking at night. But God is not only God of the day; He is also the God of the night.
God quite often deals with us at night. In the deepest night God brings Israel out of Egypt. At night God wrestles with Jacob. At midnight God looses Peter’s chains. At night Paul hears the Macedonian call. In the middle of the night God calls Samuel to serve.
I. Samuel’s Call to Serve
A. A godly woman named Hannah had prayed that God would give her a son. Hannah vowed that if He would answer her prayer she would dedicate him as a Nazirite to the Lord. God answered her prayer giving her a son, Samuel. When the child was weaned, somewhere between three and five years old, Hannah presented Samuel to Eli, the high priest, in the tabernacle at Shiloh to be raised by Eli in the service of the Lord.
B. When Samuel was about twelve years old, he was sleeping in the tabernacle near the Ark of the Covenant. In the middle of the night he was awakened by a voice calling out to him. Samuel! Samuel!
C. Three times in the passage Samuel is called. But Samuel has little clue as to Who is calling him or why. The young Samuel confused the voice of God for that of Eli, the elderly priest in charge of the worship site.
D. Each time he gets up and goes to Eli asking him what he wants. Eli keeps telling him, ‘I’m not calling you go back to bed.’ Finally the third time, Eli gets it; the Lord must be calling Samuel. Eli tells Samuel to respond to God next time he hears his name being called. God was literally calling Samuel.
E. When God called Samuel responded, “Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening.”
F. Samuel is told by God that judgment is going to fall on Eli’s family and that he has been called to be God’s spokesman, a prophet.
II. God’s call came while his heart was still tender
A. 1 Samuel 3:1 “And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli. And the word of the LORD was precious (rare) in those days; there was no open vision.”
B. We don’t know for certain; Josephus, the ancient Jewish historian says Samuel was 12 years old at the time of this event.
C. Samuel’s job was to serve the Lord, doing menial jobs like keeping the lamps lit, and probably keeping the place clean.
D. He served during a time when the spirituality of Israel was at a low point – “the word of the LORD was precious (rare) in those days.” But Samuel had not been hardened by sin or worldly concerns and served faithfully in whatever was assigned to him.
E. A hard heart resists obeying God’s word. It is impervious to being stirred and immune to the convictions and warnings of the Holy Spirit.
F. Proverbs 29:1 “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.”
G. Keep out of your life anything that would crowd Christ out of your heart.
H. Hebrews 3:7-8a “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts...”
I. Spiritual growth and understanding is not dependent on having a keen intellect but rather a tender heart! Is your heart tender to the Word of God? Is your heart tender to hear and respond to God’s voice?
III. The call came at an unlikely time
A. 1 Samuel 3:3-4a “and before the lamp of God went out in the tabernacle[a] of the LORD where the ark of God was, and while Samuel was lying down, that the LORD called Samuel...”
B. God called Samuel in the night. The call came as an interruption to his sleep.
C. We can imagine what this wake up call was like. We are all familiar with the phone ringing in the "middle of the night". Having been roused from sound sleep, you look at the clock; your blood pressure goes up as your mind rushes with questions as to what is wrong. You have mixed emotions of anxiety and irritation for the interruption of a quiet night’s rest, especially if the call is not of what you feel is urgent and could wait until the morning.
D. God sometimes has to interrupt our comfortable lives and schedules to get our attention. Sometimes He has to use the night of sickness, death, or some other life storm to get us to hear His voice. Sometimes he has to shake us up to wake us up to His call.
E. James 4:13-15 “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit’; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’”
F. We all like to plan. We plan our careers; we plan our weddings; we plan our retirement. Like Samuel, we have our daily routines, and when our plans get interrupted, we tend not to like it. But, God sometimes has to interrupt us to get us to listen.”
G. Has God interrupted your life? Has following God changed the way you go about your life? Is trying to get your attention? Are you listening to what He is trying to tell you?
IV. The call came with some uncomfortable details
A. 1 Samuel 3:11-14 “Then the LORD said to Samuel: "Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knows, because his sons made themselves vile, and he did not restrain them. And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever."
B. Samuel was given a message that was difficult. Eli had raised him from a little boy. He was emotionally attached to him. He knew it was going to hurt Eli. Yet it also was a matter of obedience. The call of God presented a dilemma.
C. Often obedience to the call of God is not easy. Consider the words of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane in
• Matthew 26: 42 “He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.”
D. Should I tell my "Eli" what God has shown to me? This is where the dilemma of obedience hits us. We disobey God by becoming amateur providences and thinking, "I must shield ’Eli,’ " who represents the best people we know. God did not tell Samuel to tell Eli— he had to decide that for himself. God’s message to you may hurt your "Eli," buttering to prevent suffering in another’s life will prove to be an obstruction between your soul and God. It is at your own risk that you prevent someone’s right hand being cut off or right eye being plucked out – Oswald Chambers, The Dilemma of Obedience, RBC Ministries.
E. James 4:17 “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.”
F. Dr. B.J. Miller once said, "It is a great deal easier to do that which God gives us to do, no matter how hard it is, than to face the responsibilities of not doing it." Today In The Word, November, 1989, p.11.
G. Ezekiel 3:18 “When I say to the wicked, ’You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand.”
H. God’s Will will be accomplished regardless of our obedience. The question is whether we will receive the reward of obedience or the responsibility and reproach of disobedience.
V. The call required a response
A. 1 Samuel 3:10 “Now the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel answered, ‘Speak, for Your servant hears.’”
B. There are none so deaf as those that will not hear – copied
C. Because of our selfish and sinful natures, responding to God’s call is that absolute last thing we want to do. Often we respond to God’s call the same way we did to our parents’ call in the past, when they called and called and called, until until our parents hit a boiling point.
D. Jeremiah 16:12 “…each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.”
E. A family was riding down the road one afternoon. Husband and child were both trying to talk to mom at the same time. Finally, the wife said, "I can’t listen to both of you at the same time!" The child replied, "I don’t see why not; you have two ears!" Often we try to "listen" both to God and to the world at the same time. Even though we do have two ears, such a feat of dual allegiance is not possible. "You cannot serve God and wealth" (Matthew 6:24). - Parent Life, July 1998, p. 44.
F. John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.”
G. If you who have never made Christ the Lord of your life call to Him today, saying “Lord, speak to me! Speak to my heart and my soul. May this be the last night of my separation in spiritual darkness from you and the dawning of my spiritual life in Christ.”
H. If you have been saved and love the Lord, pray this prayer may your prayer be, “Speak, Lord; for Your servant hears and I will obey.
