Opening Illustration: Narrative of how my call came about.
Introduction: In the focus text, Samuel lives in a precarious time when “the word of the LORD was rare” (verse 1). This is a continuation of the problem at the end of book of Judges where “all the people did what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25). Indeed, 1 Samuel 2 speaks of how Eli’s own sons did what was right in their own eyes in their work as priests (1 Samuel 2:11-17). The times are as dark as the night that falls at the beginning of the story.
The boy, Samuel, is bedded down in the temple with the Ark of the Covenant while Eli slept in another room. The boy hears a voice calling and three times arises and goes to Samuel to ask what he wants. We know that it is God who is calling the boy, but he does not. Even Eli does not understand what is happening right away. Eventually however, Eli tells the boy to speak to the Lord.
How to discern God’s call upon your life?
1. Take assistance from your mentor/pastor (vs. 4-9)
Perhaps Eli had been slow in connecting the dots because: "In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions" (1 Samuel 3:1). Maybe the lack of seeing and hearing God was symptomatic of the spiritual bankruptcy of God's people and their leaders rather than a lack of effort on God's part. Everyone doing what was right in their own eyes had left them blind and deaf … barren wombs and lifeless tombs.
God did not just create the world and walk away. God desires to speak to us and to have a relationship with us. God has always taken the initiative in speaking to man. We just need to learn to listen. Sometimes we’re like Samuel: we don’t hear very well because we need instruction. Samuel did not recognize God’s voice until Eli explained it to him. Sometimes we’re like Eli: we do not hear from God because we are spiritually sluggish. Remember, it took Eli three times to figure out what was going on. But sometimes we’re like Eli’s sons: we do not hear from God because we have closed our ears to God’s word and we are disobedient. You can’t expect to hear from God when you are covering up your ears. God wants to speak to us, but sometimes we don’t hear very well because we got too much wax in our ears. A clean up of our system is required.
God's call is God's problem. If God is going to call you into His service, He is responsible to make this known to you. He cannot hold you responsible for what He fails to do. Of course, God will not fail in any way. We recognize that, if He calls, He is perfectly capable of making this call known and that He will in fact make it known. If God calls you into His service, nothing else will really satisfy you. So, if you can really be happy and satisfied doing something else, it would not appear that the Lord has called you into His service.
We may miss God’s call or attribute it to someone else. Most people who speak of their call do not describe a major disruption in their lives. There are few Damascus Road experiences. Instead, they speak of a quiet, slow awakening to something, be that a life of a particular office in the church, an injustice that needs to be addressed, or a task that needs attention. Like Samuel, they often tell of a period of uncertainty about exactly what and why God is calling them. In addition, Samuel needed Eli to help him understand his call. It often takes others in our lives to aid us in understanding the call that God places before us. Part of our community of faith is to aid each other to see and live out our individual callings from God.
Do you think you are called just because your parents, wife or some family member or friend said you need to pursue ministry? All the examples in God’s Word tell us that God approached and called people directly but they needed assistance through their mentors to get them where they had to be. Without that it was not going to happen. If we say, we have a call on our lives, it is necessary that it be affirmed and discerned by the church leadership today. This process is necessary so that self-proclaimed ministers do not step into ministry without godly witnesses. That is how wolves can come in sheep’s clothing to jeopardize God’s ministry which needs to be protected at all times.
Illustration: During one of the Elim tours in Eastern Iowa, one of the lead organizers of the event came up to me after our event was over and said, “Many pastors and ministry folks in America have a mama’s call upon their life but I can see that you don’t.” “I praise and thank God that you have God’s call upon your life.”
2. God grabs your complete attention (vs. 10-15)
Let’s be truthful, we all have attention issues when it comes to God. Most of us have a problem allowing God to have our attention for very long. Maybe there has been a time where you felt like you really needed to do something, whether it was help a person in need, take that little extra time to talk to a friend or family member, or even just finally do your laundry that has been sitting in the corner of your room for a couple weeks (college kids, looking at you). We have all had times where we knew we should do one thing, but for one reason or another, have done the other.
God’s call comes when we least expect it and often to those we least expect. God is always the God of surprises. We as the church need to be like Eli, encouraging all to hear the voice that calls them forth into all that they were created to be. At the same time, we help each other to tell the truth even when the truth is hard to hear. We need to remember we follow one who is always turning our human systems upside down!
While there are times where we fail at responding to opportunities to do something impactful, there are also times where we do what we know needs be done, something maybe we even feel God has called us to do, that turns out to have amazing results. Even when we give God the credit for something incredible or meaningful in our lives, however, we usually end up going back to business as usual. When God grabs our attention, we have a tendency to take it back pretty quickly.
What was the content of Samuel's ministry? Well, it was devastating. You know, when God calls you to ministry it's a wonderful thing, whether it's a missionary or a preacher of the gospel or whatever it is. But Samuel was given this task: it was a word of judgment on his surrogate family.
3. God given words bear fruit (vs. 16-21)
God broke the silence of those days when he called Samuel and gave him this word. Now the only question that remained was, “What would Samuel do with this word?” Remember, he was only a boy, and this was a pretty heavy message for a young boy to deliver to an aging priest.
Samuel arose from His encounter with God to go about his business: he began by opening the doors to the house of the Lord (1 Sam. 3:15). Jesus is the true servant in the house of God, who opens the doors of faith, access to God, and Spirit-led opportunity. And as such opportunity for kingdom work is wide open before us, Jesus speaks His word to us in the midst of the darkness of our age and of our society, and He commissions us with particular callings to serve Him in the midst of our enemies.
Isn't it interesting that two people can be in the house of the Lord, surrounded by all the things representing God's Presence and yet have two very different outcomes? One ends in death and destruction, while the other experiences new life. Perhaps it's not very surprising, but it is sobering! Proximity to holy things does not automatically result in acquiring holiness.
How easy it is for us to become deaf and dull of sight, leaders without light. We handle the sacred, we study and converse. Our very lives are wrapped up in the rites and rituals of the holy. Prayer here. Scripture there. Singing familiar tunes without reflection. Wash, rinse, repeat. It is a cycle that quietly becomes ingrained in our rhythms, yet escapes rooting in our hearts. The focus shifts slightly from God to us—our needs, our wants, our desires. Sensitivity to God's light in our lives is dulled; our hearing becomes selective (with filters), at best.
Hengstenberg says, “When Samuel had entered into an immediate relation to God, a relation between him and the nation also began. He receives through them the dignity of a prophet, of a mediator between God and the nation. With him prophecy mounted a new step. While the prophets had previously entered powerfully into the history only in solitary decisive instances, his prophetic activity was a continuous one.”
A true prophet speaks in a way that calls upon men to follow God, to obey Him. Furthermore, a true prophet is one whose words come to pass. Our author tells us literally that God let none of Samuel’s words “fall to the ground” (verse 19). Everything Samuel says will happen does happen. And every Israelite realizes that God’s hand is upon Samuel and that He speaks the Word of the LORD. From Dan, the northern-most part of the land, to Beersheba, the southern-most city, all Israel recognizes Samuel as a prophet of God. The silence is broken. God has spoken!
Application: Do you really have God’s call upon your life? If so, what has He disclosed to you? What are you doing about it? Have you consulted your mentor or pastor about it? Are you completely captivated by God? If so, how are you following through with it? Do the words that God has given you bear fruit? What are the signs of your growth in Christ?
