1 Samuel 3:1
Please stand with me as we go over our current memory Scripture:
Matthew 5:10-12
“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me.
“Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for they persecuted the prophets who were before you in the same way.”
And our memory Scripture “refresher” verse(s) is(are):
Philippians 4:6-7
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Today we will be reading from 1 Samuel 3
Last week we took a look at the first two chapters of 1 Samuel.
Israel was about to emerge from the time of the Judges. That was the period when Israel was ruled by judges. That period lasted about 150 years and it spanned from the death of Joshua and to the anointing of King Saul to be the first King of Israel.
In many churches and to many who proclaim to be followers of Jesus that last statement would be meaningless. Why?
Because even though America is flooded with Bibles, most self-proclaimed Christians either do not know what is in the Bible or choose to reject what is found there.
Many who claim to be followers of Jesus Christ don’t know who Joshua was and what he did, they don’t know about the time of the Judges of Israel, they don’t know the tragedy of King Saul’s life and they don’t know the character of our God who relentlessly pursued His unfaithful people for centuries until He finally granted them their desire to be rid of Him.
These followers of Jesus, who don’t know what is in the Bible, only follow what they think they know about God if they ever really give any consideration to Him at all.
May this never be said of the people of Crossroads! We are people of The Book and that Book is the Bible.
Please join me in your Bibles as we read: 1 Samuel 3
(Prayer for help)
Let’s look again at 1 Samuel 3:1a where it says,
“The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli ….”
This is interesting because from the time of Moses there were two classes of priests in Israel. There were those of the tribe of Levi. This group was known as the Levitical priesthood. They would tend to the care of the Tabernacle and everything that was needed except for serving before the Lord in actual sacrifices.
And then, within the tribe of Levi there was the line of those who were direct descendants of Aaron. These were the priest who could offer sacrifices on the altar and enter into the Most Holy place where the Ark of the Covenant was located.
Levi and his two sons were from the line of Aaron but Samuel was from both the tribe of Levi and the tribe of Ephraim. Samuel was technically a Levite but we see that “The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli …” meaning that Samuel was ministering as a priest from the line of Aaron.
How could he do that? It is most likely that Eli legally adopted Samuel which brought him into the line of Aaron.
In the second half of 1 Samuel 3:1b it says,
“In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.”
Why was that? Why wasn’t the Lord speaking through Eli?
Eli had one great failing. Eli served the Lord faithfully except for his lack of control over his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.
1 Samuel 2:12-17 tells it like this …
“Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no regard for the LORD. Now it was the practice of the priests that, whenever any of the people offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand while the meat was being boiled and would plunge the fork into the pan or kettle or caldron or pot. Whatever the fork brought up the priest would take for himself.
“This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. But even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the person who was sacrificing, ‘Give the priest some meat to roast; he won’t accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.’
[This person who is referred to as “the priest’s servant” was most likely one of the Levitical priests and was apparently under the influence of Hophni and Phinehas because he was doing what was unlawful according to the sacrificial law.]
“If the person said to him, ‘Let the fat be burned first, and then take whatever you want,’ the servant would answer, ‘No, hand it over now; if you don’t, I’ll take it by force.’
“This sin of the young men was very great in the LORD’s sight; for they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.”
Eli spoke to his sons about their sin but he did nothing to stop it.
This was Eli’s sin and the Lord pronounced judgment on Eli’s family.
Now, the fact that the word of the Lord was rare and that there were not many visions in those days was not exactly breaking news.
There were actually very few prophecies from the Lord during that 150 year period.
Why is that?
Rebellion. Sin is rebellion. Do you want to shut God up in your life? Rebellion will do it.
Sin is like saying to the Lord, “I know what You have said in the past Lord and I just don’t care. This is my life and the plan You have laid out is just too restrictive. When I have fulfilled the wishes for my life then I’ll come and see what You have to offer.”
This is true for individuals when they say, “I’m going to do what I want to do and when I get old and can’t do those things anymore then You, God, can have what’s left of the rest of my life.”
How would a person become so arrogant that they would have the gall to say, or even think, such a thing about the Lord?
It’s a process called “hardening your heart.”
This is how the Israelites stopped hearing of blessings through the prophets and instead they heard warnings and invitations to return to the Lord; invitations to “soften their hearts”.
This is how Hophni and Phinehas wandered so far away from the Lord that they would even violate the sacrificial offerings that were brought to the altar of the Lord.
This is how America has turned into a pagan nation that bristles at the “narrow mindedness” of the Biblical view of human sexuality.
This is how families who once worshiped and served God together now seem to have no care that their children have forsaken God and their grandchildren don’t even recognize the name of Jesus.
This is how Hophni and Phinehas arrived at the place of God’s condemnation and why the Lord chose to bring Samuel into the priesthood for His Own Name sake.
In 1 Samuel 6:6a we hear Samuel, himself, speaking to the people of Israel when he asks,
“Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did?”
Psalm 98:5
“Do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, as you did that day at Massah in the wilderness …”
Hebrews 3:8
“… do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness …”
How hard can a person’s heart get? How hard can the heart of a nation get? In Isaiah 63 we hear the rebellious Israelites asking God this question …
Isaiah 63:17
“Why, LORD, do You make us wander from Your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere You?”
Do you get that? They are blaming the Lord for making them fall into sin! They are blaming the Lord for forcing their disobedience!
They are blaming the Lord God who rescued them from countless tragedies for their disdain of Him!
What should the people of Israel have been saying?
“Oh, Lord, we have wandered from Your ways and we have hardened our hearts so that we do not revere You. Please forgive our arrogance and lead us in the paths of righteousness for the Honor and Glory of Your great name!”
What this goes to show is that our spiritual life can become so warped and perverted that we may not even recognize that we are wallowing in sin and on the verge of spiritual death.
Just recently I heard a preacher who called himself a Christian declaring that the only part of John 3:16 that was useful at all were the first six words, “For God so loved the world …”
He basically discarded the rest of the verse, and the Bible for that matter, as something that really did not matter at all and a bunch of stuff that caused more harm than good.
Now … how can we keep from falling into that terrible condition?
How can we keep our hearts soft and compliant before the Lord our God?
How can we make sure that we are consistently and faithfully hearing the word of the Lord?
If we go back to 1 Samuel 3:1a it says,
“The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli ….”
The boy Samuel was under the instruction and training of Eli.
We all need to be under the instruction and training of someone.
Pastor Karenlee and I have pastors we watch or listen to on a regular basis.
Some of these are Alistair Begg, James Merritt, Michael Yousef, Paul Washer and, as the Ladies Group that meets on Thursday’s knows, Gary Hamrick.
Often you might hear someone say that you shouldn’t listen to a certain preacher because they believe differently than you and that may be true if the preacher is not a faithful preacher of God’s Holy Word. Now, we are Nazarene’s and we see Scripture from the Wesleyan point of view and yet it may surprise you that four of the preachers listed above are Baptists and we love our Baptist brothers and sisters.
There are some Baptists who believe that we Nazarenes are heretics and are dragging people off to hell. But, these are not that type of people. And, in addition to that, the interaction of God’s sovereignty and God’s allowance for the exercise of our free will is such a mystery that it will not be fully understood this side of heaven. And so, we can listen to and learn from our Baptist brothers as well as our own. Amen? Amen!
I usually hear Alistair Begg on the radio and I love the way Wikipedia describes Alistair Begg’s preaching …
“He is especially known for his unspectacular straightforward commitment to teaching the Bible, convinced that the word of God does the work of God by the power of the Spirit of God.”
And, that is exactly my desire for myself, that I would be an unspectacular, straightforward preacher committed to teaching the Bible! And, I certainly have achieved the first part about being unspectacular! Anyway ...
Samuel was under the instruction and training of Eli.
We all need to be under the instruction and training of someone not only on Sunday’s but during the week as well.
And, even though Samuel did not know the Lord at this point of his life he came to know Him later in this chapter. And Samuel came to know the Lord not only through the training he received from Eli but from the written Word of God as well.
We must all be fed by teachers and by personal study of the Word of God or we too will eventually harden our hearts against God.
What if you have hardened your heart against God? What if you can willfully sin against God even in the most sacred things and not feel the conviction of sin in your spirit?
There is a book Pastor Karenlee has been reading and it is called “A Long Obedience In The Same Direction”.
How do you harden your heart against the Lord? By living a long disobedience in the same (ungodly) direction.
How do you soften a hardened heart? By confessing your sin to the Lord and asking forgiveness. Trusting Him completely with your life and your eternity and then living a long obedience in the same (godly) direction.
The choice is yours; do you want to be like Hophni and Phinehas with spiritual ears that are deaf to God or do you want to be like Samuel who lived in communion with God his whole life?
As it says in Hebrews 12:1-3
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. Who, for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
As it says in the old Petra song ..
Don't let your heart be hardened - don't let your love grow cold
May it always stay so childlike - may it never grow too old
Don't let your heart be hardened - may you always know the cure
Keep it broken before Jesus, keep it thankful, meek, and pure
Final thoughts and prayer
