WHEN GOD CALLED SAMUEL
Text: First Samuel 3:1-10
We have all heard of a thing called tough love. Tough love is when one confronts another with unyielding consequences. Tough love does not yield to the ones who want to bend the rules. Tough love is tough because it reminds the ones or the one who strayed that actions have consequences. Love is tough when it refuses to spare the rod because in sparing the rod, the child will not learn the lesson that he or she needed to learn (Proverbs 13:24). It is implied of Eli, that one of his problems was that he refused to practice tough love when it was needed for his two sons Hophni and Phineas (First Samuel 3:13, 1:3).
I read the story about a pastor who refused to back down to the pleas of his wayward daughter. His daughter had gotten "pregnant out of wedlock". He did not throw his daughter out of the house, but he did practice tough love. He told her that her evening curfew had strict consequences which meant "no exceptions". Then one night he was awakened to the sound of the door bell ringing. It was his daughter Cori, standing on the front porch begging, "Daddy, Daddy let me in". "He saw his grandson, Michael "bundled up in a baby carrier next to Cori". Her father, Haman, pointed at his watch, closed the curtain and went back to bed. His other daughter Sharyl also pleaded, "Daddy, let her in". Even his wife pleaded. Sharyl, Cori and his wife continued to beg for the next twenty minutes for him to reconsider. Haman replied, "No, I’m going to bed and you should all do the same". As the story goes, "Cori gave up and went to spend the night at a friend’s house. The next morning she repented, deciding to submit to the house rules and the values of the church". She was warmly welcomed back". (Craig Brian Larson ed. Choice Contemporary Stories & Illustrations For Teacher’s Preacher’s & Writer’s. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1998, [quoted and paraphrased], p. 33). Now I am sure that it must have been tough for Haman to be the Dad who practiced tough love, but it paid off because Cori learned her lesson.
Eli was not so fortunate because the Bible makes it clear that his two sons Hophni and Phineas who were greedy with animals that were to be offered as sacrifices (First Samuel 2:15-17) not to mention that their immoral conduct (First Samuel 2:22). The Bible seems to imply that Eli was not strict enough with them because of the way that they had turned out---incorrigible. Samuel, stands in contrast to both of them as genuine and sincere compared to their rebellious, blasphemous and ungodly behavior.
GOD CALLED SAMUEL
Samuel’s call was significant. The Bible says that Samuel did not yet know the Lord (First Samuel 3:7a). He had served the Lord and was but a child when he first heard God’s call (First Samuel 2:18). Samuel had not yet heard the word of the Lord revealed to him (First Samuel 3:7b). Samuel believed in God’s existence because his service to the Lord was genuine. Samuel found favor with both the people and the Lord (First Samuel 2:26). No one can find favor with the Lord unless he or she is right with the Lord to begin with. That is why Samuel found favor with God. He was in a right relationship with God. It was revealed to Samuel that he was being called by God when Eli explained that it was not Eli but God that Samuel heard who was calling his name.
Samuel’s call was timely. Things were not as they should have been with the priesthood. Eli was a priest and his sons Hophni and Phineas were also priests. Consider what First Samuel 2:12 says about the sons of Eli: "Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord" (KJV). The name Belial means worthless, useless, wicked and was often used of ungodly men. (Wilson’s Old Testament Word Studies. Peabody: Hendrickson Publishers, no date, p. 35). Hophni and Phineas were nothing more than impostors. They were out for themselves while disguising themselves in their priestly roles as being in service for God. Compared to Samuel, their outward behavior and their inner nature stood in contradiction to each other. Samuel’s character was consistent with his nature which was godly. Samuel’s call was timely because the priesthood of Eli’s family line had been defiled and compromised by his sons Hophni and Phineas. It was Samuel who would later take the place of Eli as a leader in the priestly role. It was through Samuel that God would restore the dignity that was befitting to be being a priest.
SAMUEL HEEDED GOD’S CALL
Samuel was willing. When God called Samuel, Samuel could have declined the opportunity to serve God. Hophni and Phineas had the role and the opportunity but they threw it away. When God called Samuel, Samuel seized the opportunity. William Barclay once noted this proverb: "Three things come not back----the spoken word, the spent arrow, and the lost opportunity." (The Daily Study Bible: The Gospel Of Matthew. Volume 1. Revised Edition. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975, p. 371). There is nothing worse than a missed opportunity.
“In 1973 Gary Kildall wrote the first popular operating system for personal computers, named CP/M. According to writer Philip Fiorini, IBM approached Kildall in 1980 about developing the operating system for IBM PCs. But Kildall snubbed IBM officials at a crucial meeting, according to another author, Paul Carroll. The day IBM came calling, he chose to fly his new airplane. The frustrated IBM executives turned instead to Bill Gates, founder of a small company named Microsoft, and his operating system named MS-DOS. Fourteen years later Bill Gates was worth more than eight billion dollars.
Of Kildal, who has since died, author Paul Carroll says, “He was a smart guy who didn’t realize how big the operating system would become”.
In a similar way, people don’t often realize how big God’s kingdom will someday become. God comes calling with the offer of a lifetime, and we find other things to do.” (Craig Brian Larson. ed. Contemporary Illustrations For Preachers, Teachers & Writers. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1996 p. 197). God can always find somebody who is willing to do what God is calling him or her to do. But, when we decline the opportunity to serve God, we will often find that not only did we miss the opportunity to serve God where He was calling for our service, but we also missed the blessing or blessings that were to come with it.
Samuel was faithful. Consider First Samuel 2:35: "And I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before mine anointed for ever" (KJV). It would seem that God predestined Samuel to be faithful. God has also predestined our faithfulness and success but we have to choose to live and move and have our being in God and walk according to His ways or else we will fail. Unless we walk with God and follow His will, we will end up spending a lot of our energy in the wrong direction.
"When Napoleon’s armies swept across Europe, one of his generals was preparing to attack the little town of Feldkirch on the Austrian border. It was Easter and the citizens gathered to decide whether to resist or surrender. The pastor told the people that they had been continuing on their own strength, and that would fail. This was the day of the Lord’s resurrection. He decided to ring the bells and have service as usual and leave the matter in God’s hands. Napoleon’s army misunderstood the meaning of the joyful bells. Assuming that the bells announced the arrival of the Austrian army, Napoleon’s army broke camp and retreated. Believers do not always receive in such dramatic ways, but Jesus was right: God moves with those who move in his direction". (Herb. Miller. Actions Speak Louder Than Verbs. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1989, pp. 60-61). Are we doing what God would have us to do? Are we putting our faith in God as we move?
Faithfulness to God never happens by default. Faithfulness to God is a matter of choice. Eli chose not to discipline his sons Hophni and Phineas very well because, as the Bible implies, Eli was far too lenient with his boys. Hophni and Phineas chose to gratify their own desires rather than be faithful to what God required of priests. They (Hophni and Phineas) seemed to think that righteousness and piety came automatically with the office of the priests. They paid no attention to doing what was right as if to believe that their faithfulness would happen by default.
It has been said that "Men expect too much of the religious life. In every other realm they are ready to train themselves in order to gain insights. They know they will not understand great music unless they prepare themselves for it. They are ready to study literature to understand it. They would rarely dream of practicing medicine without understanding anatomy and pathology and all the rest. They would not build a bridge without some knowledge of engineering. But they expect religious insights to come with no effort on their part. …" (George A. Buttrick. Ed. The Interpreter’s Bible. Volume 2. 33rd Printing. John C. Schroeder. "Exposition I Samuel." Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1987, p. 892). Are we in tune with God?
Have you ever seen someone singing along with their favorite songs while they were driving? "No doubt you’ve had this experience yourself. You’re driving in the car going on a trip, listening to your favorite tunes, beboppin’ and singing to the music, when suddenly the music stops. Depression sets in. "Now what am I going to do?" you wonder aloud. "This is going to be any fun now. It’s just static." (John D. Schroeder and Shane M. Groth. Dear Lord. They Want Me To Give The Devotion Again. Nashville: Dimensions For Living, 2001, p. 105). How about our spiritual lives? Are we experiencing any "static"? Are we in tune with God and His will? Prayer helps us to stay in tune with God and helps with the "static". That is why spending time in prayer and devotion with God on a daily basis is so important.
How do we heed God’s call of us? We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood (First Peter 2:9). God chose us to be active in the priesthood of all believers which means that God has something for each of us to do---a calling to heed, a mission fulfill. If there is anything that First Samuel 3:1-10 tells us it is that we cannot serve God in a vacuum. Hophni and Phineas were busy, but they were busy about their own business rather than God’s business. We have to be at work at God’s business. "One often sees a sign on the highway, "Danger---Men at Work". However, the real danger is in men not working. …. Without work, men decay and die early; unless men work, the world has economic depressions and loses every good and desirable thing. A man’s work is his witness in life". (Leonard Cochran. Man At His Best. Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1952, p. 121). There is always work for us to do because there is always a harvest that is waiting for the opportunity to be reaped for the harvest is plentiful and laborers are so few (Matthew 9:37).
