1 Samuel 3:1-20
“Listen! God is Speaking”
By: Rev. Kenneth Emerson Sauer,
Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
Many of us can probably relate to how the people felt in Samuel’s time:
“In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.”
This was a time when Israel didn’t hear the Word of God much. It was a dark time...
...it was a time of curruption and greed.
In Shiloh, the town where the central sanctuary and the ark of God were located, Hophni and Phinehas
[FIN-ee-uhs], the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord.
The evil practices of Eli’s sons are described in chapter 2:11-26.
These men not only used their office as priests for personal gain, but they also committed immoral acts
with the women who were serving at the entrance of the tabernacle.
And although Eli rebuked his sons, Eli’s warnings were too little and too late.
So, it was in this loose environment that Samuel grew up.
Today, many of us sense a similiar vacuum in leadership.
Too often, many leaders appear to be serving their own narrow self-interests, without listening to the
voice of God.
Jesus proclaimed: “He who has ears, let him hear.”
God gave us two ears but only one mouth.
Some people say that’s because He wanted us to spend twice as much time listening as talking.
Others claim it’s because He knew listening was twice as hard as talking.
A high school class in music appreciation was asked the difference between listening and hearing.
At first there was no response.
Finally a hand went up and a youngster offered this wise definition: “Listening is wanting to hear.”
God is always speaking to people, the key is that we must want to hear Him.
Our world needs leaders who want to listen to God.
But if we believe the media, many of our present leaders have no clue what morality or honor is...many of
our leaders have closed their ears to God.
And often, a lack of godly leadership causes people to feel as if the Word of the Lord is rare, and that
there are not many visions.
Yet, in our time, just as in Samuel’s time, God is still speaking.
God is still willing and able to call and lift up godly leaders.
But from the calls of God that we read about in Scripture, it often seems like God’s voice comes as a
surprise to everyone--including the person God calls.
Our Old Testament Lesson reveals to us that both Samuel and Eli were puzzled over God’s calling of the
12 year old Samuel.
God called out three times to Samuel in the night.
And three times Samuel ran to Eli to ask what the priest needed after Samuel heard his name called.
When Sameul came to Eli for the third time, finally Eli perceived that it was God Who was calling the boy.
“Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord: the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.”
Do we know the Lord?
Has the Word of the Lord been revealed to us?
Listen! God is speaking.
So Eli told Samuel to return to his bed: “and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is
listening.”
Samuel had been hearing God, but he hadn’t been listening.
And admittedly, at times all of us have trouble listening.
Maybe we’re watching our favorite football team on Monday night, and our wife is talking to us about
something important that happened to her.
As she talks, we may mumble, “Uh, huh.”
Until, finally, in exasperation, she says with tension in her voice, “You are not listening to what I am
saying.”
When God speaks, do we listen?
...or do we just mumble, “Uh, huh,” and continue with what we are doing?
“Do you have trouble hearing?” asked the teacher of a youngster who sat dreamily at his desk.
“No, ma’am,” replied the boy, “I have trouble listening.”
“So Samuel went and lay down in his place.
The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!”
But unlike the other times...this time...Samuel was listening!
“Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.”
How do we know when God calls us?
One test is to determine if the calling is consistent with the Word of God revealed in the Scriptures.
According to his auto-biography, Billy Graham has wrestled with similar issues.
When Dr. Graham was just starting out as an Evangelist...
...the year was 1949, and he wasn’t aware that he was on the brink of being catipulted into worldwide
fame and influence.
Ironically, as he readied himself for his breakthrough crusade in Los Angeles, Dr. Graham found himself
grappling with God’s call on his life.
The fundamental issue he was dealing with was whether he could totally trust what his Bible was telling
him.
A friend of his had enrolled in Princeton Theological Seminary.
His name was Chuck Templeton, and the intellectualized, liberal theological thinking of that seminary
was rubbing off on Chuck.
Chuck told Billy, “Billy, you’re fifty years out of date. People no longer accept the Bible as being inspired
the way you do. Your faith is too simple. Your language is out of date. You’re going to have to learn a new jargon
if you are going to be sucessful in your ministry.”
Mr. Chuck Templeton was also quoted as saying, “Poor Billy, I feel sorry for him. He and I are taking
two different roads.”
That was 53 years ago, and Chuck Templeton may not have realized how prophetic his statement would
be.
Thankfully, Billy Graham heard Chuck, but he didn’t ultimately listen to him.
“If I was not exactly doubtful,” Graham would recall, “I was certainly disturbed.”
Dr. Graham searched the Scriptures for answers, he prayed, he pondered, he listened for the voice of
God.
Finally, in a heavy-hearted walk in the moonlit San Bernardino Mountains, everything came to a climax.
Gripping a Bible, Billy Graham dropped to his knees and confessed that he couldn’t answer some of the
philosophical and psychological questions that Chuck Templeton and others were raising.
“I was trying to be on the level with God, but something remained unspoken,” Billy wrote.
“At last the Holy Spirit freed me to say it. ‘Father I am going to accept this as Thy Word--by faith! I’m
going to allow faith to go beyond my intellectual questions and doubts, and I will believe this to be Your inspired
Word.”
For Billy Graham, this was a pivotal moment.
History knows what would happen to Dr. Graham in the succeding years.
He would become the most persuasive and effective evangelist of modern times and one of the most
admired person in the world.
Billy Graham decided to say, like Samuel, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Sadly, Chuck Templeton seems to have decided to close his ears to God.
According to his Book The Case For Faith, Journalist Lee Strobel writes:
“Decimated by doubts, [Templeton] resigned from the ministry and moved back to Canada, where he
became a commentator and a novelist.”
A few years ago, Strobel interviewed Chuck Templeton for his book.
What Strobel found was an 83 year old man who was very ill.
His voice took on a melancholy and reflective tone as he answered questions about Jesus Christ.
“He was,” Templeton began, “the greatest human being who has ever lived....
....he’s the most important thing in my life....
....I...I...I,’ he stuttered, searching for the right word, ‘I know it may sound strange, but I have to say...I adore
him!”
Templeton went on to say, “Everything good I know, everything decent I know, everything pure I know, I
learned from Jesus....”
“Abruptly,” writes Strobel, “Templeton cut short his thoughts. There was a brief pause, almost as if he
was uncertain whether he should continue.”
Strobel writes, “That’s when Templeton uttered the words I never expected to hear from him.”
“And if I may put it this way,’ he said as his voice began to crack, ‘I....miss....Him!”
Stroble writes: “With that, tears flooded [Templeton’s] eyes. He turned his head and looked downward,
raising his left hand to shield his face from me. His shoulders bobbed as he wept.”
Do any of us miss Jesus?
Has it been a long time since we’ve listened to God speaking to us?
As He talks, do we mumble, “Uh, huh,” and just continue doing what we are doing?
Through our Scripture Lesson for this morning God is speaking to us at the very heart of our faith.
God’s will and purpose in our lives is very often a call to relinquish our plans and our dreams for God’s
higher good.
In order to listen to God, we very often, must give up or lay down something we wanted to grasp or
control.
When we begin reading about Samuel, it appears that Samuel is a sort of passive person who seems very
content to remain in the background.
But, by the conclusion of 1st Samuel Chapter 3, Samuel emerges as a prominent figure on the national
scene.
How does Samuel move from the shadows into the spotlight?
He does it by listening to God, and making himself available to God.
Samuel was being trained to perform priestly duties...
...to carry out the rituals of temple worship; however, God interrupted Samuel’s function in priestly duties and
called him to be a prophet.
This twelve year old boy became God’s spokesperson of God’s purpose and direction for God’s
people....
....in the days when “the word of the Lord was rare” and “there were not many visions.”
Verse 19 tells us:
“The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel
from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord.”
The call of Samuel was a crucial moment in Israel’s history.
As we continue reading the book of 1st Samuel we see that Israel responded to the words of Samuel and
followed his counsel.
Israel returned to God and worshiped God only.
And God used Samuel to seek out and find David...
...whom Samuel anointed and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David in power.
I’m sure most of us remember the cartoon character Popeye the Sailor Man.
When old Popeye would become frustrated or when he wasn’t certain exactly what to do, he would
simply exclaim, “I yam what I yam.”
Popeye was a simple seafaring man who loved Olive Oyl.
He was unpretentious, and yet his story belonged to him: “I yam what I yam.”
When we looked closely at Popeye, it seems that he is saying, “Don’t get your hopes up; don’t expect too
much. I yam what I yam, and that’s all.”
And before Samuel listened to God Ancient Israel could say: “I yam what I yam.”
But God didn’t want Israel to stay like she was.
Therefore, through Samuel, God called Israel to a new resolve, a new beginning.
And this new beginning was characterized by God’s Word as it came to Samuel.
The Bible tells us that God has a new beginning planned for all of us through the Word that “became
flesh and made his dwelling among us.”
Have we seen His glory?...
... “The glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” ?
It is God’s desire to reveal Himself to us through His Word and thus, call us to new life, new hope, and
new beginnings!
Listen! God is Speaking.
Let us pray: Like Samuel, O God, help us to hear and listen to your call on our lives daily. You call
us to be Your disciples. You call us to follow You. As we listen to You, You show us the way to behave in this
tempting world and culture...You set us free. Lord may we listen and be used in such a way that others will
want to accept Your invitation for themselves--may they hear Your Word through our lives. In Christ Jesus’
name we pray. Amen.
