1 Samuel 8, Revive us!

When the Ark of the Lord finally returned back to Israel after over 7 months of captivity in the hands of Philistines, 1 Samuel 7:1 says that the ark of the LORD remained in Kiriath Jearim and verse 2 says that it remained there for twenty years. And, verse 2 says, “All the people of Israel mourned and sought after the LORD. What were they mourning about? They were mourning because the ark of the LORD, the symbol of God’s presence was no longer housed in the temple in Shiloh. But, this took place after some twenty years later. What happened? Let me tell you what happened here. The Israelites felt content as things were; they were content to see the ark of the LORD displaced from the temple of God. They were content for twenty years as things were.

1. Unholy contentment suffocates your spiritual life.

“THE COMPLACENCY of CHRISTIANS is the scandal of Christianity,” said A. W. Tozer in his book, Man, the Dwelling Place of God. We know in our head that Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life, Wisdom, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption and that he is the Resurrection and the Life for eternity to come.

Apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 3:7-12, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of the Christ. What is more, I considered everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him… I want to Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering… Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

And, he said in 1 Corinthians 11:1, “Follow my examples, as I follow the example of Christ.”

Our God is God who does extraordinary things. In twenty nine days, we are going to celebrate the greatest and mot extraordinary moment in the history when Jesus was raised from the dead. We serve God who is extraordinary who is after transforming our ordinary daily moments into the extraordinary moments set apart, holy given unto him. Yet, we insist on “the contentment with inadequate and imperfect progress in the life of holiness,” says Tozer. This he calls it again, “a scandal in the Church of the Firstborn.”

I am first to confess that I have bought into this scandal of abnormal, unholy contentment, complacency, as things are just plain ordinary or even worse substandard so called Christian life.

We recently did an evaluation on the life of our church. As I was going through the answers to these questions, I was stirred with this raw emotion inside of me. I set out five years ago to see a church that would rise up to love God and love people wholeheartedly. What the evaluation showed me was that we are a church that has the appearance of friendless, but live on the superficiality, superficiality with God and with each other. We come together Sundays after Sundays, but the sad thing is we are just content to leave things as they are just like the Israelites were content with the displaced ark of the LORD.

2. The holy discontentment breathes new life for you.

Things were mediocre, substandard for the Israelites for twenty years, but something was happening. They began to mourn and seeking after the LORD. In 1 Samuel 4, their response to the devastating loss against the Philistines was to manipulate God for their gain by taking the ark to the battleground as though it was their insurance for sure victory. We know what happened when they tried to manipulate God for their selfish gain; the glory of the Lord left them as symbolized by the capture of the ark.

But, here in chapter 1 Samuel 7:2, we see a different ting happening. They began to mourn and they began to go after the Lord.

How can you explain what happened here? How did they go from being content with mediocre and substandard life to bemoaning and seeking after the LORD?

Our text doesn’t say specifically what happened. Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 3:8, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” What we see in 1 Samuel 7:2 is the invisible and intangible work of the Holy Spirit. He was awakening people from the deadly trap of unholy contentment, lethal complacency, accepting the displaced ark of the LORD as a norm. The Spirit was moving them from unholy contentment to the holy discontentment.

To mourn is to lament. In Micah 2:4, the same verb is used to describe the Israelites’ lament over loosing the allotted land into the hands of the enemies. It is a raw emotion of deep grief, sorrow, regret for something with audible wailing; in 1 Samuel 7:2, is the lamenting over the displaced ark of the LORD, that is the displaced glory of God.

3. For the holy discontentment to be effective, you need change your direction.

Their lament in deep grief, sorrow, regret, their holy discontentment for the displaced glory of God was accompanied by the direction change.

In NIV, this is translated as “sought after the LORD.” In Hebrew, this is simply an adverb, “after.”

If their mourning simply ended with loud wailing, it would not have been a genuine result of the Holy Spirit touching them. Feeling sorry in itself is not enough to revive us. What we need is to “Strive to get beyond mere pensive longing” according to Tozer. What we need is the radical directional change.

“What are you after?” is the crucial question we need to ask. When you wake up early in the morning? What are you after? Are you in hurry to get ready to go to school or to work? Or, are you in hurry to go after God, to meet him, to hear him, to talk to him? When you get home from school or from work, are you after to fix up something to eat and sit in front of TV or computer to feed yourself with mindless moments of entertainment? Or, are you after something more substantial and meaningful and eternally significant like building relationship with God and with people?

Do you feel sorry that you seem to have only casual relationship in the church, at work, at school and at home? Or, do you go after to build meaningful friendship with people, something real, honest, heart-connecting kind of friendship?

4. The holy discontentment and longing isn’t enough, you must act.

When the people began to mourn and sought after the LORD, Samuel told them in verse 3, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the land of the Philistines.”

It is not enough to feel longing, sorrow and good intention to change the direction. Feeling strongly about something but doing nothing about will set you back; it will kill your spirituality. Apostle James spoke about this plain in James 1:22-25:

“Do no merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it-he will be blessed in what he does.”

Samuel said to return to the Lord with all one’s heart involves three actions: 1) ridding ourselves of sins, 2) committing ourselves to the Lord and, 3) serving him only. Then, the promise is the deliverance out of the hand of the enemies, the Philistines in the case of Israel.

When God’s people put the convictions into actions, verse 10 says then the LORD thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.

When the Lord delivered them the victory against the Philistines, Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the LORD helped us.” Ebenezer means “stone of help.” The stone of help, Ebenezer became the memorial for them to remind them what happened when God stirred them into the holy discontentment, direction change, and concrete actions.

Will we have our turn to build the memorial Ebenezer in our church? God wants us to build the Ebenezer for Cornerstone Mission Church, your church, for your life.

5. So, here are some actions plans

I mentioned earlier that we have 29 days to Easter. I want us to have some concrete action plans to put things into actions. I like how Becky Tirabassi put things in the Burning Heart Contract. [i]

There are three elements to this contract.

Ignite your passion

Purify your life

Fulfill your purpose

Prayer Commitment—30 Minutes a day in Prayer and Bible for 21 Days:

The best, most practical, fool-proof method that has worked for me for over two decades is to write (or journal) my PART (praise, admit, request, and thanks) in prayer every day. That means I don’t forget to (1) confess any sin or to (2) pray for others specifically. I encourage, if you’re not doing it already, to get a journal—label it 21 Days—and have a record of ALL that God does. I also Listen to God by reading a 365 Bible everyday. In other words, it is most often through my regular daily planned Bible reading that God speaks to me—and I know He’ll speak to you. If you don’t have a One Year or Change Your Life Daily Bible…this might be the time to get one!

Purity Commitment: Not to touch or look at another person’s private parts, except your spouse (and if you’re not married, that means…no one.)

This is a practical way to gain power in your spiritual life that comes as a result of purity and holiness. Ask god to purify your mind…to prepare you to be more sensitive to Him, and to spend your time more wisely. But especially if you struggle with sexual impurity in any way, I would encourage you to get an accountability partner and check in with them 2 or 3 times a day for the next 21 days. (That might sound like a lot, but if you want to “get rid” of something…you can’t hide it, you must expose it.)

For some of you, this area may be less tempting than others—just ask God to show you any area that He might want to purify you more (II Tim 2:21-22).

The purity-piece to our “personal revival” is a holiness commitment…and God J likes (actually asks) us to be holy like He is holy. Think ahead--something happens to us when we become more like Him…we become powerful preachers, evangelists and leaders. Why? We’ve got nothing to hide. And we’re not ashamed of poorly representing the Gospel. We’re transparent—not perfect—but we honor God’s name by our choices in public and private…and people see, know, and they are watching!

Purpose—to lead one person to Christ in the next 21 Days.

Let’s not panic or competeJ! In Finney’s Lectures on Revival, he wrote, “Four factors have a part in conversion—three active agents and one passive instrument. The agents are God, the truth-bringer (you and me), and the sinner. The instrument is truth. Under God’s influence the truth cuts its way like fire.”

In the feedback from many of you, this piece of the commitment has been the “deal-breaker!” This is the area in which many struggled to commit. So I want to encourage you—the more often you share your relationship with Christ on a daily basis, the more comfortable you’ll become and the greater chance someone is going to be in your path (whom God puts) to hear His story!!! That’s being His agent/ambassador! But the Holy Spirit has all kinds of things going on we don’t even know…so when you are prompted to share (whether it feels funny or awkward or repetitive or you have no good reason to think they’ll even respond), go for it anyway!

One of our “teammates” has written the name of 5 people whom He knows God has placed on his heart to share with over the next 21 Days. I’d encourage you to do the same! (FYI: In the coming days, I also will send some great material from Spurgeon’s Soul Winner!)

You are loved and I am honored to be your friend. Call or write if you need anything!

Be encouraged,

Becky Tirabassi

---

[i] burning heart contract

1 Samuel 4.1-7, When you put your faith not on God...

Do you remember the movie starring Harrison Ford, Raiders of the Lost Ark? It was a huge blockbuster movie only out-earned by two prior Star Wars movies. Let me play a trailer for you.

…

The story takes place after 1936 featuring Harrison Ford as an archaeologist Indiana Jones. At the college where he taught he was approached by two US Army intelligence agents. He was told that the Nazis were in the quest of the Ark of the Covenant; in the movie, the Nazis supposedly believed, according to the legend, the power of the Ark to make any army in possession of it invincible.

Indian Jones found the lost Ark first, but only to be taken away by Nazis and later to be recovered by Jones. Jones was escorting the Ark to England onboard the steamer Bantu Wind only to be stopped by a Nazi U-boat. The Nazi took the Ark to a remote canyon to test its power before presenting to Hitler.

And, there is a scene where Belloq and the Nazi perform a ceremonial opening of the Ark.

This scene follows with the spirits released from the Ark and killing all the Germans by melting their faces and bodies and exploding them. And, the cover of the Ark self closing!

I am confident that none of us would watch this movie to learn the biblical facts about the Ark of the Covenant since the movie isn’t faithful to the scriptural account of the Ark of the Covenant. However, this story of Nazi trying to harvest the power of the Ark and facing devastation illustrates the story of the Israelites trying to manipulate and domesticate God for their own gain in 1 Samuel 4-7:1.

1. When you put your faith not on God, we loose the spiritual battle.

1 Samuel 4 accounts how the Ark of the Covenant was captured in the hands of the Philistines. This chapter answers this question: What happens when we put our faith not on God? The main problem was that the Israelites did not put their faith in God, but in the Ark itself. Another word, the Ark itself became an idol to them. Let see how this plays out.

We are told in verse 1-3 that the Israelites fought against Philistines, only to loose four thousand of them on the battlefield. During the time of Joshua, a similar lost was suffered at the hands of Ai in Joshua 7. When the Israelites suffered the lost, Joshua 7:6 records Joshua and the elders’ response: “Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the Ark of the Lord, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads.” Joshua and the elders of his time dealt with the devastating lost by turning to God in sorrow and repentant heart. God revealed to Joshua how the lost was the direct consequence of one man, Achan’s sin against God.

But the response we see in 1 Samuel 4:3 shows no such act of humbling before God, seeking his guidance for the cause of loosing the battle. Instead, they determined, “Let us bring the ark of the LORD’s covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.” They believed in the power of the Ark just like the Nazis did in the movie as though the Ark in itself has the power to win the battle. The Ark represented Yahweh’s presence with Israel; it was the central symbol leading them to the Promised Land out of the desert; playing a crucial role in the crossing of the Jordan in Joshua 3-4 and during the beginning period of conquest. The Ark was important because it was the symbol of God’s presence. But, for the Israelites, the Ark itself became the power to win the battle.

They confidently marched against the Philistines now having the Ark. The Ark was tended by the wicked, good for nothing, worthless two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas. The moral of the Israelites was so high that verse 5 tells how they raised a great shout that shook the ground making the Philistines tremble in fear.

So, we expect the Israelites to win, but the outcome is even more devastating than before; they lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. The two wicked sons of Eli died in the battle. Worse of all, the Philistines captured the Ark.

What happened when the Israelites put their hope, trust, their confidence not on God, but on the Ark? They were using God for their own gain, with no regard to God’s glory. They trusted not God, but the symbol of God’s presence to deliver them. God dealt with this by taking away the Ark on which they put their idolatrous faith in.

Eli having heard his sons’ death in the battlefield was so shocked when he heard the capture of the Ark, it says in verse 18, he fell backward and broke his neck. And, his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas died while giving birth to her son. She named him “ichabod” meaning no glory. When the Israelites wrongly and idolatrously trusted the Ark rather than God, they suffered the devastating lost in the battlefield, loosing their own and ultimately loosing the Ark, the symbol of God’s presence.

What does God do when you and I put our faith not on God, but on the material possessions, on the job prospects, on our brains, on the get-rich and succeed-ideals of America, and on other people? We loose the spiritual battle.

2. Why should you put your faith in God alone?

Chapter 5 and 6 answers this question; “Why should we put our faith in God alone?” Why should the Israelites, the Philistines, or anyone put their trust in God alone? Let’s see how this chapter answers this question.

The Philistines feared so much that they were ready to face the major defeat against the Israelites when they learned of the presence of the Ark. But, they were able to defeat the Israelites and even capture the much feared Ark. They put the Ark next to their idol Dagon, thinking that their idol Dagon gave them the victory over the God of Israel. Depending on what sources you consult, Dagon was either a god of grain or fish. It was an idol fashioned after human image with head and arms and hands.

Next day, they found their idol fallen on its face on the ground before the Ark. They served and worshiped the idol that they had to pick up with their hands and put it back in its place. In the following morning, they found their idol Dagon decapitated and armless, with its head and hands lying on the threshold to the temple.

The writer of 1 Samuel makes an interesting observation at this point. Verse 5 says that because of their idol’s head and hands touched the threshold, they didn’t step on the threshold. Here was their idol found prostrating before the Ark in submission to God of Israel and later found destroyed before the Ark by God of Israel. God is sovereign and powerful. The wise thing would be to turn to God of Israel. But, instead of fearing God of Israel who proved more powerful and superior to the lifeless, powerless, helpless idol Dagon, they feared upsetting their destroyed idol by stepping on the threshold. It just shows the extent of their unbelief, their unwillingness to face the reality, the truth.

Perhaps, the Philistines didn’t get it that it was God who struck down and destroyed the lifeless, powerless, useless, and worthless idol. God made further statement about why he was to be feared and worshiped. Soon after, the people of Ashdod and its vicinity God sent a terrible outbreak of tumors. Some thinks it was a form of bubonic plague, tumors referring to the swelling of the infected lymph nodes, a disease carried by rats. Whatever the nature of the disease was, it was severe enough that they the people of the town of Ashdod didn’t want it any more. So, the Ark was passed down to the next town Gath. The same disaster struck the people in Gath as well. So, it was sent to Ekron. For seven months, this went on.

Chapter 6 shows how the Philistines dealt with this crisis. They recognized that the disaster was caused by possessing the Ark of the Lord. They realized that they were in the same predicament as the Egyptians faced at the hand of God. The Egyptians, especially Pharaoh hardened, their hearts against God facing plagues after plagues. They didn’t want to make the same mistake, so they devised a plan to send the Ark back. Two things matter to them

First, they made sure that the Ark was accompanied by the five gold tumors and five gold rats to honor to Israel’s God in order to appease him to stop the destruction (6:5). The Ark and the gold were to be put on a brand new cart pulled by two cows. The offering was to appease God so that the plague would stop. It wasn’t necessarily to remove their guilt because guilt offering would involve shedding of blood.

Second, they wanted to makes sure it was God who destroyed Dagan and brought the disease and death. They did this by choosing two cows that never been yoked before. The cows’ calves were pen up. The natural instinct would be for the cows to move towards their calves. Unnatural, supernatural thing would be for the cows to pull the cart holding the Ark and the gold offerings.

God proved to them it was indeed he who brought the disaster to them by having the cows pulled the cart all the way to Israel’s town, Beth Shemesh.

Once the Ark arrived, the Israelites of Beth Shemesh greatly rejoiced. The ark came to the field of Joshua. They sacrificed the cows using the wood of the cart. But, the joy was quickly replaced by fear and sadness when some of the Israelites irreverently treated the Ark by looking into it.

Why should you put your faith in God?

• Put your faith in God because God alone is God; there is no other gods beside our God of the Bible.
• Put your faith in God because the alternative is to face a terrible judgment; put your faith in God because he is to be feared.
• Put your faith in God because he alone can remove the guilt of your sins and forgive you by shedding of the blood. Note how the Ark arrived at the Field of Joshua in Beth Shemesh. Joshua, the Hebrew name is the same as the Greek name Jesus. It is Jesus’ sacrificial death and shedding of his blood that truly forgives us and puts us in right relationship with God.

Applications

1. What are you idols that you trust more than God?

Think about how you might be like Israelites. When they were defeated, they didn’t seek God for his help, his guidance. They didn’t care what God really thought about their situation. Worse, they put their faith not in God, but in the object of his presence, the Ark. They made the Ark their idol.

This is like the mentality that just coming to church on Sunday is really enough. Somehow, Sunday attendance is really all that matters. Outside of Sunday, it is as though God doesn’t exist in our lives. If we act as though God doesn’t exist outside of Sunday service, then we have something other than God at the center of our lives.

2. How are you like the Philistines insisting on holding on to your idols even when God reveals himself to you in judgment and salvation?

God demonstrated his power, his superiority, his sovereignty over the idol Dagon. Yet, the Philistines didn’t abandon their idol to choose, to worship, to follow God of Israel.

God demonstrated his power by judging the Philistines by sending them the terrible plague. Yet, all they wanted was to get rid of the Ark of God so that they could go on serving their decapitated, limbless, helpless, powerless, lifeless, motionless idol that couldn’t help them, save them or do anything at all.

God demonstrated his healing, his salvation through the shedding of the blood of the sacrificed animals to Philistines. It wasn’t their gold tumors or rats that ensured the end of the plague. It was the shedding of the sacrificed animals at the field of Joshua, at the field of Jesus. It is the blood of Jesus Christ that ensures our salvation, forgiveness of sins, real life.

3. How are you like the those who were killed at Beth Shemesh by showing no fear of God by acting against his will?

Job 28:28 says, “The fear of the LORD-that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”

1 Samuel 2:12-4:1, Do you take God serioulsy?

Few years back, there were billboards so called, "God Billboards." These were initially put up by an anonymous person who contacted The Smith Agency in Florida in 1998 to get people to think about spirituality. The proved so popular that Outdoor Advertising Association of America made them their national public service campaign. Soon, "God Speaks" campaign brought about 10,000 displays throughout America.

Let’s take a look at some of them.

• Let's meet at my house Sunday before the game.
• What part of "Thou Shalt Not..." didn't you understand?
• We need to talk.
• Keep using my name in vain, I'll make rush hour longer.
• Loved the wedding, invite me to the marriage.
• That "Love Thy Neighbor" thing... I meant it.
• I love you…I love you...I love you.
• Will the road you're on get you to my place?
• Follow me.
• Need directions?
• You think it's hot here?
• Do you have any idea where you're going?
• My way is the highway.

Don’t you wish it was that easy to hear from God? When you get on highways, just look up and read your today’s God’s Billboard message. But, life isn’t quite like that, right? Does it ever feel it is not easy to know what God is saying to you these days?
If you feel that way, I would like to talk to you this morning.

During the time of Judges, people had real difficult time hearing God and knowing God’s will for them. Would you turn your scripture to 1 Samuel 3? ­Verse 1-2 says, “The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.” This specifically meant that there was hardly any message from the LORD spoken through prophets. It was a time when the revelation from God about who he was, and what he expected from his people were scarce.

1. You cannot hear God if you don’t take God seriously.

What is the cause for the word, visions of the LORD, being rare during this time? The cause was that God’s people didn’t take God seriously. The principle is that you cannot hear God if you don’t take God seriously.

In chapter 2:12-36 underscore how bad things were. The priest, Eli’s two sons Hophni and Phinehas were described as wicked men who had no regard for the LORD in verse 12. Since they didn’t know the LORD, they didn’t care about God. Since they didn’t care about God, they were wicked that is they were worthless, good for nothing. It is ironic that Eli thought that Hannah was wicked in chapter 1 when in fact she was the godly woman and his sons were the wicked ones.

Leviticus 7:28-36 and Deuteronomy 18:3 said the priests were to have specific portion from
the sacrificial animals given to the LORD. But things were different in Shiloh where Eli and his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas served. Instead of taking the specifically designated portions of meat, Hophni and Phinehas would thrust a fork into the boiling pot and pull up whatever came out stuck on the fork. Leviticus 17:6, says, “burn the fat as an aroma pleasing to the LORD.” Fat of sacrificial animals therefore were to be set aside and be burned for the LORD (Leviticus 7:23-25, 31; 17:6). But, even before the fat was trimmed off to be burned for the LORD, they demanded their meat. When the worshippers made concession to give them whatever they wanted but only allow them first to burn the fat for the LORD. But, the Eli’s sons would not have any of it. They threatened to use force to get what they wanted. This is how they had no regard for the LORD (verse 12) and how they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt (verse 17).

When all this was going on with these two sons, their father Eli talked to them about this in 2:12-25 but that was the extent of what he did… just talking about it. His sons did not listen to Eli; they continued to work in the temple of the LORD. It was like a coach calling players outside for not playing by the rules of the game, talking to them how they need to abide by the rules, but putting them right back into the games. He took no further measure to restrain them. Because Eli was not going to restrain them from dishonoring God, it says in 2:25, God’s will was to put them to death.

A man of God came to Eli and gave God’s charge against him. 2:29 asks, “Why do you scorn my sacrifice and offering that I prescribed for my dwelling? Why do you honor your sons more than me by fattening yourselves on the choice parts of every offering made by my people Israel?” God said in verse 30, “Those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disdained.”

Eli’s family was given the privilege honor to minister God forever according to 2:30, but because they didn’t take God seriously, but took him and his promise lightly and disgust, God was no longer going to honor his promise to them. To be disdained is to be cursed. The curse was that his two sons would die on the same day, 2:34; that all his descendants would die in their prime of life, 2:33. The curse was that the honor once bestowed on Eli’s family to minister before the LORD forever would be revoked.

The vision, the word of the LORD was rare during this time because they didn’t take God seriously.

2. If you honor God, if you are serious about God, you hear from him.

But the story of Samuel tells a different story. His story tells us that if we honor God, if we are serious about God, we can hear from him.

Chapter 2:35 says, “I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind.” 1 Chronicle 28:9 says, “for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.” Having rejected Eli and his sons who rejected him, his good promise to them, God sought after a faithful person who was determine to do things according to what was in God’s heart and mind.

In the backdrop when the word of the LORD was rare and there were not many visions, revelation from the LORD, we see God at moving. It was a dark time. Eli is said to be legally blind. People were spiritually blind and deaf because they were determined to do as they saw fit, instead of being serious for God.

But, God was still moving. In darkness, there was still a flicker of hope. 3:3 says, “The lamp of God had not yet gone out,” meaning that God was not done with the Israelites. Know this. Our God is God who moves to awaken the souls to himself, to his service. He is searching for those who would honor him, who would take God seriously.

Samuel was that person God was looking for. While it was still dark outside and there was that flicker of a lamp light in the temple of the LORD, Samuel heard someone calling. He answered “Here I am,” and he “ran” to Eli and said to him, “Here I am; you called me.”

He ran perhaps thinking legally blind Eli needed some help! But, it wasn’t Eli who called him. Eli told Samuel, “I did not call; go back and life down.” This happened again. This time Samuel didn’t run, but went to him perhaps unsure what was going on. Eli again sent Samuel back.
Verse 7 explains what was going on. It says, “Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD.” It doesn’t mean that Samuel didn’t have relationship with God. Hannah, his mother wanted him to honor God for the rest of his life. Samuel was young and his heart was in the right place. It just that Samuel had not learned to recognize God’s voice yet.

When God called the third time, Eli who was spiritually insensitive finally got it that God was calling Samuel. Eli gave Samuel a helpful tip in what he should do when he was called again, to say, “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.” Samuel responded to God who showed up and called him as Eli instructed him to say.

There are two things that I want you note in Samuel’s response to God’s call him. To refer to himself as God’s servant revealed he honored God as God; it also shows his willingness to listen. Samuel humbly desired to hear from God and listen to him. He was seriously about God. And, God spoke to him.

3. When God speaks, you need to act on it.

The next thing we see in Samuel is that when God spoke to him, he acted upon it.
God told Samuel in verse 11-14, "See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family--from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them. ¹⁴ Therefore, I swore to the house of Eli, `The guilt of Eli's house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering.'”

Verse 15 says Samuel was afraid to tell Eli the vision. You can imagine this little boy who respected and looked up to the priest Eli, not knowing what to do with what he heard from the LORD. Eli was like a father to Samuel. It is not too difficult to see why he was afraid to tell Eli what he heard from God.

When Eli confronted Samuel about what the LORD said to him and “Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him,” verse 18. As hard as it was for Samuel to reveal what God had spoken to him to Eli, he did it without withholding any truth from God. And, verse 19 says, God “let none of his words fall to the ground,” meaning that whatever God revealed to Samuel came to be true.

God’s further word was possible because Samuel acted on God’s word. This was God’s priest in making. His childhood experience of hearing God for himself and listening to him and carrying out God’s word was Samuel’s initiation into the lifetime of service to God. When God speaks, we need to act on his word.

Applications

• Do you want to listen to God?

When I mentioned about the billboards in the beginning, I asked you, “Don’t you wish it was that easy to hear from God?” Hearing the voice of God seems difficult. But, this is not because God doesn’t speak to us today. You shouldn’t expect God to show up routinely in the middle of the night, call you and reveal to you his plan like he did with Samuel. To hear God’s voice audibly is rare thing. I personally have not heard God speak to me audibly for the last 35 years.
The way God choose to speak to us today is through his Word and to our hearts. And, because we have the word of God, the Bible, so readily accessible, it is wrong to say that the word of God is rare, or God doesn’t speak to us any more.

The problem is not the accessibility to God’s word or he doesn’t speak. God’s word is abundant. God speaks to us today! Through his word, he speaks to us about his character, his will, his desire, his purpose for each of us, for our church, for our lives, for our families, for our careers, for our school works.

The problem is not that God doesn’t speak to you. The problem is that you don’t want to listen God; if you don’t want to listen God, it means you don’t want to know God. If you don’t want to know God, you don’t want to do things as God sees fit, but you do things you see fit. You don’t honor God.

God has a way of making things very clear to us. He shows you two pictures

• a picture of Samuel who eagerly desired to hear God, who heard God call him, and was used mightily for God’s purpose
• a picture of Eli’s two sons who didn’t want to hear from God, did things as they saw fit and met God’s curse, and forfeited the privilege to serve God. They were wicked, worthless, good for nothing

Everyday, you must declare your intention before God. Are you going to listen to God as Samuel did or are you going to disregard God like Hophin and Phinehas did?

• Have an expectant heart!

When you declare you intention to listen to God and open the Bible to read God’s word, have an expectant heart that God is going to speak to you.

• You need to act on God’s word.

What you do with the word of God declares your intention to become like Samuel or Eli’s family. Here is the second application point I want you to consider. You need to choose to honor God over your fears and feelings. Again God shows two clear pictures.

• a picture of Samuel, declaring God’s word over his fear of talking to Eli and becoming God’s prophet
• a picture of Eli, not restraining his sons in sinning against God and thereby forfeiting God’s promise