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I Samuel chapter 3.
I love this chapter!
- God called Samuel!
- Samuel responded, “Speak Lord for your servant is listening.”
- God replied, “I'm about to do something in Israel!”
I want to be faithful to the Lord! I want to be obedient to the Lord! I want to be like Samuel, someone who God is calling. I don't want to be an Eli who was soon to face God's judgement for not following the Lord's desires for him. I don't want to lose focus like Eli did.
- God, I want to hear you call my name!
- I am listening, so speak to me through your word and your spirit!
- I want to hear you say “I'm about to do something at Edinboro camp or in the community or in the church.” God bring Great Glory to Your Name!
I feel sorry for Eli in some ways. Here is an old man who is facing the effects of aging as he is going blind. His sons have rebelled and he is about to get punished. Why did he allow his sons to act the way that they did? They were described as worthless men. Eli is an example of how not to raise a child and yet we see Samuel under his care. It seems to me as if God has allowed Eli another chance at bringing up a child, but not in his own strength or with his own vision, but by God’s. God calls Samuel and he listens.
I’m reminded of a couple of verses about discipline.
Proverbs 29:17
“Discipline your son, and he will give you rest; he will give delight to your heart.”
Ephesians 6:4
“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
May we remember how important it is to train up our children in the way that they should go.
At this time during the Judges, there weren’t a lot of prophets hearing from God and sharing with the people. It reminds me of Revelation 3:20 and how Jesus stands at the door and knocks? Many people read this verse as referring only to salvation but I believe it also speaks to us as believers … are we listening? We have to be listening to hear Him and what He has to say to us.
Samuel listens to God and then his relationship with God begins. When? It begins while he is ministering to God. There is a difference between ministering “to” God and ministering “for” God. We are not all blessed to be called to minister for God but we can all minister to Him. It’s what we do in our quiet time with Him when no one else is watching. It’s what we do to help someone not as fortunate as we might be. In my mind, this is the highest calling of all – minister to Him – for He is worthy!!
God is using Samuel to do big things. He wants Him to know what He is preparing to do. I wonder if Samuel felt a bit nervous, or any pressure that the Lord chose him. We learn in this chapter, Samuel did not even know the Lord until Eli realized what was happening. I wonder if it was hard for Samuel to be honest with Eli, knowing it was not good news. Eli shows His respect and love for the Lord by saying, whatever will happen with the Lord and my sons is what is right to happen. As a parent I am constantly questioning my parenting style and choices. Our son is 2 and he is in the tantruming stages and some days are very difficult. We work hard to set boundaries and communicate with him and hear him out, but being 2 sometimes he just isn’t rational. One thing more recently that has made me sad is, we pray at our meals. Or son used to hold our hands and say amen! Nice and loud when we finished saying grace. One day, he just got upset and when we tried to hold his hands during grace he kept saying “no, no, no, no, no” and refusing to hold our hands and no longer saying amen. I have no clue what happened. We still pray at bed time and read books about God, but at 2 it’s hard to always get inside their little minds as to what is going on. I want my son to grow up like Samuel, and be a man of God, not like Eli’s sons.