Samuel
1 Samuel 2:22-4:1;1 Samuel 8:19-22, 15:10-35
Israel has been ruled by judges for over 200 years now, and Eli and Samuel are to be the last of the line.
Samuel, whose name means ‘one whose name is God’ – i.e. he is set apart and holy – has been growing up as a priest in training under Eli, and is as well qualified to serve Israel as Eli’s successor as his two sons.
Under Eli the nation has fallen away from God, and it is clear that God is preparing Samuel from the very beginning to lead the nation back to right living.
Samuel is a Godly young man, ready for God to be in control of his life, and his prophecy, but his mentor’s two sons are wicked men, with no regard for the Lord. And Eli himself is guilty of a dereliction of his duty by turning a blind eye to their twofold sins…
Firstly, Eli’s two sons have been abusing their situation to extort from the people coming to make their offerings to God. The sin of the young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they were treating the Lord’s offering with contempt.”
And secondly, we find that Eli’s sons slept with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.” Not only are the boys stealing from God… they’re making the tabernacle a place of prostitution.
So, Eli takes his boys aside and gives them a good talking to. But the problem is that he doesn’t punish them, and he doesn’t remove them from office. Presumably he overlooks their sin because he loved them too much to obey God.
Or to put it another way, Eli loved his sons more than God. And that meant that they kept him from listening to God, and they distracted him from his responsibility as a priest.
And thus God tells Eli,“I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who will do according to what is in my heart and mind. I will firmly establish his house, and he will minister before my anointed one always.”
Thus God selects Samuel to replace Eli because Samuel is ready to listen to God:
And as Samuel listens, God speaks: four separate times that night, each time calling - “Samuel, Samuel”
And the first 3 times… that’s all God says.
And then, notably, it’s only after Samuel says ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening” that God starts to talk to him.
And we too, just like Samuel need to learn that, if we would hear God’s words, then we need to actively listen, we need to say, “Speak Lord, your servant is listening.”
It reminds me of the Mary and Martha story: they were both strong supporters of Jesus’ ministry, both engaged in giving emotional support, food, and maybe even helped financially too.
Mary, who we often think of as the lazy one, sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what Jesus says. But Martha, who we often like to think of as the diligent one, was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answers, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better.”
No doubt Jesus appreciated what Martha was doing but she was “distracted” by her preparations, and following her own agenda.
And Samuel might well be talking to us as he says, “Don’t get distracted by anything in this world. Don’t get distracted by your job, your troubles, your goals, your agendas, even your family. Listen to God! Listen to him first!”
It’s not that God doesn’t care what you think or feel, it’s actually that he wants to bless us, that he wants to give us our hearts desires. But he can’t do that if we don’t listen to him.
The reason God chose Samuel to replace Eli,then, was not just because of the iniquity of Eli’s sons. God has actively chosen another, the boy who would says to God “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.”
All of which rather begs the question, How do I know when I’m listening to God? Well, how did Samuel know that God didn’t want a King to rule over his people? Well, primarily, it is because he lived close to God all the time, being with Godly people, and at the tabernacle, worshipping God, at every opportunity.
The point is: He was always near to God, and you can’t hear if you’re not near.
Specifically for us, that means two things. Firstly it means spending time with God’s people – maybe attending church social evenings or maybe attending a house group. And secondly it means going to church, not just when you want to, or when it fits with your plans and schedules, but at times when it isn’t convenient, and isn’t the first thing you want to do.
So, as we gather together tonight, in God’s House, just as Samuel did, I want to ask you, are you listening? Is God speaking to you about your need to read your bible more? To grow more? To serve more? To be with him more?
Whatever God is saying to you, you need to make up your mind to say “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening!”…
Moving on, Samuel grew in wisdom and became a greatprophet. Following a great Philistine victory over the Israelites, Samuel became a judge and rallied the nation against the Philistines at Mizpah. He established his house at Ramah, and he and his sons rode a circuit to around the various cities where they settled the people’s disputes.
But, unfortunately, just as Eli’s sons had in the previous generation, Samuel’s sons, Joel and Abijah, now fall short. They had been delegated to follow Samuel as judges, but they too were corrupt, so the people began demanding a king, saying to Samuel,
“No? We are determined to have a king over us,20so that we also may be like other nations.”
And because the people demand a king, they now get in trouble. And that’s because they are making their request, not just because they don’t want to be ruled by Samuel’s sons who are perverting justice, but more specifically because they see other nations have Kings and they want to be like them.
The problem is, you see, that Israel are set apart from other nations, called to be different, and unique, ruled by one who speaks for God. They had stayed true to this calling down the centuries, but now their motive in asking for a king is to be like other nations, a contradiction to God’s plan. They will not listen to God, but hear only their own hearts.
But what Samuel hears them saying to him is: ‘You are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us, such as all the other nations have.’”
In other words:
We’re tired of you
we don’t want you
we don’t want your children
we want a King.
But then, in the next verse we find God saying to Samuel, “‘Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected you, but they have rejected me as their king.’”
God is saying, in other words: “Don’t take this personally. This isn’t about you!!!”
And, I have to say, we are very good at taking things personally, aren’t’ we. And at the same time, aren’t we really good at making things personal in the way we criticise others? I think Samuel’s experiences, from all that time ago, are just as relevant today as ever.
Thus, the advice God gave Samuel is the same advice He gives us. When people try to irritate us… snub us… insult us… anger us… we shouldn’t take it personally.
The thing is, that bringing in the Kingdom of God, our overarching calling as Christians, is not about you, and it’s not about me - it’s about God.
A ‘Christian’ protest group in America, a while ago, began showing up at significant church events with placards, one of which read “Faggots are going to hell”
The interviewer asked the woman why her group felt it was necessary to be so confrontational.
The lady replied: “When we first started protesting people were angry and shouted and cursed us. So we have decided to fight fire with fire!”
Now think about that, a supposedly Christian group, so caught up in their own anger and self-righteousness that, when they were mistreated and abused by others, they took it personally and came out, ‘all guns blazing.’
Beware,when you are trying to listen to God, who speaks in your heart, actually being obedient to your own heart.
Now, Samuel having learned not to take everything personally, then gets given a job to do:
“Now listen to them; [God Says]warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.” And Samuel obeys…
He warns them…
he pleads with them…
and refuses to take their constant attacks personally.
So, finally, Samuel has appoints a King, Kind Saul, the first king of Israel. And when he hands over the reigns he tells Saul and the people that they must all give up their idols and serve the true God. He told them if they and King Saul disobeyed, God would sweep them away.
But Saul in time lets the power go to his head and disobeys. He begins to edge God out of the picture and becomes disobedient, and stops listening to God. Saul’s pride drives him to set up a monument to himself, and from that moment on, we know things aren’t going to end well!
The end comes when Saul disobeys God in a battle with the Amalekites, sparing the enemy’s king and the best of their livestock, when Samuel had ordered Saul to destroy everything. God is, in the end, so grieved that he rejects Saul who dies in battle on the same day as both his sons, and God choses another king, King David, whose story we know only too well.
So, there is much to learn from the life of Samuel, but the main theme throughout Samuel’s life is that Godalone should receive the glory and honour. We must live in God’s presence, constantly listening to his word, and striving to be obedient to God’s coming Kingdom.
And I wonder if I might close by suggesting that our response to this, might take us back to the beginning of Samuels story as we say:
Here I am Lord, Is it I, Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if You lead me.
I will hold Your people in my heart.
1