Our Third Traveling Companion: Samuel
. . . who listened as he walked
Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.
(1 Samuel 3:9)
He was a circuit judge, tramping endlessly between district seats: from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, then back to his wife and children in Ramah. Times were hard in Samuel's day. The Philistines, supplied with arms by Egypt, had driven the dispirited Israelites from the good bottomland; all they retained of the Promised Land were these rocky and infertile hills where Samuel walked.
His route took him regularly past the ruins of Shiloh, the town where he'd lived as a boy, razed to the ground during the Philistine occupation. That heap of rubble there had been the temple where the ark of the Lord had once been kept.
There was the gate - the only part of the wall still intact-where the old priest Eli used to sit. Here Samuel's astonishing career had begun.
For the sunburnt man trudging these stony hills was far more than an arbitrator of boundary disputes between farmers. He was a patriot who had roused his countrymen to throw off the Philistine yoke. He had summoned Israel away from idol worship, anointed kings and paved the way for the glorious period of Jewish history soon to follow.
It had all begun here in Shiloh early one morning before daylight, when twelve-year-old Samuel learned the secrets of hearing God.
1. Expect Him to speak
The youngster was awakened by a voice in the cold predawn. Jumping from his mat on the floor, he ran to Eli's side: "Here I am, for you called me."
But Eli had not called. Samuel returned to his pallet and the voice called again. Once more Samuel went to see what Eli wanted; once more he was told to go back to sleep. Yet a third time the urgent voice summoned him; again it proved not to be Eli's.
It never entered Samuel's head that he could be hearing the voice of God Himself.
To me, this is an immensely reassuring story. I tend to imagine that the spiritual giants of the past had an easier time hearing God's messages than I do. But they were as hindered by their preconceptions as we are. If we do not - not really - expect God to speak, we will miss Him when He does.
2. Listen for your name
"Samuel! Samuel!" was what the Voice in Shiloh said. In the Bible, a person's name stands for his uniqueness, the essential qualities that make him himself and no one else. God's word for today always has a name attached. It is not logos - true for all time and people - but rhema, true today for you in particular. It will speak in terms of what interests, distresses, frightens or delights you at this moment; it will "have your name on it."
3. Listen with your walking staff in your hand
To believe that God speaks, and speaks to you personally, is still not the whole story. When Samuel appeared a third time at Eli's bedside, the old priest realized that the lad was hearing God.
"If it happens again," he told the boy, "reply, 'Your servant is listening!' "
Not "your curious bystander is listening," or "your skeptic is waiting to be shown," or even "your scholarly investigator is eager to document this." Your servant, ready and waiting to do Your will-as soon as he or she knows what it is!
When we present ourselves to God as servants, we offer our obedience, not our opinions. In Samuel's own view, years later, Jesse's tall, manly looking son Eliab was the right choice for king of Israel. But when God, whose servant Samuel was, ordered him to anoint Jesse's unprepossessing youngest son, David, instead, Samuel did so.
4. Step forward on what you hear
The sequence is always the same. We engage to carry out God's design; then and only then does He unfold it for us.
"Your servant hears" was easy enough for young Samuel to say, but the message that followed pinned him to his mat in consternation. Could he be hearing right? Was he really going to tell his venerable and beloved master that he and his entire family were going to be destroyed by God?
The boy obeyed: he passed on the fateful message. He must have remembered this moment of difficult obedience years afterward when he was instructed by the same divine voice to go to King Saul - Saul with his hair-trigger temper and killing rages - and inform him that God was wrenching the kingdom of Israel out of his hands.
Expectation, recognition, readiness, obedience - this is how we too receive directions for each day's journeying.
Lord of the Journey, let us learn with faithful Samuel to say, "Your servant hears."
Meet our next companion now >
Speak, Lord, for thy servant hears.
(1 Samuel 3:9)
He was a circuit judge, tramping endlessly between district seats: from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, then back to his wife and children in Ramah. Times were hard in Samuel's day. The Philistines, supplied with arms by Egypt, had driven the dispirited Israelites from the good bottomland; all they retained of the Promised Land were these rocky and infertile hills where Samuel walked.
His route took him regularly past the ruins of Shiloh, the town where he'd lived as a boy, razed to the ground during the Philistine occupation. That heap of rubble there had been the temple where the ark of the Lord had once been kept.
There was the gate - the only part of the wall still intact-where the old priest Eli used to sit. Here Samuel's astonishing career had begun.
For the sunburnt man trudging these stony hills was far more than an arbitrator of boundary disputes between farmers. He was a patriot who had roused his countrymen to throw off the Philistine yoke. He had summoned Israel away from idol worship, anointed kings and paved the way for the glorious period of Jewish history soon to follow.
It had all begun here in Shiloh early one morning before daylight, when twelve-year-old Samuel learned the secrets of hearing God.
1. Expect Him to speak
The youngster was awakened by a voice in the cold predawn. Jumping from his mat on the floor, he ran to Eli's side: "Here I am, for you called me."
But Eli had not called. Samuel returned to his pallet and the voice called again. Once more Samuel went to see what Eli wanted; once more he was told to go back to sleep. Yet a third time the urgent voice summoned him; again it proved not to be Eli's.
It never entered Samuel's head that he could be hearing the voice of God Himself.
To me, this is an immensely reassuring story. I tend to imagine that the spiritual giants of the past had an easier time hearing God's messages than I do. But they were as hindered by their preconceptions as we are. If we do not - not really - expect God to speak, we will miss Him when He does.
2. Listen for your name
"Samuel! Samuel!" was what the Voice in Shiloh said. In the Bible, a person's name stands for his uniqueness, the essential qualities that make him himself and no one else. God's word for today always has a name attached. It is not logos - true for all time and people - but rhema, true today for you in particular. It will speak in terms of what interests, distresses, frightens or delights you at this moment; it will "have your name on it."
3. Listen with your walking staff in your hand
To believe that God speaks, and speaks to you personally, is still not the whole story. When Samuel appeared a third time at Eli's bedside, the old priest realized that the lad was hearing God.
"If it happens again," he told the boy, "reply, 'Your servant is listening!' "
Not "your curious bystander is listening," or "your skeptic is waiting to be shown," or even "your scholarly investigator is eager to document this." Your servant, ready and waiting to do Your will-as soon as he or she knows what it is!
When we present ourselves to God as servants, we offer our obedience, not our opinions. In Samuel's own view, years later, Jesse's tall, manly looking son Eliab was the right choice for king of Israel. But when God, whose servant Samuel was, ordered him to anoint Jesse's unprepossessing youngest son, David, instead, Samuel did so.
4. Step forward on what you hear
The sequence is always the same. We engage to carry out God's design; then and only then does He unfold it for us.
"Your servant hears" was easy enough for young Samuel to say, but the message that followed pinned him to his mat in consternation. Could he be hearing right? Was he really going to tell his venerable and beloved master that he and his entire family were going to be destroyed by God?
The boy obeyed: he passed on the fateful message. He must have remembered this moment of difficult obedience years afterward when he was instructed by the same divine voice to go to King Saul - Saul with his hair-trigger temper and killing rages - and inform him that God was wrenching the kingdom of Israel out of his hands.
Expectation, recognition, readiness, obedience - this is how we too receive directions for each day's journeying.
Lord of the Journey, let us learn with faithful Samuel to say, "Your servant hears."
Meet our next companion now >