On Hearing From God Part 1: Do We Expect God to Speak to Us?
Good Morning,
We learn in 1 Samuel 1 & 2 that Samuel was born to a woman named Hannah who was one of the wives of the Zuphite Elkanah. Hannah’s husband favored her but she was a barren woman. As a result, Penninah, who was the less favored wife, would often torment her for being childless. In that time, the ability to bear children was a big deal and a source of worth and pride for a lot of woman. Hannah would go to the temple with her husband Elkanah to offer a sacrifice to the Lord. One day, the priest Eli saw her pouring out her heart before God. She was so distraught as she prayed that he thought she was drunk, but she explained to him that she was crying out to the Lord to give her a child. She promised God that if He granted her a child, she would dedicate that child to the Lord. When she became pregnant, she named her first son, Samuel, meaning “I asked for him.” And she made good on her promise to dedicate him to the Lord which means she sent him to live in the house of the Lord under Eli where he learned to minister.
The text tells us that Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli and that in those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
This is important because we have to ask, why was the Word of the Lord rare?
I would venture to say that it’s because God hadn’t yet poured out His Spirit on all flesh—only some people, usually prophets, had the Holy Spirit, whereas now, we know that because of Jesus’ work, anyone who commits their life to Christ is marked in them with the Holy Spirit—the promised seal guaranteeing our inheritance. So now, all believers have access to God through His Spirit living inside of us in a unique way that wasn’t before the case.
And we can also ask the question, Why did God not yet pour out His Spirit on all flesh? I would say that God has a certain order to things. This was before Jesus had come and God chooses to allow human history to play out through His relationship with Israel and through the prophets coming and testifying to God as a way of setting us up for Jesus’ coming because if He just sent Jesus off the bat, we wouldn’t be able to truly understand or see why we need Jesus. Even now that Jesus has come, we can still be hard hearted and not understand why we need Jesus, but that’s why the word of the Lord and visions were rare.
So what happens?
In verse 3, we see a young Samuel lying down in the house of the Lord with the ark of God which represents the presence of God. So Samuel was in the presence of God and the voice of the Lord calls Samuel; however, Samuel doesn’t recognize that it’s God’s voice so he runs to Eli thinking that Eli is the one calling him. When he gets to Eli, Eli tells him that he did not call him. This happens 2 more times to Samuel until Eli recognizes that God is the one calling Samuel and informs Samuel that God is the one who is speaking to him.
How is it that Samuel could be in the house of the Lord ministering before the very presence of God and not recognize His voice?
Maybe it’s because the voice of the Lord was rare in those days. And it may also be that Samuel doesn’t recognize the voice of the Lord because Samuel doesn’t expect God to speak to him.
How many of us have been in church for year but still don’t know the voice of God? How many times do we go to church and not expect God to speak to us? How many times do we pursue the presence of the Lord without waiting to hear a word from Him? And how many of us do not actually pursue God’s presence at all but rather perform religious rituals week in and week out out of habit without actually recognizing that God may want to meet us where we are or speak to us?
So Samuel was in the presence of God, in the house of the Lord, but he didn’t know the voice of God and he didn’t expect God to speak to him. However, if God is a living God, and if God created the Heavens and the Earth and humanity to be in relationship with Him, shouldn’t we expect that this God who invites us into relationship with Him, also longs to speak to us?
Did you notice that in verse 4 the Lord was the one who called Samuel?
God in His own agency sought after Samuel and made His voice known to Samuel.
Who is this God who makes Himself known to human beings? Who is this God that allows humans to hear His voice? What does this say about God’s character?
God did not just become a God of relationship with Jesus. We are told in the beginning that God created the heavens and the Earth, and that He created human beings in His image. He breathes the breath of life into humanity and then hands over His creation for human beings to steward. He walks and talks with human beings, however, He gives human beings the option of choosing to love Him in being faithful to Him. Human beings mess this up with the fall when we sin. Since then, our human brokenness and sin keeps us in a place that is distant from God, and yet God, in His character continues to reach out to human beings, to welcome us to know Him, to provide for us, to hear from Him. He does that in sending Jesus Christ as God in the flesh to make Himself known to us. Jesus reconciled us to God that we may know what it means to be in relationship with our Heavenly Father. And if that weren't enough, God sends us His Holy Spirit to lead and to guide us, to reside in us and make our bodies and hearts His sacred tabernacle. Unlike in Samuel's day, we are in the latter days where God has poured out His Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28-30).
So know, that God desires to be in relationship with you. However, is a relationship truly a relationship if only one party is doing all the talking? We often talk to God, but we have to recognize that God is also constantly speaking and He wants to speak even to you!
God seeks out relationship with human beings even when we aren’t checking for Him or seeking Him out, like He does here with Samuel. And God, today, is constantly speaking but do we expect Him to speak to us? And if He does, do we want to hear what He has to say?
I pray that God will give us the grace to seek out His presence and that He will give us both the grace and the desire to know and recognize His voice speaking to us.
In Christ's name,
Amen.
