Jeffrey Heine: Good morning. Good morning. It's great to see you all. A special good morning to those of you joining us on the live feed from a lake house. Thank you for the invite.
Not mad about that? It's fine. I'm fine. We are continuing our study of the life of David. And last week, we started a new sermon series on the life of David.
And over the coming months, we will be looking at the Old Testament books of 1st and second Samuel, and we will follow the story of the life and faith of King David. And if you've started reading along in 1st Samuel during the week, you've probably realized that David doesn't really come on the scene for about 16 chapters. So over these 1st 4 to 5 weeks, we will be looking at the lead up to the life of David through the life of the prophet, priest Samuel. And our passage this morning comes from chapter 2 and chapter 3 of first Samuel, and this passage is commonly referred to as the calling of Samuel. In fact, your Bible might even have that header above chapter 3, the calling of Samuel.
And to begin our time, I'd like to read a small section of our rather large passage this morning. So if you have a Bible with you, I would encourage you to get that out and go ahead and turn to first Samuel chapter 2, because we will be making our way through chapter 2 and chapter 3. But to begin our time, I'd like to read from chapter 3, that's in your worship guide, verses 1 through 10. First Samuel chapter 3 verses 1 through 10. Let us listen carefully, for this is God's word.
Now the boy, Samuel, was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days, and there was no frequent vision. At that time, Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, 'Here I am,' and ran to Eli and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' But he said, 'I did not call.
Lie down again.' So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' But he said, 'I did not call my son. Lie down again.' Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, 'Here I am, for you called me.' Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy.
Therefore Eli said to Samuel, go lie down. And if he calls you, you shall say, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, Samuel. Samuel.
And Samuel said, speak, for your servant is listening. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks to God. Let's pray together. Oh, Lord our God, draw near to us this morning as we open up your word.
Meet us by your Holy Spirit and lead us to your truth. Help us to believe today and in believing, find life and hope in Jesus, our savior. So would you speak, Lord, for your servants are listening. We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
We live in a world of on demand streaming, but you may be old enough to recall those days when you would go to watch TV, and everything was just on. And if you turned on your TV at 7:0:5, then you just jumped in 5 minutes late. And no rewind option, no start from the beginning. You just did your best to piece together what was happening in the show. And reading the Bible can often feel like jumping into a show that's already started.
You quickly try to identify the characters and get a sense of what's happening and the time and the place. And because the dialogue is already going, you have to get your bearings. At the same time, you're trying not to miss what's being said. And that can be overwhelming and a little bit more frustrating. So I'd like to take a a few moments for us to get our bearings in first Samuel.
We're in the Old Testament, in the history of Israel. We're at a transition point from the tribes of Israel to the kingdom of Israel. And as you might recall, God had rescued the people of Israel out of slavery in Egypt, And he used Moses to lead the people into the wilderness to worship him and then ultimately to the promised land. The people of Israel were were charged with taking that land, coming into possession of that land. And one of those tasks was to drive out Canaanites.
Now the Canaanites were a ruthless and wicked people. Their their cultural practices included all sorts of immorality, including child sacrifices. But the people of Israel, rather than claiming the land and removing all of the Canaanites, more or less moved in alongside the Canaanites and even started assimilating to their pagan culture. And at that time, the Israelite tribes were ruled by judges. They were kind of like tribal chiefs.
And the Old Testament book of Judges tells many horrific stories, stories of failure and rejection of God. The people of Israel were abandoning Yahweh, and they were taking on the pagan worship and the sacrifices of the Canaanites. The faith of the people of Israel was barren. They had become a spiritual wasteland, and it is in this desperate emptiness that the story of Samuel begins. And as we looked last week, the story begins with a barren and desperate woman named Hannah, who was pleading with the Lord for a child.
If you've read much of the Bible, you've probably noticed that it's the habit of God to show up in silent, barren, unexpected places. It's as though he delights in going to those places of emptiness to find people who only have weakness, and he shows up with his strength and his fullness. This faithful woman, Hannah, she bears a son, and she had promised the Lord that she would dedicate the child to the Lord's service in the tabernacle in a place called Shiloh. That's where she had been praying when the Lord met her, and she had made that promise to the Lord. Hannah follows through with her promise.
Once the boy is weaned, she takes him to the tabernacle in Shiloh, and she gives him to the Lord. Specifically, she gives him to a chief priest named Eli. And every year, Hannah and her husband would go back to Shiloh to offer sacrifices to the Lord. And every year, she would get to see her son in the tabernacle, and she would bring him a gift. Hannah makes Samuel a robe.
In fact, the scripture refers to it as a little robe. She makes him a little priestly uniform to wear as he learns to work in the tabernacle. I can't help but think of, like, a little fireman's outfit, or a a little police uniform, and a little boy doing chores at the station. Eli, the chief priest, raises Samuel as a son. Eli, however, already has sons, and we read about them in 1st Samuel chapter 2.
And what we read is that these sons are worthless, not my words. But let's look together in chapter 2, beginning in verse 12. We'll read through verse 17. Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.
The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest servant would come while the meat was boiling with a 3 pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who is sacrificing, give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.' And if the man said to him, 'Let them burn the fat first and then take as much as you wish.' He would say, no. You must give it now.
And if not, I will take it by force.' Thus, the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt. These sons of Eli, who were born into the tribe of the priests, were worthless because of their wicked actions and because they did not know the Lord. They stole from the people coming to bring sacrifices and offerings to the Lord. They were perverting the worship of God by stealing, even stealing by force. So all that it was be being described there in verses 12 through 17, this taking the meat before the fat had burned, burning the fat was was part of the what was effective in their worship, as that fat would rise up to the Lord.
That was them taking their good meat before the Lord to be sacrificed, and these priests, these priest servants were stealing that, not just from the person who was there to worship, but they were essentially stealing it from the Lord himself. They were perverting the worship of God, and they were treating the offerings of the Lord with contempt. They would even say, if someone resisted, we will take it by force if we have to. And that wasn't all. Look at verse 22.
Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel and how they lay with women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting. And he said to them, why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people. No, my sons. It is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad.
If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him. But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death. The sons are stealing from the people of God, people who are there to worship, these faithful few. Think about that.
There there were so few people that were in Israel who were still going to worship Yahweh to be faithful to him, and those faithful few were being stolen from and their worship perverted. And if the sons of Eli dealt with the sacrifices in such a reckless manner, it seems that even worse, that their interactions with these women at the temple were also abhorrent and probably taken by such force. Eli pleads with his sons to stop this wickedness. He warns them that God will judge their sins. And in many ways, these sons represent the careless wickedness of Israel.
And one day, a man, we assume him to be a prophet of God, comes to visit Eli with a warning. The man, speaking on behalf of the Lord, says this, beginning in verse 28. The Lord says this, I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering for my people, Israel. So the lord is saying through this kind of anonymous, unnamed prophet, the Lord is saying to Eli, why are you honoring your sons above me?
He's holding Eli responsible for what those sons are doing in the temple. And the Lord continues to speak through this prophet in verse 31, saying, behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength, and the strength of your father's house, so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress, you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that I shall bestow on Israel. And there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out and to grieve his heart.
And all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men. And this that shall come upon your 2 sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you. Both of them shall die on the same day. The prophet warns Eli that judgment is coming to his house. This priestly line in the tribe of Levi, these people, this tribe is the family line who were entrusted to oversee the worship of the people of Israel.
The prophet is saying that judgment is coming. In particular, judgment over the 2 sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who will die on the same day. And their judgment, the judgment of God coming down on Hophni and Phinehas, will be a sign to Eli that God is following through with His promise of judgment in the house of Eli. God will purify his house of worship by removing all these men who are perverting it. There won't be an old man in the house.
These men will be struck down. Spoiler alert. It's actually gonna happen. We'll get there in a couple weeks, maybe next week. Who knows?
But it will come true. But what does this mean for little Samuel? Let's look together at first Samuel, now chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no frequent vision.
This reference here to Samuel being a boy indicates that he is still quite young. It likely puts him around 10, 11, 12 years old, a preteen in today's terms. Young Samuel lived quite literally inside the tabernacle, in the place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept. The Ark was a box that held the symbols and artifacts of God's holiness, his faithfulness, and his presence. The box was brought to battlefields, and armies would fall.
Men would touch this box and immediately be struck dead. If you've seen the end of Indiana Jones, people's faces melt off. But this was held in a place called the Holy of Holies. But for Samuel, it was his bedroom. Eli was getting old.
His eyesight was nearly gone. His job as chief priest was minimal as his sons were ransacking the house of worship. And the word of God, it says, was rare in those days. In other words, God wasn't speaking to Eli. It's hard to be a prophet without prophecies.
1 night, Samuel was asleep in his room, and Eli was asleep in his. It was before daybreak. It was still dark outside. And in the place where the ark was kept, there was an oil lamp that would burn all night long. And the scriptures say that the lamp was still burning, so the sun was not yet up.
And Samuel was laying asleep in the temple. In the stillness and the darkness of night, young Samuel heard a voice. And the voice calls out to him by name, Samuel. The boy jumps up, says, here I am, and he runs to Eli. He rushes to Eli's room and he says, here I am, for you called me.
Eli says, I did not call. Go lie down again. So the boy goes and he lays down. And the Lord calls out again, Samuel. And again Samuel jumps up, runs to Eli's room and says, 'Here I am, for you called me.' But Eli said again, 'I did not call my son.
Go back. Lie down. Scripture tells us that in 1st Samuel chapter 3 verse 7, that Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Now that's different than when it said a few, verses earlier that Eli's sons did not know the Lord. They did not know the Lord because they rejected the Lord.
But for Samuel, he did not yet know the Lord because the Lord had not yet given him his word. Not yet. But that's exactly what's happening now. So Samuel lays back down for a second time, and the Lord calls Samuel again. And Samuel once again goes to Eli and says, here I am, for you called me.
Now, if you've ever been awakened by a child, especially in the 4 to 5 AM range, early in the morning, the first time you were probably gracious and loving. Maybe if you're a great person, great parent, you were kind and gracious the second time. But by the third time, let's just say that you're definitely awake and probably not happy. But for Samuel, it was a good thing that Eli was now finally awake, because Eli was alert enough to perceive that something significant must be happening. Perhaps this is the Lord himself speaking to young Samuel.
So Eli says to Samuel, go lie down. And if he calls you again, you shall say, speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.' So Samuel goes back to his room and he lays down. And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, Samuel. Samuel. And little Samuel did what his mentor had advised.
He responded, speak, for your servant is listening. Look with me at verse 11. Then the Lord said to Samuel, behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day, I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end, And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew because his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them. Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.
After the Lord had spoken, Samuel laid down on his bed wide awake until morning came. And then Samuel got up and he got to work. He opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and he started doing his temple chores. And as you can imagine, the boy was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. He was afraid to share with his mentor, his foster dad, the news of judgment.
But Eli called to Samuel and said, Samuel, my son, what was it that the Lord told you? Do not hide it from me.' You see, Eli could perceive that the Lord had spoken something quite troubling to Samuel, and he knew that the boy was afraid to share it. And so Eli compelled the boy, saying, may God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me at all that he told you. And so Samuel told Eli everything. He hid nothing from him.
And upon hearing the vision, Eli said to Samuel, 'It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him.' After that, we're told that Samuel continued to grow up in the temple. In fact, the scripture says, the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground, which means the Lord was fortifying Samuel's words. None of Samuel's words were wasted. They didn't fall to the ground.
Samuel's words were established by the Lord, and they continued to give Samuel prophecies. And verse 20 says that all Israel from Dan to Baer Sheba, so that means all of Israel, knew that Samuel was established as a prophet for the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. So that rare word was coming back. The word of the Lord was returning to this place called Shiloh through the prophet Samuel.
God was going to restore holiness in Israel, and he was going to use Samuel to accomplish it. And that is the story of Samuel's calling. Now, there's a tendency in kind of our Western Christianity to read a story like this and immediately try to turn it into a blueprint for our own lives, as though this story exists for us chiefly as some model for understanding and discerning our own lives and our own calling. And it's helpful for us to see how common it is to read the Bible in this way. In fact, I think this method is so common in the church today in our culture that I think it's actually hard not to default into reading the Bible this way.
But it is a dangerous venture. Reading the Bible as though every story and scene is a simple blueprint for our own lives misses what the scriptures are actually saying. And for our text today, there's a tendency to take the calling of Samuel and draw it out as a blueprint for our own calling, specifically our vocational calling. Because wouldn't we all like a simple and precise formula for discerning God's call on our lives? I know that I would.
And it's because I want that, I can end up trying to bend this story into that kind of a blueprint. But if Samuel's calling is a blueprint for us to follow, most of us are in big trouble because Samuel's calling begins with the audible word from God. And maybe I'm the only one missing out on this, but I'd rager that most of us in this room have not received such a distinct audible calling. In many ways, the account of Samuel is an anti calling story, at least an anti calling story in how we commonly define calling today, which would be a clear, certain knowledge of what we are called by God to do with our lives. And look, I get it.
That's an important question for all of us to be wrestling with. It's an important thing for us to wrestle before the Lord about what our vocation is and how we should be living our lives. But our calling is more than just our job. So how is Samuel's calling different than our common ideas of calling? Well, yes, Samuel heard the audible voice of God, but the other elements of his story don't really align what we with what we might expect a model of calling to be like from the Bible.
Here are 3 surprising aspects of Samuel's calling. 1st, God does not say anything about Samuel's vocation. God doesn't say, I'm making you the next prophet of Israel. He doesn't say, I want you to take over for Eli and his wicked sons. He doesn't say anything about Samuel's role or his work in the future.
That's the first surprising thing about Samuel's calling. Nothing is said about the work of Samuel. 2nd, there isn't a reference to any of Samuel's gifts. His gifting, his skills, his ambition, none of that. God doesn't talk to Samuel about his greatest passions and the world's greatest needs.
He doesn't talk about what Samuel finds fulfilling in life or satisfying. None of that. In fact, if you think about it, Samuel's preferences haven't been a part of this story at all. How did he get to where he is, living in the tabernacle? His mom made a promise, and then he was dropped off.
He didn't have a say in that. And now he's a preteen living in the tabernacle, doing church chores every day. And then when young Samuel doesn't understand what's happening when he first hears the voice of the Lord, when he didn't know what to do, it's his teacher, his mentor, who tells him the next step. Samuel is receiving a prophecy from the Lord. And by receiving that prophecy, he becomes a prophet.
But there isn't any reference to any gifts or skills or ambition to become a prophet. That's the second surprising aspect of Samuel's calling. And 3rd, perhaps most importantly, God doesn't tell Samuel to go and do anything. The only thing that God calls Samuel to do is to behold. God says, behold, I am going to do something.
I am going to restore order and holiness in my house. Watch, Samuel. Watch what I'm going to do. The calling of Samuel was first and foremost a call to behold the work of God. And brothers and sisters, that is our calling, too.
Each one of us is called to behold the work of God. The renowned African American scholar and author Anne Streaty Wimberly once wrote these words, Christians bear a fundamental call to the vocation of listening. Let me say it again. Christians bear a fundamental call to the vocation of listening. She calls this listening a radical openness to God.
Some years ago, I started including Samuel's response to the Lord in the prayer beginning every sermon. I slightly modified the wording. I turned it into a plural. Without your explicit consent, I started including you. Your servants are listening.
And after all these years, I'd like to ask a rather bold question. Are you? Are you listening? Not listening like in a classroom or in a work meeting, listening to a colleague's PowerPoint presentation. I mean listening for God, ready to hear from him a radical openness to let whatever God has to say affect you, to change you, to challenge you, to comfort you, to affect your heart and your mind and the actions of your life.
You are called to the vocation of listening. That is your first calling, to behold. And more than anything else, you are first called to behold the greatness and graciousness of God in the gospel of Jesus Christ. The work of God to bring you back to himself through the cross of Jesus. And the good news of His resurrection is the guarantee that the work of God is sure and certain, every promise fulfilled in Jesus.
You are called and blessed to behold, and in that beholding to believe. Just like Samuel, you are called by god to behold the work of god. How do we know if we're doing this work? How do we know if we're living into our calling to behold the work of God? Well, I believe that beholding shows up in our lives.
Beholding bears fruit that we can see, the fruit of awe, the fruit of worship, the fruit of obedience. Beholding starts to show up in our day to day lives when we are in awe of the God who is at work within us, around us, through us, and even in spite of us. It shows up in our worship of the God who made us and rescued us and loves us. It shows up in our obedience to follow Christ and all that he commands of us, day by day, next step by next step. Our questions about our calling is important.
Like I said, your work, your jobs, the things that you do with your time, we should all wrestle before the Lord with our questions about our vocation. All those things matter. But we need to make sure that we don't focus so much on those questions of work that we miss beholding the work of God. Calling is the breadth of our lives lived under the guidance and the direction of God. It's the whole life surrendered to the will and work of God.
And in that surrender, the first call on our lives is to behold what God is doing. And in our beholding, we join with those who have gone before us and we join with the voices of the saints declaring together, I will remember the deeds of the Lord. Yes. I will remember our wonders of old. I will ponder all your work and meditate on your mighty deeds.
Your way, oh God, is holy. What god is great like our god? You are the god who works wonders. You have made known your might among the peoples, and with your arm, you have redeemed your people. Let's pray.
Oh, lord. Help us by your spirit to behold. Help us to see in our hearts the work that you have done, the work that you are doing, and the work that you have promised to do in the future through Christ our lord, would you bless us with the vision to behold, to take our eyes off of ourselves and to see what you are doing. And in fixing our eyes on Jesus, may the things of this earth grow strangely dim in the light of your glory and your grace, oh, lord. Lord, draw near to us in this time as we seek to respond in beholding you, Jesus.
We pray these things in your name. Amen.