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| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) *Song of Adoration: Hymnal #145C “I Will Extol You, O My God Song of Confession: Hymnal #51C: 1-3 “God, Be Merciful to Me” *Song of Preparation: Hymnal #291: 1-3 “O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing” Scripture & Text: I Samuel 3-4:1a Message: A New Prophet: Samuel’s Call Song of Response: Hymnal #175: 1-5 “Your Law, O God, Is Our Delight” *Doxology: Hymnal #570 “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow” |
Scripture Reading and Text: I Samuel 3-4:1a
Beloved Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ,
In his book, When Nations Die, Jim Nelson Black lists three aspects of decay: social decay, cultural decay, and moral decay. This was the case when great empires fall. He mentions three trends of moral decay and they seem to describe Israel well in the days of Eli the priest: a rise in immorality, the decay of religious belief, and the devaluing of human life. Though Israel was not an empire like the Roman Empire, whose army was the envy of the world, they were a people united together under land, history, worship, and the true God. But things were rotten spiritually.
Back in chapter 2 we saw the wickedness of Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phineas. Because of their sin and Eli’s failure to remove them from their positions, God is going to punish the family of Eli. They had corrupted the worship of Yahweh. They had turned the people’s hearts away from the Lord.
God will care for his people, but it won’t be through the line of Eli. God is going to raise up a faithful prophet to carry his word and will for the people. Our theme is Our Lord commissions Samuel as his new prophet.
I. The Call
II. The Message
III. The Recognition
I. The Call
Verse 1 functions as something of a prologue to this chapter. It opens by mentioning the boy Samuel. He had been contrasted with the sons of Eli in the previous chapter. They were wicked, worthless, selfish, and sexually immoral. Samuel was faithful, ministering before the Lord, and as verse 21 said, growing in the presence of the Lord. Also read verse 26. Now in verse 26 we read that Samuel is ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. The second half of verse 1 sets the stage for the call of Samuel. Read 1b.
No one was receiving messages from Yahweh. Yahweh was not speaking to Eli, there was no prophet in the land. In fact, no one in the Bible is called a prophet since Moses. We see God’s message as a blessing to his people. When God is silent, things are not going well usually. We see this in the days of Elijah. When Elijah, the prophet of God leaves Ahab’s presence and leaves Israel, the word of God goes with him and for 3 and a half years, God has nothing to say to Ahab. In our text, God had not been revealing himself.
So now the stage is set. Eli is old and had begun to go blind, both physically , and as we have seen spiritually. Verse 2 says that he would have been laying in his own place. But Samuel was laying down in the tabernacle, that is what verse 3 means when it mentions “temple.” It seems also that it was part of Samuel’s job to make sure the lampstand in the temple stayed burning all night, according to the law. When morning would come, it would be his task to open up the doors of the tabernacle (see vs. 15). He was the one who slept in the tabernacle, as verse 3 says, where the ark of God was.
As Samuel was laying down, he heard a voice call to him, “Samuel.” Thinking it was Eli, Samuel ran over to his adopted father Eli to see what he wanted. But it wasn’t Eli was had called out. Samuel went back to bed. It happened two more times, and again, it was Eli who was calling out to Samuel.
On the third call, Eli sensed that it might be Yahweh who was calling Samuel, as we see in verse 8. Read verse 9. A fourth time the Lord calls and Samuel responds, “Speak, for your servant hears.” Notice that it wasn’t Samuel in our text who called out for God. God came to Samuel to restore something that was broken. This is an important shift taking place in covenant history. God is calling a prophet and elevating the role of the prophet in Israel to the unique role of God’s messenger, instead of the priesthood. The priesthood will still play an important role in the worship of Israel, but now, with the call of Samuel, there is a new prophet in town.
II. The Message
Read verses 11-14. God is reiterating to Samuel the message he already told in part to Eli in the previous chapter. It isn’t a very encouraging message. In fact, in verse 11, the tingling of people’s ears refers to fear and dismay that will come upon the people.
This message is in the process of coming to fruition. In the next chapter, after Eli lives a bit longer and Sameul gets a bit older, his house would be punished. It wouldn’t be for another 130 years however until Eli’s line was completely done with the priesthood when Zadok takes the place of Abiathar.
After God speaks to Samuel, I am not sure if he fell back asleep that night. Think of what must have been swirling in his head. He had been spoken to by the Lord, something that doesn’t happen in those days. He was beginning a new role in Israel as we will see in our next point. Also, he was told a devastating message from God about someone he loved, Eli. Eli calls Samuel his son multiple times in our text. Nevertheless, our text just says he laid there until the morning when he opened back up the doors to the house of the Lord.
But, now we has to have a conversation with Eli. Verse 15 says he was afraid to tell Eli what God had told him. Eli warns Samuel that he will be cursed if he does not tell him all that God had told him. Verse 18 says that Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. What could Eli respond with but, “It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him.”
Samuel was coming with a prophetic message. It was to be received for information….there was no arguing against it. In this we see the role of the prophet. He was the Lord’s messenger.
What Samuel learned in his first prophetic message was that the message isn’t always very comfortable to bring. This is why he was afraid. There is responsibility and trial in bringing the message. In the New Testament prophetic office of minister, this is often the case. The minister realizes the weightiness of the message. II Timothy 4:3 is a warning not to preach to itching ears. Don’t coax a message simply so that everyone will like it. There is a weightiness to preaching and the minister knows this most clearly and it weighs on him. There is a nervousness that often comes to the pulpit with the preacher. All of the questions in his own mind about his sermon, how will people receive it, what if people get offended by it or maybe they should.
I had a pretty good scare a few years back as I was standing in the foyer greeting people before morning worship. I saw something of a small entourage of men entering the building and then I saw the equivalent of the governor walk up to the church, the premier of Ontario. All of a sudden I am thinking about my sermon and what is in it. Am I supposed to show special honor to the governor, do I welcome him by name? They didn’t teach me anything about this in seminary.
What Samuel and each of the prophets had to learn is that they are God’s messengers. Sometimes the message is going to ruffle some feathers. Sometimes extreme boldness is called for and at other times a pastoral gentleness is called for.
Eli wanted to hear the message from Samuel, as difficult as it may be. But not everyone wants to hear the message of the prophet. Ahab will end up calling Elijah the troubler of Israel because of the messages he was bringing. Sometimes there isn’t a real longing for the word. Dale Ralph Davis says, “Starvation may not come from absence of food, but from a lack of appetite.”
Andrew Bonar, the 19th century Scottish pastor tells the story of a Grecian painter who painted a remarkable picture of a boy carrying a basket full of grapes on his head. The grapes were painted so realistically that when the painting was put up in the Forum, birds would come to the painting and try to eat the grapes. When his friends praised him for his painting he was not satisfied. He said, “I should have done a great deal more. I should have painted the boy so true to life that the birds would not have dared come near.” That is, he should have made it both attractive and repelling.
The same tension is present in the preaching. The preacher must preach with clarity and boldness, both to comfort and rebuke. Davis again explains that sometimes the minister must, “afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted.” But praise God that he still speaks to us.
III. The Recognition
In verses 19-21, it is clear that Samuel is now the prophet of the Lord. The young Samuel was going to be used by the Lord. For all the fear and trepidation that must have come with such an important role in the life of God’s people, our text gives the best news. “The LORD was with him.” Those loyal to Hophni and Phineas might have hated him, he might have had to bring a difficult message at times. But, the Lord was with him.
He showed himself to be a true prophet in that all he said came to pass as was stipulated in Deuteronomy 18:15-22. Verse 19 says that none of his words fell to the ground.
Not only that, but Samuel was recognized as a prophet. From Dan to Beersheba, the northern most and southern most towns, 150 miles apart, from here to Indy, recognized that he was the prophet of the Lord. This would be his office. It wasn’t merely the case the he would receive God’s message from time to time. Verse 20 says that he was established as the prophet of the Lord.
This is good news. The Lord was once again speaking to the people. Remember the greater theme of preparing the way for the king, looking unto David, but looking unto the son of David even more.
Samuel was a prophet, but he is not the fulfillment of the prophet like Moses. That prophecy would be fulfilled in none other than the very prophetic word made flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ.
God still speaks to his people through the Lord Jesus Christ in the scriptures and in the preaching of the word. The Old Testament prophet could say, thus says the Lord. The faithful Christian minister can say the same when he is faithful in his calling. When he calls people to faith in Jesus Christ, let him point to justification by faith alone. When he points to Jesus who invited sinners to come to him and find rest, let the minister never put up an obstacle in front of the gospel. There is nothing you have to accomplish to be saved. Salvation is free. His grace is sufficient.
Note the greater work taking place in our text. God is restoring a broken relationship. He is restoring worship. Verse 21 makes it clear that a new chapter has begun. God is again speaking to his people at Shiloh. This wasn’t a one time revelation of God. God came down to Samuel to give him his word and God comes down to us. We can continue the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, “by the word of the Lord.”
The word of Samuel came to all Israel it says in 4:1. We know our Lord came to his own and his own, the Israelites 1,100 years later rejected him. We will have to see if the people of Israel heed the words of the prophet.
Today, God does not speak to us in the way he spoke to Samuel. The will of God is complete and we have the entirety of the scriptures. Don’t listen for the voice of God to speak to you in your time of meditation or solitude. If you want God to speak to you today, open your Bible. He works by the Spirit through the word to speak to us. Heed his word.
The message God has for us might not always be the one we want to hear at any particular moment, but we can be assured it is the word we need to hear. For, it is through the prophetic word preached today that we can hear the voice of the good shepherd…the prophet greater than Samuel and Moses. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Steven Swets, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2024, Rev. Steven Swets
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