1 Samuel 3:9

1 Samuel 3:9

Samuel was called to be a prophet of God in a great crisis of Jewish history. His appearance was quieter and less dramatic than those of Moses and Elijah, but it was almost as momentous. The epoch was one of those which determine the character and destiny of nations. One great act in the drama of Jewish history was closing, another was opening. Two great revolutions were effected: the one political, the other religious.

Samuel was clearly one of those men of manifold gifts and functions whom God raises up in great crises and for great services. His entire course and character were probably determined by the spirit in which he responded to God's first call, and discharged the arduous service to which he was called.

Notice:

I. Life is full of voices of God, only we lack the spiritual faculty which discerns them. (1) When we think of God's voice we probably think first and most spontaneously of God's revelation of His will in the Bible. (2) There are again voices of God's providence, which, if we have docile hearts, we shall not fail to recognise. (3) The instincts and yearnings of our own spiritual nature are an unmistakeable voice of God. (4) And to this religious nature God speaks by the motions and monitions of His Holy Spirit; awakening solicitudes, exciting desires, touching impulses. (5) In moments of intellectual perplexity, amid the tempest and earthquake of intellectual strife, the still small voice of the religious soul is heard God's voice within us. (6) In quieter and more thoughtful moods of life we hear the voice of God. (7) God has voices that reach us in crowds; distinct, perhaps loud, above every din of business or clamour of strife or song of revelry. (8) In moments of temptation, even, God's voice finds a tongue in some lingering power of conscience, in some sensitive remnants of virtue, in some angel memories of a pious home and an innocent heart. (9) In times of sorrow God's voice comes to us; summoning us to faith in His will, His purpose, and His presence, and to patience and acquiescence in the sacrifice demanded of us. (10) Most terrible of all is it when the first voice of God that we seriously listen to is a sentence of doom. (11) Again, at what unlikely times and in what unlikely places God may speak to us. (12) To what unlikely persons God's call comes.

II. How then do we respond to God's call? Is not Samuel's answer, "Speak, Lord; Thy servant heareth," in its childlike simplicity, faith and submissiveness, a most beautiful and perfect type of what our answer should be? Even the maturest and most saintly cannot transcend this response of the temple-child.

III. One more lesson we may learn, viz. the religious importance of the passive or receptive side of our spiritual life. This is the conclusion of the whole matter that in the activities of our zeal we do not forget its inspirations in God. The more entire our spirit of dependence, the more effective the work we do.

H. Allon, The Vision of God,p. 257.

The life of Samuel was great, regarding him as the instrument which God chose for changing the civil polity of His chosen people. To Samuel was intrusted the inauguration of the kingdom of Israel. He also stands at the head of the great succession of prophets whom God sent to His people.

I. Notice, first, that this great character comes before us in connection with the dedication of the child by his parents. If great men avail themselves of the tendencies of their day, and do raise their own and help forward the generation that follows; if God is educating humanity, leading it, bringing it to Himself; may we not be keeping back the true progress of our race by accepting these immortal instruments from Him, but failing to give them back to Him, to work His will as long as He may require them?

II. His call to God's service. The Bible is full of the history of the calls of God. The mode of the call has been various, and the manner in which the call has been received has been various also. We are all taught to expect to be called by God. None are too poor, too humble, too little gifted; all are to be fellow-workers with Him.

III. Notice the message which Samuel was called upon to deliver. It required him to announce to the aged Eli, the friend and protector of his youth, the destruction of his family before God. The delivery of this message clearly implied courage. There is an element of reproof contained in all messages of the truth, in whatever line of life they are delivered. In all great lives there is an element of reproof, and also of singularity and loneliness, from which men naturally shrink, and which they require real courage to maintain. Each man has a work to do which is his own and not another's. From One only he need never feel alone; from Him who called him to the work he has to do, and with whom and in whom the life's work should be done.

Bishop King, Oxford and Cambridge Undergraduates' Journal,Oct. 23rd, 1879.

God speaks to us in many different ways and in many different tones. (1) He speaks to us by the works of nature. (2) He speaks to us by the dispensations of His providence. (3) He speaks to us by the voice of conscience. (4) He speaks to us by the words of the Bible and the teaching of His holy Church. (5) He speaks to us at the hour of death.

J. Wilmot-Buxton, Literary Churchman Sermons,p. 89.

I. Samuel was happy in his start in life. He was blessed with pious parents, who, even from his birth, devoted him to God's service.

II. Samuel had early learned to obey: his habits of obedience won him the favour of Eli; yea, more, they won him the favour of the Lord Himself.

III. In Samuel's answer to God's call we see: (1) obedience; (2) perseverance; (3) patience.

IV. God speaks to children: (1) by His works; (2) by means of His holy word. If we wish to learn we must present to the Lord a teachable spirit.

G. Litting, Thirty Sermons for Children,p. 127.

References: 1 Samuel 3:9. F. D. Maurice, Sermons,vol. vi., p. 163; Bishop Walsham How, Plain Words to Children,p. 96; Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. x., No. 586; Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xx., p. 335.