If I asked: who said, “Speak Lord, for Thy Servant Heareth,” 98% of Christians would answer incorrectly. Not only would most not know that statement came from this chapter… Even those who did, would say that those were the words of Samuel. But the correct answer would be Eli the priest. Samuel’s statement was slightly different, as we shall see in a few minutes. I only mention that because I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce this message. Now, I hope I have your attention for a few minutes.
Eli and Samuel illustrate a lesson which all of God’s people need to learn. “Speak Lord, for Thy Servant Heareth.” Most of us are not ready to listen to God. Few of us came to this service with that prayer filling our hearts. “Speak Lord, for Thy Servant Heareth,” You could say that the Christian life is summarized with the words: “serving,” “HEARING” and “sharing.” We need to learn the proper relationship between these things, because the emphasis of one over the others create problems, if not sins.
We start with the word “SERVING.”
Eli, was the high priest of God. He was a very special servant of the Lord – unique among God’s people. He oversaw all the other priests and the offerings of the people. It was to Eli that Hannah exposed her yearning heart for a baby. And later, it was to God, through Eli, that Hannah gave her young son to be raised in the things of the Lord. I will assume that Eli was a capable priest – not a great priest – not an outstanding servant of God.
The problem was that Eli didn’t know Jehovah as well as he should have. In many ways he was a disgrace to the high priestly robes. He wasn’t a good listener. There was no open vision, “and the word of the Lord was precious in those days.” Of course, the word of God is always precious; it is the most valuable book in any library. But “precious” in this case means that the word of the Lord was rarely heard. It was precious because it was rare. But WHY was it rare?
If the Word of the Lord was not heard around here – Calvary Baptist Church – whose fault would that be? Ultimately that would be my fault as Christ’s undershepherd – God’s representative before this church. Certainly, if I was not sharing with you the word of the Lord, you would have the responsibility of firing me and finding a more faithful pastor. You’d have that responsibility. But until that was done, the lack of Bible instruction would be on my shoulders. And similarly, could Eli be charged with absence of God’s Word in the religious life of Israel? Perhaps not. But I’m going to, at the very least, make that application. Why hadn’t the Lord been speaking to Israel? Wasn’t it because there was no one saying “Speak Lord, for Thy Servant Heareth?” That should be our most common prayers.
Oh, but Eli had an excellent excuse – his wife might say. He was blind and she’d probably say he was deaf. Eli was 98 years old when he died, so obviously he had some physical limitations – perhaps many. But his neglect began much earlier than Samuel chapter 3. According to custom he had been in the ministry for 68 years. But over the years his service had deteriorated. I don’t want to falsely accuse him, but at the very least he could illustrate a man serving God in the flesh. He was going through the motions without much spiritual emotion. And in application – he was not doing a good job, because he was not filled with the Word, not filled with the Spirit of God or even filled with the gravity of his responsibilities.
And at the peak of his failure, he wasn’t sharing the things of God very well, as we see with this two sons. I Samuel 2:12 – “Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord.” Verse 17 – “Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord; for men abhorred the offering of the Lord,” because of them.
That is certainly one lesson in this chapter, but I am more interested with Samuel. “The child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli.” Most commentators put this young man at about twelve-years-of-age, but we can’t be sure. The context tells us that Samuel opened the doors of the temple, or more exactly, he pulled back the curtains of tabernacle in the morning. He may have tended to the exterior lights, which were not under the responsibility of the priests. He may have dusted and cleaned around the tabernacle or in the tent of the high priest. He may have had musical duties and other things which were not directly given to the family of Levi. He “ministered unto the Lord before Eli,” probably in the sense that he did what Eli told him to do. And the context suggests that the young man was Eli’s personal servant. He served the Lord by serving the servant of the Lord.
But was his service any more godly or spiritual than his teacher? Verse 7 – “Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.” Together, these two people force me to ask myself, “Am I serving the Lord according to God’s revelation?” Do I know the Lord well enough to really be useful to Him? Am I merely going through the motions of service; am I really preaching the precious vision of God? Am I puttering around the tabernacle, or am I producing a quality spiritual product? Am I encouraging the people to joyful bring their offerings to the house of God – or am I discouraging? Neither aged Eli or youthful Samuel were serving God well.
And speaking of Samuel, I have heard Christian people complain when children attempt to serve. I have heard criticism, when Sunday School teachers have asked their children to sing a chorus, quote some scriptures or do other simple things in a church worship service. “Those children don’t know the Lord; they shouldn’t serve.” What about unsaved children reading the Bible, or read devotional materials, to their families? There may be arguments that, as lost people, they are unfit to serve the Lord, but I am convinced that the Holy Spirit may speak to those children through their service. I am not in a position to say that Samuel was or was not a child of God at this point. But the Bible does clearly say, “Samuel did not yet know the Lord.” To that I would paraphrase a statement made by Moses, “Would God that anyone who was willing to serve the Lord was given simple tasks to carry out in God’s name.”
My question – as unanswerable as it might be – is this: Would God have spoken to Samuel, if he didn’t have a willing heart and hands that were already busy in their limited way? If Samuel was not already serving Christ would he ever have been given more responsibility? What was it that began to made Samuel into the first of God’s great Old Testament prophets? Isn’t that he was taught to serve, even in his childish ways, and he was taught to listen?
Eli may have been well into his 90’s by this time. He was old, and he was essentially blind – chapter 4:15. It was Samuel’s job to take care of this elderly man. He may have had a bed in the second room of Eli’s tent, or he may have had his own little tent nearby. But when Eli called for him, it was Samuel’s job to jump to his feet and rush in to help. Remember the high priest was losing his sight, and at night it would be particularly bad. Samuel was his crutch.
Verse 4 – “The Lord called Samuel… and he ran unto Eli, and said, Here am I…” “And the Lord called yet again… and Samuel arose and went to Eli…” “And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went Eli…” He RAN to Eli the first time; the second time he was a little slower, and the third time probably even slower. But the point is, the young man was trying to fulfil his duties.
Christians sometime wonder why God doesn’t give them special tasks to perform. “Why doesn’t the Lord call me to preach His word? Why can’t I have a Sunday School class?” “Oh, how I wish that I could sing like that woman, or play horn like Marcellis.” “Why is my body so weak that I can’t be out there on the front lines, fighting for the Lord?” Often it is because they are not carrying out the common tasks which He gives to all of us. Samuel was in a position to take on more important responsibilities, because he was faithful to what he had.
And with a little instruction, he was ready to HEAR what the Lord had to say.
Both Eli and Samuel may have been getting just a little frustrated, being awakened three times in the middle of the night. But by the third summons, Eli began to wonder if it wasn’t the Holy Spirit speaking. So he told the young man, “Go, lie down; and it shall be, if he call thee, that thou shalt say, Speak LORD; for thy servant heareth.”
Why didn’t the Lord speak directly to Eli, since the message was about him and his family? I believe it was because Eli wasn’t even trying to hear the Lord. He had “no ears to hear.” If someone doesn’t want to hear God, He isn’t going to continue to speak. Perhaps fifty years earlier, the high priest did have his ears tuned and his eyes turned toward heaven. But his spiritual life had fallen into shambles. In chapter 2 God raised up a man with a message – the third prophet of which we read in the Bible. The Lord sent a man of God to say to Eli, “Them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be light esteemed. Behold the days come that I will cut off thine arm, Eli. Thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, in one day they shall die both of them. And I will raise up a faithful; priest, that shall do according to that which is in mine heart…”
What had Eli done with that information? Essentially nothing. He continued to let his wicked sons lead the religious services of the house of Israel. He turned a deaf ear to the words of God, so the Lord turned to another person to reiterate the judgment that was coming.
Eli said to Samuel, the next time you hear your name say, “Speak LORD; for thy servant heareth.” Then both Eli and Samuel went back to their beds. “And the Lord CAME, and STOOD…” It appears that the pre-incarnate Christ actually entered Samuel’s sleeping quarters. “And the Lord came, and stood and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel.” I picture the Lord using a voice as sweet as if he had been Hannah asking her son to wake up. “Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.” “Speak, whoever you are. I am listening. Like a servant I am ready to obey.”
Remember that question with which we began: Who said, “Speak LORD; for thy servant heareth?” Those were the words of Eli. When Samuel answered, he left out the name of the LORD. There may be nothing important about that. It may have been just an oversight on the boy’s part. But on the other hand, the superstitious idea that the name Jehovah is too holy may have been growing. On the other hand, I have a desire to give Samuel some credit for a bit of youthful wisdom. Maybe he didn’t want to commit himself to someone who may not have been the LORD God. “Whoever you are, if you are not Jehovah God, I refuse to acknowledge you as my God. But if you are the Lord, I am not only listening, I’m ready to obey.”
In the omission of the Lord’s name, there may be is an important lesson. Every Christian – every servant of God – needs to tune his ear to hear the voice of God. But there are so many voices out there today; we need to make sure we are listening to Jehovah. As the Lord Jesus has told us, there will be more and more false prophets in the last days. There will be mega-church pastors; television evangelists; religious bloggists, and city-wide campaignists, sharing their version of religious blessings and potential judgments. But we need discernment; we need the truth. So when Kenneth Copeland, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer or Paula White open their mouths, saying stupid things and things contrary to the revealed word of God, we need to turn them off and ask the question: “Is that you Lord? If it is I am listening.” When someone says, “I have a new revelation about the future,” we need to remember God’s written declaration is sufficient. When someone says that the Bible isn’t true, we should know that person is a liar and hell-bound fraud.
While saying that, let me appear to contradict myself – God does have other ways to speak to us. For example, early in his book, Isaiah said: “For the LORD SPAKE thus to me with a STRONG HAND.” The Lord spoke with His hand? He spoke “with a strong hand, and instructed me that I should not walk in the way of this people…” When we have a heart that willingly says, “Speak LORD; for thy servant heareth,” we may hear this voice in His hand of circumstance and providence. His hand may be held up saying, “Stop right there. Don’t take another step.” Some of you have been kept from certain sins, not just because the Bible condemned them, but because the hand of the Lord held you back. The Lord can speak very loudly through His chastening hand. “Eli, I told you to control your sons and restore Israel’s love for my worship.” Sadly, that man was blind; he could neither see God’s hand nor hear His voice. So, as God declared, He raised up a “faithful priest that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind…”
History abounds with positive stories of the leading hand of God. His hand may beckon us, telling us to come this way; follow my leadership. Some of you are members of this church because His hand stopped you from going one direction and invited you to come this way. There have been Christians who wanted to serve the Lord in foreign countries, but whose health wouldn’t permit it, so they served successfully here.
And to put it another way, people have heard the voice of the Lord, not with the ear, but with their hearts. There have been many pastors who have moved from one ministry to another, because they heard the voice of the Lord internally. There were no scriptures which say, “Go west, young man.” That was newspaper man Horace Greeley. But even without scriptures to direct, the Lord can lay His hand on a man’s heart to go, or to do certain things, for the glory of God.
The third thing I’d like to point out from this scripture is found in the word “SHARING.”
When Samuel declared that he was listening, the Lord said, “Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that heareth it shall tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever.”
Samuel lay in bed the rest of the night, probably without falling asleep again, then at dawn he started his duties. He may have had every intention of informing his boss, but we are told he “feared to show Eli the vision.” Should a mere youth take such a message of rebuke to an aged servant of God? But that raises the question: Wasn’t he given the vision for the purpose of sharing it? Samuel may have been a little timid to obey immediately, but obey he did. “Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him.”
If I might put it this way, these two things became Samuel’s motto; they became the summary of his life. He listened to the Lord and he shared what God told him. That made him the first of God’s great prophets. Even in his youth, Samuel had an ear to hear. He often said, “Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.” “And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD. And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD.”
Conclusion:
The difference between Eli and Samuel, can be seen in all three areas – their serving, hearing and sharing. The service of God ought always to be good, but it can become quite evil. We can let our service come between us and Lord. It can become so noisy that we can’t hear His voice. If our service isn’t in accord with the revealed voice of God, then it will not be God-honoring service. Even though he gave good advice, Eli was a servant who would not listen. And his sons sank further and further into disaster and eventually destruction.
Samuel, however, was instructed to listen, and he dedicated his heart and his ears to that responsibility. We show God that we neither love nor respect Him by the obtuseness of our hearts toward what He says. If I love my friend, I listen to Him and respond appropriately. If I love the Lord, then I will listen to His voice and watch the movement of His hands. Even my heart will reverberate to the sound of His very still small voice. Jesus said, “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you” – John 15:14.
How many of the Lord’s written words, spoken words and whispered words have we disobeyed this week? We need to wake up every morning with the desire, “Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth.”