“In those days the word of the Lord was rare” (v. Now, the Lord used Samuel to reveal Himself once again to Israel. Samuel had a cot just inside the tabernacle-remember, the movable tent-temple for Israel before the permanent stone temple was built-where he guarded the entrance to God’s house. His job description was very similar to the job description of a vicar! Perhaps Samuel fetched oil for the lamps, drew water to wash the sacrifices, helped Eli put on his robes.
Likely a teenager by this time, his work seemed to include leading nearly blind Eli from place-to-place in the temple and assisting Eli with any number of priestly duties. Samuel – uncorrupted by-and in startling contrast to-Eli’s sons, served well at God’s house. They took, sometimes by force, portions of meat brought to be sacrificed to God! They even slept with women who came to the tabernacle! Imagine what that must felt like some of you mothers know!īut are you as familiar with the sons of the high priest Eli? Those young men regarded God’s house and its regulations as things to be used for their own good pleasure. When Hannah was no longer nursing Samuel, she took the little boy to the house of God for year-round service to the Lord. God blessed Hannah and her husband Elkanah with a child, a boy, who was given the meaningful name “Samuel”, a Hebrew phrase for “Heard by God”. Childless Hannah prayed fervently to God for a child, promising that if He granted her a son, the boy would serve God all his days. With this Bible lesson, well-known and dearly-loved by both children and adults, the Spirit leads us children of God to say with Samuel, “ Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening! We listen as You reveal Yourself and as You call Your people.”Ī smug attitude toward God and His Word had infected Israel at Samuel’s time. But that doesn’t change the truth that Samuel was willing to listen to the Lord and hear here so will we. Hearing and applying what God told Samuel wasn’t all that comfortable for him nor is it for us. The difficulty here is doing what the lesson tells us, believing the truth which God teaches us, hearing and applying what this section of Scripture says to us. What’s difficult in connection with this lesson is the same difficulty we sinners face as we read every page of God’s Word. What lesson for us and application to us is there here than, “Hear what God has to say!”? I realize that you’ve never taken a sermon-writing class in your life, and yet I’m sure most of you quickly identified that as the main point when this lesson was read earlier! Usually, that takes a ton of time and thought and editing.īut with this text that task was easy. That theme needs to attract the attention of you – the members of Messiah, be applicable to lives today, and-most important-be absolutely faithful to the lesson on which is being preached.
Most every week, this week excluded, the most difficult sermon task is crafting one statement for the sermon theme.
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