1 Samuel 3:1-10
1 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.
2 One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God.
4 Suddenly the Lord called out, “Samuel!”
“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” 5 He got up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”
“I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go back to bed.” So he did.
6 Then the Lord called out again, “Samuel!”
Again Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”
“I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go back to bed.”
7 Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. 8 So the Lord called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”
Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. 9 So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.
10 And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”
And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”
One of the truths that I have discovered in my years as a Christian is that there is really never a shortage of God speaking, just a shortage of me hearing. As this story unfolds, we see an elderly priest whose ability to hear God’s voice has been compromised by His years of ignoring it. You see Eli’s sons were doing evil in the temple of God, and Eli overlooked it because they were his sons. God decided to go to Samuel and use him to get the message across to Eli.
Learning to recognize the voice of God is a process. We see Samuel beginning that process in this story. Losing the ability to hear God’s voice is also a process and we see the end result of that process in the life of Eli. Destruction comes to both the High Priest and his family.
Which process are you heading towards today? Are you ignoring the voice of God and thus slowly losing your ability to hear? Or are you eagerly jumping at the chance to hear God’s voice like the young prophet Samuel and saying “speak Lord, your servant is listening.”