God calls us to repentance and faith, and some to particular lives of ministry for his people. While we may not receive a vision or hear a voice, the call changes our lives as we experience God’s goodness and the call to proclaim Christ until his return.
God’s call to Samuel signals the beginning of his service as God’s prophet to Israel. In God’s call to Samuel, we see God’s goodness and patience demonstrated, the reality of the message from God, and the effect of God’s Word on his life. While we may not hear God speaking audibly to us today, God’s Word still has those effects on us too.
Some time after the man of God spoke to Eli announcing judgement on his house for his and his son’s unfaithfulness to God’s Law, Samuel was ministering in the Temple under the watch of Eli (v.1). We do not know what age Samuel was, but he could have been anything from a schoolboy to his teenage years.
What we do know is that in those days “the word of the LORD was rare… there was no frequent vision” (v.1). Possibly because of Israel’s sinfulness (see Judges), God had largely withdrawn from communicating with Israel. They were stumbling around in the spiritual darkness they desired.
In the same way, Eli’s eyesight was faint with age, and it was before dawn (when “the lamp of God had not yet gone out”) in the Temple, as both Eli and Samuel slept (vv.2-3). At that point, God demonstrated his goodness and patience.
God called to Samuel, who hearing an audible voice and not recognising it, assumed it was Eli needing help and ran to assist, only to be sent away since it was not Eli who called (vv.4-5). This repeated three times.
As verse seven tells us, Samuel did not yet know that it was God himself calling out to him, to declare God’s Word (v.7). While he was not an unbeliever, he did not have an intimate relationship with God.
There is no hint of impatience here, like mine when I repeat myself to my kids. God is good and patient, and recognised that Samuel was trying to be obedient, but he did not know who was calling him!
Eli realised something was up, and told Samuel to respond to God, not him (vv.8-9). Finally, when God came and appeared again, Samuel answered God’s call (v.10).
While Samuel enjoyed the privilege of an intimate relationship with God, it came with a price. That price was the reality of the message God gave Samuel.
It was an ear tingling message (v.11). God declared that the words announced against Eli’s house would be fulfilled, “because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them” (vv.11-14).
Unfortunately, Samuel was called by God to deliver God’s Word, whether good or bad. He could not skim over the tough parts to focus on the positive.
Samuel lay until morning, no doubt both excited and unsettled by his encounter with God and afraid of how Eli would take the message (v.15). But Eli called Samuel and insisted that he announce the whole counsel of God’s Word, and not hide it for himself (vv.16-17).
Based on how Eli spoke in warning Samuel, I suspect he knew what was coming. Samuel told Eli, hiding “nothing from him” (v.18). Eli acknowledged God’s judgement, recognising its reality and certainty (v.18).
God’s call of Samuel did not leave him unchanged, but affected his life. As Samuel grew, God continued to speak through him and empowered his words as prophet, so that all of Israel came to recognise that God spoke through him (vv.19-20).
Further, God again visited in his special presence the Temple where Samuel served, recognising that he was about to work mightily, in part through Samuel his servant, to serve and deliver Israel (v.21).
While we may not hear God calling us audibly today, we do see in God’s call of Samuel the patience and kindness of God extended to us. God is not a strict Sergeant Major expecting instant obedience, but is patient in his love for us and his call is to repent and obey. If he were not, we would already feel God’s wrath.
However, God’s patience does not mean he does not care about sin. Like Samuel, those who must announce God’s Word must announce the full counsel of the reality of our nature, not the nice parts. We cannot slide over or minimise the need to repent from sin or face God’s judgement. Tempting as it is to enjoy the world’s favour, it will put us offside with God.
But if we faithfully announce the truth, we can be sure that God’s Word will not return empty from our lips. We will enjoy God’s grace and favour in our lives, as his Word renews and sustains us, encourages us to rest in Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, and makes us more like Jesus until God calls us to his side.
