How to Answer the Phone
Twelve year olds don't come pre-wired with phone etiquette. When we finally got our son a phone last year, we quickly realized we needed to help him understand how to answer a phone and how to talk on it. He would pick up the phone but never say 'hello.' It never dawned on him that it was his responsibility to initiate conversation by saying "hello." It was rather comical to hear him and his friends talk on the phone, they never said hello, never said goodbye, it was the most awkward conversation I had ever heard.
My mind flashed back to my parents coaching me on answering our phone when I was a kid. We were blessed with the antiquated gift of having a house phone actually wired to the wall in a certain room and I can still remember my mom drilling into me that if I answered the phone, I needed to answer it with the following words, "Tankersley residence..." She had to teach me how to properly answer the phone when someone was calling.
But I wonder how well do we do when God calls us? How well are we at receiving His phone call? Is it awkward? Do we sound like a twelve year old whose never talked on the phone before? In 1 Samuel 3, Eli has to teach young Samuel how to answer God's voice and maybe we can learn a thing or two from his coaching as well.
Highlight:
'The boy Samuel served the Lord in Eli’s presence. In those days the word of the Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread. One day Eli, whose eyesight was failing, was lying in his usual place. Before the lamp of God had gone out, Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord , where the ark of God was located. Then the Lord called Samuel, and he answered, “Here I am.” He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “I didn’t call,” Eli replied. “Go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. Once again the Lord called, “Samuel!” Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “I didn’t call, my son,” he replied. “Go back and lie down.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord , because the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Once again, for the third time, the Lord called Samuel. He got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli understood that the Lord was calling the boy. He told Samuel, “Go and lie down. If he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord , for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came, stood there, and called as before, “Samuel, Samuel!” Samuel responded, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” ' 1 Samuel 3:1-10
Explain:
After having been given the son for which she had so desperately prayed, Hannah has now given her son, Samuel, to the Lord. This was to fulfill the vow she made in her prayer to give the son back to the Lord’s service, if he would indeed grant her a son. Now the young boy is living in the Temple in the service of God under Eli, the High Priest, who is getting older and losing his eyesight. One night the young boy hears a voice speak his name. The boy thinks it’s Eli so he runs to the priest and inquires as to his wishes. When Eli tells him that he didn’t call for Samuel, the boy returns to his room only to hear the voice again. Again, he returns to Eli to find out what the High Priest needs, but again Eli tells him to return to bed as he hadn’t called for him. A third time the boy hears the voice and this time when he comes to Eli, Eli is ready for him. He tells Samuel, the next time the voice calls for you, say ’Speak Lord for your servant is listening.’ Eli now understands that God is calling to Samuel to speak to Him. Eli recognizes this and teaches him how to respond to God’s calling to him.
The next time God calls for Samuel, he is ready and says ’Speak, for your servant is listening.’ The message that God gives Samuel is not an easy one to hear. He plans to bring judgment on Eli and his whole family for the grave sins of Eli’s sons. We learn in chapter 2 of Samuel of their corruption of the Lord’s sacrifice by stealing the meat from he people who have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Eli is complicit with their corruption by ignoring it or at least refusing to address it. As a result, God means to bring destruction on Eli and his house.
The next morning, the real test comes when Eli demands that Samuel tell him what the Lord has said tot he boy the night before. Naturally, Samuel is quite hesitant to tell Eli the bad news but at the High Priest’s insistence relents and shares the news God had given him. Eli takes the news rather well considering and Samuel is on his way to becoming the voice of God to the people of God.
Apply:
How can we apply this story to our lives? There are several things of particular note that we should consider.
God speaks to a boy. Often times in our lives we forget that God can speak to and through children. God chose to use this boy Samuel to speak a word of judgment on Eli’s family. That’s a pretty hefty task to lay upon a boy, but God is nonetheless at work in the boy’s life. Often times we think that God has to wait until we are older to use us, but we must remember that God can and will use even children to speak His word.
With this in view, it is even more important that we teach our children to listen to God. Samuel did not intuitively know how to hear God’s voice, he had to be trained in how to receive God’s words. He had to learn how to hear God’s voice. Eli did him a great service in teaching him this. It is our responsibility as parents to teach our children how to hear God’s voice today. In fact, I would go so far as to say it is the most important thing we can teach them. As David Platt said, ‘As dads if we would rather teach our kids how to swing a bat or a club rather than teach them the Bible we have missed the whole point. If we are mom’s who would rather teach their daughters how to dress and put on makeup than to teach them how to have the character of Christ we are missing the whole point.’ The highest calling of God in a person’s life is to teach their children how to listen and receive God’s voice through His word. As parents we must ask ourselves, “Am I doing that? And how well am I doing that?"
I think it's also important to understand what is conveyed in saying, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.' He desires to hear the Lord. When we come to the word of God, are we desirous of hearing from Him or are we more interested in checking off the box that we read today? We have to take the time to remember who it is that is speaking to us. This is "the LORD" the God of Israel. Maybe we would slow down to really process what is happening and pay more attention, If we would take the time to remember who it is that is speaking to us. Finally we must listen with an intent to obey what we hear. He says, "Speak, Lord, for Your SERVANT is listening." He is pre-disposed to obeying what He hears by calling Himself the Lord's servant. Meaning, I'm listening so that I can obey. This is the point of meditation. We learned from Joshua that we are to meditate on the Lord's instruction so that we may carefully observe everything written in it. (Joshua 1:8). Praying this prayer means that we are anxious to hear from God so that we can obey what He says.
God’s voice is heard through God’s word. We learn at the beginning of the chapter that God’s voice was rare and not widespread at that time. God was not heard readily in that period. But today, we have the revealed word of God though His word at our fingertips at all times. We don’t have to wait for a vision from the Lord, we have His revealed word before us every morning. It is even more grievous for us to have His word and refuse to open it, refuse to read it because it isn’t convenient for us. How blinded can we be when as Sara Groves put it in her song, the Word,
I've done every devotional, been every place emotional, Trying to hear a new word from God and I think it's very odd,That while I attempt to help myself, my Bible sits upon my shelf With every promise I could ever need
As is too often the case in our lives, we run to everything but the word of God to hear God’s voice because we are either too lazy to read or in reading it we fear we will be held accountable to obey it. Reading God’s word means we might have to have some tough conversations as Samuel did, it might mean we need to obey it and make some changes in our lives. So rather than do that, often we are content to just talk about how we are too busy to read God’s word. But seriously too busy to hear the voice of God? How foolish does that sound coming out of our mouths? The text says that the Lord came and stood there (3:10) and spoke. What if we viewed reading our Bible as God standing there. God is here to meet with us. The Holy God of heaven and earth, the LORD, the One with all power to dispel every fear, conquer every giant, overcome every strong hold; that God is standing there waiting for us to open the word and hear His voice and we are just too tired or too busy to do it? If we considered this more, we would be more enthralled with reading His word.
Respond:
Jesus, help me to understand the value of hearing Your voice. Help me to realize that this book is not optional or collateral reading, but it is the very voice of God to my soul. Thank You for the visual of You standing near me ready to speak and help me to respond with anticipation, ’speak Lord for Your servant is listening.’ Help me to obey Your word even when it is difficult as it was for Samuel. Forgive me for not doing a better job and preparing my kids to hear your voice. Help me to help them hear your voice.
