NL Samuel’s Call  Oct 12th, 2025

Our reading today starts off with I feel is a most encouraging verse:  “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.”

We joke about wanting to get a phone call from God, or wish that Jesus would just send a text to tell us what to do…but I think sometimes we wonder if God has just stopped communicating sometimes.  It seems like in the bible that people were always hearing from God, talking to God and receiving visions. 

Today however we hear that even in the bible, from time to time, the word of the Lord was rare. The bible has the within it’s pages a span of millennia and what is written is only…shall we say, the highlights.  Such as last week four generations of enslavement went by with no comment until Moses arrived on the scene and from Moses to Samuel is some 300 + years. In the time in the wilderness and soon after the people of Israel received the 10 commandments and started to discern the laws as written in Deuteronomy and implement them as in the book of Judges. 

However, as we meet Samuel today time enough had passed for people to once again forget about following God’s law.  That even included the priesthood.  The Priest Eli had two sons who had been taught to follow the Lord’s command, but we read that they were corrupt, taking the best of the people’s offering to the Lord for themselves and even taking to bed the women who served at the Lord’s tent.  The people had strayed far indeed.   Even the children of the priest, who we assume taught them God’s word could not make his children faithful. 

I think that this resonates with many people whose children or grandchildren no longer attend church.  We are tempted to wonder what we did wrong, what lessons we neglected to teach…why they didn’t follow in our footsteps.   Now I’m not saying our children are straying to the point of Eli’s corrupt sons, but perhaps if Eli (and later we will hear Samuel) cannot ensure that their kids are righteous followers of God; perhaps we can give ourselves a bit of grace.

Then we have Samuel, whose mother had dedicated him to service in the Lord in gratitude for prayers answered…something I don’t think many of us have tried   So, today years later, we find Samuel, a mere boy, serving at vigil by the Ark of the Covenant.  But the word of the Lord was rare in those days, so when God spoke to him Samuel didn’t recognise God’s call.  Instead, obediently he ran to the priest Eli, thinking it was Eli calling; but Eli the Priest didn’t recognise God’s voice either and sent the boy back to bed. I wonder how often this happens these days.  The Lord calls and calls and we simply don’t recognize where the call is coming from.  And priests aren’t immune either.  The Word of the Lord may be rare, but that doesn’t mean God is absent…perhaps we just are mishearing. 

After Samuel had run to Eli several times, Eli the elderly priest begins to cotton on to what was happening and instructs Samuel how to respond.  “Speak, for your servant is listening.”  Isn’t that always the first step.  To know how to listen.  Now, the message God spoke to Samuel was a message for the priest Eli and I wonder if God had tried to speak to Eli first, but Eli was not listening.  We read that the house of Eli was not exactly righteous or following God’s word, despite serving God as priests.  They were more keen on abusing their position to serve themselves, their hearts were hardened to God’s visions and ears stopped to God’s word.  So, God spoke to a boy, who was still unjaded and open to listening and learning. 

Indeed, as Samuel grew the Lord was with him and everyone knew that Samuel was a trustworthy prophet. Sometimes it is not wisdom and experience, skills or competence that is needed by God, simply an openness to listen and hear God speak.  Samuel had nothing to commend him to this ministry except his willingness to listen and answer the call.  A call that started with the faith of his mother Hannah, and continued with the terrifying words that the young boy had to give to his master, the Priest Eli. 

Apparentlly, God had waited long enough for the Priesthood to sort itself out and poor Samuel was charged with a very weighty message.

 “For I have told him that I am about to punish his house for ever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them.” 

And Samuel was afraid to tell Eli what he had seen and heard, and frankly I can’t blame him.  The biggest challenge about hearing God is that prophets are often called to speak truth to power, and power, by and large doesn’t appreciate it. To his credit, Eli recognizes the truth that Samuel speaks and accepts the word of the Lord in peace. 

The very next chapter we read in 1 Samuel tells what happened to the house of Eli, and it is not good.  The Israelite tribes and the Philistines were at war with one another and Philistines were winning.  So, Eli’s sons brought forth the Ark of the Covenant to the war camp of the Israelites in order to force God’s hand and bring victory.  However, the Israelites were slaughtered, the Ark was captured and Eli’s sons were killed.  And, having received the terrible news of the Ark’s capture and his son’s deaths Eli fell back off his chair and broke his neck (we are told this was because he was old and fat; Don’t you love biblical detail!).

 Thus Eli’s line was indeed ended, but Israel’s iniquities did not end there, nor did their problems.  As we read through 1st Samuel we find out that Isarel had turned to worshiping foreign Gods and that God had appointed Samuel as judge and prophet, going from place to place in Israel and instructing the people to turn back to God; administering justice and making offerings to God on behalf of the people.  However, as Samuel grew and had a family, he encountered some of the same problems as his predecessor Eli.  We read

“When Samuel became old, he made his sons judges over Israel. 2 The name of his firstborn son was Joel, and the name of his second was Abijah; they were judges in Beer-sheba. 3 Yet his sons did not follow in his ways but turned aside after gain; they took bribes and perverted justice.”  Parenting is hard in all times. 

Thus, the people of Israel lost faith in the old ways of prophets and judges.  They looked to the nations around them and became envious of what they saw. 

“Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah 5 and said to him, “You are old, and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations.” … 11 He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen, and to run before his chariots, 12 …. 13 He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. 14 He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his courtiers. 15  … 17 He will take one-tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. 18 And on that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord will not answer you on that day.”  But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! We are determined to have a king over us, 20 so that we also may be like other nations and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

So, the Lord relented and let the people chose their ways.  The man chosen to be King was Saul, a very handsome man, tall and strong from the tribe of Benjamin.  So it was, and Saul ruled Israel with terror and threat, he lead the armies into defeat and the people regretted their words and blamed Samuel for anointing Saul as their King.  But Samuel judged against Isreal, reminding them of the many ways that they had strayed from God and forgotten the Lord, and the people repented.

“ Then they cried to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Astartes, but now rescue us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you.” But Samuel responded “See, here is the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; see, the Lord has set a king over you.”  

This was their choice and they were to bear the consequences.   

King Saul acted rashly and unjustly, cursing his own people and engaged in ongoing wars and not obeying the words of the Lord. “The word of the Lord came to Samuel: 11 “I regret that I made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not carried out my commands.”… Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. 35 Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul.“

 

There is much we can learn from reading the books of Samuel. The prophet Samuel teaches us that leadership is to be rooted in God; in prayer, faith, obedience and justice. 

The legacy of Samuel is in the commitment he had to convey God’s word to the people, even and especially in a time of spiritual decline and the transition from Spiritual leadership to Monarchy.  Samuel was first of the traditional prophets, moving from place to place as God called the people to repent and teaching the importance of living a righteous life, rather than providing empty sacrifices. 

Samuel teaches us that the people God calls to be prophets are not always who we expect.   One might expect a son to follow in their father’s faith and footsteps, but we see that isn’t always so.  That the handsome, tall, strapping fellow isn’t going to necessarily be the best king.  Nor the is the priest always the one who hears God’s call.

            Samuel teaches us that it is better to look within than without for God’s voice.  The world around and the people we meet may be more attractive, but it is by seeing through God’s eyes and having obedience to God’s voice that we can be a positive influence on this world.   So, don’t always assume that God will only speak through the obvious choice…the next one who may be answering ‘here I am, Lord’ could be you. amen