Written by: Bishop Jack 

1 Samuel 2 v 34-36
“ ‘I will give you a sign. Both your sons, Hophni and Phinehas, will die on the same day. I will choose a loyal priest for myself who will listen to me and do what I want. I will make his family continue, and he will always serve before my appointed king. Then everyone left in your family will come and bow down before him. They will beg for a little money or a little food and say, “Please give me a job as priest so I can have food to eat.” ’ ”

Notes
The cost of discipleship is very high. Jesus said “You did not choose me, no I chose you” and those who have any inkling of the cost of discipleship are usually reluctant to say yes. “I will give you a sign” says God, but what a sign. The sign to Eli is the promised death of his two sons Hophni and Phinehas. In another part of the Old Testament Ezekiel is told that there will be a sign and the sign is the death of his wife “Also the word of the Lord came to me: 'Son of man, behold, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you at a stroke; yet you shall not mourn or weep nor shall your tears run down' and later 'thus shall Ezekiel be to you a sign'. For Mary the mother of Jesus the promise was that a sword would pierce her own heart (Luke 2:35) and for Jesus himself the promise was that in him God would be stripped of all but love and that he would die on the cross, the ultimate sign of God's love. When life gets confusing and we not know which way to turn we are sometimes tempted to ask God for a sign. But before we do this we should pause. God may well give us a sign if he chooses and he will answer our prayer but it may well not be the sign we want, it may be very costly indeed.

1 Samuel 3 v 1-5
The boy Samuel served the LORD under Eli. In those days the LORD did not speak directly to people very often; there were very few visions.
Eli’s eyes were so weak he was almost blind. One night he was lying in bed. Samuel was also in bed in the LORD’s house, where the Ark of the Agreement was. God’s lamp was still burning.
Then the LORD called Samuel, and Samuel answered, “I am here!” He ran to Eli and said, “I am here. You called me.”
But Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.” So Samuel went back to bed.

Notes
For the next four days we are looking at the passages relating to the call of Samuel, a boy set aside by God and for God to do great things in God's name for God's people. Today we look at the context of Samuel's call. "In those days the Lord did not speak directly to people very often; there were very few visions. Eli's eyes were so weak that he was almost blind. The priest of the Lord, Eli, was almost blind. Blindness and sight; light and darkness; are amongst the greatest of the Bible's themes. When Jesus cured a man born blind in St John's Gospel Chapter 9 it is intimately connected with his claim "I am the light of the world". Spiritual darkness and blindness are at the heart of our inability to see the truth, the light. To "see the light" is to realise the truth. God spoke to and through Samuel at a dark time for God's children. Eli was deaf as well as blind, spiritually deaf I mean. Samuel could not have been expected to hear the voice of God. He had, like all of us, to be taught to listen but Eli like the children of Israel had forgotten how to listen “l didn't call you. Go back to bed”. We are called to be expectant people with eyes and ears open so that we may be ready to see and hear when the Lord appears and when he calls. To be expectant and patient is our part, the timing is God's business.

1 Samuel 3 v 6-9
The LORD called again, “Samuel!”
Samuel again went to Eli and said, “I am here. You called me.”
Again Eli said, “I didn’t call you. Go back to bed.”
Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the LORD had not spoken directly to him yet.
The LORD called Samuel for the third time. Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “I am here. You called me.”
Then Eli realized the LORD was calling the boy. So he told Samuel, “Go to bed. If he calls you again, say, ‘Speak, LORD. I am your servant and I am listening.’ ” So Samuel went and lay down in bed.

Notes
God is patient. He calls again "Samuel". Samuel does not know that it is the Lord so he goes to Eli the priest and is told to go to bed. This is an exact repeat of the first call of Samuel. The Lord calls a third time but this time the penny drops with Eli who we are told is almost blind. Eli is clearly almost deaf too but not quite. At last even blind, deaf Eli realises that it is the Lord who is speaking to Samuel and so the young boy comes a third time, still with no inkling of his calling and this time Eli instructs him to listen for God's voice. We all hear of God second hand through those who know him and sometimes we are blessed when those who tell us of God are very close to God themselves. Yet God is a God who makes do and those who are his chosen messengers are amongst the most fallen of his creatures. They are often reluctant, deaf and blind but eventually God gets through. His word is heard by those whom he chooses through the most unpromising material, even through Eli. So it is that Samuel hears the word indirectly through Eli before he hears it directly from God. We should welcome what God says to us through others and wait for what God would say to us directly in the silence of our hearts.

1 Samuel 3 v 10-16
The LORD came and stood there and called as he had before, “Samuel, Samuel!”
Samuel said, “Speak, LORD. I am your servant and I am listening.”
The LORD said to Samuel, “Watch, I am going to do something in Israel that will shock those who hear about it. At that time I will do to Eli and his family everything I promised, from beginning to end. I told Eli I would punish his family always, because he knew his sons were evil. They acted without honor, but he did not stop them. So I swore to Eli’s family, ‘Your guilt will never be removed by sacrifice or offering.’ ”
Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. He was afraid to tell Eli about the vision, 16 but Eli called to him, “Samuel, my son!”
Samuel answered, “I am here.”

Notes
At last on the fourth attempt God speaks to Samuel and Samuel responds "Speak Lord. I am your servant and I am listening". The word comes and it is a hard word for a young boy to hear. He is afraid to tell Eli the old priest what the message says for it is a word of punishment to Eli. Eli is to be punished because he did nothing. Eli did not say or do anything wrong. His sin is that he did not say or do anything. Evil triumphs when good people do nothing. To abdicate from responsibility by doing nothing is to sin. To do nothing in the face of evil is to sin. To pass by on the other side when my sister or brother is in pain is to sin. It is your business. You are your brother's keeper and your sister's and your son's and your daughter's and your neighbour's. To say that social and political issues are none of my business is to sin. Eli didn't approve of his son's behaviour, he probably thought they were very wrong but he said nothing and he did nothing and so he is condemned. Are we any better than Eli?

1 Samuel 3 v 17-21
Eli asked, “What did the LORD say to you? Don’t hide it from me. May God punish you terribly if you hide from me anything he said to you.” So Samuel told Eli everything and did not hide anything from him. Then Eli said, “He is the LORD. Let him do what he thinks is best.”
The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up; he did not let any of Samuel’s messages fail to come true. Then all Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew Samuel was a true prophet of the LORD. And the LORD continued to show himself at Shiloh, and he showed himself to Samuel through his word.
So, news about Samuel spread through all of Israel.

Notes
Here is a picture of a young boy who has been called by God and given a message from God. He is nervous and afraid to tell Eli the truth for his message is a message of judgement from God against Eli for allowing his sons to sin against God and the children of Israel. Eli the old priest insists that Samuel tell the whole truth and so he does. Eli's sons will both die on the same day. Eli must have been heartbroken but weak and sinful though he was, he made a brave response "It is the Lord. Let him do what he thinks is best". The most difficult word anyone is called to say to God is 'Yes' or 'Your will be done'. It is what Jesus had to say in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before he died "Not my will, but your will be done". So Samuel grew up and became famous because the Lord was with him. He kept close to God, he listened to God, he spoke God's word. Nothing mattered to Samuel but being close to God with a listening heart. No one who is not a listener should ever dare to speak. Listening takes time and attention and quiet. If you want to hear the voice of God you too must be still and quiet and attentive.

1 Samuel 4 v 1-4
At that time the Israelites went out to fight the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer and the Philistines at Aphek. The Philistines went to meet the Israelites in battle. And as the battle spread, they defeated the Israelites, killing about four thousand soldiers on the battlefield. When some Israelite soldiers went back to their camp, the older leaders of Israel asked, “Why did the LORD let the Philistines defeat us? Let’s bring the Ark of the Agreement with the LORD here from Shiloh and take it with us into battle. Then God will save us from our enemies.”
So the people sent men to Shiloh. They brought back the Ark of the Agreement with the LORD All-Powerful, who sits between the gold creatures with wings. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the Ark.

Notes
When things go wrong we are tempted to ask "Where is God?" In today's Reading the army of Israel is defeated by the army of the Philistines. God must have allowed this to happen, but why? Why should God desert his own children and allow their enemies to win? Maybe, thought the Israelites, it was because the symbol of the presence of God was not with them, that is the Ark of the Agreement, a large casket containing among other things, it is thought, the Ten Commandments and which represented the presence of God and the promises which God made to Israel and Israel had made to God. God had kept and always will keep his promises, but the children of Israel had not kept their side of the agreement. They had turned away from God and yet they still expected him to turn up and to make sure that they won the day. It never entered their heads that they might be responsible. Times have not changed, there is always someone else to blame, never me. I am always the victim, someone else has the responsibility. We live in a world where all that matters are my rights, but I must not ignore my responsibilities which are just as important. The Israelites thought that they could get away with their behaviour by wheeling God in at the last minute, but could they?

1 Samuel 4 v 5-9
When the Ark of the Agreement with the LORD came into the camp, all the Israelites gave a great shout of joy that made the ground shake. When the Philistines heard Israel’s shout, they asked, “What’s all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?”
Then the Philistines found out that the Ark of the LORD had come into the Hebrew camp. They were afraid and said, “A god has come into the Hebrew camp! We’re in trouble! This has never happened before! How terrible it will be for us! Who can save us from these powerful gods? They are the ones who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of disasters in the desert. Be brave, Philistines! Fight like men! In the past they were our slaves. So fight like men, or we will become their slaves.”

Notes
Every army needs a symbol. The flag or standard has often been the symbol of the presence of the King and the battle is won when this symbol is taken by the enemy. It represents the presence of the King and is most closely guarded. The Israelites, the chosen people of God, were at war with the Philistines and were losing. They believed this was because their symbol was not with them. The symbol was the Ark of the Agreement, a large casket containing those things most precious in their history including, many believe, the Ten Commandments. Just as a flag represented to others the presence of the King, so the Ark represented the presence of God. Israel believed that this would be the turning point in the war, God would be with them, he was on their side and they were bound to win. Yet God had other things in store for his children. The two men mentioned at the end of the passage, Hophni and Phinehas were the sons of Eli, the priest. They, like the children of Israel, had deserted God's ways and Eli the priest had done nothing to prevent it. God's children had to be brought to account and this battle would prove to be just that. None of us can run away forever from the truths about ourselves which we would rather ignore. We cannot run away from ourselves or from God forever. The day of reckoning will come, the day when we are judged. But what is judgement? Judgement is to stand naked and undefended before pure Love. The most unbearable thing for the parts of ourselves which we would hide is to be exposed and loved. It is what we long for most and we fear most and the day will come.


word-on-the-web uses the Scripture text taken from the Youth Bible, New Century Version (Anglicised Edition) copyright 1993 by Word Publishing Milton Keynes