"Speak, Lord!"
(No. 2526)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JULY 18, 1897.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON THURSDAY EVENING, MARCH
20, 1884.
"Then Samuel answered, Speak; for Your servant hears." 1 Samuel 3:10.
The child Samuel was favored above all the family in which he dwelt.
The Lord did not speak by night to Eli, or to any of Eli's sons. In all
that house, in all the rows of rooms that were round about the
Tabernacle where the Ark of the Lord was kept, there was not one except
Samuel to whom Jehovah spoke! The fact that the Lord should choose a
child out of all that household and that He should speak to him, ought
to be very encouraging to you who think yourself to be the least likely
to be recognized by God. Are you so young? Yet, probably, you are not
younger than Samuel was at this time. Do you seem to be very
insignificant? Yet you can hardly be more so than was this child of
Hannah's love! Have you many troubles? Yet you have not more, I
daresay, than rested on young Samuel, for it must have been very hard
for him, while so young a child, to part from his dear mother, to be so
soon sent away from his father's house and so early made to do a
servant's work, even though it was in the House of the Lord!
I have noticed how often God looks with eyes of special love upon those
in a family who seem least likely to be so regarded. It was on Joseph,
whom his brothers hated–it was upon the crown of the head of him who
was separated from his brothers–that God's electing love descended!
Why should it not come upon you? Perhaps, in the house where you live,
you seem to be a stranger. Your foes are they of your own household!
You have many sorrows and you think that waters of a full cup are wrung
out to you, yet the Lord may have a very special regard for you. I
invite you to hope that it is so, yes, and to come to Christ and put
your soul's trust in Him–and then I am persuaded that you will find
that it is so and you will have to say–"He drew me to Him with cords
of a man, with bands of love. Because He loved me with everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness has He drawn me."
Notice, also, that while God had a very special regard for young
Samuel, He had, in that regard, designs concerning the rest of the
family. God's elect are chosen not merely for their own sake–they are
chosen for God's name's sake–and they are also chosen for the sake of
mankind in general. The Jews were chosen that they might preserve the
oracles of God for all the ages and that they might keep alight the
spark of Divine Truth that we Gentiles might afterwards see its
brightness. And when God's special love is fixed upon one member of a
family, I take it that that one ought to say to himself or herself, "Am
I not called that I may be a blessing in this family?" Young Samuel was
to be God's voice to Eli. He was chosen to that end and in a much more
pleasant way than Samuel was, I trust that you, dear Friend, favored of
God, are intended to be a messenger of better tidings than Samuel had
to carry–perhaps to an aged father whose eyes are growing dim. Perhaps
to some wayward brother wandering in the world. Perhaps to some sister
whose heart is careless about Divine things. I think the first instinct
of one who has been, himself, called by Grace, is to go and call
others.
When Christ appears to Mary, Mary runs to the disciples to tell them
that the Lord has spoken to her. Samuel is chosen that he may carry the
message to Eli–and let each Believer feel that he is favored of God
that he may take a blessing to others–"for none of us lives to himself
and no man dies to himself." I trust that we are not like the Dead Sea
which perpetually drinks in Jordan's streams, but never gives the
waters out and, therefore, it becomes saltier and yet more
salt-ier–the lake of death. We are not to be receivers only, taking in
the good that God sends by this means or by that, but we are to pour
out as fast as He pours in, working out that which God works in us to
will and to do of His good pleasure.
Our subject is to be, God speaking with us. And I trust that everyone
here who has any fear of God at all will take the prayer of Samuel and
make it his or her own–"Speak; for Your servant hears."
I. And, first, I will speak to you upon the soul desiring–desiring to
be spoken to by God. "Speak, Lord."
Oh, how often has our heart felt this desire in the form of a groaning
that cannot be uttered! "Lord, I want to know You! You are behind a
veil and I cannot come to You. I know that You are, for I see Your
works, but, oh, that I could get some token from Yourself, if not for
my eyesight, yet at least for my heart!" We cannot endure a dumb God.
It is a very dreadful thing to have a dumb friend–a very painful thing
to have a wife who never spoke with you or a husband who could never
exchange a word with you, or a father or mother from whom you could
never hear a single word of love–and the heart cannot bear to have a
dumb God, it needs Him to speak!
For what reason does the soul desire God to speak to it? Well, first,
it desires thus to be recognized by God. It seems to say, "Speak, Lord,
just to give me a token of recognition, that I may know that I am not
overlooked, that I am not flung away like a useless thing upon the
world's dust heap, that I am not left to wander like a waif and stray,
derelict, upon the ocean. Oh, that I may be sure that You see me, that
You have some thoughts of love concerning me! How precious are Your
thoughts to me, O God! If I do not know that You think of me, I pine, I
die! Speak, Lord, just to show that You notice me. I am not worthy that
You should regard me, but still speak to me, Lord, that I may know that
You do observe me."
More than that, this desire of the soul is a longing to be called by
God. When the Lord said to the child, "Samuel, Samuel," it was a
distinct, personal call, like that which came to Mary. "The Master is
come, and calls for you," or that which came to another Mary when the
Lord said to her, "Mary," and she turned and said, "Rabboni," that is
to say, "my dear Master." All who have heard the Gospel preached have
been called to some extent. The Word of God calls every sinner to
repent and trust the Savior, but that call brings nobody to Christ
unless it is accompanied by the special effectual call of the Holy
Spirit. When that call is heard in the heart, then the heart responds!
The general call of the Gospel is like the common "cluck" of the hen
which she is always giving when her chickens are around her. But if
there is any danger impending, then she gives a very peculiar
call–quite different from the ordinary one–and the little chicks come
running as fast as ever they can and hide for safety under her wings!
That is the call we need–God's peculiar and effectual call to His own!
And I would, if I could, put into the heart and mouth of each person
now present this prayer, "Speak, Lord, speak to me. Call me. When You
are calling this one and that, Lord, call me with the effectual call of
Your Holy Spirit! Be pleased so to call me that, when I hear You
saying, 'Seek you My face,' my heart may say unto You, 'Your face,
Lord, will I seek.'"
"Speak, Lord, moreover, that I may be instructed." I am afraid that
there are some persons who do not want to be instructed in the things
of God. They are afraid of knowing too much. I know some good Christian
people–good in their way–who cautiously avoid portions of Scripture
that are contrary to their creed. And I know a good many more who, when
they get hold of a text, stretch it a little, or squeeze it a little,
to make it fit in with what they, by prejudice, think ought to be the
Truth of God! But that should not be your method or mine. Let us say,
"Speak, Lord, and say to me what You will. Whatever You have to say to
me, Master, say on." The Lord Jesus may perhaps reply to us, "I have
many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now." Howbeit, it
is for us to ask Him to lead us into all Truths of God. If there is a
Truth that quarrels with you, depend upon it, there is something in you
to quarrel with! You cannot alter the Truth of God–the simplest thing
is to alter yourself! It is not for us to shorten the measure, but to
endeavor to come up to it. Let us lay our hearts before God and pray
Him to write His Truth upon them. Let us yield our understanding and
every faculty that we have to the supreme sway of Jesus and, like Mary,
sit down at His feet and receive His gracious Words. "Speak, Lord, to
instruct me. Tell me all about this and that Truth which it is
necessary for me to know."
We sometimes mean by this expression, "Speak, Lord, for our guidance."
We have got into a great difficulty. We really do not know which way
the road leads–to the right or to the left–and we may go blundering
on and have to come all the way back again! So we especially need the
Lord to speak to us for our guidance. It is an admirable plan to do
nothing without prayer–neither to begin, nor continue, nor close
anything except under Divine guidance and direction. "Speak, Lord. Give
me any answer. If not by Urim and Thummim, yet by such means as You are
pleased to use in these modern times. Speak, Lord, for whether You
point me to the right or to the left, I will go whichever way You bid
me go. Only let me hear Your voice behind me, saying, 'This is the way:
walk you in it.'"
At times, also, we need the Lord's voice for our comfort. When the
heart is very heavy, there is no comfort for it except from the mouth
of Christ by the Holy Spirit. You may hear the sweetest discourse, you
may read the most precious chapters of Scripture and yet your grief may
not be relieved, even in the least degree! But when the Lord Jesus
Christ undertakes to speak to you. When the great Father opens His
mouth. When the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, applies the Truth of God to
your heart, then are you filled with joy!
I do not know what particular state you may be in, but this prayer of
little Samuel can be turned all sorts of ways. Are you doubtful about
your interest in Christ? A great many people make fun of that verse–
"'Tis a point I long to know,
Oft it causes anxious thought,
Do I love the Lord, or no?
Am I His, or am I not?"
If they ever find themselves where some of us have been, they will not
do so any more! I believe it is a shallow experience that makes people
always confident of what they are and where they are, for there are
times of terrible trouble that make even the most confident child of
God hardly know whether he is on his head or on his heels! It is the
mariner who has done business on great waters who, in times of unusual
stress and storm, reels to and fro and staggers like a drunken man–and
is at his wits' end. At such a time, if Jesus whispers that I am His,
then the question is answered once and for all–and the soul has
received a token which it waves in the face of Satan so that he
disappears–and the soul goes on its way rejoicing!
Do pray this prayer–"Speak, Lord." If you will not, it shall always be
myprayer. I would seek the Presence of my God and cry, "As the hart
pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after You, O God. My
soul thirsts for God, for the living God! When shall I come and appear
before God? My tears have been my meat day and night, while they
continually say to me, Where is your God?" But when my heart can
answer, "Here He is! He is with me," then does my soul begin to sing at
once–
"My God, the spring of all my joys, The life of my delights, The glory
of my brightest days, And comfort of my nights."
Use the prayer of Samuel at this moment, even if you are rejoicing. And
if you are beginning to wander, if you are getting heavy and dull and
lukewarm, ask the Lord to speak to you so that you may be quickened out
of that state, that your declining may be stopped. "Speak, Lord." I
have known the time–and so have some of you–when one Word of His has
saved us from a grievous fall. A text of Scripture has stopped us when
our feet had almost slipped. A precious thought has helped us when we
were ready to despair and when we could not tell what to do. One Word
out of the Inspired Book applied to the soul by the Holy Spirit has
made a plain path before us and we have been delivered from all our
difficulties! I commend to you, then, very earnestly, the personal
prayer of the soul desiring–"Speak, Lord."
II. Now, secondly, let us think of THE LORD SPEAKING.
Suppose that the Lord does speak to us? Just think for a minute what it
is. First, it is a high honor. Oh, to have a Word from God! There
cannot be any honor that comes from man that can, for a moment, be
compared with having an audience with God, familiar conversation with
the Infinite, sitting down at the feet of Eternal Love and listening to
the voice of Infallible Wisdom! The peers of the realm are not so
honored when they see their Queen as you are when you see your God and
He speaks with you. To be permitted to speak with Him is a delight, but
to hear Him speak with us is Heaven begun below!
And while it is so great an honor, we are bound to remember that it is
a very solemn responsibility. If any man here can say, "The Lord once
spoke with me," my Brother, you are under perpetual bonds of obligation
to Him! Jesus Christ spoke to Saul of Tarsus out of Heaven and from
that hour Paul felt himself to be the Lord's, a consecrated man, to
live and die for Him who had spoken to him. "Speak, Lord," and when You
do speak, help us to feel the condescension of Your love and yield
ourselves up wholly to You because You have spoken to us.
"Oh!" says one, "if God were to speak to me, I am sure it would make a
change in me of a very wonderful kind." It would, my Friend. It would
convert you. It would turn you right around and start you in quite a
new direction. Someone said to me, concerning Paul, that he had "a
twist" at that time when he was going to Damascus and everybody
afterwards asked, "Is that Saul of Tarsus, the philosopher, the clever
young Rabbi, the learned pupil of Gamaliel? Why, there he is, talking
plainly and simply to those poor people and trying to bring them to
Christ, the very Christ whom he used to hate! What has made such a
change in him?" "Oh!" they said, "he has had a strange twist! Something
has happened to him which has quite altered him." Oh that the Lord
would make something of the same kind happen to everyone here to whom
it has not yet happened! This is the mainspring of a holy life, "God
has spoken to me and I cannot live as I used to live." This is the spur
of an impetuous zeal, "Jesus Christ has spoken to me and I must run
with diligence upon His errands." This, I believe, comes like
fire-flakes upon the spirit and sets the whole nature on a blaze. To
hear God speak, to have His voice go through and through the soul
involves a great responsibility, yet he who truly feels it will never
wish to shirk it.
To hear God speak to us will bring to us many a hazy memory. I appeal
to those who have heard that Voice before. do you not remember, dear
Friends, many places where the Lord spoke to you? You have forgotten
many of the sermons which you have heard, but there is one sermon you
have never forgotten–perhaps there are a dozen that you can recall if
you think a little. Why do you remember them? Why, because you were in
great trouble and you went into the House of Prayer and the sermon
seemed made on purpose for you! You said to the person who sat with
you, "I am glad that I was here, for I am sure that from the opening
sentence to the close, it was all for me." Or else you were getting
into a very dull and stupid state and you went to the House of God and
there was a sermon which cut you to the very quick and woke you up. You
never could go back to where you were before God spoke to you. No, we
can never forget these voices–sweet yet strong–which thrill our very
soul, which wind not through the ear and so waste half their strength,
but come directly to the heart! And in the heart enshrine themselves!
Oh, yes, if God has spoken to you, your heart will dance at the memory
of the many times in which He has done so!
I think I must also say that it is a probable mercy that God will speak
to you. I know that if you are a father, it is not improbable that you
will speak to your child. And our Heavenly Father will speak to His
children. And the Lord Jesus Christ, who is married to us, surely will
not be a silent Husband, but will be willing to speak to us and to
reveal His heart to us. Only pray just now, "Speak, Lord! Speak, Lord!"
and He will speak. I feel encouraged to expect that He who died for me,
will speak to me. He who did not hesitate to reveal Himself in human
flesh, bearing our infirmities and sorrows, surely will not hide
Himself from His own flesh! He will not be here among us according to
His promise, "Lo, I am with you always," and yet never speak to us at
all! Oh, no! He waits to be gracious! Therefore, let not our prayers be
restrained, but let us cry, "Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears."
"But how does the Lord speak?" someone asks. That is a very important
question. I know that He has many ways of speaking to the hearts of His
people. We do not expect to hear audiblewords. It is not by sense that
we live–not even by the sense of hearing–but by faith. We believe and
so we apprehend God.
God often speaks to His children through His works. Are there not days
when the mountains and the hills break forth before us into singing and
the trees of the field clap their hands because God is speaking by
them? Do you not lift up your eyes to the heavens at night and watch
the stars and seem to hear God speaking to you in the solemn silence?
That man who never hears God speak through His works is, I think,
hardly in a healthy state of mind. Why, the very beauty of spring with
its promise, the fullness of summer, the ripeness of autumn and even
the chilly blasts of winter are all vocal if we have but ears to hear
what they say!
God also speaks to His children very loudly by His Providence. Is there
no voice in affliction? Has pain no tongue? Has the bed of languishing
no eloquence? The Lord speaks to us, sometimes, by bereavement–when
one after another has been taken away, God has spoken to us. The deaths
of others are for our spiritual life–sharp medicine for our soul's
health. God has spoken to many a mother by the dear babe she has had to
lay in the grave. And many a man has, for the first time, listened to
God's voice when he has heard the passing bell that spoke of the
departure of one dearer to him than life itself. God speaks to us, if
we will but hear, in all the arrangements of Providence both pleasant
and painful. Whether He caresses or chastises, there is a voice in all
that He does. Oh, that we were not so deaf!
But the Lord speaks to us chiefly through His Word. Oh, what converse
God has with His people when they are quietly reading their Bibles!
There, in your still room, as you have been reading a chapter, have you
not felt as if God spoke those words straight to your heart then and
there? Has not Christ Himself said to you, while you have been reading
His Word, "Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe
also in Me"? The text does not seem to be like an old letter in a book,
rather is it like a fresh speech, newly spoken from the mouth of the
Lord to you. It has been so, dear Friends, has it not?
Then there is His Word as it is preached. It is delightful to notice
how God speaks to the heart while the sermon is being heard–yes, and
when the sermon is being read. I am almost, every day, made to sing
inwardly as I hear of those to whom I have been the messenger of God.
And my Lord has many messengers and He is speaking by them all. There
was one man, who had lived a life of drunkenness and impurity, and had
even shed human blood with his bowie knife or his revolver, yet he
found the Savior and became a new man! And when he died, he charged one
who was with him to tell me that my sermon had brought him to Christ!
"I shall never tell him on earth," he said, "but I shall tell the Lord
Jesus Christ about him when I get to Heaven." It was by a sermon, read
far away in the backwoods, that this great sinner was brought to
Christ! But it is not only in the backwoods that the Lord blesses the
preached Word, it is here, it is everywhere where Christ is proclaimed!
If we preach the Gospel, God gives a voice to it and speaks through it.
There is a kind of incarnation of the Spirit of God in every true
preacher–God speaks through him. Oh, that men had but ears to hear!
But, alas, alas, too often they hear as if it were of no importance!
And the Lord has to say to His servant as He said to Ezekiel, "Lo, you
are unto them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice,
and can play well on an instrument: for they hear your words, but they
do them not." Oh, that each one of our hearers always came up to the
sanctuary with this prayer in his heart, and on his lips, "Speak, Lord,
by Your servant; speak right down into my soul."
But the Lord has a way of sometimes speaking to the heart by His
Spirit–I think not usually apart from His Word–but yet there are
feelings and emotions, tenderness and trembling, joys and delights
which we cannot quite link with any special portion of Scripture laid
home to the heart, but which seem to steal upon us unawares by the
direct operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart. You who know the
Lord must sometimes have felt a strange delight which had no earthly
origin. You have, perhaps, awakened in the morning with it, and it has
remained with you. A little while after, you have had some severe
trial, and you realize that the Lord had spoken to you to strengthen
you to bear the affliction! At other times you have felt great
tenderness about some one individual and you have felt constrained to
pray, and perhaps to go for some miles to speak a word to that
individual. And it turned out that God meant to save that person
through you and He did! I think we are not half as mindful as we ought
to be of the secret working of the Holy Spirit upon the mind.
There are certain fanatics who get delirious and dream that they are
prophets, and I know not what. But we just put them to the side. This
is a very different thing from being guided by the Spirit of God in all
the actions of life so as to obey the will of the Lord, sometimes, in
cases where we might not have known it to be His will, or might have
omitted it. Whenever you feel moved to do anything that is good, do it!
Do it even without being moved, because it is your duty, for, "to him
that knows to do good, and does it not, to him it is sin." But, above
all, when there comes a gracious influence on the conscience–a gentle
reminder to the heart–quickly and speedily do as the Spirit prompts,
taking note within your heart that the Lord has laid this particular
burden upon you and you must not cast it from you.
I would like to imitate one dear man of God with whom I sometimes
commune. On one occasion he seemed to feel in his soul that he must go
to a little port in France to deliver the Lord's message. And as the
boat went in, a person on the deck spoke to him and he said, "You are
the one to whom I was sent." Within a month that godly man was in
Russia, seeking the souls of others of whom he knew nothing! But God
had guided him and they were brought to the Savior's feet. I know him
as one who, I believe, lives so near to God that the Lord speaks to him
in other ways than He does to the most of men, for all Christians are
not, alike, favored in this respect. One may be a child of God, like
Eli, and yet so live that God will not speak with Him. And, on the
other hand, one may be a child like Samuel–obedient, beautiful in
character and watchful to know God's will, praying, "Speak, Lord; for
Your servant hears"–and then God will speak to you. It is not to all
that He speaks, but He would speak to all if they were ready to learn
what He had to say.
III. Now I must close with just a few words upon the last part of my
subject, which is THE SOUL HEARING. We have had the soul desiring and
the Lord speaking–now for the soul hearing. "Speak, Lord; for Your
servant hears."
And, first, I think we have, here, an argument. "Lord, do speak, for I
do hear." "There are none so deaf as those that will not hear," so I
fear that some people are very deaf, indeed. But, oh, when you feel,
"Only let the Lord speak, I will hear; only let Him come to me and I
will set the door wide open for Him to enter, glad if He, my gracious
God, will come and be a sojourner with me"–He will come, He will speak
to you! It is a good argument and you may use it if you can. God help
you to do so!
Yet it appears to be an inference as well as an argument, for it seems
to run like this, "Lord, if You speak, of course Your servant hears."
Shall God speak and His servant not hear? God forbid! Strangers and
sojourners may not listen, but His servant will. "Speak, Lord; for if
You will but speak, I must hear. There is such a force about Your
voice, such wisdom about what You say, that hear You I must and will."
It is an argument from God speaking, but it is also an inference from
God speaking.
"Speak, Lord; for Your servant hears," seems also to contain a promise
within it, namely, that if the Lord will but speak, we will hear. I am
afraid that sometimes we really do not listen to God. Suppose that we
pray the Lord to speak to us and when we have done praying we go away
and engage in worldly conversation? This is surely not acting
consistently. I remember being asked to see a person and I thought that
he wanted to learn something from me. But when I saw him for
three-quarters of an hour, he spoke the whole time, and afterwards he
told a friend that I was a most delightful person to converse with!
When I was told that, I said, "Oh, yes, that was because I did not
interrupt the man! He was wound up and I let him run down."
But conversation means two people talking, does it not? It cannot be a
conversation if I do all the talking, or if my friend does it all. So,
in conversing with God, there must be, as we say, turn and turn about.
You speak with God and then sit still–and let God speak with you. And,
if He does not at once speak to your heart, open His Book and read a
few verses and let Him speak to you that way. Some people cannot pray
when they wish to do so. I remember George Muller sweetly saying, "When
you come to your time for devotion, if you cannot pray, do not try. If
you cannot speak with God, do not try. Let God speak with you. Open
your Bible and read a passage." Sometimes, when you meet a friend, you
cannot begin a conversation. Well then, let your friend begin it. Then
you can reply to him and the conversation will go on merrily enough.
So, if you cannot speak to God, let God speak to you.
It is also true communion with the Lord, sometimes, just to sit still,
look up and say nothing. But just, "in solemn silence of the mind,"
find your Heaven and your God. "Speak, Lord; for Your servant hears. I
have prayed to You, I have told You my grief and now I am just sitting
still to hear if You have anything to say to me. I am all ears and all
heart. If You will command me, I will obey. If You will comfort me, I
will believe. If You will reprove me, I will meekly bow my head. If You
will give me the assurance of Your love, my heart shall dance at every
sound of Your voice. Only speak, Lord; for Your servant hears."
I have finished my discourse, but I do wish that some poor sinner here
would say, before he goes away, "Lord, speak to me! Speak to my soul.
Let this be the last night of my spiritual death and the birth-night of
my spiritual life." As for you who love the Lord, I am sure that you
will pray this prayer and that you will keep on praying, "Speak, Lord;
for Your servant hears." And then what blessed conversations there will
be between you and your Father in Heaven! The Lord bless you all, for
Jesus' sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON! 1 SAMUEL 3
Verse 1. And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD before Eli
Samuel was but a child, yet he was a faithful servant of God up to the
light he had received. The grown-up sons of Eli were rebelling against
God, but "the child Samuel ministered unto the Lord." It is a great
aggravation of sin for ungodly men to persist in it when even little
children rebuke them by their careful walk and conversation. It made
the sin of Eli's sons all the worse because "the child Samuel
ministered unto the Lord before Eli"
1. And the Word of the Lord was precious in those days; there was no
open vision. God spoke with very few and His speech to them was
private. "There was no open vision." What was spoken was very rich and
rare, but there was little of it. The Lord, in anger at the sin of
Eli's sons, took away the spirit of prophecy from the land.
2. And it came to pass at that time, when Eli was laid down in his
place, and his eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see. He was a
good old man, but he was almost worn out and he had been unfaithful to
God in not keeping his family right. He must have found some comfort in
having such a sweet and dear companion and servant as little Samuel
was.
3-5. And before the lamp of God went out in the Temple of the Lord,
where the Ark of God was, and Samuel was laid down to sleep; that the
LORD called Samuel and he answered, Here am I. And he ran unto Eli, and
said, Here am I; for you called me. And he said, I called not; lie down
again. And he went and lay down. Servants and children are to be
attentive and obedient to the calls they hear, but masters must also be
gentle, kind and considerate to them. Eli did not call the child a
fool, or speak harshly to him. He knew that Samuel had a good intention
and even if he had been mistaken and no one had called him, yet it was
a good thing on the part of the child to act as if he had been spoken
to. And Eli quietly and gently said, "I called not; lie down again. And
he went and lay down."
6. And the LORD calledyet again, Samuel And Samuel arose and went to
Eli, andsaid, Here am I; for you did call me. He felt sure of it,
confident that he had not been mistaken.
6, 7. And he answered, I called not, my son, lie down again. Now Samuel
did not yet know the Lord. There was the beginning of the work of Grace
in his heart. He was well-intentioned, but, as yet, God had not
revealed Himself to him. "Samuel did not yet know the Lord"
7, 8. Neither was the Word of the Lord yet revealed unto him. And the
LORD called Samuel again the third time. We do not blame Samuel, for he
was but a child, and spiritual understanding had not yet fully come to
him. But what shall I say of some to whom God has spoken for years till
their hair is gray–and yet they have not understood the voice of the
Lord even to this hour? I pray God that He may call them yet again! The
Lord did not disdain to call Samuel four times, for when He means
effectually to call, if one call is not sufficient, He will call again
and again and again! "The Lord called Samuel again the third time."
8, 9. Andhe arose and went to Eli, andsaid, Here am I; for you did call
me. And Eli perceived that the LORD had called the child. Therefore Eli
said unto Samuel, Go, lie down: and it shall be, if He calls you, that
you shall say, Speak, LORD; for Your servant hears. So Samuel went and
lay down in his place. It was a chastisement to Eli that God did not
speak directly to him, but sent him a message by another. And it must
have been very humiliating to the aged man of God that God should
select a little child to be His messenger to him. Yet, as Eli had not
been faithful, it was great mercy on God's part to speak to him at all!
And, no doubt the old man did not resent the fact that God, instead of
speaking to one of his sons, or to himself, spoke by this little child.
Eli loved Samuel and, finding that the Lord intended to use this child,
he did not grow jealous and angry and begin to dampen the child's
spirit–he gave him wise directions how to act in case God should speak
to him again.
10. And the Lord came, and stood.–From which we learn that there was
some kind of appearance to Samuel such as that which was manifested to
others. Some spiritual Being was before him, though he could not make
out the form thereof–"Jehovah came, and stood."
10. And called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel This time the child's
name was spoken twice, as though God would say to him, "I have called
you by your name–you are Mine! It was no doubt to make a deeper
impression upon the child's mind that his name was twice called by the
Lord.
10. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for Your servant hears. You observe
that he did not say, "Lord." Perhaps he hardly dared to take that
sacred name upon his lips. He was impressed with such solemn awe at the
name of God that he said, "Speak; for Your servant hears." I wish that
some Christian men of my acquaintance would leave out the Lord's name a
little in their prayers, for we may take the name of the Lord in vain
even in our supplications! When the heathen are addressing their gods,
they are accustomed to repeat their names over and over again. "O Baal,
hear us! O Baal, hear us!" Or, as the Hindu say when they cry, "Ram!
Ram! Ram! Ram!" repeating the name of their god. But as for us, when we
think of the infinitely-glorious One, we dare not needlessly repeat His
name.
11-13. And the LORD said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in
Israel, at which both the ears of everyone that hears it shall tingle.
In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken
concerning his house. When I begin, I will also make an end. For I have
told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he
knows. What a striking expression–"the iniquity which he knows." There
is a good deal of iniquity about us which we do not know–that is a sin
of ignorance. But deep down in his heart Eli knew that he had been
afraid to speak to his sons about their sins and that when he had
spoken, it had been in such lenient terms that they made light of them.
Possibly he had never chastened them when they were young, and he had
not spoken to them sharply when they were older. Remember that he was a
judge–he was a High Priest and he ought not to have allowed his sons
to remain priests at all if they were behaving themselves filthily at
the door of the Tabernacle. He ought to have dealt with them as he
would have dealt with anybody else, but he did not. So God said, "I
have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity
which he knows."
13. Because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not A
man said to me, one day, "I never laid my hand upon my children," and I
answered, "Then I think it is very likely that God will lay His hand
upon you." "Oh," he said, "I have not even spoken sharply to them."
"Then," I replied, "it is highly probable that God will speak very
sharply to you, for it is not God's will that parents should leave
their children unrestrained in their sin."
14. 15. And therefore Ihave sworn unto the house ofEli, that the
iniquity ofEli's house shallnot be purged with sacrifice nor offering
forever. And Samuel lay until the morning. I wonder whether he went to
sleep? I should think not. After such visitation and revelation, it is
a marvel that the child could lie still! One wonders that he did not go
at once to Eli, but then the message was so heavy that he could not be
in a hurry to deliver it. "And Samuel lay until the morning."
15. And opened the doors of the House of the Lord. Dear child! There
are some of us who, if God had spoken to us as He had spoken to Samuel,
would feel a deal too big to go and open doors any more! If God were to
come and speak to some who are poor, they would run away from their
trade. If God were to speak to some who are young, they would give
themselves mighty Sirs! But Samuel meekly accepted the high honor God
had conferred upon him and when he rose in the morning, he went about
his usual duties. "He opened the doors of the house of the Lord."
15. And Samuel feared to show Eli the vision. The old man must have
felt that it was nothing very pleasant. Still, he wanted to know the
Lord's messages. I hope he was in such a frame of mind that he could
say, "Lord, show me the worst of my case! Let me know all Your mind
about it and let me not go on with my eyes bandaged in ignorance of
Your will concerning me."
16-18. Then Eli called Samuel, and said, Samuel, my son. And he
answered, Here am I. And he said, What is the thing that the LORD has
said unto you? I pray you hide it not from me! God do so to you, and
more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that He said
to you. And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him.
Samuel was obeying the Divine command which had not, then, been
given–"He that has My Word, let him speak My
Word faithfully."
18. And Eli said, It is the LORD: let Him do what seems Him good. This
was a grand speech of old Eli. Terrible as it might be, he bowed his
head to the Divine sentence and acknowledged that it was just.
19-21. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and didlet none
ofHis Words fall to the ground. AndallIs-rael from Dan even to
Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a Prophet of the Lord.
And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh; for the LORD revealed Himself to
Samuel in Shiloh by the Word of the LORD.