"God Listens! God Listens!"

Are you listening?

We get asked that question a lot don’t we?

That’s what our high school teachers ask us when we’re nodding off in class. That’s what our boss asks us when we’re looking glazy eyed during that Monday team meeting. That’s what your wife asks you when she’s trying to tell you about her day and you – shoes off and beer in hand – have clearly tuned out to watch the game instead.

We’re often asked, “Are you listening?”  

But it’s not just a question we’re asked: it’s a question we ask, too.

That’s what you ask your doctors when you’re trying to tell them what’s wrong, but they don’t seem to understand. That’s what you parents ask your kids when their eyes are glued to their screens. And yes, it’s even the question we ask Alexa when we originally asked, “Alexa, turn on living room lights” and she responds, “Okay, playing ‘Living on a Prayer’ by Bon Jovi”. We often ask, “Are you listening?”

Listening is a major theme in the first few chapters of 1 Samuel – including the section of 1 Samuel that’s before us today. And in chapter 3, we’re introduced to one character who is asked the question, “Are you listening?” And that is the question God, the Divine Questioner, asks of you and me today.

So, are you listening?

They Weren’t Listening

Our story picks up in the 11th century B.C. We’re at the end of the era of the Judges in Israel’s history, a time of significant moral and spiritual decline among the Israelites, “Where everyone did as he saw fit.”

This moral, spiritual decline was even evident among the priesthood who served at the Tabernacle in Shiloh. Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phineas, two men who also served alongside their father as priests, had an M.O. of stealing from the offerings the people brought to the LORD; not only that, they were widely known as the priests who slept with women who came to the Tabernacle to worship. Just a chapter later, Hophni and Phineas would rip the ark of the covenant from the Tabernacle and parade it superstitiously into battle like a good luck charm.

And Eli? Their father? While his eyes certainly were bad, his ears seemed to work just fine.

He heard about how his sons abused their position as priest to rob the people who came to worship. He heard all about his sons’ sexual exploits. Yet, the Bible gives indication that their behavior wasn’t news to Eli. He knew. In fact, chapter 2 gives the impression that not just Eli’s sons, but Eli as well joined in “getting fat” off the choice portions of meat that his sons were skimming from every sacrifice – the portions that were supposed to go to the LORD.

Eli failed to train up his children in the LORD. He neglected to discipline them and they, in turn, ran all over him. That these two sons presided over worship to the LORD didn’t mean they were listening to what God was saying. Clearly, they weren’t.

So, go figure, when the spiritual leaders of Israel didn’t care about God’s Word and worshipping him, the people followed their lead and tuned out.

And, as a result of their contempt for God’s written, recorded Word, we’re told in the first verse of chapter 3 that the special, unique, direct, prophetic communication from God to people was rare.

That such immediate, prophetic communication from God was rare wasn’t because God ungraciously nor arbitrarily had turned off the tap of communication – as it was because the people didn’t care about what God had to say.

They weren’t listening.

“Speak, LORD; Your Servant Is Listening”

But oddly juxtaposed next to these faithless priests is young Samuel.

According to the Jewish historian, Josephus, Samuel was around 12 years old at this time. But we’re not sure; conceivably, the Hebrew word used to describe his youthfulness could mean he was as old as 17. What we do know is that Samuel was young. And ever since he was a child, he ministered before the LORD under the supervision of Eli. Since childhood, Samuel had served in Shiloh as a priest in training.

And like a faithful priest, Samuel didn’t miss a single custodial duty before he turned in for the night.

He closed the doors of the courtyard; he made sure the lampstand in the Holy Place had trimmed wicks and enough oil to burn throughout the night – just as the priests were instructed by God to do.

Samuel then headed to the outer courtyard to his shelter to call it a day. And that’s when the LORD called him. “Samuel! Samuel!”

God calls to him three times; each time, Samuel thinks it’s Eli who’s calling him, and each time, Samuel reports to Eli, “Here I am; you called me.”

Of course, Eli hadn’t; but Eli knew who had.

“Go and lie down” he told him, “and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’”

And that’s exactly what Samuel did. He ran back to his shelter and waited. This time, however, we’re told the LORD came and stood there when he called out a fourth time, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel, just as he was told, says, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

God Still Speaks

Wouldn’t that be awesome if God spoke to us?

Wouldn’t it be awesome if God stood before us night and day and poured out his heart to us?

Well, guess what? He does. In God’s Word.

The Bible.

39 books in the Old Testament. 27 in the New.

From the opening words in Genesis to the closing words of Revelation, there your God speaks to you.

No, God’s Word doesn’t work like some magic eight ball you shake when you want to know what kind of car you should buy or what profession you should pursue; after all, our relationship with God is far more personal than that.

No, God doesn’t talk to us immediately as he did to Samuel, but he talks to us nevertheless – though intermediately – through his Word. There, in God’s Word, he pours out his wisdom to us who desperately need it to navigate life. There, in His Word, he gives us timeless, guiding principles to inform our decisions so they are good and God-pleasing.

There, in His Word, our God teaches, rebukes, corrects, and trains us – so we are fully equipped for the vocational callings he has prepared for us.

So, are you listening?

Are You Listening?

If we’re honest, there’s a temptation to see this – God’s written Word – as something less than what Samuel experienced. And so, we look at this book and think, “What good could come from reading this?”

We neglect reading it devotionally with our kids.

We neglect to meditate on it with our spouse – let alone by ourselves.

We’re literally living at a time when there are no shortages of ways for us to consume God’s Word. We can attend Bible studies from our living room couch! Worship services are on demand and can be watched again and again wherever you are, whenever you want!

And yet, even then, we still find ways to say, “My schedule is too busy.”

We know, as Christians, we are equally called to share the good news of eternal life in Jesus – actively and intentionally with those around us. And instead, we’ll hoard it or hide it from them – clutching it like pearls, but pearls we seldom wear.

Our sinful nature sees God’s Word, and busily devises ways to devalue it.

And while our Bibles sit unopened on shelves collecting dust, we, like trees, begin to feel parched and withered.

Those existential questions God graciously answers in and through his Word now are staring back at us again - questions of meaning, value, good and evil, purpose, origin, identity, and destiny – and we’re left speechless. We scratch our heads trying to make heads or tails of what is going on in our lives and in our broken, fallen world.

But instead of going back to sound answers in God’s Word, we run to Google.

We pour over horoscopes.

We get more excited opening a fortune cookie than a Bible.

We put stock in karma, thinking that, if I just do the right amount of good, then good things will happen in my life.

We cross our fingers and “wish upon a star” instead of taking God up on his offer to come to him in prayer.

We look to haphazard online personality tests to tell us we’re uniquely and wonderfully made, when God has already told us as much in his Word!

We derive self-worth from how many likes we got on our profile picture – all the while, our maker and Creator reminds us in his Word he’s the only one who knows how many hairs are on our head.

In seasons of worry, fear, and doubt, we ask what or why of God. And when it seems to us like we’re getting nothing but silence, we ask, “God, are you even listening?”

But maybe the problem isn’t that God’s not listening to us. Maybe the problem is, we aren’t listening to him.

“God Listens! God Listens!”

Do you know what the name Samuel means?

It means “Heard by God”.

In chapter 1, we’re introduced to Hannah, a woman who, after years and years of infertility, prays - with eyes full of tears - that God would listen to her and give her just one son.

And God did hear her cries, and he, in his grace, did give her a son! God listened to her! And, as she vowed, she gave that son right back to the LORD – but not before she gave him the name Samuel – because God heard her. Every year she would go up to Shiloh and see her growing son, she’d be reminded that the LORD, the God of the promise, was a God who hears.

That God, dear Christians, hears you, too – when you’re hurt, scared, weary, or frightened. Your God is a great listener!

But the LORD, the God of the promise, doesn’t just listen; he acts.

As God hears the dialogue unfold between Eve and Satan in the Garden of Eden, God had already devised the rescue plan. God would send a greater son than Samuel – a greater prophet, priest, and king.

That greater someone was the Son of God: Jesus.

Even young Samuel knew that sin required a blood sacrifice to be removed. Forgiveness required the shedding of blood. So, Jesus, our Great High Priest, would spill his blood on a cross for us to wipe away all of our guilt and shame and, in exchange, give us his perfection. God would die to give us life!  

But the real miracle isn’t that God hears us and listens.

The real miracle is that we hear God and listen.

And that miracle – the creation of saving faith in us – is something our gracious God had to work in our hearts through his Word! We did not choose him; he chose us!

As Paul writes, “For God who said, “Let the light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.” The same Word of God that spoke the heavens and earth into being is the same Word that spoke faith into our hearts. The same Incarnate Word of God who spoke life into a man four-days-dead is the same God who speaks life into us – who were born spiritually dead!

Don’t wonder if your God is listening to you: he is.

And you don’t have to take my word for it. God says so himself!

God’s Word isn’t some mere compilation of stories where God talks to other people.

You were part of God’s intended audience!

Here in God’s Word, this is how God talks to you. Not later, but today!

God’s Word is powerful and effective! Because there, in God’s Word, God is present.

God stands before you in his Word – be it written, spoken, or personified in the person of Jesus. Here our God pours out his heart and unfolds his amazing story of the great lengths he would go to rescue you – because he loves you. Here God tells you exactly who he is. A God who listens.

May that God, through his Word, work in our hearts a daily response like that of Samuel’s. “Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.”