Praise God that He opened my eyes. I just wanted to share something that I "heard" and heard yesterday at our men's Bible study BOB (Brothers of Boaz).
So our one and only Chuck Robb was teaching, and he ended up in 1 Samuel chapter 3. The call of Samuel as a prophet of God. While Chuck was teaching I was shown something very interesting. Through a combination of R.C Sproul's notes, and through God speaking to me I was shown something interesting. I thought you'd all like to know, but this post was made without any copying and pasting haha.
1 Samuel 3:1-2
Now the young man Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. And the Word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision. At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place.
Ooooh an interesting passage clearly it has some hidden meaning behind it. Perhaps. Here are a few things God showed me. This was a time in Israel's history that was very dark spiritually. There was evil even in the priesthood (1 Samuel 2) and it was a very sad time. But what does the reader choose to point out about this time? That there was no frequent vision. Now R.C Sproul told me through his commentary that vision in the Hebrew word has an emphasis towards the audible speaking of the Lord, not necessarily a visual. So people were just not hearing from God. God was silent, or they weren't listening one of the two. I think perhaps it was a nasty combination of the two, but God was certainly justified to not speak to the people, and I think at the same time the people are completely guilty of just ignoring God and His Word. The priests were deliberately breaking God's law, and they had no care. They were not listening, so even if God was speaking I don't think anyone would notice.
Now the second thing that I find interesting is that Eli's vision is gauged here. Now I may be over spiritualistic with this idea, but we see that Eli's physical vision may have been bad, but we also know that his spiritual vision was pretty bad also. I will quickly sum this up but in 1 Samuel 3:3-9 Eli was totally ignorant that God might have been calling Samuel.
So this is a time of spiritual handicaps. The people were deaf, and blind to God. They could not discern what was from Him, and when He was speaking to them. Now here is the reason I am sharing this with you. How is your spiritual health? Is your spiritual sight dimming, can you no longer hear God speaking to you through His Word?
Really think about it, God wants a relationship with you, He wants to speak to you, are you listening to Him? Or are you spiritually blind and deaf to Him? Lets look at a good contrast to Eli.
1 Samuel 3:3, 10
The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark was. (Vs 10) And the Lord came and stood, calling as other times, "Samuel, Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for your servant hears."
What a contrast! What contrast you might as? I'd like to first point out one thing before I spiritualize this section. That the lamp of God being lit was a time marker. Now I would like to make this super spiritual. There was still a light of God shining. God's light in this dark world will still shine. That light at this time was Samuel. He was being called to shine God's word as a prophet to the people. God wants to use us to shine His word, but if we can't hear God ourselves how will we tell others what He says in His word? Let me show you the contrast between Samuel & Eli. Where was Eli spending that night? It says, "(Eli) was laying down in his own place." I added the bold in case you wondered if that was in the Bible. I added the bold print, but the Bible tells us that Eli was in his own place. Now where was Samuel (I am going to add bold print for my bold statements. Bad joke.) "Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was." Whoa... So different... Eli was sitting in his own place, all set up for him, and all the things he wanted huh? Where was Samuel? He was in the temple of the Lord, where the ark God was. So Eli was sitting in his own way. Samuel was sitting in the presence of God. Do I really need to say more? Of Course.
Where are you? Are you sitting in your own problems? Are you sitting in your own comfortable schedule? Are you laying and resting in your own life? Or are you laying in the presence of God? Are you right next to the ark of today His Word and resting all your cares in that? Are you resting in the temple, the presence, the glory, the majesty, the greatness, the goodness of God? Or are you in your own place?
See I think this was the big difference. Samuel was there with God constantly, he was sleeping in the temple, and I don't remember there being beds in that section of the temple. And Samuel heard God's voice. He heard what God wanted to say, while Eli was dim of sight and could not hear God. Eli wasn't listening and I don't know if he cared to listen.
So are you hearing from God? Is God's word alive to you? If not I would really consider examining your spiritual life. The first sign we hear of Israel's spiritual deadness is that they did not hear from God. If your not hearing from God than examine yourselves. Are you in your own place? Are you in you own comforts? Or are you resting in God's?
