I Samuel 3

Turn your Bibles this morning to the book of 1 Samuel, if you would, chapter 3.

! I grew up in church. It's kind of a story that all children are told about God calling Samuel.

As I was preparing this week to preach, I really had the desire and felt led to share from the Old Testament. Oftentimes we forget there's an Old Testament.

But I love the Old Testament. It's oftentimes more difficult to preach from because it's not as... Some of the truths in it aren't as obvious. You know, they'll kind of give a story and the reader kind of has to understand the consequences.

And so there'll be a story and there'll be consequences and you get the truth out of that. And so I was really impressed. It was impressed upon me to kind of come from historical narrative this morning.

And I hope that we were blessed by it. I'm going to go ahead and read. I'm actually going to read the entire chapter of 3. And then we will dive into the rest of the message.

Starting in verse 1. It says, The boy Samuel served the Lord in Eli's presence. In those days the word of the Lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread. One day Eli, whose eyesight was failing, was lying in his room.

Before the lamp of God had gone out, Samuel was lying down in the tabernacle of the Lord where the ark of God was located. Then the Lord called Samuel and he answered, Here I am. He ran to Eli and said, Here I am, you called me.

I didn't call Eli, replied. Go and lie down. So he went and lay down. Once again the Lord called Samuel. Samuel got up, went to Eli and said, Here I am, you called me.

I didn't call my son, he replied. Go and lie down. Now Samuel had not yet experienced the Lord because the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Once again for the third time the Lord called Samuel.

He got up, went to Eli and said, Here I am, you called me. Then Eli understood that the Lord was calling the boy. He told Samuel, Go and lie down. If he calls you, say, Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.

So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The Lord came, stood there, and called as before, Samuel, Samuel. Samuel responded, Speak, for your servant is listening.

The Lord said to Samuel, Samuel, I am about to do something in Israel that everyone who hears about it will shudder. On that day I will carry out against Eli everything I said about his family from beginning to end.

I told him that I am going to judge his family forever because of the iniquity he knows about. His sons are defiling the sanctuary, and he has not stopped them. Therefore I have sworn to Eli's family, The iniquity of Eli's family will never be wiped out by either sacrifice or offering.

Samuel lay down into the morning, then he opened the doors of the Lord's house. He was afraid to tell Eli the vision, But Eli called him and said, Samuel, my son. Here I am, answered Samuel.

What was the message he gave you? Eli asked. Don't hide it from me. May God punish you and do so severely if you hide anything from me that he told you. So Samuel told him everything and did not hide anything from him.

Eli responded, He is the Lord. He will do what he thinks is good. Samuel grew and the Lord was with him, And let nothing he said prove false. All Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was a confirmed prophet of the Lord.

The Lord continued to appear in Shiloh because there he revealed himself to Samuel by his word. Now, the best way to understand really any scripture I was taught is the context.

The context is often the message. And so knowing the history behind scripture, Knowing the scripture that surrounds the passage that we're dealing with, Is very important in understanding.

And so first of all this morning, I'd like to kind of bring you up to speed As to really the book of Samuel, Or the books of Samuel. First and second Samuel. First and second Samuel, It was originally actually only one book.

In the earliest Jewish manuscripts, It was a single book. It was the third book of what was called the former prophets. The Septuagint, When the Greek translation came out of the Old Testament, When they translated the Old Testament into Greek, The Septuagint actually split it into two books for the first time.

And they were labeled first and second kingdoms. And they were considered Deuteronomic history. And basically, The books that are considered in Deuteronomic history, Are books that kind of pit rulers, Leaders, And the people of Israel, Against Deuteronomic law.

And so it'll give stories, Based on what these people did, And then it will kind of weigh them, Against the law, To really see how they did. And so it's part of that, And it would weigh their obedience, Or their disobedience, To the law of Moses.

Now, As far as the date, And the authorship, The ancient Hebrew texts, Actually give authorship, Incomplete, To Samuel. Modern scholars, Are rather doubtful of it, Because, If you read through Samuel, Notice that Samuel actually dies, In chapter 25, Of 1 Samuel.

And so, We have a whole other Samuel, After that, And so it's, It's probably not likely, That he would have actually, Written all the material in it, Though he would have, Contributed much of it, And they actually, Contribute most of the material, To disciples and followers, Of Samuel.

Scholars believe, That it was written in several stages, And some of the material, Is very old. If you read in Samuel, Read the account of Saul, You have the story, About Saul and his donkeys, And how they're lost, And he travels across Israel, Looking for them, And in the story, He prophesies, And it's almost this, It carries this kind of, Sense of folklore, With it.

And so that's considered, Some very old material, Out of Samuel. But if you look in, Like chapter 8, You'll see that there's, What we consider new material, And there's kind of, This critique of monarchy. And so there's this, Critique of monarchy, And so it leads scholars, To believe, That that kind of material, Is probably people, Looking back on the monarchy, Of Israel, And critiquing it.

And so there's old material, There's new material, Most critical scholars, Would date the actual, Final composition, Of first and second Samuel, To around the time, Of the exile. And that would have been, Somewhere around, 597 BC, During the exile to Babylon, Some conservative scholars, Still hold to an earlier date, Of during the reign of Rehoboam, He was one of the kings, And that would have been, In the 900s BC.

And so there's, Some difference of opinions, On when it was written. The book is pretty difficult, Really to translate. I'm not a, A language expert, By any means.

I can do the odd word study, And that's about it. And so, The people who are into the languages, Understand, First and second Samuel, And Jeremiah, Are actually the, Most difficult books, In the Old Testament, As far as interpretation.

Part of that reason is, How Samuel is written. It's written in narrative, For one thing, Which makes it more difficult, To interpret. And the second thing is, It's very, Very, Old style of Hebrew.

The writing is, Actually the spelling of the Hebrew, In first and second Samuel, Is actually done, According to pronunciation, As opposed to standard Hebrew spelling. And so, It presents, Scholars with difficulty, In interpretation.

As far as, What kind, Of, Genre, We would consider, First and second Samuel to be, We really consider it to be, Historical narrative. It's historical in nature, It's not necessarily, A doctrinal book, Such as, A lot of the letters of Paul, And a lot of the books, In the New Testament.

But, That's not to say, That we cannot get doctrinal truths, Out of the book. First and foremost, Samuel, Is really a hero, A hero story. And the hero story, Comes in three stages.

The first stage, Is the beginning of Samuel, To about chapter eight. The hero is actually Samuel. He's introduced early on, His mother Hannah, Is praying, That a child will be given to her, And if, If she does have a child, She'll dedicate him, To the temple, And so, Or to the tabernacle, Sorry.

And so we have, Samuel, Through the first eight chapters. After chapter eight, We move into, The hero story of Saul. Saul, The hero story of Saul, Goes through about chapter 15, And his story, Is actually the only, Undisputed, And fully elaborated, Tragedy, In the Bible.

Everyone agrees, That his, Is a literary tragedy. And then after that, In chapter 16, All the way through, Second Samuel 24, David becomes a hero.

And we are all familiar, With David, Probably, Not probably, The greatest king, Of Israel, Outside of course, Of, King Jesus. And so that's kind of, Where we're coming from, As far as the genre, Of the book.

When we get into, The historical context, Kind of what's happening here, As we read, In Samuel chapter 3, What's happening, Is a time of transition. This is actually, Israel transitioning, Out of the time, Of the judges.

You can read, All about the book, All about the judges, In the book of judges, But that is kind of, Biblical context, They're transitioning, From a loose, Tribal confederacy, Of these tribes of Israel, Toward a monarchy, Which is what Samuel, Will usher in, When he anoints Saul.

God uses Samuel, In this book, In kind of a threefold way, And it's interesting, The parallel, That we see with the New Testament. Samuel is actually used, As a prophet, A priest, And a judge.

He's considered, The final judge of Israel. When we get to the New Testament, We read about another person, In the Hebrews, Who was used as a prophet, A priest, And a king. And so Samuel, Ushers in an earthly kingdom, For Israel, With a monarchy, And another threefold, Jesus, Ushers in, His heavenly kingdom.

And so there's parallels, To that, Samuel is somewhat, A Jesus character, In the Old Testament. As far as, The date of when, All this is happening, Probably somewhere, In the 10th to 12th century, B.C.

And so, That's kind of, The historical context, Of what we're working in. There's also, The biblical context, You know, What biblical context, Are we working in? We know that, It's the time of the judges. And probably, The best verse of context, Prior to this, Comes out of the final verse, Of judges, 21-25, It says, In those days, There was no king in Israel, And everyone did, What he wanted.

And so, That's kind of, The time period, You're in. There's no central rule. Everyone's doing, What they want. They're not really, Honoring God. Also, In the biblical context, We see, In the previous chapter, We see that, The priesthood is corrupted.

We read about that, In chapter 2, About Eli and his sons, And how they've desecrated, The altar of God. And then, Following this, Following this passage, This story, Samuel will come into his own, As a prophet, And mouthpiece of God.

And we actually read that, In the final chapter, Of our passage this morning, In verse 19, It said, Samuel grew, And the Lord was with him, And he fulfilled, Everything Samuel prophesied.

And so, That's kind of the context, Around what we're studying, This morning. And so, We understand the literary, The historical, And biblical context. And so, Let's actually dive, Into the text now. The text of Samuel, Or 1st Samuel, Chapter 3.

And the first thing we learn, In this text, Is that a hero is needed. There needs to be a hero, Because times are tough in Israel. It says, In those days, The word of the Lord was rare, And prophetic visions, Were not widespread.

The first verse of chapter 3, Kind of sets the stage for us. It's setting the stage, That things are bad, Things are dismal. They should not, Now, Some scholars, Take this as, The fact that they didn't have, The word of God.

That wouldn't be, Absolutely true, Because they did have, The writings of Moses. They did have the law. And so, It's not that there was, No word for them to read. It was the fact, That the word of God, Was not being heard, And it was not being spoken, By the priesthood.

There was no prophet. The prophet was the voice of God, And without prophets, You didn't have the voice of God, In this time. In fact, All through the judges, The period of the judges, You only have two prophets mentioned, And only one of them is named.

In Judges 4, 4, You have Deborah, The prophetess. That's the only one named. And then in Judges 6, 8, There's an unnamed prophet, That is mentioned, Prophesying the word of God.

And so, Everyone is doing, What is right, In their own eyes. And so, Here the stage is set. The story begins, Here in chapter 3, And we understand, That things are depressing, Heaven is silent.

Now, That's not unlike today. That's rather familiar, For some of us here. It seems like the word of God, Is rare in our day as well. In fact, J.I. Packer says this, He says, At no time, Perhaps since the Reformation, Have Protestant Christians, As a body, Been so unsure, Tentative, And confused, As to what they should believe, And do.

Certainty about the great issues, Of the Christian faith, And conduct, Is lacking all along the line. The outside observer, Sees us as staggering on, From gimmick to gimmick, And stunt to stunt, Like so many drunks in a fog, Not knowing at all, Where we are, Or which way, We should be going.

Alright, People today, Are searching for a word, But, Either, Either it's not being spoken, Or really, They're not willing, To hear. And so just like today, Israel, During this period, Finds themselves, In a time, Where the word of God, Is rare.

They are under the judgment, Of God, He is being silent, Because of the idolatry, Of their nation. And so that is the setting, That is the stage, And then we move into verse 3, It says this, Before the lamp of God, Had gone out, Samuel was lying down, In the tabernacle of the Lord, Where the ark of God, Was located.

That's important, Make sure you realize, It says, Where the ark of God, Was located, But we'll deal with that, In a second. Verses 2 and 3, Kind of give us some clues, As to location, As to setting.

We understand, What's going on in Israel, But what's going on, With Eli and Samuel? Now the words, Where the ark of God, Was located, Shouldn't lead you to believe, That somehow, Samuel and Eli, Are sleeping next to the ark of God.

That's not the point, The ark of God, Reside in the holy of holies, And that would not, They would have been, Immediately struck dead, For trespassing, In the holy of holies.

And so that's not the point, The point that it's saying is, Eli and Samuel are living, Where God is, The physical representation, Of his presence is. That is where the ark of God is.

And so Eli and Samuel, Are living in this, Most likely they're living, In the outer court, Of the tabernacle. There were rooms, Set up there, For the priests and Levites, That they could live in, While they performed, Their duties.

And so this is where they're living, It says that the lamp, Had not yet gone out. And that's kind of a clue, As to what time it is. Now in ancient Israel, In the tabernacle, They would light lamps, At sunset.

And there would be enough, Oil in that lamp, To burn until sunrise, Where either it will have, Extinguished itself, Or Samuel, That would have been his job, Would come along, And extinguish the lamp.

And so we know, When it says, That it had not yet, Burned out, We kind of understand, That this, Probably very, Very early morning, The sun has not risen yet, But it's still, The dead of night.

Now, The reason these are important, Is actually, Actually an interesting thing. We know that the human body, Sleeps in patterns. We have cycles of sleep.

And these patterns, Are identified, By the types, And prevalence, Of brain waves. And so we know, What kind of stage of sleep, The human body is in, During those brain waves.

During the fifth stage of sleep, We have this thing, Called REM, Or rapid eye movement. That's when you're dreaming. When you're dreaming, In the fifth stage of sleep.

On average, REM occurs, Several times, Throughout the night. And the first time, It usually occurs, Is 90 minutes, After you fell asleep. And so that's the first time, That REM occurs. And you will go through, These stages, All through the night.

And so you will enter REM, And then you will leave it. And then you'll enter REM, And you'll leave it. And every time you enter REM, Scientists tell us, That it's stronger, Than the previous time. And so the first time, Might be very short.

And the second time, A little longer. And then however many times. But at its strongest, Would be, This time that Samuel is in. And so, That would lead us to believe, That Samuel is probably, One, Very deeply asleep.

And two, It's very likely, He's in a very deep, Dreamlike state. And so he's deep in sleep, He's maybe dreaming, And is in this setting, That God chooses, To interact with Samuel, That God chooses, To speak to Samuel.

And verse four, It says this, It says, Then the Lord, Called Samuel. Now this, Is probably, The very most important verse, In all this passage.

And understand this passage. The Lord, Called Samuel. Now we know that the outlook, In Israel is dim. There, The word of God is rare. There are no prophetic visions.

So the outlook is dim. There's no prophet, To speak the word of God. The leadership, The priesthood is corrupted. They, Even they have desecrated the temple. And it is in this moment, That the Lord, Calls Samuel.

It is, A verse, Of hope. Hope. We have had no hope, Up to this point. And now we have hope. God is going to intervene, In the life of Samuel, And by extension, The history, Of Israel.

Now the word called here, Is an interesting Hebrew word. The word here, Really implies, An invite, Or summoning. But more specifically, It implies, A summoning or invite, By name.

And we get that, Out of this passage, Because it says, The Lord said, Samuel. So he's inviting, Or summoning by name. It implies also, A call to serve God, For a very particular, Purpose.

It's not unlike, Probably, The best, I guess metaphor, We would have in our day, For the way this word, Is being used, Would be presidential nominations.

You know, In our day, The political parties, Come together, And they're big, Political rallies, And they will nominate, At their convention, The person, The person that they believe, Is their best chance, At president.

So the conventions, Come together, They vote by ballot, And they will nominate, The president, The candidate, Who will run for the president, On behalf of the party. And that is what God, Is doing here.

Just like we nominate, Presidents for a very specific purpose, Of being presidents, God is nominating Samuel, For a very specific purpose, Of being his prophet.

It's the very same thing. It is here that God calls, His final judge. Samuel will be the final judge, As we stated earlier, For Israel. And it is here, That God begins to unite, His people, First under a prophet, And eventually under kings.

Up to this point, History views them, As a tribal confederacy. Biblical historians, Would view them as a theocracy. As God as their head.

But up to this point, There's not a lot of unity. And so God is going to use Samuel, To drive forward, The unity of the people, Of Israel. Again, We have a parallel of this, In the New Testament.

Samuel is considered, The last judge of Israel. When we read in the New Testament, We read about John the Baptist. John the Baptist, Was considered, The last prophet of Israel. And so Samuel, Anoints the greatest king, Of the Old Testament.

And David, And John the Baptist, Will baptize, The greatest king, Of the world. Who will usher in, The kingdom of God. And so there is another parallel, With the New Testament.

And so, The stage is set. The outlook of Israel, Is dismal. But God has called, Samuel. He's intervened, In the life of Samuel.

And if we move to verse 7, We read this. Now Samuel, Had not yet experienced the Lord, Because the word of the Lord, Had not yet been, Revealed to him.

That's interesting. Because what we do know, Of Samuel is probably, Around 12 years old. He's still a young boy. Around 12 years old, At this time. But we do know, That he was dedicated, To the tabernacle.

And so as a toddler, At some point, He has lived in the tabernacle, Since then. And so how does someone, Who's lived in the tabernacle, We read in chapter 2, That several times, That he served the Lord.

How does someone, Who lives, In the very physical presence of God, For the Israelites, Not know, The voice, Of the Lord. Now some scholars, Take this passage, And I don't think it's, You know, It's their opinion.

But they would say, This means that Samuel, Didn't follow God. He was not a follower of God, At this point. But I really think, That's kind of reading, New Testament, Into the Old Testament. That's not what it's getting at. What this verse is doing, Is it's explaining a couple things.

One, It's explaining, Or it's giving proof, To how rare the word of God was. It's not just, The common people, Who aren't hearing God. It's not just that they lack a prophet. Even the priests, And the people who live, And breathe the very presence, Of the physical manifestation, Of God, Have no idea, What he sounds like.

So first, It's a proof of that. Second, It's evidence, Against Eli. You say, How is that evidence against Eli? Well, Eli was in charge, Of Samuel's upbringing.

And so if Eli, Is the priest of God, Why has he not taught Samuel, How to hear God? Why would he not do that? And so it serves, As evidence, And what it does, Is it binds, This passage together.

And so we know, What the outlook in Israel is. We know, That God is calling Samuel. There is hope. But now it's going to bind, First, Or, First Samuel chapter 3, Verse 7, Basically takes those two aspects, And binds them together, And we're going to learn, What the rest of this chapter, Is about.

And so in verse 8, It says this, Then Eli understood, That the Lord was calling, The boy. Something about, The summoning. Something about, What Samuel was telling Eli here, Caused Eli to stop and think, And realize, That this had to be God.

Now, We do have to give credit to Eli. Understanding, Yes, He was a terrible father. He allowed his sons, Who should have been protecting the priesthood, And continuing the priesthood, And honoring God.

He allowed them to dishonor God, And to dishonor the tabernacle. And so he had failings as a father, But there is redemption in this verse, Because Eli does understand something.

He does understand, That God, Is calling Samuel. And so Eli, Coaches him, And tells him, What he should say, To the Lord, Next time he is called.

And this is what it says in verse 10. It says, The Lord came, Stood there, And called as before, Samuel, Samuel.

Now we know, That verse 4, It's a very important verse, Because God's calling Samuel. But this calling, Is slightly different. The description is different, In that it says, The Lord came, And stood there.

Now that's important. Why is it important? Well it's different than before. It's not just this voice, That Eli, You know, Samuel's, What was that? Maybe it was blind Eli, I need to go help him.

Right? It's not that, That's not what's happening here. Instead, God is making himself present, Suddenly, In Samuel's life, A physical presence.

And so it's important, Because this passage, Is actually used, By a lot of people, Who hold to a dream theology. And that God still, The revelation of God, Can still come, Not out of the Bible, But out of dreams.

And so they'll take this passage, And say, Well he's in the deepest sleep of the night, He's in a dreamlike state, And so God speaks to him, In this dream, It's this invisible voice, And Samuel dreams, This revelation from God, And so they give credence, To their own dreams, That it's somehow, Revelation from God, But that's not, It's not a proof text, For dream theology, They would be wrong, In saying that, What it's saying, Is very opposite, If God comes, Stands there, And then calls Samuel, And there must be something, Very physical, About this, But also verifies Samuel, As a prophet, Because Samuel now, Has a physical relationship, And he hears the word of God, And so now, It verifies him, To be able to be the mouthpiece, Of that same God, And later on in verse 10, It says, Samuel says this, And this is what Eli, Had coached him to say, He said, Speak, For your servant,

Is listening, Now verse 4, Stands as the most important part, Of this passage, Then I would say, That this verse here, Verse 10, Is probably the most, Important verse, For your life this morning, Samuel's response, To God, So Samuel, Samuel coached by this, Aging and going blind Eli, Answers with really, The only acceptable answer, Speak, For your servant, Is listening, And this is what God, Chooses to share with Samuel, And it's not a, Especially, Wonderful, And if you haven't heard, The voice of God ever, Finally, Like hey, That's God speaking to you, Well this is wonderful, Good, I'm glad that God, You know, Visions are rare, The word of God is rare, Finally, The God of the universe, Wants to speak to me, And what does the God of the universe, Say to him, Well, We read about that,

Starting in verse 11, Says, The Lord said to Samuel, I'm about to do something in Israel, That everyone who hears about it, Will shudder, On that day, I will carry out against Eli, Everything I said about his family, From beginning to end, I told him that I'm going to judge his family forever, Because of the iniquity, He knows about, His sons are defiling the sanctuary, And he has not stopped them, Therefore I have sworn to Eli's family, The iniquity of Eli's family, Will never be wiped out, By either sacrifice, Or offering, I mean what a, Blessing, You've never heard the voice of God, You've been, Going through the motions, He's been in church all his life, Church, Tabernacle, He's been around all his life, And finally the first word he hears, Is judgment on the guy, That's been taking care of him all his life, And the man that he probably looks up to, And the man that he really, Probably because of, The onset of blindness, Has been taken care of, As well,

And so that's the first words, That God tells him, God's judgment, Is coming upon Eli, And his family, And by extension, It's also coming upon Israel, He's going to do something, That all Israel, Will shudder, And so what does he do, Does he get up, Like oh man, I've got to tell Eli, This is bad news, So he gets up, Runs into Eli's room, Eli wake up, This is what God's told me, Nope, Says he lies back down, And goes to sleep, Either this guy had no sympathy, Or he was scared, Have you ever had bad news, You've got bad news, That you have to tell someone, And the last thing you want to do, Is see that person, Because once you see that person, You have to tell them the bad news, That's kind of the case here, Samuel has very bad news for Eli, Now we're going to learn, That Eli already knew this news, It had already been shared with him,

But Samuel, Man, Eli's going to be judged, What am I going to do, And so he wakes up in the morning, And he runs straight to Eli, And tells him, No he doesn't do that either, He wakes up in the morning, Goes about his duties, He's like putting out lamps, Opening the doors to the tabernacle, Probably doing anything, But, Going to Eli, Avoiding him at all costs, If it was here, He'd be picking up crickets in the morning, Because that seems to be the only thing, If we could like fill these pews with crickets, That would be amazing, I think there was a pile of them, Outside the gym this morning, Alright, So that's what he'd be doing here, But he's doing everything, He's avoiding Eli at all costs, And so finally Eli's, Hey, Samuel, Come here, Quit avoiding me, What did God tell you?

And if you keep anything from me, You can be punished, Hope God punishes you, If you keep anything from me, And so Samuel, Samuel has to tell him, And so Samuel tells him everything, The Bible tells us, And this is Eli's response, And it really is a glimpse at, Though flawed, At the character of Eli, And he says, He is the Lord, He will do what he thinks is good, Now to really understand the significance, Of what Eli is saying here, You have to look back, At chapter 2, In chapter 2, Really the kind of same thing said, What happens is an unknown, Starting in verse 27, An unknown prophet, It doesn't, Or unnamed, Sorry, Some unnamed man of God, Comes to Eli, And shares with him, What's going to happen, And here's what he tells him, In verse 30, He says, Therefore the Lord, The God of Israel, Says, This is what he's saying to Eli, Although I said your family,

And your ancestral house, Would walk before me forever, The Lord now says no longer, I will honor those who honor me, But those who despise me, Will be disgraced, The days are coming, When I will cut off your strength, And that strength of your ancestral family, So that none in your family, Will reach old age, You will see distress, In the place of worship, In spite of all that is good in Israel, And no one in your family, Will ever again, Reach old age, Any man from your family, I do not cut off from my altar, Will bring grief, And sadness to you, All your descendants, Will die violently, This will be the sign, That will come to you, Concerning your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, Both of them will die, On the same day, And so Eli has already heard this, And it's verified now, By Samuel, Before it was just, An unnamed man of God, And now Samuel's like, You remember God, Was speaking to me last night, This is what he had to say,

There's judgment, Coming on you, And Eli answers, He's the Lord, He'll do what he thinks is good, And that's, He may have failed as a father, We know he failed as a father, And God's judging him for it, But even in that, He's humble, And he understands his place, Before a mighty, And a holy God, So apparently, Eli, Despite his shortcomings, Was a pretty good man, So what happens, Well, You're reading the rest of the passage, Starting in verse 19, It says, And we know from the rest of the story, That God blesses the faithfulness, Of Samuel, And he uses him to, To usher in, A time of prosperity, And overall faithfulness, From the people of Israel, Now we do have to get through King Saul, King Saul obviously, I guess he started strong, But he doesn't end strong, But when we get to David, The greatest king of Israel,

It's a time of prosperity, And faithfulness, It's ushered in, And so what about us, What kind of application, Can we make to our own lives, Because that's really, The duty of the Christian, You can study the word of God, And you can know all, The things about it, And all the context surrounding it, And the history, And I love all those things, But if you never apply it to your life, If it doesn't, Make some sort of life change in you, Then it's really worthless, For you, And so what kind of application, Can we bring, There was a guy, Back in, I think 940 to 989, He lived, His name was Henry III, Henry III, And his nickname was, The Younger, I don't know why it was the Younger, I guess he was probably younger, Than Henry II, But Henry III, Ruled Bavaria, Now technically, Henry III was a duke, But, They decided to, Call him a king anyway, And so Henry III, He was the Duke of Bavaria,

They referred to him as the King of Bavaria, And Henry III was known as a God-fearing man, And so Henry III got upset one day, And he felt like, Everything about ruling a kingdom, Kept him from what was important in life, And that was serving God, All of the daily pressures, Of being a king, Kept him from reading his Bible, Kept him from doing service for God, And so, He gets sick of it, And he goes to the monastery there, To a guy named Prior Richard, And he says, I would join your order, Take the vows of celibacy, Take the vows of poverty, And give up my kingship, Because I want to serve God, And so Prior Richard's quote is saying this, He says, Do you understand, That the pledge here, Is obedience?

And so Henry III says, Yes, I understand that, I'll be obedient, And Prior says, It'll be very difficult, For you to be obedient, Because you've been a king, You've ruled men, And so Henry III says, Whatever you would have me do, Whatever God tells you, To tell me what to do, I will do it, No questions asked, And this is what the Prior answers him, He says, Go back to your throne, And serve faithfully, In the place God has put you, And Henry III is known, As a man who feared God, A saintly king, He was one of the greatest rulers of Bavaria, Because he learned, First and foremost, Obedience, If you read ahead in Samuel, Come to the story of Saul, Saul is commanded by God, Through Samuel, To carry out, God's judgment on a people group, And he says to, Kill the women, The children, All the cattle, It's a very difficult story, So Saul goes, To carry out this judgment,

That God has, Told him to do, And instead of, Doing what God tells him to do, He brings back the king, Brings back the choiceless livestock, Brings back some of the people, And Samuel confronts him, He's like, Why do I hear livestock?

And who is this king? And Saul says, Hey, I brought back livestock, To sacrifice to God, Isn't that nice? But it wasn't what he was told to do, So we have this famous verse, In chapter 15, Verse 22, Then Samuel said, Does the Lord take pleasure, In burnt offerings, And sacrifices, As much, As in obeying the Lord?

Look, To obey, Is better than sacrifice, To pay attention, Is better, Than the fat of rams, Samuel's life, Was defined by obedience, Starting here in chapter 3, When he hears the voice of the Lord, For the first time, Defined by obedience, Not sacrifice, But also, It says, Pay attention, Pay attention, Pay attention to what God's saying, Was Samuel paying attention?

Yep, I can tell you, That it's hard to wake me up, Early in the morning, Like when Tony, I first got married, Or when she first started, Working at EMT, She'd leave early in the morning, And it would wake me up, But I got used to it, And I was like, Now I don't even remember her, Leaving half the time, Even though I might say something to her, I don't remember it, Because I'm tired, I'm asleep, I'm in my deepest, Dreamlike state, When she leaves, And Samuel's in that same state, And yet he hears the voice of God, A voice that he's never heard before, A voice that he, He doesn't have any idea who it is, He thinks it's Eli, But he's paying attention, He hears that voice, And then he obeys that voice, Samuel's a picture of obedience, Obedience to God, And really obedience to Eli, He would be, Obeyed both authorities in his life, And God blesses him for it, And so in this story, God replaces, A priest, For his disobedience, If you keep reading,

You will learn that, Everything that Samuel says, And that that unnamed man of God says, Comes to pass, Samuel's sons die on the same day, Or I'm sorry, Eli's sons die on the same day, And God replaces a priest, Because of his disobedience, And he blesses Samuel, And uses him to usher in, Really the lineage of Jesus Christ, Because of his obedience, So this morning I encourage you, Be obedient, Be obedient where you're at, But be obedient to the Lord God, And pay attention so that you can hear that.