1 Samuel 3:10 And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for your servant hears. I. AS EXPRESSING THE CRY OF THE HUMAN HEART FOR A REVELATION OF THE DIVINE. — Sooner or later that cry will be heard in us all. The thirst for happiness, the desire for certainty, the craving for fuller life, the thinker's search for uniting general ideas, are all longings for God. This cry cannot be satisfied by nature and its teaching, or by the voice of authority, or tradition, or reason, or the church. 1. We are sinful beings. How shall we know that we are personally forgiven and accepted, unless the voice of God speak in us? 2. We are solitary beings. We need a Divine Presence. How know that Presence is with us unless God's voice speak in us? 3. We are students of truth. How shall we be convinced that Christ is Divine, and ever the Leader and King of men, unless the voice of His spirit in us attest His claims? 4. We are undeveloped beings. The highest and best energies of the soul only utter themselves as God's voice calls them into consciousness, and service, and cooperation. 5. We are responsible beings. 6. We are immortal. In life, in death, in duty, in joy, our hearts cry, "Speak, Lord." "Be not silent unto me." II. GOD ANSWERS THIS CRY, BUT IN AN UNEXPECTED MANNER. — We settle upon persons, places, times, and modes for God to speak. He upsets the folly of our prejudgments. 1. Samuel's cry is the result of the Divine voice to him first. 2. God calls the child, not Eli. He speaks to life, not years. The child has a right to hear God. He speaks ever to the childlike. 3. He calls the child in the night. Samuel must go into the solemn night, alone to hear the voice. How brave and fearless is the child-heart. 4. He calls him by a human voice. He cannot tell it from Eli's. There are tones of love, and sorrow, and tenderness in it. So with Christ, the form of the voice is human, its substance is Divine. 5. He calls the child to receive the message of law and judgment. A good discipline to begin with. Law, stern and inflexible, yet beneficent, pervades love. Duty first, then privilege and comfort. 6. Eli has to complete the attitude of Samuel to God. The best part of Eli appears here — his unselfishness, his sympathy with Samuel. This is the use of all teachers, churches; not to demand our listening to them, but to send us to solitary converse with God. Often the representative of an outgoing school of thought has denied to the new voices the Divinity of which they are full. Eli was better. III. THE DIVINE VOICE IS AUDIBLE ONLY TO LOWLY OBEDIENCE. (J. Matthews.) Parallel Verses KJV: And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth. |
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