Latest / INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living / Samuel The Boy Who Heard God’s Voice │ Msg 614 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living

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Samuel The Boy Who Heard God’s Voice │ Msg 614 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: For the next few moments, I want you to think
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Speaker 1: of yourself as a child, a child in Sunday school.
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Speaker 1: You're about seven to ten years of age, and as usual,
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Speaker 1: your mind is drifting and wandering from one thing to another.
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Speaker 1: You're busy, you're fidgety, you're not thinking much about what
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Speaker 1: the teacher has on her or his mind. And then
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Speaker 1: suddenly something catches your eye. She brings in a series
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Speaker 1: of large posters, which are pictures, and each picture represents
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Speaker 1: a story out of the scriptures, and she has asked
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Speaker 1: you to name the story by just looking at the picture.
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Speaker 1: Got it? Okay? Play along with me in this game,
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Speaker 1: and let's see how well you do as a class
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Speaker 1: of seven to ten year olds in Sunday school looking
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Speaker 1: at pictures. So if you know the answer, just answer
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Speaker 1: it out loud. Okay. The first large poster shows a
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Speaker 1: young man standing beside a fresh grave. He has blood
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Speaker 1: all over his clothing, he has a knife in his hands,
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Speaker 1: he has a look of guilt on his face, and
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Speaker 1: he's looking up as God is speaking to him. What
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Speaker 1: is that picture good for you? Cain and Abel? That's right.
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Speaker 1: One For one second, there is an enormous series of
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Speaker 1: black clouds above. It looks like you cannot see land
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Speaker 1: anywhere in the distance. The sea is rough and turbulent,
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Speaker 1: and there is a lonely, lonely barge like ship sitting
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Speaker 1: on this water as the rain is pouring down, and
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Speaker 1: you look through the window of the barge and you
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Speaker 1: see a monkey sitting on a giraffe's head. No one knows, Noah,
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Speaker 1: and the arc very good. Here's a third. A young
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Speaker 1: man with torn corn clothes, dirty and pretty well spent
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Speaker 1: in life, though he isn't very old, has his father's
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Speaker 1: arms around him, and the father is repeatedly kissing him,
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Speaker 1: and the boy has this look of remorse all over
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Speaker 1: his face. Right, that's the greatest story that will ever
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Speaker 1: be told, in my opinion, the story of the prodigal Son.
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Speaker 1: I never will get over that story. Here's another. It's
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Speaker 1: a scene of royalty. There was a queen standing beside
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Speaker 1: her regal husband and they are both arm in arm
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Speaker 1: looking out on seventy five foot high gallows, and silhouetted
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Speaker 1: against the sky is one man hanging dead. It's the
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Speaker 1: story of Esther. You realize how few churches would guess
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Speaker 1: that correctly. That is an a virtually unknown story in
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Speaker 1: the lives and minds of many people. Okay, I got
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Speaker 1: another one. A mother is standing waist deep in muddy
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Speaker 1: river water. She has her bay that she's putting in
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Speaker 1: a little handmaid. Wait, I have a great thing I
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Speaker 1: want to tell you. You're you're so sharp, I can't
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Speaker 1: even get my story till right. It's Moses in the
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Speaker 1: bullrushes and she pushes this infant out into the Nile,
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Speaker 1: and he finally winds up in the arms of the
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Speaker 1: daughter of Pharaoh. And it's a magnificent story. Out of
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Speaker 1: the scriptures, each still frame captures our attention because each
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Speaker 1: is a story. There's an old Rabbinic saying that goes
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Speaker 1: like this, God made people because he loves stories. If
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Speaker 1: Aristotle was correct that the soul of a story is
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Speaker 1: the plot, then you and I would have to agree
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Speaker 1: that the heart of a story is the moral or
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Speaker 1: the lesson or plural the lessons that it may teach.
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Speaker 1: Each one of those stories, and there are dozens of
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Speaker 1: them from the Bible, if analyzed carefully and read thoughtfully,
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Speaker 1: provide us with numerous morals and principles and lessons to
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Speaker 1: live by. The Elements of a story that keep our
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Speaker 1: attention are many. There is suspense, there is surprise, there
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Speaker 1: is discovery, there is the unknown. There are those trackless
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Speaker 1: paths that are taken by the characters in the story,
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Speaker 1: and we wait, even while reading to find out how
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Speaker 1: it turns out. What keeps a story interesting and moving
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Speaker 1: is the progress within it, called the rhythm of the story,
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Speaker 1: and the rhythm revolves around three questions. How did it start?
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Speaker 1: What happened next? And next and next, and of course
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Speaker 1: the third, how did it turn out? Usually there is
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Speaker 1: one main climax to every great story, though, like some novels,
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Speaker 1: if the stories are long enough, there are a number
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Speaker 1: of climaxes, and we build toward them, and they help
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Speaker 1: us breathe easier when we have reached that mountain peak,
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Speaker 1: only to move on to another. That's what holds the
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Speaker 1: attention of a child. It dawned on me several years
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Speaker 1: ago that we are losing grip on the great stories
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Speaker 1: of the Bible. I don't know when it was that
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Speaker 1: we were sitting in the auditorium at Mount Herman Christian
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Speaker 1: Conference Center up near Santa Cruz, but my whole family
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Speaker 1: and I a number of years ago were listening to
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Speaker 1: the John Fisher concert. Many of you are lovers of
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Speaker 1: his music and have been to his concerts, and our
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Speaker 1: family has been to number of them. We were sitting
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Speaker 1: there all in a row, but CYNTHI and I were
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Speaker 1: about the oldest ones there. We're terribly young. But there
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Speaker 1: was an entire auditorium full of people in their teen years,
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Speaker 1: maybe a few in their twenties, but mostly teenagers. And
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Speaker 1: John would start a song and they they'd sing right along,
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Speaker 1: and then he'd start another one of his songs and
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Speaker 1: they'd sing right along with it. And they knew every
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Speaker 1: pop tune. They knew every one of Fisher's songs. They
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Speaker 1: knew every one of the praise choruses. And then he said,
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Speaker 1: I'll never forget it. Now let's do my Jesus I
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Speaker 1: love THEE. And he started to strum his guitar and
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Speaker 1: he sang a solo except for the swind dolls who
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Speaker 1: were sitting here singing along with him. And he said, wait,
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Speaker 1: wait a minute. You don't know that, do you, And
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Speaker 1: almost to a person, they answered back no. They wondered
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Speaker 1: if that was a new one. They knew the pop songs,
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Speaker 1: they knew today's tunes, they knew Fisher's works, which are
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Speaker 1: wonderful pieces of music, but they didn't know the great him.
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Speaker 1: And while sitting there, it dawned on me that if
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Speaker 1: we're losing touch with the great hymns, we are probably
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Speaker 1: losing touch with the great stories. It was then that
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Speaker 1: it planted. It was planted in my mind. The seed
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Speaker 1: thought that someday I wanted to do a series on
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Speaker 1: great stories from the Old Testament. There are some in
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Speaker 1: the New of course, but most of the great stories
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Speaker 1: of the Bible are tucked away in the Old Testament.
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Speaker 1: And I find whether you're a child seven to ten
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Speaker 1: years old, or teenager or an adult, is there's something
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Speaker 1: about the stories that still bring up fresh and encouraging
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Speaker 1: thoughts to all of us. And my Bible is open
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Speaker 1: to one of the great stories, actually a little slice
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Speaker 1: out of a whole life in First Samuel, chapter three,
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Speaker 1: that I want you to turn to along with me.
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Speaker 1: Every story has a setting, and frequently people know the story,
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Speaker 1: but they don't know the setting. And if you don't
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Speaker 1: know the setting, it's like appreciating a naked diamond without
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Speaker 1: a setting. It's a beautiful stone, but if it's placed
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Speaker 1: in the right setting, it just comes alive. It just
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Speaker 1: strikes you with its sparkle and beauty. Now, these stories
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Speaker 1: that have their settings, if you know the setting, you
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Speaker 1: appreciate what the story is about. This story is set
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Speaker 1: in the days of the Hebrew people, following a time
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Speaker 1: of warfare. It's sort of a lull of peacetime. Well,
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Speaker 1: when my grandfather and I used to fish down in
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Speaker 1: the Gulf off of Plashes down in South Texas area,
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Speaker 1: we would every once in a while find ourselves in
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Speaker 1: the middle of what he called a slick. If you fish,
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Speaker 1: you know what that's like. There isn't a ripple on
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Speaker 1: the water. You could flip a penny out into the
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Speaker 1: water and you could count the ripples that follow. The
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Speaker 1: water is like a placid lake early in the morning,
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Speaker 1: great water, skiing water, just not a ripple on it.
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Speaker 1: We have come to a time in Hebrew history that's
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Speaker 1: like a slick. Politically, things are a little boring. The
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Speaker 1: judges have come and gone. There is one more judge
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Speaker 1: that's left, and that's Samuel. The people have settled down
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Speaker 1: to a lifestyle that is a bit indifferent, a little
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Speaker 1: ho hum. The high priest is a man named Eli,
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Speaker 1: who is so old. Verse two tells us his eyesight
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Speaker 1: had begun to grow dim. He and his two wayward sons,
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Speaker 1: Hoffney and Finejas, minister in the tabernacle, which is the
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Speaker 1: place of worship at this time. A first Samuel three. Oh,
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Speaker 1: and I should mention that a woman has come on
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Speaker 1: the scene and is now off the scene by chapter three.
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Speaker 1: Her name is Hannah. Hannah and el Cana her husband
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Speaker 1: prayed for a child, and they asked of God that
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Speaker 1: he would give them a son. Shamuel is the word
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Speaker 1: asked of God. She named her boy Samuel, and she
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Speaker 1: promised God if he would give them a son. When
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Speaker 1: the boy was weaned, she would take him to the
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Speaker 1: place of worship, and she would literally deposit him there
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Speaker 1: in the under the tutelage and care of Eli, the
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Speaker 1: aging almost blind high Priest, and there he would live
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Speaker 1: the rest of his days. That's where we find the
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Speaker 1: setting of the story in chapter three. Now for the
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Speaker 1: story itself. The boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord
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Speaker 1: before Eli, and word from the Lord was rare in
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Speaker 1: those days. Visions were infrequent. See it is such a
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Speaker 1: political and spiritual slick. It's like the whole country is
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Speaker 1: half asleep and yawning its way from day to day.
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Speaker 1: God is silent. It's as though the heavens are brass.
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Speaker 1: There aren't visions that are coming. Samuel has never heard
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Speaker 1: God's voice, and he's serving the Lord as a young
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Speaker 1: lad under the watchful eye of Eli, a sort of preoccupied,
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Speaker 1: doting grandfather type, who takes this young lad under his
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Speaker 1: wings to teach him the things of the tabernacle. Verse three,
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Speaker 1: and the lamp of God had not yet gone out,
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Speaker 1: and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the
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Speaker 1: Lord where the ark of God was. Interestingly, the whole
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Speaker 1: story of First Samuel three takes place in a bedchamber,
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Speaker 1: a little closet part of the tabernacle where the priests
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Speaker 1: or the priest's family would live, and Samuel is resting
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Speaker 1: in one of those areas. Verse two tells us that
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Speaker 1: Eli was also lying down in his place, so apparently
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Speaker 1: they're in separate chambers, but nearby, close enough for a
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Speaker 1: voice to be heard. And while Samuel is resting or
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Speaker 1: perhaps sleeping, suddenly he hears a voice. The Lord called Samuel,
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Speaker 1: and he said, here I am. Then he ran to
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Speaker 1: Eli and said here I am for you called me,
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Speaker 1: But he said I did not call lie down again,
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Speaker 1: so he went and laid down. That tells us that
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Speaker 1: God's voice, when it is when it breaks the silence,
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Speaker 1: is like the voice of a man. Frequently, when we
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Speaker 1: hear dramas presented, or when a preacher gets carried away
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Speaker 1: and refers to the voice of God, there is this
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Speaker 1: great and mighty sound that is used. But I don't
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Speaker 1: believe when God spoke he spoke that way, or Samuel
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Speaker 1: would not have thought that it was Eli who called him.
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Speaker 1: I think God manifested himself in the voice of a
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Speaker 1: normal sounding of adult Jewish male. In this case, the
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Speaker 1: voice of Eli sounded just like it. I can still
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Speaker 1: recall the voice of my aging father in the middle
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Speaker 1: of the night back in the late seventies when he
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Speaker 1: lived in our home. He was a casely in need
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Speaker 1: of help, and though our bedroom is upstairs and his
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Speaker 1: bedroom was downstairs with his own bath, I remember hearing
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Speaker 1: in the middle of the night the sound of his voice,
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Speaker 1: and my wife as well, and we on occasion would
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Speaker 1: take turns to get up and to go and be
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Speaker 1: with him for some particular need he had. So it
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Speaker 1: makes a lot of sense when I see Samuel getting
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Speaker 1: up and going into Eli's room and saying, here I am.
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Speaker 1: And Eli understanding that perhaps Samuel was dreaming or just
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Speaker 1: thought he heard something that he didn't really hear. But
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Speaker 1: so he says to his friend, his young colleague in ministry,
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Speaker 1: I did not call lie down again. So he went
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Speaker 1: and lay down, and Lord called yet again Samuel. So
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Speaker 1: Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, here, I
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Speaker 1: am for you called me, But he answered, I did
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Speaker 1: not call my son lie down again. Now Samuel did
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Speaker 1: not yet know the Lord. That means he hadn't been
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Speaker 1: connected with any sense of the Lord's manifestation. He was
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Speaker 1: not in touch with There hadn't been made a connection,
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Speaker 1: a bonding between the two of them, nor had the
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Speaker 1: word of the Lord yet been revealed to him. They
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Speaker 1: weren't I guess we could say they weren't on speaking terms.
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Speaker 1: What Samuel knew of the Lord he knew through Eli,
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Speaker 1: but there hadn't been a direct connection, which was not
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Speaker 1: infrequent in the days before Scripture was complete. It was
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Speaker 1: not uncommon for the Lord to break the silence in
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Speaker 1: a wilderness and to speak audibly, or for him to
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Speaker 1: give a vision to a prophet, or to give a
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Speaker 1: direction from some supernatural a source. That's the way it
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Speaker 1: was in those days. But it had never happened to Samuel,
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Speaker 1: so he was inexperienced in these things. The only thing
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Speaker 1: you knew to do was to go to Eli, and
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Speaker 1: verse eight tells us it happened a third time. So
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Speaker 1: the Lord called Samuel again for the third time, and
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Speaker 1: he arose and went to Eli, and he said, here,
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Speaker 1: I am for you called me. Then Eli discerned that
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Speaker 1: the Lord was calling the boy. I'm in trigged by that.
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Speaker 1: I'm intrigged by the word discerned. There is not a
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Speaker 1: course you can take in school that will give you
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Speaker 1: that discernment. It comes only by experience. It comes only
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Speaker 1: through the passing of time, where you and the Lord
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Speaker 1: are on an intimate relationship kind of basis, and you
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Speaker 1: discern the Lord is in this, or the Lord is
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Speaker 1: not in this, or maybe you get enough of your
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Speaker 1: ducks in a row to put it together and say
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Speaker 1: that fits. I can see God's hand in that or
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Speaker 1: in this case. These repetitious events were too much for
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Speaker 1: Eli to think of them as mere coincidences, and he
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Speaker 1: dipped back into the well and the reservoir of his
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Speaker 1: experience he thought that that's got to be the Lord.
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Speaker 1: That's got to be Jehovah. And so at this moment
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Speaker 1: he counsels Samuel to be very sensitive. Eli said to Samuel,
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Speaker 1: go lie down, and it shall be if he calls you,
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Speaker 1: then you shall say, speak Lord, for thy servant is listening.
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Speaker 1: So Samuel went and laid down in his place, and
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Speaker 1: I'll assure you he did not go to sleep. Can
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Speaker 1: you imagine working as a young person under someone who
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Speaker 1: is who has years in the things of God, and
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Speaker 1: that person you so greatly respect says that's God's voice.
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Speaker 1: If you hear it again, you listen, you listen, stay
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Speaker 1: sensitive to what God is going to say. Now, you know,
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Speaker 1: in my days in Sunday School, that's where the story ended.
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Speaker 1: I remember seeing these posters. I remember looking on the
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Speaker 1: walls of Sunday School classes, and invariably in the primary
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Speaker 1: department junior department where I was raised, there was always
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Speaker 1: a picture of Samuel, don't you remember. And he's in bed,
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Speaker 1: and he's sitting up on the edge, or he's on
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Speaker 1: his elbow. And in this this artist has drawn everything
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Speaker 1: so absolutely perfectly, and you can almost hear the voice
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Speaker 1: of God and the story's over. I used to think
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Speaker 1: as a kid, what did he say? What in the
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Speaker 1: world was all Why do you wake him up three times?
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Speaker 1: What is it all about? And I was never told
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Speaker 1: what God said. It is one of the severest warnings
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Speaker 1: God ever gave a man of God, and one of
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Speaker 1: the only times, and maybe the only time he ever
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Speaker 1: gave the warning through the ears of a child. Maybe
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Speaker 1: because it was so severe, my Sunday school teachers never
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Speaker 1: felt like a child ought to hear what God had said.
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Speaker 1: God is warning Samuel about his mentor eli. In each
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Speaker 1: of the other times we read simply the Lord called,
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Speaker 1: But now we read verse ten, the Lord came and
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Speaker 1: stood and called, as at other times Samuel. Samuel, Samuel
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Speaker 1: did as he was told, speak for thy servant is listening.
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Speaker 1: This is one of those intimate moments. It's the first
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Speaker 1: time in his young life, and it isn't the last,
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Speaker 1: but it's the first time he has connected with the
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Speaker 1: living God, the two of them all alone. And in
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Speaker 1: that hushed moment of silence in his bedchamber, he hears
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Speaker 1: these awful words of warning. The Lord said to Samuel, Behold,
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Speaker 1: I'm about to do a thing in Israel, at which
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Speaker 1: both ears of everyone who hears will tingle. The warning
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Speaker 1: of God is stated in verses twelve through fourteen. And
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Speaker 1: let me say it's not the first time God has
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Speaker 1: revealed it. You may be shocked to know that God
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Speaker 1: has already pulled Eli aside and told him about his boys.
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Speaker 1: In fact, I want to go back and show you
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Speaker 1: that before I read what we read here. Look at
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Speaker 1: chapter two, verse twenty seven, a man of God came
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Speaker 1: to Eli and said to him, Thus says the Lord,
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Speaker 1: did I not indeed reveal myself to the house of
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Speaker 1: your father when they were in Egypt in bondage to
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Speaker 1: Pharaoh's house? And did I not choose them from all
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Speaker 1: the tribes of Israel to be my priests, to go
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Speaker 1: up to my altar, to burn incense, to carry an
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Speaker 1: ephod before me? And did I not give to the
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Speaker 1: house of your father all the fire offerings of the
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Speaker 1: sons of Israel. Why do you kick at my sacrifice
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Speaker 1: and my offering, which I have commanded in my dwelling,
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Speaker 1: and honor your sons above me by making yourselves fat
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Speaker 1: with the choicest of every offering of my people Israel. Therefore,
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Speaker 1: the Lord God of Israel, declares, I did indeed say
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Speaker 1: that to your house and the house of your father
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Speaker 1: should walk before me forever. But now the Lord declares,
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Speaker 1: far be it from me. For those who honor me,
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Speaker 1: I will honor, and those who despise me will be
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Speaker 1: lightly esteemed. The days are coming when I will break
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Speaker 1: your strength and the strength of your father's house, so
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Speaker 1: that there will not be an old man in your house.
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Speaker 1: And you will see the distress of my dwelling in
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Speaker 1: spite of all that I do good for Israel, And
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Speaker 1: an old man will not be in your house forever.
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Speaker 1: And he describes a scene of disintegration of Eli's family.
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Speaker 1: Now you might, if you don't know the story, the background,
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Speaker 1: you scratch in your head, thinking what's all all about?
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Speaker 1: What were his sons like? Well, Verse twelve, chapter two,
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Speaker 1: go back earlier. You maybe can't believe this. Eli's a
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Speaker 1: great preacher, He's a fine priest. He's the high priest.
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Speaker 1: He goes in once a year in the holiest place
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Speaker 1: of all. No one else in the land had that privilege.
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Speaker 1: He's busy about the work of judging. He's working with
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Speaker 1: the people in spiritual things, giving counsel, spending his time
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Speaker 1: in the Tabernacle of God and with the people in
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Speaker 1: their needs. But how about his boys Verse twelve. The
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Speaker 1: sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know
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Speaker 1: the Lord. That's a strong, strong word. They were reprobates.
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Speaker 1: May I say it. They were losers, spiritual losers. But
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Speaker 1: they had been anointed priests. And the custom of the
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Speaker 1: priest with the people, when any man was offering a sacrifice,
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Speaker 1: the priest's servant would come while the meat was boiling,
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Speaker 1: with a three pronged fork in his hand. Then he
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Speaker 1: would thrust it into the pan or kettle, or cauldron
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Speaker 1: or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest
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Speaker 1: would take for himself. Thus they did in Shiloh to
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Speaker 1: all the Israelites who came there. Also, before they burned
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Speaker 1: the fat, the priest's servant would come and say to
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Speaker 1: the man who was sacrificing, give the priests meet for roasting,
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Speaker 1: as he will not take boiled meat from you, only raw.
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Speaker 1: And if the man said to him, they must surely
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Speaker 1: burn the fat first and then take as much as
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Speaker 1: you desire, then he would say no, but you shall
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Speaker 1: give it to me now, and if not, I will
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Speaker 1: take it by force. Thus, the sin of the young
25:08
Speaker 1: men was very great before the Lord, for the men
25:11
Speaker 1: despised the offering of the Lord. Rather than taking what
25:15
Speaker 1: the Lord provided, they wanted the choicest pieces of meat,
25:19
Speaker 1: and they demanded that verse twenty two. Eli was very old,
25:27
Speaker 1: and he heard all that his sons were doing to
25:30
Speaker 1: all Israel, and how they lay with the women who
25:33
Speaker 1: served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. Now
25:38
Speaker 1: that says it straight out, doesn't it. Along with their
25:40
Speaker 1: impudence in the things and the sacrifices of God, they
25:44
Speaker 1: were sensual men who took sexual advantage of the women
25:50
Speaker 1: who came for worship, and right there in places of
25:53
Speaker 1: the House of God, they were involved in illicit sexual acts.
25:59
Speaker 1: Eli knew it, He was aware of it, and he
26:05
Speaker 1: merely mentioned to them, why do you do such things
26:08
Speaker 1: that I hear from all the people Verse twenty three.
26:11
Speaker 1: It was scandalous knowledge, and God would not spend the
26:16
Speaker 1: rest of Eli's life simply putting his hands over his
26:20
Speaker 1: eyes as it were, looking around the sin. It's a scandal,
26:26
Speaker 1: it's hurting the ministry. The name of God is being reproached.
26:32
Speaker 1: I will not stand for it any longer. Now if
26:36
Speaker 1: you can imagine Samuel is raised in this context, but
26:43
Speaker 1: he apparently has been so protected by Eli that he
26:47
Speaker 1: has not witnessed the whole scene. Much of this is
26:51
Speaker 1: done in secret chambers. And Samuel, now back to chapter three,
26:57
Speaker 1: is hearing from God the warning. Let me read it
27:04
Speaker 1: for you verse twelve. In that day, I will carry
27:08
Speaker 1: out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house,
27:11
Speaker 1: from beginning to end. This is why God woke see
27:15
Speaker 1: Samuel up. This is why God broke into the silence.
27:18
Speaker 1: For I have told Eli that I'm about to judge
27:21
Speaker 1: his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because
27:25
Speaker 1: his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he did
27:29
Speaker 1: not rebuke them. Mark the words he knew, but he
27:35
Speaker 1: did not rebuke them. And therefore I have sworn to
27:40
Speaker 1: the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house
27:44
Speaker 1: shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.
27:51
Speaker 1: Now you might be I know we're interrupting the flow
27:55
Speaker 1: of the story, but I am intrigued by a marginal
27:58
Speaker 1: reference that I have put in my Bible Deuteronomy twenty
28:02
Speaker 1: one eighteen and following. So hold your finger here and
28:05
Speaker 1: go back to Deuteronomy twenty one. You'll see what could
28:10
Speaker 1: have been done by Eli, but he he lacked the character.
28:19
Speaker 1: It's tough. Most teenagers scissor this several verses out of
28:23
Speaker 1: their Bibles. By the way it reads really raw. What
28:28
Speaker 1: do you do with a child that's grown and you
28:30
Speaker 1: can't handle her or handle him? I should say verse
28:33
Speaker 1: eighteen Deuteronomy twenty one. If any man has a stubborn
28:38
Speaker 1: and rebellious son who will not obey his father or
28:41
Speaker 1: his mother, and when they chastise him, he will not
28:44
Speaker 1: even listen to them, then his father and mother shall
28:48
Speaker 1: seize him and bring him out to the elders of
28:50
Speaker 1: his city at the gateway of his hometown. And they
28:54
Speaker 1: shall say to the elders of his city, the son,
28:57
Speaker 1: this son of ours, is stubborn and rebellious. He will
29:00
Speaker 1: not obey us, he is a glutton and a drunkard.
29:05
Speaker 1: Then all the men of his city shall stone him
29:07
Speaker 1: to death. So you shall remove the evil from your midst,
29:11
Speaker 1: and all Israel shall hear of it and fear. Wow.
29:18
Speaker 1: You see why I say the teenagers cut those kind
29:20
Speaker 1: of verses out of their bibles. When they see stuff
29:22
Speaker 1: like that, they are so glad we're not under law.
29:25
Speaker 1: They don't know what to do, and they should be.
29:29
Speaker 1: Of course, that isn't the way it's handled today. But
29:31
Speaker 1: the point here, back in First Samuel three is that Eli,
29:35
Speaker 1: like the slick times in which he lived, sort of
29:38
Speaker 1: folded his arms and thought, well that I just can't
29:41
Speaker 1: do a thing with those boys. Hoffni and Finnihas have
29:43
Speaker 1: been rebellious all their lives. I'm so busy. I've got
29:46
Speaker 1: so many things to take care of. Surely God will understand.
29:50
Speaker 1: God won't understand. It's so severe that he awakens this
29:55
Speaker 1: young boy in his formative years to tell him this
29:59
Speaker 1: worn I am giving you so you will know what
30:02
Speaker 1: is going to happen. Interestingly, he doesn't tell him to
30:06
Speaker 1: tell Eli. Now back in the story, so Samuel lay
30:13
Speaker 1: down until morning. We're in three point fifteen for Samuel
30:17
Speaker 1: three fifteen. He lay down until morning. Then he opened
30:20
Speaker 1: the doors of the House of the Lord. But Samuel
30:25
Speaker 1: was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. And Eli
30:29
Speaker 1: called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son, And he said,
30:33
Speaker 1: here I am. He says, what is the word that
30:36
Speaker 1: he spoke to you? Wow? You imagine the emotion of
30:42
Speaker 1: that moment please do not hide it from me. May
30:45
Speaker 1: God do so to you. And more also, if you
30:47
Speaker 1: hide anything from me of all the words that He
30:49
Speaker 1: spoke to you, look at this next verse. So Samuel
30:55
Speaker 1: told him everything and hid nothing from him. And Eli's response,
31:06
Speaker 1: it is the Lord. Let him do what seems good
31:10
Speaker 1: to him. There are times when this kind of intervention,
31:21
Speaker 1: our confrontation is necessary. There are times when God uses
31:27
Speaker 1: an individual to confront another individual with the wrong of
31:32
Speaker 1: his or her life. It's the one of the hardest
31:36
Speaker 1: experiences in life. Anyone who enjoys doing it shouldn't be
31:40
Speaker 1: doing it. Like Galatian six says, if a brother is
31:44
Speaker 1: overtaken in a fault, you who are spiritual, restore such
31:47
Speaker 1: a one in a spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest
31:50
Speaker 1: you also be tempted. I sometimes get the idea from
31:56
Speaker 1: some folks who haven't done much of this, that they
31:58
Speaker 1: think confrontation is one of the one of the power
32:00
Speaker 1: plays of being in the ministry. It's almost as though
32:03
Speaker 1: it's your moment to take advantage of some dear soul.
32:08
Speaker 1: It is a horrible moment. It is a dreadful part
32:11
Speaker 1: of the calling into ministry. No one who has any
32:16
Speaker 1: sense of compassion, enjoys confronting an individual with wrong, but
32:20
Speaker 1: sometimes it has to take place. It must be done.
32:25
Speaker 1: And Samuel, following Eli's request, told him everything the Lord
32:30
Speaker 1: had said. He hid nothing from him. How great it
32:36
Speaker 1: would have been if Eli would have said at that point,
32:39
Speaker 1: I've heard enough. I'm doing exactly what God says in Deuteronomy.
32:44
Speaker 1: I'll take these boys to the elders of the city
32:48
Speaker 1: and a severe thing will be done, but I will
32:50
Speaker 1: die in obedience. Now he doesn't do that. That's not
32:53
Speaker 1: Eli's style. Now the story ends, but not the lessons.
33:01
Speaker 1: Remember that the heart of a story are the lingering lessons.
33:05
Speaker 1: And I think there are two of them, and I
33:08
Speaker 1: want to dwell on them for just enough time to
33:11
Speaker 1: really cement them in our minds. The first is this,
33:16
Speaker 1: Any family can disintegrate. None is immune. Any family can disintegrate,
33:28
Speaker 1: none is immune. Well, you mean a family of a minister. Yep,
33:39
Speaker 1: you mean a priest's family. Yes, you mean the family
33:44
Speaker 1: of a man who walks with God and pours his
33:48
Speaker 1: heart into a church. Yes, yes, any family. I find
33:57
Speaker 1: no less than four signs of domestic disintegration in the
34:02
Speaker 1: life of Eli and his boys, And I'd like you
34:06
Speaker 1: to track with me through these four I've thought about
34:09
Speaker 1: them long and hard. What was it that eroded that
34:16
Speaker 1: caused an erosion in the family of Eli with his boys?
34:23
Speaker 1: Four things I find here Number one preoccupation with an
34:29
Speaker 1: occupation to the exclusion of family needs. Preoccupation with an
34:39
Speaker 1: occupation to the exclusion of family needs. The old fellow
34:46
Speaker 1: was a busy priest, he was a respected judge. He
34:50
Speaker 1: became preoccupied with his public profession, with his image, and
34:54
Speaker 1: he failed to focus on his boys. His sons were
34:59
Speaker 1: slowly in e merging in their cynicism and skepticism, and
35:03
Speaker 1: Eli did not discipline them. If he did, there's not
35:07
Speaker 1: a word of it here. And rather than being on
35:12
Speaker 1: site to spot the danger signals and to deal with them,
35:16
Speaker 1: Eli's busy about his work. Alexander White, one of Britain's
35:21
Speaker 1: best yesteryear, points out this observation with very eloquent words.
35:27
Speaker 1: Let me sort of pick and choose my way through
35:30
Speaker 1: a wonderful narrative on Eli that he writes, Now, the
35:36
Speaker 1: sons of Eli were sons of Belile. They knew not
35:39
Speaker 1: the Lord. Impossible, you would protest if it were not
35:44
Speaker 1: in the Bible. But just because it is in the Bible,
35:48
Speaker 1: we are compelled to ask ourselves how it could possibly
35:52
Speaker 1: come about that the sons of such a sacred man
35:55
Speaker 1: as Eli could ever become sons of belile. What not
36:04
Speaker 1: know the Lord, and they were born and brought up
36:07
Speaker 1: within the very precincts of the Lord's house. Were not
36:12
Speaker 1: the first sounds they heard, the praises of God in
36:15
Speaker 1: his sanctuary were not the first sights they saw their
36:19
Speaker 1: father in his robes beside the altar, with all the
36:22
Speaker 1: tables and the bread, and the sacrifices and the incense
36:26
Speaker 1: round about him. I thought of that when I read,
36:29
Speaker 1: I thought, all my children's lives, they have seen me
36:32
Speaker 1: serving communion. They have seen me in a pulpit, they
36:37
Speaker 1: have seen me on a platform, they have seen me
36:39
Speaker 1: singing hymns. There isn't a Sunday that comes that they
36:43
Speaker 1: will not watch their father involved in works of ministry.
36:47
Speaker 1: And through the week they hear the stories. They are
36:49
Speaker 1: with us in prayer around the table, all through their lives.
36:53
Speaker 1: That's all they know of Chuck Swindall. They don't know
36:57
Speaker 1: of any part of my life like they oh of
37:00
Speaker 1: my involvement in ministry. And I thought when I read that,
37:03
Speaker 1: that's exactly the way it was with Hofney and Finehas.
37:09
Speaker 1: And yet he continues, there it is in black and white,
37:13
Speaker 1: in blood and tears. The sons of Eli knew not
37:16
Speaker 1: the Lord. Let me think, Let me consider well, how
37:20
Speaker 1: conceivably it could come about that Hofney and Phinehas could
37:25
Speaker 1: be born and brought up at Shiloh and not know
37:27
Speaker 1: the Lord. Well. For one thing, their father was never
37:30
Speaker 1: at home, what with judging all Israel? Eli never saw
37:35
Speaker 1: his children till they were in their beds. What mean
37:39
Speaker 1: ye by this ordinance? All the other children in Israel
37:42
Speaker 1: asked their fathers as they came to the temple, what
37:46
Speaker 1: does this mean? And all the way up and all
37:49
Speaker 1: the way down again, those fathers took their inquiring children
37:51
Speaker 1: by the hand and told them about Abraham and Isaac
37:54
Speaker 1: and Jacob and Joseph and Moses and Aaron and the
37:57
Speaker 1: Exodus and the wilderness and the conquest. Can't you picture that?
38:01
Speaker 1: And the yearly passover. Hofley and Finneyhaus were the only
38:05
Speaker 1: children in all Israel who saw the temple every day
38:07
Speaker 1: and paid no attention to it. And then every father
38:14
Speaker 1: and mother knows this how the years run away, and
38:18
Speaker 1: how their children grow up, till all of a sudden
38:20
Speaker 1: they are as tall as themselves, and very much faster
38:23
Speaker 1: than our tallest children. Did Eli's children grow up? All things, indeed,
38:27
Speaker 1: were banded against Eli. The very early ripeness of his
38:31
Speaker 1: sons was against Eli. He thought he would one day
38:34
Speaker 1: have time. But it was his lifelong regret that he
38:37
Speaker 1: had never had time. And what with one thing, and
38:41
Speaker 1: what with another, what with their father's preoccupation and their
38:45
Speaker 1: own evil hearts, the two young men were already sons
38:48
Speaker 1: of Belile when they should still have been little children.
38:55
Speaker 1: You know, the great temptation in this church is that
38:58
Speaker 1: the Swindall children look upon the work of ministry as
39:02
Speaker 1: just another thing, just another occupation. And it is my
39:08
Speaker 1: intense responsibility to break the wall of religion so that
39:13
Speaker 1: they know this works, this is important, this is life.
39:18
Speaker 1: This isn't a profession, This isn't a business, a slick
39:23
Speaker 1: profession where your daddy performs with religious garb. And I
39:29
Speaker 1: could use any others of you in ministry as an illustration,
39:33
Speaker 1: but to save your face, I'll use mine. And one
39:37
Speaker 1: of the prayers that Cynthia and I have continually asked
39:40
Speaker 1: of God is Lord, don't let the thing become just
39:43
Speaker 1: another religious exercise. Let's not force our kids into the stuff.
39:51
Speaker 1: Let's help them reason their way through it. Coming up
39:57
Speaker 1: this Wednesday night, our family has been in b to
40:01
Speaker 1: come to the Junior high meeting. It's called Wednesday Night Mania.
40:09
Speaker 1: That's going to be fun. And our Junior High director
40:13
Speaker 1: has said, just come, just come as you are, jeens,
40:16
Speaker 1: open collar, just come, just bring all your family. Let's
40:20
Speaker 1: let the kids ask all the questions. And you know what,
40:22
Speaker 1: I am as at ease as I could possibly be,
40:25
Speaker 1: not because I've done everything right, but because I have
40:28
Speaker 1: not hidden behind the walls of hypocrisy. I'm as comfortable
40:34
Speaker 1: with what those children want to say to those junior
40:36
Speaker 1: hires as if we would have rehearsed it ahead of
40:39
Speaker 1: time and I'd given them a script knowing them, they
40:41
Speaker 1: wouldn't have followed it. So I didn't bother. Because realism
40:46
Speaker 1: and authenticity are two of our favorite words. Doesn't mean
40:52
Speaker 1: we've never done anything wrong, No, it doesn't. It means
40:55
Speaker 1: when we've done wrong, we've said it, We've talked about it,
41:00
Speaker 1: and frankly, I'm looking forward to it with great delight.
41:04
Speaker 1: Who knows what will happen, or there may be an
41:06
Speaker 1: uprising in the junior high department like you've never heard before.
41:09
Speaker 1: Preoccupation with an occupation to the exclusion of family needs.
41:13
Speaker 1: Number two refusal to face the severity of children's actions.
41:17
Speaker 1: He just didn't face it. Eli knew, but he did zero.
41:25
Speaker 1: Refusal to face the severity of children's actions. Listen to
41:29
Speaker 1: Proverbs nineteen eighteen from the Living Bible. Discipline your son
41:34
Speaker 1: in his early years while there is hope. If you don't,
41:38
Speaker 1: you will ruin his life. The Good News Bible. Discipline
41:44
Speaker 1: your children while they are young enough to learn. If
41:46
Speaker 1: you don't, you are helping them destroy themselves. You have
41:52
Speaker 1: children who are young, you have children who are impressionable.
41:57
Speaker 1: That's the time. That's the time. If you wait a
42:02
Speaker 1: theoly as tall as you are, forget it. That's not
42:07
Speaker 1: the time. Speak today to a few parents who still
42:12
Speaker 1: have the young holding onto their legs and pulling on
42:15
Speaker 1: their skirts, running about the house between your legs. Now's
42:19
Speaker 1: the time. That's where Eli missed it. Fee The third
42:29
Speaker 1: failure to respond quickly and thoroughly to the warnings of others.
42:35
Speaker 1: A failure to respond quickly and thoroughly to the warnings
42:39
Speaker 1: of others. You will discover as your children grow up
42:44
Speaker 1: that you will get reports they go to school. You
42:47
Speaker 1: hear reports from their teachers. Listen to their teachers. They're
42:52
Speaker 1: your best friends. Only on a few occasions will your
42:58
Speaker 1: children have real bad teachers. You will know those who
43:03
Speaker 1: are really poor and are hurting, but those who are
43:07
Speaker 1: good will tell you the truth. You will have a
43:10
Speaker 1: neighbor who will tell you the truth. You will have
43:12
Speaker 1: a policeman who will tell you the truth. You will
43:16
Speaker 1: have a pastor who will tell you the truth. Don't
43:19
Speaker 1: blame the pastor. We just take what you give us
43:23
Speaker 1: and try to work with her, or try to work
43:26
Speaker 1: with him. Pay attention to the reproofs that we give you.
43:32
Speaker 1: Listen even to grandparents. Grandparents spend time with those kiddos,
43:41
Speaker 1: and they have enough wisdom and enough years to spot areas.
43:45
Speaker 1: Listen to their reproofs. Eli didn't listen to the man
43:49
Speaker 1: of God who came to him into twenty seven. He
43:52
Speaker 1: paid dearly for it. Fourth under the same heading of
43:57
Speaker 1: disintegration rationalization of wrong, thereby becoming a part of the problem.
44:06
Speaker 1: Eli knew what those boys were doing. He rationalized around it,
44:11
Speaker 1: rationalizing the wrong, or rationalization of the wrong, thereby becoming
44:16
Speaker 1: a part of the problem. You know why I say
44:20
Speaker 1: he was a part of the problem because Eli got
44:22
Speaker 1: fat on the food his boys brought home. Rather than saying, sons,
44:30
Speaker 1: we can't touch that meal, we can't touch that fat,
44:34
Speaker 1: We can't touch that meat because you got it the
44:37
Speaker 1: wrong way. I read two verse twenty nine. He honored
44:45
Speaker 1: his sons above God by making themselves yourselves, including Eli
44:50
Speaker 1: fat with the choicest of every offering of my people Israel.
44:56
Speaker 1: They ripped off the worshipers, and Eli rationalized around it
45:01
Speaker 1: and aid it along with his boys. I mentioned there
45:07
Speaker 1: are two major lessons. Here's the second. The first is
45:11
Speaker 1: that any family can disintegrate, not any family is immune.
45:16
Speaker 1: The second is this, Hearing the truth isn't enough. Action
45:21
Speaker 1: is essential. Hearing the truth isn't enough. Action is essential.
45:35
Speaker 1: God seldom blesses someone simply because they hear something. He
45:38
Speaker 1: blesses us because we hear and do something about it.
45:45
Speaker 1: Remember what knowledge alone does. It puffs up. But when
45:49
Speaker 1: there's action that follows, humility comes. By the way, problems
45:56
Speaker 1: like these do not solve themselves. They multiply, and the
46:02
Speaker 1: heart aches that you live with in your family you
46:06
Speaker 1: simply pass off to another when that child. Are those
46:10
Speaker 1: children marry. There's an old Chinese tale that says one
46:18
Speaker 1: tear met another tear floating down the river. Said the
46:23
Speaker 1: first tear, I am the tear of the woman who
46:26
Speaker 1: lost her lover. The other tear replied, and I am
46:32
Speaker 1: the tear of the woman who got him. I am
46:39
Speaker 1: the tear of the family who raised a rebel, says
46:43
Speaker 1: Eli and had Hoffniar Fennehast. Had their wives, Eli's daughters
46:49
Speaker 1: in law tell him the truth, he would have heard.
46:51
Speaker 1: And we got the tears from the heart aches that
46:57
Speaker 1: you permitted at home. Maybe that's why they didn't tell
47:04
Speaker 1: me the whole story when I was in primary, our
47:08
Speaker 1: junior class, I had to find out a lot of
47:11
Speaker 1: it on my own. For a few moments, let's think
47:15
Speaker 1: about what we have heard. Maybe bow together. This is
47:26
Speaker 1: straight and direct teaching from the scriptures. These aren't cute
47:30
Speaker 1: little devotionals that I have worked up to make everybody
47:33
Speaker 1: feel good. This is straight truth from the book. You've
47:39
Speaker 1: listened very carefully. I commend you. But God has given
47:45
Speaker 1: us these wonderful stories so we might live better lives,
47:50
Speaker 1: not just so we might know more about what the
47:52
Speaker 1: Bible teaches. God didn't give us his truth to satisfy
47:57
Speaker 1: idle curiosity. He gave us his word to change your lives.
48:05
Speaker 1: Are there some things you're allowing to go home in
48:07
Speaker 1: your family that your busyness just keeps you from addressing.
48:14
Speaker 1: Why don't you slow down? Why don't you pause soon
48:20
Speaker 1: and address it? Are you hearing God's voice through this
48:28
Speaker 1: lesson that's saying to you something about your involvement in
48:33
Speaker 1: the work of ministry, maybe as a teacher, maybe as
48:37
Speaker 1: a choir member, or an officer or board member or pastor.
48:46
Speaker 1: You're just so engaged in the activity of ministry you
48:52
Speaker 1: sort of left the raising of the family to your
48:54
Speaker 1: partner or maybe to the kids themselves. They'll learn how
48:59
Speaker 1: much we love God because they'll see how busy we are.
49:02
Speaker 1: They won't. They don't. And have you heard a reproof
49:11
Speaker 1: lately from someone you really have to say your respect?
49:17
Speaker 1: Has there been repentance? Has there been an an acquiescence,
49:25
Speaker 1: an agreement with appreciation for that kind of honesty? It's
49:38
Speaker 1: possible to be very busy in the work of God
49:42
Speaker 1: and raise a family that ultimately cares little about the
49:48
Speaker 1: things you gave your life for. Our father, we pause
49:58
Speaker 1: in this serious moment to thank you for the things
50:06
Speaker 1: that you have taught us in these few moments we've
50:08
Speaker 1: been together, but more importantly, the things that weren't even mentioned,
50:14
Speaker 1: those deep things of our heart. We're intelligent enough human
50:19
Speaker 1: beings to get the message. Our problem is not intelligence.
50:25
Speaker 1: Our problem is obedience. Give us a faithfulness to act
50:32
Speaker 1: upon what we hear. May we learn through young Samuel,
50:37
Speaker 1: whose sleep was interrupted. May we learn a lesson for today,
50:42
Speaker 1: the importance of time spent with those living legacies that
50:49
Speaker 1: will outlive us. And may your name be exalted and
50:53
Speaker 1: glorified because we have obeyed. We pray in the lovely
50:59
Speaker 1: name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
51:05
Speaker 2: The preceding message, Samuel The Boy who Heard God's Voice
51:09
Speaker 2: was copyrighted in nineteen ninety nineteen ninety two, two thousand
51:13
Speaker 2: and one, two thousand and six, twenty twelve, and twenty
51:16
Speaker 2: twenty four, and the sound recording was copyrighted in twenty
51:19
Speaker 2: twenty four by Charles R. Swindall Incorporated. All rights are
51:23
Speaker 2: reserved worldwide. The duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use
51:28
Speaker 2: is strictly prohibited