“Speak LORD, For Your Servant Is Listening!”

“Speak LORD, For Your Servant Is Listening!”(I Sam 3:1-20).
We continue our reflections on God’s call and human response.
God calls us to different assignments and professions. Yesterday we reflected on the call of Moses. Moses was called to be a liberator and prophet. Today we reflect on the call of Samuel to become a prophet, liberator and kingmaker.
We note that each time grace finds one person, another person suffers disgrace. Moses’ call led to the downfall of Pharaoh. Samuel was called because God decided to stop the priesthood in the bloodline of Eli. Eli’s sons who would have succeeded their father made themselves contemptible. Eli knew about the sins of his sons, but “he failed to restrain them.” Children can be blamed for going astray but parents carry part of the blame for knowing what children do but failing to restrain them.
Samuel was that blessed son given to Hannah after years of insults and mockeries for being barren. Hannah prayed to God for a child whom she promised to dedicate to God’s service. She kept her promise and brought Samuel to serve the LORD. While still in the tutelage of Eli, God called Samuel. Samuel was too young to understand that he was called by God. He was about twelve years old. Besides, “in those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions.” This implies why it was only after the third time that Eli realised that the LORD was calling Samuel. He told Samuel to go back to bed and if he heard the call again he should respond, “Speak LORD, your servant is listening.”
And that is how it happened. God told Samuel how he planned to end the priesthood of Eli’s bloodline. A word of praise to Eli: He urged Samuel to tell him all that the LORD had told Samuel. When Samuel told him, he said: “He is the LORD; Let him do what is good in his eyes.”
Eli continued to groom Samuel without rancour. He didn’t mind that Samuel was to be his replacement instead of his own sons. It couldn’t have been otherwise, because “The LORD was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground. All Israel… recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the LORD…”
Samuel, like Moses was a prophet and liberator; and a king maker too. At that time Israel was a theocracy. He was Judge of Israel all his years, until the people asked for a king. He anointed Saul as the first king of Israel. When Saul fell from grace, Samuel anointed David from whose bloodline came the Christ.
Dear friend, generations come and go with their own peculiarities. But in each generation, when God’s elect seem to be under suppression, God calls someone from nowhere to bail his people out of drudgery and hardship!
You are not too young to be called since “The beautyful ones are not yet born.” Young as you may be, when God calls there is an unbiased Eli to groom you for your task! You may be naive to know it is God calling, but there is always an Eli to tell you, “when he calls, say, “Speak LORD, your servant is listening.'”
Prayer: Holy Spirit, in the midst of deafening and meaningless noises, help me to be able to discern the LORD’s voice. Amen!
Have a blessed day! Peace be with you!
Rev Babila Fochang.