None of His Words Fell

If you want to know the truth so your life doesn’t fall apart, you need to listen to Jesus, whose words never fall.

[00:00:00] As we’ve been working our way through the early chapters of First Samuel, we’ve been alternating back and forth between the story of Samuel’s childhood and the story of Eli and his sons. The Samuel stories have been delightful. They really have. Little Samuel wearing his little robe in service in the temple, faithfully serving. The stories of Eli, by contrast, and his sons, they’ve been awful. They abuse people. They steal sacrifices. They completely disregard God and His word. God has said that he’s going to raise up Samuel to be a faithful priest to replace Eli and his entire family. The new priest will do all that is in the Lord’s mind and in the Lord’s heart, which is what he’s supposed to do. But up until today, these stories have been told separately, with only Eli sharing a role in each story appearing in both sets of stories. On the Samuel side, he’s been blessing Hannah and raising Samuel in the temple and on the side with his sons, he’s a condemned man who didn’t have the backbone, the character, or the personal conviction to correct his sons. Today, these stories are going to merge, and we’re going to hear from Samuel for the first time in this book. He’s going to speak for the first time. And when he speaks, it’ll be to deliver the news about Eli and his sons. Meaning our Scripture passage today is both delightful and awful.

[00:01:37] But this passage is not so much about these characters or what they do or what happens to them. This passage is about God’s Word. Have we heard from God? How do we hear from God? How is that done? How do we know the truth about who God is? Who should we be listening to? A lot of time the discussion about God centers around his existence. Is there a God or isn’t there? Does he exist? And that’s an interesting question for some. I know a lot of times on college campuses, that’s where the public debate is between theists and atheists arguing for their position. But the vast majority of all of human history has looked at the world and its intricate design. They’ve considered the options and they’ve determined that there is a designer. I think the far more interesting question, and the question that causes far more division, is whether the God who exists has revealed himself. And if so, how? How has he told us who he is? Because at the end of the day, most of us agree that there is a God. But if he hasn’t revealed himself, then we can’t know him. If God hasn’t revealed himself, then all we’re left to do is speculate about what he might be like. And we’re left to guess, based on our own observations, and fill in the gaps with our own preferences. Lots of people do that. Some do it because they’re convinced that God hasn’t given us any information about himself.

[00:03:13] Others do it because they wish he wouldn’t. The message of Scripture is that the God of the universe has revealed himself, and has done so plainly, has given us information that we can understand. The great American biblical scholar B.B. Warfield wrote this, “the religion of the Bible presents itself as distinctively a revealed religion, or rather, to speak more exactly, it announces itself as the revealed religion as the only revealed religion, and sets itself as such over against all other religions, which are represented as all products of the art and device of man.” Now, by that last part, he simply means that other religions and worldviews that claim to have God’s revealed truth are actually man-made systems, not God’s revelation at all. God has revealed himself through his written word, the scriptures that were inspired by the Holy Spirit and through the Word of God made flesh. So, not only has God revealed himself by speaking through his prophets, through the coming of Christ, he entered into the world to reveal himself. If you want to know the truth so that your life doesn’t fall apart, you need to listen to Jesus, whose words never fall. Okay, so let’s get into first Samuel chapter three. There are three parts to this chapter. First, we’re given a brief opening statement that shows us the problem. And then we have a longer story where God solves the problem.

[00:05:00] And then there’s a concluding statement about Samuel that points the way forward. And in honor of my good friend, Pastor Brian Martin, I have chosen to alliterate these three parts. He loves alliteration. So first, the word of the Lord was rare. Then it’s revealed, and finally it’s relayed. Okay, so here’s that opening statement. Now, the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no frequent vision. So, it’s important to know throughout history that God has not always interacted with his people in the same way. That has changed over time. When Jesus established the New Covenant through his death and resurrection, that changed the way God interacts with us. The Holy Spirit, for instance, now indwells all believers. Everybody who’s put their trust in Jesus. We have God’s written word, which is complete. We call it a closed canon. Nothing more can be added to it and there’s nothing more to be added to it. So today, we’re not waiting on a prophet from God to tell us what God has revealed, what God has to say. There are not certain special people that God has given special guidance to, while the rest of us wait for that person’s direction. But in ancient Israel, that’s exactly how it worked. That’s exactly how God interacted with his people. God selected Moses to be the spokesman and the leader for the people.

[00:06:42] God worked through Moses to do miracles, to display his divine power, to release his people from Egypt. Moses received revelation from God on Mount Sinai. He went up and he got the law and he brought it down to the peoples. This is what God has said. And when Moses was near the end of his life, he handed this mantle of leadership on to Joshua when they entered into the Promise Land. And Joshua remained faithful to the Lord. And as he remained faithful to him, God gave him divine favor, mostly in battle. So, at this time the people had a king, but their king was the Lord himself. And then they had the representative leader, the king’s representative, who delivered the word of God to the people and showed them how to faithfully walk in it. When Joshua died, the people turned away from the Lord. They started serving the idols of the Canaanites. And they didn’t complete the conquest of the Promised Land. So, basically what happened was they became friends with their enemies, they started worshipping the gods of their enemies. They turned their back on the Lord. And so, the nation of Israel entered what we now call the period of the judges. Judges were leaders God raised up when the people cried out to the Lord in distress. So, their disobedience would cause God to send a foreign nation against them.

[00:08:17] He’d call this outside nation to come and to oppress the people. And then God would hear the repentant cries of his people, and he would raise up a leader called the judge. And this judge would be filled with His Holy Spirit and would save the people. But this cycle kept happening because the people wouldn’t learn. The judge would no longer be in place. The people would turn back to their sin. And in fact, the judges themselves got worse and worse over time. So, even the one that God raised up wouldn’t be as faithful as he was supposed to be. One of the most famous judges is a guy named Samson. If you’ve ever heard of Samson, you know he was not exactly a godly man, though God still used him despite his character, to do great things. Now it’s in this dark, godless time that in the history of Israel that Eli and his sons come along. See, Eli is the judge. Eli is the judge of Israel at this time. His sons supposedly were being trained to take his place. See, the role had become institutionalized to be something like a reigning military captain among God’s people. You get to see the military exploits of Eli and his sons next week. Let’s just say it’s not exactly Patton. They’re not great because Eli is a weak, ineffective leader.

[00:09:53] His sons don’t even know the Lord. And it’s because of this that they’re not hearing from the Lord. No one’s hearing from the Lord. It is rare in that day. The way the Book of Judges ends is this. In those days, there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. By King there the author is referring to the Lord. He’s saying there was no God. There was no Lord among the people. They just lived for themselves. They are an idolatrous, godless community. Now, not everyone was this way. There were exceptions in all generations. There are people that do truly love the Lord and who seek him out. We have the book of Ruth to tell us a story about a time during the period of the judges when people were faithful to the Lord, but the people aren’t hearing from God. Most of them don’t want to hear from him. And the ones who do aren’t getting much. They’re getting very little guidance. If you have ever felt that you don’t have guidance from the Lord, that you’re not hearing from him, you may resonate with what was going on there. But as I said a moment ago, you and I are not waiting on a prophet to tell us what God has said. So, how do we hear then, from the Lord? We’re going to get to that here in just a few minutes.

[00:11:18] Let’s look at what the Lord does to reveal himself. The main portion of this passage is a unique and sort of humorous scenario where Samuel meets the Lord. Eli’s eyesight is failing and he’s in another room. He’s probably in some chamber in the temple where his quarters are. He’s lying down there. Samuel doesn’t have his own quarters, so he’s lying down near the holiest place in the temple near the ark and the lampstand that is to burn all through the night. This oil lamp that’s talked about here represents God’s constant presence among his people. We see this sort of imagery throughout the Old Testament. God is often represented, his presence is often represented as fire. For instance, when Israel was leaving Egypt, and when they were guided at night, they were guided by a pillar of fire. So, when it says the lamp had not yet gone out, what it’s saying is it’s still the middle of the night. Morning has not come yet. God calls Samuel the first time he jumps up. Here I am. And he runs into Eli to find out what Eli wants. And I’m sure Eli was not delighted to be woken up in the middle of the night. So, all he says is I didn’t call. Lie down again. Not a long speech. Second time the Lord calls Samuel. He calls Samuel’s name. Word for word.

[00:12:48] We have exactly the same response from Samuel, with the exception that this time Samuel does not pop right up and say, here I am. This time he just goes to Eli, probably because he’s less sure that it was Eli. Eli is absolutely sure it was not him and sends him back using the same words. And it’s here in verse seven that we are told that Samuel does not yet know the Lord. You see that there in verse seven? You have to remember that Eli was still a little boy at this point. He’s serving in the temple. He’s just a little guy. Let me pause here to talk to the young people of our church. I’m seeing that we have lots of them this morning. This is good news. With Sunday school not going on right now. Let me talk directly to you young folks. Those of you who are still living at home. This is a point that’s worth noting for you. As a young person, you can serve God because that’s what you’re instructed to do. You can serve God because that’s what your family does. You come to church. You get involved in church. That’s just what your family does. Remember, Samuel is serving in the temple because of a vow his mom made. He didn’t make any vow to serve the Lord. His mom made this for him. He didn’t make a choice. His parents made the choice.

[00:14:10] You might be here at Calvary because it’s your parents’ choice. In fact, I’d be willing to guess that’s about 100% of you young folks – are here because your family made a choice to be here this morning. Your family wants you to know the Lord. That’s just good parenting. But just because you are around the church, just because you are near church people, even you might serve in the church, that doesn’t mean you know the Lord. That doesn’t mean that this is knowledge that you have. Your parents’ relationship with the Lord is not your relationship with the Lord. Their commitment to Jesus is not your commitment to Jesus. Now you’ve heard the good news of salvation in Jesus Christ. God has spoken his gospel to you. If you’ve spent any time around here at Calvary, you’ve probably heard it in countless ways. You hear about Jesus all the time around here. My question for you, young people is, have you heard him? Do you know the Lord? That’s a question that you’re going to have to answer. Samuel is about to meet the Lord and God’s going to reveal himself to him. The Lord calls Samuel’s name a third time. He goes again to Eli and says the exact same thing. Here I am for you called me, and this time Eli picks up on what’s happening. He tells Samuel that the next time he hears the voice that he should respond, Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.

[00:15:45] Now you need to know. And this is true for all of the Old Testament. When you see the word Lord in all capital letters, usually it’s a large capital L and three smaller capital ORD. When you see the word Lord written that way in the Old Testament, that’s the replacement for the personal name that God gave to Moses for his people to use. That’s the name Yahweh. It means I am. The reason that we have Lord as a replacement here is because Jewish folks wouldn’t say the name of the Lord when they read the Bible. They said Lord instead. And I won’t go into the reasoning why they did that this morning. But it’s important to know that because Eli is instructing Samuel to call God by his proper name, speak, Lord, speak Yahweh. And that’s going to be a little intimidating. And it’s likely why Samuel leaves that part out when he responds to the Lord. The fourth time the Lord speaks to Samuel, it says that he came and stood. This is probably the angel of the Lord that we have in other accounts in Scripture. He says Samuel’s name twice for the sake of emphasis and urgency. Samuel. Samuel. And this time Samuel responds, speak, for your servant is listening. See, he doesn’t say the name. He doesn’t say the name. Which is understandable, because this is a pretty epic moment when he’s now standing before the Lord.

[00:17:19] He’s been serving the Lord. He’s been doing the stuff. He’s been going and performing the tasks of the temple. Now he’s in the presence of God, and God gives him his first assignment as a prophet. Samuel probably didn’t even know that he was operating as a prophet when he did this. He didn’t fully understand that. He’s to go to Eli and deliver the message that God is about to fulfill his Word to Eli. He’s going to punish Eli’s entire family because his sons blasphemed God, and he didn’t do anything about it. That’s about to happen. And there will be no forgiveness through sacrifice or atonement. Now, Eli already knows all of this. He heard it from the man of God in the passage just before this one. He knows this information. Why does Samuel now need to reiterate this to him? Well, I can see two reasons. First, there is some new information here. The new information here for Eli is that that time has come. See, before he knew that it was going to happen, but he didn’t know when. Now he knows it’s going to happen shortly. But the other reason, and I’d say the bigger reason, is to establish that Samuel is a prophet who speaks God’s word. See, Samuel didn’t know what the man of God had told Eli. He had no information about that. By bringing this very hard message revealed by God, Samuel would be confirmed by all of Israel that he’s a spokesperson for God.

[00:19:02] Now Samuel is afraid to tell Eli the vision. And that makes sense, because telling the truth is hard when people don’t want to hear it. It’s very, very difficult. In this case. He’s telling it to a man that almost certainly served as a mentor and a surrogate father to him when he lived in the temple. He’s living in the temple and this is a guy that he really looks up to, probably. And he’s got to deliver this incredibly difficult message. Friends, listen to me. When God reveals truth to us through His Word, it is not always a welcome message. It’s the truth. But it’s not always easy for us to receive it. God’s truth doesn’t form itself around our feelings. It doesn’t consider what we would like to see happen. God’s truth doesn’t first ask our opinion on the matter. If you truly want to know what the Lord God has to say, you’ll listen to what the prophets and apostles recorded in His Word, and you will allow that word to shape you. The Apostle James says that we should look into God’s Word like a mirror and see who we really are, and then we should walk away. And when we do, we should do what the word has told us to do. That’s what it means to be conformed to God’s revealed word. And then a step beyond that would be willingness to tell the truth to others, to speak boldly.

[00:20:38] Now, we are not called to go and give a fresh revelation about God to other people. We’re not called as prophets in the sense that Samuel is. But we have God’s Word in his recorded Scripture. And as the Holy Spirit prompts us, part of what it means to be faithful to Jesus means revealing to others the gospel that we’ve had revealed to us, even when it would cause some distress in the person that hears it. Samuel is nervous to share, but Eli commands him. In fact, he even sort of threatens him a little bit. Although, this threat is more of a colloquial expression than it is any real threat. And Samuel does what no one at that time was doing. He shared the whole truth of God’s Word. He hid nothing that God told him to say. And Eli knew right then that Samuel’s words were God’s word. Samuel couldn’t have known the man of God. He couldn’t have known what he had been told. So, Eli knew that the Lord was speaking to him through this boy. And because that’s true, because he knew this was God’s Word, he knew that there was nothing more to be said. It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. A word about Samuel got out. People knew that God had begun to speak his word to his people again.

[00:22:13] Samuel continued to grow, and the Lord was with him. He let none of his words fall it says. None of them fell. Now, what does that mean? What does it mean for words to fall to the ground? Well, for a prophet, falling would mean that what he pronounces to the people is untrue. Those words would fall. They would fail. If his words fail, that’s what it means for them to fall to the ground. When we think about a prophet, oftentimes what we’re thinking about is future prophecy. We’re thinking about what’s going to happen. Sort of like the message that Samuel delivers in this passage. But mostly what prophets would do in that time is interpret the law of Moses and call people to repent and be faithful to it. God would call out the sins of the people through his prophets. God would tell the prophet where his people had failed, and then the prophet would deliver that message and call the people back to repentance. The Lord is speaking now true words to guide his nation, and they’re coming through Samuel. He’s giving Samuel what the people need. And on Samuel’s part, he is delivering the message without compromise. He’s faithful to his role as the messenger of God’s Word. Now you say, how faithful is he? How faithful is Samuel as a prophet? Well, so much so that this section of Scripture can end with the almost unbelievable line:

[00:23:51] And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. The word of Samuel. Does anybody else feel as uneasy about that ending as I do? That phrase, the word of Samuel. I would have been very happy with the passage to have ended, and the word of the Lord came to all Israel. That would have made me feel a lot better inside. I think I might have even been okay with, and the word of the Lord came to all Israel through the work of Samuel. That would be fine too just tack him there on the end. But that’s not what it says. I feel like if we appeal to the scorer’s table on this one, we would hear a buzz. Oh, I’m sorry, we can’t accept the word of Samuel here. We were looking for the word of the Lord. We award you no points. The word of Samuel. How can this say that? How can the conclusion of this passage be that it is Samuel’s word that goes out and is established as authoritative among the nation of Israel? Well, it has to do with where the real authority is. The source from which Samuel draws his words. And you can see the source progression here in this last paragraph, Samuel grows from a boy to a man, and the Lord is with him, it says. They’re together. They’re always together. The Lord doesn’t leave Samuel. Samuel does not leave the Lord.

[00:25:15] So, all the people from the northern city of Dan, all the way to the southern city of Beersheba. These are just a northernmost city and a southernmost city. To try to give you a sense for all of Israel. All of Israel knows that Samuel speaks for the Lord, who is always with him. And the Lord keeps speaking to Samuel at Shiloh. Now, this is a rather awkward phrase here, but it’s important. The Lord appears again, it says. And then he reveals himself again, meaning that the information that the Lord has in his mind and his heart are consistently being shared with Samuel. And he’s doing that through the word of the Lord. So, he’s doing that through the medium of his words. Another way to say this is that Samuel is not just going into a room and determining what God needs to say to these people. He has no independent authority to say or do anything for the people. His words are God’s word. Samuel is simply taking what he hears from God and he’s relaying it to God’s people. This is what we mean by revelation to reveal. Christianity has the audacity to claim that God has revealed himself to humanity in ways that we can understand. God has given us actual information about himself. That’s why the people listen to Samuel. It’s why faithful people throughout the history of Israel up to that point had listened to God’s spokesperson

[00:26:57] So, then what about us? Who do we listen to? How do we hear the word of the Lord? Well, as I said earlier, we’re not waiting around for God to give vision to some person so that we can listen to that guy tell us what God has said. And that’s because God’s Word has come to us with finality. God has revealed himself in his final prophet, but not just any prophet. I want you to listen to how the Apostle John describes Jesus coming into the world. Listen to this. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. That’s John 1:1. John is saying that God and His word are the same entity. They’re the same. God and His word are the same entity. Yet at the same time, they can also be understood, thought of as side by side or one extending from the other. See, the word was with God and the word was God. Now, if you take that idea back into verse 21 of our passage, the awkwardness of that phrasing isn’t so strange, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. The Word of God is the medium that he uses to reveal himself. That’s the very thing that John is telling us. Only John doesn’t say that God revealed his word to a prophet. John says that the word became a prophet.

[00:28:42] John 1:14, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth. The second member of the Triune God, God the Son, the voice of God, came into the world. And those who heard Jesus teach, they knew. This is not like our other teachers. This one speaks with authority that’s greater than any man. And that’s because he was not a spokesperson relaying God’s Word faithfully. He is God’s word. Now, what does that mean for you and me today? Well, it means if we want to know the truth that God has revealed about himself, we have to listen to God’s Word that was written by his chosen apostles and prophets faithfully under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, who now point us to God’s Word incarnate, Jesus Christ. To say that another way, you need to know the Bible so well that you can weigh everything against it, excepting those things that align with it, rejecting everything else so that you can walk as closely as you possibly can with Jesus. We are not prophets. We never will be. You will not encounter a prophet, but we should be striving to know God’s Word so well that we can say our words are God’s words. Our thoughts are God’s thoughts. Our will is to do his will.

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