Pastor Tim Patoka
Midweek Advent 2020 God’s Servants Listen to His Word 1 Samuel 3:1-10 1) God Speaks to Us in His Word 2) Listen to God as His Willing Servant
If you had a choice about how to learn something, what would you choose? Say you wanted to learn about the daily life of civilians who lived during World War II. Would you prefer to listen to a history teacher who has done lots of research talk about this or would you prefer to read a first-hand account like The Diary of Anne Frank? Or say you wanted to learn about the legendary frontiersman Wyatt Earp. Would you buy up all the biographies and movies you could at the gift shop in Tombstone or would you prefer the autobiography he never wrote to people’s chagrin? I’m guessing, in both cases, you would choose the second option. You would prefer to read the words of those who actually went through what you want to learn because they have a sense of authenticity and can give information that only they know about. We listen to people who have something to say. And that becomes all the more true depending on who is speaking and how exclusive their information is. But no one can surpass our God and his Word. God has used both spoken and written forms to speak his Word to us in the past as he tells us about the promise of the Christ. And, as his servants who are just as willing to listen as young Samuel was, we listen to his Word so that we may again review and rejoice in this blessed promise of the Christ during this Advent season. 1) God Speaks to Us in His Word God has used a few ways to give his Word to believers over the years. While somewhat uncommon in Old Testament times, God certainly did this by directly speaking his Word to hand-selected people like Abraham, Moses, and Samuel. In addition to God’s spoken Word, they also had his written Word. Although they had not yet lived through much of the Old Testament Scriptures by Samuel’s time, they did have what had already happened there in Shiloh where Eli and Samuel lived alongside the tabernacle and its furnishings. In our New Testament times, it hasn’t been God’s practice to give his Word to us in spoken form. But that doesn’t mean he’s left us hanging! We have far more of his written Word than Samuel ever did as recorded for us in our Bibles. In this written Word, we have God’s own Word because it comes directly from him and tells us exclusive information that only God could know. But do we always recognize it as such? Might we perhaps be unfamiliar with portions of God’s Word so that when we hear it, we fail to recognize it as we should? This was young Samuel’s problem even though it wasn’t necessarily his fault. Samuel didn’t recognize the Lord’s spoken Word because, as told to us, “Now Samuel had not yet experienced the Lord’s presence, that is, the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.” (1 Samuel 3:7) 1
Pastor Tim Patoka
Midweek Advent 2020
Samuel didn’t recognize that it was the Lord who was calling him during the night. He taught it was Eli! It wasn’t until after the elderly Eli told Samuel him that it was the Lord who was calling him that Samuel rightly recognized God’s Word. For how many of us is our time in God’s Word largely or only defined by what we hear at church? Sure we’re able to get a broad overview of God’s Word with Grace’s worship services or dig in deep on selected portions with our Bible studies, but there’s still a lot more to God’s Word that we don’t cover here. A lot more for us to get into on our own time so we can better recognize it when our Lord is speaking to us in his written Word. Or perhaps our struggle to recognize God’s Word as such is due to persistent sin. If you look at Eli’s wayward sons or a decent portion of the people of Israel at this time, and you see that their problem was knowing what God’s Word is and still disregarding it. Nowadays, talk to many of the other branches of Christianity and you’ll often find question marks about the Bible and God’s Word. While they’ll agree God speaks in it, it’s not all God’s Word! Instead, they say it’s up to us with our well-intentioned reason or respected church leaders to decide what is and what is not God’s Word. Or, looking to God’s uncommon method to directly speak his Word to hand-selected individuals, people look for God to speak in areas he has not promised like the feelings in our heart or signs in the world around us. Whenever we allow these thoughts to creep into our minds, we are again failing to recognize God’s written Word for what it is and sadly end up disregarding portions of it. Rather, let us recognize the Bible for what it is –God’s written Word where he has promised to speak to us today. And that’s what makes it so worth our while to listen to. No other book has God’s certificate of authenticity attached to it. No other book has a central unifying theme over thousands of pages like that of the God’s promise of the Christ. And in this Advent season, we look with special attention to this wonderful promise. While we don’t need God’s written Word to tell us we need a Savior, it certainly does shed light on how often we sin and explain why we will never find lasting peace in this world or in our souls. But, as God’s written Word tells us, we have the promise of the Christ who would bring us that forgiveness and peace we are so desperately searching for. You know how this promise goes. How God promised to make all things right after it fell apart in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). How a much older Samuel prophesied that David’s greater Son would reign for all time in his kingdom (2 Samuel 7). How God, when the time had fully come, had a virgin named Mary give birth to the God-man Jesus Christ (Luke 2). How Jesus lived so perfectly that the Jewish chief priests had to bring in false witnesses for his mock trial (Matthew 26 & Mark 14). How Jesus sacrificed his life on the cross so that God would not count people’s sins against those who have faith (Hebrews 10 & the Gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion). This is all what the Christ, aka the Messiah, was promised to do! And the only place where we find this wonderful promise is right here, in the written Word of God. Since 2
Pastor Tim Patoka
Midweek Advent 2020
God hasn’t promised to give his Word to us in any other place, we recognize the Bible alone as God’s Word. Therefore, we look to it alone to hear our Savior’s voice. 2) Listen to God as His Willing Servant Not only should we be familiar with God’s Word, but we should also listen to it. But sadly, like those from 2 Timothy chapter 4 who turn away from God’s Word because of their itching ears, we are prone to turn a deaf ear to God’s Word when he speaks against our sinful pleasures or refuses to answer our pressing questions. When this happens, we instead turn a listening ear to those who scratch our sinful itch for things God has not said with their false teachings and misinformation. When this happens, we are anything but willing to listen to our God and his Word. Rather than do this, let us instead imitate young Samuel who was willing to listen to God and his Word. Looking back at our verses from 1 Samuel chapter 3, we find the ~12 year old boy who has faithfully served as Eli’s attendant from little on and was like a son to him. During the wee hours of one morning in particular, before the tabernacle’s lamp had gone out, Samuel hears a voice calling for him. Thinking that it’s the elderly Eli, he immediately gets up and presents himself before Eli saying, “I am here, since you called me.” (1 Samuel 3:5a) You might wonder what tone of voice Samuel had when he spoke these words. Was it with sleepiness or reluctance mixed in? Or was it the bright and chipper voice of a morning person? Thankfully, the original Hebrew wording gives us some direction. In the words of one commentator (Werner Franzmann), Samuel’s “I am here” statement can be better understood as “Here, at your service, sir!” Samuel repeated this exact same phrase each time he spoke to Eli and the Lord. When speaking to the Lord, he also said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10b) Samuel was willing to listen to both Eli and the Lord as any servant ideally would, despite the early hour and not knowing what he was about to hear. As servants of our Lord, there’s no reason why we shouldn’t be any less willing to listen to our God speak to us in his Word. For not only do we hear the promise of the Christ and the good news of salvation in this Word, we also hear those correctives to keep us relying on Christ instead of ourselves. We hear exclusive information about our God and this world that we could never know otherwise. We hear guidance about the many ways we can show our thanks to God with our thoughts, words, and actions. We hear guarantees that God assures us despite all the uncertainty we’ve gone through and will go through. We have every reason to respond to God’s Word in the same way as Samuel did and likewise say, “Speak, for your servant is listening.” (1 Samuel 3:10b) I am listening. This season of Advent is one of preparation as we get ready to review and rejoice again in the promise of the Christ. One key way to do that is by listening to our God as one of his 3
Pastor Tim Patoka
Midweek Advent 2020
willing servants. To be a servant of God is to put our wants aside to do his instead. And to do so willingly requires us to be in the Word. To review what God has promised about the Christ. To rejoice in Jesus of Nazareth who fulfilled that promise of the Christ to the fullest. To repent of the sins that we have committed against our Lord. To receive the forgiveness he has won for us on the cross. If we apply God’s written Word to our hearts in these ways, we will certainly remain his willing servant who will gladly listen to him. If you could choose how to learn something, you’d probably prefer to go to the source and learn from those who went through it because they have authenticity and exclusive information. In the same way, the Bible stands above every other work of literature in the world because it alone is God’s written Word. It has authenticity because God himself wrote it through the inspired hands of many human writers. It has exclusive information that only God could give. As such, we should recognize it as such and be familiar with its promise of the Christ and so much more. And as children of God through faith in Jesus as the Christ, we are also his servants who have every reason to willingly listen to his Word as young Samuel was. We have God himself speaking his words of comfort and correction, guidance and information, to remind us what we all have in him. To ensure we remain God’s willing servants, let us make good use of our current Advent season and prepare to listen again to God’s Word about the promise of the Christ so that we may review and rejoice in it for all time. Amen.
4