Can You Hear Me Now? Pt II

...the LORD called Samuel; and he said, “Here I am.” Then he ran to Eli... I Samuel 3.4-5a

Well I have certainly done that; not recognizing the voice of the Lord.

Young Samuel had no experience with hearing the voice of God, in fact not many did in that day as verse one tells us, “And word from the LORD was rare in those days, visions were infrequent.” Verse seven tells us, “Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor had the word of the LORD yet been revealed to him.”

There are many things to encourage us and challenge us in this story of God’s first words to a young boy who would become one of Israel’s greatest prophets. You see, God had plans for Samuel, big plans, and He would make sure his ears were tuned properly so he could pick up the messages God would be sending him.

The Lord is sending us messages as well! Have our ears been tuned to His frequency?

The Lord called Samuels’ name and he popped up from where he was lying in the temple near the ark of the Lord. Samuel runs to Eli thinking the old priest had called him. “No, wasn’t me, go lie down”.

Again the Lord calls and he runs to Eli, “wasn’t me”

A third time the Lord calls and he runs to Eli; this time Eli figures out what is going on and tells Samuel the next time you hear the voice say, “speak for your servant is listening”

Well, that might be a clue to ear tuning… hearing and listening are two different things aren’t they. Oh, we might hear the Lord, but are we listening. The Word rendered ‘listening” means to "hear with attention". “The Lord doesn’t speak to me!” Really, or is it that I am not hearing with attention?

A double dipper
When the Lord does speak to Samuel again He says, “Samuel! Samuel!” It’s a double dipper! The other times He called his name only once but here He says it twice.

Here are a couple things to note –
Firstly, the Lord is patient to keep coming, to keep calling, to keep speaking as our ears are in the tuning process. He knows we are weak, sometimes a little dull of hearing, sometimes we are a little slow on the uptake (can you relate) and He is patient with us.

Secondly, if the Lord has something for us to hear, he will make sure we hear it. We don’t need to worry that the Lord will put a call into us and if we don’t pick up He moves on. He will keep coming until He delivers His message.

With one exception
And we already saw it. That is, if I am choosing not to listen, to live my life with my fingers in my ears going la-la-la we could find ourselves in the same place Israel was at at the beginning of this chapter… “And word from the LORD was rare in those days, visions were infrequent”. The Lord was not speaking to his people because they had walked so far away in their rebellion and idol worship. (Remember this is really the continuing story from the end of the book of Judges).

Frequently on the frequency
Samuel was learning to listen; his ears were being tuned to the frequency of God. May we continue to learn to listen as well. Become familiar with the voice of God; come to understand how He speaks to you, how He speaks to me. May we keep a tender heart, a hearing heart, a heart that is “hearing with attention”.

The Lord will keep trying… “can you hear me now?.” He will be faithful, “OK, let me try this way… can you hear me now?”

The LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard

Isaiah 30.30