So you can turn to 1 Samuel 3. While you're turning there, just a reminder, tonight's sermon is on Jesus' temptation in Luke chapter 4. So tonight we'll be looking at Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. So we're going to read the whole chapter and actually the first sentence of chapter 4. This is one of the best chapter breaks in the Bible. So we're going to read the first half of chapter 4 as well. The verse 1 there. But you'll see that as we go. Let's pay attention. Let's have open ears and open hearts because this is God's holy word. 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. At that time, Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, and ran to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. But he said, I did not call. Lie down again. So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. But he said, I did not call, my son. Lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, Speak, Lord, for your servant hears. So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood, calling at other times, Samuel, Samuel. And Samuel said, Speak, for your servant hears. And the Lord said to Samuel, Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end. And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them. Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. Samuel lay until morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son. And he said, here I am. And Eli said, what was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he has told you. So Samuel told him everything, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel." This is God's word. If you don't believe that God is sovereign There's a lot of stories in the Bible that probably won't make much sense to you, or you'll have a hard time making sense of them. If a person doubts the sovereignty of God, that person is going to find many texts of the Bible that are difficult to believe, difficult to understand and make sense of. Now, when I'm mentioning this, I'm not just talking about that difficult topic of predestination and election in Romans 9, about God's sovereignty. But we've been learning about God's sovereignty in these first chapters of 1 Samuel. And it's no different today. We're going to learn about God's sovereignty again, to rebuke sin, to punish sin in a sovereign way, to call a prophet, to speak to a prophet, to bless a prophet in a sovereign way. So that's kind of the setting for the story here, is what we're going to do first of all, as we talk about God's sovereignty in this story. And I don't really have a straight-up outline for you today. Today we're just going to work through the story in order, and then I'll do some application along the way. So it shouldn't be too difficult to follow, if you're paying attention anyway. Now, let's just look at the story then. Now, verse 1 is kind of the setting, just to remind us where we're at in this Old Testament story. Samuel is ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. Samuel, a young boy, maybe 10 or 12, around there. And then it says, the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no frequent vision. So here's the setting to the story. And this word, the Hebrew word rare, the word of the Lord is rare in those days. Rare means like rare when you look for gold out west today. It's very rare if you find gold in a stream or a river. And so God's word, His revelation was rare in those days when Samuel was young in the tabernacle. It says there were no frequent visions from God in verse 1. Well, when you study the Bible, that should make you ask the question, well, why? We don't have a very, you know, exactly clear answer right after that. The narrator didn't give us an answer. But we can back up and think about the context. Remember what's going on in Israel at the time? Well, first of all, these early Samuel stories happen in the days at the end of the Judges. Remember where everyone did what was right in his own eyes? So it's a sinful situation in Israel. And we learned already about the sins of Hophni and Phinehas, we're reminded of them in this text today, how Hophni and Phinehas were desecrating God's sacrifices, and they were sleeping with women outside the door of the tabernacle. So there's a great sin, great sins going on in Israel, like breaking the Mosaic Covenant. And so, remember, because Hophni and Phinehas sinned, and because Eli let them go on and sin, God was taking the priesthood away from the family, and He's going to put an end to the family, or almost an end to the family. And so, when we think about the word of the Lord being rare, we could say also that because Israel was sinning so greatly, God was, as it were, for a time, taking His word away, or making it rare, as a punishment for their explicit sins. If you constantly ignore and trample on God's Word, well, He's sovereign. He can take it away. If you keep refusing it. Well, you might say, well, isn't that brutal? I thought God was patient and kind. What about that? Well, of course He is. We talk about that all the time, of God's grace and mercy. But it's not brutal for God to take His Word away at this time in Israel. Because God does not blast wickedness. God was speaking His Word And people were avoiding it, trampling on it, and profaning its sacrifices so God in His sovereignty can take His Word away if they trampled on it. Does this remind you of any other time in Israel's life where the Word was rare? Well, if you fast forward about 350 years to the prophet Amos, Amos chapter 8, Amos was prophesying in a time where Israel was breaking the covenant greatly. They were committing idolatry all over the place, and God, through Amos, said, I'm going to bring sorrow and mourning upon Israel, and I'm going to send a famine. But not a famine of bread and water. Rather, a famine of the Word. Something similar is going on here in young Samuel's day because of Israel's sin. And so right here we have our word of application, don't we? God takes sin seriously. God does not bless wickedness. And sometimes in His sovereignty, God punishes people for their sins in this life. They reap their consequences already in this life. And so when we think about this for our own lives, of course this means we should not despise God's word. We should not ignore God's Word. We should not willfully sin against God's Word. Because we don't want Him to take it away. We don't want our hearts to be hardened and go wild in sin because God might take His Word away. And if God takes His Word away, what else do we have? His Word gives us life and hope. His Word tells us the difference between right and wrong. His Word is a light to our path and a lamp for our feet. We don't want Him to take His Word away or we'd be groping around in darkness. His Word gives strength to the weary. Scripture gives comfort to you who are in sorrow. Scripture brings forgiveness to the guilty. We don't want God to take it away. So we remember not to sin against God's Word purposely with a hard heart. Because we don't want a famine of the Word. The story continues, though. It's not like all hope is lost in Israel, thankfully. God's not just going to scrap Israel. But we go on to read the story of Samuel's calling, and in verse 2 then, moving on in the story, and in this story we learn that God's word is rare, like gold is rare, but it's still there. So here's old Eli, who is starting to get blind. He was laying down in his own place, verse 2 says. Eli must have lived pretty close to the tabernacle in Shiloh, because Samuel has to run back and forth. And what happens is, when Eli is sleeping one night, Samuel is sleeping in the tabernacle in a certain place there, in the tent, and he hears a voice. Now, look at what it says in verse 3, just talking about the time. So the lamp of God had not yet gone out. Most likely this means during the night the lamp stand in the tabernacle would burn, the priest would keep it going overnight, you're not supposed to let it out, and in the morning then that's when it could go dimmer or go out. So most likely this is very early in the morning. We're not sure, but maybe 3 or 4 in the morning. And young Samuel, again 10 or 12 years old or something like that, he hears this voice, Samuel. And that's what we read over and over. The Lord called to Samuel and he said, Here I am. Now you probably have heard this story before. This is one that when you hear it, it's kind of one of those unforgettable stories. And the first time Samuel hears, immediately he says, Here I am. And then verse 5 says, He ran to Eli and said, Eli, here I am. You called me, right? And the old man, early in the morning, almost blind, sits up and says, no, it wasn't me, go back to sleep. So Samuel goes back to sleep, back toward the tabernacle, back in the tabernacle, and sure enough, soon after Samuel lays down, he hears a call again. And Samuel gets up, and this time he doesn't run, but he goes to Eli and says, Eli, look, look, here I am, what do you want? And again, Eli said, I did not call. Lie down again, my son. That happens three times. Now, look at verse 7. You know, in the Hebrew Bible, you can't really put a side note. When the Hebrews were writing, it's not like they could do a footnote like we would do today. But if they could, verse 7 would be something like a footnote. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not been revealed to him yet. He did not know the Lord. Now that phrase, or something like that phrase, has been used in the story already. Do you remember earlier whom that was said of? Look at verse 12 of chapter 2, right across the page. Eli's sons. They didn't know the Lord. So what do you do? What does this mean? That Samuel did not yet know the Lord. God didn't yet reveal himself to Samuel. Now, I don't think this means that Samuel is a heathen. In fact, I'm pretty sure it doesn't mean that Samuel is a heathen like Eli's sons were. Because we already read five times in these earlier chapters that Samuel ministered to the Lord and that the Lord was favorable to Samuel. So it can't mean that he's a heathen. Now one commentator says verse 7 simply means that Samuel didn't know it was God who was calling him at that point. Maybe. But probably better, and other commentators say it this way, Samuel didn't yet know the Lord in a prophetic, personal, face-to-face way like a prophet knows God. Because we're going to see that at the end of this chapter, and we read already in verse 19, 20, and 21, that this is when God reveals himself to Samuel in a prophetic-like way, like Ezekiel, like Isaiah. Remember, caught up in a vision, as it were. Because here's when he sees God. So, Samuel yet didn't know the Lord here. This means that Samuel wasn't yet called face-to-face like a prophet is called. He didn't know the Lord that way. Alright, well back to the story, in verse 10 is the third time, or fourth time, and then Eli says, Eli figures out what's going on. Samuel says, speak for your servant here, oh wait, in verse 9, Samuel goes back, because Eli told him to go back, and he says, Samuel, if you lay down again, it's God calling you, so say, speak, Lord, for your servant here. Samuel went and laid down in his bed again, and sure enough, Yahweh calls him. And verse 10 says, Yahweh came and stood, calling like other times, Samuel, Samuel. Now, there's that vision, right? Some kind of a revelation that's very impossible almost for us to understand what it is. But Yahweh was there standing by Samuel, calling him. Again, like he revealed himself to Isaiah and Ezekiel and Jeremiah. And then Samuel's memorable words. Verse 10. Speak what your servant hears. This young boy hears God's voice and sees some kind of God's glory. And this ten or twelve or fourteen year old boy says, I'm listening, God. What do you want me to do? It's kind of like Isaiah. Remember, here I am. Send me. Now, this is the opposite of Eli's sons. They don't care what God says. But Samuel does. There's not going to be a famine of the Word for Samuel because his heart is open to hear God's Word and obey it. Now, here's another good point of application, I think. This should be our attitude when we hear God's Word. When we read God's Word, when we hear God's Word, when we memorize God's Word, speak, Lord, if I'm listening. That's great for kids to remember. Remember kids, Samuel was some of your ages. I'm listening, God. What would you say to me? Or whether you're older, right? When you hear God's Word come to you, Lord, Lord, speak. I'm listening. And I want to obey. So when God's Word comes, we don't say, well, I don't care. When God's Word comes to us, we don't say, well, I know this all. Or, I'd rather be watching the game. Or, this isn't really that relevant for life. But when God's Word comes, we open up our ears and say, I'm listening. What would you have me do? Here am I. Send me. Is that the attitude that you have towards God's word? That's one we should cultivate and pray for. A listening ear like Samuel had. It reminds me of a 19th century hymn that says, Oh, give me Samuel's ear, the open ear, O Lord, alive and quick to hear each whisper of thy word, like him to answer at thy call, and to obey thee first of all. Speak for your servant hears. Then in verse 11, we have God's dialogue to Samuel. Now, those words in verses 11 through 14 are heavy words for a young boy, aren't they? Kids, if you're 10 or 11 or 12, imagine if somebody told you that you had to go to this important person and tell them that the whole family was going to die. That's a hard word for a kid to have. to tell, especially at four in the morning, five in the morning. And look at what God says first of all. Yahweh, you know, Abraham's God, says to Samuel, Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. What does that mean? Well, for the Hebrews, it was a figure of speech, similar to when our knees knock out of fear. for ears to tingle. That's something that brings fear to people. Both of their ears will tingle like their knees will knock. They're quivering with fear. Because it's the Word of Judgment. And essentially, God's Word of Judgment in verses 12-14 is God saying, I'm going to cleanse the tabernacle like I promised. Remember we talked about in the New Testament Jesus cleansing the temple. Maybe there's some echoes here. But essentially, God here is saying, I sent the man of God to Eli's family and say, I'm going to take away the priesthood from their family because of Eli letting his sons go on in sin. We learn that. Eli's sons sinned so long and so hard that God let them go on in their sin and He decreed their death, the Bible says. So again, yes, God is kind and patient, but there comes a time where God says, no more! to hard-hearted sin. He is sovereign. Now, look at verse 14, another difficult verse. Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. What do we make of that? I thought the Old Testament sacrifices were supposed to atone for sin or picture an atonement for sin. Why not Eli's sons? Well, in Old Testament language, especially Numbers 15, that's a key chapter to read, Numbers 15, there's a distinguishing between an intentional sin and an unintentional sin. Intentional and unintentional. Now we have something similar, just by way of analogy today. You know, manslaughter is different than homicide. Manslaughter could be an accident. You know, if you're driving your car crazy and you kill somebody, it was an accidental death, so you could be charged for manslaughter. But homicide can be premeditated murder. There's a difference. And even in our legal system, there's a different penalty. So it was similar in the Old Testament. You see, Eli's sons committed premeditated sins. We read of their wickedness. They just had hard hearts, and they didn't even care when Eli finally rebuked them a bit. We can just say that Eli's sons didn't want forgiveness. They did not want a relationship with God. And remember, they were willfully sinning against the heart of God's grace, against the sacrifices, the blood, the atonement. They were profiting off of these things. It's premeditated, hard-hearted sin, and that's why it says there's no sacrifice for them. Actually, Numbers 15 says, the person who sins with a high hand reviles the Lord and shall be cut off. Because he has despised God's Word and broken His commandment, his iniquity shall be upon him. Sins of a high hand. One commentator put it this way, if the gracious provision of God has made the forgiveness of sins spurned and scorned and disdained, then there's nothing left but a fearful prospect of judgment. If somebody refuses the sacrifice and tramples on the sacrifice, There's a fearful expectation of judgment. Is anybody thinking New Testament thoughts? Hebrews? If you read Hebrews around chapter 10, for example, let me just back up. All of Hebrews basically teaches, of course, that Jesus is the final sacrifice for sins. And if you trust in Jesus, His blood is sufficient to cover you from all of your sins. He's the final sacrifice, the final High Priest, and you have complete and full salvation in Him because of His sacrifice. But then Hebrews says, but if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of truth, then there is no longer a sacrifice for sin, but a fearful expectation of judgment. Hebrews 10. In other words, if you know about Jesus' sacrifice for sin, if you know about the cross and about His blood, and you say, I don't want that. That's nonsense. Then the blood won't cover you. If you know about Jesus' sacrifice for sin, if you know about His blood pouring down on the cross, and you say, forget about that, I'm going off in sin. Then you don't have a covering for sin. There's one remedy for sin. That's through the sacrifice of Jesus. But if you trample and despise that sacrifice, you don't have a remedy for sin and you have to face the judgment yourself. And like Hebrews says, it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So don't be like Eli's sons. People of God don't reject His sacrifice and go on sinning willfully. Don't trample in Jesus' blood and trample the Son of God underfoot, like Hebrews said, by disdaining and hating His sacrifice and going on in sin. Rather, instead, like Hebrews says, draw near to Him with a true heart and full assurance of faith and hold fast to your confession of hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Stick close to the sacrifice of Christ. Trust it. Receive it with an open heart. So you don't suffer the same fate as Eli's sons. Alright, well the story moves on. Verse 15. Samuel lay until morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. So after God spoke to Samuel, God appeared to Samuel. He laid back down. I doubt he slept after that. And he was really afraid to tell Eli. Like I said, what 12-year-old kid is going to want to tell this old, half-blind man that his family is going to suffer judgment like the other prophets said? Now, apparently, Eli can tell that something's wrong. Look at verse 16. Samuel, my son, hear my, Samuel replies. And look at 17. Eli said, what is it that he told you? Don't hide it from me. I know that God spoke to you last night, and probably by the look on your face, I know that it's not good. Don't withhold anything from me. Tell me everything, or God will bring a curse on you, essentially. That curse will fall on you. Verse 18. So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. That's a true prophet who speaks all the words of the Lord. He didn't water it down. He didn't skirt the issue. He gave it just like God said it. He's a prophet. He tells him everything. Now, essentially again, what he's saying is when he told him everything, remember, a man of God came in chapter 2, verse 27. A man of God already came to warn Eli and tell Eli of judgment. Samuel is just reiterating that prophecy that God gave Eli's family. And did you notice Eli's answer in the end of verse 18? We take this to be Eli and not Samuel saying it. It is the Lord. Let him do what seems good to him. Or another paraphrase would be, he is God. Let him do what he thinks best. Now, I don't think it's viable here, but you could take this as fatalism. What will be, will be, whatever. I don't think that's what Eli is saying. I think better this is a statement of faith. Essentially, what Eli is saying is, you know, my household deserves this punishment for sin. And if God wants to punish my household this way, well, He is sovereign to do so. Let Him do it. He is God. Thy will be done. Remember what Job said? Though He slay me, yet I will trust Him. One commentator said, this is Eli's finest moment. Another commentator said, if it comes from God, it has to be right. And when push comes to shove, Eli was still enough of a believer to accept this. I agree. Yes, Eli failed miserably with his sons. Eli failed as a priest to keep the temple or the tabernacle of God pure. That's serious sin. But remember Eli's faith earlier. He blessed Samuel's family more than once. And he told Samuel to listen to God and go to God and say, speak Lord. There's still faith in Eli. Now, maybe we might say it this way. That Eli's son suffered God's wrath against unbelievers. But Eli suffered God's discipline as a child. There's a difference. Eli's sons, we might say, suffered God's wrath against unbelievers. We know they were not believers. But Eli suffered God's discipline as a child. And he accepted it. There's kind of a neat, as it were, paradox here. Eli failed to discipline his sons out of love. But God doesn't fail to do that. And Eli accepts it. There's application for us. That's a good phrase to memorize, right? When a difficult time comes your way and you don't know what's going on, it is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good. You submit to God's will. And also, think of God's discipline. Remember that God does discipline His people as children, and it's a discipline of love. It's not wrath and curse, but it's love and correction. Proverbs in Hebrews. Don't make light of the Lord's discipline, and don't lose heart when God disciplines you, because the Lord disciplines those He loves. So maybe you're backsliding. Maybe you're stumbling in the faith. Maybe you've sinned against God. and God's loving discipline comes. You say, it is the Lord. Let Him do what He pleases. Well, finishing the story then, in verses 19-21 in the first sentence of chapter 4, basically this small paragraph tells us clearly that now Samuel is God's chosen prophet, for sure. Isn't it clear? It says that God let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground. And verse 20, all of Israel from north to south knew Samuel as a prophet of Yahweh. Verse 21, Yahweh appeared to Samuel at Shiloh, at the tabernacle, and the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel by the word of the Lord. No doubt, right? And the first words of chapter 4, the word of Samuel came to all Israel. That's clear. that Samuel now is God's prophet. Now the word of God is less rare. He's revealing himself again through Samuel. There's a prophet in residence. God is speaking to his people again. And so this is good for Israel. We're going to see that. Remember, Samuel is a transitional figure between the time of the judges with disorder and sin and the time of the kings at first, which was relatively decent. This is good for Israel. They'd say, do you want to hear God's Word? Well, go to Samuel. He'll tell you God's Word. He'll speak it clear. And like he did with Eli, he's not going to embellish it. He's not going to twist it or water it down. He'll speak it full and clear. So God didn't reject Israel totally. Because of the Abrahamic covenant, He'll stick with His people. And because He promised to raise a prophet up, He will speak to His people. So they can hear the very voice of God. Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son, Hebrews 1. Samuel's Prophetic ministry is a foreshadow of Christ's prophetic ministry. And like the Catechism says, Christ executes the office of prophet by revealing God's Word to us through His Word and Spirit, God's will for us and for our salvation. So, people of God, because Jesus has come as the final prophet, we stick to His Word. We stick to the Word of God. We don't need Joseph Smith's Word. We don't follow our own reason. We don't follow other people's word. We follow the word of the Lord, and Jesus as the final prophet. Now, I'll end with a story. Remember in the Gospels, I think it was John 6, Jesus was speaking about eating his body and drinking his blood. Remember that passage? Remember what a lot of people did? A lot of people said, no, that's too hard, we're gone. And they left Jesus. And then Jesus asked his disciples, are you going to go to, are you leaving to, with everyone else? And Peter's answer should be ours. Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Let's pray.