Can You Hear Me Now?

Why does God seem silent when I'm doing all the church things?

Eli slept a few feet from the ark and had stopped hearing. The lamp was still burning in the tabernacle, but the priest's eyes had gone dim, and the story puts the problem on the receiver rather than the signal.

The child Samuel ministered to Yahweh before Eli. Yahweh’s word was rare in those days. There were not many visions, then. At that time, when Eli was laid down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see), and God’s lamp hadn’t yet gone out, and Samuel had laid down in Yahweh’s temple where God’s ark was,…

1 Samuel 3:1–3

Now Samuel didn’t yet know Yahweh, neither was Yahweh’s word yet revealed to him.

1 Samuel 3:7

In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says, ‘By hearing you will hear, and will in no way understand; Seeing you will see, and will in no way perceive; for this people’s heart has grown callous, their ears are dull of hearing, and they have closed their eyes; or else perhaps they might perceive with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and would turn again, and I would heal them.’

Matthew 13:14–15

Behold, the days come,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing Yahweh’s words. They will wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they will run back and forth to seek Yahweh’s word, and will not find it.

Amos 8:11–12

What would it look like to actually make myself available to God?

Samuel answers three times with the same word, the Hebrew heni, which is less a location than a posture. Abraham said it, Isaiah said it, and Jesus prayed it in a garden with his face to the ground.

Yahweh called Samuel again the third time. He arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; for you called me.” Eli perceived that Yahweh had called the child. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down. It shall be, if he calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Yahweh; for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Yahweh came, and stood, and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak; for your servant hears.”

1 Samuel 3:8–10

After these things, God tested Abraham, and said to him, “Abraham!” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “Now take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”

Genesis 22:1–2

I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!” He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’

Isaiah 6:8–9

Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, “You didn’t desire sacrifice and offering, but you prepared a body for me. You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.’”

Hebrews 10:5–7

What do I do when God asks me to say something I really don't want to say?

Samuel is barely old enough to be in the room, and the first thing the voice sends him to do is tell his mentor that judgment is coming on his house. He lies awake until morning with it before Eli pulls it out of him.

Samuel lay until the morning, and opened the doors of Yahweh’s house. Samuel was afraid to show Eli the vision. Then Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son!” He said, “Here I am.” He said, “What is the thing that he has spoken to you? Please don’t hide it from me. God do so to you, and more also, if you hide anything from me of all the things that he spoke to you.” Samuel told him every bit, and hid nothing from him. He said, “It is Yahweh. Let him do what seems good to him.”

1 Samuel 3:15–18

Yahweh said to Samuel, “Behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves, and he didn’t restrain them. Therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be removed with sacrifice or offering forever.”

1 Samuel 3:11–14

Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I don’t know how to speak; for I am a child.” But Yahweh said to me, “Don’t say, ‘I am a child;’ for you must go to whomever I send you, and you must say whatever I command you. Don’t be afraid because of them, for I am with you to rescue you,” says Yahweh. Then Yahweh stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. Then Yahweh said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth.

Jeremiah 1:6–9

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel. Therefore hear the word from my mouth, and warn them from me. When I tell the wicked, ‘You will surely die;’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity; but I will require his blood at your hand. Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn’t turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.”

Ezekiel 3:17–19

Can God still use someone who has already failed him?

Eli is a failed father and a failed priest, and he is the one who finally recognizes what is happening and tells the boy how to answer. The pastor's own reading holds that God used him anyway, right in the middle of his mess.

Yahweh called Samuel again the third time. He arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; for you called me.” Eli perceived that Yahweh had called the child. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down. It shall be, if he calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Yahweh; for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

1 Samuel 3:8–9

Samuel told him every bit, and hid nothing from him. He said, “It is Yahweh. Let him do what seems good to him.”

1 Samuel 3:18

Yahweh’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.” So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to Yahweh’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across.

Jonah 3:1–3

So when they had eaten their breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” He said to him again a second time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I have affection for you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of Jonah, do you have affection for me?” Peter was grieved because he asked him the third time, “Do you have affection for me?” He said to him, “Lord, you know everything. You know that I have affection for you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep.

John 21:15–17

If we are faithless, he remains faithful; for he can’t deny himself.”

2 Timothy 2:13

Does God know my name the way he knew Samuel's?

The sermon closed on a one year old granddaughter turning her head at the sound of her own name. God calls Samuel twice by name in the dark, and Jesus calls his sheep by name and calls Mary by name at the tomb.

Yahweh came, and stood, and called as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak; for your servant hears.”

1 Samuel 3:10

The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Whenever he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

John 10:3–4

Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned and said to him, “Rabboni!” which is to say, “Teacher!”

John 20:16

But now Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel, says: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.

Isaiah 43:1