Speak Lord, Your Servant Hears

“Speak, Lord, Your Servant Hears”

( 1 Sam. 3:9, 10)

The book of First Samuel begins with the story of Samuel’s birth and youth.
Many of us first heard it in our own young years in Bible class. As told to
children, the story focuses on the child Samuel. We learned how Hannah his
mother grieved over being childless, and how she promised God that, if he gave
her a son, she would give the boy back for God’s service. We learned that Samuel
was turned over to Eli the priest and spent his youth “ministering to the LORD (1
Sam. 3:1).” We heard that while Samuel was sleeping one night, he heard a voice
calling him. Thinking the voice was Eli’s, he ran to obey, only to be told “I did not
call, lie down again.” After this happened three times, Eli knew that the voice was
God’s and told Samuel how to reply: “you shall say ‘Speak, LORD, your servant
hears.’”
When we are older, we can read this story with more understanding of the
emotions of those involved. We know more about grief and can relate to
Hannah’s daily grief at having no child. We know more about the challenges of
believing and sacrificing and can understand the cost of Hannah’s vow. We know
the joy of prayers granted when we read Hannah’s exultant prayer (1 Sam 2:1-10).
We know how it feels to have a child far away from us when we see Hannah
making her son a little robe - each time a little larger - to give him on her yearly
visit.
We can also have more insight into Samuel’s likely life in Eli’s house. We know
he “ministered,” but “minister” means “servant,” and he served God by serving
Eli, and presumably the two “worthless men” who were Eli’s sons. He lived a
servant’s life. He was accustomed to being called, night or day, assigned a task to
do and hurrying to carry it out. The midnight call would not be unusual for
Samuel.
But one night the call came from God. God calls prophets in various ways in the
Bible, but this call must have been a voice, simple and clear enough to be
confused with Eli’s. And Samuel answered the call with the words Eli gave him:
“Speak, LORD, your servant hears.” It was a humble and expectant reply. The
servant is prepared to listen carefully to his Master’s instructions and expects to
hasten to perform them. He heard from God a message for Eli, and that night
Samuel became God’s spokesman to Israel.
What follows is a great rise for Samuel, and a great fall for Eli. Eli hears and
accepts God’s verdict on him and declines towards his predicted end. Samuel the
lonely servant boy becomes Israel’s leader as priest, prophet and judge, and a
maker and un-maker of kings. He anoints two kings, Saul and David, judges and
denounces Saul, and executes Agag King of the Amalekites (1 Sam. 15:32).
Samuel’s story is a dramatic story of times long past. What lessons can we draw
from it to help us in our Christian walk today? I’d like to focus on Samuel’s
response to God’s word: “Speak, LORD, your servant hears.”
God spoke to Samuel as a voice in the night. God speaks to us today through His
written word and we devote ourselves to hearing it. We read our Bibles regularly,
we hear lessons from the pulpit every week and we discuss it in our classes. We
strive to know it better and understand it better. This is all right and good.
But Satan has many temptations in his tool kit. He has temptations for the godly
as well as the ungodly. He even has temptations particularly designed for people

who regularly study their Bibles. He tempts us to complacency. The dictionary
says complacency is “a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or
one’s achievements.” Synonyms include self-satisfaction, self-righteousness and
arrogance. When I open my Bible to a familiar passage, I feel a temptation to say,
“I know this already, I’ve got this.” I am tempted to be satisfied with what I think
I know, and to see applications to others and not to myself.
The Bible gives us a chilling example of where complacency can take us - the
Pharisees of Jesus’ time. They knew their scripture thoroughly. They knew all
the Messianic prophecies. They knew what all the old rabbis had said about the
Messianic prophecies. They prayed regularly for the Messiah to come. But when
He came, preaching God’s word and working God’s miracles, they were so
complacent, so self-satisfied with their traditional understanding that they did
not recognize him. How do we make sure we never become numb to what God
has to tell us?
Let’s remember Samuel’s answer to God. Let’s take his attitude into all of our
encounters with God’s word: “Speak, LORD, your servant hears.” Let’s strive to
be humble and expectant. There is always more that God would say. There is
always more that we should hear. There is always more application to make so
we can be better followers of Jesus.
- Scot Ruska

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Our Awesome God

With modern telescopes astronomers can look far beyond our Milky Way. They
estimate that there may be as many as 2 trillion other galaxies, each containing
billions of stars, possibly totaling 200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000! Without
quibbling about the accuracy of those estimates we must admit that the numbers
are hard for our finite minds to grasp.
Now consider what we are told in Psalm 147:4: “The Lord counts the number of
the stars; He gives names to all of them.”
The apostle Paul was certainly correct when he exclaimed: “Oh, the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His
judgments and unfathomable His ways!” (Rom 11:33)
(Anon)

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