1 Samuel 3:8-9

New International Version (NIV)

Then Eli realized that the Lord was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’”

For Meditation

There are times when things dry up around us. That time is coming up in Senegal. The rainy season is over and the lush green vegetation that beautified our surrounding is turning brown. Very soon, only a few trees and shrubs will remain, and the land will be bare, dry, sandy, and harsh. Not an environment anybody desires; but it is a natural phenomenon that we have to endure.

However, there are times when we choose the dry and difficult conditions that surround us. Those are the times when we disregard God and get all engaged in our personal preferences. Our selfish endeavors take away every desire to know the word of God. We dread what He will say to us and so we pretend He does not exist. The sad commentary is that sin becomes fun and a game to indulge in; for that is the natural habitat of the flesh. God closes up and a severe famine of His word breaks out in the land.

Israel experienced such periods in the time of the judges (Judges 20:25). One of those times was the period under Eli, the high priest. “In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions” (1 Sam. 3:1). Those were the conditions under which Samuel began his ministry. Sin abounded and Eli’s ears were dulled to the voice of God. It took three trips to him by Samuel before it dawned on him that God was calling the boy (2-9). God was bringing judgment upon Eli’s family “because of the sin he knew about; his sons made themselves contemptible, and he failed to restrain them” (13). At the same time, God was preparing Samuel to take the mantle and lead His people back to Him. A new era was dawning, and the old had to give way.

1. Do you sense something like that in the air?
2. Can you feel as if God “has something up His sleeve,” as somebody remarked after the results of the elections in the USA?
3. In the midst of the proliferation of churches around the world, can’t you sense a severe famine of God’s word?
4. Can you sense the disobedience and insensitivity to the Spirit of God and the capriciousness of our walk with Jesus?
5. Do you feel the dryness and wintry chill that is preparing to sweep across the world?

I pray we prepare ourselves for what God is doing and tune our ears to hear what He is telling us in this dispensation.

So: May you not panic, but rather be “self-controlled and alert,” so that you may not be devoured by the enemy (1 Pt. 5:8); and may our Great Shepherd and Lord Jesus Christ, who remains on His throne, continue to lead and guide His flock into His eternal dwelling at His imminent coming.

Shalom