December 13th: Wake Up and Speak Up

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (NLT)

The Lord Speaks to Samuel

3 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.

2 One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle[a] near the Ark of God. 4 Suddenly the Lord called out, “Samuel!”

“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” 5 He got up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go back to bed.” So he did.

6 Then the Lord called out again, “Samuel!”

Again Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you, my son,” Eli said. “Go back to bed.”

7 Samuel did not yet know the Lord because he had never had a message from the Lord before. 8 So the Lord called a third time, and once more Samuel got up and went to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

Then Eli realized it was the Lord who was calling the boy. 9 So he said to Samuel, “Go and lie down again, and if someone calls again, say, ‘Speak, Lord, your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went back to bed.

10 And the Lord came and called as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”

Samuel had been a gift from God to his mother.  She had cried and prayed for a son so that she would not be shamed by other women, and as God does, he heard Hannah’s prayer and she gave birth to Samuel.

But Hannah had also made a promise.  She promised that if God would give her a son, when he was old enough, Hannah would give him back to God to serve in the temple. Hannah kept her promise and gave Samuel to Eli, the temple priest, when he was old enough to help him.  

Eli was a good man, but he had very bad sons.  They had chosen again and again to take offerings meant for God and use them for themselves.  They treated women badly, cheated the people who came to worship, generally showed major disrespect for God and kind of just thought God was going to take it because they were priests.  But God saw past their priestly clothes and saw that their hearts were clothed in sin and darkness.  God knew that Eli was blind to his son’s evil ways and that he would have to use someone that Eli and God trusted to bring him the message that this evil could no longer take place in God’s temple.

So God spoke to Samuel in the middle of the night. Three times, God called Samuel’s name and between each time that God called him, Samuel would go to Eli to see what he wanted because he did not understand that it was the voice of God calling him.  But Eli, who had once known what it was like to hear God calling him, told Samuel to go back to his room and when God called him, to say the very words that Samuel did say: “Speak Lord for Your Servant is Listening.”

And with those seven words, Samuel would become a prophet of the almighty.  A prophet is someone who brings a special message from God to God’s people.  Samuel’s first message would be sad news for Eli, and Samuel would hate to tell him, but sometimes it is hard to serve God.  God never promised us that loving and serving Him would be easy, but He did promise to be with us every step of our journey of service to Him.

God has a message that he wants you to carry to his people.  In the book of Acts, Paul tells us that God’s sons and daughters will bring  a message from the Lord.  It is a special blessing to bring God’s message to the world, but to get the blessing you must first say “Speak Lord for YOUR servant is listening” and then wait to see what amazing and sometime hard  things God has in store for your life!

Discussion Questions:

 1.     Has anyone ever had to tell you something that was hard to hear but you knew they were right?

 2.     Are you willing to to be like Samuel and say “Speak Lord your servant is listening”, even if it              means you might have to do and say things that aren't easy?

Family Activity:  Decorate your ornament for day 13 and share a time when someone shared the truth with you and it helped you to become a better person.

Prayer for the World: Pray for average Christians and those most skilled in apologetics as they defend the faith daily.