Liz Morris -January 17, 2021
Let us pray: Lord, open our hearts to hear your Word. May your teaching permeate through us so that we will strive to bring it to our lives in tangible ways and for Your glory. Amen
“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” In the Old Testament reading, we hear Samuel being called by the Lord, but mistaking God’s voice for Eli’s. At this point in the Bible, man has fallen, prophets have professed the need for reconciliation with God, Judges have failed and God has agreed to put into place another form of politics; a monarchy. For the first time, God agrees to and establishes a political system in Israel headed by a human king. Why does God do this? Because man believes we are able to govern ourselves. Although the Judges were, in whole, unsuccessful, humanity decides a king will be. To be fair to humanity, we weren’t completely wrong; although we were wrong about a human king. Samuel is not king – he is a forerunner to the kings we do meet in this section of the Bible: kings Saul and David. Importantly, Samuel is also a prophet. He reminds us that people are flawed kings and leaders – something we are sure to be keenly feeling in current politics.
As we begin a new year, many of us might be feeling renewed, excited and hopeful, whilst many of us might be feeling discouraged, disempowered and lonely. However you are feeling, I believe there is a key message that links our Old Testament and New Testament readings this week. Although I began by reiterating verse 10 (“Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening”), Samuel does not immediately know he is being approached by God. At first, Samuel runs to Eli’s aid – knowing Eli is old and poor in sight. He is obedient to his master, but it is not Eli who is calling him. God is faithful in calling Samuel again.
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