Your servant hears

Now the LORD came and stood and called as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel answered, "Speak, for Your servant hears." - 1 Samuel 3v10

This is one of those bible lessons that too often is relegated to the Sunday school class for younger children. I can see the beautiful little flannel graph or the Sunday school paper of an adorable, pale faced, angelic little Samuel in his striped pyjamas in a cosy little bed with spotlessly clean white sheets sitting up in response to the voice he is hearing in the night.

It is a nice story for kids. It is a great picture of how God can use even a young child who is willing to listen to His voice. It may be relegated to the young Sunday school class, but it is certainly not wasted there. (Though I do often wish the material were more realistic, like not using western ideas of what a child looks like, but that is for another time. J )

There is a lesson here for all of us. Despite all that was going wrong with Eli’s life and family he did have a few things right. I sometimes feel sorry for Eli. He seems like a guy who started out with a desire to really and truly serve God but allowed things to go off the rails.

Anyway, back to Samuel. Most of us know the story. Samuel was serving and living in the middle of the night he heard his voice and ran to check with Eli. Eli told him that he was not calling him and to go back to bed. This happened a couple of time before Eli copped on and told Samuel, ‘Go back to bed. The next time you hear the voice say ‘speak Lord, your servant hears.’’

Samuel did what he was told. He did not question, he just did it. Pretty soon the voice called out again, ‘Samuel.’ This time Samuel got it right and said ‘Speak Lord for your servant hears.’

What a beautiful, simple, childlike statement of faith.

Isn’t it interesting how often child are set up as examples? Remember what Jesus said about a child and faith? Unless we have the faith of a child we cannot see the kingdom of God. Here we see that not only salvation, but our service is also based on child-like faith.

As this new day starts are we willing to say ‘Speak Lord for your servant hears?’