April 11th | 1 Samuel 3
Are You Listening?
My wife likes to joke that I have selective hearing. Selective hearing is not to be confused with hearing loss. Often, I can hear just fine, but sometimes I don’t always respond to her because I might not like what I’m hearing. I might not hear her say, “Could you take out the trash?” or “Could you do the dishes?” However, miraculously, I always hear her if she says, “Let's go get ice cream!”
THE DANGER OF SELECTIVE HEARING
I might have trouble hearing my wife sometimes, but even worse, sometimes I struggle to hear the Lord, which was the case for the nation of Israel. They had continually “Done what was right in their own eyes” (Judges 21:25) and had developed “selective hearing.” Unfortunately for the nation of Israel, this meant that God quit speaking to them. Everyone, including the sons of Eli the priest, were doing as they chose. God sent a man to prophesy to Eli and to tell him that his sons would both die and that God would raise another prophet who would speak on His behalf to the people of Israel.
The rejection of Eli’s house should terrify us today. How many Christians have selective hearing towards God? We do as we wish even though we know the difference between sin and righteousness. We know what honors God and what shames Him. Yet, we continually ignore God’s call for holiness and pursue our selves. Be careful, God removed himself from Eli’s house. We are under grace but the Bible is clear that consistent “selective hearing” can result in us grieving the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:20) or quenching the Holy Spirit (1 Thess 5:19). Continually resisting God’s call on our lives results in us quenching the power of the Holy Spirit to work in and through us.
If we continue with selective hearing, we might find ourselves in the same situation as the nation of Israel. 1 Samuel 3:1 says,
“And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.”
HEARING HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE ACTIVELY LISTENING
God rejected Eli’s house but raised another prophet who would listen. 1 Samuel 3:3-4 says,
“The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was. Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!”
It took Samuel and Eli a couple of times to realize that the Lord was calling Samuel, but did you notice Samuel’s response?
“Here I am!”
He was
listening, and he
responded
to the call. For many of us, the Lord might be calling on you today. He might call you to repent of sin, be on mission for him, lead your family, or serve in the church. If the Lord calls, are you listening? If you hear Him call, what will be your response?
Samuel listened and responded in faith, and the Lord revealed Himself to Samuel. Listening and obeying resulted in Samuel being a mighty prophet for God. What might God do in your life today if you would listen and obey?
