Epiphany 2 – Series
B (January 14, 2018)
“Knowing the Lord”
(1 Samuel 3:1-10)
INI
Hannah was the childless wife of a man named
whose other wife had children. Hannah
was tormented because of her barren condition. Every year, she and her family would travel from
their home in Ramah to Shiloh where the tabernacle was at the time. This was many years before David built his palace
in Jerusalem and Solomon built the temple there. There, at Shiloh, Hannah and her husband would
worship the Lord.
On one particular visit, she prayed to the
Lord with such fervor and with such tears that Eli the priest thought she was
drunk. He tried to shoo her away, but
Hannah explained to him that she was “troubled in spirit” and was “pouring out
[her] soul to the Lord” (1 Samuel 1:15).
What she had been praying for was, of course, a child. Moreover, she promised the Lord that if she
was given a son, she would dedicate him to the Lord’s service for the rest of
his life. And that is exactly what
happened. Hannah had a baby, and she
named him Samuel. After he was weaned,
she brought him back to Shiloh and gave him to Eli to raise in the Lord’s
service. You may be wondering, “Didn’t
Samuel need a mothering hand, too, rather than just an old priest?” There were probably other women who served at
the tabernacle who helped take care of Samuel, perhaps Eli’s own wife. But Hannah also returned every year to visit
and to give Samuel a new robe which she had lovingly made. And the Lord continued to bless Hannah. In 1 Samuel 2, we are informed that, “the Lord
visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the young man Samuel grew in the presence
of the Lord.”
Yet, in our text today it says, “Now Samuel
did not yet know the Lord.” How was this
possible? We just heard that he was “in
the presence of the Lord.” He lived with
Eli the priest. The first verse of our
text says that Samuel “was ministering to the Lord.” That probably means he performed some service
in the tabernacle, perhaps like acolytes today or altar guild members. He helped Eli with his priestly duties. We also learn that he slept in the tabernacle
itself, near the ark of God (3:3), where God promised his very presence would
dwell. Chapter 1 of 1 Samuel even says,
“He worshiped the Lord” (1 Sam. 1:28).
With all this contact with the things of God, how is it possible that
Samuel “did not yet know the Lord”?
It appears that Samuel served as Eli’s
“eyes” in his old age, since the text mentions Eli’s eyesight that had “begun
to grow dim.” Perhaps that’s why Samuel
thought that it was Eli who was calling him.
Eli probably often called to Samuel for his assistance getting around
and taking care of things in the tabernacle.
But Eli’s failing eyesight points us to something else. There was also a failure of spiritual sight,
since there was “no frequent vision” from the Lord. This is reflected in the way that Eli failed
to rein in his sons. The previous
chapter of 1 Samuel tells us how sinful they were: they misused the offerings that people
brought to the Lord. They slept with the
women who served at the entrance to the tabernacle. Eli’s sons certainly “did not know that Lord,”
and that is the way they are described (1 Sam. 2:12). How, then, can the same
thing be said about Samuel?
What does it mean here to “know the Lord”? For Samuel, it meant that God’s Word had come
to him in a personal way, and he responded to it in faith and trust. Before God had revealed himself, Samuel might
have been like those people who have a mild familiarity with the way things operate
in church, but only have a surface relationship with God. They come to church every Sunday, but they
still don’t know the Lord the way he wants to be known. They hear God’s Word, but it goes in one ear
and out the other. They sing the liturgy, but their hearts and minds are not in
it. They come to the Lord’s Table, but
they still hold deep-seated, hateful grudges in their heart against someone. They come to the Lord’s Table, which is meant
to forgive us and strengthen us, but they really don’t intend to amend their
sinful life. They return home on Sunday
afternoon and things go on just as they always have.
“Knowing the Lord” is more than just
knowing ABOUT him. It’s more than just
acknowledging that he is there. “Knowing
the Lord” is to be in a daily, penitent, prayerful relationship with him. “Knowing the Lord” is to submit to his claims
on our life. It is a heartfelt trust and
a desire to draw closer to him through his Word.
There is a danger in thinking we are so near,
yet so far away from him. Unless we hear
and answer his call, like Samuel … and the disciples, in today’s Gospel lesson,
where Jesus comes to them and says, “Follow me,” then we are no more alive than
the walls of this building upon which God’s Word echoes. We are spiritually dead and deserve nothing
but God’s wrath over our sin. We don’t
really “know the Lord.”
And in fact, we can’t know the Lord unless
He reveals himself to us first. But our God
is gracious and forgiving to call us in the first place. He doesn’t have to call us to faith through
water and the Word. He is under no
obligation to call us to be his followers.
He could just let us go off in our sin and self-satisfaction. But he loves us so much that he doesn’t leave
us to our own devices. He knew us first,
just like he knew Nathanael. Nathanael
asked Jesus, “How do you know me?” Jesus
replied, “Before Phillip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw
you.” Just like he came to Philip and
Nathanael and called them by name, Jesus comes to us personally in Holy Baptism
and calls us by name. Jesus comes to us
through his Word … in the Bible, on the lips of your pastor, on the lips of
whoever has told you about Jesus. Jesus
comes to you through his Word and says, “I love you. I died for you sins. I am alive forever. Now come, follow me. Be my disciple. Be a life-long learner from me and my
Word. And I don’t just want to be a
casual acquaintance of yours, someone about whom who you think only once a week
on Sunday morning at 8 or 10:45. I want
to be close to you. And the way that
happens is for you to be in my Word all week long.”
You can hear the voice of Jesus calling you
in His Word. You don’t have to wait for “frequent
vision” from the Lord, that which was lacking prior to the Lord calling Samuel
to be a prophet. We hear God’s voice,
not in dreams, not in visions, but in the voice of Jesus. Hebrews 1:1 says, “Long ago, at many times
and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last
days he has spoken to us by his Son.” We
hear the voice of Jesus in the apostolic testimony given to us in Holy
Scripture. In the Bible, we hear his
call, and the Holy Spirit empowers us to respond, “Speak, Lord, for your
servant hears.” Our hearts have been
opened to hear God’s Word, to listen to it carefully, to meditate on it.
Samuel came to know the Lord in a way that
Eli’s sons never did. In fact, the Lord
graciously revealed himself to Samuel in a way he never did to Eli. Note that the last time God called Samuel,
our text says, “the Lord came and stood.”
This seems to be another one of those moments in the Old Testament where
the Son of God appeared visibly, even before his incarnation … another “theophany.”
God personally appeared to Samuel like
he did to Moses in the burning bush. He
called Samuel for a specific purpose … to be his prophet to carry his word to
the people, to be God’s authoritative representative.
Even more so, the disciples came to know
the Lord in way that even Samuel didn’t.
They saw him in the incarnate flesh of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ and
Savior of the world. He called the disciples
for a specific purpose…to be eyewitnesses of his resurrection and to preach the
Gospel to all nations as his authoritative representatives.
And that is what he calls his Church to do
today … to carry the apostolic testimony of the Crucified and Risen Savior to
the nations … by mouth, by supporting mission work with our prayers and with
our pocketbook, by supporting the work of our seminaries to send laborers into
the harvest, by encouraging the young men and young women in our congregations
to consider entering into full-time church work … so that many more people in
this dying world might come to “know the Lord” … knowing him as the one who bought
them with a price … the price of the precious blood of the Son of God … the
very same price with which he bought you.
INI
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