In today’s world we are surrounded by many voices. This is the price that we pay for living in a high tech culture. At the touch of a finger we can turn on the television, the radio and listen to music and video talk to one another on our personal computers. No longer do we even have to be near a land line telephone to call someone, because most of us now carry our own personal phones with us wherever we go. While others of us also have Internet service and our phones at just the touch of a finger pad away in our blackberries, blackjacks and I-phones. Even our new President of the United States got special permission to continue to use his blackberry after the Inauguration; something that has never been done before due to security reasons. In short, we are living in a fully communication accessible culture.
Well back in the Old Testament days, when there were no telephones, no televisions, no radios, and no computers and definitely no blackberries other than the kind you can eat, a young boy named Samuel heard someone calling him in the middle of the night. He didn’t even have to wonder about who was calling him and whose voice it was. The only logical source was another human being and that person was Eli, the high priest whom Samuel served.
So Samuel jumped up out of his bed, which was in the temple right next to the ark of the Lord and runs – not walk - but runs to Eli’s room. Well, when Samuel got to Eli’s room, he called out to his master saying, “Here I am, for you called me.” Now parents and grand-parents, let’s get real here, wouldn’t you just love to have that kind of response when we call our children? I mean Samuel was Johnny on the spot. No dilly dallying to wait and see if Eli really meant to call him. Instead, Samuel jumps up out of bed and runs to find out what Eli wants. Not only that, but Samuel doesn’t do this just once. No, Samuel jumps up out of bed and runs to Eli three times.
Three times Samuel does this, but it was not Eli who was calling Samuel. On the third time that Samuel went to Eli after hearing the voice calling him, Eli tells Samuel that it is the Lord God who is calling the boy. The scripture states,
“Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down; and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’”
What is so neat about this is that Samuel did not recognize the voice of the Lord, but that did not stop God from talking to him. I just wonder how often the Lord speaks to each of us and we mistake His voice for someone else’s. After all if God is bigger than the Universe, then He must have one powerfully huge voice. Seems reasonable doesn’t it? Yet, that is not what the scriptures teach us.
The prophet Elijah had a close encounter with God and also heard God’s voice. In the First Book of Kings, chapter nineteen, beginning with verse eleven from Peterson’s The Message, we read:
“Then he was told, "Go, stand on the mountain at attention before God. God will pass by." A hurricane wind ripped through the mountains and shattered the rocks before God, but God wasn't to be found in the wind; after the wind an earthquake, but God wasn't in the earthquake; and after the earthquake fire, but God wasn't in the fire; and after the fire a gentle and quiet whisper.
The voice of Almighty God was not found in the wind, the earthquake nor the fire, but in a small still voice. The Creator of the Universe speaks to His children in the gentle voice of a mother whispering to her child. Just as the child has to be quiet and still to hear the mother’s whispers so too do we have to be quiet and still to hear from our Father God. This is why Eli told Samuel to first lie down in other words to be still. Then if the Lord God spoke to Samuel again, he would be able to hear the voice of the Lord. For it is only when we come before our Father God in silence that we can hear His “gentle and quiet whisper”.
As long as we are listening to all the other voices surrounding us or being too busy doing other things, we cannot hear the voice of the Lord. For it is not in the noise of this world through which the Lord speaks, but into our spirits that He calls to us. Jesus tells us in the Gospel of John,
“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.’”
Because God speaks to us spirit to spirit, we need to set aside time every day so we can listen to what God has to say to us. This is what it means to be in communion or fellowship with the Lord. When we are so hungry to hear His voice that we will take time to be alone with Him, then we will hear from our Father God. The Lord wants to communicate with us. In fact, He is trying to talk to us all the time. We just need to be still and listen.
The Lord has so many things to tell us, if we would but hear His voice. The prophet Jeremiah wrote about God’s desire to communicate with us. He wrote,
"Before I shaped you in the womb, I knew all about you. Before you saw the light of day, I had holy plans for you”.
God loves each and every one of us so much that He already has made holy plans for us. We are His children and He wants the best for us, but we cannot know what those plans are if we are not listening to Him.
In the gospel reading for today from John, God speaks through another person to get His message across. It was not through a long drawn out sermon, but in the simple invitation of one friend to another to “Come and see.” Phillip had met the Lord Jesus face to face and was so excited that he sought out his friend Nathaniel to share the good news with him. This is what happens when we have had a personal encounter with the Living God. We become so excited that we have to share the good news with others. First we hear from the Lord, and then we share it. So may we become good listeners in order to share the good news with others.
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