1 Samuel 3:1-6
“Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord under Eli. The word of the Lord was rare in those days; visions were not widespread.” vs. 1
Samuel’s mother, Hannah, had dedicated him to the service of the Lord in grateful thanksgiving for his birth and he’d been living at the sanctuary in Shiloh under the tutelage of the priest, Eli. It wasn’t a happy time for Eli…his sons were scoundrels and he had gone blind. He seems to have almost given up on the Lord…people were making a mockery of worship and God appeared to be absent. Everyone was just going through the motions. Truly faithful people like Hannah were few and far between. It’s not unusual to feel that way. Some of us may have had those kinds of experiences with the church. People were doing things. Worship was still happening. It’s easy for people of faith to start going through the motions and get bogged down in rituals. And sometimes our leaders, like Eli’s sons, are just jerks. We have the sense they’re really not believers and are just using their positions for personal profit or self-gratification. Those are real seasons of barrenness for us…we could even begin to doubt our own faith or lose sight of our convictions. And then it happens…the Lord speaks…and life is good again. Thank God for women like Hannah! Again and again their faithfulness has borne fruit and we realize that God is real…and more than an ancient fiction.
Thought for the Day: Where have I heard the word of the Lord?
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