1 Samuel 3:1-10: When The Voice of God Breaks Through

Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli. And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.

At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. 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!” and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.

And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” 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 hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” - 1 Samuel 3:1-10

 How to differentiate between God speaking and something else? In these verses, Samuel is hearing God speak but he doesn't know that it is God speaking. So he attributes what he is hearing to some other source, a source that he imagines as possible or even likely: the voice of Eli. Why was it difficult for Samuel to distinguish? 

First, it wasn't common for God to speak to anyone directly. "And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision." Eli and Samuel are living at the end of the period of the judges in Israel's history--a chaotic period where Israel was a fragmented people where each tribe was doing what it felt was best. God spoke to the judges but at the end of that period, even the judges weren't getting a clear signal from God.

Second, even if Samuel was the right one to hear God, he didn't know what God sounded like. "Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him." It is normal what when you hear a voice, you look around to see who spoke.  Since Samuel wasn't familiar with how God spoke, he would assume some other explanation and Eli speaking seemed a lot more likely than Almighty God speaking. 

Third, even for seasoned saints like Eli, the voice of God wasn't his first guess as to what was going on. I'm not sure what Eli thought was going on with Samuel. Maybe he thought Samuel was hearing things or misinterpreting what he was hearing. The temple was quiet and dark so maybe he thought Samuel was being imaginative or playful. But whatever the reason, it took three tries before Eli guess that something was going on.

I think that it is difficult for us to hear the voice of God. Maybe it is because God doesn't speak as often. Or maybe we aren't in the right season of life where God would speak more often. Or maybe it is just because distinguishing God's voice from all of the other possibilities is just difficult. But the main thing is to listen and do what he says. Samuel asked God to speak and he prepared himself to hear and he made it a pattern for the rest of his life. So I won't whine about how difficult it is to know the voice of God, but when God does break through my ignorance, insensitivity or selfishness so that I can hear, that I will listen and do what he says.

John 10:1-18: Attuned to Jesus' Voice

 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” - John 10:1-18

An important aspect of being Jesus' disciple is following him. And in order to follow him, we must be able to know what he is saying right now, in this situation. We can't be going back to look up this situation in the text book, because this situation's moment will pass and our failure to decide is a decision in and of itself. And the situation may not exist in the text book, so we need to listen for fresh instructions from the author of the text book. But how to listen, among the many voices that compete for our attention?

We must be attuned to the shepherd's voice. Not through some mystical connection per se, but through long trusting experience with the shepherd. 

When picking up my children from an event, our ears could help us quickly echo locate our child within the crowd because we had devoted many hours attending to them. In the same way, long hours of devoted attention and even a bit of trial and error with Jesus allows us to pick out his voice from the crowd. We can with integrity say, "That doesn't sound like something Jesus would say."

He is leading us to good pastures. He is defending against the wolf and the thief. He put himself in the most shameful and humble of situations for us, because we are his.

Jeremiah 7:24: My Retrograde Heart

But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. - Jeremiah 7:24

One of the dangers to the calling of any follower of Jesus is the retrograde heart. My heart tends to fall back and not fall forward. My heart is (as the dictionary says) "tending toward or resulting in a worse or previous state." That influence--my heart's influence--just puts me in a spiritual spin cycle.

Rich Mullins captured it well in his song, The Maker of Noses, when he said:

And everyone I know wants to go there too
But when I ask them how to do it they seem so confused
Do I turn to the left?
Do I turn to the right?
When I turn to the world they gave me this advice 

They said boy you just follow your heart,
But my heart just led me into my chest
They said follow your nose
But the direction changed every time I went and turned my head
And they said boy you just follow your dreams
But my dreams were only misty notions
But the Father of hearts and the Maker of noses
And the Giver of dreams He's the one I have chosen
And I will follow Him

At the same time, the Spirit is renewing us day by day (2 Cor. 4:14), fulfilling God's promise that our heart of stone would be displaced by a heart of flesh (Eze. 34:36). So the spiritual discipline of solitude is designed to remove distractions so that we can hear the quiet voice of God that we are so unaccustomed to hearing. For me this most readily happens on long business flights or long drives with the radio turned off.

Now, the cynical among us might dismiss this searching for a "still, small voice" as wish fulfillment or self-talk, not really the voice of God. While I believe that God can and does speak, that skeptical voice does raise a good point: how do we know the difference? Frankly, "listening to my heart" and "listening to the Spirit of God" can sound the same. To make it worse: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? (Jer. 17:19) Our unchanged heart masquerades as the voice of God!

I have been there, thinking I was hearing God when, in fact, I was listening to a script prepared by heart that sounded holy and godly, but in fact was false. I wish I could hear it clearly, like Peter in the early church. He is walking to the temple and he hears a poor and crippled man asking him for money, stops, makes a brief speech and then heals the man (Acts 3). So here is the question that bothers me: How did he know? How did he know to stop that time and heal that man? I mean, he didn't stop for every one of the beggars or sick. How did he know that when he reached out his hand to pull the man to his feet that he would be able to stand that time? Who told Peter? God, obviously. But that require a level of intimacy with God and a level of awareness of God's voice that I don't have. I wish I did, but I don't.

So I have to rely on some guidelines I've developed, to help me keep out of trouble. They are not gospel, they are just guidelines based on the Bible, my experience with myself and observations from others who I trust.

1. Whether something is difficult or easy is not an indicator as to whether it should be done or not.
2. My heart is more concerned about the way something looks that what it really is. Personal descent is sometimes the path of wisdom.
3. If my thoughts center around a person, rather than the goal, I'm probably not on the right track.
4. I should expect that God will pull me in directions that I wouldn't normally consider, because He is God and I am not. Some rebukes are painful, others are refreshing. All can be learned from.
5. I don't like confrontation, so I have to watch my heart most carefully when I might anger or disappoint someone by my decisions.