Remember Your God!

After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the Lord for help, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and settled them in this place. But they forgot the Lord their God;

1 Samuel 12:8–9a

God brought Israel up out of Egypt. The knew Moses and Aaron. They witnessed the 10 Plagues. They saw God turn the Nile to blood. They saw God part the Red Sea for the Israelites and then close it back on their enemies. Then God brought them through the desert and settled them in the Promised Land. They crossed the Jordan River on dry ground. They saw the walls of mighty Jericho fall. God did all of this for them, and still verse 9 says they forgot their God! How is that possible?! 

We learn something about people in these verses. Sadly, the ability to forget God, to grow tired of Him, to ignore Him... is an ability that all mankind shares. We are all only too capable of forgetting God.

Think about a husband who has an affair. Do you think he forgets that he’s married? No. He doesn't forget that he has a wife. But he does forget his wife in the sense that he isn’t thinking about her anymore. When he commits that great sin, he’s thinking about someone else, this object of his desire, instead of his wife.

That’s the sense in which Israel forgot their God. They didn’t forget that God existed, but they weren’t thinking about Him anymore. They had no time for God in their thoughts or their lives because they were too busy running after the gods and the things that they desired more. False idols and fleshly desires had pushed God out of their thinking and out of their lives.

What about you? Did you know that you can go to church every week and still forget God? You can if there is no room for Him in your thoughts or your life once you leave church each Sunday. Has God been pushed out of your thoughts and your life by someone or something that you desire more then you desire Him?

Have you forgotten your God? If so, take a look back at your history and remind yourself of all He has done for you. Remember how He called you to salvation. Remember how He freed you from sin. Remember how He loved you at your worst. Remember how He gave you His Word and His church. Remember how He has met your needs again and again and again. Remember your God!

A True Prayer Warrior

They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him. While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.

1 Samuel 7:8-10

As Israel gathers for repentance and revival, their enemies attack. The people of Israel have been fasting, not sharpening their swrords. They aren’t prepared for war, and they aren’t strong enough to defeat the Philistines. But look at what they do.

In verse 8 the Israelites say to Samuel “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” In other words, they say, “Samuel, you pray and we’ll fight.” And that’s what they did.

As the Philistines begin to march out against them, Samuel sacrifices a whole burnt offering to the Lord and he prays for the people. And as Israel goes out to meet their enemies, the Lord thunders from on high! The Philistines are thrown into such a panic by this thunder of God that they are routed and Israel wins a great victory over her enemy on that day.

Samuel delivered Israel with his prayers just as surely as Samson delivered them with his jawbone of a donkey or Gideon delivered them with his trumpets and torches. Samuel was a literal prayer warrior. He fought the battle that day from his knees. And he won! And in doing so, Samuel lived up to his name. You see, in Hebrew Samuel’s name sounds like the phrase “heard of God.”* Samuel was heard by God that day.

There are a number of applications here for us. First, don’t underestimate the power of prayer. A believer can win mighty victories from his knees. Second, as Christians we have an even better intercessor than Samuel. Scripture tells us that Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven praying for you and me (Hebrews 7:24-25). It’s appropriate then for us to say to Jesus what the Israelites said to Samuel. “Don’t stop praying for me, Jesus, while I fight these battles." Third, we should also strive to be like Samuel for others in our lives. Do people seek out your prayers? When they are hurting, when they are facing a battle, are you the person they come to for prayer? Strive to be known as a person of prayer, a prayer warrior others can turn to when they need someone in their corner praying for them.

*John D. Barry, Douglas Mangum, Derek R. Brown, et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), 1 Sa 1:20.

God Came Down to Talk to Samuel

The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!”

Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

1 Samuel 3:10

This is a familiar passage of Scripture to many of us, but we often read it and miss how God condescended or lowered Himself to call Samuel. Think about this. Entire armies of angels, powerful spiritual beings, stand at God’s command in Heaven ready to be dispatched at a moment’s notice. All of creation knows His voice and bends to His command. Every human on earth is at His disposal. And yet, He chooses Samuel who may have only been 12 years old at this time [Geneva Bible: Notes, vol. 1 (Geneva: Rovland Hall, 1560), 122.] to deliver His message to Eli the priest.

God came down and called not once, not twice, not three times... but four times in 1 Samuel 3 God called to Samuel. God didn’t give up on Samuel when he couldn’t figure out who was calling him. (Samuel thought he was hearing Eli the priest call to him.) No, God waited patiently for Eli and Samuel to figure it out, so He could give His message to His newest prophet.

Let this be a reminder to us that God is patient with His servants and knows how to bring us along at a pace we can understand. And let it be a reminder also that God delights in using the weak, the small and the overlooked to do His will. He could have sent an angel. He could have delivered this message of judgment to Eli Himself. He chose to use Samuel... this young man... for His glory.

But why Samuel? Throughout the Bible, God regularly chooses those who are already serving faithfully where they are for bigger things. Joseph was a faithful and righteous servant in Potiphar’s house, before he was chosen to be second in charge of Pharaoh’s house. Joshua was a faithful soldier, a faithful spy and a faithful assistant to Moses before he became the leader of all Israel. And Samuel was a faithful nazirite and Levite before he became a prophet of God.

Serve faithfully where God has put you. Don’t worry about how much attention or prestige you receive. Don’t worry about credit. Just faithfully serve the Lord with all you have. And God will patiently bring you along and will likely use you in bigger and bigger ways for His glory just like He did with Samuel.

Finding a Way to Serve

But Samuel was ministering before the Lord—a boy wearing a linen ephod.

1 Samuel 2:18

According to Old Testament law, as a Levite, Samuel wasn’t supposed to start serving the Lord until he was 25 yrs old and he was to be released from service at 50 (Numbers 8:24–25). But Samuel’s mother had given him over to the Lord to serve Him "for his whole life" (1 Samuel 1:28). That is why Samuel was "ministering before the Lord—a boy wearing a linen ephod."

What service could Samuel possibly render at the tabernacle as a young boy? Did he sweep up? Did he sing or play an instrument in worship? Did he light the lamps or clean out the ashes or clean up the blood from the offerings? We don’t know. What we do know is that Samuel found some way he could serve even as a young boy, and he put his hand to the work faithfully.

In this way, Samuel reminds us that everyone can serve the Lord in some way. Everyone can do something. Have you found something that you can do at your church? Churches and ministires almost always need volunteers. Don’t wait for someone to ask you. If you want to serve, volunteer. I can almost gurantee that they will find something you can do. It may not be glamorous. It may notbe exactly what you wanted to do. But, it will be ministry.

Find your way to serve.

God is our Family

After he was weaned, she took the boy with her... [and] they brought the boy to Eli, and she said to him, “Pardon me, my lord. As surely as you live, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

1 Samuel 1:24–28

Samuel was likely around 3 years old when Hannah made good on her vow and took him to live at the temple. How difficult and heart-breaking that must have been for Hannah! And how difficult it must have been for Samuel. You can imagine his little cries when his mother walked away. We know that Hannah loved her son dearly and continued to visit him and take care of him because 1 Samuel 2:19 tells us that “each year [she] made him a little robe and took it to him when she went up with her husband to offer the annual sacrifice.”

But even though Hannah saw her son at least that one time a year, she didn’t see him every day. He had no mother there to care for him day in and day out. Samuel was alone. Hannah left him under the care of Eli the priest. And more specifically, Hannah gave Samuel over to the care of the LORD.

Hannah was able to do this impossible thing, giving up the child she had so longed for, because she trusted God to watch over Samuel. She trusted the Lord to provide for Samuel and care for Samuel and protect him. She didn’t abandon her son. She gave Him over to the Lord. And the Lord became mother and father and brother and sister to Samuel. God became Samuel’s family.

The same is true of every believer. When you became a Christian you were adopted as God’s child and He became your family. So, even if your earthly family lets you down, or if they are taken from you prematurely, or if you are off all on your own far away from them, know that you are never alone. You are not orphaned or widowed or abandoned in the true sense of the word, because God is with you. He is your family. He is a father to the fatherless, a husband to the widow, and a compassionate friend to those who have lost children.

And that doesn’t just go for yourself, it also goes for your children. It can be so difficult to let our children go… to send them off into the world. But if they are believers, then we have the added comfort of knowing that we are not the only family they have. Even if we cannot watch over them anymore, God is watching over them. And that brings us the same comfort that it brought Hannah.