“The lamp of God was not yet extinguished, and Samuel was sleeping in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was.
The Lord called to Samuel, who answered, “Here I am.”
1 Samuel 3:3-4 (NAB)
I love the story of Samuel, the little boy who was dedicated to the temple by his mother, Hannah. It’s a story usually told to children about a little boy who hears the call of God while he is sleeping. The story of Samuel has a lot to say about a grieved heart, both the heart of God and the heart of a parent. Hannah had a grieved heart until God answered her prayer and gave her a son. The high priest Eli had a grieved heart over his irreverent sons. God’s heart is also the heart of a parent, and He becomes grieved over sin. We can learn from Samuel to tune ourselves in to what grieves God.
There are many details in this story that are never told to children. The high priest, Eli, raising Samuel in the temple, and preparing him for priesthood, had two adult sons who were priests. Being a very passive father, Eli’s two sons grew up to disrespect God, and abuse their office of the priesthood with bribery, sexual promiscuity and greed. They brought shame to their office, to their father and to God. Eli begged his sons to reform but he never had the courage to remove them from the priesthood.
God was very grieved over their wickedness and planned to raise up Samuel to be a priest after His own heart. While Samuel was still a boy, learning the roles and rituals of priesthood from Eli, one day God spoke directly to him. He called his name out in the middle of the night, waking him up out of his sleep. After the third time Samuel heard his name called, he answered “Hineni”, meaning “Here I am”, in Hebrew. Then God revealed His heart to Samuel, explaining that He was going to remove the two evil sons of Eli and cut their lives short. Samuel went and reported all the words of the Lord to Eli.
This was the beginning of Samuel’s personal relationship with God. He grew up to understand what grieved the heart of God as well as what pleased Him, leading Samuel to become an intimate friend with God. Jesus called us His friends, not slaves or servants. If we were meant to have friendship with God, then friends share their joys as well as their sorrows with one another. This would mean that Jesus wants to share his joys with us, but He also wants to share what grieves Him.
Other faiths do not believe we can have friendship with our Creator, but rather believe men are only servants of God, but Christianity is clear that we are called into a friendship with God, our Father. Jesus said in John 15:15, “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.” God desires to share what is on His heart with us, just as He did with young Samuel.
Friends listen to each other, sharing joy and grief. It’s a two way communication that Jesus wants to have with us as well. We are all sinners like Eli’s sons, but we have been washed and cleansed in the precious blood of Jesus, renewed by His Spirit, and adopted as children of His Father. The friendship Samuel had with God is offered to us through Jesus.
The same Spirit that dwelled with Samuel, dwells in us and is there when we sleep and when we wake up. He has things to say and share with us. Lord, help us to shut off all the outside noises, so we might hear what you are saying, and we can answer like Samuel, “Hineni, Here I am, speak Lord, I am listening.”