Samuel - Perseverance of sonship — A.J. Higgins

Samuel's Early Growth and Calling

1 Samuel and chapter number 2. Again, the background is so familiar, the burden of Hannah, the prayer of Hannah, the birth of Samuel. And we will, for the sake of time, break in in chapter 2. She has brought him up to the tabernacle, to Shiloh.

And verse number 11,. And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. Verse 18,. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod.

Moreover, his mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Verse 21, And the Lord visited Hannah so that she conceived and bear three sons and two daughters.

And the child Samuel grew before the Lord. Verse 26, And the child Samuel grew on and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men. Chapter 3, verse number 1, The child Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days.

There was no open vision, meaning God was not speaking anymore through Eli. Eli had disqualified himself. Then you recall so well the story of the Lord calling Samuel and the Lord giving Samuel a very, very solemn message about the house of Eli.

Look at verse 15, Samuel lay until the morning and opened the doors of the house of the Lord, and Samuel feared to show Eli the vision. Verse 18, And Samuel told him every wit or every word and hid nothing from him.

And he said, It is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the Lord.

And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord, and the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Or better rendering is the word of Samuel came to pass.

Whatever Samuel prophesied or said came to pass in all of Israel. Now just so much that could be said, but just have to condense it. Chapter 7 and just verse number 15, And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.

And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Ramah, for there he built his house. There he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord.

God will add his blessing to the reading of his word. Samuel would bring before us the perseverance and progress of sonship. Three times he read that he grew, and he grew. His life was marked by one continual progression of growth.

In fact, Samuel is probably one of the least appreciated men in the Old Testament. He is a giant, a man who single-handedly brought the nation back to God and brought about a tremendous restoration of the nation that we could have read of in chapter number 7.

Samuel is a giant in many ways, one of the few men in Scripture who are traced from birth till death, and virtually, virtually nothing can be said against him. Some would point to the problem with his sons, but aside from that, Samuel's life was a life that was marked by absolute consistency and devotion to God, a sterling character, this man, Samuel.

Growth Amid Spiritual Decline

So as we begin, I want you to think of growth that was extraordinary, growth that was extraordinary. Think of the moral and spiritual conditions of the day, the wickedness of the priests. Now, that sad and sordid picture we did not read, but you know it so well, the sacrifices were being despised, the sanctuary was being defiled, the statutes were being disobeyed.

If you could think of a time when things were at a low ebb, when there was absolutely no positive influence at all, the wickedness of the priests, the weakness of Eli. I'd like to think that Eli once was a man that had a longing desire to please God, a man perhaps who once started out well, but family became a tremendous obstacle to him.

He couldn't handle his family. He honored men above God. It's nice to think that Samuel never spoke disrespectfully of Eli despite Eli's failures. I think there's a lesson there for us. He respected Eli despite Eli's failures.

He recognized Eli's position, recognized his age, and he always respected him despite his failure. But nevertheless, there was the weakness of Eli and there was the wantonness of the day, the general sin of the nation in the days of the judges, so that there was really nothing, really nothing to foster growth, nothing to encourage growth.

There was no one patting him on the back. There was no one encouraging him in any way. Here was a young man, a boy, if I would understand Jewish tradition right, Josephus and others, likely he was brought to the tabernacle at the age of three.

That's when they were weaned, at the age of three, being brought there, being placed in Eli's care. What a tremendous sacrifice on the place of Hannah. I mean, Hannah is one of the great women of the Bible as well.

But here was the environment in which he was caused to begin to live and to grow. Nothing at all there that would be a help in any way to this young boy. And I want you to think of the weight of his ministry.

Tremendously solemn message given. We don't know exactly how old he was when that occurred, but he was still a child. And to a child, God gave a message of tremendous importance. And you will notice that when he gave it, it says he grew.

So we're going to learn some secrets of growth here. But what was the secret of this young man's ability to live as he did? To live a pure life? To live a spotless life? To live a devoted life? What was the secret amidst that kind of environment that he was caused to live in?

Well, I think we find it really in the fourfold repetition of one statement. He ministered unto the Lord. He served the Lord. He ministered to the Lord. He grew on before the Lord. Before the Lord. Before the Lord.

Here was a young man who was conscious of the eye of God upon him. Cultivating a consciousness of God in your everyday life is a tremendous preservative. To be conscious that God sees, God hears. Now, it's not the idea of a cosmic policeman who's watching and just waiting to wrap my knuckles when I do something wrong.

But it is rather an awareness of God's presence and above all desiring to do nothing that would grieve or bring displeasure to him. Young believers have the concept at times of the fear of God. We speak of it.

We preach of it. We tell you to cultivate it. And I think young believers sometimes think the fear of God is the idea that if I do something wrong, God is there. He's going to see it, and I'm going to get it.

You know, you've already preached to us about sowing and reaping, and so I did that, and this is what's going to happen. But that's not the fear of God. That's a slavish kind of mentality. The fear of God is not that I fear what he will do to me if I do something wrong.

The fear of God is that I fear what I have done to him when I do something wrong, that I do not want to grieve him, that I do not want to disappoint him by my life, that above all, what I want to do is to please God by my life.

So the fear of God is really more my concern, that I do not grieve him or disappoint him or in some way dishonor him in this world. So here was a young man who grew conscious of God. What he did, he did for God.

How he lived, he lived for God. What he said, he said for God. It is incumbent on every one of us as believers to encourage each other. I don't mean flatter, and I don't mean to build up and to try to, you know, say nice things so they'll say nice things to me.

That's not the idea. But it is incumbent on us to try to be a help and an encouragement one to another. But having said that, having said that, if no one ever compliments you for your preaching, if no one ever pats you on the back because you're out to all the meetings and you work hard to get your children to all the meetings and you do all you can, no one comes up and pats you on the back, do it for the Lord.

Because I'll tell you, the moment you start doing something, someone's going to complain. The only way never to have someone criticize you is to do nothing. And you'll just skirt through life with minimal problems.

Do nothing. Don't volunteer for anything. Don't offer. Don't raise your hand. You know, like most of us in school, we sat in the back of the class. You know what it's like? You sit all the way in the back and you hope, and you slink down even a bit, hoping they never call on you, and you hope you can get through.

But sometimes we think that we can get away with the same in the assembly. Just be an observer or a consultant, you know? Just tell people what they ought to do, but don't get too involved ourselves. But the moment you try to do something, the moment you extend yourself, expend yourself, you will find both criticism and lack of appreciation.

That's to our shame. But having said that, that never becomes an excuse for saying that I just not going to do anything. I'm going to just stop. Nobody appreciates it. Samuel had no one there. Now, it may be that Eli tried to make up for some of his failure with his sons, with Eli, rather with Samuel and the way he helped Samuel, but we're not told that.

All we know that is right there in the environs of the tabernacle, there was absolutely nothing. There were no examples to follow. There was no encouragement to strengthen. There was no enticement to move forward.

But his eye was upon God, and what he did, he did for God. So when it comes to coming to the meetings, you do it for the Lord. When it comes to being faithful, you do it for the Lord. When it comes to raising your family, you do it for the Lord.

You never do it. You never do it looking for up to others for appreciation or for praise. The moment you begin doing that, then you have lost sight of what is vital and what is critical for Christian living, an eye upon the Lord.

He did it before the Lord. But there were encouragements that he had, not there in Shiloh, but he did have encouragements. First of all, there was a praying mother. Now, when I think in the Old Testament, when I think of a man who was marked by prayer, you may think of Nehemiah with his short kind of staccato prayers that he raises to heaven in the midst of crisis, and that's true about Nehemiah.

And you might think about Elijah. We're told that he was a man subject to like passions, and he prayed. You might think of Moses as the great intercessor, but I think Samuel was one of the greatest intercessors in the Old Testament.

A praying mother led to a praying son. He did have an encouragement. He had a pattern in a mother. And while we didn't read it in chapter number one, you may find some defects in Elkanah and say he had a divided affection, two wives, and all the rest.

But he was marked by consistency. He went up year by year to offer his sacrifice. He could have well said, I'm going to stay home. You know, why go up there? They're going to just abuse what I bring, and they're going to misuse what I bring, and they're going to take the fat for themselves.

Everybody knows about those priests up there. They're just sons of Belial. Why bother? No. He went up year by year to offer his sacrifice to the Lord. So he was marked by consistency. When I think of consistency in the Old Testament, you know what I think about?

I think about Samuel. He went year by year in his circuit. Four cities he visited. Consistency. So he had a praying mother that led to a praying son, a consistent father who sired a consistent son. So there were encouragements, but not there.

There was this background. The pattern of a father, the praying of a mother, all of that marked this young man in his extraordinary growth for God. Growth that was extraordinary. But there was growth that was expected.

Growth that was expected. We read together that his mother went up year by year, and she made him a little coat, and she brought it year by year. Last year's coat didn't fit. She expected he would grow.

She expected that next year he's going to be so much bigger, and I've got to make a little bigger coat that'll fit him, and I have to... Because he's growing. Could I just ask young Christians, just examine yourself.

Don't raise your hand. Don't answer to anyone but the Lord. Those who care for you in the assembly, if you ask them, would they say, you know, the last year I've seen growth in you. I've seen growth in your life.

I've seen development, not just in the way you preach or the way you pray, but I've just seen that there's been a maturing, a growth, and obviously you're making advances. And our sisters as well, that we've seen growth, that you seem to just be so much more into the meetings, so much more appreciating the Lord Jesus.

Let me just turn it on myself, because if you spent a week with me, would you say at the end of the week, as compared to the beginning of the week, that he has grown? You say, just a week's time? There should be daily growth, daily growth, if we are really feeding on Christ.

That's to our shame. Here was a boy, and there was growth that was expected. Paul expected it, didn't he? He wrote to the believers at Corinth that he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.

Whoever wrote Hebrews writes back to the Hebrew saints that the time they ought to be teachers, they had need of the fundamentals once again, had to go back to the beginning with them. They weren't growing.

Growth is expected. Growth is synonymous with life. One of the signs of life is growth. Until you get to our age, and then the growth is different. It's a different kind of growth. But anyway, growth is what is expected.

And Samuel grew, increased in his stature. Remember when Paul was writing to the Colossians, he says, as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, so walk ye in him, rooted and grounded and built up. He is the very soil.

He is the very sustenance in which you grow. And Paul was expecting growth in those believers at Colossae. So here was a man whose growth was expected, not just extraordinary, but expected. A mother who expected growth.

There's other kinds of growth in the Word of God that... What about the growth of your appetite? Growth in appetite. Do you enjoy the Word of God more now than a year ago? Do you enjoy Christ in the Word of God more now than a year ago?

You remember, don't you, the opposite occurred with the nation of Israel? First of all, when the manna came, they enjoyed it. And they gathered it, and they gathered as much as they could, and all the rest, you know the story so well.

But you come a year later, and you're now in Numbers chapter 11, and they come to Moses and they say, isn't there anything else beside the manna? Well, you know, the manna is okay, but could we have something else?

You know, something along with it. Just give us a variety in our diet. That's chapter 11 of Numbers. You come to chapter 21, and they say, not now could we have something along with the manna. Our soul loathes this.

We hate this light bread. We want something altogether different. So they went from enjoying the manna to wanting something along with the manna, to where they decide we don't want the manna anymore. We want something else altogether.

How's your appetite for the Word of God? I mean, devotionals are nice, and tearing the calendar off and reading it is nice. Magazines are good. All of that is fine. But what about your appetite for the Word of God?

Now, I don't want to suggest that there's nothing else you should read. You know, certainly there are books that are of value. There are books that can give us information, books that can give us background, books that can help us in many ways.

We won't go into Christian fiction and all the rest and romances, but there are other things that are very, very valuable and helpful along with, but the Word of God should be the staple of your diet, to feed upon it.

Increase in appetite. What about an increase in the size of your hand? What do I mean? Well, you remember, don't you, there was a sacrifice that a Jewish person could bring up to the temple or the tabernacle, and it was called the meal offering.

And it was fine flour, and it had oil, and no leaven, of course, was in it. And they would bring it up along with their burnt offering. And we are told that the priest took a handful of the flour and put it on the altar for God.

So what God got from that offering was determined by the size of a priest's hand. However much of the meal offering he could grasp is what went on the altar for God. Now, let me just, without a lot of explanation, tell you young believers that the meal offering was a picture, always linked with a burnt offering, except in one or two instances, speaks of the perfections of the person of Christ offered at Calvary.

So how much more of Christ can I bring to give to God this year than last year? Is my hand getting smaller and shriveling, or is my hand getting larger and able to bring God more of his son in worship?

So growth then that was expected. But there was growth as well that is exemplary for us. And I want to talk about that probably for most of the remainder of the 15 minutes or so. I want to talk about tests that were private.

Tests that were private. God is always going to test growth. What do we mean by a test that was private? Well, I want you to think first of all of the fact that when God gave that message of solemn judgment to Samuel to give to Eli, no one else in the world knew that Samuel had been given that assignment, that responsibility.

Had he chosen not to do it, no one would have ever known. So involved in that were several things. First of all, there was the test of relationship. Samuel esteemed Eli. He respected him. Can you imagine a young, let's call him a teenager at this point in time, at the very oldest he's a teenager.

Can you imagine a young teenager having to stand before the leader of the nation whom he respects and honors and having to give him a message of solemn judgment? No easy task. I mean, some of you might love to do it.

Just give me an opportunity to tell them off, okay? I'll put them in their place. Now, that's not what Samuel was like. Samuel lay awake all night. So great was the burden on his heart, he couldn't get back to sleep.

He lay all night until the morning. The last thing he wanted to do was to give a message like that to Eli, the test of relationships. One of the great tests that you are going to have to face somewhere along the way in your spiritual life that will either make or break your growth for God is the test of relationships.

It may involve boy-girl, it may involve family, it may involve friends, but you'll have to decide whether God comes first in life or others come first. See, Eli failed this test himself. Eli honored others ahead of God.

Now, Samuel is going to be put to the test. Samuel, here's the message, the test of relationships. More could be said, I'll leave it for your conscience, friends, potential spouses, for some that are from unsaved families, even family ties sometimes, not that you disrespect them or dissolve them, but prioritize.

So there was the test of relationship. There was the test of responsibility. Notice what it says. Samuel told him every wit or every word. He held nothing back. Would have been easy to soften it, maybe modify it, maybe make it sound not quite so bad.

Samuel told him every word. Now, let me just point something out. The paragraph ends by saying that God did let none of his words fall to the ground. The man who was careful with every word God gave him, God became careful with every word he said.

His words carried weight because the word of God carried weight with him. The measure in which the word of God controls me is the measure in which what I say for God will have effect and have power. God let none of his words fall to the ground.

So he passed the test of relationships. He passed the test of responsibility. He passed the test of revelation. He moved on what God gave him, and God gave him more. The Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

The man who dealt with, who handled, who lived in the good of what God revealed to him, God revealed more to him. I learned a very simple principle in my Christian life, and it's this. If I am looking to God for direction, I'm praying to God for his will for some aspect of my life.

If there is some aspect of my life I am resisting his will, I cannot expect him to give further light and further guidance. That's very practical. That means if I'm refusing to be baptized because I don't want to get baptized, and yet I'm praying for God to show me what I should do with my life, my career.

It's as though you're saying, well, that really doesn't matter that much, but this does. God says, no. If I know I should be in the assembly and I'm resistant because I think, well, whatever reasoning you may put in there, and I'm still looking for God for direction.

Now, God is gracious. God can answer sometimes at the times we least expect it. But as far as what I can expect, what I have a right to expect, if I'm neglecting the word of God here and asking for the word of God here, if I'm not careful with the revelation he has given me, it's not likely I can expect more revelation.

So he was careful. He passed the test of revelation. He passed as well the test of recognition. He gives God his place. The child ministered before the Lord, and then the Lord gives him his place as a prophet in Israel.

Faithfulness in Service and Public Testimony

Let me just take a moment here. And again, it's a bit of a digression, but I think it's valuable. How does a young believer find how they can be useful for God? How do they find a sphere of service, a sphere of usefulness, or put in other terms, how do I find my gift?

Or how do I find what purpose God has for me? Well, I think we learn lessons from Samuel. He did what God gave him to do. He opened the doors of the tabernacle. Not very glamorous. You don't get your name in the magazine opening the doors of the tabernacle.

And not many people are going to tell you, you're doing a great job opening the doors, okay? But that's what he did. And God gave him a little more to do. God gave him a revelation. God gave him a message to deliver.

And we are going to see now, as a result now, Samuel, the word of the Lord is coming to Samuel. And all of Israel knows that Samuel is ordained to be a prophet. And Samuel begins to expand in his usefulness.

And we come to chapter 7, and he's moving throughout a wider sphere. So how do you find your useful role? Whatever God has put into your hand right now, do it to the God-given ability that you have. If God has something more for you besides opening doors, he'll bring you to it.

Be faithful in what he has given you to do, and he will open doors and make you more useful as time goes on. There are the tests that were in private. As a result of the tests that were in private, there's the testimony that became public.

All Israel from Dan to Beersheba. Now we're looking not just at a little sectional geographical area. We are looking at the entire nation, all Israel from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, all knew that God had raised up this man.

That's really reminiscent, not reminiscent. It's almost a foreview of what we have of Timothy, where Paul is exhorting Timothy in 1 Timothy chapter 4, that thy profiting may appear to all. Give thyself wholly to it, he says.

That gift that you have in the word of God, give yourself wholly to it. Be in it, let it be in you, and your profiting will appear to all. Everyone will see that God has raised you up for this purpose.

You never have to assert yourself. You never have to push yourself as the person who should be preaching the gospel in the assembly, or the girl who should have a Sunday school class, or the man who should be opening the Bible reading.

Never have to push yourself. God will always bring you to where he wants you to be, if you leave your life with him. It may not be right when you want it, but he will always bring you to whatever he has for you in life, if you leave it with him.

Never have to assert yourself. God brought Samuel to where he was, and as a result, all Israel knew. So there was the tests that were in private, there was the testimony that became public, but there was truth that was personal.

Here's a huge test to pass. Here is a huge point relative to growth. We read together in chapter 7 of the circuit that he made, and we read there that he went every year in the circuit, Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and he judged Israel, but he returned to his own house.

Returned to his own house, and it says there, there he judged, and there he built an altar. So what he did elsewhere, he did at home. What he applied to others, he applied to himself. And along with it, he was a man marked by worship.

Here is not just tests that are private, and testimony that is public. Here is truth that he made personal in his own life. The value of holy habits cannot be overemphasized. What I mean by holy habits are spiritual exercises that mark you every single day.

They mark the Lord Jesus. Listen to what it says in Isaiah 50. Morning by morning, morning by morning, his ear was opened to hear us to learn it. So every morning, listen to what it says about the Lord Jesus Christ that he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath as his custom was.

He had a holy habit of being there every Sabbath day. Listen to what it says, he went over the brokidron. He oft resorted thither, a place of prayer. We could go on with other things, but there were holy habits that marked the Lord Jesus in his life.

Prayer, the Word of God, communion with God, holy habits are vital. And you may say, well, that just means you, what you're talking about is getting into a rut. I like spontaneous things. Well, the problem with spontaneity is it's just that.

And you may not get the spontaneous feeling for a week or two, right? I mean, how often do you feel like pizza? You know, maybe once a week, or maybe some of you eat it every night. But I mean, you know, you get, you know, things come over you when you want something and you don't want it.

And moods come and go. And you can't live on emotion as a Christian. Never live your Christian life on emotion. Live your Christian life on truth and allow truth to create emotion. But never live it just on emotion because you'll tank, you know what I mean?

You'll tank very quickly if you're just living on emotion. He had holy habits. We cannot stress enough for young Christians, holy habits. And if you think it just means getting into a rut and being routine and going through kind of like a checklist of things, that's okay.

Because when you're away from God, if you're in that routine, God can speak to you and restore you. As long as you have the routine, as long as you're in the habit of reading and praying, God can speak to you.

Even when you're cold and away from God, He can speak to you. So there were tests that were very personal. And then there was teaching, I have to leave it, teaching that was very practical. And we'll have to leave that for the present time.

Exceptional Growth, Intercession, and Humility

So there was growth that was extraordinary, growth that was expected, growth that was exemplary. And let me just close by telling you about growth that was exceptional, exceptional. Now, what do I mean?

First of all, a man whose life was blameless. He could stand before the congregation. You'll have to read it yourself at the end of his life. And he could speak about a blameless life. He wasn't boasting.

He was just telling them about the king they had asked for and what was going to be the character of that king and about his judgeship and what it had been like. And they had to admit he was right, a man whose life was blameless.

But not only that, we don't have time to look at it, but just jot down this reference, Psalm 99 in verse 6, because there God links him with Moses and Aaron as intercessors. And when you come to Jeremiah 15 and 1, God says, even if Moses and Samuel stood before me interceding, I wouldn't hear.

Wow. God says, if Moses and Samuel, here they are. Imagine the company he's keeping now. Moses and Samuel, the great intercessors, the one who prayed and kept the nation from being destroyed, the other who prayed and brought the nation back to God.

God says, here are the two great intercessors, exceptional men, men that stand out above all the others. He says, even if they stood before me, so great is the wickedness of this nation, I wouldn't hear them.

Now, I'm not saying it for the negative side that God wouldn't hear. I'm just saying it for the positive side. God linked this man, Samuel, this man who grew and grew on and grew on before the Lord. God says he was so great.

I link him with Moses as the great intercessors. But could I just say in closing three things about Samuel? Samuel, first of all, was able to intercede for a nation. As a result of his growth, he was able to be an intercessor.

Do not think of growth as just some great service and your name in big lights and everyone thinking what a great preacher you are, what a great Sunday school teacher you are, what a great Bible reading leader you are.

Don't think of growth just in those terms. Samuels, there are three things that will mark Samuel. And number one is he was an intercessor. He was able to pray as few men in scripture prayed. His life was punctuated.

It would be a valuable lesson just to look at his prayers. Number one. Number two, he was able to influence a nation and see them restored to God. But I think his greatest honor was the third. And that is he was able to introduce to the nation David the king.

What an honor. What a quantum leap in God's purposes when God told Samuel to go and anoint one of the sons of Jesse. My king is there, a man after my own heart. And when he anointed David, he set in motion, he set in motion a prophetic line, a prophetic stream that will only culminate in Christ coming and reigning over the earth.

So that what he did really was make way for Christ. Growth that makes way for Christ to be revealed. That's the whole thought of sonship. It is likeness, likeness to the Lord Jesus that represents the father to men.

That's what Samuel did. Samuel anointed Saul too. And while anointing David was perhaps his greatest honor, anointing Saul was probably his greatest step of humility because he anointed a man who was a much lesser man than he was.

Saul was never Samuel. Saul was not even a shadow of Samuel. He anointed a man who was much less than he was and turned the nation over to him. That's humility. To allow a man who was less than you are to take your place and to do it willingly because God has said so.

Tremendously humble on the part of Samuel. So his greatest act of humility was anointing Saul. His greatest honor was introducing David to the kingdom. Rather, introducing David to the people and initiating him as king.

His secret of growth, a consciousness of God, his eye upon me, communion with God, doing everything unto the Lord, his concern for pleasing the Lord, and his care with whatever God had entrusted to him.

Growth that will make you an intercessor. Growth that by your very character will make you an influence on others. It's interesting that when you come to chapter, is it chapter 7 of 1 Samuel, and Samuel is seeing the nation restored, there's been 20 years that have elapsed.

We don't read of any preaching on the part of Samuel. Now, I have no doubt that he made his circuit and he was influencing things, but it would appear that was mostly his character that was influencing the nation.

His intercession, his influence, and then his introduction of David, David the king, who would be the man after God's own heart. By your growth as a believer, you can, number one, become a better intercessor.