5th July 2026 - Sue Grant

The Call of Samuel  - Sue Grant

Readings:  1 Samuel 3:1-18   &  John 10:1-5 

At our church in the UK we have been looking at Old Testament Champions of Faith and finding the Jesus story in the OT.  We’ve searched 3 questions.  Where are we in the story?  Where is Jesus in the story?  Where is the gospel in the story? Today we are thinking about those questions in relation to the prophet Samuel.

I wonder if any of you listen to the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. They recently broadcast an article about ‘The Sound of the Year Awards’? I hadn’t heard of this before. People are invited to a competition to record the most unusual sounds. Any ideas who won? The winning sound was the sound of bearded seals recorded underwater in the arctic ocean! And the runner up the sound of a data centre! Who would have thought that’s a thing? The idea of the competition is to encourage us to listen to the world around us. There’s a lot of noise/sound around us today and maybe so much we’ve just stopped listening or we try and block it out. Earbuds/headphones are very popular, hearing only what you want to hear. 

Today we’re thinking about Samuel. Here was someone who listened well. He heard a voice, he didn’t ignore it and he responded to that call. Samuel was the first-born child of Hannah who had difficulty conceiving. She cried out to the Lord and he blessed her with a child. She called him Samuel which means ‘heard by God’. The Lord had listened to her prayers. She had promised if she conceived, she would give the child to the Lord. She took him to the High Priest, Eli when he was weaned and there, he served and ministered. He became a priest and a prophet and he was the last of the Judges in Israel. He was never their king but God chose Samuel to anoint their first king, Saul. Then one of the most important and difficult jobs God gave him to do was to choose and anoint from Jesse’s sons, the king that would follow Saul, David. So listening to God and responding to his voice was key to Samuel’s ministry and he learned about this from an early age. What can we learn from Samuel about listening to God, hearing him speak and responding.

Hearing and listening. They’re very different. My grandchildren can be very noisy when they get together and completely ignore you if you want them to tidy up but mention the word ice cream and suddenly, they’re all ears. That’s the word they want to hear and respond to. There’s a difference between hearing and listening. We can hear someone talking but not actually be listening.

We have Samuel in the temple with Eli the high priest. Samuel youthful, probably about 12 years old and Eli very old frail and coming to the end of his life, eyesight deteriorating. Samuel hears his name being called. Of course, he assumes it’s Eli and off he trots to Eli who tells him no, go back to bed. Three times the same thing happens. Samuel doesn’t ignore the voice he is hearing and dismiss it and God keeps on speaking. On the third time it occurs to Eli this must be God and he tells Samuel what to reply ‘Speak lord for your servant is listening.’ He urges Samuel to let God know he is eager not just to hear but to listen and respond.

This all seems so easy. How wonderful. I’m sure we all wish God spoke audibly to us all the time it would make life so much easier but he doesn’t choose to do that most of the time. As someone (Jeff Lucas) once said God isn’t endlessly chatty! If he was where would faith come in? But God does so much want to speak with us. God made us to be in relationship with him. A healthy relationship needs conversation. Just maybe he is speaking more than we think but we don’t hear him or don’t recognise his voice. What stops us?

 Verse 1 tells us that in those days the voice of the Lord was rare. Not surprising because the last verse of the book of Judges says ‘in those days Israel had no king and everyone did as they saw fit’. Seems to be a lot of parallels to and echoes of where we are today more than 3,000years later. In many ways in our society Christianity is being sidelined, politicians don’t do God, scandal in the church is focussed on rather than all the voluntary things done by churches that support people in need. Even at Christmas Jesus is pushed away and we live in an individualistic society. It can be hard to see where God is speaking and working. Thankfully we are currently seeing a glimpse of renewal, with a growth in young people, particularly young men, coming back to church, searching for faith, looking for God. We’ve seen that in our church and I think that’s happening in France too. Back to that little verse that God’s voice was rare which perhaps tells us partly why even the high priest Eli takes a while to realise it was God speaking to Samuel. He simply didn’t expect to hear God especially in that way. 

What are our expectations of hearing God? Do we give him time to speak after we reeled off our lists or requests in prayer and rushed off to do the next thing? Are there too many things competing for our attention? So many distractions, emails to be answered, WhatsApp messages to be replied to, social media to scroll through, deadlines to meet, to do lists. With all this noise God’s certainly got a hard time trying to get through to us in 2026! Listening is an active process, it requires attention, if it’s passive, we only hear what’s loudest. We also have to remember that sometimes God is quiet, he pauses, he’s silent, he makes us wait but that’s all part of the process of listening

So how does God speak to us?

Scripture, His word. But we’ve got to read it! I’m sure many of us have examples of God giving just the right word when we need it. Pete Grieg says in his book ‘How to hear God’ ‘The Bible is the language of God’s heart’. 

God speaks when we pray as long as we give him the opportunity! Not just list request, amen, goodbye.

God speaks through people. 

Simon Thomas, ex Blue Peter presenter and sports commentator, tragically lost his wife to cancer and has a wonderful testimony of how God speaks through people. After the tragedy he was grappling with where God was in all of this and caring for his 8yr old son. He used to write encouraging post it notes and put them in his son’s lunch box. One day someone who had heard about his story sent Simon a bundle of yellow cards with a post it note on top which read ‘even dad’s need snack notes’. Here was God speaking comfort to him.

I love the way God doesn’t give up on Samuel but keeps on calling him and he enlists the help of old Eli. Samuel needed someone to help him recognise God’s voice. He needed human wisdom and advice. Eli was old, he wasn’t doing a great job as high priest as his sons were running amok and he wasn’t keeping them in order but despite his age and his mistakes still God chose to use him to help Samuel hear his voice. We all need an Eli at times to help us discern what God is saying, to give us a prophetic word or picture that just applies to our situation.  It maybe that God chooses us to be the Eli, for someone else. Let’s not miss that call. Even when you may feel God can’t possibly use you anymore you are too old, too much history, I can tell you he can and will. At the other end of the spectrum, we have Samuel still a child really and God calls him at that young age and not only calls him but gives him a prophetic message. Let’s not underestimate children. Children are open to God’s voice don’t have so much stuff cluttering their minds, acute, pick things up quickly. Notice God speaks directly to Samuel. He didn’t have to go into the Holy of Holies. We too have direct access to the King of Kings through what Jesus has done on the cross. (No priest required)

God speaks in many other ways; through Creation, the world around us and culture art, literature, film, music through the secular as well as deliberately Christian

Through our conscience and unconscious in dreams and visions. Joel 2:28

He speaks in the sacraments, in baptism and in the symbols of bread and wine.

Occasionally he speaks audibly. Martin told us 2 weeks ago how God told him to be baptised. 

In all of this we have to discern amongst the noise around us what is God’s voice and what is not. That’s not always easy. It took Eli a while for the penny to drop and he was the high priest. We are in a better place than Samuel because we are living after Jesus came to earth and if we want to know what God sounds like well it’s Jesus. John tells us he is the living word of God. The word became flesh and dwelt among us Jn 1:14 Jesus in turn has given us the Holy spirit to help us recognise his voice.

Jesus said ‘My sheep hear my voice’ Jn 10:27  A guy called Philip Keller wrote about the way sheep respond to the shepherd after spending some time working as a shepherd in the Middle East. There are no sheep dogs. The sheep follow the shepherd’s voice. They are so attuned to their shepherd’s voice they only follow him. Even if another shepherd comes along and uses the same words and phrases even sings the same tune they won’t respond. The sheep recognise the unique voice of their shepherd. We don’t have to be super intelligent to hear God’s voice but we do need to learn to recognise it above everything else that demands our attention. 

God had some very hard stuff for Samuel to do. The very first thing was to tell Eli God was displeased with the way he had let his sons behave in their priestly role. Imagine that, poor Samuel must have been quaking in his boots that this was the message. Perhaps he even wished he hadn’t listened. Perhaps we too choose not to hear because it’s on the too difficult pile. God was preparing Samuel very early in his life for not only being a judge but dealing with the Israelites, and their desire for a king. Later in 1st Samuel we read about when God sent Samuel, then a much older man, to choose a new king from Jesse’s sons. He so needed to be attuned to what God’s choice was among Jesse’s sons. How would you have felt when you had seen 7 of Jesse’s sons and God hadn’t said yes? God prompts him to ask ‘is there another?’ I wonder what went through his mind as he waited for David to appear.  Have I made a mistake, misheard God? At least there is another one. Or Samuel perhaps by this time knew so well the voice of the Lord that he was quietly confident. 

What’s your greatest obstacle to hearing from God? You don’t listen. Too much noise around you distracting you. You’re not really open to hearing because you’re afraid of what God might say or you don’t like what God is saying. The apostle Peter didn’t much like what God was saying to him when God told him in a vision it was ok to eat what the Jews considered unclean food. He was preoccupied with his narrow religious tradition. God had to speak to him 3 times. Do we self-righteously cling to stuff so tightly it prevents us hearing what God is saying? Perhaps what he wants to release us from. Maybe you think God considers you not worth bothering with. No. He died for you, he loves you, he wants a relationship with you. Maybe you’re fed up with silence.  Sometimes God trusts us with silence so we have this tension not to be unnerved by silence but at the same time having a posture of listening for his voice. I wonder what God is saying to you, to me today. He may be It maybe his gentle voice offering you words of comfort, or his strong voice of encouragement, of reassurance. He may be wanting to tell you how much he loves you, he may be asking you to do something. Can I urge you to seek his face, not just hear but listen and respond.