Speak, Lord

Spurgeon, Charles Haddon

1 Samuel 3:10

And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for your servant hears.

The child Samuel was favoured above all the family in which he dwelt. The Lord did not speak by night to Eli, or to any of Eli's sons. In all that house, in all the rows of rooms that were round about the Tabernacle where the ark of the Lord was kept, there was no one except Samuel to whom Jehovah spoke. The fact that the Lord should choose a child out of all that household, and that He should speak to him, ought to be very encouraging to you who think yourself to be the least likely to be recognised by God. Notice also that, while God had a very special regard for young Samuel, he had, in that regard, designs concerning the rest of the family. God's elect are chosen, not merely for their own sake; they are chosen for God's name's sake, and they are also chosen for the sake of mankind in general. The Jews were chosen that they might preserve the oracles of God for all the ages, and that they might keep alight the spark of Divine truth that we Gentiles might afterwards see its brightness; and when God's Special love is fixed upon one member of a family, I take it that that one ought to say to himself or herself, "Am I not called that I may be a blessing in this family?"

1. And, first, I will speak to you upon THE SOUL DESIRING — desiring to be spoken to by God: "Speak, Lord." We cannot endure a dumb God. It is a very dreadful thing to have a dumb friend, a very painful thing to have a wife who never spoke with you, or a father or mother from whom you could never hear a single word of love; and the heart cannot bear to have a dumb God, it wants Him to speak. For what reason does the soul desire God to speak to it? Well, first, it desires thus to be recognised by God. It seems to say, "Speak, Lord, lust to give me a token of recognition, that I may know that I am not overlooked, that I am not flung away like a useless thing upon the world's dust heap, that I am not left to wander like a waif and stray."

2. More than that, this desire of the soul is a longing to be called by God. When the Lord said to the child, "Samuel, Samuel," it was a distinct, personal call, like that which came to Mary: "The Master is come, and calleth for thee," or that which came to another Mary when the Lord said to her, "Mary," and she turned herself, and said, "Rabboni," that is to say, "my dear Master." "Speak, Lord, speak to me; call me."

3. "Speak, Lord, moreover, that I may be instructed."

4. We sometimes mean by this expression, "Speak, Lord, for our guidance." We have got into a great difficulty, we really do not know which way the road leads — to the right or to the left — and we may go blundering on, and have to come all the way back again; so we specially need the Lord to speak to us for our guidance.

5. At times, also, we want the Lord's voice for our comfort.

II. Now, secondly, let us think of THE LORD SPEAKING. Suppose that the Lord does speak to us; just think for a minute what it is.

1. It is a high honour. The peers of the realm are not so honoured when they see their Queen as you are when you see your God, and he speaks with you. To be permitted to speak with Him is a delight; but to hear Him speak with us is heaven begun below.

2. It is a very solemn responsibility. Jesus Christ spoke to Saul of Tarsus out of heaven, and from that hour Paul felt himself to be the Lord's, a consecrated man, to live and die for Him who had spoken to him.

3. To hear God speak to us will bring us many a happy memory.

4. I think I must also say that it is a probable mercy that God will speak to you.

5. "But how does the Lord speak?" someone asks.

1. God often speaks to His children through His works.

2. God also speaks to His children very loudly by His Providence.

3. But the Lord speaks to us chiefly through His Word.

4. But the Lord has a way of sometimes speaking to the heart by His Spirit = — I think not usually apart from His Word — but yet there are certain feelings and emotions, tendernesses and tremblings, joys and delights, which we cannot quite link with any special portion of Scripture laid home to the heart, but which seem to steal

III. THE SOUL HEARING. We have had the soul desiring, and the Lord speaking; now for the soul hearing: "Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth."

1. I think we have here an argument: "Lord, do speak, for I do hear." "There are none so deaf as those that will not hear."

2. Yet it appears to be an inference, as well as an argument, for it seems to run like this, "Lord, if thou speakest, of course thy servant heareth."

3. "Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth," seems also to contain a promise within it, namely, that if the Lord will but speak, we will hear. I remember being asked to see a person, and I thought that he wanted to learn something from me; but when I saw him for three-quarters of an hour, he spoke the whole time, and afterwards he told a friend that I was a most delightful person to converse with! When I was told that I said, "Oh, yes, that was because I did not interrupt the man! He was wound up, and I let him run down." But conversation means two people talking, does it not? It cannot be a conversation if I do all the talking, or if my friend does it all; so, in conversing with God, there must be, as we say, turn and turn about, You speak with God, and then sit still, and let God speak with you; and, if He does not at once speak to your heart, open His Book, and read a few verses, and let Him speak to you that way. Some people cannot pray when they wish to do so. I remember George Muller sweetly saying, "When you come to your time for devotion, if you cannot pray, do not try. If you cannot speak with God, do not try. Let God speak with you. Open your Bible, and read a passage." Sometimes, when you meet a friend, you cannot begin a conversation.

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