Title: Speak, O LORD! (1 Samuel 3:1-9)
Contents
Today is World Bible Sunday. In Korea, it first started as the Chosun branch of the British Bible Society in 1895, and has now established itself as the Korean Bible Society, which is in its 109th year. Last year, the Korean Bible Society announced that 1.6 million Bibles were published and 2.9 million were distributed abroad.
They say Christianity is the religion of books. This has important implications. The so-called higher religions usually have scriptures. Islam has the Koran, Buddhism has the Buddhist scriptures, and Confucianism has the Three Books. However, the relationship between the scriptures and religion is not the same. Even without the scriptures, the religion exists. But Christianity and the Bible do not. Strictly speaking, Christianity does not exist because there is a Bible, but because there is a Bible, Christianity exists.
Now let's get to the main text. After the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, they were divided into 12 tribes and began their early settlement life. It took about 400 years for the Israelites to enter the land of Canaan to form a kingdom. During this transition period, God chose judges to rule and lead the nation of Israel, and let them rule. Therefore, the judges were in charge of and governed various cases of the people, such as religion, life, national defense, and trial.
Some of these judges were soldiers and some were women. Among these various judges, the judge called “Eli” in today’s text was both a priest and a prophet. “Ellie” is B.C. About 1120, he became a judge and ruled over the people of Israel for 40 years. But in his later years he neglected the Word of God. That is evidence that he disregarded the Word of God. The text says, “The word of the Lord was rare, and no vision was found” (1 Samuel 3:1).
First, what happens if we ignore the Word?
Eli was, in a word, incompetent. He was underqualified as a leader. That is why the people must choose their leaders well. As a prophet, he had no sense of duty or responsibility. God gave him no revelations or visions. Nevertheless, Eli has held the position of judge for 40 years. Rather than work, he enjoyed his place and location and boasted about it. He was focused on his own safety rather than the duties or responsibilities he should have done.
God began to look at his family from the beginning. Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. 1 Samuel 2:12 says, “The sons of Eli did not know the wicked and the Lord.” Without the Word, we would not have been able to know God. There was no such thing as a thug either. Nothing could be expected from Eli's family who ignored the Word.
They were the delinquents who stole the meat and ate it in advance when boiling the meat as a sacrifice to offer to God, and even committed adultery by sleeping with the women who served at the tent of meeting. 1 Samuel 2:17 warns, “The sin of the son has been cut terribly before the Lord.” Eli who ignored the word! Eli who has lost his word! The fate of not only his family, but also the nation he ruled, Israel, was at risk of being burned by the wind.
In the end, God used the Philistines of the Gentiles as a club. Israel went to war with the Philistines. During the war, Eli's two sons were killed, and when Eli heard the news, he fell while sitting on a chair in shock, broke his neck, and died. The daughter-in-law had a miscarriage during pregnancy and died on the spot. The glory of God left that house. Israel was defeated and eventually defeated by the Philistines.
It makes us realize how terrifying the consequences of ignoring God's Word are. The life of believers is to start from the Bible, live by the Bible, and eventually return to the Bible. Because only the Bible is the standard for believers. Luther and Calvin carried out the Reformation by returning to the Bible.
Dear saints, I bless you in the name of the Lord that you love and respect the word of God.
Second, to whom does the word come?
Eli, who had served the temple for 40 years and served as a judge, could not hear the word and voice of God. But the young Samuel, who was dedicated to God, heard the voice of God three times. The reason is that he has not asked for a pure, worldly time. It means that the voice of God cannot be heard by those who have a complicated heart and reason and think during worship.
When we turn to God with a simple and pure heart like a child, God works toward that person. When the heart becomes an empty vessel, God fills the vessel with the Word. An empty bowl is a pure heart. To be pure means the state of mind in which nothing else is mixed.
Young Samuel did just that. Pure is at a cost. If anything else is mixed, the value will drop. All gems, including diamonds, have a value as a gem if they are pure, but lose value if other foreign substances are mixed in. Pure is beautiful. A person becomes ugly when he loses his innocence. Faith must be pure. If a person is mixed with untruths or mixed with other spirits, he or she becomes a problem figure wherever he goes. I hope that they will become fields of hearts that are like good soil in which purity is not destroyed by selfishness or pride.
Third, what is the reason for giving the Word?
Why does God speak to all of us?
① It is to give you faith.
Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” It means that no one's faith comes automatically, but comes from hearing the word of God.
② Because it becomes a guide on the path of life.
In John 14:6 he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” Because Jesus Christ is the guide and guide in all life's paths.
③ Salvation and eternal life are in the Word.
2 Timothy 3:15 says, “The Bible is able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.”
④ Because it gives you blessings.
Revelation 1:3 says, “Blessed are those who read and hear the words of this prophecy, and those who keep what is written in them.”
All those who read the Bible and obeyed it were blessed. It is said that 47 out of 60 Nobel Prize winners are people who read the Bible and live according to its words.
Lastly, I hope that you will respect God's word and become believers who receive God's love and blessings. I pray in the name of the Lord that you will become partakers in God's work of doing new things by standing right on the Word.