1 Samuel 3:1-10 introduces Samuel, the beginning of the leadership of prophets, and the judgment of God on the house of Eli. But my fascination with this passage has more to do with a moment of discernment seen in this story. I am so drawn to the fact that it was Eli who recognized what God was doing – that God was speaking to Samuel. Moreover, he doesn’t step in to take over the situation (after all, he was the priest), rather he directs Samuel on how to cooperate with what God was saying.
The writer of this story says “the word of the Lord was rare in those days” and excuses Samuel’s ignorance by saying that he did not yet know the LORD. Which most people believe to mean he did not know God experientially - that he had not received any revelation. But it seems as though Eli did know God, or at least he knew how to recognize Him and direct another to do so. In today’s terminology, this is known as spiritual direction or spiritual friendships.
Throughout church history and several traditions, groups of people would come together to exhort each other in godliness and devotion to the LORD, often seeking to hear from the Holy Spirit together. However, Holmes (2002, p. 136) points out that these groups “did not prevail in the general order of things, and one finds in evangelical Christianity to this date a kind of “do-it-yourself Christianity.”
I wonder, is the word of the Lord rare for you these days? I bet some of you know how precious it is. If God is up to some kind of transformation that you are having difficulty making sense of, I would encourage you to seek a friend to help you recognize his presence and listen for his voice.
References:
Holmes, Urban T. (2002) A History of Christian Spirituality: An Analytical Approach, Harrisburg, PA: Morehouse Publishing.
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