Year 2 Day 200

Year 2 Day 200


Pray (ACts)


Read - 1 Samuel 3:2-20


Message - Alan Burke 


As the Lord here calls Samuel, Eli were told was not an old man, his eyes were weak, he couldn’t see, but he was also vastly overweight (4:18). What now takes place is sometime before dawn for the priests were to light a lamp from evening until morning (Ex 27:21). So sometime in the early hours of the morning the Lord speaks, Samuel is woken by the audible voice of the LORD. 


What we have here, in Samuel’s repeated going to Eli the picture of now a young man who was ready to serve. Initially it was unknown to both of them that this was the call of God and both are slow to grasp what is happening. We are also told Samuel did not yet know the LORD, the word of the Lord had not been revealed to him (7). Again the call comes, he goes to Eli and perceives it was the LORD and told what to do, then as the LORD calls for the fourth time, we are told the LORD came and stood there (10). This is what is called a theophany, the visible manifestation of God to man, God was there with Samuel, present with him, this wasn’t a dream and Samuel responds as Eli had told him. 


There the LORD reveals to him that he was about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle (11), the LORD was brining his judgement. He was making it clear to Samuel that he would indeed to what he had promised against the house of Eli. This judgement was coming because of his failure to do anything about the worship of Him in how Eli allowed his sons to treat worship with contempt. For Eli’s house there was no possibility of atonement for their sin, the reason why is that they had shown contempt for the provision God had made for their sins. They had treated his offerings with scorn, how could these offerings offer any means of forgiveness for them. Do we see the horror of what God pronounces in these words? God had provided a means for the forgiveness of sins and they had rejected it and because of it there was no hope for them. 


In the New Testament the same reality is told to us, if we treat what God has done with scone then there is no hope of forgiveness. Hebrews reminds us… how much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by those who trample underfoot the Son of God (Heb 10:29). If we have heard of the offer of forgiveness in Jesus Christ and we reject what he has done, if we fail to repent of our sins and respond to the call of God then as Hebrews continues… we profane the blood of the covenant by which Christ was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God (Heb 10:30-31).


Today if you have not repented of your sins hear this warning if you have ears to hear, repent or else there will be no sacrifice left to atone for your sins for you have trampled underfoot the Son of God. This is what all those who do not trust the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin. This message of judgement Samuel gave to Eli (17-20). We are reminded that the word of the Lord is not always easy, the word of the Lord does not stroke our egos, it doesn’t tell us we are good people, it reveals our sin and our need for a saviour, the need to repent and believe (Mk 1:15).

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Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q81 What is forbidden in the tenth commandment?
The tenth commandment forbiddeth all discontentment with our own estate, (1 Kings 21:4, Esther 5:13, 1 Cor. 10:10) envying or grieving at the good of our neighbour, (Gal. 5:26, James 3:14,16) and all inordinate motions and affections to any thing that is his. (Rom. 7:7–8, Rom. 13:9, Deut. 5:21)
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