Word Sandwich: Faithful Catalysts

Most of us who have read the Laura Ingalls Wilder books detailing her girlhood in the Midwest remember that Laura's older sister Mary became very sick at one point and lost her eyesight. After that, Mary was permanently blind.

Laura's Pa told Laura: "Your two eyes are quick enough, and your tongue, if you will use them for Mary."

And so Laura became Mary's eyes. When they took walks together, Laura described the beautiful prairie sunset, or the birds that arced through the sky, or the grasses as they were stirred to dancing by the wind. 

Mary learned to see through Laura.

Of course, while it always made me sad that Mary couldn't experience her surroundings for herself, I always thought how faithful Laura was to lay out the circumstances for Mary and to guide her through them. 

Let's jump into 1 Samuel 3. Here, we've got "bookends" in this chapter, and by bookends, I mean that the chapter begins with an interesting concept and then closes with the same interesting concept, but reworked and expanded just a bit. It's like a sandwich: the bread on each side holds the substance in the middle.

So for one side of the sandwich, look at 1 Samuel 3:1: "The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions."

Remember the background of Samuel? He's under a Nazirite Vow, set apart, consecrated to serve the Lord all the days of his life. His mother made the vow for him before he was even conceived, and the Lord heard the cry of her heart and gave her a son.

So Samuel now serves and ministers at the Tabernacle where it is in Shiloh. Eli, the high priest, is, in essence, Samuel's caretaker, and has taught the boy how to follow all the Levitical laws of priesthood. This would include things like... making sure the Lamp of God doesn't go out at night; the candles are supposed to burn until daybreak. Maybe Samuel helped with the sacrifices and offerings. Maybe he swept and dusted, I don't know.

We do know that one night, Samuel goes to sleep in "the Temple of the Lord, where the Ark of God was." I'm going to assume that Samuel was not sleeping in the Holy of Holies where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, since the law dictated a number of steps involving cleansing and ceremonial purification before a priest could enter behind that curtain. 

However, there was a room right in front of the Holy of Holies where the Lamp of God and the Bread of the Presence was kept. As I said, the Lamp was not supposed to go out before daybreak, so it seems like one of Samuel's chores was to make sure that those wicks stayed burning until morning came.

Anyway, after Samuel lies down, the Lord called out to Samuel. 

I don't know about you, but this gives me just a few chill-bumps. A silent Temple, an empty room, the heavy curtain of the Holy of Holies draped across one side of the room... you can almost hear Poe's "The Raven" with: "And the silken, sad, uncertain rustling of each purple curtain..." Lol. 

But then... the call of the Lord... Samuel!

I don't know if directionality was a thing when that happened? Did Samuel glance at the curtain and think: Naahh. But there was only one other person in the Tabernacle with Samuel, and that was Eli, so rather than question where the Voice came from, he ran to Eli. "Here I am; you called me."

And Eli, high priest, servant of the Lord (although, see my last blog post), did not get what was happening. "Nope, I didn't call you," he said. "Go back to sleep." 

Samuel does, and the exact same thing happens again. Samuel!

Again, Samuel, somehow assuming it's Eli, because who else would it be, runs back to Eli, and Eli displays his distance from the Lord. At this point, he should have recognized the Lord's Presence. "Samuel, you're driving me a little insane. Go back to sleep and stop bothering me" (my paraphrase). :) 

Third time's the charm, right? Samuel hears his name yet again, and this time, maybe he's a little slower to run to Eli. "Here I am; you called me." 

Pause there a second: I love Samuel's demonstrated faithfulness. He wasn't a puppet; he couldn't mindlessly have received the stimuli and carried out the programmed response: [Command] Hear Name. [Command + Respond] Rise, Run, Talk to Eli. 

He had to have been wondering... Am I hearing things? Eli's made it clear that he doesn't want to be disturbed. But he's calling; I'll go check again.

It takes three times for Eli to realize, Oooooooohhhhhhhh. It's the Lord calling.

And then, I wonder what Eli's thought pattern was. He'd already been warned by an unnamed prophet of what the Lord was going to do to him because of his lax parenting and the weight of his priorities. But he continued to minister, and perhaps that word had faded a bit by this point. I wonder if he thought: Why Samuel? Why not me? Why is the Lord speaking to a boy and not to the high priest who has ministered for years? 

Does this feel familiar? In all honesty, I've wondered similar things. Why does he get such a cool gift with music... and not me? Why does she get to go overseas on this mission trip... and not me? 

Eli has to swallow his pride, perhaps his hurt, and he tells Samuel: "Go and lie down, and if He calls you, say, 'Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening'" (1 Samuel 3:9).

So Samuel goes back and lies down one more time (talk about a restless night!). Here's another chill-bump passage: "The Lord came and stood there..." To be clear the Lord was in the same room as Samuel, even though Samuel couldn't see Him... "calling as at the other times, 'Samuel! Samuel!"

And Samuel obediently says: "Speak, for your servant is listening."

Samuel is blind to the Lord's Presence, but the Lord reveals Himself to Samuel through His words.

NOW, go back and read 1 Samuel 3:1 again: "The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions."

But the word of the Lord came to Samuel.

When the rest of the world was blind and deaf, unseeing and unhearing, the word of the Lord came to Samuel.

I won't focus on what God told Samuel; you can read it for yourself in 1 Samuel 3:11-14. But what I think is fascinating is this: Samuel was faithful to hear, listen, and obey the word of the Lord, and because of his faithfulness, here's what happened. Are you ready?

"The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and He let none of his words fall to the ground."

And there is the other side of that sandwich. 

The word of the Lord was rare.
He let none of Samuel's words fall to the ground.

In a world that was blind and deaf to the word of the Lord, God gave Samuel words that didn't fall to the ground, that infused life and meaning into the word of the Lord, that pointed to the Lord, and when the people couldn't hear God, they could hear Samuel, who told them the words of God.

The people of Israel were not forgotten, though they may have felt like it. God gave them a faithful translator of the word of the Lord.

Samuel was a catalyst of the word of God. The Lord spoke, and Samuel in his turn spoke, and the people listened. 1 Samuel 3:20-21 says: "And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there He revealed Himself to Samuel through His word."

The Lord spoke, and Samuel translated. 

I posted this the other day on Facebook and Instagram, and I'll share here, because it serves the point: "This morning, I was thinking of the catalysts, the ones who entered and exited the pages of my story, the ones who lit up those pages and left their brand, which didn't fade, the ones who gave me the good scars.

"I'm thinking of those people who the Holy Spirit used to wake me up, who showed me Jesus through eyes that had been clouded and dull, who showed me the all-out beauty of this One Who died for me.

"I'm thinking of how I, too, used to stare at the archaic words in the Word, and feel guilty because I didn't feel them. Until the catalysts blazed into my line of sight and showed me, by fiery, passionate example, what a life on fire for Him looks like.

"I wanted the fire, too.

"As one match lights another, the Holy Spirit struck the spark, fanned the flame, fed the inferno. 'For our God is a consuming Fire!' (Hebrews 12:29)

"'For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of Him to Whom we must give account' (Hebrews 4:12-13).

"Praise Him!"