"Word Up"
Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon. (1 Samuel 3:1 NLT)
The Israelites have been at an all time low. The period of the Judges was a time of great moral ambiguity to say the least. The pattern of unfaithfulness & rebellion has been rampant. And now, in a time when the Word of the Lord is rare, God speaks to Samuel. What's alarming about this, is just a few decades ago God talked to Moses face to face. Now, the Word of the Lord is rare. How did this happen? Why isn't God speaking? See, Samuel & Eli both don't know that the Lord is speaking. That's how rare it is. Samuel thinks it's Eli & Eli doesn't realize it's the Lord until Samuel comes to him multiple times. Even the spiritual leaders of God's people don't recognize his voice. What does that say about the people?
Times are different now. We have the revealed Word of God written down & preserved for us. But are we any better off than the people of God then? I'm not so sure we are. In fact, I'd say we are very similar to them. We have the revelation of God to us & yet the Word of God seems to be rare. Not only is it rare, I'm not sure we know the voice of God even if we were to hear it. Often we can't tell the deceitfulness of our hearts from the voice of God. What people claim as the voice of the Lord is often openly contrary to His Word.
If this is going to change we have to be people of the Word. We have to know God's Word, read it, preach it, & live it. How rare is the Word of the Lord in our lives, churches? What can we do to change this?
No comments:
Post a Comment