“Speak, Lord, your servant is listening” . (1 Samuel 3:9,10) . by Don Schwager

In the first book of Samuel, chapter 3, we read the story of the boy Samuel who lived with the prophet Eli in the temple at Shiloh. Three times Samuel heard a voice calling out his name, “Samuel, Samuel,” as he lay sleeping in the temple precincts. Samuel was sure that Eli had called him. But Eli discerned finally that the voice was the Lord himself who wished to speak with Samuel. Eli counseled Samuel to answer, “Speak, Lord, your servant is listening” (1 Samuel 3:9). From that day forward Samuel’s ears were opened to the voice of God and he grew in his ability to hear and obey the word of the Lord. 

Elijah, one of the greatest of the Old Testament prophets, was very zealous for the Lord. He spoke the word of God courageously in the face of stiff opposition and persecution. He confronted the false gods who were corrupting his people, and he slew the priests of Baal and destroyed their altar on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18). But his courage failed him when Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him. In despair Elijah fled for his life and journeyed for 40 days in the wilderness until he reached Horeb the mount of God, also known as Mount Sinai, where God had spoken with Moses and made a covenant with Israel. 1 Kings 19 describes how God made his presence known to Elijah at Mount Horeb, in “a still small voice.”

The Lord said to Elijah: “Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice. And when Eli'jah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him, and said, “What are you doing here, Eli'jah?” He said, “I have been very jealous for the LORD, the God of hosts; for the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and slain your prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am  left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (1 Kings 19:11-14).

How often have we heard the complaint, “You’re not listening to me.” Parents say it to their children, children to their parents, teachers to their students, couples to one another. And even when people say they are listening, the complaint often goes “You don’t understand what I’m saying,” or “That’s not what I’m trying to communicate to you,” or some variation of this. Speaking and listening, being heard and being understood, go together. 

We listen not only with our ears, but with our hearts and minds. If our heart is not engaged in the conversation or if our mind is closed or distracted, there will be little chance for real interpersonal dialogue and understanding to take place. The Lord wants to open our ears and speak to us, but we have to allow him to teach us how to listen to his voice.

I had to learn this lesson the hard way as I was discerning what course to chart for my life. When I was approaching graduation as a university student, I was pretty confident that I knew what I wanted to do with my life and how I wanted to serve the Lord. I presented my plan to the Lord and expected him to pretty much endorse it. To my surprise the Lord led me to read from the prophet Isaiah, chapter 55. Two verses in particular hit me hard:

“My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:10-11).

I slowly realized over the course of the summer that the Lord wanted me to put aside my own plans and aspirations so I could be more receptive and ready to hear whatever he wanted to say to me. This lesson also taught me to listen more attentively to those who knew me well, to see what direction they might receive from the Lord for me. With this change of heart it became much easier for me to pray and listen, both to the “still small voice” of the Lord within my heart and to the advice of others who were praying for me. And he did speak. Now forty-two years later, I can confidently say I did indeed hear the voice of the Lord and receive his direction for my life through the counsel of my brothers and sisters in the Lord and through the confirmation of his word in my heart. 

Our ability to hear and respond to God with love and trust mirrors our ability to hear our neighbor with love and trust. If we want to grow in listening to God, we also have to learn how to listen to our neighbor as well. When Mother Teresa accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in 1979, she referred to the words John the Evangelist wrote in his First Letter. She said, paraphrasing them,

It is not enough for us to say: “I love God, but I do not love my neighbor.” Saint John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don’t love your neighbor (1 John 4:20). How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? 

“Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelations 3:21). 

Hearing and obeying
Hearing the Lord involves more than simply listening to his word. The Lord wants his word to also form and shape us into the kind of people who please him in the way we think, speak, and act. Tellingly, the biblical words for “hearing” and “listening” are closely connected with “obeying” and “following” the Lord’s instructions. 

The word obedience seems out of fashion today, but Scripture presents it as a key part of our relationship with God. Two examples. In the Old Testament the Hebrew word shama literally meant "to hear, listen, and obey." When the Lord made a covenant with his people at Mount Sinai, he said: ”If you will obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my possession …a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:5). 

The Apostle Peter in his First Letter explains how we have been “sanctified by the Spirit for obedience to Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:2) who has made us “living stones built into a spiritual temple, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5). 

We know from experience that hearing and obeying does not come naturally. We have to learn through instruction and example. How can we grow in hearing and obeying the voice of the Lord? The Lord Jesus is our model. When the Father sent him into the world, Jesus had to listen and obey, and to learn what his Father wanted him to say and do. Jesus understood that the prophecy of the suffering servant given to Isaiah applied directly to his mission as the one who would lay down his life as an atoning sacrifice for the sin of the world. 

“The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught… Morning by morning he wakens, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward.” – Isaiah 50:4-5

Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the Father taught me. And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him" (John 8:28-29).

Shortly after Jesus had miraculously fed 4,000 people with the multiplication of seven loaves (Mark 8:1-9), the apostles anxiously discovered that they had forgotten to bring enough food for their journey across the Sea of Galilee. Jesus chided his disciples for their “hardness of heart” – their inability to hear and understand what he had demonstrated to them about his desire to provide for their needs. 

Jesus said to them, "Why do you discuss the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember? When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" They said to him, "Twelve." "And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?" And they said to him, "Seven." And he said to them, "Do you not yet understand?" (Mark 8:14-21) 

If we find it difficult to hear the Lord, we do not need to lose hope. The Lord himself will open our ears if we ask. Even when the Lord seems distant at times, he is, in reality, very close. And in this learning process we are in good company. The early disciples were also learning how to hear and believe. 

After the Lord Jesus had died on the cross and was laid in the tomb, his disciples lost hope of ever seeing him again. They had forgotten that he had foretold not only his death on the cross but his rising again as well. When Mary Magdalene went to the tomb on Sunday morning to pay her respects to a dead body, she discovered to her surprise an empty tomb (John 20:11-18). But when she saw the risen Lord standing near her and addressing her, she did not at first recognize him. When Jesus called her name, she knew beyond a doubt that it was truly his voice. She ran to tell the apostles that she had seen the Lord and heard him speak to her. 

When two other disciples that same day were walking on the road to Emmaus, Jesus appeared to them and began to walk with them as well (Luke 24:13-32). They did not recognize the risen Lord at first, until he had explained the Scriptures to them and sat at table and broke bread with them. Then they exclaimed, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32) The Lord is always ready to receive us and to speak his word to us, to teach us how to listen.

The Lord Jesus stands at our door each day and he knocks. Will you open your heart to his voice and sit for a while and listen as Mary did in her home at Bethany and the two disciples  did when they stopped for dinner on the road to Emmaus? 

[Don Schwager is a member of The Servants of the Word and the author of the Daily Scripture Reading and Meditation website.] 
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