Luke 15:1-7 - The Ultimate Search Party

How many of you are farmers? Or shepherds? I’m certainly not either of those things… I’m a city kid through and through who has lived in Toronto my entire life. This means that most of my experience with animals has been taking care of my cat Wilbur when I was younger, chasing squirrels, and saving raccoons that have fallen into holes.

Well, that’s not entirely true actually. There’s also the time I had that brutal bee sting, the time I saw two eagles dive bomb out of the sky, and the time when I was really young and got to see a colt (baby horse) being born and learning to walk. So maybe I have more experience with animals than I thought.

But if there’s one kind of animal I haven’t spent a lot of time with, it’s sheep. Sure, I’ve seen them at petting zoos, but I’ve never cared about sheep that much. They’re smelly, their wool gets dirty really easy, and, frankly put, they aren’t always the smartest of animals.

I’ve done a little research, and from what I can tell, sheep are known to follow other sheep without thinking twice. So if there’s a flock of sheep chilling at a really grassy part of a field, and then one decides to move to a muddy part of that field where there’s no food, there’s a good chance that a bunch of the other sheep will follow right after him. And then you’ve got like 10 sheep stuck in the mud and nobody wants that!

But sometimes, sheep wander a little farther than from one side of a field to the other. If they don’t have a shepherd to stop them, sheep can get easily distracted and end up in the middle of nowhere. Yet, this is also where we see that sheep aren’t entirely dumb. Sheep remember people, voices, and names really well! Once a sheep figures out who its shepherd is, that sheep will listen to its shepherd’s voice before anyone else’s. This means that all a shepherd would need to do to keep a sheep from wandering off is to call its name (and maybe whack his shepherd’s crook on the ground once or twice), and the sheep would come running!

At least, that’s the best guess I can make about how sheep think based on my research. Again, I’m a city kid, so any shepherds out there are welcome to correct me if these facts aren’t true. But all the stuff I’ve just said fits very well with Jesus’ description of sheep in His Parable of the Lost Sheep.

The story is pretty simple. There’s a shepherd who has 100 sheep. He’s taking care of them, bringing them to some good fields with good grass. The sheep are all safe. Everything’s going according to plan. A few of the flock got scared earlier and had tried to run away, but the shepherd had stopped them without too much trouble. So you can imagine this shepherd’s feeling pretty good about himself at the moment, thinking, It’s gonna be an easy day of shepherding today!

But hold on… Something doesn’t feel right. The shepherd does a head count and what does he find? There’s only 99 sheep! One of the sheep must have gotten away while he was distracted saving the other ones. But just to make sure, he counts again. 1, 2, 3… 46, 47… 97, 98! There’s two missing now! What’s going on?!?

The shepherd takes a deep breath. Can’t start panicking now! He slows down and counts again. …97, 98… 99! Okay, that’s better, but that means there’s still one sheep missing.

So if this was you, what would you do? Stay with the 99 and hope the missing sheep somehow makes it back okay? Yeah, it’s too bad for the one, but you still have 99 other sheep to take care of! You don’t want the 99 being eaten by a wolf or something. So staying behind seems like the most logical plan.

Or maybe you’re not the only person around. Maybe you can send out a friend or family member to go looking for the missing sheep while you guard the rest of them. No, but that won’t work. The sheep won’t recognize the other person’s voice, and your friend might accidentally scare the missing sheep even farther away!

The sun is getting lower in the sky. Time is running out, and the longer that missing sheep is left alone, the more likely it’s going to hurt its leg or get eaten or walk so far away that it gets lost forever!

Yet, in Jesus’ parable, we see that there was only one plan the shepherd was ever going to follow. Jesus doesn’t talk about how the shepherd weighed the pros and cons of going after the sheep or not. Instead, Jesus says, “Won’t [the shepherd] leave the 99 in the open country? Won’t he go and look for the one lost sheep until he finds it?” (Luke 15:4, NIrV).

That’s how much the shepherd loves his sheep! He leaves the 99 who are safe to find the 1 in danger! I don’t know what the shepherd did with the 99 in the meantime. Maybe he left them with somebody else. Maybe he locked them up in a barn somewhere first. But as much as I like to wonder about this kind of thing, that detail doesn’t seem to bother Jesus. What’s important in Jesus’ story is that the shepherd does everything in his power to make sure that the lost sheep doesn’t stay lost.

In the same way, Jesus doesn’t stop looking for us either. We are like that sheep that ran away. We all have sin in our lives – we’ve all done bad things that have made us run away from God – but Jesus, our good and loving Shepherd, comes looking for us anyway! That’s how incredible His love is: that He would give up everything just to save one of us!

In fact, that’s exactly what Jesus did when He came to earth and died on the cross. Jesus gave up all the good things He had in heaven to live on earth as a man. And then Jesus gave up that life to die so that all those bad things we’ve done could be wiped away forever! And when He came back to life three days later, Jesus began the ultimate search party for all of us sinners who are lost.

Of course, there’s one other part of this story I haven’t mentioned yet. Did the shepherd find his lost sheep? (Pause for dramatic effect...) You bet he did! And when the shepherd found the sheep, he picked it up and immediately brought it home. Then the shepherd ran back to his village to tell all his friends and neighbours, “Look! I found my lost sheep! Rejoice with me!” And with that, the village had a huge party to celebrate!

The best part is that Jesus says the same thing happens after His ultimate search party! Jesus ends His parable by saying, “I tell you, it will be the same in heaven. There will be great joy when one sinner turns away from sin” (Luke 15:7). Just like the village celebrated that the shepherd had found his missing sheep, there is also a big celebration in heaven every time someone believes in Jesus – every time someone turns away from their sin and turns back to God.

And all of that is made possible because of Jesus’ unbelievable love for His sheep – for each and every one of us. Remember that: Because of Jesus’ love, He always looks for those who are lost. It’s up to us, then, to not hide from Jesus’ ultimate search party. Instead, choose to accept His unbelievable love and go back home with Him!

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Hey guys! Hope you enjoyed our first look into the New Testament. I'll be doing another parable in a few weeks, but we've got a jump back to the Old Testament first. And I'll give you a hint on which story we're talking about next: It involves someone who really shouldn't be able to talk but does anyway. See you then!

~Brentagious

SSS: Parables, or Why Sermons Don't Always Cut It...

So this blog is all about storytelling. Anyone who’s been tuning in so far should be well aware of that. And to that crowd, I just want to say, “Thanks! Thanks for sticking with me this first month and change.” And for those of you who didn’t know that, I’m assuming you’re new here. So, to those people, I just want to say, “Welcome! I hope you’ll stick around for at least the next month and change. But preferably even longer.”

I’ve only written one other Second Sunday Switch-up so far (which, if you haven’t already, you can read here), but these posts are a chance for me to write about something a little different to an older audience. Rather than telling a story, these posts will usually focus on faith, ministry, and/or storytelling more generally. But I figured the best way to start would be to see what Jesus Himself had to say about storytelling.

Parables were a huge part of Jesus’ ministry. Sure, Jesus delivered sermons sometimes – the Sermon on the Mount takes up three whole chapters of Matthew for crying out loud! – but Jesus understood the power of story. He recognized that sometimes the most effective way for His audience to learn some deep theological truth was not to describe it or preach it to them. Sometimes, it was better to show a principle in action through stories.

So let’s talk about parables for a bit. Now please note that most of what follows aren’t actually my own original thoughts. I’m just here to give the ideas a bit of artistic flair. A lot of this information comes from Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart’s book How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth. It’s a great book that gives a lot of background information about the various genres of literature found in the Bible. If you have a chance and like to read, I’d highly suggest you take a look at it.

But I digress. First of all, let’s determine what parables aren’t. For instance, parables are not true stories about actual things that happened, nor are they meant to be read as simply moral fables. When Jesus told the Parable of the Lost Sheep, He wasn’t talking about some shepherd who actually left his entire flock at risk of being eaten by wolves to save the one stupid sheep that went off on its own. (Side note: I’ve never really understood the logic there. From what I’ve been told, sheep are pretty dumb, so leaving them alone doesn’t seem like a smart idea… If someone knows more about first-century AD shepherding that will clear this parable up for me, feel free to let me know in the comment section below.)

So if parables aren’t true stories or fables, then how are we supposed to approach these stories? Well, Fee and Stuart describe parables as pseudo-allegories that do communicate moral truths but, more importantly, inspire people to action. Let’s break down what that means.

An allegory is a description or narrative with a sustained semantic reference to another description or narrative. To put that in layman’s terms, a parable is a story where various ideas or images in that story stand in for something else. Importantly, this “standing in” is continued throughout the entire story. So, if we look at the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis has Aslan stand in for Jesus/God throughout all 7 books.

However, not all parables are totally allegorical (he says as Augustine rolls over in his grave). Some of them are, the most obvious example being the Parable of the Sower where Jesus Himself explains what each aspect of the parable means. But most parables are only loosely allegorical. Thus, in the Parable of the Prodigal’s Son, you should read the father as God and the unfaithful son as representing sinners, but you’d probably be stretching the allegorical nature of the parable too far if you started reading things into the pig slop or the famine.

Moreover, yes, there is typically a truth claim being made in these stories. You are supposed to learn something from Jesus’ parables. But more than that, the point of parables was to inspire people to do something because of what they learned. The Good Samaritan doesn’t just teach us who are neighbours are; it leaves us with the question of whether we are going to be like the Good Samaritan and go out of our way to help our neighbours, whoever they might be! This is not Jesus promoting legalistic Christianity; this is Jesus encouraging His followers through story to live out their faith in everything they do!

To recap, then, a parable is a story where a few elements allegorically relate to real life ideas or situations with the hope of getting listeners/readers to act upon what they have learned. But if you’ve read some of Jesus’ parables, you’ll know that some of them are pretty confusing. Which leads us to a problem, a problem that the disciples point out right after Jesus tells His first story.

Take a look at Matthew 13:1-10 to see how this plays out. Jesus has just told a big crowd a story about a farmer who sowed seeds on a path and rocks and good soil. And then He stops. No tweetable lines about the Kingdom of Heaven, no mind blowing new explanation of the law. I can imagine the disciples looking at each other thinking, “Yeah, and…?” So they ask Jesus why He’s decided to start telling stories instead of, you know, preaching or something…

Now we might be tempted to think that the disciples were a little silly for asking this question. After all, the disciples ask a lot of stupid questions. And this is Jesus we’re talking about. The story’s in the Bible… Of course there’s going to be some spiritual meaning here!

But take your Sunday School Glasses off and actually think about this. Jesus isn’t speaking in a church or a synagogue where it would be expected that He would dive into something super spiritual. He’s teaching to a crowd of people on a beach. Moreover, this is early in Jesus’ ministry. Some in the crowd had probably heard about Jesus and knew what to expect, but I’m sure there were just as many who just wanted to know what all the fuss was about. Either way, it would probably come as a surprise when this usually quite spiritual teacher starts giving farming advice. He gives absolutely no context, merely saying at the end that those who have ears to hear should listen…

No wonder the disciples want to know what His deal is! Why does Jesus think that these kinds of obscure stories are the best way to teach people? And in typical Jesus style, His answer is equally ambiguous:

“Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:

            ‘Though seeing, they do not see;

            Though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’

            . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it” (Matthew 13:11-17).

Did you catch that? Jesus celebrates because the disciples have been given knowledge about the Kingdom of Heaven through story that so many others have missed! He praises the disciples here for having open eyes and ears! And yeah, that might seem a little odd. Jesus usually calls His disciples out for not understanding anything, and the next thing He does is actually explain in detail what the Parable of the Sower is all about. But obviously Jesus sees that His story has awakened some sort of understanding in the disciples, and He’s thrilled!

I’m sure He has a similar thrill when people come to understand one of His parables today too.  The Bible might not give us detailed explanations of every parable, but a reader intent on study and listening to the prodding of the Holy Spirit will slowly come to understand the deeper meaning and call to action in each story. And no, not every parable will have the most obvious interpretation, but this story form makes the message easily accessible to anyone with open heart, mind, and ears.

In short, Jesus placed a high value on His parables! They weren’t just some side project to His main teaching. He saw His parables as equally important to His sermons. It was through stories that people could easily relate to that Jesus revealed the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. It was here that Jesus showed people how to act, not just told or commanded. And it was through this obscure means of teaching that Jesus said eyes and ears could be opened to even deeper truths.

There is power in stories. This is why people tell stories around campfires, read books, and watch movies. It’s why the most effective Sunday School programs I’ve seen have told stories rather than preached kid friendly sermons. Stories show us things that can’t easily be told, and they have the potential to move, teach, and delight us in ways that no other medium can. Jesus understood the power of story, and He leveraged it to His advantage in His ministry. And I’d love to see more ministries take more advantage of this teaching method too!

As this blog moves forward, parables are bound to come up. They are, after all, some of the more obvious stories in the New Testament. All of the above is the background I’ll be working with when writing my parable lessons from here on out, and hopefully you’ll see it in action on Thursday when I cover the Parable of the Lost Sheep. But for all of you reading this, whether a new reader or old, keep these things in mind too when you read parables for yourself going forward. It might just make parables come to life for you in a way they never have before!

~Brentagious

1 Samuel 8 - Rejected

Todd always looked forward to this time of year. He didn’t find math class very fun, and trying to remember all those names and dates in history was giving him a headache. But February was always the best. February was when his school started getting ready for the big play they put on every year!

He had chosen his audition piece perfectly. He knew the drama teacher couldn’t resist a big ole’ speech from Shakespeare. There were lots of thee’s and thou’s and like 100 words he didn’t understand, but Todd was sure he had still nailed that audition. And really, what did it matter? He had been the lead in the play for the last three years. He was a shoe in!

So when the drama teacher posted the cast list at the end of the day, Todd played it cool as he walked over to the drama board. All the kids were whispering and looking at him. All my adoring fans, Todd thought. I bet they can’t wait to see me perform! He started at the bottom of the sheet – Todd always checked to see how Mr. Travis had filled the supporting roles first.

“Jodie: The Toad. Mindy: Robotron 3000. Zach: King of the Goblins.” Zach’ll be great for that part, Todd thought. But then his eyes widened in horror. His name was next!

This can’t be! he thought. I’m playing Goblin Number 2? I’m not the lead!?!?! His eyes jumped to the top of the list. HARRY!?!?!?!

Harry was the new kid in school. He had come out of nowhere and taken the lead role from Todd! I’ve been robbed! Todd yelled in his head! Harry hasn’t been in a play in his life! How in the world did he beat me?!?

I’m sure some of us have felt like Todd before. We’re used to being part of something, maybe even being the centre of attention, but then suddenly someone else comes in and takes that thing away from us. Maybe you just had a new brother or sister born who’s suddenly taking all of Mom and Dad’s attention away. Or maybe you weren’t picked to be on the basketball team this year. I’ve been there, and I know that’s never fun.

We talked last week about how God is willing to use anyone at any age to do His work, like He did with Samuel. But as Samuel got older, he also had to learn that sometimes God changes what jobs He wants us to do. And sometimes, God stops using us in big, obvious ways and starts using us in smaller, more subtle ways.

In 1 Samuel 8, the Bible tells us about a change in Israel’s leadership. God had been using Samuel to lead the Israelites for years, but Samuel knew that he couldn’t stay in charge forever. He was getting old and tired, so Samuel started training his sons Joel and Abijah to take over.

Joel and Abijah weren’t very nice people though. They cheated others so that they could make lots of money. They didn’t care about serving God or helping Israel do what was right; they only cared about themselves!

The Israelites saw this and weren’t impressed! This was all the people could talk about at the markets or when visiting each other. They would grumble about how Joel and Abijah were making everybody in Israel miserable! And then they would think about some of the kingdoms around them and say, “Man, those Philistines always seem so happy, and they only ever seem to be getting stronger! Their king must be really good at ruling. Maybe we should have a king too!”

So a bunch of important people in Israel – they were called elders – met with Samuel and said to him, “You are old. Your sons don’t live as you do. So appoint a king to lead us. We want a king just like the kings all the other nations have” (1 Samuel 8:5, NIrV).

Now the Bible tells us that Samuel wasn’t too pleased when he heard this. And I can imagine why. Sure, Samuel was getting older, but he had been the leader of Israel for a long time. He had helped the Israelites win battles, and he had taught the people to listen to and obey God. Now all of a sudden, they were saying to Samuel, “You and your sons aren’t good enough anymore! We want someone else!” Talk about rude!

Not only though, but I’m sure it hurt Samuel, just like how Todd was upset that he didn’t get the lead part in the play that he was so used to getting. Or maybe like you’ve been hurting over not getting on a sports team or as much attention as your used to. And even though Samuel was a good man who had trusted God throughout his entire life, I can’t help but think that he was a little angry and a little jealous that the Israelites wanted someone else instead of him.  

Now the Bible doesn’t tell us what Samuel actually prayed that day, but I can imagine it went something like this: “Can you believe this God? You chose me to lead this people! I’ve served them for years, I’ve done everything You asked me to do, and I’ve led them to victory against the Philistines because I constantly trusted You! Now all of a sudden they want a king instead of the person You’ve chosen! Are You just going to let the Israelites get away with this?”

But whatever Samuel prayed, I love how God responded to it. God said to Samuel, “Listen to everything the people are saying to you. You are not the one they have turned their backs on. I am the one they do not want as their king” (1 Samuel 8:7).

See, Samuel might have been the human leader of Israel, but it was God who was Israel’s true king. And just like the Israelites were rejecting Samuel, God was feeling that rejection too. It’s a rejection that He’s felt many times. He felt it when Adam and Eve first chose to sin against Him, and He feels it every time one of us chooses to disobey Him and not believe in Him.

That’s important guys. God knows what it feels like to be rejected. God knows what it feels like to be the most important, most amazing, most powerful Being in the entire universe, and then to have someone else come along to try and take that away. So know that whenever you feel rejected – whenever it feels like you’ve been pushed aside – God knows rejection too and can help you through it.  

The best part, though, is that even though we have rejected God – even though we’ve chosen to disobey Him – God has made a way to fix this broken relationship with Him. God wants nothing more than for us to be reunited with Him, which is why God sent Jesus to die on the cross and rise again. Because Jesus did this, God is ready to forgive us for rejecting Him. All we need to do is believe in Him and ask Him to forgive us for all those times we’ve ignored what God wanted and disobeyed Him.

God won’t force you to believe in Him, though. He wants you to, but He won’t force you. God didn’t force the Israelites to keep Him as their king. In fact, He gave the Israelites the human king they wanted! But let me tell you, it was a disaster. Almost every king of Israel rejected God, just like the Israelites did here, and made the Israelites do terrible things over the next few hundred years.

So where does that leave us? Well, God has given us all a choice. We can either choose to reject Him like the Israelites did, or we can choose to trust that His way is best and be faithful to do what He asks us. That’s what Samuel did. God helped Samuel deal with being rejected. And even though Samuel was no longer the human leader of Israel, Samuel continued to faithfully follow any instructions that God gave him. And this pleased God greatly!

As for Todd, we saw that he was pretty angry at first that he didn’t get the lead role in the play. But just like God helped Samuel get through his rejection, God can also help Todd deal with not being the lead. And just like Samuel chose to still follow God and do what He asked, the best thing Todd could do now – the thing God would want Todd to do – is to work with Harry to put on the best show possible.

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That’s all for today folks! Next week, we’re going to finally break into the New Testament and hear one of Jesus’ parables. But if any of you parents and adults out there aren’t really sure what a parable is, that’s fine. The Second Sunday Switch-Up in a few days is all about parables and why Jesus used them. So make sure you come back for both of these posts.  

~Brentagious

1 Samuel 3 - No Age Restrictions

Amusement parks. Whether it’s Wonderland, Disney World, or your local town fair, it’s always a good day when you get to go to an amusement park. Well, maybe not always a good day. It’s all fine and dandy for those of you who live in Florida – you can go out in shorts and a T-shirt in the middle of February if you want. But I wouldn’t want to try riding a roller coaster up here in Canada right now… It’s still REALLY cold!

But let’s pretend that it’s your lucky day, and you get to go to an amusement park somewhere warm and sunny! You’ve made it through the front gates where you’re immediately blown away by the explosion of colours in the nearby flower gardens. You’re surrounded by the smells of pizza and pretzels, and you basically drag your parents after you (who just want you to slow down and see everything) as you make a beeline towards the roller coasters. You’ve had only one thought in your head all morning! This year, you know it has to be time. You’re finally tall enough to ride the biggest, fastest roller coaster in the country! You have to be!

You look up as you hear the rumble of a roller coaster above you. The screams of other riders are cut short as they rocket out of earshot. That’ll be you in a few minutes, hanging upside down and whizzing around super sharp turns. But all the sights, smells, and sounds fade away as you see your dreaded nemesis in the distance: the Height Restriction Board!

For years that board has stopped you from riding the best rides. It kept you from riding the bumper cars when you were 5, the water slide when you were 7, and the roller coaster up until now. But this year, that’s all going to change! You stand with your back against the board, confident that you’re tall enough. The park attendant tells you to stop standing on your tip toes.

He pauses for a second.

“Sorry kid… You’re an inch too short. Maybe next year.” And just like that, as the next kid steps up to the board, all your childhood dreams seem to fall apart.

If you’ve ever gone through something like this (and I’m sure most of us have at some point), I want you to remember how that felt. Think about how disappointed you were when you were told you weren’t tall enough or big enough or old enough.

And before we get to our story for today, I just want to say that I know how awful that feeling is. But please know that there are reasons for why some things have limits for how tall or old you have to be. It might seem like the only thing those height or age restrictions are doing is keeping you from having fun, but they’re really there to keep us all safe.

One of the amazing things about God, though, is that there is no height or age restriction to His love. You don’t have to be a certain age to believe in Jesus. He died on the cross for all of us equally, and He wants all of us to trust in Him! And God doesn’t have an age restriction on the people He chooses to do His work either. That’s part of the reason why I’ve always liked the story of Samuel.

You see, Samuel grew up living at the tabernacle, a special tent that the Israelites had set aside to worship God. This was the place where the Israelites could meet directly with God and He could speak to them. And like in any church or temple, there were people who worked in the tabernacle to keep things tidy and to make sure that God was worshipped properly. The Israelites called these people priests, and the main priests in Samuel’s day were a man named Eli and his sons.

Unfortunately, Eli’s sons weren’t very good priests. They often disobeyed God. And because Eli never stopped his sons from disobeying, God had sent a prophet to tell Eli that a new family would soon become the main priests of the tabernacle. But this hadn’t happened quite yet.

Anyways, while Eli dealt with his disobedient sons, he was also responsible for taking care of Samuel. Now we don’t know how long Samuel had been living at the tabernacle when our story begins, but we know that he was still pretty young. I can imagine Samuel looking around at all the priests, people who were a lot older than himself, and wondering if he was just getting in the way. There were probably many days where he thought a little kid like him just wasn’t old enough to be of any use to God. And like our friend from the amusement park who was too short to ride the roller coaster, I’m sure this often made Samuel feel pretty down.

That all changed, however, when a sleeping Samuel was woken up one night by a mysterious voice calling his name: “Samuel, Samuel!”

Now I don’t know about you, but if I had been Samuel, I probably would have jumped out of my bed and grabbed a flashlight as fast as I could! I was always afraid of the dark as a kid, and I still get pretty scared when I hear random noises in the middle of the night. Thankfully, the Bible tells us that Samuel still had some light from the lamp of God that was burning nearby, but I’m sure Samuel still shot up in bed and looked around confused.

After seeing that no one was there, Samuel did the logical thing. He thought to himself, That’s weird. Eli doesn’t usually need me at this time of night. But still, I better make sure everything’s okay. So he called back, “Here I am,” and ran over to Eli’s bed. “Here I am, Eli. You called out to me.”

To which a confused and half asleep Eli only grunted and said, “Mmph… What? No, no I didn’t… Go back to sleep Samuel. You’re imagining things!”

“But I heard…” Samuel replied, his little brow wrinkling in confusion. “I guess it was nothing. I’m sorry I woke you. Goodnight Eli.” Eli didn’t even grunt in response while Samuel returned to his bed.

As he lay back down, Samuel thought to himself, Eli’s probably right. I was probably just dreaming. Or maybe the wind… Yeah! It must’ve been the wind! And with that, Samuel stopped thinking about the mysterious voice. But just as he got comfy and started to fall asleep again, he heard a little louder this time: “Samuel, Samuel!”

Samuel’s eyes shot open. That was no wind! He thought… So once again, Samuel rushed over to Eli’s bed, saying, “Here I am Eli. You called out to me!”

Eli at least rolled over this time but didn’t open his eyes. “You’re just dreaming my boy. I didn’t call for you. Go and sleep!”

So for the second time that night, a confused Samuel returned to his bed, thinking, I don’t get it! I couldn’t have fallen asleep that fast. And it’s not like Eli to lie or play a trick on me. But someone’s definitely saying my name… Maybe if I lie here with my eyes open, I’ll see something.

And that’s exactly what he did. He laid there and kept his eyes open for as long as he could. But if any of you have tried staying awake when you’re really tired, you’ll know how hard this is. Samuel’s eyes grew heavy and started to shut. Must… stay… awake… Samuel thought while trying to hold back a yawn. But just as he was about to fall asleep, the voice called out even clearer than before: “Samuel, Samuel!”

The covers hadn’t even reached the floor by the time Samuel was at Eli’s bed crying, “Here I am!”

It took a few seconds before Eli slowly sat up in bed.  He blinked a few times and rubbed his eyes to help himself focus. Then he looked at Samuel very closely. After a few moments of silent thought, Eli said to himself, The boy’s still so young… Could God really be calling to him?

Finally, Eli smiled at Samuel and said, “Go and lie down. If someone calls out to you again, say, ‘Speak, LORD. I’m listening’” (1 Samuel 3:8, NIrV). And Samuel, now more confused than ever, returned to his bed once again.

In the flickering torchlight, there were probably a hundred thoughts racing through Samuel’s head.  What’s going on here?!? Why is this voice talking to me? And what does God even want with me?!? But before Samuel could think any longer, God called out to Samuel one last time. “Samuel, Samuel!” So Samuel, swallowing, replied like Eli had told him to: “Speak, I’m listening.”

Well, God spoke alright! Unfortunately, it wasn’t a happy message. God confirmed with Samuel what He had said before about replacing Eli and his sons with new priests. And when Eli asked Samuel the next morning what the LORD’s message was, the Bible tells us that Samuel was kind of scared to tell Eli the bad news. But thankfully, Eli wasn’t too upset and accepted what God had decided.

What’s important for our story today, though, is that this wasn’t the last time that God spoke to Samuel. Starting that day, God had all kinds of messages for His new prophet to deliver to the Israelites! In fact, Samuel is the first prophet that the Bible talks about for more than just a chapter or two. But all of this started that night at the tabernacle when Samuel was still a boy.

God could have chosen to speak to anyone in Israel. He could have spoken to Eli or one of the older priests. He could have spoken to one of the current prophets or even one of Israel’s judges. But instead, God chose to speak through a kid probably no older than 12. And this kid would grow up to do amazing things in Israel: lead battles, make sacrifices, and crown kings.

1 Timothy 4:12 says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young. Set an example for the believers in what you say and in how you live. Also set an example in how you love and in what you believe. Show the believers how to be pure.” Did you catch that? Don’t think that God just wants us older people to do all the teaching. You guys and girls have a lot to teach us adults too, and one of the best ways you can do that is by being an example for us of how God wants us to live!

But above all, remember this: God can choose anyone to do His work, no matter how little. God invites all of us to listen to Him and trust Him. To follow His commandments and to say and do things that please Him.

So don’t let a height or age restriction get you down. Sure, you might have to wait another year to ride that roller coaster, but know that God is willing to use you now – exactly as you are!

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That's all for now. Next week, we'll be jumping ahead in Samuel's story a little bit to when Samuel was all grown up. And no, things didn't get any easier for Samuel when he was older... But you'll hear more about that next Thursday. Hope to see you then!

~Brentagious