“Samuel, Listen to My People…and Warn Them!” Pastor Jacqueline Hines June 6, 2021

 

“Samuel, Listen to My People…and Warn Them!” Pastor Jacqueline Hines

June 6, 2021

In this season of Pentecost, we are reminded that the Holy Spirit is available to empower all people around the world of every nation and station. We can see that all Christians are leaders in one way or another. As a Christian, you may hold official positions in the church or in your homes. There may be people on our jobs who follow you and like you on Facebook. Family members may watch your lives and take your leads on various political and spiritual opinions. Others put their faith in your behavior and believe God because of the way you trust and obey, with confidence that there is no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.

Samuel had many followers among God’s people. He had an official position as a prophet – God’s spokesperson - among the people of God. He was considered a very special person because his words made an extraordinary difference in the lives of God’s people. It is no wonder. He was born under extraordinary circumstances. For a long time his mother Hannah was not able to have children. Hannah was so embarrassed about not being like all the other women. The other women laughed at her. Their cruelty may have stemmed from their jealousy, for Hannah’s husband loved Hannah deeply and treated her with respect and compassion, no small thing in any society. In spite of being so loved, Hannah longed very much to keep up with the Jones’s, to stop being embarrassed and to keep the women from shaming and laughing at her.

God answered Hannah’s prayer, she got pregnant and gave birth to her son Samuel. It seemed like a miracle because she had gone through so much. Hannah was extremely relieved to no longer be the laughing stock of the community. She was also grateful, so grateful that she vowed to present Samuel to the priests to serve in the Temple of the Most High God. God not only honored Hannah by giving her a son, but God blessed her son Samuel. When he became a young man, no one could deny that his words produced much, much spiritual fruit.

The people of God should have known better when Samuel warned them to continue loving each other enough to meet together, talk together and wait for God to guide them as God had always faithfully guided them. Samuel was getting old and there did not seem to be any reliable young people who were walking in the ways of God well enough to lead the people. There were not even people in Samuel’s family who could serve. Samuel’s sons were all about the money and they didn’t mind doing harm and breaking Godly rules to get it. Their minds were not on being ministers.

The people knew they would need a leader. Instead of waiting on God, they looked around at what all the other countries had and they decided that they wanted what the others had. They wanted a king. They wanted to show up and show off their shiny crowns and fancy silk robes like all the other countries. Perhaps they also wanted to be rid of the reminders to follow the Ten Commandments. Perhaps they were fed up with Samuel’s calls to repentance and his relentless encouragement to do the right thing. Perhaps they had grown weary of praying and planting seeds and harvesting the fruit of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control.

Perhaps their covenant with God had become undesirable and they wanted OUT! They wanted freedom to do what they wanted to do when they wanted to do, when they wanted to do it. We want a king!  Samuel directed them to wait on God’s guidance and let God be their king, for God was more than able to fight and help them in any battle.

Verse 19 says, “But the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel; they said, “No! but we are determined to have a king over us, 20 so that we also may be like other nations, and that our king may govern us and go out before us and fight our battles.”

At the end of Samuel’s conversation with God’s people, they decided not to listen to his direction to wait on God to lead them. So God directs Samuel to listen to them instead. He was to get out of their way and let them choose a king. Samuel was also to warn them that in choosing a king while rejecting God and God’s servant would not make them happy. It would make them miserable because there is no king that can love the people and orchestrate good results without the help of God. They were warned, but they did not care about the consequences.

We’ve all been there. We have had one warning or another not to make certain decisions. Fire detectors warn us. Stop signs warn us.   Teachers, preachers, presidents, politicians, scientists, and medical practitioners warn us. A recent news story told of an elevator falling and a man getting a broken leg. The next day, the news added that three men were

fighting and fell into an elevator door with all their weight. The door broke in and they were all injured. To be sure, these men had warnings. They had been warned throughout their lives that fighting is harmful rather than helpful. Warnings remind us what to do and what not to do, but the Holy Spirit empowers us to move forward rather than backward. When the bible refers to God’s people or anyone who is wicked, it not only means we are acting badly, causing pain and trouble, it also means we are troubled, that our conditions are wretched and our situations are full of hardships. God

gets angry and we get angry when we see wickedness. At the same time, God shows healthy boundaries as well as compassion and care, and God teaches us to do the same for each other.

At times we seem totally oblivious to the fact that we are going in the wrong direction. We may be stubborn rebellious, or willful. Sometimes we get used to consequences just like we eventually get used to being in a cold pool. Sometimes we just don’t care.

God warns us because God loves us.  God wants to bless us, to hold us in arms and sing to us (Zephaniah 3.17). God wants to wrap us close in protective skirts (Ezekiel 16.8), to gather us under warm wings like a hen gathers her chicks (Matthew 23.37). Before we even call on God, God knows our hearts and has an answer for us (Isaiah 65.24). We serve a good and loving God! God’s plan is not to make us miserable, but to prosper us, not to harm us, but to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29.11). It is good to always seek God diligently, serve God faithfully and obey God quickly. We ought to praise God every hour and repent every day. Amen.