Today’s reading in Jeremiah details the assassination of
Gedaliah, the man appointed by Babylon to rule those Jews left behind after the
cream of their countrymen have been deported. It is one of Scripture’s regular
reminders that human sinfulness and the chaos brought on by our rebellion
against the ways of God plays out in individual suffering and tragedy.
Another stark indictment of the consequence of human sin
opens our reading from Samuel
in those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.
Much the same can be said of the modern church in recent
generations. The absence of understanding that the Lord speaks directly with
his people (visions being just one of the ways in which he does so) is traced
to the failure of those (Eli and his sons) appointed to steward and encourage
God’s word.
The sweep of scripture reveals that God has a particular
aversion to false or corrupt leadership, and we see here the first stirrings of
reformation, as the young boy Samuel learns to hear God speak. Eli’s failing
physical sight is as nothing compared with his spiritual blindness. Having
misdiagnosed Hannah’s praying as drunkenness rather than spiritual fervour (as
do the crowds on the Day of Pentecost centuries later), he now fails to realise
what is happening to Samuel. Surely there is no greater failing in the present
generation of spiritual leaders than that of not training up the next in the
things of God.
God speaks three times – time and again in scripture, this
thrice repetition (‘Holy, holy, holy’) is indicative of perfection – and
finally the penny drops for Eli. Belatedly, he teaches Samuel how to welcome
and, as we might say today, ‘host’ the presence of God. This is not overstating
the case, for the text tells us that on the next occasion, ‘the Lord came and
stood’ before Samuel. He is now responding not simply to a disembodied voice,
but to a Lord who reveals himself.
My own first experience of the prophetic was similar – I was
16 and a new ‘officer’ on the Christian Youth Camp where I had come to faith
two years previously. One night, I felt the Lord give me a word of rebuke for
the camp’s leaders, all of whom were far older and more mature than me. I will
never forget the overpowering fear of that morning’s prayer meeting, when
through hot tears I stumbled out the words I felt the Lord had given me. Unlike
Eli, who simply accepted but did not do anything in response (‘He is the Lord;
let him do what is good in his eyes’) my fellow leaders humbled themselves,
repented, and made the changes the Lord had detailed.
How do we respond to the Lord’s word today? May this and the
coming generation be ones of whom it cannot be said that his speaking is a rare
occurrence.
(member of the clergy)