Did Not Yet Know The Lord

Now in those days messages from the LORD were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon. One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God. Suddenly the LORD called out, “Samuel!” . . . Samuel did not yet know the LORD because he had never had a message from the LORD before. 1 Samuel 3:1-4, 7

WE WANT OUR CHILDREN TO KNOW THE LORD. We want them to recognize his voice speaking to them. We don’t want them to be like Eli’s sons, who lived according to their own pleasures and did not know the Lord. Instead, we want them to be like Samuel —listening to hear God speak and willing to obey God’s Word when it is heard.

But what does it mean today to hear the voice of God speaking? How does this happen?

It is clear that on this occasion the word of the Lord came to Samuel in an audible voice. He did not merely have a subjective sense that God was speaking to him, which is the way many people describe receiving what they are quite sure is a divine message. What we must understand, and help our children to understand, is that “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2, ESV).

Direct guidance of individuals by dreams, visions, and prophetic words decreased as the repository of God’s revealed will grew. Today we have the whole of the Old and New Testament Scriptures. God leads his people today by his Word. He continues to speak to us and to our children powerfully and personally as we open up the Bible and it becomes living and active in our lives. So we should prepare our children to hear the Lord speak, and we should impress upon them the expectation that God will speak to them personally and powerfully through his Word.

Speak, Lord, your servant is listening. When we open up your Word together as a family, you are speaking to us just as powerfully and personally as Samuel heard you speaking to him. We don’t want ________ to be like Eli’s sons, who could have heard you but through defiance and disobedience forfeited that privilege and therefore never knew you. Instead, Lord, open ________’s ears to hear you speaking through your Word today, tomorrow, and every day of his life.