We’re studying the first half of 1 Samuel in our Wednesday Bible study this semester, and I’ve been stuck on a phrase from 1 Samuel 3:1: “the word of the Lord was rare in those days”. I think that goes far to explain the backdrop of the book, actually. Samuel was the last of the judges, and if we backtrack to that book and read even a little bit, we see a downward spiral of disobedience, brief repentance and deliverance, and idolatry. An oft-repeated phrase in the last few chapters of Judges is “every man did what was right in his own eyes”. Yes, some of that is surely because “in those days there was no king in Israel”, as the author reminds. But some of it may also have been due to the comparative silence of God in those days.
The more crucial part of this phrase that has captivated me, though, is “in those days”, meaning that it wasn’t necessarily the case at the time of writing, and it certainly isn’t the case now. In those days, the law had been given, but God spoke to His people through prophets, and there’s little mention of any between Moses and Samuel (though a few, mostly nameless ones do show up). John points out in the very beginning of his gospel that Jesus is the Word Incarnate, and the author of Hebrews likewise begins by stating that though the Lord used to speak to His people through prophets, He has spoken through His Son “in these last days”. As if that isn’t enough, we also have the written word at our fingertips, in our pockets, and on our shelves.
And yet, access to the word of the Lord in the form of either the presence of Jesus, who said He was with His followers always (Matthew 28:20), or the printed Bible often has no effect. Some of us, like Samuel, don’t recognize the voice of the Lord when first He speaks to us. And the Bible has no impact if we don’t read it, or read it with a closed mind. Jesus said several times, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”; all too often, we have ears to hear only the word for which we’re looking, or no ears to hear at all.
I don’t know which best describes your current state, but whether you’re a willing listener or not, a good place to start is with a prayer: “Lord, give me ears to hear.” “Unite my heart to fear Your name.” “Open my eyes to behold wondrous things out of Your law.” “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”