Monday Devo
Scripture:
1 Samuel 3:1-3
1 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.
2 One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God.
1 Meanwhile, the boy Samuel served the Lord by assisting Eli. Now in those days messages from the Lord were very rare, and visions were quite uncommon.
2 One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God.
Commentary:
3:1 Samuel, like the natural sons of Eli (2:17), is a young man. The word of the LORD was rare in those days, but that is about to change.
3:3 The lamp of God was placed in the tent of meeting, outside the veil before the Most Holy Place, where the ark was, and burned every day from evening to morning (Ex. 27:20–21; Lev. 24:1–3). It had not yet gone out, so the time was probably just before dawn. The ark of God had probably been placed in Shiloh when the tent of meeting was set up there in Josh. 18:1. In Judg. 20:26–27 the ark is said to have been in Bethel, but it was apparently moved back to Shiloh.
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 496.
3:3 The lamp of God was placed in the tent of meeting, outside the veil before the Most Holy Place, where the ark was, and burned every day from evening to morning (Ex. 27:20–21; Lev. 24:1–3). It had not yet gone out, so the time was probably just before dawn. The ark of God had probably been placed in Shiloh when the tent of meeting was set up there in Josh. 18:1. In Judg. 20:26–27 the ark is said to have been in Bethel, but it was apparently moved back to Shiloh.
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 496.
Questions:
1 Samuel 3 opens during a spiritually dark time in Israel, but right in the middle of that darkness, we find Samuel faithfully serving in the tabernacle. Eli was getting older and his eyesight was failing, but there was also a deeper problem, Israel had become spiritually blind to God.
Brandon highlighted the contrast between Eli and Samuel: Eli was losing his ability to see, while Samuel was near the presence of God and learning to recognize His voice. Samuel was already faithfully serving God according to what he knew, even though he did not yet understand the greater calling God was preparing for him.
The message challenged us to think about God’s silence in a different way. When God seems quiet, is it possible that the problem isn’t that God has stopped speaking, but that we have become too distracted or too busy to listen? We live in a world full of constant noise, and it is easy to fill every quiet moment without ever stopping to make room for God.
Brandon highlighted the contrast between Eli and Samuel: Eli was losing his ability to see, while Samuel was near the presence of God and learning to recognize His voice. Samuel was already faithfully serving God according to what he knew, even though he did not yet understand the greater calling God was preparing for him.
The message challenged us to think about God’s silence in a different way. When God seems quiet, is it possible that the problem isn’t that God has stopped speaking, but that we have become too distracted or too busy to listen? We live in a world full of constant noise, and it is easy to fill every quiet moment without ever stopping to make room for God.
- What competes most for your attention right now?
- When you look at your life, are you ever quiet enough or still enough to hear from God, or are you filling every empty space with something else?
- What distraction, habit, or pattern of busyness do you need to surrender so that you can become more attentive to God and His Word?
Prayer Topics:
- Confess the ways you have allowed distraction, busyness, entertainment, or other priorities to take your attention off God.
- Thank God that He has spoken through His Word and through His Son.
- Ask God to give you a greater hunger for His Word and an increasing awareness of His presence.
- Praise God that He is not distant or silent toward His people, but is a God who reveals Himself and draws His people to Himself.
This Week's City 7:
Try to commit to memory!
5. Why do I follow Jesus? I follow Jesus because Jesus rose from the dead proving that He is the way, the truth and the life.
(Matthew 7:24-27; John 14:6)
(Matthew 7:24-27; John 14:6)
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