1 Samuel 3:1-21
It was a time in ancient Israel when visions and words from the Lord were infrequent. At the time, Samuel was just a boy but he was about to go through an important rite of passage. He was in full-time service to God but he did not yet know Him because the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
With mentoring from a spiritual father (Eli), Samuel eventually learned to discerne God’s voice. It was not like God gave Samuel a little “starter” word for young apprentices. God entrusted this young yet consecrated boy with a word that shook Israel; a word of final judgement against Eli and his house for his failure as a father in disciplining his own two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. Here are some thoughts (not as well organized as I would like) about leadership, authority and words from God that have been provoked by Eli, a spiritual father with a mixed track record.
Through our religious ceremonies and rituals most of us have been introduced to the comforting aspect of God’s voice. However, in addition to it being comforting, “God’s voice” can also be corrective. In it’s corrective tone His voice inevitably provokes tension as it exposes the differences between His agenda and our own; His thoughts and our thoughts.
Accordingly, spiritual father’s words provoke tensions because they contain corrections that cut across our existing agendas and our beliefs (which we, in the formation of our religious sub-cultures, both deify and codify). Its critical to remember that the heart of the Father does not delight in seeing pain as His children process His discipline. He does however delight in the outcome. He rejoices when the discipline has had its perfect result; when the hearts of His beloved children are transformed from glory to glory; when they are transformed from old into new wineskins; exchanging ideas that had been previously embraced (which had been rooted in the temporal) for ones that are eternal. He is always working to impart His never-ending, unchanging and unshakable kingdom value system to His Church. To be sure, in our relationship to God there will be comforting words in abundance but corrective words will be spoken as well which will be integral to the process of us becoming new wineskins.
Note; To deify an idea is to attribute to it a divine status. To codify an idea is to adopt and build it into the set of ideas that we learn to live by (both individually and corporately) To deify and codify ideas that God has never spoken or is no longer speaking is how old and hardened wineskins are formed.
Why was it that words of the Lord were infrequent in Israel during Eli’s time? In that season God was apparently quiet for His own reasons. I wonder though, in the world today, if the problem has as much to do with with God speaking as it does with our listening. Could there be a connection where God’s Word is effecting minimal transformation in Christian’s lives to the fact that leaders (in the habit of Eli) have not taught the sons and daughters to listen for the disciplinary tone of God’s voice? Perhaps God’s words are in fact being spoken but they are just not being received. Perhaps we do not have ears to hear.
I suspect leaders like Eli (and would-be leaders in the church today) have found that the cost of hearing and speaking corrective words are just too high. Maybe Israel’s leaders had been conditioned to speak only softer words, having learned from experience they would loose their jobs when they spoke the harder ones? Is it possible that in our religious subcultures, where we are more familiar with the comforting and agreeable tone of His voice that a similar trade off has occurred? That trade being the priests (or pastor’s) job security for their comforting weekly installments of words from the bible? I have often wondered about the unspoken contracts established between pastors and parishioners in light of 2 Timothy 4:3. Note: The formation of these unspoken contracts is an aspect of codification. The sum of them form the essence of the religious subcultures we live in.
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Note: It is my personal experience and observation that when spoken, words of discipline can initially impress our insecure hearts as judgement because we incorrectly think God is mad and disappointed with us, when in fact, His love is strong and consistent, always working in each moment to draw us deeper (individually and corporately) into the realities of His abundant LIfe. Whatever it takes; we must have the bedrock value in our hearts (and in our communities) that God is good. He is so so good. Discipline comes from the most fond and jealous parts of God’s heart. I recall that our children were never so affectionate with my wife and I than after a session of discipline where they had received that spanking that was so painful yet critical for us to deliver.
The challenge. His Word may feel anything but comfortable as it is shaking the foundations we have built from comfortable yet incomplete notions about God which have excluded fathery discipline. True spiritual fathers do not withhold words of correction. Authentic fathers are secure enough to withstand the pushback and fallout of sharing a full gospel that includes words which are not accomodating to our flesh (including religious flesh). Because of the cycles of correction, brokenness and restoration the Lord has initiated in their own lives, true spiritual fathers can speak with genuine authority regarding the love of God. Because they have endured in these seasons with God they have tasted of his love and the goodness. In the process they have received a piece of their kingdom inheritance early; their identities in Christ, a foundation that is not dependent on the approval of man. The absence of this foundation is the source of a thousand woes. It is Christ in us, who is the hope of glory.
Learning by faith, that behind the scene of our messy lives, in our triumphs, our failure and even in our sin, the Holy Spirit (the breath and essence of God’s Life, who lives in us) has things on track for those who press on. We learn as we go that there are new fresh words for different phases of our journey and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
Thank You Father for Your voice that it is being heard in Your written Word and in Your Spirit. May it be said of us, that we lived in a time when you were raising up spiritual fathers and Your voice was being heard more frequently throughout the earth. May we learn to recognize it when You speak. May we become consecrated to you; predisposed to obey when you do. May it be said of us that we had ears to hear and that we learned to worship You both in Spirit and in Truth. Amen.