"But Samuel
ministered before the Lord, being a child... And the
child Samuel grew on, and increased in favour both with
the Lord, and also with men. And the child Samuel
ministered unto the Lord before Eli... And (Eli) said,
What is the thing that the Lord hath spoken unto thee? I
pray thee, hide it not from me... And Samuel grew, and
the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall
to the ground. And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba
knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the
Lord. And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh; for the Lord
revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the
Lord" (1 Sam. 2:18,26; 3:1,17,19-21).
Those fragments serve
to indicate the growth of Samuel, and bring us to the
matter of spiritual increase, enlargement, growth. The
marks are quite simple and yet quite fundamental.
"Before
the Lord"
"Samuel ministered
before the Lord, being a child." "Before the
Lord." Like Another even greater, he grew up before
the Lord, and it is
of far greater
importance than might be suggested by the little fragment
of three words. That is the first thing that must be true
of us - that our whole life is not lived before men but
primarily before the Lord; that there is always that
about us which speaks of an inner life before the Lord.
When we are alone, shut in our room with the Lord, then
everything is very pure. We know quite well that there
before Him there is no deception, there is no feigning
and pretending, there is no unreality. We know quite well
when we come into personal aloneness with the Lord that
everything artificial is stripped off. There we know that
we are seen through, we are thoroughly well known; we can
put on no camouflage, no disguises, in the Lord's
presence. There we are what we are, and we know it, and
we make no pretence about it. And this is something which
has got to be brought out in our lives when we come from
the secret place with the Lord - that everything is to be
as it is there before Him, as transparent, as clear, as
true, as unfeigned as it is in His presence; no pretence,
no makeup, no unreality, no false ways. We cannot be on
stilts or on a pedestal in the Lord's presence. When we
are with people we may put on a lot of things to cover
up, to make believe; we may become very artificial. Even
when we are praying in the presence of other people, we
can be anything but natural. We are so conscious of them,
and begin to preach to them in our prayer. We do not do
that when we are alone with the Lord, we do not make up
anything then. We are right down on the very bedrock of
what we are, a certain kind of naturalness; we cannot be
other than perfectly natural there. What we are as before
the Lord we have to be when we are with people in public
life. It is important, it is essential. You see,
anything put on amongst people, anything artificial, is
not our measure at all; it is a false measure, and it may
be holding us up in true spiritual life and growth.
"Samuel ministered
before the Lord." We might well take that for every
sphere and every hour of life. "Whatsoever ye do,
work heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men"
(Col. 3:23). God said to Abram, "...walk before
me..." That may be very simple in its terms, but it
is something which has to do with a ground work for
spiritual growth. People who are like that will go on,
will grow.
The rest of the
statement about Samuel is only fresh emphasis upon what
that means "being a child." The Lord
Jesus Himself put His finger upon that on one occasion.
His disciples, grown men, were talking about big things,
and high place; He took a little child and set him in the
midst and said, "Except ye turn, and become as
little children, ye shall in no wise enter into the
kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 18:3). 'This is the way to
enlargement. You are thinking about place, position,
influence; you are thinking big thoughts; you have big
ideas; but this is the way to true greatness - a little
child: no assumptions, no pretensions.' "Samuel
ministered before the Lord, being a child"; and
then, of course, you are not surprised that he "grew
on."
"Unto
the Lord"
Then the next thing -
"Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli."
If we could put ourselves in Samuel's place, we should
find that it was not easy for him in those days.
Remember, Hophni and Phineas, Eli's two sons, were there.
A most corrupt, base, iniquitous thing was happening, for
which eventually they were slain in the judgment of God -
a state of things utterly deplorable. Samuel might well
have become a cynic, he might have become bitter and sour
and critical. It is very easy when things are like that
to be cynical, to be disgusted, and to have no interest
in what we are doing, even though we ourselves are in no
way compromising with the evil. If we must be in it, we
simply do it because it is our job. Others involved in it
are wrong and corrupt; but the work has got to be done,
so without any interest at all, we just do it. But it
seems that Samuel closed his eyes to a very great deal,
and just kept them on the Lord, and his attitude was:
'All around me is very evil, very corrupt, but I am here
for the Lord; I am not doing this for the sake of these
people, nor just for the sake of keeping this thing
going; I am here, in the midst of it all, for the Lord.'
Thus was his spirit kept free from sourness and
bitterness and cynicism. "Unto the Lord." He
ministered not to Eli, and not to Hophni and Phineas, and
not to a mere procedure, to keep it going, but to the
Lord.
Remember, that is a
secret of growth. We may all have reason to say: 'There
is a good deal around me that I do not agree with and
which I am sure is contrary to what the Lord would have;
and a lot of people who are wrong and difficult around
me, even of those who are the Lord's. If I were to take
account of them I should give up and leave; but I am here
to live unto the Lord, I am only doing it for Him, and so
I intend to stay where I am.' That is a way of growth.
Eli was the embodiment of the religious order of his
time, he was in the place of authority and for the time
being had to be recognised as such, and Samuel was
submissive. He was not trying to oust Eli, nor to condemn
him; he was not all the time saying, 'This whole thing is
wrong, I have no place for Eli' - going about gossiping
and spreading reports about Eli. It is so easy to do
that; because you find something wrong at headquarters,
you can easily become disaffected and critical. Samuel
was submissive. Later, even when he did not agree with
the people's desire for a king, Samuel received
commandment from the Lord to go and anoint Saul, and he
obeyed, and afterward did all that he could to make it
easy for Saul to do the right thing and to fulfil his
mission. Samuel did not accept Saul, but he did not get
in his way; he did not spread evil reports about him. He
gave him a good chance. The attitude of Samuel to Saul is
wonderful. He has not accepted Saul, nevertheless he is
submissive for the time being to what has to be; and here
before Eli, in a like spirit, he takes the submissive and
subject position and ministers to the Lord. No wonder he
grew.
You will not grow if
you are observing the faults
and flaws and errors around you, especially in people who
are holding superior positions, and if you are talking
and spreading reports about them. The Lord will say,
"If... thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be
full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body
shall be full of darkness" (Matt. 6:22,23). Beware
of getting an evil eye on someone - it will stop your own
growth. Samuel did not eye Eli thus; he left Eli with the
Lord and himself went on with the Lord. Lay such lessons
to heart. Samuel ministered unto the Lord before Eli, in
subjection and in patience, waiting until the Lord took
steps to deal with that very difficult situation which
must have been eating into Samuel's soul every day. It is
our spirit that matters - purity, simplicity,
earnestness, reality. That is what it means to grow, and
to grow on.