The Development of a Man of God

Let's turn with me to 1st Samuel chapter 1. 1st Samuel chapter 1. I will read from chapter 1 and verse 1. Now there was a certain man of Rimetheam Zophim of Mount Ephraim and his name was Elkanah. The son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tolhue, the son of Zoph and Ephrathite, and he had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, the name of the other Peninah.

Peninah had children but Hannah had no children. This man went up out of a city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts in Shiloh and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord, were there. And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters portions, but unto Hannah he gave a worthier, a double portion.

For he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb. And her adversary or rival also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb. And as he, as she perhaps, as was done year by year, so she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her.

Therefore he, she, that is Hannah, went and did not eat. And said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah why weepest thou and why eatest thou not? And why is thy heart grieved? Am not I better to thee than ten sons? So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post in the temple of the Lord, and she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore.

She vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. Now in the chapter we find that she had a son, verse 20, she conceived and she bear a son and called his name Samuel C., because I have asked him of the Lord. Verse 24, and when she had weaned him, she took him up with her to a three bullocks and one eaf of flour and a bottle of wine and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh, and the child was young.

And they slew a bullock and brought the child to Eli. She said, O my Lord, as thy soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him.

Therefore also I have lent him, or I've made him be asked one to the Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord, and he or they perhaps worshipped the Lord there. On the chapter two, and we'll read from verse 11, Elkina went to Rema to his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest.

The sons of Eli were sons of Belial. Verse 18, but Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

Verse 21, the end of verse 21, and the child Samuel grew before with the Lord. Now Eli was very old and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel. Verse 26, and the child Samuel grew on, that was in favor both with the Lord and also with men.

Let's go down to the end of chapter three, just to draw on your memory and not to read too much for the sake of time. The end of chapter three, verse 19, and Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and he 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, and the word of Samuel came to all Israel.

Much more could be read, but we'll stop with that reading at this point. I have it on my mind to speak to you a little bit about the development of a man of God. That's exactly what Samuel was.

Faraday, in his book on Samuel, has called him the emergency man, God's emergency man. He's pointed out in that book that of the twelve men in our Bible that are called men of God, everyone was raised of God to meet a particular need, a very great condition that had to be addressed. The first one in our Bible that's called a man of God is Moses, at least four times addressed as a man of God.

And indeed he was a man raised of God who had been hearing for a definite purpose, a purpose of delivering God's people out of the bondage that existed down in the land of Egypt, and God used him in a mighty way. The last man in our Bible that's called a man of God is of course Timothy, and he was a man that was faced with a daunting task, and a great responsibility in view of the day in which he was being called upon to minister for God and to maintain truth for God. Indeed he was a man that God raised for a definite, distinct purpose.

And you can look up those twelve men or individuals in your Bible, some of them are only addressed as a man of God. They all have very distinct characteristics. They were all those who God could entrust with a great work to do and a great message, an important task.

And what I want to speak to you about this afternoon in view of the potential that lies in an audience like this is that God desires that you and I might be raised to be men and women of God. That's one of the great purposes I believe of our intercomming together is to seek to impart and to encourage and to challenge young as well as older ones, to recognize the claims that God has upon them, and to impart in your heart and mind at least in some measure a desire that you might respond from the very depths of your soul to that desire of God that he might have those that he can entrust with a work to do, a responsibility perhaps in a local sphere or in a wider sphere, whatever it might be. And the important things that you and I are those who would rise to the challenge, and that we would be those who would bear the responsibility in our day of testimony, and that we might be effective in our lives for God.

You know, brethren, God really saves us for a purpose. He saves us not only that he might take us to heaven one day to honor his name and to give praise and glory to him, but he wants to save you and me for the purpose of making us first of all worshippers, and then as well conforming us to the will of God in relation to the image of his Son, and to use us as instruments in his service here below. I want to think with you about four individuals that are in this story.

I think they exemplify for us different aspects of that which is necessary, or the environment out of which a man of God in this particular day was produced, and perhaps we can relate them to some in some measure to the experiences of our life here in this present day. What do you think with you first of all about this man named Eli, the high priest during that day? I might first of all say that Eli represents to me the degenerate conditions religiously, spiritually, and morally that existed in that particular period of time. I take it that Samuel, this first chapter of Samuel, takes place shortly or not very long after the death of Abimelech, back in the book of Judges.

You remember that man that desired to have a place of power, willing to execute his own brothers on one stone, the brutality of a man that would rise to power and to desire to have a place of authority, and how brief that lasted and what disastrous results came from it. I won't touch on that, but you can read about that. That only had taken place a short time before also in the hill country of Ephraim.

Then we find that about the same time that Eli is officiating as a judge and a high priest, we have the period of time when Jephthah rose to be a judge across the east of the River Jordan in the land of Gilead, defeated the Ammonites, and liberated the children of Israel, and what difficult days those were. As well we find in the southeast portion, southwest portion of Israel, there was this man Samson that was being used of God in his particular sphere, but there in between them all was a work of God being carried out right there in the hill country of Ephraim. Eli, I believe, was a good man.

Eli in many respects was a man that was reverent, a man that had a deep affection for the things of God, at least in a certain sense. He was a man who had great esteem for the ark of God and for preciousness of it. You remember what he heard had been taken, he fell over backwards and broke his neck.

We find that he was a man who represented in a genuine sense the responsibility of those that would have to maintain the truth of God in such conditions of a day, and yet he was a very weak man. He was a tender man, perhaps in some sense he was responsible to be a judge. We read that he judged Israel for 40 years, and yet it seemed like he could not judge his own sons, and he could not judge them in a right way in the house of God.

And he was a man that was responsible for the degeneration of what took place in the tabernacle that was connected with the name and the honor of God. We find that it says the Lord charged him with the fact that he knew his sons had made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. He mildly remonstrated with them, but he did not constrain them, he did not pressure them, he did not judge them, because there were two sons that were absolutely unfit for the priesthood.

We look at Eli's son, we find that they were men that were characterized by selfishness. There were men that were marked by greed, there were men that were marked by an irreligious act activity of disdain for the things of God. There were men that were in the religious activities of that day for their own profit, or for what they could get out of it.

Read that in chapter 2. Not only that, but they had degenerated in immorality as well. And so we read that the result was that it caused men in that day to have disdain for the house of God. We heard about the house of God this morning.

We find that men like this who were responsible for maintaining right principles and conditions in that house of God were those who caused the people in general to abhor it, to disdain it, and to not want to have anything to do with it. A terrible environment in which Samuel was born and brought in this world, a terrible existence, a reality of a degenerated condition that it brought such dishonor to the name of the one that was connected with the house. So that we find they were irreverent, they were selfish, they were immoral, and they were also disobedient.

What a bad background. And you wonder perhaps how could it be that out of such circumstances, out of such darkness, out of such despair, out of such a condition that existed in general among God's people, how could there ever be a man that would rise, that would be effective in any way to be used of God to draw them back, draw the people back unto God. Yet that was the place, that was the condition out of which Samuel arose.

You know there are brothers and sisters here you perhaps say well if you only knew my circumstances. If you only knew the conditions in which I've been growing up in, the background of my life, and the limitations that exist, and the awful influences that I've had in the past so far as my life is concerned, you would understand that I can't be anything for God. Just remember that's how Samuel grew up.

That's the environment in which he was raised of God, out of the morass and the vileness and the evil that exists on every hand. I see that picture of brothers and sisters of the day in general in which we live, which all around us there are men, not for all, not in a entire way, but in a general way that there are those who have no genuine reverence for the things of God whatsoever. A lack of appreciation for divine things.

Men perhaps that are involved in religious activity but what they can get out of it. Looking upon it as godliness is great gain. And so we have the terrible conditions out of which he was brought.

In fact it's interesting that when you look into chapter 2 that you find that there's an interplay between what took place in the life of Samuel and what existed in the environment around him. For instance you find in verse 11 that the child ministered unto the Lord and immediately following that you find that the sons of Eli what they did. In verse 18 you find again that the Samuel ministered before the Lord and then in verse 21 we find what the sons of Eli did.

And you find then that in verse 26 the child Samuel grew on and then we have a message that God sent by this man of God to Eli, pronouncing judgment upon his house because of his sons and what they were doing. So in contrast the environment in which he was living God saw a man that he could use eventually. You know dear brother God wants you and me to be a contrast for the general characteristic of this world.

You know we don't gain anything and we don't achieve anything for God by compromise with all that is so vile and contrary to the will of God. We do so by standing apart from it and being a testimony to it and seeking to do what is the will of God and to honor his name in our life day by day and to seek to please him as he gives us the enabling power to do so. Eli's house and the degenerate conditions of the day.

I want to think with you about Elkanah because in the midst of that environment we have a man like Elkanah who was evidently a Levite. It was a we believe a descendant Korah and so that he had great appreciation as the house of Korah did the family of the Korites did in relation to the house of God and he went up to the house of God year by year we read. He's a Levite of course and he never functioned in the tabernacle.

We don't even read about him sadly teaching the people what was right and good according to the law of God but perhaps he did. It seems very evident that he was a relatively prosperous man he had the two wives and he had property but I want to remark with you that Elkanah represents to my mind a faithful remnant during that period of time and here we have a man that despite the conditions that existed in the house of the Lord despite the sense he would have in his heart I I'm reluctant to go there I'm I'm reluctant to even bring myself and my family into that environment we read that it went up year by year to worship and the sacrifice into the Lord. You notice he didn't just go to sacrifice it wasn't just a matter of formality there was a man that went to the house of God to worship and he worshiped despite the terrible conditions that existed there because as I was not upon that awful environment he was as I was upon the one who dwelt in the house and the one that he came to occupy his heart with and yet while he went up year by year to worship and to sacrifice into the Lord it is remarkable about in the fact that he only went once a year because the Word of God instructed them that every male in the in the tribe and the nation of Israel was to be there three times a year so perhaps you were you finding Elkina a man that in some sense was being faithful in the midst of unfaithfulness and seemed to be faithful to God in the midst of conditions that existed all around and yet there was a measure of compromise in his life and perhaps we could have a little pity on the man because perhaps once a year was all he could he could make himself go because of the conditions that existed I don't know what's a wonderful thing to see that there are those among the environment of degenerate degeneracy and the conditions that are so irritating so oppressive so difficult it must have been terrible for anyone to go up to the house of the Lord of those days here's a man that went year by year it was his regular practice to go there that he might worship that he might sacrifice it of the Lord you come to the New Testament you find that the Lord Jesus even in the midst of the conditions that existed in the synagogue in his day he went up into the synagogue on a Sabbath day as his custom was and brethren there's such a thing as rising above circumstances there's such a thing as seeking to lift our hearts of minds to appreciate the fact that I can come before God in the capacity of a worshiper I can know what it is to enter this courts with Thanksgiving even though oftentimes things are not what they ought to be and you and I should seek to go on and faithfulness to him in the day of departure and a day of degeneration Elkina had two wives we know that that wasn't condemned yet the example of others that had gone before who had had two wives or other or more it seemed like every time there was a multiplicity of wives there are problems you find that perhaps this man had a second wife Penina because his first wife Hannah was unable to have a son unable to have children and so here he has a problem in his home but passing on beyond Elkina I want to think with you about this dear woman Hannah he touched she touches my heart because when you think of Hannah you think about a woman that was deeply exercised and she was greatly exercised before God about her barrenness I take it that there are seven barren women in the Bible could not have children until God gave them the ability to do so seems to be that makes illustrate to us the condition that is natural among men that so far as bearing anything for God is impossible without the power of God working in us we can't produce anything for God naturally and yet we find here is a woman that also represents to us the condition of the nation a nation of Israel the barren condition before him but I want to think about Hannah in a personal way we don't know how long Hannah had been longing to have a child the deep desire of her heart was to have a child and not only that but this rival Penina that had been introduced in the family having children she used that to provoke her to irritate her to cause great problems in her heart she's a woman that was deeply troubled she experienced the antagonism of one who she had to live with day after day but more than that she was deeply longing to have a child you know when I think of this dear woman in her barrenness the fact that she has no children but the fact that she was deeply concerned and exercised about this condition of unfruitfulness what a dear child of God how about you and me in our life is there any exercise about our barrenness the lack of producing anything for God in her life the lack of developing in growing spiritually and being being able to have something to present to him something that can give evidence to the fact of God working in our lives individually and personally wonder how much fruit there is in our life day by day maybe we look back over experience and perhaps some of us have been saved for many many years and the question should really cause deep exercise to our hearts like it did to Hannah to have a man child to have something to present to God you know dear brother or sister young people here today it should be your great desire from the very beginning to be able to give something in your life for God to be able to present something from God to have something that God produces within you and through you to give honor to his name and to give glory and praise to him she was she was not content just to live her life and to be bare you see Elkana was satisfied because he had sons wife and I know he had children but she had no child and because he was satisfied with his situation he had no sympathy for her she received no encouragement from her husband this dear woman it says she was in bitterness of soul she speaks to the Lord about her misery she speaks about the fact that her heart is stirred deeply within her and she's deeply concerned she's not satisfied to go on without something for God in her life may God help us dear brother sister to lead this conference with deep desires that there might be something that's a little something for God not for self not for self-promotion not to gain a place in this world but to have something to lay at the feet of our blessed Savior mainly of course she wants this child first of all initially I take it for her own benefit for her own enjoyment but it seems to me that Hannah got beyond that I would take it that Hannah got to the point where she saw the condition of that nation she saw the degeneration in the priesthood that she saw the conditions that existed all around her and she wanted a man-child for God she wanted to raise a son for God she wanted to produce something for God to use and so she cries out in this prayer in chapter 1 she cries out to the only one that can answer her cry Oh Lord of hosts that's in the first chapter you've that you find that title of the Lord in the Bible Oh Lord of hosts the Lord of armies the one that has all the power of heaven at his disposal he says Oh Lord of hosts if thou wilt indeed look upon the misery of thine handmaid and remember me and not forget thine handmaid but will give unto thine handmaid a man-child and I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life in other words she's recognized that the need the thing that this nation needed was a man to be raised for God have a child a man that could be used for God a channel for God to use and here she's lonely with all her heart that God will answer a prayer just understood by Eli but heard by the God of heaven God answered her cry you know dear brethren this exercise saint this dear woman had a spiritual understanding of truth when you read her prayer in chapter 2 she knew something to the character of God as you recognize the power of God and she knew what God was going to do leading unto the kingdom eventually she speaks about the king she was in the channel of God's mind and as she prayed she had confidence in God to answer her cry you know he and bounds wrote a number of books in the past number on prayer devotion if I remember correctly in bounds and one of his books said God doesn't need new methods he needs new men he doesn't need new means of doing things he doesn't need modern technology necessarily to accomplish his goals he needs new men he needs people that are renewed those that are devoted to him and dedicated to a service those are willing to yield everything they have and give the most precious thing to God and you know for a woman in that day her firstborn son would have been very very precious to her she said I'll give him to the Lord I'll raise him for God I'll use him for the I'll use the opportunity to prepare him for God to use in his life and God was going to raise a man a man that would be a different man a man that would be a man of God on that day a man that would stand for God in the midst of that condition of things God needs new men today he needs new women today he needs those that are willing to stand apart from the mainstream of society from the priorities that grip men's heart and mind and and keep them occupied and and moving according to a course of this age to just gain a place in life he wants those that have their eyes fixed upon heavenly things those that are occupied with seeking for that which is for the glory of God and for the blessing of God's people and so this woman says if I can receive just a man child I'll give him to the Lord it'd be the first fruit it'd be that which would express her devotion to the heart of to her God in heaven and she'd be glad to give him over that God might use him I don't know how long I've been up here I've been too long already I lost track of time let me just say a few things about this man of God about Samuel Samuel's a delightful man Samuel's one of the ones in our Bible with which we have no fault found so far as his life and service people found fault with him perhaps and we know he wasn't perfect but God doesn't point out any faults to this man's life if he could stand before the people at the end of his days and challenge them to charge him with anything that he'd done wrong and even though his sons didn't follow his steps he was a man that God used and Samuel was a man that began from the very beginning raised in that environment in that ungodly seed in that tabernacle but you notice that every time it mentions this man young man Samuel growing up there was always a relation to the Lord he ministered before the Lord he served under the Lord he was occupied with the Lord he was living in that environment with his eye and heart directed toward the Lord you find here that it begins in chapter 2 he ministered under the Lord before Eli the priest and we find him making progress in his life let me just say something very quickly about this man of God's development God didn't trust him with a great responsibility of going about as a young boy judging Israel in circuit like he did later on but he began to learn God to hear the voice of God you notice that when it comes to that experience in chapter 3 and I pass over much so far as Samuel's concerned but when he comes his experience in chapter 3 in the quietness of the night it says before the lamp of God had gone out of the tabernacle there he is lying there in the quietness and the stillness of the night and the voice of God comes to him Samuel didn't know the Lord yet he didn't recognize the voice of God when he spoke but three times over God continued to speak to him how patient God was he was going to instruct this young man so that it might hear his voice and be attuned to what God had to say to him we find that it says about him that the third time that he said speak Lord for thy servant here and what did he hear he heard a message of judgment that God was going to proclaim against the house of Eli I don't know how old Samuel was perhaps he was just a boy perhaps an early teenager I don't know how old he was but you say why did God first speak to Samuel and give him a message like that how could God entrust it a message that predicted the the doom of the house of Eli and give it in the hands of a young man like Samuel after all God had already spoken this Eli through the man of God that had been sent to him so it was a repetition of one sense but God was testing a young man to see if he would be faithful to his word he says listen here's what I'm going to do to the house of Eli because he has not restrained his sons and because he has not judged them he says I have told him that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which you know it because his sons made themselves vile and he restrained them not he remembered that in the mornings Eli called him to him but he says what did the Lord tell me you know Samuel had a deep affection for Eli he had grown up in that man's care and he had known that man as a father for all those years and here he is he's got to bring this message a message of doom and judgment to this high priest but God was testing him will he be faithful to discharge my word will he be faithful starting from this moment to receive that message from God even though it's difficult and convey it to the individual that needs to hear it and Samuel passed the test didn't he he was faithful to the Word of God and when I see the development of a man of God like this I see first of all there's progress in the presence of God there's an ear tuned to hear the voice of God and there's faithfulness to the Word of God not only faithfulness in his own life but faithfulness and God knew that he could trust this young man to bring his word directly without compromise without change without adulteration he could bring it to the people we find that it come to chapter 4 the word of Samuel went out to all Israel there's a young man that began from the time he was young to hear God's voice and to respond to it with an attitude that was willing to receive it as he develops that it grows that he makes progress God gives him more and more responsibility and God used that man you look at his life take time to examine the pattern that he set the righteousness of his life the pathway of obedience his faithfulness to God his willingness to stand for God and no matter what the individual might be whether Saul or or all the people find a young man that God used my point is simply this brethren God needs men like Samuel today some of us you know I've been God's assembly for 52 years saved more than that and I'm I think I would echo the words of many others who are of the same age or perhaps older we can only say we have one regret of anything that is we didn't begin from the very beginning to do it don't realize more completely to God the appeal of our hearts to young people here today is to begin right from the very first right from the moment you're saved to recognize Christ has a claim upon me I have a responsibility to hear his word and to respond to him to carry it out of my life and to live in obedience to it and approve yourself faithful to God that he can trust you with his word and they can use you in your life and service for him many years have been wasted I look back in my own life many opportunities passed by and yet I don't think that if I lived it over again I would do much probably wouldn't I probably make the same mistakes all over again wouldn't I I'm pretty sure of that but listen young man young woman as God's people today God needs you he needs you for the future he needs you for this day in which we live one day you're going to have to carry responsibility the Lord doesn't come one day there'll be a heavy load entrusted to you stand perhaps on a platform as a brother to speak God's word clearly plainly faithfully that teach God's people I hope you can do it better than we do what you need to prepare you need to make your life count for God need to recognize it despite the conditions that are passed that you have the present opportunity to use that life to devote it to the Lord Jesus seek to make something that will be honoring to his name out of that little lifespan that you have oh my God stir our hearts today may we have desires in our hearts to be like Samuel and devote our lives from the very beginning to him and to use every moment every opportunity we have to seek to serve him and to please him only one life will soon be passed only what's done for Christ will last