[AI translation] Having already spoken to our children and youth, it remains for us to receive and understand God's message to the adults present through the same Word. We do not know how young Samuel was, and we do not know how old Eli was. But in any case they belonged to two different generations. And if so far we have been examining the Word through Samuel, the younger generation, let us now put ourselves in the perspective of Eli, the older generation, and hear the Lord's message from there.We read, "The Lord said to Samuel, and he said, 'Here I am.'" (1 Sam 3,4) Three times the word of the Lord is repeated, and the child Samuel hears it so clearly and distinctly that he immediately responds, but old Eli hears nothing of it. And yet they were both lying in the temple, in the temple was their home, and yet when the Lord spoke, Samuel heard, and Eli did not! And he was the high priest, an old servant of the Lord. He knew more of the things of God, had experienced more of life, and yet he did not hear what the child heard. Eli slept while the Lord talked with Samuel. Immediately here is the very first question of the Word to us, behold, it reads: In your house, to whom does the Lord usually speak? Who is in a speaking relationship with Him? Who hears his voice, who listens to him: the older generation or the younger? Does this question also mean who reads the Bible in your home, who keeps the relationship between God and the family: you, the adults, the fathers and mothers - or your children? It is often the case today, as we see here, that the younger ones shame the sleeping old ones. They live side by side, under the same roof, and yet they walk in two separate worlds. The young see visions and hear voices, like Samuel, and the old dream only dreams, like Eli!
We read that "Eli slept in his usual place". It is also possible for someone to have his usual place in the temple, and there, in his usual place, he sleeps in the temple! He sleeps while the Lord speaks to those who are awake and listening! Is he speaking to you, have you awakened to his voice, or are you wondering at those who have heard the voice of the Lord? Do you know that there is an awakening among young people throughout the country? Children's hearts are being opened to Jesus Christ, young men and women are recognising and accepting Jesus as their Saviour. Perhaps your children already know what repentance and forgiveness of sins are, what that one necessary thing is. Have you not fallen behind them, are you not still asleep? Are you walking with God's awakening people? Oh, if there is already someone with you, my Brother, whom the Lord has spoken to, like Samuel, do not send him back to sleep as Eli did, but take his hand, be still together before the Lord, and wait together, listen together, ask together, that he may speak again and call you, together!
It is recorded of little Samuel that "he did not yet know the Lord, for the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him" (1 Samuel 3:7). He thought it was a human voice, but it was the voice of God. What a common mistake of the human soul! How many times does it happen that God calls, God speaks through His Word, and we take it to be the word of the man who proclaims the Word, the mediator, and we respond accordingly. How many times God speaks through the guidance of His providential grace, and we see only the unfolding of events, not God shaping events! Always and in everything, God speaks, God approaches, God speaks, but we do not recognize His voice! How terrible that the Lord should speak to Samuel three times, and the old, more experienced Eli still does not wake up to the miracle. Instead of enlightening the child, of opening his eyes to see the miracle, to notice the grace, to recognize the word of the Lord - instead he reassures the child that nothing has happened, he must have been dreaming, let him go to sleep! There was the great opportunity, for the child had not yet known the Lord, only by hearsay. Now he could have known it, if someone had helped him to recognize that the Lord had spoken to him! Three such opportunities were missed by Eli. It was God's grace that he repeated the call for the fourth time!
Can you tell me how many times you have missed a particularly good opportunity to speak to your child about the Lord? So many questions a child can ask his mother or father. So many reasons for a child's soul! But a parent with a non-sleeping soul could make great use of them to open his child's eyes to the glory and grace of the Lord! But it is more comfortable, is it not, to send the unthinking child to sleep? There are things that happen in every family every day that the Lord would speak if a parent would take the trouble to talk it over with their child. An illness in the family, or a joy, a birthday: all are occasions when the Lord speaks personally to the one who hears His word! Do we, as wise adults, know that our children live in a world of miracles, closer to the world in which the invisible world of God is real? For Jesus said, pointing to children, that such are the children of the kingdom of heaven! The child's soul is particularly suited and receptive to the miracles, messages and words of the Lord. But how awful it is when a little Samuel hears something in Sunday school or confirmation class, reads something in his Bible, and runs up to an old Eli with a wondering spirit, and then the cool, clever, sleepy Eli explains to the child that he was dreaming, that he should just go back to sleep and go back to sleep! Oh, how many times we cool a child's waiting for a miracle with our adult, sober cleverness! We are not able to understand what goes on in the soul of a child! What a grace of the Lord that among us, soberly wise, sleepy adults, there are children whom the Lord speaks to again and again!
Old Eli did give the child Samuel some good advice after all. He said: "When the voice speaks again, answer thus: "Speak, Lord, for your servant hears" (1 Sam 3:9). She gave him advice that he could use for the rest of his life. Could you give the right advice if your child came to you with a spiritual problem? Would you know what to do if your child had such confidence in you that he revealed to you the sins he was struggling with, the problems that were troubling him? Could you give him advice that he could really use, that would help him to a solution, that would bring him before the Lord? Could you take your child by the hand and lead him in prayer to the throne of grace? Could you reveal to him what the blood of Christ means to a sinful heart? And would he accept your counsel? Are you an authority before your adult children in spiritual matters of faith? Do they not already know you too intimately, so that your advice is not even sought, your opinion not even asked? Are you an influence on those at home? Or has there long been no spiritual atmosphere in which your children's hearts can be opened to you? Or have they long since ceased to turn to you with questions of the heart, but to a stranger? But many an omission, many a missed opportunity, many a wasted chance, many a word and deed misplaced - so many many sins are on our souls, even in relation to our children alone!
Terrible is the judgment of the Lord against the house of Eli: "The iniquity of the house of Eli shall never be blotted out, neither by blood, nor by meat offering." (1 Sam 3:14) But what of the deceitfulness of our house? Is there any sacrifice that can wipe it out? Behold, there were sins for which Old Testament sacrifices, blood sacrifices and grain offerings could not bring cleansing, atonement. But the New Testament blood sacrifice cleanses us from all sin!
Brothers and sisters, younger and older generation, hear this word of God! That is, that there is forgiveness for all sins, because the Lord has put all our sins on the Lord Jesus! And though the iniquity of the house of Eli shall never be blotted out, yet by the blood of Christ all the iniquities of your house and mine shall be blotted out freely and with grace! Come, let us therefore put our house and our family life under this holy blood. Old and young, let us implore ourselves to the Lord's forgiving, renewing grace!
Amen
Date: 24 September 1950 (evening).