Beth Moore - The Art of Showing Up - Part 1
You may be seated and turn with me to 1 Samuel chapter 3. I'm going to get you camping at chapter 3, but we're going to glance back at 2 for just a moment, talk about the unfolding of what's happening in 1 Samuel. Because we're going to see that 1 Samuel is going to put us in the soil, in the timeframe in the history of Israel, where the seed that is going to come forth through the scriptures, the seed of God's Word, is planted and where our whole concept is going to grow up. So we're going to see it unfold from these passages.
Now let me tell you a little bit about what's happening here. We're in a time period in the kingdom calendar or in the agenda of God that is laid out in the scriptures. We're in a midpoint in Israel's history. So it's been about a thousand years from the call of Abraham and would be about a thousand years until the birth of Christ. So that's the point at which we catch up with those that we'll see on the page in the opening chapters of 1 Samuel. So it's a time period that is described at the very end of the book of Judges when it says, "And people just did what was right in their own eyes". This is the period of the judges. We're going to meet Samuel in a moment, and he's going to be the last judge in this period of judges. We've gone from the patriarchs, we've gone with Joshua into the conquest.
They've divided up in the allotments of the tribes all over Israel, and we're seeing what has taken place, that they no longer really operate as one people, but they now operate in tribes. They're separated by their land allotments, and they just do whatever they want. Now the judges rise up and they bring leadership and authority, be it good or disastrous. They bring it at times when there is an enemy, a common enemy, against Israel which makes them unified to some extent under that judge and under that leadership. But beyond that, they're just all doing their own thing. And I just want you to think with me for a moment, what is that like when we just do whatever comes next to us?
Whatever we want to do, whatever we feel like doing, whatever we crave doing, where people just do what is their in their own eyes. And what happens in those pages and what happens in that period of years is absolute anarchy in every way. Because somehow they have lost touch with the central truths of their covenant and who God called them to be and they're just being whoever they want to be. And that's the thing, it's the paradox of being completely self-absorbed is that the more we fold into ourselves, the more we try to just give ourselves to every craving, every yearning, anything we want, regardless of what it does to anybody else, that the more we do that, the more and more barren we become.
And so the book unfolds, 1 Samuel chapter 1 and goes into chapter 2 and then we see it in chapter 3. The book unfolds with a whole theme of barrenness. It's showing us the idea of barrenness in the woman by the name of Hannah who desires to have children so desperately and is unable to have them and she prays for a child and God gives her that child and she names him Samuel. We'll meet him more in just a moment. So it puts us on the page of Hannah's barrenness, but that is not where it stops, because what it immediately shows us is that this particular people of God has become barren. That spiritually, they are completely barren. And here's what I want to say to you as we look at it. And this is part of the beauty of our God. There's nothing like barrenness to make God want to birth something.
You'll see it over and over and over. Genesis with Sarah, see it all the way through the scriptures, all the way to the Gospel of Luke with Elizabeth, a woman past the years of childbearing. There's just nothing like a time of barrenness. So I wanna say to you, if you come here this weekend and your life, your soul, your heart just feels barren, you may be in exactly the right place. Because it may be that God is just about to birth something brand new in you, and brand new in me. Barrenness, not only Hannah's, but the sanctuary's.
Now I want you to glance for just a moment with me to 1 Samuel chapter 2. 1 Samuel chapter 2. I want to start reading with you at verse 12. At verse 12. Now chapter 1 is what? That's going to be where Hannah is deeply distressed because she can't have children. It also happens to be that her husband has one wife too many. I'm just going to tell you that that causes a problem every single time. I've never seen that work well, not one time. And she's just like a birthing machine. And then there's Hannah who can't conceive. She goes to the sanctuary, she prays, pours her heart out. The priest thinks that she's drunk. He reprimands her and she says, "I'm not drunk, I'm pouring my heart out before the Lord," and wishes so much to have a child. He said, "May God give you what you've asked".
And off she goes. Well, God does. And the baby Samuel is born and she dedicates the baby to the Lord and says, "When he is of age, I will take him to the sanctuary in Shiloh," and we'll be introduced to Shiloh in just a moment, "and I will let him be raised there". Now I'm gonna tell you something. If it were me, he just never would get old enough, isn't that the truth? Like, that's what I call college, when you're old enough, when you're old enough. When there's one too many adults in the home and it's like, "Go, go. Go with God, go, go".
But I want you to hear the kind of life he walks into. Because there's something I want you to picture with me this weekend, and it's when we're pure of heart, or someone you know, maybe a niece or nephew, a sister or brother, someone you know, perhaps you, that were, I mean, pure of heart and went into work at a particular place of ministry, went to study theology, all the things that you, I mean, you went with a heart that was so pure and when you got there what you began to see was perversion of every possible kind. And so she has entrusted her son into a situation where theology has just become a game.
I want you to pick up with me, 1 Samuel chapter 2, verse 12. So it says this: "Eli's sons," now Eli is the priest at this time. "Eli's sons were wicked men; they did not respect the LORD or the priests' share of the sacrifices from the people. When anyone offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling and plunge it into the container, kettle, cauldron, or the cooking pot, and the priest would claim for himself whatever the meat fork brought up. This is the way they treated all the Israelites who came there to Shiloh. Even before the fat was burned, the priest's servants would come and say to the one who was sacrificing, 'Give the priest some of the meat to roast, because he won't accept boiled meat from you, only raw.' If that person said to him, 'The fat must be burned first; then you can take whatever you want for yourself,' the servant would reply, 'No, I insist that you hand it over right now. If you don't, I'll take it by force!'"
Verse 17: "So the servants' sin was very severe in the presence of the LORD, because the men treated the LORD's offering with contempt. Samuel," so this is contrasting him, "he served in the LORD's presence, this mere boy was dressed in a linen ephod". I want you to see it with me. 1 Samuel 2:12 through 18 introduces us to the place name of Shiloh. Now, Shiloh was established after the conquest when they came in and took the land and they had come in to the place of promise and then they had all their allotments where they met to receive their allotments. So all the people came together at a place called Shiloh. Shiloh, it was about, I think I have it written down here, about 30 miles north of Jerusalem.
And so it became, because it was the place they gathered and were given the allotments for their tribes and their land. It became the central place. It became the place where they brought the tabernacle, the tent of meeting that they had traveled with all through the wilderness. It was where they brought it and settled it at this place called Shiloh.
Now the place name "Shiloh" means tranquility. It also means security. It means to be secure. To be secure. So it didn't matter to them at this point in Israel's history how impure their worship had become. They felt that since the sanctuary was there and God would not leave the presence of that place and of that ark, that they could do whatever they wanted because there was really no getting rid of him. It would be somewhat like us going if we put a cross up in front of our house, or we put a cross up in front of a church, or we put a cross up in front of a ministry, we could do what we wanted in there because we're just covered by the cross. We would know that was a distortion of the grace of God, and that's what was happening there.
Would y'all go with me to Jeremiah chapter 2? It's gonna be worth your trip. Reason why I'm taking you here is because it's going to compare the state that the people of God are in, the Judahites, the Jewish people are in in Jeremiah's day when he tells them you are about to be taken captive. You have been told by God over and over again to renounce your idolatry and to renounce your wicked ways. And he told you again and again, if you don't, another enemy is going to come and take you captive and you will be taken from your homeland. And of course that's exactly what happened. But the reason why it's significant for us to look at Jeremiah, listen, I've got you in Jeremiah 2, stay there.
But listen to Jeremiah 7:12 through 14: "But return to my place that was at Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first. See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. Now, because you have done all of these things, this is the LORD's declaration, and because I've spoken to you time and time again but you wouldn't listen, and I have called to you, but you wouldn't answer, what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that bears my name, the house in which you trust, that place that I gave you and your ancestors. I will banish you from my presence, just as I banished all your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim".
So here's what he's saying. What is about to happen here at this temple that you think is your safety and security no matter how you live, no matter how you defy everything God has called you to, and how he has called you to love people, to love God, and to love your neighbor. Because you have forsaken that, you think you're just gonna be safe because you can go hide yourself in this temple and here's him, he says, I'm gonna do the same thing with you right here that I did in Shiloh with that disobedient people that would not listen. That's the comparison.
Now Jeremiah chapter 2 says the most interesting thing. I just can't get enough of it. I've returned to this about, oh, a dozen times over the last year. I came upon it, it's just because I have a different translation. Every time I change to a different formal translation, I love that, because something will just read a little bit differently and all of a sudden it has my fresh attention.
And so I guess somehow in the wording of it, it fell on me in a new way, but it says in Jeremiah 2, it says, I'm reading in verse 1: "The word of the LORD came to me: 'Go and announce directly to Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: I remember the loyalty of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of his harvest. All who ate of it found themselves guilty; disaster came on them.' This is the LORD's declaration. Hear the word of the LORD," this is verse 4, "house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel. This is what the Lord says: What fault did your fathers find in me that they went so far from me, followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves"?
Look at verse 6, because this is where I'm driving. "They stopped asking, 'Where is the LORD who brought us from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, through a land of drought and darkness, a land no one traveled through, where no one lived?' I brought you to a fertile field to eat its fruit and its bounty, but after you entered, you defiled my land; and you made my inheritance detestable. And the priests quit asking, 'Where is the LORD?' The experts in the law no longer knew me, and the rulers rebelled against me. And the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols".
All right, listen. Turn back with me to 1 Samuel chapter 3 and sit tight for a moment and let me explain to you what's going on here if it's not already clear. So what's happening is that they are at a time when he's going, "You know what? I have all but departed you. And you don't even know it. Nobody's even awake enough to go, 'Where is the Lord? Where is the Lord?'" You know why we're so at risk of this now? And this is not, listen, this is not condemnation, this is not fussing of any kind. I don't, for all I know, the Lord is more present in this area of the country than any place I ever serve.
So please don't take this. This is not something that I know that I'm saying to you. This is something that the Word of God is saying can happen to any of us anywhere. But the reason why I'm saying we're so at risk of it today is because today we have all the things that could imitate how the Spirit works. You understand what I'm saying? And please don't misunderstand me because I love the lights, I love the videos, I love the words on the screen, I love music, and I love moving music. But I'm simply saying, can we do it so well now that we think, "Well, that looks like the Holy Spirit to me". Is anyone discerning enough to go, "Excuse me, where is the Lord? Where is the Lord"? Because we should really be seeing the Lord move in our midst and moving some obstacles and making some ways in the wilderness.
And this is a God that does wonders for his people. And where is the Lord? He said, "Not even your priests are asking, 'Where is the Lord?'" So connect back to 1 Samuel chapter 3 and 4 because that's exactly the climate that this particular book opens in. Nobody is going, "Where is the Lord"? They're just hiding behind the fact that, well, the tabernacle's here. We got the tent. So the tent means we've got the Lord. We say the same thing: "We got the ministry, we got the church, we got this, we got this committee, we got all these things. So we've got the Lord". And he said, "I'm going to tell you something. I cannot be imitated in any way that you can come up with. There is an anointing that cannot be counterfeited". And he says, "Learn to be a people who discern well enough to know when I am present and when I am absent".
Now I want you to look with me at 1 Samuel 3:1 through 10: "The boy Samuel served the LORD in Eli's presence. In those days the word of the LORD was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread. One day Eli, whose eyesight was failing, was lying in his usual place. Before the lamp of God had gone out, Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was located. Then the LORD called Samuel, and he said, 'Here I am.' And he ran to Eli and said, 'Here I am; you called me.' 'I didn't call,' Eli replied. 'Go back and lie down.' So he went and lay down. Once again the LORD called, 'Samuel!' Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, 'Here I am; you called me.' 'I didn't call, my son,' he replied. 'Go back and lie down.'"
This sounds like a lot of your Saturday mornings, doesn't it, if you have a lot of kids? And so the lamp was to burn, and we find this in Exodus. We find it in a couple of different places, but particularly Exodus. It talks about how to set up the tabernacle. We would find out that the lamp was to burn, it was to have enough oil to burn all night long. So when it says, "just before the lamp went out," that would have been morning. So it's just almost morning. And that's just the time before your alarm goes off that you do not want to be awakened. Isn't it the truth? Like, "I had a few more minutes. I had a few more minutes. Go back to bed. I did not call you".
Verse 7: "Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, because the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. Once again, for the third time, the LORD called Samuel. He got up, went to Eli, and said, 'Here I am; you called me.' Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the boy and he told Samuel, 'Go and lie down. And if he calls you, say, "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening".' So Samuel went and lay down in his place. And the Lord came and stood there and called as before, 'Samuel, Samuel!' Samuel responded, 'Speak, for your servant is listening.'"
This is Samuel, who comes on the scene as a child in what is considered by them to be the sanctuary or the house of God. Everything has been turned upside down and the last thing he is seeing is the reality of the theology of God lived out among the people but he does not know the Lord yet because the Word of the Lord has not yet been revealed to him. And so there's thought, there's all sorts of symbolism going on here, more than we have time to discuss, but it's so gorgeous and I want you at least get a thought of it, that Eli is losing his sight and the lamp is just about to go out. And so visions were rare, and a word from the Lord was just extraordinary and hardly ever happened. And so you get this feeling of time's almost out. You get this feeling of it's getting darker and darker and darker, and you got one little flickering place in all of this darkness, and who, who, who will hear from the Lord?
So there's some thought, because Eli's place would normally have been the one closest to where we see Samuel positioned near the ark. But instead, it's Samuel there and probably because Eli does not have strong vision. So it's Samuel in that place. Now all sorts of things are going on here because Samuel's name, it could mean a couple of things, but that transliteration, SM, from that comes words like Shema, words that mean to hear. And the El, the E-L on the end of it, that's God. And it is a word that means "God heard".
So God heard Hannah's prayer. But he's going to give Samuel the ability to hear from God. So it's a wordplay all over the place. And that light, the light of revelation is about to come back if there's someone who will listen. He'll become the last judge of the people Israel, but also he's gonna serve as a prophet and a priest. He is the key figure that is the bridge over from the time of the judges to the time of the monarchy. He'll be the one that will anoint Saul and then David. Okay, so the phrase, "Here I am," it's from the Hebrew transliteration, "Hineni".
And it's comprised of two words: hineh, which is a very, very common word. But when that word has the suffix with it of E-N-I, it goes from hineh to hineni. To hineni. And at the point where the suffix comes in, it is translated not just behold or not just look, but behold I'm here. I'm here. We're going 7 different places in the scriptures where we see in divine dialogue, where we see some individual respond to God with, "Here I am, here I am". I've wanted to teach on it before. I've been intrigued by it for a while because I felt that's such a profound thing. But I just waited. I wait until it lands for a particular conference and then I was absolutely certain it became this one.
And I want you to know this is what's messing with me. This call to be fully and completely present before the Lord. Focused. Because if this culture has done anything at all to us, it has stripped us of our focus. Our ability to be anywhere where we are totally there. Am I speaking to anybody? This is gonna be the lesson that we have before us, is this concept, this idea of, "Here I am". Not a simple statement of location, but a statement of presence. It would be like a roll call. Someone say, your teacher's saying your name and you're going, "Present". To be present and accounted for. What would happen if we were completely present? What would happen if we just let God be God over everything else that we cannot control?