Mensa Otabil - Grace Finds Us
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This week we start a new study, and we’re going to consider the call of Samuel into his ministry. It’s a very important study that I believe will speak to you.
First Samuel chapter 3, verse 1: Now the boy Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation. This is how we are introduced to this phase of Samuel’s life. Samuel was a gift that God gave to his mother Hannah in response to her faith, and she, in turn, gave him as a gift to the Lord. Samuel is a gift that God gave, which was given back to the Lord. When we consider the calling of Samuel, we see the grace of God in abundance.
The first place where we see the grace of God is the role he is playing. The passage says he ministered to the Lord before Eli. In those days, the people who ministered to the Lord or before the Lord were the Levites. They had to come from the tribe of Levi or from the family of Aaron to be a priest. Samuel is not a Levite, and neither is he from the Aaronic tribe. Samuel is from the tribe of Ephraim, of which there is no mention of a priesthood. And yet, Samuel is in the house of the Lord; ministry is a demonstration of God’s grace.
It is remarkable that God is able to take somebody who is not qualified, who is outside the rules, who does not fit at all, and make them fit. So this boy, who is a gift to God, has been qualified by God; he’s been trained, and he’s ministering to the Lord. That’s the first thing you see about Samuel.
The second thing you see about this passage is the spiritual state of Israel, the world in which Samuel is operating. The passage describes the spiritual condition of Israel as the word of God being rare in those days. That phrase does not mean that God was not speaking, but that there was nobody hearing what God was saying. People were not sensitive to God. Eli, the priest himself, had become old and disengaged spiritually; his children were committing atrocities in the temple. The nation was in disarray, and Samuel was serving God.
In other words, although he was in this very confused situation, his spirit was kept for the Lord. It’s very possible for you to be in a place where everybody is messing up, and yet you do not mess up. So much was going wrong around Samuel, but so much was also going right in Samuel’s life. He is a person who understood that he is doing what he is doing by grace, not by heredity or by right. He doesn’t have a sense of entitlement or privilege; he just knows he is not supposed to be here, but God has included him.
If the people who are supposed to be here are messing up, he dares not mess up because he has a purpose for why God has brought him here. That’s what I want you to understand: that sometimes God can qualify the disqualified; God can include the excluded; God can bring in people that everyone will shun or everyone thinks don’t have what it takes to make it. I don’t know how people have categorized you; maybe they think that you don’t have what it takes, but God’s grace can reach out to you.
So grace finds us wherever we are, and may the grace of God find you wherever you are. May God capture you for His purposes and for His glory.
Let’s pray together. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, thank you for your grace that is able to locate me wherever I am. Help me to serve you with a pure heart. In Jesus' name, Amen.»
Well, that’s the beginning of our study. I’ll continue tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom. Peace and life to you.