Waiting…Unemployed…the Time is Right - Observations from 1 Samuel 3:1-20

34th in a series on how men and women in the Bible 

deal with waiting, disappointment and unemployment

Waiting…Unemployed…the Time is Right

Observations from 1 Samuel 3:1-20

How long have you been unemployed or underemployed?  How have you used your time in this interim period? In Career Prospectors we talk a lot about what we do with this new free time and offer all kinds of volunteer opportunities to teach social media classes, help set up the Career Expo, attend networking meetings and more.  We want to be able to concretely answer that question about that gap in our unemployment.  

I happen to be an expert in this field.  Since I brought my family back from Cameroon in 2011, I have worked on a farm, in a mental health hospital, started my own business, volunteered at Career Propectors, pastored a church, worked with an inner city ministry and now in the retail world.  I am convinced that God has called me to be a pastor and throughout all these career moves I have striven to minister to people wherever I find myself.   

The context of 1 Samuel 3 is a time when Israel was not being well shepherded by the religious leaders.  The priest Eli and his sons were either neglectful or abusive, thus setting a poor example for the people.  But God was on the move.  In the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, there was a time when all of Narnia was under a curse and the earth was cold, frozen and barren.  As a thaw began the creatures of the land could tell something was happening and they attributed it to the great Lion, Aslan.  A rumor went throughout the land, “Aslan is on the move.”

A commentator states, “God will never leave himself without a witness nor his church without a guide.”  Maybe you have experienced your own time of wilderness or have wondered where God was as you went through a very difficult time.  You are not alone.  Biblical history reminds us that many times God seemed to withdraw His hand.  Think of the four hundred years that Israel was in Egypt or the twenty five years that Abraham had to wait until Isaac was born.  But was God ever absent?  Absolutely not!  Romans 5:6 states, “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.”  

The Bible reminds us that God’s timing is perfect.  When Lazarus was dying, He chose to stay away.  2 Peter 3:8 reminds us, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: “With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.”  So, as Israel was floundering under Eli’s leadership, God was actively working through Elkanah and Hannah as they produced a son.  A son they named Samuel who would become a great prophet starting at a very early age.

1 Samuel 3:1 says, “In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions.”  Out of the blue, God speaks to the boy Samuel and he is guided in hearing the Lord’s voice by Eli.  But what a terrible vision.  God entrusted to a small child the judgment on Eli’s family.  A vision that Samuel was not anxious to repeat.  The Scriptures say, “Samuel lay down until morning and then opened the doors of the house of the Lord.” He was afraid to tell Eli the vision.

A commentator states, “God did not come to him now to tell him how great a man he should be in his day, what a figure he should make, and what a blessing he should be in Israel. Young people have commonly a great curiosity to be told their fortune, but God came to Samuel, not to gratify his curiosity, but to employ him in his service.”

Eli had a unique way of getting the information out of Samuel, “Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.” When Samuel tells Eli everything God had told him, Eli could have whimpered and complained but instead he said, “He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes.”  

Are we as willing to accept God’s will?  Do we believe that God is good so that anything that He allows will come to benefit me and the world around me?  Even if presently the waiting seems unbearable or the disappointment excruciating or the period of unemployment debilitating?

As you can see I am using my time writing this blog that I use weekly in a Bible study for those who are under or unemployed. I meet with people in Career prospectors who are asking hard questions about life.   I also meet weekly with several men to study Scripture, hold each other accountable and plan for the future.  And I have made my handyman skills known and take on occasional jobs.  As I said, I know God has called me to be a pastor and I am using the gifts He has given me to serve in anyway I can.

Application points:

1. How are you spending your time if your are in a period of waiting or unemployment?
2. Have you experienced periods of silence from God?  How have you handled it?
3. Like Samuel, have you listened intently for God’s voice and been willing to say, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”  Suggestion:  In order to effectively do this we need to shut off our devices in order to have clear thinking.  
4. When you have experienced difficult times or times of discipline for mistakes or errors you have made, what has been your attitude?  Can we say with Eli, “It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good.”(Sometimes the King James sounds cool.)

Look forward to what God is going to do and 

imagine hearing this….

And the Lord said to Samuel: “See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. 

1 Samuel 3:11