Think Wink.

Today I was continuing my journey through 1 Samuel, reading through the monarchy of Israel and Judah. In today’s reading, Samuel is called, God enacts his oracle of judgment upon Eli’s house, and Philistines stole the ark from Israel after demonstrably winning a battle. Quite the exciting read if you ask me. My mind though, kept going back to Samuel’s call. I keep asking myself, what did that voice sound like?

I named the post “La Voz” which means “the voice” in Spanish. It’s the name of the villain in the amazing Denzel Washington movie, Man on Fire. You never see the villain, you only hear his voice–with the exception of his jaw and mouth. But it’s the voice that I am curious about in this passage.

Imagine being Samuel. You’re laying in bed and all of a sudden you hear your name being called. Did it sound like Eli’s voice? Is that why Samuel thought it was Eli calling him those three times? Or was Samuel so tired that he only assumed it was Eli but the voice sounded like someone or something else?

I think of the recently released Denzel Washington flim, Book of Eli. In that movie, Washington plays the character Eli. Eli has been called by “God” to escort the King James Version of the Bible from some unknown location to the west coast, namely Alcatraz in San Fransisco, CA. Near the mid-way part of the movie Eli is joined by Mila Kunis’ character, Solara. The movie slows down to provide some backstory to try to answer the questions that the audience most definitely has at this point in the film.

What really stood out to me, other than the fact that this scene really told me some comic book company needs to get the ball rolling on filling in the time gap given there is 30 years of wandering by Eli in between his call and the movie, was hos Eli describes the call. I can’t reproduce the conversation word-for-word as it’s been a couple of weeks so the following is my best.

Eli to Solara: I heard a voice, coming from inside of me. But was as loud and as real as yours right here. It told me that if I would go and find this book and take it west, it would protect me.

I wonder if that’s what Samuel experienced in 1 Samuel 3? Was it a voice that came from inside of him, sounding like Samuel, and just as real as if someone was standing right there in front of him?

This makes me wonder about my fellow Baptist brethren in particular, and Western Christians in general (obviously not the more charismatic types), why are we so skeptical of such calls? Why do we always want to question the authenticity of someone who receives such an audible call to the ministry? They heard a voice as real as the voice of their friend or spouse or child that told them to go perform a service. Some will argue that it’s too subjective and could be Satan or a demon playing with the minds of someone. But I am starting to believe that this still confirms the notion that we need to start taking these audible “calls” more seriously and not be as skeptical of them. Why can’t the Holy Spirit still talk to us today?

And isn’t the church here to help the hearer to know who it is that is calling? Isn’t that what Eli does for Samuel? Samuel thinks it’s Eli. After the third trip into Eli’s room, Eli now knows what is going on. So Eli tells Samuel to understand that it is the God of Israel, the Creator, Yahweh and to answer as God’s servant. This call to the prophetic ministry for Samuel was interpreted by those whom God had already called. His fellow churchmen, specifically those in church leadership. Instead of telling the “Samuels” out there to ignore the voice, may be we in the church should try to discern who is speaking instead?

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