Ruth, 1 Samuel 1-3

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KINDNESS BEGINS WITH ME

ICEBREAKER

As an icebreaker to this week’s lesson, I like to ask my students to pull out their cell phones and either open up a news app on their phone, or in a web browser search the term, “current news” and see what pops up. Have some of them share the headlines they read. I can almost guarantee you that the vast majority of the headlines they share will be very negative, tragic, violent, or discouraging. I just did that myself right now and some of the headlines I read dealt with war, financial worries, political strife, and a devastating school shooting. That’s one of the reasons I don’t like to spend a lot of my time reading or watching the news. Maybe just enough to stay informed, but I try not to get wrapped up in it. It can be a very dejecting experience. But unfortunately, that is the kind of world we live in. An ugly, violent, and contention filled world.

TRANSITION

Well that reminds me a bit of the end of the Book of Judges. The end of the Book of Judges is very, very ugly. There’s more than one reason I believe it wasn’t included in the Come, Follow Me manual last week. One reason would be time constraints, but the other would be because of the content. The world of Judges is violent, hateful, idolatrous, and downright disturbing. The very last verse of the book is a fairly good summary of what Judges is all about. It says:

25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

In other words, everybody just thought about themselves and did their own thing. Order, morality, and benevolence were in short supply. The world of Judges is very self-centered, individualistic, and fierce. And that’s why I find the content of the book that immediately follow Judges so thought provoking. What book follows Judges? Ruth. And I don’t think that’s a coincidence.

It’s significant that it is against the brutal backdrop of Judges that we see the story of Ruth played out. Because the story of Ruth takes place some time during the reign of the Judges. We’re made aware of this in the very first verse of Ruth:

“Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled (Ruth 1:1) and the story begins.

The Book of Judges was all about “big, important people” doing “big, important things”. It speaks of wars, murders, political intrigue, and disaster. It’s focus is on “the celebrities”, whether righteous or wicked. The Gideon’s and Samsons, the Abimelech’s and Deborah’s. But the book of Ruth stands in stark contrast to all that. It’s not about celebrities, captains of war, or leading figures. It’s a simple story about average, everyday Israelites living out their lives. They’re the “nobody’s” really. It’s kind of surprising that this story even made it in here because nothing really “important” (in air quotes) happens. But that’s the reason it’s so powerful. The power comes from the contrast. And I think you’ll enjoy it.

SEARCH

The way that I would probably teach the Book of Ruth as a teacher would be to approach it with a combination of summarization and verse by verse reading. I’ll try to give you the pattern that I would use if I were teaching it. And as we experience this story together, I want you to look for something. In contrast to the Book of Judges, I want you to look for and mark any examples of people thinking more about others than themselves. After each section we read, I invite my students to share what they found. So here we go.

I begin by summarize Ruth 1:1-7 An Israelite man by the name of Elimelech decides to move to Moab with his wife Naomi, and their two sons. Those two sons end up marrying Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. But then the land is struck by famine, and all of their husbands die. Naomi’s, Orpah’s, and Ruth’s. So now you have these three women left on their own, Naomi, an Israelite, and her two Moabite daughters in law. Not knowing what else to do or where to go, Naomi decides that she will return back to Israel to live in her home village of Bethlehem. Yes, that Bethlehem. And as she is about to leave, she has this discussion with Ruth and Orpah.

8 And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.

9 The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.

Well there you have an example of someone thinking of others. Being an older single woman in that day was not a very enviable position to be in and could even be downright dangerous. But Naomi’s not thinking of herself. She wants what’s best for her daughters in law and releases them from any feelings of obligation that they should stay and help her. She says she’ll go back to her people, and that they should go back to theirs. This is a selfless act.

10 And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.

There’s another example. Both Orpah and Ruth declare that they will “surely” stay with Naomi. While she is thinking of their well-being, they are thinking of hers. “No, no, Naomi. we’re going to take care of you. We can’t leave you on your own. You need help at your age. Who’s going to get food for you, cook for you, take care of you?” And then you have this wonderful back and forth of competing kindnesses here.

11 And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

12 Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons;

13 Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord is gone out against me.

14 And they lifted up their voice, and wept again:

Such tender emotion in this story

and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her.

15 And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

And then probably the most beautiful and oft-quoted words in the entire story, Ruth makes this incredible statement full of sympathy and sacrifice:

16 And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:

17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

18 When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.

Ruth was not going to be deterred from caring for her beloved mother-in-law. Her loyalty and love towards Naomi were strong enough to cause her to leave behind her people, her nation, and her culture. That’s a huge sacrifice. The significance of Ruth’s words is amplified when we remember how important it was to people in those days to be buried with their own people. Remember that the Israelites carried Joseph of Egypt’s body with them back to the promised land because they knew he wanted to be buried with his fathers. My mother (who was very proudly Canadian) had to make a similar decision when she married my father and knew that because of his employment, she would have to live in the United States for the rest of her life and leave behind her beloved nation. So I know that this decision of Ruth’s is no small sacrifice. On top of that, Ruth is willing to let go of the traditions of her Moabite upbringing to accept and commit to Jehovah, Israel’s God. Her words of devotion to Naomi were also words of commitment to Jehovah. Not even Naomi’s insistence could deter her in her decision, and she goes the extra, extra mile to take care of her. Ruth is basically the good Samaritan of the Old Testament.

Let’s summarize Ruth 1:19-2:7

So the two of them make their way to Bethlehem, are welcomed by the people, and then strive to establish themselves in this new life. One of the provisions of the law of Moses allowed for the poor to gather leftover wheat from a harvest. They were allowed to glean in the fields for their subsistence. So Ruth, being younger and more able, goes out to gather and happens to work in the field of a man named Boaz (who interestingly enough is the son of Rahab, who we talked about two weeks ago). Boaz sees Ruth and asks his servants who this young woman is. And they tell him that it’s Ruth, the Moabite maiden who had left her homeland to support and help Naomi. And so he walks up to her and says:

8 Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:

9 Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn.

10 Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?

11 And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.

12 The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

13 Then she said, Let me find favour in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens.

14 And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.

15 And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not:

16 And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.

17 So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley.

Now there are lots of examples of kindness and unselfish action here. Boaz instructs Ruth that she is always welcome to come and glean in his field as he would assure that there would always be ample supply for her and Naomi there. He shows a protective spirit as he charges the young men to leave her alone as she gathers grain or drinks from his well. He recognizes Ruth’s sacrifice in coming to Israel and calls upon the Lord to reward her for this goodness. Now I don’t think there’s any alternative motive in this offer from Boaz. I think he’s just being nice. He’s impressed with the sacrifice and service of Ruth and wants to do what he can to help and reward her for her loyalty. He speaks friendly to her, allows her to eat with them at mealtime, and even instructs his servants to “let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her”. So not just the leftovers, but grain from the main harvest. Boaz is thinking of others as well and makes a personal sacrifice for the well-being of Ruth and Naomi. More unselfishness!

Now we’ll summarize Ruth 2:18-23. When Ruth returns, Naomi is shocked to see how much food she’s been able to gather, and Ruth explains what happened in Boaz’s field that day. You could also instruct your students to mark verse 20 where Naomi exclaims, “Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.” So the kindness of the Lord is recognized here.

Read Ruth 3:1 now

Then Naomi her mother-in-law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?

So the wheels in Naomi’s mind start turning here. Hmmm. Boaz. I’m going to try and devise a plan here to make sure that Ruth is taken care of. There’s another example of selfless kindness. Naomi is now looking out for the well-being of Ruth and her future.

Summarize Ruth 3:2-7 Here Naomi encourages Ruth to go to Boaz that night to ask him if he would be willing to marry her and raise up children to Naomi’s husband and son, which was a custom amongst kinsman back then. Let’s read how that goes:

Ruth 3:8-11

8 And it came to pass at midnight, that the man was afraid, and turned himself: and, behold, a woman lay at his feet.

9 And he said, Who art thou? And she answered, I am Ruth thine handmaid: spread therefore thy skirt over thine handmaid; for thou art a near kinsman.

(Now, though this situation sounds odd to us, there’s nothing inappropriate happening here. This was a way of communicating a petition to Boaz to see if he was willing to take the responsibility of a near kinsman to take care of a family members widow)

10 And he said, Blessed be thou of the Lord, my daughter: for thou hast shewed more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followedst not young men, whether poor or rich.

11 And now, my daughter, fear not; I will do to thee all that thou requirest: for all the city of my people doth know that thou art a virtuous woman.

And I love that. Where Ruth is asking for and recognizing Boaz’s kindness here, he is recognizing hers. No, no, you are the one who’s being kind here. Ruth, you could probably marry any young man you want here in the village, but you’re choosing me? Who’s older. You’re such a kind woman. And I know you are a virtuous woman also! Her reputation precedes her. Boaz feels fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to marry her.

Now you can summarize Ruth 3:12-4:12 since (in my opinion) it’s not as significant to the story, but before Boaz can marry Ruth, he has to give a nearer kinsman an opportunity to marry her first, if he desires. They have a meeting, and this kinsman declines that offer and Boaz is now free to marry Ruth, which he does.

And the end of the story: Ruth 4:13-17

13 So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the Lord gave her conception, and she bare a son.

14 And the women said unto Naomi, Blessed be the Lord, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel.

15 And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him.

16 And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it.

So what a beautiful ending to a beautiful story here. If Judges is more like a Shakespearean tragedy, Ruth is a Shakespearean comedy. It ends with a loving marriage, a newborn son, and a grandmother coddling her grandbaby.” Do you see the contrast to the Book of Judges? Just look back and see how many examples of unselfish kindness we found demonstrated in these four short chapters. The Book of Ruth’s sweetness, mercy, and loving nature seem to foreshadow the spirit and light of the New Testament. You can see the gentle and compassionate character of Christ reflected in Ruth, Naomi, and Boaz.

Well as I said earlier, we too live in a Judges-like world. There’s a lot of selfishness, violence, and a pervasive spirit of individualism out there. Yet, the story of Ruth teaches us that service and goodness can still exist in that kind of world. Now, like then, against the backdrop of all that greed and brutality, and big important people, doing big important things, there are normal, kind, and righteous people performing selfless acts of compassion and kindness. Hopefully we can be one of them! All the wars, and accomplishments, and tragedies, and big news of today will eventually be all but forgotten. But the seemingly small acts of service and sacrifice that good people have been performing for others throughout the ages, those are the things that I feel will be remembered and celebrated in the millennial future. It will be the Ruth’s and not the Judges that will be memorialized.

TRUTH

Selfless acts of kindness generate more selfless acts of kindness.

LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES

So, let’s celebrate some of those “Book of Ruth” kinds of stories. Who is someone who has been a Ruth to you? What did they do and how did that make you feel? Please share.

CONCLUSION

To conclude our study of this book, I’d like to make one final point. Ruth is a book about people who didn’t let the times get to them. They didn’t become pessimistic, visionless, or apathetic. They didn’t angry. They didn’t become like the Philistines. Ruth is the solution to the problems of Judges. We too don’t need to allow the hardness and the trials of life diminish our charity and compassion for others. We can be Ruth’s in a Judges” world. Is it any surprise that Bethlehem, the birthplace of the future Savior and Redeemer, was the home of these three generous and loving people.

HANNAH

ICEBREAKER

As an Icebreaker for 1 Samuel chapter 1, I like to start out with something a little lighthearted. I have a small collection of children’s prayers. They were asked to write down their prayers in the form of a letter to God, so that’s how we have these on record. Here we go.

Dear God, my Mom tells me that you have a reason for everything on Earth, I guess broccoli is one of your mysteries. Dear God, when will my sister stop being annoying, I’m down to my last patience.

Dear God, I hope my dog is with you in Heaven, please take care of him…sorry if he chews on your sandals.

Dear God, My brother told me about being born, but it doesn’t sound right.

Dear God, Maybe Cain and Abel wouldn’t kill each other so much if they had their own rooms, it works with my brother.

Dear God, How come you didn’t invent any new animals lately? We still have just all the old ones.

Dear God, Thank you for the baby brother, but what I asked for was a puppy.

Ah, out of the mouths of babes. Right. But I do love the simple faith and curiosity they show.

TRANSITION

In 1 Samuel 1 we have a story that also deals with both children and prayer. It’s the story of Hannah and how she became the mother of the prophet whose book we’re studying today. I’ll introduce the story. Hannah is the wife of a man named Elkanah, who also had another wife named Penninah. And Penninah had children, but Hannah had none. And this is very troubling to her. We’ve seen this concern before in the Old Testament with Sarah and Rachel. On top of that, it says that Penninah provoked her sore, to make her fret. So, she’s making fun of her or lording it over her that she has children, but Hannah does not. Which is really a crumby thing to do if you think about it. Instead of showing compassion for Hannah’s barrenness, Peninnah makes matters worse and pushes the already painful knife a little deeper. I think there may be a little lesson in that. Don’t provoke others to greater sorrow by reminding them of their unfulfilled desires or inadequacies. Let’s being careful not to flaunt our own successes and joys in an effort to bolster our own sense of insecurity. In fact, what does Hannah call Penninah in verse 6? Her adversary. Who else holds that title? Hopefully we can be advocates to each other, not adversaries. Well, as was the custom under the Mosaic law, each year this little family would make their way to Shiloh to offer sacrifices at the temple. What Hannah lacked compared to Penninah was even more pronounced as portions were given to each wife and child. Hannah received what the scriptures describe as a worthy portion, but you can just imagine how she must have felt as Elkanah handed out portion after portion to all of Penninah’s sons and daughters.

SEARCH

And with that as an introduction, let’s dig a little deeper into the story. To help your students see the message of this story a little clearer, you could have them fill in the following handout. Or, you could encourage them to take three colored pencils and mark the answers to the three questions in three different colors. The three questions are

How is Hannah feeling?

What does she decide to do?

What are the results?

First, what is she feeling?

1:6 provoked sore

1:6 fret

1:7 she wept

1:8 her heart grieved

1:10 she is in bitterness of soul

1:15 she has a sorrowful spirit

1:16 she has an abundance of complaint and grief.

Now we want to try and liken the scriptures as we go along here. Have you ever felt these things? Have you ever had an unfulfilled desire? Have you ever been provoked by others or had a sorrowful spirit? Has your heart grieved over something? Hannah provides us a beautiful example of what we can do when we find ourselves in this troubling state. What does she do?

1:7 When it says that she did not eat, more than likely that is a reference to fasting.

1:9 She rose up. She acted. She decided to do something and exercise her faith rather than just grieving and pining.

1:9 She went to the temple. That just happens to be one of the best places you can go when your heart is grieved, and your spirit is sorrowful. It’s also a perfect place to do what she does next.

1:10 She prayed unto the Lord. When we desire something, when we need help, when we are in need of comfort, there is someone we can always go to, our Father in Heaven. And he will hear us.

1:11 And in that prayer, she vows a vow. Let’s take a closer look at it. She says:

“O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.”

And there is such a spirit of consecration in that prayer. This isn’t desperate bargaining. She isn’t demanding the blessing as an ultimatum. She isn’t saying that she will cease to believe in God or abandon her obedience if the request isn’t given. She’s humble. Three times she refers to herself as “thine handmaid”. She assures the Lord that just as she is dedicated to Him, her child, if granted, would also be dedicated to the Lord and his work. When we desire great blessings from the Lord, it’s also appropriate to renew our vows of consecration with him. We can recommit ourselves to be obedient to his commands and redouble our efforts in righteous endeavors.

1:15 She poured out her soul before the Lord

Sometimes we pray pouring out prayers. This shows the Lord just how deep our desire is. You can’t pour something out if there isn’t much filling the container. But if your desires are deep and full, you can pray in such a way that you lay of your emotions and desires and pleadings before the Lord. There’s a great cathartic relief in doing this. Now there’s a balance to be struck in all of this here and a caution in making requests of the Lord. We don’t want to complain to the Lord or appear ungrateful or ask for something that we ought not. And we don’t want to become Balaam’s who continue to ask for a different answer to a prayer once we’ve already received one. But I feel the Spirit can help us to make the distinction between pouring out our souls to the Lord and murmuring and complaining. That’s not what Hannah is doing here. She’s praying deeply and sincerely for a blessing she righteously desires with all her heart.

Now, a new thing to look for. What happened to Hannah because she does this? What were the results of her faithful prayer and vow?

Hannah receives an answer through the priest Eli who sees her praying and declares the following assurance to her without even knowing what her petition was. He says: Go in peace: and the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him.

And here Hannah does something that I really admire. She accepts that answer from the priest with perfect faith and joy. She doesn’t sit around and stew and wonder if it will really come true. She has immediate and fervent faith in the answer given through the Lord’s representative. That’s not always easy to do when the promise itself has not yet come to fruition. But Hannah “went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad”. She’s comforted and has a surety that her request will be granted. I believe Hannah is a great example of the kind of faith the Doctrine and Covenants 98:1-2 speaks of:

1 Verily I say unto you my friends, fear not, let your hearts be comforted; yea, rejoice evermore, and in everything give thanks;

2 Waiting patiently on the Lord, for your prayers have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth, and are recorded with this seal and testament—the Lord hath sworn and decreed that they shall be granted.

Sometimes it’s difficult to maintain our faith and comfort as we wait for the Lord to fulfill his promises. Perhaps we even hold back our gratitude because we have not yet received. The Lord’s way in these things, though, is often backwards from what we would expect. We say, “I’ll believe it when I see it”. And the Lord says, “You’ll see it when you believe it.” We say, “I’ll be comforted and grateful when you answer my prayer.” He says, “I’ll answer your prayer, when you are comforted and grateful.” Also, we often tend to think that if we just had enough faith, then the Lord would answer our prayers in the way that we want. We focus all of our faith in the direction of the request itself. But even if the request is righteous, our faith needs to be focused on the giver of the request-on our Heavenly Father. That way, if the answer to our request is something different than what we hoped for, we can still rejoice in that answer, because we have total confidence and faith in the wisdom of the way it was answered. Because our faith is in Him, not our petition.

What other phrases could we mark with our results color?

1:19 The Lord remembered her, and she bare a son and called his name Samuel.

I don’t think that means that God had forgotten about Hannah and her prayer had just jogged his memory. I’m sure that he was very aware of her situation and desires all along. That’s just the scriptural way of saying that God acted in response to her appeal. And she has a baby! How joyful she must have been at the realization.

Hannah nurses and takes care of Samuel as an infant. But as soon as he has reached a sufficient age, Hannah keeps her side of the vow. She brings Samuel to the temple and says to Eli:

27 For this child I prayed; and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of him:

28 Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord. And he worshipped the Lord there.

Hannah dedicates her son to the service of the temple for the rest of his life. Now that couldn’t have been easy for a mother to do. Surely, she would have loved to have spent more years caring for and raising her son within the walls of her own home. I suppose she could have gone back on her word at that point, now that she had received what she desired. But she doesn’t. She honors her promise and dedicates him to the Lord. That may be a powerful lesson for parents to learn from. Are we willing to do all we can to lend our children to the Lord? To teach them the gospel. Show them good examples, and like Hannah, bring them to the temple? I’m sure Hannah found comfort in knowing that even though she was dedicating Samuel to a life of temple service, he would still always be her son, for time and into the eternities. And this doesn’t have to apply only to children. There is much that we can dedicate to God. We can dedicate our time, our faith, our will, the spirit of our homes, our possessions, and our futures to God.

And then, Hannah teaches us one more lesson in finding answers to prayers. After our prayers are answered, what should we be sure to do? Just look at the heading for chapter 2 for the answer. Hannah sings praises to the Lord. Instead of a pouring out , longing type of prayer, like we saw in chapter 1, this time we have a different kind of prayer-a prayer of rejoicing and praise. The first kind of prayer will often lead to the second. Hopefully we’re not like the nine lepers that Jesus heals, but the one. We must be sure to return and give thanks to God. There are a lot of wonderful things in this prayer. She expresses her joy in. She expresses her increased trust and faith in God. She recognizes God’s graciousness, his wisdom, his power, and expresses her confidence in God’s eventual triumph over all wickedness.

TRUTH

When I have unfulfilled righteous desires, if I pour out my soul to God in prayer, he will hear and answer that prayer. (Of course, always remembering that those answers will come at the time and in the way that is according to God’s wisdom)

LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES

Have you ever experienced an answer to prayer? Please share.

CONCLUSION

I know there have been many times in my life where I felt the Lord answered my prayers. Each time the Spirit has given me a sweet confirmation of God’s presence and love for me. I remember having a “pouring out” kind of prayer when I was seeking to be hired to teach seminary for the Church. I had taught as a student teacher for two years and finally the call had come to let me know if I would be hired or not. And when it did, I was devasted. I had not made it, and now my future looked very different than the one I had expected it to be. I had a number of “pouring out” prayers at that time. My desires had not been met and I felt lost and scared. I was also planning to be married that summer and faced the prospect of supporting a family soon. There came a moment though, when I felt the Spirit just calm me down and reassure me that all would be well. So, I found a new job (although I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it) and began to focus my efforts on planning a new future. I got married that next month and began a wonderful marriage with my life Allesha. Two months later, as I was sitting there at the desk of my current job, the phone rang. On the other end was the Church Educational department asking me if I would be willing to come in to accept a job to teach for the Church as a seminary teacher as a few more positions had recently opened up during the summer. I was overjoyed. The Lord had heard my prayer and granted my petition in this instance. And I can assure you I had a prayer of rejoicing that night and many times since. God hears our prayers. And though he doesn’t always answer at the time or in the way that we hope, he does answer. And perhaps we too will get to utter a triumphant declaration of our blessing similar to Hannah’s “For this child I prayed”. We can say, for this job I prayed. For this relationship I prayed. For this healing I prayed. For this blessing I prayed. And rejoice in a hearing and giving God.

HEARING THE LORD-SAMUEL

ICEBREAKER

Our next principle comes from 1 Samuel chapter 3. As an icebreaker I find it effective to do a voice recognition activity and I’ll make this quiz template available for download if you’re interested in doing this activity. What you can do is play snippets from general conference talks of members of the first presidency or quorum of the twelve apostles and have them guess who is speaking by only listening to their voices. Many of the brethren have very distinct voices and speaking styles. All you would have to do to accomplish this is just go to the Church website on your computer or your phone and click on the “Libraries” link at the top, then “Gospel Library”, then “General Conference”. Each speaker will have a video available for their talk. After they take the quiz and you’ve corrected it, you could ask. How is it that you were you able to identify their voices? The only way you could do is if you have had some kind of previous experience with that individual before. Perhaps the brethren who have been in the quorum of the twelve longer were easier to recognize.

TRANSITION

Sometimes it’s difficult to recognize someone just by their voice if you are not super familiar with them yet. But the more interaction you have with them, the easier it gets. For example, if a close friend or family member of yours came to your door late at night and asked you to let them in, you might ask “Who is it?” and they will say something that sounds kind of silly when you think about it. They’ll say, “It’s me!” Well, that’s not super descriptive is it. But it works! You’ll let them in because everyone’s voice is completely unique to them, and they know that you have enough prior experience with them to know who it is just by hearing their voice. Well today we’re going to look at a scripture story where somebody had trouble recognizing someone else’s voice. And I believe this story can help us to learn how to receive guidance and inspiration more confidently from God. That person is Samuel. Where his mother Hannah taught us the principle of asking for help from God, Samuel will teach us the other half of the equation, how to receive that help.

SEARCH

Invite your students to read the story in 1 Samuel 3:1-10, and verse 19. With the following two questions in mind.

1. What does this story teach us about how the Lord speaks to us?

2. How is Samuel a good example of how to respond to God’s voice?

Question #1: What do we learn about how God speaks?

Right from the outset, I believe that we can learn something about God’s voice from verse 1. It says that in those times, the word of the Lord was precious, and that there was no open vision. Precious in this instance means rare. People are not receiving a lot of guidance from God in Samuel’s day. Which begs the question, why? What makes God’s answers rare? I can only think of one thing. People have stopped seeking for it. They’re not asking for help from God. They’re not seeking, they’re not knocking. therefore, the visions, and revelations, and promptings of God become precious, uncommon. There’s a term kids use today when somebody stops responding to their texts. It’s called ghosting someone. You know, you just disappear. Do we sometimes “ghost” God? Stop reaching out to him in prayer, seeking for his guidance, or giving him a chance to speak to us? “Should it surprise us then when we stop hearing much from Him?

I love what this story teaches us about God’s persistence though. If we do “ghost God”, he’s not one to give up on us easily. How many times does God call Samuel before Samuel understands who it is that’s speaking to him? Four times. What does that teach us about God’s voice? God is patient. He will be very patient with us as we learn to recognize his voice. Joseph Smith once said the following regarding personal revelation:

“A person may profit by noticing the first intimation of the spirit of revelation; for instance, when you feel pure intelligence flowing into you, it may give you sudden strokes of ideas, so that by noticing it, you may find it fulfilled the same day or soon; … those things that were presented unto your minds by the Spirit of God, will come to pass; and thus by learning the Spirit of God and understanding it, you may grow into the principle of revelation, until you become perfect in Christ Jesus.”

Joseph Smith

Teachings, p. 151

Receiving personal revelation or recognizing the Spirit is a skill and a process that we “grow” into. It takes time and God will reach out to us many times to give us the opportunity to learn the sound of his still, small voice. Samuel is young, so he’s going to give him ample opportunities to listen to him. Look at verse 7:

7 Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, neither was the word of the Lord yet revealed unto him.

No matter our actual age, many of us may still be “young” in our ability to hear and recognize the voice of the Spirit. But that’s OK. God is going to be patient with us. If we don’t understand him the first time, he’ll try again, and again, and again. The only danger we have is when we become “dull of hearing” or “stop our ears” to the voice of the Spirit. God wishes to communicate with us, and he will, if we open our ears and strive to hear him.

Also notice that Samuel had some help in coming to recognize the voice of the Spirit. Eli was there to give him instruction and to help him to know that it was God speaking to him. God does the same for us as well. He has provided ample resources that can help us to learn how to recognize the Spirit. We have all these wonderful stories in the scriptures to help us. We have living prophets who give us instruction on how to better hear God. We have local church leaders, parents, and teachers, all ready and willing to offer us support and counsel.

Now what does Samuel teach us about hearing the voice of the Lord?

There is a certain outlook we can foster that will make it much more likely for us to receive personal revelation from God through the Spirit. We can approach God with a “Here am I” and a “speak, for thy servant heareth” attitude.

It may be good to ask ourselves whether we approach our prayers as a one-sided monologue, or as a two-sided conversation. We make a big deal about saying our prayers, but how often do we take the time to listen for a response. Have you ever been in a largely one-sided conversation? And how did that make you feel? Probably a little disengaged or annoyed. I wonder if our Heavenly Father ever gets exasperated with us because we won’t let him get a word in edgewise. “You know,” he says, “I’d love to answer your prayer here, but you’re not listening.” Try this next time you pray. Ask, “Lord, is there anything you would have me know right now? Is there anything you would have me do?” And then just listen. Let him answer. Instead of just saying your prayers, you can say, “Here am I. Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth,” instead of just, “Listen Lord, for they servant speaketh”.

A great example of the opposite of this attitude would be Laman and Lemuel who complained that God never spoke to them. Nephi asked, “Have ye inquired of the Lord?” And they give a fairly boneheaded response. “We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.” And isn’t that kind of a silly response? They complain about not receiving revelation but are not willing to even ask for it. Let’s not make the same mistake! Revelation doesn’t come without work, and it doesn’t’ come without first demonstrating faith in God.

There’s another phrase in these verses that speaks volumes to us. It’s in what Samuel does AFTER he has received this revelation from God. Verse 19 tells us that:

19 And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.

Superb! Once we’ve received revelation, don’t let those words fall. Cherish those words. Express gratitude for them. Act on them! Instead of just reading our scriptures and hoping for help, we can study with a pen or pencil in our hands and write down the things we are pondering and the inspiration we receive. Instead of going to the temple and just going through the motions of an ordinance, we can really listen, ask questions, and pray for insight. Instead of playing on our phones during sacrament meeting, sleeping through General conference, daydreaming during Sunday School, or apathetically “enduring” seminary, we can pay close attention to what is being said audibly by the speaker and inaudibly by the Spirit. We can take notes and ponder on the messages we’ve heard long after the ordinance, the meeting, or the class has ended.

By contrast, Eli did not honor the guidance and inspiration he was receiving as high priest. Now we won’t go into great depth on this part of the story, but I think it’s important to understand the juxtaposition. In chapter 2, we discover that Eli’s sons work at the temple and were acting in a completely reprehensible way in their position. They would demand portions of the people’s sacrifices through intimidation and were even immoral with some of the women who came to worship at the temple. The Lord clearly reveals to Eli his will that he needs to do something about this. He needs to stop his sons from doing these things because it was causing people to not want to come to the temple because of their actions. People were despising their temple experience because of them. However, God says that Eli “honourest thy sons above me.” (1 Samuel 2:29) He was too apathetic or intimidated by his own sons that he does nothing to put an end to their misconduct. Eli let God’s words fall to the ground. He didn’t act on the instruction and guidance he had received. I think it’s interesting that 1 Samuel 3:2 tells us that Eli’s “eyes began to wax dim, that he could not see”. I think that’s there for a reason. Not only was his physical eyesight failing, but his spiritual eyesight as well. Therefore, God is going to have to remove Eli and his sons from their positions on his own, and Samuel is going to be put in their place. Samuel’s vision is awakening at this point, and he does “see” the Lord’s word and will. In the succeeding chapters we see Eli and his sons removed from their positions of authority and Samuel put in their place.

TRUTH

Two truths here.

If I am receptive to the voice of the Lord, I can grow in my ability to recognize when he speaks to me.

AND

If I value and act on the answers I receive, then God will speak to me further.

LIKEN THE SCRIPTURES

Could you share a time when you felt you “heard” the Lord’s voice giving you guidance?

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, I recently heard the following story at a training for seminary teachers and thought it would be appropriate to share here. There was a college professor who was known for giving very difficult finals to his students at the end of each semester. But he also allowed each student to bring in one piece of paper and they were allowed to put anything on it that they liked to use on the test. Well, one year, when the day of the test arrived, in came a student with his tutor by his side. As he sat down at his desk, he took out a piece of paper, placed it on the ground next to him, and had his tutor stand on top of it. With a smile from the teacher for his ingenuity, the tutor was allowed to remain in the classroom for the duration of test, leaning over the desk of this student and whispering guidance and help into his ear. Well that’s kind of how personal revelation works. We believe in a gracious Heavenly Father who desires to guide and give us the answers we need to succeed and progress in life. As long as we have a submissive, willing, “Speak Lord; for they servant heareth” type attitude that doesn’t allow his words to fall to the ground, I believe we’ll find that we hear that voice more and more frequently.