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HEAR THE VOICE OF THE LORD (SE AFETOR LA FE GBE)

REFLECTION
SCRIPTURE READING
1 SAMUEL 3:1-20
2 CORINTHIANS 4:5-12
Mark 2: 23-3:6

‘Hear the voice of the Lord’ is the theme for our reflection today. To hear a person’s voice is to turn your attention to him or her and to obey his or her request or instructions. We can therefore rephrase the theme as ‘Responding and obeying God’s call.’ The Bible is pregnant with instances and examples of God calling individuals who could hear His voice and consequently respond to his call. The theme ‘Hear the voice of the Lord’ is an admonishment to believers to respond and obey the call of God. We shall discuss the theme in the light of the following three facts:

1. That when we hear the voice of the Lord, we must be eager to respond.
2. That hearing the voice of the Lord enables us to do His will rather than following suppressive church or religious traditions.
3. That hearing the voice of the Lord and following His command comes with a cost even amidst His grace and blessings.

Firstly, a servant of the Lord must be eager and willing to hear the voice of God and respond accordingly. We see the eagerness and alertness of Samuel as a servant in the house of God. As a servant, he was alert and eager to hear the voice of his master Eli and to respond accordingly. There are examples of lazy and apathetic servants who may pretend to be asleep and ignore their master’s call in the night. Indeed, some servants clearly can hear the voice of their master but will ignore it with the excuse that they were fast asleep and could not hear the voice of their master. For some servants, after responding to the first call, he or she will ignore the rest but we saw the eagerness, alertness and prompt response of Samuel when He heard his name being called. Because he was dedicated and eager to respond to the call of his master, Eli his master directed his attention to the voice of God and taught Samuel how he should respond when he hears the voice of the Lord. The key lesson here is that we shall hear the voice of God when we are always ready and yearning to hear His voice. When we hear the voice of God, we must eagerly respond verbally in prayer and through our actions say, “Speak, for your servant hears.” (1 Samuel 3:10). God’s voice comes to us through different ways and for some of us through miraculous signs. The Lord’s voice can come to you when He delivers you from a fatal accident, and the Lord’s voice can come to you when he heals you from that life-threatening disease, even as I deliver this sermon God’s voice is still coming to you through His Word. Hebrews 3:15 says “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” Beloved in the Lord hear the voice of the Lord by responding “Speak for your servant hears.” It is important to note that hearing is the same as obedience in this context.

Secondly, hearing the voice of the Lord enables us to do His will rather than following suppressive church or religious traditions. Jesus exposed the dogmatism of the Pharisees in holding on to religious tradition instead of desiring to hear the voice of the Lord and to do his will. In as much as we expected to observe the Sabbath, love and the desire to help those in need must supersede dogmatism or overly hold on to religious or church traditions. The question that arose is would you feed a hungry person on a sabbath day and also heal a sick person on a Sabbath day? For the Pharisees, the Sabbath must be upheld or strictly observed even at the expense of those who are in need. In contrast, Jesus said to them he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27-28) In other words, although observing the Sabbath is important, it is God’s will that we help those in need even if it means violating the law or tradition of the Sabbath. It is for this reason, that the disciples who were hungry on the Sabbath had to find food to eat and the man who shrivelled or deformed hand was healed by Jesus on the Sabbath. We must be willing to hear the voice of the Lord concerning loving our neighbours and liberating them from all manner of burdens and oppression instead of over-reliance on religious tradition at the expense of our neighbour who may be in dire need of our help. Jesus fulfilled the prophecy in Isaiah when He said “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” (Luke 4:18-19) Dear friend in the Lord, Jesus is the embodiment of the Lord’s voice and will, therefore the Lord said “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” (Matthew 17:5)

Thirdly, hearing the voice of God and becoming a true disciple and missionary of the Lord is not a walk in the park. As a faithful Christian hears, trusts and obeys the voice of God he or she shall encounter challenges amidst the divine grace and providence of God. Paul testifies to this fact in 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 when he says “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.” (2 Corinthians 4:8-12). Hearing the voice of the Lord will sometimes lead you to persecution and chastisement for the sake of the Lord and the truth, which we must always stand for. Our friends and family may hate us for hearing and obeying the voice of the Lord at a time that they expect us to take the bribe and join them in their sinister plans but we shall always join Peter and the apostles and answer them saying, “We must obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29). In our eagerness to hear the voice of the Lord, there will be division between the Lord’s faithful disciples and those who are against the voice and the will of God even in the same family. Jesus reminds us in Luke 12:51-53 “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three. They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.” In all these divisions my beloved in the Lord, continue to hear the voice of the Lord!

In conclusion, we must be eager to respond when we hear the voice of the Lord; hearing the voice of the Lord enables us to do His will rather than following suppressive church or religious traditions.; last but not least, hearing the voice of Lord and following His command comes with a cost but His grace is ever sufficient. May the Holy Spirit strengthen us to always hear the voice of the Lord. Amen.