Doug Van Pelt

le tour de douglas

for the following few days i will share my morning routine of coming to the office. first off, i will start with the drive to work. lots of open roads between my home and the office in pflugerville.

"In those days the word of the Lord was rare; there were not many visions."

I wonder if that is true today. Could that be said today? In some ways I doubt it, because I believe I have heard the Lord and His people have done some exciting things in recent years. But I'd also like to have the courage to stand up and say it's true if it was. Are people listening to the Lord? Is He speaking . . . on a regular basis?

"The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of his words fall to the ground."

Does this mean that Samuel took to heart every word God told him? Cherished it, thought over it, chewed on it, obeyed it?

"And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord."

It's a good sign when a bunch of people recognize your gifts, work, and calling.

One thing that stands out to me that bothers me is Eli's threat to Samuel if he didn't reveal to him what God had said that famous night (you know, in 1 Samuel 3, where God kept calling, "Samuel," and young Sam would run into Eli's bedroom and say, "Here I am; you called me."). Eli said to him, "May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hid from me anything he told you." That is a hefty threat, threatening the punishment of God on someone. Would that not be likened to telling someone to go to Hell? I don't know if God was okay with Eli saying that or not, but it's not something I would choose to utter.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at February 3, 2005 08:28 AM