Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears. This famous expression comes to us from the pen of William Shakespeare, the year was 1599, the play, Julius Caesar. We had to memorize and identify famous Shakespearean quotes for an English course in high school, and this phrase was among them. This phrase is a rhetorical device, a distinct tool used to make an argument more compelling. The character Mark Antony wants to speak passionately to convince his listeners to agree with his point of view. This would be the first line of an eloquent oration, a eulogy in honor of the recently murdered Julius Caesar, a speech which would ultimately turn public opinion against the assassins. He spoke…they listened.
God is keenly aware that as humans, we like the dramatic, the big show, the parting-of-the-Red-Sea type miracles. We stand in awe as we relive the moment when the LORD spoke from the “top of a mount,” filling the listeners with fear, or when His voice witnessed to the world that “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” But God does not always work through the dramatic, the loud, the obvious; sometimes He whispers.
Samuel reluctantly accepted the fact that the nation of Israel wanted a king, he “heard all the words of the people, and rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD.” God assured Samuel that they would indeed be given a king, but Samuel was unaware of the identity of the chosen vessel. When God’s choice, Saul, finally crosses paths with the aged prophet, God would make His will known to Samuel; “Now the LORD had told Samuel in his ear a day before Saul came, saying…I will send thee a man.” The phrase “told Samuel in his ear” literally means the LORD uncovered Samuel’s ear.” This may sound strange to us because we are not familiar with the Middle Eastern custom in which this expression is rooted, the practice of partially removing the corner of a man’s turban, brushing aside his hair, in order to permit a clearer hearing, to whisper a secret, to pass on important information privately to the hearer.
Am I attuned to the whispers of God, or does He have to resort to shouting to get my attention? When He gently pulls back the turban and speaks quietly to my soul, do I listen? Samuel had learned at a young age to recognize the voice of God, and in his senior years he found himself sensitive to God’s whisper. May the same be said of me.
I Samuel 3:10 And the LORD came, and stood, and called as at other times, Samuel, Samuel. Then Samuel answered, Speak; for thy servant heareth.
Lord, help me to be sensitive to Your whisper, Your still, small voice.