Samuel a Leadership Homily

Part One- Being sure of God's call.

The other day I was leafing through my Bible taking out the old page markers - the newsletters from churches visited, the old envelopes with notes and telephone numbers hurriedly written on them. When I came across some notes on leadership that I had written on the back fly leaf page I read through them and realised there importance.

While I was reading through the notes I saw the similarity between them and the ministry and life of Samuel the prophet. The more I mused on them and the life of the great prophet the more I saw lessons that we as Leaders need to learn.

When you  think about Samuel you think Prophet, you don't think Leader. But Samuel was the last of the Judges of Israel 1Samuel 7:6 Tells us that Samuel was leader (Judge) of Israel at Mizpah.

I get ahead of myself to understand Samuel's leadership qualities we need to go back to the beginning, his call;

Briefly the story is as follows;  Samuel's mother was barren and she prayed to the Lord for help and said that if He gave her a child she would dedicate and give him back to Him. She had waited many years for the answer but from her desperation while at the Tabernacle on Mt Shiloh, God finally answered her prayer. I am always amazed by God he often chooses to answer our prayers in one of  three ways, YES, NO or YES BUT NOT YET. Hannah, Samuel's mother had to wait, her prayer was a yes but not yet answer.

True to her word after Samuel was weaned she took him and left him with Eli the high priest at Shiloh. When Samuel was a young boy, God came to him and called him. Three times God called and three times Samuel went to Eli thinking he had called. Eli realised it was the voice of God and instructed Samuel on what to do should he hear the voice again. He did and the rest is history.

Here are some leadership life lessons I have learnt from the early life of Samuel and can be found in those early chapters of 1 Samuel:

1) God always answers prayer at the right time. God's call is never late and never too early. Even though those that were serving Israel at Shiloh were wicked God's timing was immaculate as always.

2) Be sure of God's call. Samuel heard the call but wasn't sure until the wisdom of Eli pointed him in the right direction. Even the greatest leaders need to take advice from others. The best leaders are those that listen.

3) Be willing to lay it down. This doesn't have to be a permanent thing, even though the call of God is bigger than ourselves. Samuel for a time laid his call aside and served Eli in a tatty old tent that had been around for over three hundred years on an insignificant hill in a rocky-often barren- scrub land of a country. God's plan is always bigger than our own.

4) Hold your leadership lightly. The problem with Eli's son's was that they didn't want to listen to anyone but themselves. They were arrogant in their leadership. It is unfortunate but I have seen many a leader removed from ministry and at the heart of the issue was arrogance.