Humpty-Dumpty Vocabulary
“Thus Samuel grew and the Lord was with him and let none of his words fail.” 1 Samuel 3:19
Fail – Do you think historians would say the same thing about you? Are you so close to God that none of your words “fail”? Samuel had that reputation. What he said was true but not because he said it. It came from God. Samuel, the prophet, was the oracle of God. His words did not fail because they were God’s words.
This phrase in Hebrew is much more picturesque. It uses the word napal. In Hebrew it literally says, “and not let any of the words from him fall to the earth“. It’s really a shame we don’t keep the same imagery in English. Samuel never experienced Humpty-Dumpty vocabulary. You know what that means, I’m sure. It happens every time we say one thing but something else occurs. Our words fall off the wall and break apart. Our reputation is a mess. It can rarely be put back together again.
Now ask yourself, “How was Samuel able to avoid this catastrophe?” The answer is in the character of the actor behind the words. The Lord was with him. None of us is capable of avoiding groundbreaking encounters without this little caveat. If God isn’t with us, we are going to eat dirt. Our words will find the mud. Sand will shift between the nouns and the verbs. It isn’t necessary, but it is certainly common.
This verse is a prime example of relationship management (you might take a look at www.skipmoen.com to see the implications). When we manage the only relationship that we actually control, the vertical one with the Lord, then the horizontal relationships that we spend so much time trying to control (and falling to the ground doing so) seem to take care of themselves. Somehow we have been convinced that we need to put time and effort into the horizontal. Maybe that’s because we spend so much time at dirt level. But God reminds us that it is the vertical that counts. He is perfectly capable of taking care of the distance above the dirt when we take care of the right line of sight.
I love this imagery. Failure is my words falling to the earth. Like dead leaves from the tree. Snowflakes on terminal descent. Rain in transition. Of course, God knows how to recycle all those things, including my fallen words. Once they make it to the dirt, He can start the growing process again, as long as I am looking up.
Hi Skip, I read Todays Word frequently. It challenges, inspires, and encourages me to ‘think outside the box’. I am no scholar and have no aspirations in that direction. In fact, I am an artist by trade. So commenting on or discussing this is completely outside my wheelhouse. However, I am desperately seeking the truth of God. I came across this scripture at the beginning of this year and have been meditating on it since then. In truth it has captivated me and I STILL don’t fully understand it. I have a Thompson Chain-Reference Bible (which is a fancy way to say I read the old King James). It reads “And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.” This strikes me as an oddity as scriptures go, perhaps that’s why it stuck out so. Whose words does it reference, Samuel’s or the Lords’ thru Samuel, or the Lord’s? It certainly seems to imply that Samuel’s words carried tremendous weight, else why would the Lord keep them from falling to the ground? Does this mean Samuel didn’t waste any words or was never guilty of idle speaking? Or that Samuel never wasted one word the Lord gave him?
As an artist, imagery is everything. This scripture paints an incredibly powerful picture. As you say, what a reputation Samuel had! He spoke God’s words with absolute confidence. When he spoke, the people had absolute confidence they were God’s words as well. Maybe I’m the only one, but how often do I question if I truly heard God’s voice or not? I cannot honestly say there is anyone on the planet I would have this level of confidence believing that they are truly giving “a word from the Lord.” Which begs the question, is a Samuel kind of relationship with God possible today? Is the age of the prophet truly over? How does God speak to us today?
There is something pivotal in this scripture that I have yet to fully understand. I will keep digging until I find it. If you have any additional insights or suggestions on any reference material that would help, it would be greatly appreciated.