“In those days, the word of the lord was rare and prophetic visions were not widespread” (1 Sam 3:1).

Ugh.  What a sad condition to be in.  The word of the Lord was rare!  So much so that when the Lord called to Samuel, it took several times before Eli, a priest of the Lord, to even know what it was.  That is a tragedy.

And why was the Word of the Lord rare?

We can’t say definitively, but my guess is why would God bring a word if the people have a heart to rebel against it?  They wanted the word “peace!  peace!” even when there was no peace (Jer 6:14).  These were false prophets.  But any calls to repent or reform their ways?  Uh-huh Lord.  No thank-you.  We prefer our sexual perversions and doing things as we see right.

Honestly that is really disturbing.  Are God’s people moving to a place where sin and righteousness no longer matter, so much so that the direction of the Lord becomes rare among us?  Are we moving to like it was in the book of judges where “everyone does what is right in their own eyes”?  Even among God’s people?

I was listening to a video the other day on YouTube that critiques the errors in a certain world religion.  The followers of this religion were attacking the Bible and Christians and the Christians were asking how to respond.  It was interesting that the Christians knew more about how to attack this religion than they did their own Bible.  And the speaker called them out on it.

Biblical illiteracy runs rampant among the church.  This then makes it so that people do indeed do what is right in their own eyes, because they do not know the ways of God.

Ugh.  Dangerous times we live in.