Samuel's Prayer for Thunder and Rain

The following is from F. B. Meyer's book Samuel the Prophet:

"The heart of man cries out for Divine authentication. In every age a crooked and perverse generation seeks a sign, and in seeking it proves how far it has wandered from the source of light, and become blinded in spiritual vision.

"If our nature realized its divine ideal, it would discern God in the ordinary and common incidents of providence, in the morning light and the summer air, in dews that noiselessly alight, and zephyrs that gently kiss the slumbering woods, in the garniture of spring, and the carpeting of flowers (Acts 14:17).

"But the eyes of the soul are blinded, and men do not see the traces of the Divine footprints across the world day by day.  'Lord,' said the prophet, 'Thy hand is lifted up, yet they see not' (Isaiah 26:11, R.V.).

"In default of the faculty of detecting God’s presence in the noiseless and ordinary providence of life, man asks for some startling phenomena to prove that God is speaking. 'Bring,' he cries to the Heaven-sent messenger, 'credentials so startling and extraordinary that I may know without doubt that thou art properly accredited. The still, small voice is not enough. We must have the hurricane, the fire, and the bolt from the blue. Then we shall know that God speaks by thee, and that the word from thy lips is true.'

"Samuel knew this, and he perhaps longed for some Divine corroboration of his words. God’s trusted servants are content to work through long years amid persistent resistance and apathy, if only they are assured that they are on the line of the Divine purpose.

"'And it came to pass at the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet came near, and said, Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it be known this day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I have done all these things at thy word.'

"Thus, in a supreme moment, one of the noblest of his successors appealed to God, and his words expressed what was in Samuel’s heart at this great hour. He had surrendered his prerogatives, and introduced his successor; had confronted his people with their sins, and announced the heavy penalties that must follow on disobedience; now he yearned that they should hear another voice, asseverating his words, and pressing them home on conscience and on heart.

"It was under the influence of these thoughts that he concluded his address and appeal with the announcement, 'Now, therefore, stand still, and see this great thing, which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is it not wheat-harvest to-day? I will call unto the Lord, and He shall send thunder and rain, that ye may perceive and see that your wickedness is great which ye have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking you a king.'

"During the wheat-harvest, lasting from the middle of May to the middle of June, rain is almost unknown in Palestine, and the occurrence of a thunderstorm, coming as it did at the call of the aged prophet, was too startlingly unusual to be viewed as other than the Divine authentication of his claims.

"It may be supposed that this incident is altogether without parallel, belonging to the realms of Old Testament story; but I cannot think it to be so. Nature is much more sympathetic with man than we sometimes suppose, because her beauty or terror is but the veil beneath which the Almighty hides Himself.

"How, save on the supposition that God answered the appeal of his servants, can we account for the fact of the terrific tempest that swept over our shores when the proud Armada of Spain menaced the liberties of Protestant England? And how, save on the supposition that Heaven itself protested against the blasphemous pretensions of the Papacy, can we account for the memorable fact that on the afternoon when the dogma of the Papal Infallibility was announced, the Vatican at midday was suddenly invested with a pall of blackest midnight?

"But there are other methods of Divine authentication on which every true servant of God may rely.

"When Paul and Barnabas abode for a long time in Iconium, speaking boldly in the Lord, 'He gave testimony unto the word of his grace'; and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews generalizes the experience of the early heralds of the Gospel when he says that the message of God’s great salvation was confirmed by them that heard the word, 'God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will' (Acts 14:3; Hebrews 2:3, 4).

"We cannot be too thankful for the witness of the Holy Spirit, whose voice is to the faithful servant of God all, and more, than the thunder was to Samuel. It was this that armed the primitive saints with irresistible power. 'We are his witnesses,' cried the Apostles, 'and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey Him.' 'Our Gospel,' wrote the greatest Apostle of all, 'came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance' (I Thessalonians 1:5).

"May I ask if my fellow-servants realize this--that the Holy Spirit is in the Church to-day, that He is prepared to bear his witness to every true word which is spoken in the name of Jesus, and that He will convict of sin, righteousness, and judgment; so that the faith of our hearers should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God, God bearing them witness and giving them the Holy Spirit (I Corinthians 2:1-4; Acts 15:8).

"This is the fatal lack of our preaching. We speak earnestly and faithfully, but we do not sufficiently look for nor rely on the Divine Co-witness; we do not understand the communion and fellowship of the Comforter; and our hearers do not hear his voice thrilling their souls, as thunder in the natural world, with the conviction that the things which we speak are the truths of God.

"Only let the passionate longing of our heart be, 'Father, glorify thy name,' and voices will come as from Heaven, saying, 'I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.'  Whilst some that stand by may say that 'It thundered,' others will say, 'An angel spake' (John 12:28, 29).

"Oh, our God, give us such power in prayer that when we pray Thou shalt answer 'in the secret place of thunder,' and send thunder and rain."