A Study of the Life of Samuel
Sermon # 5
“Doing Things God’s Way!”
1 Samuel 6:17 -7:17
You will remember in chapter four that the Philistines had captured the ark of the Covenant in battle and taken it to the capital city of Ashdod (5:1). Once there terrible things began to happen. When placed in the temple of there chief God Dagon, not once but twice they had entered the temple to find their god face down as in worship before the ark (5:2-4). How humiliating that must have been. Then a plague of tumors began to break out in each city that the ark was moved to (5:6-12). Finally, they decide to return the ark to Israel but not with a test, they had place the ark on a cart to be pulled by two cows who had just given birth to new calves. These cows were to be separated from their calves and if the cows pulled the cart to the nearest Israelite city rather than standing still or going to their calves then Jehovah really wanted the ark back (6:7-10). Much to the surprise and dismay of the Philistines the cows made a bee-line for the Beth-Shemesh (6:12) and thus the ark was returned to Israelite hands.
Five steps to doing things God’s Way.
1. There Must Be A Reverence For God and the Things of God (6:17-21)
But once the ark arrived in Beth-Shemesh it should have been covered, it was not suppose to be seen by anyone except the high priest. The people did not do this even though they knew and for the cost for this error of judgment will be high. Some of the people became curious and ‘looked into the ark” and were slain. There is some difference of opinion as to whether these individual looked into or upon the ark but either way it was an action that was forbidden and a number of Israelites lost there lives as a result.
I wonder if what happened was the result of what sometimes happens day, people rationalize why God does not really mean what he says. The serpent began this ploy as far back as the Garden of Eden, when the serpent said to Eve, you will not really die if you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” “God didn’t really mean it when he said that Eve, you don’t really think God would kill do you.” Perhaps the people of Beth Shemesh said, “I know God said in His law that the holy things were to be handled in such a way and that only certain people could perform certain functions, but that is not politically correct. Every one should be equal in the sense that no function excludes some and includes others. That would be sexist. So forget his business of only the Levites looking up and handling the ark, and let anyone who feels like it assume the role of a Levite in worship.” Today we say that, “If a woman wants to assume the role of pastor, it just is not right to say that God’s word says that you can not. That is insensitive.”
The affect of the disastrous handling of the ark was that the Israelites developed a deep sense of the holiness of God. After considering the number of those who are struck dead merely for looking at or into the ark, Israel had to begin wondering, “Who then can stand before the Lord?” The men of Beth-Shemesh word it for all of Israel in 1 Samuel 6:20,”Who is able then to stand before this holy Lord God and to whom shall it go up from us.”
After many are struck dead for merely looking at or into the ark the Israelites finally grasp how utterly different, how vastly superior the one true God is! This is the beginning step in doing things God’s way.
We must realize that all true revival begins with a deep sense of the holiness of God and a corresponding awareness of our own sinfulness.
There Must Not Only Be A Reverence For God and the Things of God but also
2. There Must Be a Drawing to the Lord 7:2
Twenty years pass from chapter seven, verse one, when the Ark was moved to its new location in Kierjath Jearim (kir-jath je’-ar-im) until the action takes up again in verse two. But as we will see having the ark in Jewish territory didn’t automatically solve Israel’s spiritual problems.
“So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.”
Verse two says that Israel “lamented after the Lord,” that there is a distinct yearning for the Lord began to grow among the people of Israel. We are told that all the house of Israel lamented or was drawn together after Jehovah.
But there has to be more to the renewing of a covenant than desire. The ark had been returned. But there had been no real awareness among the people or the priests that sin still separated them from God.
There Must Not Only Be a Drawing to the Lord but also
3. There Must Be A Turning From That Which Pulls Us From God (vv. 3-4)
In verse three Samuel calls upon the nation to return to the Lord with their whole hearts, “Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines."
Samuel was just a teenager when the ark was taken by the Philistines. The details of his life during the next twenty years, is left unanswered. Then in Israel’s darkest hour Samuel emerges again an older and wiser man to serve God as an instrument of deliverance. Samuel is strangely absent from the history of Israel as given in chapters 4-6. His name is not mentioned from chapter 4, verse 2, through chapter 7, verse 2. He does not seem to be a part of the humiliation of the Philistines in chapters 5 and 6, but he is very much a part of the revival of Israel described in chapter seven.
Samuel says that this return to the Lord will be demonstrated by a willingness to put away all the pagan idols in their midst. In verse four we are told that “the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only.”
The armies of the Philistines had established political control over Israel, but it was the surrender to the gods of the Philistines that had captured their soul. In spite of the fact that Moses had commanded them to destroy any evidence of the Canaanite religion; they did not and eventually they lapsed into idolatry and worshipped the gods of their defeated enemy.
An idol is simply a substitute for God, any-thing that we trust and serve in the place of God. Among these people it was idols of stone, ood and metal. Today it can be more sutble and attractive gods of our day; houses, land, recognition, wealth, possessions, position, and even people. Anything that takes the place of God in our lives and get the devotion that belongs to Him alone is an idol.
The putting away their false gods was only the beginning of their return to the LORD: the Jews also had to prepare their hearts for the LORD by fully devoting themselves to the Lord alone. Samuel has declared, “serve him only.” In Matthew 6: 24 Jesus says, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” No man can serve two masters. Even today you can not serve God and yourself at the same time without creating conflict. We are called to Remove That What Pulls us from God.
The longing of our hearts to be right with God needs a tangible external expression. That is why we need public worship on a regular basis, it gives us the place to confess our sins to God and to find closure on the past and freedom for the future. We cannot expect God to answer our prayers, reveal His presence, and give us victory over the enemy when we are “straddling the fence” – trying to walk with one foot in the world and the other in the church. True revival begins with repentance but it does not stop there. It wasn’t enough just to destroy their idols; the people also had to confess their sins and surrender themselves to the Lord.
There Must Not Only Be A Turning From That Which Pulls Us From God but also
4. There Must Be A Confession Of Sin (vv. 5-6)
“And Samuel said, "Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you."
When the people are ready to confess their sins, Samuel gathers the people and prays for Israel. In the truest sense of the word we do not need a human priest such as Moses or Samuel to intercede for us. Today there is only (1 Timothy 2:5-6) “… one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, (6) who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.”
Jesus is our High Priest who enables us to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16)
On the other hand, each of us does need the prayers of God’s people – not as go-betweens but to join us in prayer In James 5:16 the Christian is advised to, “Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” To refuse to ask others to pray for us is often a mark of pride. We are fearful that others will think less of us because we admit that we need help from the body of Christ.
When Samuel promised to pray for Israel he was promising to intercede on their behalf. In verse six, “So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the LORD. And they fasted that day, and said there, "We have sinned against the LORD… "
In Psalm 51:17 David declares a truth worth remembering when he says, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-- These, O God, You will not despise.”
There Must Not Only Be A Confession Of Sin but also
5. There Must Be A Willingness to Depend On God For Help
(vv. 7-11, 13-14)
“Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines.
When the Philistines heard that Israel was gathered at Mizpah they wrongly assumed that the nation was preparing for war, and come out to fight. When the Israel learned that the Philistines are coming they are frightened (v. 7), they do not have the Ark with them to take to war, all they can do is cast themselves on God’s mercy and trust Him. They have to appeal to God on the basis of grace not magic. What a contrast with the previous defeat. The children of Israel realized that they could not defeat their enemies in their own strength. The Psalmist reminds us in (20:7)
“Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God.”
This episode illustrates the importance of depending on God in tough circumstances. Israel found victory on its knees as much as through the valor of its soldiers. If God had not set the stage first for the victory Israel would not have prevailed in this situation.
They ask Samuel to voice their prayer to God (v. 8- 9), “So the children of Israel said to Samuel, "Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines." (9) And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. Then Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel,” The result was that verse nine concludes saying, “ … and the LORD answered him.” The result was that the Lord brought a great thunderstorm which caused great confusion among the Philistines and enables the Israelite warriors to overcome them (v.10). “Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. (11) And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car.”
The Lord thundered against the Philistine soldiers and so confused them that it was possible for the Israelite soldiers to attack and defeat them. It is significant to remember that Baal was the Canaanite storm god, and it makes the power of God’s thunder even more effective in shaking the Philistine army to the core.
The end result was that the Philistine domination over Israel was broken. From then and through out the lifetime of Samuel, the hand of God was with Israel and against the Philistines (v. 13). All of the cities formerly taken from Israel by the Philistines was restored to Israel (v. 14).
“Twenty years before (then) the Israelites met the Philistines in a battle for which they were not prepared. Now the Lord was leading their enemies against them so that He might execute a great deliverance. Then the Israelites had superstitiously carried the ark into battle: now they turned in sincerity to God Himself. Then they had only the symbol of God’s presence; but now they had the reality. Then they went to war presump-tuously; now they had confessed their sins. Then they suffered defeat; now God went before them and miraculously delivered their enemies into their hands.” [1 & 2 Samuel. Sunday School Growth Curriculum. Adult Teaching Guide. (December 1993- February 1994) p. 29]
Following Israel’s victory over the Philistines, Samuel placed a stone “between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." (v.12). The Israelite victory was on the same battlefield where the people had been so thoroughly defeated twenty years earlier. It is a great encouragement for us to realize that we can find victory where we have been defeated previously. With this act of worship, Samuel was also sending a message to Israel. They had defeated the Philistines because they had done things God’s way.
A stone was erected and the place was called “Ebenezer” which means “a stone of help” as a remembrance that his victory was totally from God. It was a reminder that God had helped them “this far” and would continue to help them if they would trust Him and keep His covenant. But it was also clear that should they forsake God and go back to doing things their way, He would forsake them and once again allow them to be taken into bondage.
The conclusion of the matter is outlined beginning in verse thirteen, “So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore into the territory of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. (14) Then the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. Also there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
The steps to doing things God’s Way.
1. There Must Be A Reverence For God and the Things of God
2. There Must Be a Drawing to the Lord
3.There Must Be A Turning From Things That Pull us Away From God
4.There Must Be A Confession Of Sin
5.There Must Be A Willingness to Depend On God For Help
