Real People , Real Problems A Study Of 1 Samuel Part 4c, Knowing God Series

Real People- Real problems

A study of 1 Samuel

Part 4c

“Knowing God”- “ Little g gods”

Today we will continue our series on Real People with real problems from 1 Samuel

In the last few weeks we have been covering the problem of not knowing God

Or

Wrong thinking about who God is and what he really does and better yet what he does not do

We saw a few weeks ago that we have the ability to know about someone and not really know them

I used a scene from Young Guns for that to show that it is not all that uncommon for us to base our knowledge of someone on

Rumor

Wrong information

Misguided teachings

Personal preferences

And even selfish desires and ambitions

That bounty hunter knew about Billy the Kid but did not know him well enough to recognize him when he was right in front of his face

The Israelites thought they knew God

They certainly should have

They had access to the right teaching

They chose the wrong instead

They had access to the true God

The Creator

But they chose to view him as some sort of lucky charm

And

They chose other fake gods instead

The Philistines on the hand

Only knew God by reputation

They knew the God of Israel had destroyed the Egyptians and parted the sea

As a result

They feared God in a scary /Stephen King kind of way

Not a reverent way

And they viewed him simply as a power they could control

Both views were detrimental to their health

Their happiness

And

Their relationship with God

You see

In order to have a healthy

Happy

Maturing

Relationship

With God

It is imperative that we know God

Really know God

Over the next few weeks

It is my prayer to help us

You and I know and understand God a bit better

Through God’s word

Please open your bibles to 1 Samuel chapter 7

We are going to ship ahead just a bit in the story of the Ark and its return today

Then sometime in the weeks to come we will back track just a bit and see how we should and should not deal with guilt

It is significant that we understand that between 7:2 and 7:3 twenty years passed

Let’s read 1 Samuel 7:1-17 together

Then we can break it down and apply it to our lives

1 Samuel 7:1-17

7 So the men of Kiriath-jearim came to get the Ark of the LORD. They took it to the hillside home of Abinadab and ordained Eleazar, his son, to be in charge of it. 2 The Ark remained in Kiriath-jearim for a long time—twenty years in all. During that time all Israel mourned because it seemed the LORD had abandoned them.

3 Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you want to return to the LORD with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the LORD and obey him alone; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” 4 So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the LORD.

5 Then Samuel told them, “Gather all of Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” 6 So they gathered at Mizpah and, in a great ceremony, drew water from a well and poured it out before the LORD. They also went without food all day and confessed that they had sinned against the LORD. (It was at Mizpah that Samuel became Israel’s judge.)

7 When the Philistine rulers heard that Israel had gathered at Mizpah, they mobilized their army and advanced. The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching. 8 “Don’t stop pleading with the LORD our God to save us from the Philistines!” they begged Samuel. 9 So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the LORD as a whole burnt offering. He pleaded with the LORD to help Israel, and the LORD answered him.

10 Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived to attack Israel. But the LORD spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that day, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them. 11 The men of Israel chased them from Mizpah to a place below Beth-car, slaughtering them all along the way.

12 Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah.[a] He named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the LORD has helped us!”

13 So the Philistines were subdued and didn’t invade Israel again for some time. And throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the LORD’s powerful hand was raised against the Philistines. 14 The Israelite villages near Ekron and Gath that the Philistines had captured were restored to Israel, along with the rest of the territory that the Philistines had taken. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites in those days.