A Study of the Books of Samuel
Sermon # 5
“Doing Things God’s Way!”
1 Samuel 6:17 -7:17
Five steps to doing things God’s Way.
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
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
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
“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
(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).
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.
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
There Must Be A Willingness to Depend On God For Help
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