Hebrews Lesson 197                                                    May 6, 2010

NKJ Psalm 119:9 How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word.

 

While you're turning to 1 Samuel 7, we’ll just take a moment to go back to our starting point here in Hebrews 11:32.   Hebrews 11:32 begins the conclusion to the chapter.  Through the chapter the writer has been going through example after example after example of an Old Testament believer who has taken the time to focus on a promise of God.  He's waiting for a promise.  He's looking forward into the future for the fulfillment of that promise; and these did not see the fulfillment of that promise so that at the beginning of Hebrews 11 the writer of Hebrews speaks of faith as the evidence of things not seen.  The promises weren’t seen. 

 

If we look through the text of the whole book of Hebrews, the promise - there are different promises that are spoken of in Hebrews; but they all somehow relate to the promise of inheritance, something that as we’ve seen in our study of inheritance that is something more than eternal life, something that has to do with additional blessings that God has for us in the eternal state or in the Millennial Kingdom. 

 

So when we focus on Hebrews 11, it’s understanding that these men had a sense of a future destiny (an eternal destiny) and that that was where things were headed.  In some sense in the Old Testament it might've been a little more vague than in the New Testament due to differences in level of revelation although there were some like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob who had a greater glimpse of what that promise was. Moses did. 

 

But then when we come towards the conclusion here where things are wrapped up, the writer says that he’s run out of time.  He doesn’t have time to continue to go through all of the details.  Then he lists has three groupings here: Gideon and Barak, Samson and Jephthah, David and Samuel and then the prophets in general - this catch all term referring to not only the ones we think of as the Major Prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and those who have books named after them; but remember we read about Zechariah, the son of the high priest in Israel, in 2 Kings that is stoned by Jehoash a couple of weeks ago on Sunday morning.  So there were other prophets that are mentioned in the Old Testament that don't have their name on a book.  That's not the same Zechariah that we have in the Minor Prophets.  So there were other prophets, others that were just not mentioned; and so he just lists all of those prophets from the early days in the conquest and afterwards as well as prophets that came later on in Israel’s history.  So he’s looking at the things that they did. 

 

Now as we read ahead in the next verses which we’ll speak of a little bit later on, that it is through faith that they subdued kingdoms.  That is, they conquered armies from invaders.  They worked righteousness.  Some established justice in the kingdom such as David.  They obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions such as Daniel and Samuel and quenched the violence of fire such as Daniel’s three friends Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego, escaped the edge of the sword and out of weakness were made strong.  They became valiant in battles such as Gideon, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.  Gideon, Jephthah and Samuel all did that.  Women received their dead raised to life again - the widow of Zarephath, the Shunamite woman Then others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better the resurrection.  Notice, it always focuses on the future, not the reward of this life, but in the future. 

 

So he continues wrapping up at the end.

 

NKJ Hebrews 11:39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,

 

For the sense there is all of these established a good testimony or witness in some way in their life through their faith by acting and trusting on a promise of God.  But they did not receive the promise.  That's what it’s all headed to. None of these men received the promise.  In the same way the writer is saying to his audience that you're not going to see the promise either; but you have to keep your faith (your trust) focused on the Lord Jesus Christ and not grow weary which is exactly where he goes at the beginning of the next chapter.  So that gives us a context of why he's going through these different men. 

 

Now in 11:32 as I’ve said there are 3 groups (three pairs): Gideon and Barak, Samson and Jephthah, David and Samuel.  So tonight we come to the last pair.  (Now the animation of this slide got all messed up.)

 

Okay.  Here’s a timeline for you of (we’ll just put everything in there) of the last 3 judges.  Actually one is left out.  We usually don't include him because he was such a failure. That’s Eli. Eli was the high priest.  He was also considered a judge at the time of Samuel so he overlaps these three.  He comes in during the time of Jephthah, dies during the early stages of Samuel’s life.  So we have these three primarily: Jephthah, Samson and Samuel.  Jephthah’s dates there are given from about 1150 to 1100 BC.  Samson was born about halfway into Jephthah’s life so Samson’s birth would have come sometime around the time when Jephthah delivered Israel from the oppression of the Ammonites.  Samson’s dates are 1123 to 1084.  Then Samuel would have been born in 1115 to 1020. So Samuel would have been born about eight or nine years after Samson was born.  So their judgeships overlap.  Both of them are also Nazirites.  Both of them are required to - put under a Nazirite vow which we’ll look at in just a minute.  But Samson is the one who is almost a complete failure except for the end.  Then Samuel is the one through whom God is going to bring about the ultimate solution for the Israelites which is through the kingship of David.  Samuel is the one who will anoint David.

 

At the bottom of the chart I've got two battles that are placed in history for just a reference point –the Battle of Aphek which occurred in 1104 BC and then the Battle of Mizpah which is in 1084.  It is the Battle of Mizpah that I want to look at this evening in terms of understanding the significance of Samuel.  The focus is always on this promise that the land has something to do with Israel.  So as we look at Hebrews 11:32, 33f, the focal point of all the many things that Samuel did.  I think the important one has to do with his delivery of the nation from the oppression of the Philistines.  It begins really with Samuel. 

Now this chart up here that I have on the screen organizes the information related to the Nazirite vow.  When Samuel in the book of Samuel, in the first three chapters describe his birth and his early life.  He is the one that is really the individual God has chosen to deliver the people from the oppression of the Philistines. 

The book of Judges was written to show that the nation had rejected God as their king.  When it says in Judges that there was no king in the land, that doesn’t just mean there was no physical human king; but that they had gotten rid of the kingship of God in terms of their mentality.  They were disloyal to God, constantly setting up idols, constantly pursuing the Baalim and the Ashera, constantly giving themselves over to false religions.  But they were disloyal.  They were treasonous in terms of the Mosaic Law.  So Judges was written to show the consequences of that rebellion, the consequences of their idolatry, the consequences of moral relativism when everyone does what is right in their own eyes.

So the nation became enslaved to its own sinfulness, enslaved to the false religion of idolatry.  They were by the time you get to the end of the book of Judges, they're virtually enslaved to the Philistines.  The Philistines are dominating them.  There doesn't seem to be any hope.  In fact it's gotten so bad that they don't even care.  They never seem to want Samson to do the things he did to rile up the Philistines.  In fact, on a couple of occasions they to try to talk him out of doing anything.  So they just want to live in peace even if that means that they're under the oppression of the Philistines. 

That's one of the things that sin nature and carnality does.  As we go through a gradual process of becoming under the control of our sin nature and under the control and under the dominion of sin, we lose all sense of values.  We become enslaved in our mentality which then prepares us to be enslaved overtly through government or some other system.  It all starts in the mind. Once we reject the freedom that can come only from a relationship with God; then we of lose sight of any desire to be free. 

We see that in so many different ways in Western civilization which has been the centerpiece really of Christianity for the last 2,000 years with the expansion of Christianity into Europe when the apostle Paul saw the vision from the man in Troas and took the Gospel across from Turkey (what is now modern Turkey to Greece) when the gospel first really came to Europe and all of the expansion of the Gospel all the way through Europe and the impact of the Gospel down through a church history.   If you take a map some time and you color in all of the countries that have been impacted by evangelical Protestant Christianity and all the countries that have not - you'll pretty much see all the countries that have had the greatest measure of freedom in the history of man: western civilization in the United States and Canada to some degree, England (Great Britain), Northern Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavian countries, Western Europe )the Netherlands, Germany.) 

But today what do we see?  We see that the people in these countries are always and continually enslaving themselves to a socialistic economic system and they become enslaved to their governments to the tune of billions and billions of dollars as their governments have followed these pseudo-compassionate systems of welfare, these pseudo-compassionate systems of socialism in order provide all of these social benefits to people operating on completely false systems of equality, that equality - that governments are to guarantee the equality of results and not the equality of opportunity. 

So now there is this increased debt and whenever you're talking about these huge amounts of money of course in many areas because you have people who have lost any real sense of virtue and honor and integrity having departed from the any level of Christianity.  A lot of corruption comes in which is what is seen in the situation in Greece right now as well as in Spain and Portugal and I'm sure many of the other countries.  We’ve seen huge amounts of lack of financial integrity in the way many of these so called to-big-to-fail mega corporations have handled people's money with a lack of integrity that has put the financial systems of the West in incredible jeopardy.  But that is - what the financial institutions have done is really just the icing on the cake so to speak. 

The real problem has been the approach to how they have handled money in the role of government which has created such an enormous amount of debt that it has enslaved all of the people.  So basically we're all slaves to the government.  We have to work in the United States up to this point I think it's been about four to five months out of every year the average person has to work just to pay their tax bill.  So that means that four months out of the year you work for the federal government.  You don't work for anybody else; and you're just a slave. 

Now with the introduction of Obamacare and the next year when the Bush tax cuts go away and a number of other things hit, we’re going to see our taxes go up in some cases thirty, forty, fifty percent just to pay off the indebtedness that is just exorbitant.  We are becoming slaves on Uncle Sam's plantation.  People don't even understand what that means and they think “Oh, isn’t that great!  We’re getting something for free.”  Well, there's no such thing as a free lunch.  We can’t get it for free. 

This is the same kind of thing that was happening in Israel.  The people began to like it.  They just accept it for what it is.  They begin to rationalize and to justify their situation.  This is what had happened in Israel so that they were not really wanting to go to war against the Philistines. 

But God used Samson as we saw to stir things up.  Well in God’s solution to the problem, He's going to answer the prayer of this woman Hannah.  Hannah is one of two wives.  She is married to a man named Elkanah.  The situation of those two wives is somewhat illustrative of the problem in Israel.  Hannah is barren just as Israel is spiritually barren.  Hannah is being abused and ridiculed and demeaned by the other wife because she can't have any children in the same way Israel is being abused and maltreated by the Philistines.  Just as Israel is in a political and economic hopeless situation so Hannah is in a hopeless situation. 

This drives her to the Lord.  So she goes to the Lord, and she prays to Him that He would give her a child.  She makes a vow to God.  God in His grace answers that prayer and is going to give her a son.  It is through that son that He's going to deliver the nation.  So that son that is born is Samuel.  The time that he is weaned which sounds pretty young to us; but in that culture it could be anywhere from three to six years of age.  So I don't know if it was as old as six, but it could certainly be older than six months or a year or two as we might think in this country. 

Actually I had a lady played the piano for me in my first church who didn't wean her son until he was old enough to understand her explanation. I thought that was a little bit unusual.  But at the time I was teaching through Samuel so it was a great illustration that I’ve used for the last thirty years. 

So Samuel was a little bit older than just an infant at the time that Hannah turns him over to Eli.  While he's there being mentored, trained, apprenticed and is growing up as an apprentice priest then the Lord appears to him in chapter 3.  He realizes that Samuel has the gift of prophecy and then as he matures he's going to be a judge.  So he is a prophet, a priest and a judge.

Then as we go through those opening chapters in 1 Samuel, the first major battle that comes along is that battle at Aphek.

Now also one other thing related to the slide up here - when Hannah prayed there was a dedication and the answer – her child was to be dedicated as a Nazirite just like Samson.  That meant that first of all if you on this panel on the right there was no drinking of wine, eating grapes, touching grapes or are having anything to do with a vineyard.  The second thing was there was no cutting of the hair, trimming of the beard.  He wasn’t to go to the barber.  Then the third was that he wasn’t to visit or be around any burial sites or touch a dead body or have anything to do with a carcass.  So that would have – those were the signs of his being separated unto service for God.  Normally the Nazirite vow was a voluntary vow that was taken for a temporary period of time.  But for both Sampson and Samuel it was to be a lifetime endeavor. 

Now we never think of Samuel that way.  We only think of Samson that way.  We never think of Samuel going around with long hair and a long beard because of a Nazirite vow.  But he was set apart to God in the same way.  All that that meant was it was an overt expression of an internal decision. 

Later on the Apostle Paul took a vow similar to that for a short period time on his way back to Jerusalem. 

So there's this battle that comes along in chapter 4 which is a major battle to defeat of Israel at the Battle of Aphek.  At Battle of Aphek the Philistines completely rout the Israelites.  Thirty thousand Israelites were killed including two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas.  When Eli received word that they're dead and that the Ark of the Covenant has been captured by the Philistines; then he dies in shock when he hears the news.

The Ark then is taken by the pagans, taken by the Philistines.  But God is going to show that He's the one in charge and He defeats the Philippines.  Over the next seven months the Ark is shifted around from first Ashdod and later Ekron in order to try to show that they control the Ark. But each time they do that, different things happen.  The first place in Ashdod they put the Ark in the Temple of Dagon.  God’s got a great sense of humor here.  Each morning they would come in and the big tall idol of Dagon would be bowing down before the Ark of the Covenant.  So after they stood the idol up the first time, the next day they came in and his head – I mean his hands and feet were cut off.  It’s just a demonstration that the God of Israel was over the idols of the pagans. 

So eventually the Philistines got tired of being abused by God and so they had sent the Ark back to Israel.  It came back first to Beth Shemish where God had to bring a judgment against those who lived there because they came and they looked inside the Ark.  They treated the Lord with a lack of respect.

Chapter 6 verse 19 states:

 

NKJ 1 Samuel 6:19 Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter.

 

Then the men of Beth Shemesh didn’t want the Ark there any more, so they sent it to Kiriath Jearim which is a suburb now of Jerusalem. 

 

Here is Jerusalem right here on this map.  Kiriath Jearim is just off here, just outside of Jerusalem.  Actually all this area is covered by Jerusalem today.  So this is the area.  Also on this map this is Ramah which is located fairly close to the modern Palestinian town of Ramallah which you hear about in the news.  So that's the area which was the birthplace of Samuel. 

Here's a map that we’ll look at in a minute because the next battle that comes along, they meet at Mizpah which is here.  Then they will get the Ark and they will go into battle and rout the Philistines back to where they have a victory at Ebenezer. 

In chapter 7 we’re told of this particular battle and how Samuel judges Israel.  In verse 3 we read:

NKJ 1 Samuel 7:3 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."

 

Now here we have a very important word that we have studied.  David brought this up in his study on Tuesday night and that is the Hebrew word shubh.  When Samuel spoke he said, “If you return to the Lord.” That’s the same word that was used in Deuteronomy 30:2 that there would a time in history after the Israelites were scattered into all the nations that if they would return to the Lord, then He would restore them to the land.  So this word shubh is a key word for repent.  It means to turn back to God.  It is more than just a mental attitude change.  It is really as we've seen it means to make a decision and then to take an action an relation to that decision. 

Now if that action is to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior; then it is a cerebral, intellectual, mental action.  If you're to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ then when you turn to God what you're doing is you’re believing in the Lord Jesus Christ that He died on the cross for your sins. If you are a believer and turning back to God entails changing certain things in your life in order to be obedient to the Word; then turning to God isn't just saying “Okay.  I’m going to turn to God.” but it entails doing certain things which is exactly what we see here.

Samuel says:

If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths

If that's the sign of turning to God, if you’re really honest about turning to God then that also means that you're going to do away with the idols that are in your life. 

So they turned back toward the Lord.  They put away the foreign gods, and they served the Lord alone.  They get rid of everything.  They clean up the land.  They can rid of all of the high places and as a result there is a national time of worship - not quite like the National Day of Prayer Day today which was to be a time when people would focus - the people of the nation would focus on praying for the nation, praying for our leaders, praying for the economy, praying for…We should be doing that every single day.  That's why usually I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the National Day of Prayer other than simply to mention it.  But, it is to be a time when believers specifically remember to pray for the nation.  But we should be doing that every day according to 1 Timothy 2: 1-2.  We are to pray for all those in authority whether they are good or bad, whether we like them or dislike them.  We need to pray for them that they will make wise decisions so that we can live a gentle and tranquil life Paul says – so that we can go about our business of teaching the Word, spreading the Gospel, learning the Word so that we can grow to spiritual maturity.  We need to pray that we would have good leaders who will make decisions that will allow us to live in tranquil times. 

When you don't live in tranquil times then it's very difficult to focus on the things that produce spiritual growth because you become consumed with issues related to security and survival.  So we need to always be in prayer not just for political leaders (civil leaders) but also for of business leaders – for CEOs of major corporations whose decisions have a tremendous impact on the economy.  We need to pray judges.  We need to pray for people who sit on the school board.  We need to pray for people who sit on the Texas State Board of Education.  They’ve done a tremendous job this year in maintaining a solid curriculum especially in areas of history and other things.    

There's always a battle and has been a battle because Texas is a state that is so large that whatever textbooks we choose because the publishing companies have to print so many that we basically determined the textbooks for the rest of the country.  Between Texas and California the choices made there impact everybody else in the nation.  So as goes the Texas State Board of Education so goes the rest of the country.  So we really need to pay attention to those elections and be praying for those individuals.  But we need to pray for everybody from the local police and firemen all the way up to the leaders at the national level.  This needs to be a consistent area of prayer.

So in Israel they had a time of national worship of God.  As they turned away and destroyed all of the Baalim and the Ashtoreths, then Samuel called for them to come together to pray at Mizpah. 

Now I'll go back a minute to the map.  So they gather at Mizpah and as the nation comes together at Mizpah, the Philistines get the idea that this would be a tremendous time to attack them.  When they're coming together to worship – not unlike the decision that the Arabs made back in 1973 to attack on Yom Kippur...  By attacking on Yom Kippur (on a high holy day) they believed that everything would be shut down.  The people would all be at home.  They would be at synagogue.  The army would pretty much be off alert or not as alert as they would be normally.  So they could spring a surprise attack against Israel and defeat them.  Of course they were defeated in turn.  The Israelis were able to respond.  So it’s the same kind of a thing.  So the Philistines came in to attack at Mizpah, and they were actually routed. 

Now what has happened at Mizpah really sets the stage spiritually.  As I keep saying, the spiritual factor always controls the physical destiny.  How we are spiritually has an incredible effect on what happens in terms of economics and politics and technology and cultural prosperity.  You can't measure the cause and effect of that in a classroom.  You can't measure it through a Gallup poll.  You can’t measure it through these empirical studies.  You can only know about this by studying the Word of God. 

So as the nation comes together after this period of defeat and oppression under the Philistines they come together; and they confess their sins before God. 

So verse 6 tells us:

NKJ 1 Samuel 7:6 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." And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.

Now “judging” there isn't the idea we get of going before a magistrate.  A judge is a leader.  The judge in Israel was a combination military leader, political leader and religious leader.  Depending on what the circumstances were, they functioned in different ways.  We saw that with Deborah and Barak.  Deborah was judging Israel.  It also involved the fact that she was a prophetess.  Then Gideon as a judge delivered the nation militarily from the Midianites as did Jephthah.  Others operated in different ways, sometimes more like what we think of as a judge, often more as a political and military leader.  So this is a summary of Samuel’s role.  He is a prophet; and now it's clear he is a judge.

 

NKJ 1 Samuel 7:7 Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel.

So this gathering would have taken several days.  They weren’t there for just one day.  They had to travel from all over the nation so this would have taken some time.  The Israelites then are attacked by the Philistines.

And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

This is a problem.  They’re not trusting God yet.  They are afraid because of the numerical superiority and the technological superiority of the Philistines.  The Philistines had iron weapons.  The Philistines as they dominated the Israelites had prohibited or outlawed the Philistines from having blacksmiths who could work with iron.  It’s one of the early forms of arms control.

I happened to read today that -  and you can always count on- even though the Times Square bomber did not use a firearm - of course, the first thing people want to do anytime there's any incident of violence of this type is somebody trots out and says, “Oh, we need to control hand guns, that we need to control firearms.”  There's always somebody who wants to attach some firearm legislation. 

The Second Amendment is all we need - is that we have the right as citizens to arm ourselves.  Now this sounds radical to a lot of people.  But the point of the Second Amendment is for the citizen to be able to protect himself against the tyranny of the government.  If the government can come at you with Stinger missiles, then that means you as a citizen ought to be able to buy Stinger missiles so you can protect yourself because if the government has a higher level technology of weaponry than you do, then you're not going to do much with a .22 against a Stinger missile.  That's why you need be able to go out down to Wal-Mart and by all the Stinger missiles that you want to.  If you think that sounds funny it’s because you've been brainwashed by the cosmic system already to think that – “Well we don't really need to be able to do that.  That's a little excessive.”  But if you’re in a position where the government starts coming against you and this is in violation of the Constitution and you're not a criminal; then you should be able to protect yourself against the tyranny of the government which is exactly what the issue was in 1776 and why one of the things that kicked off the American War for Independence was that the British army was marching from Boston out to Concord because the Patriots had a stockpile of arms there that they could go to in the case of defense and could use if they wanted to against a British army.  So the British were going to go out and confiscate all their weapons.

Now today we look back, “Well, those were all black powder weapons.” 

But they were the same level technology as the weapons that the British army had.  So they could engage in a fair fight using the same level of weapons that the British army did. 

So that's what the Second Amendment intended.  Of course we're a long way from that now. But of course we're thankful we live in Texas and things are a lot better here than they are in most other places.

So the Israelites are fearful because the Philistines can come in and they have superior technology superior weapons.  They have ironed tipped arrows; they have iron tipped spears.  And they have chariots.  All this means that the Israelites are at a great disadvantage; and they can’t take care of things.  So the only solution they have is to turn to the Lord. 

So verse 8:

NKJ 1 Samuel 7:8 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."

 

They know that only God can do it.

NKJ 1 Samuel 7:9 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, and the LORD answered him.

 

Here’s an example of the offering of a lamb that’s not - remember this is under the Mosaic Law.  It’s not in the Tabernacle.  It’s not in the Temple. 

 

Somebody asked that question in relationship to Jephthah because Jephthah’s offer was to make a burnt offering.  They understood that in terms of the burnt offering regulations of the Mosaic Law.  Well, that was for burnt offerings that were offered at the Tabernacle or later at the Temple; but there were many times in the Old Testament when under the category of a patriarchal or a family worship area there would be a family offering of a burnt offering and here at Mizpah not at Shiloh where the Tabernacle was located but at Mizpah Samuel was going to offer a burnt offering in sacrifice to the Lord.  He cries out to the Lord in prayer, and the Lord answered him. 

 

NKJ 1 Samuel 7:10 Now as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.

 

Now I want you to pay attention to this.

But the LORD thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel.

 

Now so little is said that it just boggles our imagination.  I wonder if any of us has ever been in a thunderstorm that was so close and so bad that it confused you.  That is - that's not your typical normal thunderstorm - something that just seems like you're right there.  The lightning is dancing off the rocks around you and the thunder is so loud that you can’t hear yourself think and with it perhaps rain.  Now I am going to tell you why I think that perhaps in just a minute.  But this is not an unusual thing for the Lord to do so as I’ll point out in a minute.

 

NAS 1 Samuel 7:11 And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down as far as below Beth-car.

 

We’re not sure exactly where that's located.

NKJ 1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen,

 

We’re not sure where Shen is. 

 

and called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us."

 

…eben meaning rock; ezer from the same Hebrew word talking about a woman who was created from the side of the man to be the ezer (the helper, the assistant) to the man.  Ebenezer is the rock of help, the rock of assistance because the Lord has helped us. 

 

The conclusion was:

 

NKJ 1 Samuel 7:13 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.

 

So Samuel as long as he is in a leadership position; then Philistines are not a problem.  This occurs until you get into the days of Saul.  So, some of the cities that the Philistines have captured are restored to Israel.  What does this take us back to? The land is recovered.  It's the land promise.  Samuel understands the land promise.  He understands the Mosaic Law and that's his rationale for praying to God that the Israelites would be protected against the Philistines. 

 

Now the next incident that we come to that also deals with the Philistines has to do with David.  Two people are mentioned in Hebrews 11:32, David and Samuel.  Turn over to 1 Samuel 17.  This is the next time we really see a problem with the Philistines; and it’s at the time of David.  David is a young man.  He's probably sixteen or seventeen years of age.  This is when the Philistines come in the southern part of Israel just south of Bethlehem and they set up there.  

 

NKJ 1 Samuel 17:1 Now the Philistines gathered their armies together to battle, and were gathered together at Sochoh, which belongs to Judah; they encamped between Sochoh and Azekah, in Ephes Dammim.

 

These are two ridges (two mountains).  Today there is a great little boutique vineyard up on Sochoh that is owned by a friend of the guide that we use when we’re in Israel.  It's really been great the last couple times we've been.  We've gone there for a little wine tasting.  This guy smokes all his own meats and grows all of his own vegetables and he has salads.  He has quite a layout.  It is just tremendous.  You sit up there have lunch and look out over the valley where David fought Goliath.  It’s a beautiful, beautiful location.

 

So they are up there at Sochoh and Azekah is across the ridge.  We’re told that:

 

NKJ 1 Samuel 17:2 And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and they encamped in the Valley of Elah, and drew up in battle array against the Philistines.

 

So the Philistines have the high ground, and the Israelites have the low ground down in the valley.   Each day one of the Philistines would come out on the ridge and would challenge them.  This shows the Greek background to the Philistines.  This is the same kind of thing that you had before Troy when Hector and Achilles when they came and fought as champions – hand-to-hand, one-on-one combat. 

 

So every day Goliath would come out.  You know the story.  He would challenge the Israelites to send out somebody who would fight him.  Then David who wasn't there was sent by his father to take food to his brothers who were in the army.  When David was there and he heard the challenge, I just want you to note David’s response.  In verse 26 David uses divine viewpoint to interpret this situation.  When he hears this challenge he's told there's a reward for the man who will go out and fight the Philistines.

 

NKJ 1 Samuel 17:26 Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, "What shall be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?"

 

It's that term “uncircumcised” that's important because circumcision was the sign of the Abrahamic Covenant.  It was the Abrahamic Covenant that’s the basis for the promise of the land. 

 

What David is saying here “This guy is an uncircumcised Philistine?  He’s standing on the land God promised Abraham for us.  He has no right to stand there.   Why isn't somebody going out there and getting rid of him on the basis of the promise of God?”

 

So he just looks at it very simply – in a simple black and white situation.   God promised us the land.  This Philistine has not right here.  Let's go get rid of him.”

 

Of course you know the story that that's exactly what David did.  He went to Saul.  Saul questioned whether he had any combat experience.  He described how he fought the bears and the lions when he would protect the sheep.

 

So Saul sent him out, tried to clothe him in his armor which was too large for David.  So David went out with his sling, his five smooth stones he took from the brook.  And he had a small club and his staff.  That's what he took with him against the Philistines.  He took one shot and knocked Goliath out and then went up to cut off his head to make sure he was dead.  That really begins the last stage of the deliverance of the land from the Philistines. 

 

So when we look at all the context of Hebrews 11, the focus is on believing the promise of God ultimately in the land promise that God will eventually give that to Israel and all of these different heroes mentioned there beginning with Abraham on are operating in some way related to taking and controlling the land in the Old Testament.  They never controlled it all so that the inheritance is yet future.

 

Now with David the deliverance from the Philistines was going to begin; but it doesn't end until almost the end of his life.  So I want you to turn with me to one more incident in 2 Samuel 21 – 2 Samuel 21.  This takes place much later in David's life; and it has a lot of parallels.  David fought many wars in order to expand the territory to the full extent of that which had been promised by Abraham.  But they never controlled all of it.  But later on when he was older they were still having problems with the Philistines down on their southeastern flank in the same way that the Israelites today have problems with the Palestinians in the in the Gaza Strip.

 

Now Palestine, that name has nothing to do with Philistine although most people think it did.  And it was intended to sound that way.  The Peleset people (as the Egyptians called them) were the Philistines.  When the Greeks moved in after Alexander the Great into the Middle East they called Israel Palestine from the Greek word palio which means wrestler, one who wrestled.  That was a pun because it was Jacob (remember) who wrestled with God at a place called Peniel.  This was then the Angel of the Lord wacked him on the hip and left him with a reminder for the rest of his life that he wasn’t supposed to fight with God. 

 

So in 2 Samuel 21, then this is where David is fighting the Philistines.  Philistines and Palestinians have no relationship.  Palestinians were Arabs that came in much later, no tie back to the Philistines. 

 

So we’re told in verse 15:

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 21:15 When the Philistines were at war again with Israel,

 

This happened all the way through David’s life until this point.

 

David and his servants with him went down and fought against the Philistines; and David grew faint.

 

He just didn’t have the physical stamina any more as an older man to continue the fight.

 

Then we’re told:

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 21:16 Then Ishbi-Benob, who was one of the sons of the giant,

 

So this would've been one of Goliath’s sons. 

 

the weight of whose bronze spear was three hundred shekels, who was bearing a new sword, thought he could kill David

 

But his spear weighted only three hundred shekels.  It was about half the weight of the spear of Goliath.  Three hundred shekels was good bit less than the weight of Goliath’s spear.  It was approximately – let me see.  Three hundred shekels would be about seven and a half pounds.  So that’s going to be a fairly heavy spear with a three and a half pound tip on the end of it (spearhead). 

 

He also has with him a new sword. And he thought he could kill David.

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 21:17 But Abishai the son of Zeruiah came to his aid, and struck the Philistine and killed him. Then the men of David swore to him, saying, "You shall go out no more with us to battle, lest you quench the lamp of Israel."

 

The men of David said, “Okay. You’re not going to war any more.  You’re too old.  We’re going to retire you because we don't want the lamp of Israel to go out.  Your life is far too valuable to risk losing you in a battle.”

 

Now in verse 18 we’re told:

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 21:18 Now it happened afterward that there was again a battle with the Philistines at Gob. Then Sibbechai the Hushathite killed Saph, who was one of the sons of the giant.

 

So another family member is out trying to make his reputation.

 

Then in verse 19:

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 21:19 Again there was war at Gob with the Philistines, where Elhanan the son of Jaare-Oregim the Bethlehemite killed the brother of Goliath the Gittite, the shaft of whose spear was like a weaver's beam.

 

Then there's another war in verse 20 at Gath. 

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 21:20 Yet again there was war at Gath, where there was a man of great stature, who had six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot, twenty-four in number; and he also was born to the giant.

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 21:21 So when he defied Israel, Jonathan the son of Shimea, David's brother, killed him.

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 21:22 These four were born to the giant in Gath, and fell by the hand of David and by the hand of his servants.

 

This pretty much brings to an end the oppression of the Philistines.  It’s taken all the time from – it’s lasted over a century from the time of Samson all the way up to this time later in David's life.

 

Then David wrote a psalm to celebrate God’s giving them the victory.  This is given in chapter 22 which is almost identical to Psalm 18 and gives us a great promise that we can apply any time that we're facing a battle as well.  

 

In 2 Samuel 22:2 we read:

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 22:2 And he said: "The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;

3 The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence

 

That's how the Psalm begins.  Now there are several metaphors used and applied to the Lord that teach us about His protection.  The first word there is rock.  “The Lord is my rock.”  Now if you look at some translations in verse 2 where it will be translated the “the God of my strength”, sometimes that is translated “My God, My rock” also in verse 3. But there are two different words used for rock here.  The word that is used for rock in verse 2 is sela and this is a word that refers to a split in the rock – a split in the rock.  So it’s the idea of the cleft of the rock that you can go and hide in this crevice in the rock so that you're surrounded by the rock and protected from the storms and protected from any danger.

 

The next word that’s used there “fortress” is a word that should sound familiar to some of you.  It is the Hebrew word metsudah which is where we get the anglicized term for Masada for the fortress that Herod had built out in the Judean desert – Masada.  So metsuda means a stronghold.  Sometimes it’s translated a high tower.  It has that idea of a rocky fortress.

 

Then following that we read:

 

"The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer;

 

This is the word palat which means (the verb means) to escape, rescue, to deliver.  So God is the one who provides an escape for us, a rescue for us.  He is the one who delivers us in times of trouble.

 

Verse 3 then goes on to say:

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 22:3 The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, My stronghold and my refuge; My Savior, You save me from violence.

 

This is a different word for rock.  This one refers more to a rock formation or a huge boulder or small mountain, something of that nature that is a protection because of its size. 

 

 

 

So:

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 22:3 The God of my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield

 

The word for shield there is the Hebrew word magen.  If you go to Israel the Magen David is like the Red Cross. You’ll see that on the ambulances.  So it’s the Shield of David.  So magen is the shield there. 

 

shield and the horn of my salvation,

 

Horns had to do with power.  So He is the power of my salvation.

 

My stronghold

 

Stronghold there is mishugove meaning a high place, a high tower.

 

and my refuge;

 

Manos a place to hide, a place for protection. 

 

Then there’s the cry at the end of the verse.

 

My Savior, You save me from violence.

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 22:4 I will call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised; So shall I be saved from my enemies.

 

God is the only one who can protect us.  Now I want you to look down a little bit.  In verses 5 through 7 he cries out to God in distress. 

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 22:7 In my distress I called upon the LORD, And cried out to my God; He heard my voice from His temple, And my cry entered His ears.

 

In verse 8 notice how he describes the deliverance.  It almost sounds – it sounds almost more than metaphorical.  He uses a lot of images.  That’s why I wanted you to pay attention to what was said back at Mizpah in 1 Samuel 7 when God brought the thunder down so close to the Philistines it confused them and routed them because you see the same kind of thing happening here.

 

David says:

 

NKJ 2 Samuel 22:8 "Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, Because He was angry.

 

This isn’t just figurative language.  I believe this represents what he experienced in some of the battles where God actually intervene physically in terms of defeating the enemy as we've seen in different things such as the battle of Deborah and Barak against Sisera and Jabin of Judges 5 where you have a flood that came along and wiped out the chariot corps of the Canaanites there. 

 

The thunder in 1 Samuel 7:

 

8 "Then the earth shook and trembled; The foundations of heaven quaked and were shaken, Because He was angry.

 9 Smoke went up from His nostrils, And devouring fire from His mouth; Coals were kindled by it.

 10 He bowed the heavens also, and came down With darkness under His feet.

 

This is poetic language, but you see the heavy dark clouds coming down so low that the storm clouds frighten the enemy as well.   God is riding upon these storm clouds. 

 

11 He rode upon a cherub, and flew; And He was seen upon the wings of the wind.

 12 He made darkness canopies around Him, Dark waters and thick clouds of the skies.

 13 From the brightness before Him Coals of fire were kindled

 

That would be in reference to the lightening. 

 

15 He sent out arrows and scattered them; Lightning bolts, and He vanquished them.

 16 Then the channels of the sea were seen, The foundations of the world were uncovered, At the rebuke of the LORD, At the blast of the breath of His nostrils.

 

So even though he is using figurative language and its poetry there is also a sense there that this does reflect something real and physical and geophysical that was taking place in terms of the deliverance that God was bringing to them. 

 

So that brings us to a conclusion now of that one verse which covers a lot of territory in Hebrews 11:32 that these were men were who trusted God at particular moments - some more, some less.  And it is by means of faith - that is their belief in the future fulfillment of a promise from God that they were able to do all of these different things, all in relationship to protecting Israel and securing and protecting the land of Israel.

 

So the conclusion in verse 39 is:

 

NKJ Hebrews 11:39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise,

 

NKJ Hebrews 11:40 God having provided something better for us,

 

This is where we make that shift into a modern day application first to the readers at that time and then to us. 

 

that they should not be made perfect apart from us.

So we’ll start next time with those last two verses as we pull that together because this is what sets the stage for the development of the exhortation (or the challenge) in the next chapter.

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