The Gracious Faithfulness of God
1 Samuel 12:1–25
Opening Prayer
ÒOur Father, we are thankful for
this opportunity to come together this evening and to focus on Your Word, to be
reminded of Your grace, Your faithfulness, Your goodness to us, all the many ways
in which You provide for us, far beyond anything that we deserve. So often we
continue to commit sins. We continue to be rebellious and disobedient in areas
where we are just stubborn and refusing to walk with You. Yet You are faithful.
You are good to us. You bless us, not because of who we are, but of what Christ
did for us on the cross.
Father, we see this illustrated
time and again in the Old Testament with Israel—that despite their
disobedience, despite their idolatry, despite their continued stubbornness,
nevertheless, You were gracious to them. You were always faithful to Your
covenant. Father, we rely on Your faithfulness, Your goodness, and Your grace.
We trust that You will continue to deal with us on the basis of Your grace. We
pray that we will come to a better understanding of that this evening. In
ChristÕs name. Amen.Ó
We are in 1 Samuel 12 tonight.
Last week we looked at the story of the snake vs. the messiah, so to speak. The
snake is the actual meaning of the name for Nahash,
the Ammonite. In that battle Saul, who is the LordÕs anointed, is the mashiach, the
LordÕs anointed king for Israel. He is GodÕs choice to be king. It is very
clear that God has chosen Saul to be that king. He has worked to provide
evidence, clear external objectifiable evidence that
he is the one who God has chosen.
One part of that external evidence
is that Saul functioned as the messiah and delivered Israel from the onslaughts
of this horrible, vicious, violent Ammonite king.
That is, as I pointed out, one of many
pictures that we have throughout Scripture of how ultimately the seed of the
serpent will be defeated by the Seed of the woman.
The Seed of the woman is the
Messiah, the Mashiach,
the Anointed One of God, who is Jesus, who defeated Satan strategically at the
cross. He will complete that defeat when He returns at the battle of
Armageddon. At that time He will throw Satan into the abyss for 1,000 years as
He establishes His kingdom.
There are a lot of parallels,
pictures, analogies that we see. Some of them rise to the level of types. Some
of them are just patterns that the Holy Spirit brings out historically and
records for us in the Scripture. As we have seen this, we have come to this
section at the end 1 Samuel 11, where once again Samuel confirms that Saul is
GodÕs choice. They have a public recognition of this and coronation at a place
called Gilgal.
I know that we have all seen this many times. As we look at the slide we see the title for tonightÕs lesson, the focal part of this chapter.
This is a lawsuit that Samuel is
bringing against Israel, an indictment. It is a legally structured indictment
against Israel. The focal point is that despite IsraelÕs unfaithfulness,
despite their disobedience that will continue into the future, God, as He has
been in the past, will continue to be faithful to them. God will bring
discipline into the life of Israel, but the only hope of surviving is to
re-orient to the plan of God.
The focal point of this chapter,
as we look at it, is to focus on the grace of God and His continued
faithfulness to Israel despite the fact that they are disobedient. That is what
grace is.
Grace is the undeserved favor of
God to fallen creatures that are disobedient.
We have seen the structure again and again. In 1 Samuel 1–7 the focus is on Samuel. We see the desire expressed in 1 Samuel 8 by Israel that they want to have a king. This is an important reminder. This is a rejection.
1 Samuel 8 is really the backdrop
for 1 Samuel 12. The focal point in 1 Samuel 8 is that they want to have a king
like all the other nations. They have rejected Samuel as a leader. They have
rejected his sons following him as leaders. Ultimately, as God says:
This is the pattern that we are
going to see again and again and again in Israel. In fact, if you take the time
to read Jeremiah, Jeremiah is a great book right now for this nation, because
as you read Jeremiah you are often reminded of this country and what this
nation is going through.
Time and time again in Jeremiah
you have the leaders of Israel, leaders of different groups coming to Jeremiah.
They say for him to tell them what God wants them to do and we will do it. We
love the Lord. We will do it.
It is such a reminder of
politicians and people today. In fact, I had a conversation with somebody even
today, and they were talking about somebody they knew. They loved the Lord.
They go to their umpty-dump church, this and that and
the other thing.
Of course, I always say, if you
love the Lord why are you going to that crappy little church? Why are not you
getting the Word of God? Why are you not doing the Word of God? Because that is
what Scripture says.
That is what happens in Jeremiah.
Time and again these leaders come to Jeremiah saying: Òtell us what God wants
us to do, and we will do whatever He wants to do. We love the Lord.Ó Jeremiah
says the Lord says to do this. They say, we are not going to do it! We are not!
We will not do it! Not at all!
I see evidence of that all the
time in this culture. We see people who want the facade of religion, the facade
of piety. They go and want to Òfeel goodÓ at church. They sing the songs. They
go through the rituals. They go through everything that makes them feel good
about themselves, because they have constructed a little idol—that as
long as they worship that little idol in their head, then they are going to
feel good about themselves.
But it has nothing to do with the
Bible or loving the Lord or doing what the Lord wants to do.
This is so typical of Israel. We
are going to see it again and again in Samuel with Israel, but we are also
going to see it in the coming chapters with Saul, because right now Saul has
been riding a really good wave. Everything is going his way. God has chosen him
to be king. Many positive things have happened. God has blessed him in the
previous chapters.
But the problem with Saul is the
problem we see repeated again and again and again throughout Israel. We see it
in Jeremiah. We see it in the church again and again.
And that is that the people do not
want to be obedient. They want to do it their own way. We see the rise of Saul
in 1 Samuel 8–15.
There is divine judgment there.
That is a foreshadowing of what happens to a greater degree in 1 Samuel 15.
In 1 Samuel 16 God has Samuel anoint David. We see the rise of David.
The location for this event is the
red dot in the middle of the map. That is Gilgal. Gilgal is a significant site in IsraelÕs history. It is on
par with what happens at Mount Sinai. I pointed this out last time.
You have a couple of events that
take place in IsraelÕs history. At Mount Sinai God gave the Law. Then when the
conquest generation crossed the Jordan, they gathered at Gilgal.
They reconfirmed the Covenant with Moses there for their generation. That was
about 1406 BC.
It is now roughly 1050 BC. This is about 350 years later. They are going to bring
sacrifices before the Lord. They are going to accept and recognize Saul as
their king. Gilgal is a significant site.
Two or three times in the coming
chapters we are going to see a return of Saul and his army to Gilgal, this significant site.
At the end of 1 Samuel 11 we are told in 1 Samuel 11:15, ÒSo all the people went to Gilgal, and there they made Saul king before the Lord in Gilgal ...Ó
I have Òthey madeÓ underlined.
They are making Saul the king, not outside of GodÕs will, but it is GodÕs permissive
will. He has allowed them this, recognizing their disobedience, recognizing
their stubbornness. God has allowed them to go with their plan. He has
authorized Samuel to anoint Saul to be their king.
ÒThere they are making sacrifices of peace offerings before the Lord ÉÓ
This always speaks of
reconciliation with the Lord and fellowship with the Lord. ÒAnd there Saul and all the men of Israel rejoiced greatly.Ó
They are having a huge
celebration. This is a remarkable time. It is the first time you have seen this
kind of event in IsraelÕs history, the crowning of a king. And everybody is
excited. Then Samuel is going to take the stage. You have to sense the tone:
What is the tone? What is the atmosphere?
It is like the 4th of
July for everyone. They are excited. SamuelÕs speech is not a 4th of
July speech. It is not going to be a Òfeel goodÓ speech. It is one of his
longest speeches that are recorded. In fact, in 1 Samuel 11 there is a dialog
that takes place between Samuel and the people.
There are three lengthy statements
of Saul that are recorded here. One of these is the longest statement that he
makes recorded in Samuel. Three of his six longest statements are in Samuel,
and the longest one is in Samuel. This is a reconfirmation. That is what Saul
is going to do.
God has anointed Saul, but you have to pay attention to what he says after the Òbut.Ó In 1 Samuel 9–10 we have seen how God selected Saul. He directed Samuel to anoint Saul. He has given both private and public confirmations of His choice of Saul to be king. There is no doubt that God has acquiesced and authorized Saul to be king. That is important. This is the historical confirmation of Saul to be king, and the authorized beginning of the office of king in Israel.
There is one other king that was
anointed in Israel. That was GideonÕs son, Abimelech. God did not authorize him
but they still crowned him king in Shechem.
Samuel is going to take the stage
here. We need to understand what he is doing. In 1 Samuel 12 he is going to
exercise his full potential as a prophet.
The role of the prophet was
someone who represented God to the people. A priest represents the people to
God. The priest is the one who would come on behalf of the people to bring
sacrifices in the tabernacle and the temple, but a prophet is one who
represents God to the people.
Often people think of a prophet
simply as someone who foretells the future. But when the prophet is foretelling
the future, it is usually in relationship to either promised judgment or
promised blessing. That is where the future comes in. Everything that the
prophet says, whether we are talking about the early prophets, such as Elijah
or Elisha, or we are talking about the later prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and The Twelve.
Whenever the prophets are
speaking, it is always from the vantage point of the Mosaic Law, because God
predicted and promised in the Mosaic Law that there would be a series of
blessings for Israel if they were obedient.
That is the first part of
Leviticus 26, about the first 14 verses. The rest of Leviticus 26 lists five
series or cycles of discipline that God is going to bring upon Israel. The most
severe is to remove them from the land.
Deuteronomy 28–30 repeats in
a more summarized fashion those same patterns. When the prophet comes up, he is
grounded on those passages. He is addressing the people. He functions like the
Attorney General of the United States in the sense that he is bringing an
indictment and announcing a punishment for the people.
This kind of format is used in
Hebrew to describe the framework. It is called a riv, a riv format. The
Hebrew word riv means to contend with
someone. This is God contending with His people because they have broken
covenant with Him. They have violated the covenant.
What we see in a riv format usually is a format that
focuses on how:
Those are the things that we often
see as different elements that are within these announcements. Sometimes there
is more of that. Sometimes there is less of that. This is one of those critical
passages of Scripture that define IsraelÕs spiritual failure before God.
This is really the change of
leadership ceremony between changing the command from Samuel to Saul.
In order to understand 1 Samuel
12, a little bit of background on covenants:
There are a couple of different
covenant forms that were used in the Old Testament in terms of their literary
structure. These were taken from the normal ways in which contracts and
covenants were written at that time, which I think have ultimately had their
pattern in GodÕs original covenant with man in the Garden.
I think it is always God
first—man second.
As God entered into a covenant
with Adam at the Creation, the Creation Covenant, He modified it at the Fall (Genesis
3). Those elements became a pattern or a frame of reference for human
contracts.
What we see is that the Mosaic Law
follows a pattern that is called the suzerain vassal treaty form.
In the suzerain vassal treaty form
you would have a great king, the king of an empire, who would enter into a
contract or a covenant with a client king that he has defeated. He basically
would enter into a covenant and say:
This is the pattern for the Mosaic
Law, these blessings and cursings. Israel is viewed
as GodÕs ultimate vassal nation because of this particular covenant. What God
is saying in the covenant is, Òbecause I have done these great things for you
ÉÓ
The great thing that He is talking
about usually is GodÕs bringing Israel out of slavery in Egypt. ÒBecause I have
done this for you, because I have redeemed you, then this is how I expect you to
live and how I expect you to do.Ó
Notice that the pattern here shows
that the Mosaic Law cannot be about salvation because God ÒsavesÓ Israel first,
then gives them the Mosaic Law and tells them how to live. He is not giving
them the Law first and saying, this is how you live, and then I will redeem
you. Redemption comes first, but a redeemed people are supposed to live a
certain way. They have certain obligations and certain responsibilities. If
they live in obedience to those responsibilities, then God is going to bless
them.
There are certain things that we
see. I have a list of five elements here that we see in a typical riv format.
1. There is a call to witnesses.
There is a statement usually in
the beginning, in the introduction, where witnesses are called to witness this
kind of condemnation or indictment. It is public and it is a legal framework.
We have a call to witnesses, and we see that in 1 Samuel 12 as Samuel calls
upon the nation to stand as a witness in terms of his behavior and GodÕs behavior.
2. What we see is there is an
introductory summary of the case.
That is what we see in the 1
Samuel 12:1–12. There is an introductory summary of the situation as it
currently stands in Israel.
3. Since the focal point of this
indictment is coming from the Supreme Court of Heaven, it is coming from God as
the King of Israel, there is a recital of how God has been good to Israel.
The prophet will rehearse.
Sometimes more of a summary fashion, sometimes more of a detailed fashion, but
the prophet will remind Israel how God has been good to them in the past, in
spite of the fact that they have been disobedient.
4. This element that we will see
in 1 Samuel 12:14–19 is that there is an accusation. There is a formal
indictment against the nation that accuses them of violating the contract in
some form.
5. The conclusion is the
announcement of a judgment upon the nation for their disobedience.
At the end of this there is also a
solution to the problem that is offered by Samuel beginning in 1 Samuel 12:19,
where the people call upon Samuel to pray for them:
Samuel tells them not to fear and
to turn back to the Lord. Even though there will be discipline, only by turning
back to the Lord will they be able to survive and go forward as a nation. This
is the essence of this indictment against Israel.
It begins in 1 Samuel 12:1:ÒNow Samuel said to all Israel: ÔIndeed I have heeded your voice in all that you have said to me, and have made a king over you.Õ Ó In this statement Samuel begins to rehearse the current situation, and also to set up what the indictment is all about:
1. Samuel gives an assessment of
the current situation that he is the one who has made a king over them. He is
going to make it clear in this indictment that if this goes south, if this goes
badly, if this falls apart, if Saul does not turn out well, it is not going to
be his fault. It is not going to be GodÕs fault. He and God are not to be held
responsible for any failures on SaulÕs part, because ultimately the
responsibility for asking for a king and having a king belongs to the people.
2. Samuel reminds them that they
are the responsible ones. He says, ÒI have heeded your voice.Ó This is a
reminder of divine institution #1, individual responsibility. The
responsibility is with the people. They have chosen a king. The choice that
they make is going to be for good or for bad, but it is their responsibility.
Those are very sobering words for
an election year—that this nation is going to make a decision as to who
is going to govern.
We have been making poor
decisions. But poor decisions come from a people who have weak souls, who are
focused on the wrong thing. We get the leaders that we desire. I think that we
have a trajectory. It does not matter what party the President is if we have
got a trajectory in this nation. Since the mid-50s we have been on a downhill
trajectory.
It does not matter which party.
Both parties are consumed with human viewpoint and have been dominated by
leaders who have appointed a lot of bureaucrats; bureaucrats, who are not
concerned about the will of the people basically, in my opinion, run the
country, but they are concerned about preserving their jobs. They are concerned
about preserving their power and their position.
Ultimately I do not think it makes
any difference. Until there is a heart change on the part of the people, we are
going to continue to have leaders that reflect that kind of moral instability,
moral relativism, and the lack of moral courage.
These leaders are not serving the
country. They are serving themselves. That is going to continue. Even if we
were to elect someone who was the absolute best, we still have to have a total
infrastructure. One person cannot change the rotting infrastructure of an
apostate nation. That will not resolve the problem. It may alleviate it for a
little while. It may be able to put a few Band-Aids on some problems, but the
only thing that is going to turn this nation around is the spiritual solution,
where people turn back to God.
That was the kind of situation
that Israel faced. In this statement, when Samuel says, ÒI have heeded your voice.Ó He is reminding them that they are
responsible. It is a reflection of the first divine institution. He is not
passing the buck here.
This is not a situation like Adam
back in Genesis 3, where after he ate of the fruit and God says, well, who told
you to? Adam says it was the woman who You gave me. In one concise statement he
manages to blame both the woman and God for his failure. Just like a
politician. It is not my fault.
Saul is going to give us a good
parallel for that when we get into 1 Samuel 13. But Samuel is not passing the
buck. He is making clear that he is following the will of the people. God has
authorized this in His permissive will.
They (Yahweh and Samuel) are
saying, ÒOkay, this is what you want?Ó
We are going to give it to you.
You are going to reap the consequences because of your decision. He is making
it clear that he is not the one responsible. That is not what He wanted. God is
not responsible. That is not His idea or will. It is their responsibility so
that when the divine discipline comes, it is their responsibility. It is the
result of their decision. Saul is making it clear that he is not to be blamed,
and God is not to be blamed.
The basic indictment is that
Israel has completely rejected GodÕs leadership. They have rejected what God
has provided for them. They want to do it their own way—even though God
has delivered them again and again and again.
In this context it is important to
realize God just delivered them again. He is going to rehearse this in a
minute. Just like He did in all the different cycles in the period of the
judges, God delivered them once again from Nahash.
But once again it does not stick.
The people are not falling down in worship and obedience before God, and the
degree that they do it will not last.
3. A third thing Samuel reminds
them of is really a throwback to what he had said in 1 Samuel 8. He is going to
remind them that he had already warned them about what would happen with a
king.
A reminder of that is in this whole context. What is important is what is underlined. When Samuel warns Israel about what the king is going to do, notice what he says:
1 Samuel 8:11, ÒAnd he said, ÔThis will be the behavior of the king who will reign
over you: He will take your sons and appoint them for his own chariots and to
be his horsemen, and some will run before his harlots. 1 Samuel 8:12, Ò ÔHe
will appoint captains over his thousands and captains over his fifties, will
set some to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and some to make his weapons
of war and equipment for his chariots.
1 Samuel 8:13, Ò ÔHe will take your daughters to be perfumers, cooks, and bakers.
1 Samuel 8:14, Ò ÔAnd he will take the best of your fields, your vineyards, and your
olive groves, and give them to his servants.
1 Samuel 8:15, Ò ÔHe will take a tenth of your grain and your vintage, and give it
to his officers and servants.
1 Samuel 8:16, Ò ÔAnd he will take your male servants, your female servants, your
finest young men, and your donkeys, and put them to his work.
1 Samuel 8:17, Ò ÔHe will take a tenth of your sheep. And you will be his servants.Õ
Ó
Six times he says that Israel will
get a king and Òhe will takeÓ and Òhe will takeÓ and Òhe will takeÓ and Òhe
will takeÓ and Òhe will takeÓ and Òhe will take.Ó
That is what a strong powerful
central government does. That is why this country set up things differently in
our Constitution:
This is why the 10th
Amendment is so important. It is ignored. This again is another travesty
showing how, not only this government and this administration, but the ones
preceding it, have consistently ignored the 10th Amendment. They
ought to be tried. They ought to be brought up, because each Congressman,
President, and Supreme Court Justice, is sworn to defend the Constitution of
the United States.
What they end up doing is changing
it, not according to the rules of the Constitution, but according to either
judicial fiat or through executive action. We have become a lawless people just
like Israel. We are going to reap the same consequences because the internal
rot that comes from moral relativism and spiritual failure ends up destroying
everything in a culture.
And that is eventually what we
will see happen under Saul. Samuel reminds them of the warning that he gave
initially.
4. Samuel is going to remind them
of his own integrity.
1 Samuel 12:2, ÒAnd now here is the king walking before you; and I am old and gray headed, and look, my sons are with you.Ó
SamuelÕs sons are there in the
audience.
ÒI have walked before you from my childhood to this day.Ó
You have known me. Since I was a
child and my mother, Hannah, dropped me off at the tabernacle. I grew up
serving in the tabernacle under the tutelage of Eli. You have known me. You
have been aware of who I was. My life has been an open book. Samuel is
reminding them of his own integrity.
Notice in 1 Samuel 1:3 there is an
implied contrast with the sons of Eli. Samuel says: ÒHere I am. Witness against me before the Lord and before His
anointed.Ó
Interesting phraseology. His
anointed here is Saul. Saul is the mashiach, the anointed one. Samuel says: ÒWhose ox have I taken, or whose donkey have
I taken, or whom have I cheated?Ó
Who did that? Hophni
and Phinehas. They were the ones that people would
come to and bring their sacrifices. They would take extra and would cook it and
take their food. They were also guilty of seducing the women who were serving
in the tabernacle, making them into temple prostitutes, as it were. They were paganizing the tabernacle worship in Israel.
Samuel says: ÒWhom have I oppressed or from whose hand have I received any bribe
with which to blind my eyes?Ó
The sons of Eli did that. They
took bribes. Samuel is emphasizing his own integrity. I am blameless before
God. If anybody can bring a charge, if I have done any of this, ÒI will restore it to you.Ó He has
called upon them to be a witness. This is a legal aspect to this kind of lawsuit.
The IsraelitesÕ response is what?
This is their legal testimony. They are taking the stand. They have been asked to confirm this. They take the stand, whether this is the elders of Israel, or a corporate response, we do not know. They say in 1 Samuel 12:4, ÒAnd they said, ÔYou have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any manÕs hand.Õ Ó
Now you have sworn this. We have another witness. This is the Lord, and the Lord has confirmed this in 1 Samuel 12:5: ÒThen he said to them, ÔThe Lord is witness against you, and His anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.Õ And they answered, ÔHe is witness.Õ Ó
Under the principle of the Mosaic
Law there needed to be a confirmation of anything with two or more witnesses.
You have two witnesses. You have the:
They affirm. It is clearly
dialogue. There is no pressure put on them. They recognize that this is a fact,
that Samuel is absolutely blameless. This sets up the legal basis for what is
going to take place.
So starting in 1 Samuel 12:6
Samuel is going to shift from showing that he is blameless, to the fact that
the Lord is blameless. In 1 Samuel 12:6–12 he is emphasizing GodÕs
faithfulness to Israel, GodÕs faithfulness to His Covenant, even though Israel
has not been faithful.
In 1 Samuel 12:6 it says, ÒSo Samuel said to the people, ÔIt
is the Lord Yahweh.Õ Ó
Notice that Samuel uses the name Yahweh, the sacred Tetragrammaton, which
emphasizes God as the Covenant God of Israel.
This is the foundational event for
Israel. This is when God called out Abraham to establish a new people. But when
God brought Israel out of Egypt it was to establish a new nation. This is the
foundational event in the creation of the nation of Israel. He states that.
Samuel goes back a little further to remind them of what God has done.
1 Samuel 12:7, ÒNow therefore, take your stand (NASB),
that I may reason with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of
the Lord which He did to you and your fathers.Ó
This is a legal position. Take a
stand that I may reason with you. The idea there is that I may make a case. I
am going to structure my indictment against you.
You take the stand and I am going
to indict you before the Lord. It is going to be in reference to all the
righteous acts of the Lord.
What Samuel is going to do is list
what God has done in His righteousness and His faithfulness to Israel. It will
be contrasted to IsraelÕs failure and IsraelÕs disobedience. He is using strong
courtroom language, strong legal language here.
Then he is going to remind them of
GodÕs consistent faithfulness in disciplining them and in following the
Covenant. He will remind them also of their failure and their past discipline
from God.
SamuelÕs point is that they cannot
blame him for what will happen with Saul. They cannot blame God for what will
happen with Saul.
In 1 Samuel 12:8, Samuel reminds
Israel of their background going back to Moses and Aaron. He said, ÒWhen Jacob had gone into Egypt, and
your fathers cried out to the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and
Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this
place.Ó
Samuel begins to set this pattern.
What is the pattern?
This pattern is especially
pronounced during the period of the judges, where you have:
You see that cycle going on again
and again.
1 Samuel 12:9, ÒAnd when they forgot the Lord their God,Ó
Sisera was the Canaanite king of Hazor. For those of you have been to Israel, Hazor is north of the Sea of Galilee off of the northern
tip.
Sisera had a large chariot army. He had a large
cavalry, armored cavalry. He kept the Israelites in the Valley of Esdraelon
under control through his cavalry, his chariot corps.
Now who is the deliverer there?
Who delivers Israel from the hand of Sisera and Jabin? Deborah and Barak. But that does not happen until
Judges 4–5.
It is one verse as the end of
Judges 3, Shamgar. Shamgar
is raised up as the judge to deliver them from the oppression of the
Philistines. This is just a small incursion.
Do yÕall remember that in Judges?
What Samuel does is he lists these
first three episodes in the book of Judges, but he lists them in reverse order.
I do not know why he does that. It is just a reminder. Samuel focuses on those
first three.
In each case he says: 1 Samuel 12:10, ÒThen they cried out to the Lord, and said, ÔWe have sinned,
because we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals
and Ashtoreths; but now deliver us from the hand
of our enemies, and we will serve You.Õ Ó
What had happened in each case is
that the Israelites had turned to idols. Later on we are going to see that this
indictment says do not turn to the empty and vain things. That is constantly a
way that idols are described.
That is what we do all the time.
We turn to empty vain details of life. We are looking for stability and comfort
and security from the details of life: How much money is in the bank? How much
money is in the 401K? Owning a home. Owning a car. Living in the right address,
right subdivision, whatever É But we put our security, just like the rich young
ruler, in the ephemeral details of life rather than in the hand of God.
After they had done that and have
fallen prey to GodÕs discipline, then they would cry out to God: Òdeliver us from the hand of our enemies,
and we will serve You.Ó
I cannot help but think that
Samuel is drawing a parallel because this is exactly what happened. We studied
this in 1 Samuel 11—that the men of Jabesh-Gilead
are crying out to God to send someone to deliver them.
Samuel goes on and reminds them of
how God delivered them. How He brought this deliverance to them.
Samuel says, ÒAnd the Lord sent Jerubbaal (another
name for Gideon), Bedan
(another name for Barak, who was DeborahÕs general), Jephthah, and Samuel ...Ó
Samuel has progressed beyond the
first three groups that oppressed Israel, with the exception of Barak, and
Samuel is looking at the last three deliverers. And by mentioning each
incident, he is reminding them of the whole episode: ÒAnd the Lord sent Jerubbaal, Bedan, Jephthah, and Samuel, and
delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side; and you dwelt in
safety.Ó
Notice he does not say Samson. He
says Samuel because Samson did not deliver them. It is Samuel who ultimately
delivers them from the oppression of the Philistines. But that oppression has
now come back, as we will see in the 1 Samuel 13.
In 1 Samuel 12:12 Samuel says, ÒAnd when you saw that Nahash
king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ÔNo, but a king shall
reign over us,Õ when the Lord your God was your king.Ó
Samuel makes it very
clear—you rejected God as king, and you turned to a human viewpoint
solution for your problems. You are not trusting in the Lord. Their focal point
is somehow having a king like all the other nations is going to solve our
problems.
This is what constantly happens in
history. We can see this describing the church over the last 200 years—how
again and again and again the church gets away from the truth of Scripture. It
turns to every human-viewpoint solution, whether it is science, knowledge,
sociology, psychology, advertising, and the whole approach to various tools
that are used through advertising to build the church.
I had a friend of mine whom I
taught Greek to in my living room here in Houston about 30 years or more ago.
Later he went to Dallas Seminary. He ran the Sunday School class at the church
I was pastoring in Irving. Then he came back to
Houston and was very involved with the College of Biblical Studies (CBS). At that time CBS was really growing and expanding. He and the President were taking it
outside the Bible churches to a lot of Baptist churches. They were expanding CBS.
One time we sat down, and he said,
ÒRobby, you just wouldnÕt believe it. We probably have the finest education,
the top 100th of a percent of educated Christians of all of history.
With what we have with a Masters of Theology from Dallas Seminary, we probably
know more than anybody else in all of history. But we cannot build a church. We
cannot go out.Ó
You get these Baptists, they come
out of a seminary, they are taught how to organize and administer and how to
put people together and how to do everything. They can go out and build a
church of 1,000 people in a couple of years. All we do is teach the Bible. We
have 50, 75, 100 people there. That illustrates a difference.
Harry Leafe,
who ordained me, told me one time, ÒRobby, anybody can build a big organization
in the power of the flesh. Anyone can do it through human-viewpoint technique.Ó
You see people who go out and
start businesses and start Fortune 500 and Fortune 100 companies all the time
in the energy of the flesh. If you know the right kinds of tools you can do it
in the flesh.
But you have to make sure that
whatever you are doing in ministry that it is God the Holy Spirit that is
building that ministry, not you and your effort.
Most ministries that you will see
that people think are so great are because they have all the trappings that we
look to. Like the rich young ruler, they have money. They have a lot of young
people there. They have a lot of power and prestige and big buildings and lots
of acreage.
But they are not teaching the Word.
They are not fulfilling the mission that God gave the church. They have built
it in their own power and not on the power of the Word.
This is the trap that Israel fell
into. They wanted to have a king like everybody else—we are going to do
it according to human-viewpoint standard, and not according to divine-viewpoint
standards.
When I went back into the
pastorate in 1998 and went to Preston City, I had this pressure from deacons
and elders in three different churches where I had worked, that somehow it is
the pastorÕs job to build the church. And I said this congregation understands
that that is not the pastorÕs job. The pastorÕs job is to feed the flock, as
Jesus told Peter, ÒFeed My sheep.Ó
Jesus said, ÒI will build the church.Ó
I said, ÒI am not going to worry
about how many people show up and how many people do not show up, because I
want people who come to the church to come for one reason—they want to
listen to the Bible.Ó
ÒThey want to learn the Bible, and
they want to listen to me teach the Bible. If they do not want to come listen
to me teach the Bible, then I do not want them. They do not want me. I will go
back and find something else to do with my life.Ó
If the Lord has gifted me to be a
pastor, then what I am going to do is teach the Word. God is going to provide
the hearers or not, but I am going to do what the Scripture says to do.
That is what our attitude should
be. That does not mean that we do not tell people about the church, that you do
not witness, that you do not talk to people.
One of the great things that I
have noticed, and you see it on Facebook, people hear
a good Bible class from their pastor, and they post links on their Facebook page. They are excited about what they are
learning.
I think back to when I was a
teenager and going to church. The church that I grew up in, which many of you
know, really exploded in the late 50s and 60s because people came to church and
were so excited about what they were learning. They were going home and they
were telling everybody they knew. They were grabbing them and saying ÒYouÕve
got to go to Bible class with me tonight.Ó
That is the power of God the Holy
Spirit. That is not a gimmick. That is not doing it according to
human-viewpoint standards, but this is what Israel was selling out to, these
human-viewpoint standards.
1 Samuel 12:13 is going back and
picking up what Samuel said in 1 Samuel 12:2. Notice in verse 2 Samuel says, ÒAnd now here is the king, walking before
you.Ó
He picks up on that thought in
verse 13. Samuel says, ÒNow therefore,
here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And
take note, the Lord has set a king over you.Ó
Samuel is emphasizing their
personal responsibility. But this is not the indictment. It is in one sense,
but he recognizes that this is valid because God authorized it. ÒAnd take note, the Lord has set a king
over you.Ó God has established this ruler.
Starting in 1 Samuel 12:14 we are
going to see what the responsibilities are going to be on the people. We read, ÒIf you fear the Lord and serve Him and
obey His voice, and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both
you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your
God.Ó
What is Samuel talking about? This
is a reflection of those blessing paragraphs in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy
28, ÒIf you obey the Lord.Ó If you
look at these words:
These are the terms that are in
the Mosaic Law, in the Covenant that God is calling them to Òhear.Ó It is
interesting. When God says Òhear the WordÓ or Òlisten to MeÓ He does not mean
have you auditory nerves stimulated where somebody just understands the basic
dictionary meaning of the words and can summarize what has been said.
When God says Òlisten to MeÓ He
means Òobey Me,Ó Òdo what I say.Ó
If God says Òyou have not listened
to MeÓ He does not mean that you did not physically hear it. He said you did
not do what He said to do.
ÒHearingÓ and ÒlisteningÓ mean
ÒobeyingÓ or the negative, Ònot obeying.Ó
I am going to give you three
example passages:
One of the things that I taught
when we were in the early part of Matthew, and we have a passage in Luke, is
that ÒJesus grew in wisdom and stature
and favor with God and man.Ó
It basically summarized JesusÕ
training before He goes back to Jerusalem with His parents when He is bar mitzvahed—that Jesus was
trained as a normal male child in a normal Jewish home. That means that by the
time He was 12 years old He had memorized the Old Testament in Hebrew. That was
normal.
I have said that for many years,
but I did not connect the dots. I was listening to a former professor of mine
the other day, a recording. He took it to the next step. That was true of every
other male in Israel when Jesus walked on the earth.
What did I say at the beginning?
Jesus had a normal Jewish boyÕs upbringing. That meant every other male boy in
Israel had that same training. That was normative in Israel. That does not mean
that every single one had a perfect memory and memorized everything, but that
was the standard.
Everyone had to know the Word of
God. Everybody memorized it, every bit of it. Every word. They could sit down
and start at 1 Samuel and recite it all the way through to the end of 2 Samuel
without stopping.
We have such a low expectation of
Christians. You memorize the 64 verses in the NavigatorsÕ Topical Memory System. Oh! Wow! What an accomplishment!
In previous generations there were
many people who memorized many books in the New Testament, if not the whole New
Testament and much of the Old Testament. That was expected. They did not have
television and Facebook and e-mail and all these
other things to distract them.
When you memorize Scripture, it
enhances your own memory. Most of us may be beyond the point of really
accomplishing great memory feats like that, but if you start your children and
your grandchildren like that, when they are just starting to learn how to talk,
those verses that they memorize, those books of the Bible that they memorize
before they are 10 years old will never leave them.
I have memorized Luke 2 and
Matthew 2 almost every year for the last five or six years related to
Christmas. The next September rolls around and it is gone. I do not even
remember this.
But all of those verses I grew up
memorizing, going to Camp Peniel, memorizing all
those verses in the NavigatorÕs Topical
Memory System, many other verses, several chapters, I could sit down, and
if I review those a little bit they come back.
Verses that I have not thought
about in a while, they will just come back to me. The Holy Spirit will bring
them to my mind.
It is so important when children
are young to have that high standard of education.
That is what Moses is talking
about here. That is the example that is laid down in the Law. It is to learn
these things, to know them.
We are to listen to obey—not
just listen because I went to Bible class Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday this
week É I did my bit.
No. We have politicians that are
like that. We have two groups of politicians. We have one kind of politician
that is seriously involved in the church.
We have two kinds—the good
kind and the bad kind.
We have got one former President,
probably the second to worst President we have ever had, but there is no doubt
that from an early age he was involved in church. He teaches Sunday School.
That is part of who he is. He has a liberal brand of Christianity. His theology
is not biblical, but that is his deeply held religious convictions. Nobody can
doubt that.
Then we have a man running this
time, Ted Cruz. He grew up going to the private school at Second Baptist here
in Houston. He has been in the church and grown up in the church and has been
involved in Christian activities and Bible studies since he was a young boy.
This does not have anything to do with politics.
We have other politicians that,
whenever they run for office, all of a sudden they have to dust off their
Bible. They pull it out. They talk about some things that they do not get
right. They embarrass themselves because they are trying to cloak their
activities in some façade of religiosity and piety.
But what the Mosaic Law is talking
about is that this needs to be built into your soul.
Remember, the fear of the Lord in
Proverbs is the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of knowledge. Samuel is
going to build on it from there.
Closing Prayer
ÒFather, thank You for this
opportunity to study these things this evening, and be reminded that we are to
be faithful to You. That is a challenge. Even when we are not faithful, You are
faithful. You are gracious to us beyond anything that we can ever imagine. You
deal with us not on the basis of our failures, but on the basis of Your grace
and Your character.
Father, we are thankful that we
have You to come to. We thank You for the forgiveness of sin that we have, and
the fact that even though we are all sinners and we are all failures in many,
many different ways, we are victors in Jesus Christ, and as we walk by the
Spirit we can increase as overcomers in our day to day living. We pray this in
ChristÕs name. Amen.Ó