Sermon Tone Analysis

Today we are going to see Israel choose an earthly king over YHWH.

They are going to seek a king like the nations around them to resolve their nation’s political issues instead of looking to God.

In light of the this past week, and the elections in our nation, and the usual rhetoric associated with it - I think that this is a good passage for us to consider today.

Because we need to make sure we aren’t doing the same thing.

Disclaimer:

This is about the church, not the nation - I am not speaking to anyone as an American, but as a Christian.

We are American Christians, but never forget that the noun in that is Christian and the “American” is an adjective - in other words, Christian is what we are, and American is just our situation.

I am not against the political process in our country.

I am very much for it.

I am not in any way advocating for Christians to abandon the process.

I will not discuss my personal views on American politics, because they are irrelevant.

This is not a political message, but a Biblical message.

The Bible addresses how the Christian should engage with worldly powers.

Last week we talked about putting away all of our false gods and turning whole heartedly towards God.

And to do that, I said we had to do three things: repent, remember, and rely.

Repent of our sin, remember Who God is, and rely on Him alone.

And I said that if we do that, God, Who is only ever good, and Who is sovereign over all, would provide for us and only do us good.

And even though good may include suffering and facing trials in this world, if the suffering is for the sake of God, it is good.

And I said that the problem with suffering and seeing it as good is that most of the suffering and the trials we face are not good.

Because most of the suffering we face is a result of our not being turned wholeheartedly towards God.

It is our walking the unblazed middle path that causes the most suffering for us in the here and now.

And when we walk our own path instead of God’s path, we have forgotten God and we are not relying on Him to provide what we need.

And today, I want to focus on that reliance part of this - the repentance and the remembering are necessary parts of this - but considering who or what we really rely on is very telling about the path we are actually walking.

Like the path that Israel often took was very telling of the path they were on.

It often reveals that they were not turned wholly towards God but tending to do things according to the ways of the world.

And in today’s passage, this is what happens to Israel yet again.

Their desire for a king like the nations would cause suffering until they ceased to be a nation.

Let’s take a look:

Just like at the start of chapter 7, we now jump ahead many years.

We saw Samuel’s birth.

We saw him as a young man in the Temple where God revealed Himself by the Word of the Lord.

Last week, we saw Samuel as a grown man, taking the lead in Israel and, like the prophets always do, calling God’s people back to YHWH - calling them to repentance.

He had them cease their worship of other gods and turn themselves whole heartedly to YHWH.

And we saw that when they did, God was right there, and He did what they couldn't, and He fixed what they broke, and He gave them victory and provided for them abundantly.

Just like He always does.

And then some time passes.

We don’t know how much, but now Samuel is old.

And we are told that he made his sons judges over Israel.

Now, let’s understand the system here.

Last week, we read:

So that he made his sons judges over Israel would seem to mean that he delegated some responsibility to them, but he himself remained the leader of the people.

And We are told that his sons judged in Beersheba, and in chapter 7 we are told that Samuel judged in a circuit through Israel:

1 Samuel 7:16–17 (ESV)

And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah.

And he judged Israel in all these places.

Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel.

So we see a sort of leadership hierarchy within Israel.

Samuel is the judge, but he has to appoint others with authority in certain places.

And some of those he appointed, are his sons.

But there is a problem with his sons:

His sons, we are told, turned aside.

Aside from what?

Aside from God.

They turned off the path.

They turned their hearts towards other things.

Now this should sound familiar.

This should bring our minds back to the two sons of Eli that we met back in chapter 1, who have now been dead for probably close to 50 years at this point.

But there’s a difference between them and Samuel’s sons.

The difference is that Eli’s sons were priests.

And as we saw, God purified the priesthood.

He did it.

He miraculously gave Hannah Samuel, who dedicated him to God, and God took care of the problem of Eli and his sons, and placed Samuel as priest.

But Samuel was also judge of Israel.

This is not a religious office, like priests, but a political office.

And even though Israel was a theocracy - that is, they were ruled by God - there were still politics at play in Israel.

Because while the priesthood was appointed by God to act as intermediaries between man and God, God told Israel to appoint judges - political leaders - to carry out justice in the nation.

This is what God said to Israel:

And while we may not use the title “judge” in the same sense, in our modern society, we have the same thing.

We have people that are leaders over certain territories with certain responsibilities, and there is a hierarchy of leadership.

And note that God’s concern here is that the leaders of His people lead justly.

And he tells the people what the judges should not do.

They should not pervert justice, and they should not show partiality by accepting bribes.

And we read of Samuel’s sons:

Imagine your political leaders doing that!

Now think about the situation.

Decades earlier, the worship of the people was affected by corrupt priests.

The priests used their position for personal gain and pleasure, and the people didn’t know what to do about it.

So God did something about.

Then, we saw the problems with the surrounding nations.

The Philistines come against Israel, and Israel tries to fight in their own power.

And they lose.

Then, they try to act like the nations around them, and fight like they fight.

And they lose.

20 years later, Samuel - God’s solution to the priest problem - calls them back to YHWH.

And they turn back to YHWH, and when the Philistines come against them, God did something about it.

Not only did He defeat the Philistines, but He even gave the lands of the Philistines back to Israel.

It was a complete rout.

And God did it.

And here we are - a few decades after that - and Israel’s worship has been good and pleasing to God.

They have had peace from their enemies because they were pleasing to God.

Then this political turmoil begins.

Based on what God has done for them, what should their reaction be?

Since He fixed the issue with the priests, and He fixed the issue with the Philistines, Who should Israel rely on to fix this issue?

Since their way and the world’s ways have already proven repeatedly to be failures, what should they do?

They should go back to Ebenezer, to the stone of remembrance that Samuel erected to remind them that God has always been their help.

That He has always set things right.

That’s what we should do in times of trouble.

As we saw last week, we need to remember Who God is and what He has done.

We need to realize that most of our troubles we bring ourselves because of sin, and we should repent before Him.

And then, we should rely on Him to do what’s right, because He’s only ever good.