Crying Out to the Lord
Notes
Transcript
we saw the judgement that finally happened upon the high priest and his sons
Last week we saw how the ark of the covenant was taken by the philistines, and the people there started getting plagued by boils and all kinds of problems
this happened in 2 different Philistine cities
we also saw how the Israelites had strayed a bit from God, they were off kilter, not as close to God as they really should have been
this is why the ark ended up being taken in the first place
they wanted the ark in battle, but didn’t ask for God’s help
We know now also that Samuel is no longer a young child, he’s now in his ministry proper as a seer and a judge, the last one that they would end up having
just for context this is happening about 1100 BC, one thousand years before Christ
it’s amazing how the Bible was written over such a vast amount of time yet it all fits together perfectly like a puzzle piece
and we have all the types that we see even from that long ago and even longer
1 And the ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
2 And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the Lord? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place.
3 And they said, If ye send away the ark of the God of Israel, send it not empty; but in any wise return him a trespass offering: then ye shall be healed, and it shall be known to you why his hand is not removed from you.
V1 - so the ark was gone for 7 months, that’s a pretty long time consideirng the situation
the children of Israel had went without the ark for that long
we saw last chapter about how they were very focused on the ark and thought that would save them in battle
when really crying out to God would have been what helped them
so it appears that God is humbling them
we’ll come back to that later
this is also a pretty long time for the Philistines to be dealing with all these boils and stuff too
(V2) - So they callled their priests and diviners, a diviner is someone who tries to listen from their gods or predict what is going to happen, kind of like a soothsayer or something
(V3) - So the way they word this, they are still not 100% sure that the ark is what’s causing their problems, it’s almost as if theyre blinded to it
they talk about getting rid of it then being healed, and what theyre getting at is that if they get rid of it their boils may stop
additionally, they have been humbled too. they took the ark and then began to have great problems, we’ll see that in the following verses...
5 Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land.
6 Wherefore then do ye harden your hearts, as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? when he had wrought wonderfully among them, did they not let the people go, and they departed?
7 Now therefore make a new cart, and take two milch kine, on which there hath come no yoke, and tie the kine to the cart, and bring their calves home from them:
8 And take the ark of the Lord, and lay it upon the cart; and put the jewels of gold, which ye return him for a trespass offering, in a coffer by the side thereof; and send it away, that it may go.
9 And see, if it goeth up by the way of his own coast to Beth-shemesh, then he hath done us this great evil: but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us; it was a chance that happened to us.
(V5) - so they say hey, we’ll make golden boils and mice so that they are saying, “hey, we see the glory of God”
they have been so utterly defeated that their knees are bowing essentially before the Lord, and we will all be doing that one day
(V6) is really interesting, as they are saying, “Hey, let’s not be like the Egyptians, we know what happened to them.” so they kind of read the room you might say, they saw the writing on the walls and didn’t want to be like them
(V7) - we even see in verse 7 they made a trespass offering to God
so they have been massively humbled, and sometimes we do in this life
sometimes we go against God, or maybe we ignore God and we get humbled
it’s a way that He can bring us back to Him, back into the fold, back into a relationship with Him
we’ve all been humbled by God before, and humility is really a great quality to have, and one that we are commanded to have by the Lord
look at Christ’s life, if we are supposed to emulate Him, to be conformed to His image, to become more like Him, we need to stay humble
look at Him, He was the Lord, the God over all, all things were created through Him, but He came down here and taught the sinners, the lowest of society
imagine if He performed His ministry around here today, who would He be witnessing to? He didn’t care that He was seen talking to this person or that person. He was delivering medicine to the sick, and not the well, those who really needed it.
(V9) - in this verse we see that it was hard for them to believe what happened, they were still thinking in the back of their mind, “well, maybe this was some kind of coincidence” no, God works in this world, and we need to be attuned for watching for His actions, for feeling His movement, to His work in this world, because there is a spiritual world all around us
and just because we don’t see it, doesn’t mean it isn’t there.
12 And the kine took the straight way to the way of Beth-shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Beth-shemesh.
13 And they of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.
14 And the cart came into the field of Joshua, a Beth-shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone: and they clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt offering unto the Lord.
so the children of Israel were incredibly happy to see the ark
they had been without it for so long, and they had been humbled as well
so we can see the effects of the humbling that God gave them in action right here
and we can see that they immediately offered and offering to God in thankfulness
19 And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
20 And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go up from us?
1 And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the Lord, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord.
2 And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.
3 And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
So now we have a situation where the ark had sat in Abinadab’s house for 20 years, we have a pretty significant time jump
so after 20 long years, we see that finally, Israel began to miss and seek the Lord, seemingly because they were being opppressed by the Philistines
we see this a lot in this time period, back in the book of Judges especially, where Israel would stray from God, get oppressed by neighboring people, and then realize that they need God
they fell into this pattern, almost like a habit
let’s think about it, they would not have needed to be chastised had they not forsaken God, if they would have just stayed faithful to Him, He would have helped them and been on their side
but their human, fallen nature kept leading them to fall into idol worship
Samuel, faithful as always, is telling them “Hey, you have to get rid of these idols and dedicate yourselves to the Lord ONLY”
now we may not may have issues with actual idol worship and different gods
we may treat certain things like gods in our lives, if we have something that we give more priority to than God, something more important in our life than God
this is the kind of thing that we really have to do some self examination for, a lot of times we want to say NO, ID NEVER DO THAT, but how does that play out in action?
we are known by our fruits, not our words. Jesus talks about people who worship Him with their lips, but their hearts are far from Him.
are we treating things as gods in our lives? Do we care about other things more than God? Money for example? Status? or any other activity that you may be involved in?
“the human heart is a perpetual idol factory” - we have to start putting God in first place in our lives, in absolute first place
there is no room for anything or anyone else, much as there was no room for dagon around God like we looked at in the last chapter, and how the Israelites must put away ashtoroth and baalim here
look at what He’s done for us and who He is, and also what He’s commanded us to do, we have been bought with a price, we are NOT OUR OWN, there IS NO ROOM for anything else to have priority in our life
Christ hung was nailed to the cross, hanging there, in public view, sufferingr, beaten, already tortured and mocked, to save us from eternal hell
He gave us life and all the blessings therein, He’s given us all that we have
it’s only RIGHT that we serve Him with all we have, ITS WHAT WE WERE CREATED FOR
and we know that we can do it, He always provides a way of escape for temptation, and with Him, all things are possible, we can do all things through Christ which strengthens us, and He is with us always, even to the end of the age, He knows the number hairs on all of our heads, He loves us all
and do we want to hear, “Well done, my good and faithful servant?” or “Depart from me, I never knew you.”
notice He doesn’t say, “I knew you, and you failed me”, He will say, “I NEVER knew you”
4 Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only.
5 And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the Lord.
6 And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.
7 And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.
So after they had been yearning for the Lord, Samuel helped bring them to a place where they realized they needed to put God first, as we see in verse 4
Although while they were there at Mizpah repenting, the Philistines gathered near them, ready to attack
This was an opportunity for God to show His strength and power
Let’s see how things worked out differently after Israel was humbled, repented, and came back closer to God again, because it works out very differently
8 And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.
9 And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord: and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel; and the Lord heard him.
10 And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.
11 And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came under Beth-car.
12 Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.
So they cried out to God, and asked Samuel to do so as well.
we see very much a difference between what happened before in the last chapter and what happened this time
in the last chapter, they trusted in the ark to win the battle for them, and neglected to cry out to God
what happened? they were defeated and the ark was taken
but this time, they trusted in God and God alone, we don’t even see a mention of the ark here
what happened? God helped them, discombobulated the Philistines by a great thunder, and they were able to drive the Philistines all the way out to Beth-car
what a difference closeness to God, crying out to and depending on Him makes!
Our trust in Him makes a difference, and we know we can trust Him
our dependence on Him makes a difference, and we know He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever, and again, that He’s with us, ALWAYS
He wants us to cry out to Him, to carry our burdens, He’s told us to cast our burdens upon Him, because He cares for us
what a God that is to have. He’s not just some lifeless ethereal god that we can’t see or know, He’s one that wants to know us, and wants to carry our burdens. it’s amazing to have a God like that that we can depend on
12 Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.
13 So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel: and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
14 And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto Gath; and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
15 And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
16 And he went from year to year in circuit to Beth-el, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places.
17 And his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar unto the Lord.
Now we see that Samuel made this memorial called Ebenezer, because “The Lord has helped them”
we know that He can help us to, if we just ask for it, if we’re just close to Him and depend on Him
how can He do it if we aren’t close to Him and dont ask Him to?
God wants us to cry out to Him? Why would we not ask Him? that’s just a question you need to ask yourself
We see that then there was peace in Israel for a while, and they gained some of their cities back from the Philistines even. This was coastal land in a strategic spot so this was a pretty great victory that God gave them.
additionally, there was even peace with other people’s after this as well, maybe they saw or heard of God’s workings and were scared to fight the Israelites
Then we see that Samuel went on a circuit judging Israel, doing His duty for God as he’s done faithfully all of his life. A very good example of faithfulness and leaning on God for everything..