"So Far, So Good"

V. 1; “And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the Lord.”

The Ark stayed at Kiriath-jearim twenty years, which is half of a generation.

v. 2; “From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.”

V. 3; “And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

What the people of Israel were told to do and obeyed was what the Philistines were not willing to do, that is, put away the foreign gods. For the Israelites this was a matter of obeying the first of the Ten Commandments that was given to them by God/Yahweh through Moses and now Samuel is speaking on behalf of God/Yahweh to God’s people.

V. 3b; “… and He will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines.”

Samuel's words sound like a reminder of the Mosaic Covenant God made with Israel: “... If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine" (Exodus 19.5). God's diligent protection is promised to his people, only if they will maintain the covenant God made with them.

The Philistine’s heartless, insincere worship of Yahweh only offered a sacrifice to God in hopes that Yahweh/God would no longer punish them for their misdeeds. This empty worship is contrasted to the repentant and selfless acts of obedience by Israel with hopes of being forgiven by God and restored to His fellowship.

v. 4; “So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only.”

This is sincere repentance. If you serve the Lord, you can only serve Him. God will not share His glory with another – “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols. (Isaiah 42.8). In the very commandment the Lord says this, “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20.3).

V. 5; “Then Samuel said, Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.”

Samuel is seen in the role of judge and priest! Samuel accepts the role of He an intercessor and mediator as he goes to God on behalf of the people of Israel. Note, Samuel himself did not participate in idol worshipping as others had but stayed loyal to Yahweh. In this regard, Samuel was 'without sin' and along with his calling as an anointed servant, his sinlessness in this matter allows him to be a mediator, that is he had access to God's grace on behalf of God's sinful people.

Selecting Mizpah as the location to meet with significant because Mizpah has a cultural, historical and religious significance to the Israelites. Mizpah is first mentioned in the story of Jacob and Laban in Genesis 31.49, 50 as a place of reconciliation and forgiveness. Now, in our text, Mizpah will hopefully again be a place of forgiveness by God toward his wayward people, Israel.

V. 6; “So they gathered to Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before Yahweh.”

There is one other place in the Old Testament that alludes to a ‘libation’ or in this case, a water offering, and that is found in 2 Samuel 23.16). There by refusing to drink the water God provided symbolizes the feeling of unworthiness by those to whom the water was made available, and in 2 Samuel it was Israel’s favorite son, David. In our text, ‘they’ meaning the people gathered at Mizpah, that place of atonement and reconciliation! What a gesture by God to agree to meet the people for the purposes of forgiveness! This is what God wants; God wants to forgive. God is already at Mizpah, the question is, will you and me show up?

V. 6b; “They fasted on that day and said there, ‘we have sinned against Yahweh.’

Not only did the Israelites refuse to drink water before the LORD as a sign of their unworthiness and contrition, but they also refuse food or they “fasted” as a religious or spiritual exercise to further show their sincerity. Fasting is for a person to temporarily deny the physical needs of the body as a means to gain spiritual blessings. Fasting says ‘our spiritual needs supersede or have priority over our physical needs.’

V. 7; “And when the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines.”

Fear is not a part of the Christian’s DNA. The Epistle of John says, “Perfect love casts out all fear” (1 John 4:18).

v. 8; “And the people 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.”

The persistency of Israel’s antagonizers (v. 7) or our trouble necessitates persistency in prayer by Samuel for Israel. Don’t stop praying is the request from the Israelites! Israel could not control their inner fear, but God can eliminate the cause of Israel’s fear!

V. 9; “So Samuel took a single lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to Yahweh. Then Samuel cried out to Yahweh on behalf of Israel, and Yahweh answered him.”

Here in the text we see that Israel has had a change of heart and mind in that now they are depending on God and not furniture (the ark). This is a reminder that idol worship is futile. Here we see the efficacious or effective nature of a single solitary sacrifice ordered by God for a multitude of sinners! One sacrifice for all of Israel! And again, we see the importance of acknowledging our mistakes and God’s payment for the sins of the people. God’s forgiveness is real, but is our repentance? Because it is only thr0ugh repentance that we can have forgiveness of sin and peace with our holy God and a sacrifice accomplishes that. In this Old Testament text a sacrifice was an animal, but as New Testament Christians, we are granted peace with God through the sacrifice of God’s own son, Jesus Christ!

Now notice the economy of the sacrifice. Only one lamb was needed to satisfy God and pay Israel’s sin debt! In Christ, ultimately, the world has that ‘one’ lamb, the Lamb of God, who died for he sins of the whole world – “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1.29). This one lamb sacrificed by Samuel on behalf of Israel was enough! God accepted it! The Israelites could sing “they had overcome by the blood of the Lamb!” An innocent one dying for the guilty ones! A spotless lamb, cut off early in its life, a reflection of that sacrifice to come, the Lord Jesus, our perfect sacrifice. This lamb died so that Israel could have peace with their God!

The key to answered prayer in our text is twofold:

Prayer must be sincere (v. 8), and there must be an acknowledgement of an acceptable sacrifice as an integral part of worship (v. 9). Notice in our text that worship precedes the victory over the Philistines. Trust or faith says Israel can worship God right now even though things look ominous and storm clouds are hovering over the horizon. No matter what things may look like, praise God anyway!

This offering was one of God’s choice. It was a lamb, and the slain lamb preceded the cry for deliverance.There is no deliverance without the sacrifice, for “without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins” (Hebrews 9.22). This text is undoubtedly pointing us to Jesus, the One chosen by God for the sins of the whole world.

V. 10; “As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the LORD thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were routed before Israel.”

While Israel was worshipping, their enemy, the Philistines, were drawing closer. Satan knows worship is the best weapon a believer has to defeat the work of the devil. So, our challenge is this, can we continue to worship our faithful God while our trouble does not seem to go away?

Question. Are you willing and determined to worship in the midst of your trouble?

V. 11; “And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car.”

Note, that instead of the Philistines pursuing the Israelites, the Israelites began pursuing the Philistines! God turned the situation around!

Are you willing to trust God to turn your situation around? On behalf of God’s people, the Lord caused the enemy to turn back and run!

If you and me quit worshipping because of fear, we may miss God’s blessings. Here is the classic example of God working on behalf of God’s people.

The Apostle Paul asks the question in Romans 8. 31b, “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Fear of their enemy dissipated or went away when Israel took their fears and their concerns and laid them down at the feet of their God. Because in v. 7 Israel confessed their fear, in verse eight they were encouraged to not stop praying, and in verse nine, they worshipped.

Preaching Point.

When we worship we are acknowledging that our God is above us, greater than us; and that there is nothing or no person greater than God; that God is the One who sits above the circle of the earth (Isaiah 40.22); that our God is majestic and is beyond all earthly majesties;

that kings and queens bow before His throne;

that God alone is worthy of all our praise; that we extol (or praise God enthusiastically); that God is glorious in all of His attributes;

that He is holy in His essential nature; perfect in all of His ways;

that our God is without peer or rival; worthy of our trust;

and it is an acknowledgment that God’s love for us is constantly being revealed and worked out in good circumstances as well as poor circumstances;

that our God is so complex that God’s goodness cannot be measured in a single circumstance, but that God’s wisdom is causing “all things to work together for the good” (Romans 8.28).

In all this worship and praise, however, the enemy attacked anyway; they took a ‘back seat’ to the purposes of God. Being a true worshipper of God doesn’t mean you or I are immune to the troubles of this world. But what it does mean is that the one who trusts Christ will achieve ultimate victory.

As with the Philistines, rejection of the revelation of the true God Yahweh will end in both judgment and ultimate destruction: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness, because what can be known about God is plain to them; because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world his invisible attributes-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, because they are understood through what has been made. So, people are without excuse” (Romans 1.18-20, NET Bible).

Verse 11 says the Philistines were struck down and Israel ultimate victory, because in the next section it says, the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel” (v. 13).

V. 12; “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, up to here the LORD has helped us” (NET Bible).

In other words, ‘so far, so good.’ Can you say, ‘so far, so good?’ Hasn’t the Lord God helped you overcome some scary times and difficult circumstances? Hasn’t the Lord walked with you down some dark places? Or, has the Lord rescued you when you thought you were drowning in financial debt or were spiritually depleted? Didn’t the Savior come through right on time? Didn’t He fix it? Did God turn your circumstance around; stabilize you when things were rocky? Moved trouble out of your way? Took care of an enemy?

Oh, yes! You too can say, “So far, so good!”

He helped me when no one else could help!

He healed me when I was sick;

The Lord helped me even when I didn't know He was the One working behind the scenes on my behalf!

It was God’s sovereign hand that held me when I couldn’t walk on my own!

The strong arm of God that lifted me up when I was in a dark place;

God helped me when I needed to pray, but couldn't;

He helped me when I should have prayed, but wouldn't;

God helped me when I wanted to pray, but didn't know how;

Surely, we can say, ‘So far, so good!’

Call him; God will come! Ask Him; He will answer you! Look to him; God will see you through!

I don’t know what the next test is, neither do I know where my next trial will be, but I know I am going to trust God because, “So far, so good.”

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