If You Are Returning...

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

2 Timothy 2:21 ESV

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

Please pray with me.

Last week we learned of the call on Samuel’s life, and we asked about our own calling. A lot has happened since then in the book of First Samuel.

The ark of the covenant has been captured by the Philistines. Eli, the priest in whose care Samuel had been entrusted by his parents, and Eli’s sons (Phineas and Hophni) have died. Eli’s sons died by the sword on the same day as the Lord had told Samuel. Eli fell backward off his stool after hearing the news that the ark of the covenant had been captured and broke his neck and died.

As we go forward it is important that we understand the significance of the ark of the covenant. The ark was the original container of the two tablets of the 10 commandments, it symbolized the presence of God with the people of Israel. It being captured would symbolize for the Israelites that God had left them.

The ark is returned to Israel, and ends up in Kiriath-jearim where it stays for 20 years.

We have not heard from Samuel since his calling. You may remember from last week we learned of Samuels calling and conversion, if you will.

1 Samuel 3:7 ESV

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.

1 Samuel 3:10 ESV

And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”

1 Samuel 3:21 ESV

And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord.

Ark of the Covenant

Chapter 4 has the capture of the ark of the covenant. The Israelites as I said would have seen this as God having left them, and the Philistines would have seen this as their god’s superiority over the God of Israel. However in chapter 5 we learn that they put it in the temple of their god, Dagon, and the God of Israel demonstrates power over their god to the point that they return the ark to Israel in chapter 6.

So now we’re in chapter 7. We are not sure of the length of time from the calling of Samuel to the capture of the ark. What we do know is that the ark has been in Kiriath-jearim for some 20 years.

And Samuel reappears and speaks to all the house of Israel:

1 Samuel 7:3 ESV

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.”

The Ancient Near East was place of polytheism. The nations that surrounded Israel worshipped multiple deities. Israel was supposed to be monotheistic, but if we look at how they viewed the ark, they could be said to have begun to worship the ark as well.

Let’s break this verse down:

1 Samuel 7:3 ESV

the first phrase: “If you are returning to the LORD...”

To return to the Lord implies acknowledging, confessing, and forsaking sinful behavior. It’s the definition of repentance! Repentance makes it possible to be reinstated to a right relationship with God. There are two aspects here:

The turning away from one’s sins that have been the source of your separation.

1 Samuel 7:3 ESV

But it’s more than just turning away from the source of our separation, it’s also

2. Turning toward God, who can forgive and restore.

1 Samuel 7:3 ESV

Direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only.

The idea communicated here is one of tenacious determination to remain faithful and loyal to God; it is the antithesis of being stubborn and rebellious.

Arnold, B. T. (2003). 1 & 2 Samuel (p. 132). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.We’ve all heard that you cannot serve both God and money,… the truth is we cannot serve both God and....anything else. We are not polytheistic, we are monotheistic. And either we believe that God can provide all of our needs, or we don’t.

This repentance cannot be done half heartedly, but it must be intentional and whole hearted. We need to recognize the reservations we hold and confess them, to move beyond them.

This is not easy.

It’s always easier to attend a church service where we pray and ask for forgiveness, as a group, publicly, than it is to acknowledge and confront our own personal sin and guilt. A gospel without true repentance is empty.

We haven’t heard from our friend Dietrich Bonhoeffer for a while, but he stated most forcefully the inconsistency of a gospel without a call to repentance: “Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner.” Cheap grace, taught Bonhoeffer, is that grace we bestow on ourselves and is in truth, “the deadly enemy of our church.”

Discipleship Chapter One: Costly Grace

Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without repentance; it is baptism without the discipline of community; it is the Lord’s Supper without confession of sin; it is absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without the living, incarnate Jesus Christ.

In his book the Great Divorce, C.S. Lewis speaks of a bus trip from hell to heaven for a visit. Upon arriving in heaven, one of the characters described as “the Ghost” meets a man he’d known on earth, a man he knew to be a murderer. As his friend from heaven tries to explain grace to him, the Ghost’s response is telling:

“Look at me now, said the Ghost, slapping his chest. “I gone straight all my life. I don’t say I was a religious man and I don’t say I had no faults, far from it. Bud I done my best all my life, see? I done my best by everyone, that’s the sort of chap I was. I never asked for anything that wasn’t mine by rights. If I wanted a drink I paid for it and if I took my wages I done my job, see? That’s the sort I was and I don’t care who knows it.”

Who determined his best? Who determined his rights? Who determined his job? — If you follow his logic, it’s all him.

God asks us to choose a different definition. God calls us to “Be Holy for I AM Holy.” If we’re going to compare ourselves to any other human being, it must be to Christ. And we discover we fall short.

When we repent though...

2 Timothy 2:21 ESV

Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.

It’s not a cheap grace - it came with a significant cost - a cost remember with Communion today. Bonhoeffer again:

Discipleship Chapter One: Costly Grace

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which has to be asked for, the door at which one has to knock.[9]

It is costly, because it calls to discipleship; it is grace, because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly, because it costs people their lives; it is grace, because it thereby makes them live. It is costly, because it condemns sin; it is grace, because it justifies the sinner. Above all, grace is costly, because it was costly to God, because it costs God the life of God’s Son—“you were bought with a price”[10]—and because nothing can be cheap to us which is costly to God. Above all, it is grace because the life of God’s Son was not too costly for God to give in order to make us live. God did, indeed, give him up for us. Costly grace is the incarnation of God.

Will you pray with me:

Merciful God, we confess that as we view the gloriousness of Christ we cannot help but see our sin and how we have fallen short of what you call us to be, and to do.

Although Christ is among us as our peace, we are a people divided against ourselves as we cling to the values of a broken world.

The profit and pleasures we pursue lay waste the beauty of the Creation which you entrusted to our care.

The fears and jealousies we harbor set neighbor against neighbor and nation against nation.

We abuse your good gifts of imagination and freedom, intellect and reason, and have turned them into bonds of oppression.

We often settle for cheap grace and forget the cost you paid to extend your grace to us.

Lord, have mercy upon us; heal and forgive us. Grant us the grace, courage and strength to turn once again to you. To set our minds on things above.

Set us free to serve you in the world as agents of your reconciling love in Jesus Christ.