Is there any hope?

Sam Williamson

God's Own Heart • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

1 Samuel 12

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Pray

I hope you have, regularalry, ideally daily,

(and if not then we should be) ,

I hope we have found ourselves convicted by God’s spirit,

thankful for Jesus,

and exicted about the hope set before us,

to make a real effort to live each day for God and God alone.

You wake up

YOu’ve read the bible and prayed,

you’ve worked hard to demonstrtae the fruit of the spirit so far,

You’ve rehersed in your mind speaking to a collegue about Jesus,

You’ve called to your chidlren to make sure they have done their quiet time,

and you’ve avoided joining the insessant gossip on a whatsapp group,

And then we get our of bed and it’s all down hill from there!

giving in to temptations

serving ourselevses not God,

- what ever variety you or I most personally struggle with.

a sinless day seems beyond us.

How should we respond towards God when we sin yet again,

turrning our backs on his ways and paths for our lives.

And choosing our own king?

We feel guitly,

Ashamed

low,

perhaps anxious.

This is the point 1 Samuel will address today.

The quetsion they ,

and we want to know,

Is there any hope.

And I’m afraid it doesn’t really start well!

The passage seems to have 2 parts

In v1-15 God reminds or reveals to the Israelites (through His leader and prophet Samuel),

that ‘Left to themselevs’ the Israelietes are in real trouble!

so, Part 1 - is called left to oursleves.

Part 2, v16-25 -is a reminder of actual reality - And that is when things are ‘left to God.’

The structure is on your handouts -

Part 1 - Left to ourselves

1 - God’s Good Leader Rejected v1-5 (and, 11, 24)

v1-5 is Samuel laying out before the people what life has been like with Him,

God’s chosen and faithful leader.

(and you might say, would have continued to be like if they hadn’t rejected God’s rule)

He couches this mock trial against himself in very simple language,

He sets the scene

1 Samuel 12:1–2 NIV

Samuel said to all Israel, “I have listened to everything you said to me and have set a king over you. Now you have a king as your leader. As for me, I am old and gray, and my sons are here with you. I have been your leader from my youth until this day.

You know me,

you know how I was chosen by God,

when God miraculaously allowed Hannah my mother to concieve,

and so I dedicated to the Lord’s service.

They had no hope for the former Preist Eli’s son’s to lead them well

- they were already terrible and imorral preists,

But God provided a Good leader for them in Samuel.

Perhaps that’s why Samuel makes reference to his own sons here

who are also known to be unacceptable leaders,

becasue it wasn’t like Eli’s wayward sons STOPPED God’s good rule through a good leader.

God always has a good way forward for his people - if they are willing to trust and obey him.

And so, goes on Samuel

1 Samuel 12:3 NIV

Here I stand. Testify against me in the presence of the Lord and his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these things, I will make it right.”

Samuel knows what there answer will be..

1 Samuel 12:4 NIV

“You have not cheated or oppressed us,” they replied. “You have not taken anything from anyone’s hand.”

And so, he makes it clear

that to have asked for a King

is to have rejected God’s Good leader -

The King they have asked for is predicted to ‘take, take, take, take’ - in chapter 8.

WHat have I taken asks Samuel?

1 Samuel 12:5 NIV

Samuel said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and also his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” “He is witness,” they said.

It’s foolish and ironic is the message,

to have turned away from God’s Good and chosen leader.

Pause

For us, It is foolish and ironic to turn away from God’s Good Leader - Jesus.

The world today, takes, takes, takes, takes.

Whatever we pursue - we becomes slaves to - we have to feed out king.

But what does Jesus take - well if anything - he takes our judgement, our worries, our fears and concenrs.

But more so he Gives, gives, gives!

Jesus’s hands have less than nothing in them like Samuel - only the wholes are visible from his crucfiction!

To reject Jesus means the same as v5 again:

The Lord God will be witness against us, and also his annoiunted (Jesus)!

It’s a terrible thing to deny Jesus,

to say his commands don’t matter,

to pursue other things.

That attitude of rejecting God’s leader - God’s plan is actually to fulfill

our second point:

2 - God’s Good Grace Rejected v6-11

These few verse (6-11) summarise a few very significant times in the history of Israel

where God saved, delievered his people out of slavery, or oppression.

It’s God’s way of reminding the people that their behaviour is nothing new.

This rejection of god’s Good leaders is echoed through history,

and the foolishness of it is not to be missed!

1 Samuel 12:6 NIV

Then Samuel said to the people, “It is the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your ancestors up out of Egypt.

He continues this trial against them:

1 Samuel 12:7 NIV

Now then, stand here, because I am going to confront you with evidence before the Lord as to all the righteous acts performed by the Lord for you and your ancestors.

The partern is clear in these verses,

God saves,

the people rebel,

the people then cry out,

and God saves.

And each time comes the empty promises of God’s people

1 Samuel 12:10 NIV

They cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned; we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you.’

I say empty,

not becasue they weren’t neccesserily genuiene at the time of repentance and recommitment,

but becasue they only last as long as the next temptation,

or trial comes.

It feels a bit like our daily efforts to commit ourselevs to obedience to the Lord,

only to find tempation or trial cuts us short from fulfilling our desire.

That’s what we’ve seen in 1 Samuel -

1 Samuel 12:12 NIV

“But when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites was moving against you, you said to me, ‘No, we want a king to rule over us’—even though the Lord your God was your king.

How foolish to repeatedly reject the Good grace of God.

Again and again and again.

Do we ever feel like that?

Do that?

PAuse

The question they might have - as might we is

3 - Is there any hope? v12-15

1 Samuel 12:13–15 NIV

Now here is the king you have chosen, the one you asked for; see, the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the Lord your God—good! But if you do not obey the Lord, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors.

Maybe there is some hope?

If they fear the Lord and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands

But also, if not only they,

but this new king they have asked for also follows the Lord their God -

well then - and only then will things be:

( as the end of v14 puts it:)