New Leader, Fresh Commitment

Intro

How many have had this experience: you heard a rousing sermon on Sunday that so fired your faith you felt that you could storm the very gates of hell, and you would overcome them. You were convicted and encouraged to greater faithfulness and flush with victory; you felt you could conquer the world. Only to wake Monday morning in a fog, nothing goes right, you hit traffic and are late to work and find work piled up, and Dunkin Donuts was too full for you to get your coffee. Halfway through the morning, you think, how can I make it through this day, then you look at your watch, and it is, in fact, only 9:30, ugh.

Why is it so difficult to maintain that sense of victory, that close communion with God that empowers us? The simplest answer is sin. Sin causes us to be leaky vessels. Often we don’t fill our tanks with the right fuel, and when we happen to fill them with gospel fuel, even that we find constantly dissipates and is in continual need of refreshing. This is because sanctification is a process, a lifelong process. We don’t just repent once. We repent daily; we don’t confess our sins once. We confess daily; we don’t just read our bibles and pray once. We read and pray daily.

Israel, in our text, is flush from victory over their defeat of the Serpent king Nahash, and that is the perfect time to be reminded of who they are, of whose they are, and how they are to live before Him. Samuel uses this opportunity to chasten the people again for their treasonous act of rejecting God as their king by calling the people to renew covenant with the Lord. What is a covenant renewal? And is it important for us today? How does Israel renew covenant with the Lord? As we look at 1 Samuel 12:1-25 today, we see that in this covenant renewal, Samuel gives his farewell, and as he does so, he calls the people to judge whether he has been faithful. He then vindicates the Lord, pointing to all the ways that God has been faithful, finally he calls on Israel and Saul to be faithful by renewing covenant with the Lord. Since God is faithful to keep covenant, we must renew covenant with him by remaining faithful.

Samuel is judged faithful.

Samuel begins this covenant renewal with a plea for Israel to judge whether he has been faithful. He has successfully found them a king, just as they asked for, and now he is old. As he gathers them together in the presence of God, he wants to be public judged to be faithful. In a satirical way, alluding of course to his solemn warning in ch. 8, he says, “Whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me, and I will restore it to you.” Just as he warned that if they called a king, he would take, take, take, now he calls on them to judge whether or not that has been his practice.

They wholeheartedly concur, witnessing that Samuel had been faithful in his calling, obeying the Lord from the heart. Samuel calls the Lord and the newly anointed king to witness his innocence. Now Samuel was faithful in his calling as a prophet, priest, and judge. As Paul said to his young protégé, Timothy,

2 Timothy 4:7–8

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

Samuel has run his race, and although Israel has been wayward and treasonous, nevertheless, he has been faithful to keep covenant with God. And his faithfulness serves as an example to all Israel and us. But laying aside his faithfulness, why is Samuel doing this? Why particularly when they have come together to renew covenant?

I have noticed an interesting thing raising teenagers; they are quick to rationalize themselves while judging you. You will be in the midst of disciplining them, and because of their recalcitrance, you get flustered and raise your voice. That’s putting it mildly, you yell at them. All of a sudden, like good lawyers on the case, they seize the opportunity to point out to you utterly sinful it is for you to have just yelled at them. It’s really so inexcusable as to render them almost innocent, or at least innocent in their eyes of any wrongdoing. Then and there, your sin has rendered discipline useless because of what the puritans called a legal spirit. Now the logic is completely skewed. Essentially, the child is saying, Dad, unless you have never sinned, you cannot discipline me. Unless you are perfect, you can’t expect me to obey on this issue. That, of course, isn’t the case at all, for no one is righteous, no not one, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Nevertheless, sinners though we all are, we may render judgments, and other sinners are accountable to respond in repentance. And that is because there is one judge and law-giver—to whom we all must give an account. SO yes, if you have a speck in your eye, you may certainly point out the log in your brothers, but do be sure it is just a speck, and then, of course, repent of that.

Samuel is a judge, but he is also a prophet. And one of the ways we must think of prophets is as God’s lawmen. They are covenant prosecutors sent by God to prosecute the terms of the covenant. That means that they will hold up the standard, point to it, and then point, line by line, precept by precept, all the ways that Israel has failed to keep those terms. We and even use the term covenant all the time, but what does it mean.

O Palmer Robertson defined a Covenant as “a bond-in-blood sovereignly administered.” He continues by saying,

“It involves commitments with life-and-death consequences. At the point of covenantal inauguration, the parties of the covenant are committed to one another by a formalizing process of blood-shedding. This blood-shedding represents the intensity of the commitment of the covenant. By the covenant they are bound for life and death” (Robertson, 14-15).

More simply, one of my professors, Dr. Sklar, said that a

“covenant is a way of entering into a relationship that is way more personal than a contract, but way more permanent than an ordinary relationship” (Sklar, Lecture Notes, Exodus).

God made a covenant with Israel, promising them blessing in the land that he gave to them. Promising to dwell with them and to be their God. Both parties in the agreement/relationship have an obligation; God is obligated to bless and preserve them and be their God ad dwell with them. As long as he does, Israel is obligated to keep her terms of the covenant, which were obedience to the law, particularly the moral law, the ten commandments. The Torah was the application of those ten words to their particular culture and moment. This is the standard that Samuel would hold up and point to when accusing Israel of being unfaithful to the covenant.

Needless to say, that message is not popular. It often leads to the prophet’s death. Now, none of the prophets were sinless by any means. But faithful prophets were exemplars, keeping covenant from the heart and pointing Israel to do the same. In that way, their own lives did not get in the way or detract from the message. Think of how some of you felt when you heard the news that Ravi Zacharias had covered over all these horrific sins. You can be sure that were he still alive. His ministry would be over. We already have trouble not viewing his teaching as suspect. His life undermined his words. So it is vital for Samuel that Israel witness that he is innocent. He has promoted justice and walked faithfully before the Lord and Israel because he has some hard words for them.

Yahweh is judged faithful.

Samuel begins his prosecution with a story. He recounts the many ways that God has been faithful to Israel. He recounts the Exodus in v. 8 when God brought Israel out of Egypt and gave them the good land to dwell in. But they forgot the Lord. Samuel then gives us a summary of the period of the judges. During that time, when Israel was rebellious, the Lord would sell them into the hands of their enemies. Then when Israel would cry out to the Lord, saying, “we have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.” Then the Lord would raise a deliverer to save them. But Samuel comes to the crux of the matter in v. 12—Israel’s treason. God was Israel’s king, but they insisted on having a king like the nations. Samuel uses salvation history to show Israel has failed to keep the terms of the covenant, and this all happened despite God being faithful.

To prove that this is why they are guilty of breaking covenant with God, Samuel tells them to stand back, for he will show them a sign these things are true. He promises that he will call upon the Lord to send thunder and rain to know for sure that it is because they asked for a king that God is angry with them. “The wheat harvest takes place in May–June, during the dry season when rain is virtually unknown”[ David G. Firth, 1 & 2 Samuel, ed. David W. Baker and Gordon J. Wenham, vol. 8, Apollos Old Testament Commentary (Nottingham, England; Downers Grove, IL: Apollos; InterVarsity Press, 2009), 147.] They will know two things then, that Samuel is speaking the truth and that their sin is very great. This sign was a cause for them to reflect on their sin; it was an opportunity for repentance, an opportunity for covenant renewal. And so, the impossible happened; God listened to Samuel and sent thunder and rain during the wheat harvest. Obviously, Israel responds in fear. Fear of God and fear of Samuel. They plead with him to intercede on their behalf so that God may not consume them. This reminds us of Israel in the wilderness when they had tested God, and he wanted to consume them—but Moses intercedes on their behalf. Of course, we have a better mediator than Samuel or Moses—the Lord Jesus Christ. Who daily intercedes for us before the father.

As Samuel recounts God’s faithfulness throughout Israel’s history, we learn something of the character of God. His character is demonstrated in these mighty deeds. That is, he shows His character by His actions. For declarations that God has made concerning himself cannot be true if not demonstrated by his actions. In the same way, we can say that we are following Christ, but if our lives do not match our profession, we are hypocrites. When Moses asked to see the Glory of God, the Lord passed by him on the mountain and proclaimed,

Exodus 34:6–7 ESV

6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

The Lord is abounding in steadfast love, that is His ḥěʹ·sěḏ; a covenant-keeping love. I love the Jesus Storybook definition of this love. “never stopping, never giving up, unbreaking, always and forever love” (Lloyd-Jones). But His love is shown in the concrete actions he took to save Israel, even despite their sin.

You know what makes sin exceedingly sinful—the faithfulness of God. I am constantly amazed by this. As I confront my own sin daily, I daily see a failure—someone who easily slips into the same sins over and over again. Even despite knowing better, and I consider myself with the apostle to be the chief of sinners. Yet Christ is a gracious savior, and his righteousness has far outweighed my sin. But sometimes, it takes a glimpse of the faithfulness of God for you to realize how lackluster your faith has been. If you have been a Christian for more than a day, then I am sure that you can survey your own life and recount many times when the Lord has been faithful to keep covenant with you. And looking back, I am sure that you will concur it was not because you were impeccable in your behavior, nor were you clinging faithfully to the covenant. Nevertheless, God was faithful.

Now Saul and the people must be faithful.

Seeing the faithfulness of God leads us towards repentance; why would we not want to be in fellowship with such an awesome God. A God who keeps covenant, who remains faithful even when we do not. Confronted with the faithfulness of God and their own unfaithfulness and moved to fear by the sign, the people plead with Samuel to pray for them. He admonishes them in v. 20 not to be afraid. Yes, you have been unfaithful when you shouldn’t have been; when you had no real reason to be—yet don’t let your past unfaithfulness keep you from following God. It’s time now to turn, to repent from your previous ways and return to the Lord, and be faithful to serve Him alone.

Samuel calls them to repentance to turn again to the Lord, and as he does, he warns them. They must not turn to empty things. Isaiah uses that word to describe idolatry when he says,

Isaiah 44:9–10 (ESV)

9 All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame. 10 Who fashions a god or casts an idol that is profitable for nothing?

And that warning so apropos because we often try repentance unto God as a last resort. Well, if I can’t get myself out of this situation, then I’ll turn to God. But first, let me try x, y, z. But empty things provide empty answers, they can’t profit, and they can’t deliver. God can. Samuel has brought the nation together at Gilgal. That historic place where God had rolled away the reproach of Egypt. There they are shown the faithfulness of God and their treasonous sin of wanting a king like the nations. God gathers them there so that they can renew the covenant.

A covenant renewal is a ceremony where the terms of the covenant are readout, and the people, who were not there originally when God made the covenant with Moses, can affirm the terms themselves. This strikingly beautiful thing happens here. Look at v. 22.

Why does God abide with sinners? Why does he put up with our unfaithfulness? Samuel answers:

1 Samuel 12:22

For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name’s sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.

What an amazing gospel truth that God meets us where we are, not where we should be. Because it pleases Him to make us His people, it pleases him, that is amazing. That the great covenant-keeping God, the one who made heaven and earth, takes sinful you and me, erring and straying as we always are and is pleased to renew the covenant with us, making us a people for himself. Many of you here, I am sure, have thought at one time or another that God couldn’t possibly love and accept you because of your sin. And you have tried unsuccessfully to clean yourself up so that you might be more acceptable to Him. But the good news of the gospel is that God meets you where you are, and not just figuratively. He literally meets you where you are in the sending of His Son. God in the flesh, dwelling with us and suffering for us. Jesus entered into the full experience of our humanity, suffering temptation, and pain, and eventually death. He even experienced the alienation of his father and sorrowful separation caused by sin, not His own but yours—As God made Him who knew no sin, sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Jesus knows what you are going through. He can sympathize with your weakness. And he promises that a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench (Is. 42:3).

As Israel is established as a kingdom, together with her new king, they must renew their commitments to the covenant. They are reaffirming the terms of the mosaic covenant. A Covenant that upon their obedience, God would establish them in the land, and he would dwell with them. Protecting them from enemies and prospering them so that they become a blessing to the nations around them. This is a call to examine their lives, flee from sin, “fear the Lord, and serve him faithfully” with all their hearts considering all the great things he has done for them (v. 24). If they are true to the covenant, God will establish them, but they will be swept away if they turn away and do wickedly.

But what does a covenant renewal in Israel some three thousand years ago mean for us today? Aren’t things different under the new covenant? Well, yes and no. Things are different, In that, we don’t live in a theocracy like Israel, which was church and state I one. But we have all been baptized into the covenant people of God. Now we, as the church, are the new Israel. Gentiles though we are, we have been grafted in by faith. As the name means, the church is the society of the called-out ones, the Ekklesia. God calls us out, and we respond. So as we gather each Lord’s day, we are renewing covenant. This is why our service is dialogical, God speaks, we respond.

Some of you are uncomfortable with the word liturgy. You think that if we have a liturgy, we are on the road to Rome. But I assure you the term is thoroughly scriptural. Liturgy is a transliteration of the Greek word leitourgia, which is variously translated in the ESV as worship, service, or ministry. So in Hebrews 8:6, “Christ has obtained a liturgy that is much more excellent than the old as the covenant he mediates is better.” This is why on the front of your bulletin, it says Hope Church, Public Service of Worship, service means liturgy. Every church has a liturgy, three-song and a sermon is a liturgy, just not a very good one. But our liturgy is designed as a covenant-renewal liturgy.

Every element in our worship is designed to lead you, the worshiper, to renew covenant with God. Let me briefly outline how this takes place by drawing your attention to our service.

First, there is the call to worship, there God speaks, calling us to worship him, and we respond. Once we are summoned and gathered in his presence, we confess our sin. Just as Israel did when confronted with His faithfulness and their own unfaithfulness, they confess their sin and receive the forgiveness of the lord. Then God speaks further to us in the reading of scripture and the preaching of the word. Finally, in having been called and consecrated, we commune with Christ in a meal, which is a participation in his death. After setting a table for us in the presence of our enemies, we are commissioned to go out into the world armed with the benediction and carrying the gospel with us where we go.

So how do we renew covenant? We gather each Lord’s day for worship. Can you come to church and not renew covenant? Of course, you can. Just as there were, I’m sure there present when Israel renewed covenant who did not do so from the heart. That happens when you allow your heart to grow cold, and you don’t in sincerity confess your sins, and you don’t listen to the word of God by responding in repentance and faith. At bottom, covenant-renewal is soothing God does for us—reminding us of his faithfulness and calling us to be faithful to Him. Because Monday’s can be hard, and there is still Tuesday through Friday to get through, God gives us each Lord’s day as a day of rest from our worldly cares and gathers us together as a body under Christ who is our head and renews covenant with us, reminding us again of his covenant-keeping love, and of our need to fear the Lord and serve him alone from the heart. Since God is faithful to keep covenant, we must renew covenant with him by remaining faithful.

Charge