What We Need to Hear

Saul is king. The Lord has chosen Him to fulfill this role. He was chosen by lot in front of the entire assembly of Israel. The people renewed his kingship after Saul rescued the city of Jabesh Gilead (though, really, it was the Lord who worked salvation for them that day and every day). The people decided they liked Saul as king.

So now that all Israel has accepted Saul as king, Samuel has to withdraw as their leader, the judge of the people. He’ll still hang around and exercise his ministry, whether or not the king will listen to him is another thing altogether.

Before we say “Farewell” to Samuel, we need to hear what he has to say to the people (this isn’t farewell nor Samuel’s retirement speech; he’ll have one more king to anoint).

Please realize this is what the Lord wants His people to hear, then and now. Samuel’s authority as a prophet is as one who gives the Word of God to the king and to the people. What Samuel says is powerful; it’s precisely what the people of Israel needed to hear.

It’s what we need to hear.

Samuel is going to confront the people of Israel, but before he gets to that, he needs to make a case for his own leadership among the people. Verses 1-5 cover Samuel’s defense:

1 Samuel 12:1–5 NIV

1 Samuel said to all Israel, “I have listened to everything you said to me and have set a king over you. 2 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. 3 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.” 4 “You have not cheated or oppressed us,” they replied. “You have not taken anything from anyone’s hand.” 5 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.

Samuel has done what the people has asked. And now, the once young boy serving in the temple is an old man. Old and gray. Samuel can’t hide his age or his sons. He stands firm and asks some questions about his leadership among them. In all his years, he never cheated anyone; never bribed anyone; never falsified any accounts; never acted unjustly.

Israel agrees that Samuel has led well. There had been no real defect in his character or leadership. He wasn’t perfect, but he was as good as they could ask for.

As soon as Samuel has defended his leadership/ministry among them, he turns to their record.

Samuel had been faithful. And, just in case the people have forgotten (pretty good odds that they have), Samuel reminds them the Lord Yahweh has been faithful to them, too.

1 Samuel 12:6–15 NIV

6 Then Samuel said to the people, “It is the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your ancestors up out of Egypt. 7 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. 8 “After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the Lord for help, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and settled them in this place. 9 “But they forgot the Lord their God; so he sold them into the hand of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab, who fought against them. 10 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.’ 11 Then the Lord sent Jerub-Baal, Barak, Jephthah and Samuel, and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around you, so that you lived in safety. 12 “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. 13 Now here is the king you have chosen, the one you asked for; see, the Lord has set a king over you. 14 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! 15 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.

Be Confronted with Truths about the Lord: What He Has Done and Who He is

This is what Samuel is saying in verse 7. 1 Samuel 12:7 “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.”

Samuel needs to confront the people with the twin truths of God’s character and His goodness toward them. They need a swift kick to the seat of their collective pants, a wake-up call to be sure.

There’s a pattern throughout Israel’s history: there’s always some self-inflicted crisis, they cry for help, the Lord hears them, and then grants deliverance through one of His provided deliverers (whoever is needed).

The Lord’s pattern of deliverance began with Moses and Aaron through whom the Lord brought the people out of Egypt.

Throughout the book of Judges, the Lord remained faithful to adulterous Israel. They’d cry out and He’d raise up a deliverer/judge for them. Samuel names a few of the judges: Jerub-Baal (Gideon), Barak, Jephthah, and himself (Samuel was the last of the judges).

Most recently, after the events of the Exodus and the time when the judges judged, here during the time of Samuel the people were terrorized by the eye-gouging Ammonite named Nahash.

This time, the people don’t cry out for help; they demand a king. Same tune, second verse same as the first. They forget the deliverance the Lord had brought them.

They suffer, like me and you, from spiritual amnesia. How quickly they forget what the Lord has done for them! Heck, I think they forget who He is about as quickly as they forget what He’s done.

This is what Samuel is setting out to remind them of: who He is and what He has done. This is what we need to hear.

In verse 8, Samuel refers to the Lord as the One who helps:

1 Samuel 12:8 (NIV)

8 “After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the Lord for help, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your ancestors out of Egypt and settled them in this place.

In verses 10-11, the Lord is described as the One who delivers:

1 Samuel 12:10–11 (NIV)

10 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.’ 11 Then the Lord sent Jerub-Baal, Barak, Jephthah and Samuel, and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies all around you, so that you lived in safety.

And Samuel refers to the Lord as the King they’ve rejected:

1 Samuel 12:12 (NIV)

12 “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.

This is what the Lord has done for them: He’s helped them, He’s delivered them, He has ruled over them as King.

This is who the Lord is: Helper, Deliverer, King.

He has been their Helper. They sin against Him, over and over. They forsake His help again and again, until they need Him. On the regular, they commit idolatry by worshipping other gods.

He is their Deliverer and they just take it for granted. He delivers them and before you know it, they’re back in the same mess in need of deliverance all over again.

The Lord had been their King. And they ask for another.

Samuel does the hard work of confronting them with the twin truths of who the Lord is and what the Lord has done.

1 Samuel 12:7 NIV

7 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.

Once we realize anew who the Lord is and what the Lord has done, it’s time for us to respond. The response is laid out in verses 14-15:

Fear the Lord. Serve Him. Obey Him. Don’t rebel against His commands. Follow Him.

If we do this, Samuel says, “Good!”

When crisis comes, we need to remember that He is our Helper. Psalm 121.1-2 “I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.”

He is our Deliverer, the One who will rescue us from ourselves and our sin, from the present evil age and the coming wrath.

He is Our King. The Lord is the One to whom we submit. We follow Him. We serve at His pleasure. He should have our full trust and 100% of our allegiance and worship.

>Sometimes we need to be confronted with the truth about who He is and what He has done.

Sometimes, we just need our eyes opened.

1 Samuel 12:16–18 NIV

16 “Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes! 17 Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call on the Lord to send thunder and rain. And you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the Lord when you asked for a king.” 18 Then Samuel called on the Lord, and that same day the Lord sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the Lord and of Samuel.

See this Great Thing the Lord is about to do

Samuel, like any good preacher, keeps on going.

Davis comments: “Samuel gave Israel no time to speak. If Samuel had paused for breath, Israel might have only spouted some religious tripe (nonsense)…Samuel rushes on.”

Sometimes the best argumentation in the world doesn’t get through (every parent, spouse, friend, boss, employee knows this). Samuel has made a compelling case for the Lord’s help and deliverance and rule. If only people responded to a well-spoken, well-thought-out argument.

Unfortunately, Israel is pretty dense. And so are we.

So Samuel has a visual aid. It’s “Show and Tell” time. The thunder and the rain ought to do it.

This might not seem like much of a sign. But Samuel and Israel know it is because it’s wheat harvest. This will be no mere thunder and rain. This will be entirely unseasonable thunder and rain. This was the dry season in that part of the world. It’s May-June, time to fire up the combines for wheat harvest.

Thunder and rain would be extremely rare then and there. Like 6” of snow on the 4th of July in Rich Hill, rare. It could happen, but it would be something spectacular. I’d prefer it, actually, but that’s not the point here.

It’s incredible, the thunder and the rain. It’s a powerful sign of the Lord’s work.

In fact, Samuel uses the same phrase as Moses did before the Lord parted the Red Sea.

Samuel says (1 Sam 12:16), “Stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do...” Moses says (Ex. 14:13), “Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring...”

We, along with Israel, need to see and understand and remember what great things the Lord has done and can do. His power is infinite. He can bring His power, His creation, to bear on His people at any moment. He can impose His power—His wonder-working power—at any time. And He does, all the time.

The great things the Lord does lie in direct contrast to the evil thing[s] His people do in His sight.

Namely, here, they need to realize that their asking for a king was an evil thing in the eyes of the Lord.

God does GREAT things in spite of our evil. He is always, in fact, doing some great thing. If we have eyes to see and ears to hear, He is constantly at work. He has done great things, and He does great things.

Stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes!

What the Lord does—the dry season thunderstorm—gets their attention, and that’s the point.

1 Samuel 12:18–24 NIV

18 Then Samuel called on the Lord, and that same day the Lord sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the Lord and of Samuel. 19 The people all said to Samuel, “Pray to the Lord your God for your servants so that we will not die, for we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king.” 20 “Do not be afraid,” Samuel replied. “You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21 Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. 22 For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own. 23 As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right. 24 But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you.

Stand in Awe of the Lord

That same day the Lord sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the Lord...

Israel fears they might die for evil thing(s) they’ve done. They realize they’ve added to all [their] other sins.

That number is getting pretty big. And they just keep on adding to the number of their sins. It’s a pretty big pile.

“Only when God’s people see their sin from His perspective is there the hope that they will turn from it.” -DRD

The Living God, through His prophet Samuel, would have His people recognize and fear their idolatry. He wants them to be alarmed by it, to be repulsed by it. At the very least, and to begin with, the Lord wants His people to be aware of their sinfulness.

It’s good they ask Samuel to pray for them. Of course, Samuel will pray. And he offers them counsel to serve the Lord and not idols. Serve the Lord with all your heart.

Their confession and Samuel’s advice happen in light of the faithfulness of the Lord.

1 Samuel 12:22 NIV

22 For the sake of his great name the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own.

Even though they’ve done this evil thing, the Lord will not reject His people. The Lord has made them His own. They are His, they belong to Him, they are His special possession—precisely what’s true of Christ’s Church (as Peter writes):

1 Peter 2:9–10 NIV

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

If the Lord’s faithfulness and mercy and grace and desire to have a relationship with a sinful people doesn’t inspire awe, nothing will.

Awe and fear are connected. They are virtually the same thing. For the people to stand in awe and fear is the outworking of the same posture of heart.

Awe and fear are the proper response to the grace of the Lord Yahweh.

Awe motivates His people to service, to confess their sinfulness. A proper view of the Lord—who He is and what He has done—will lead to proper living.

Stand in awe of the Lord. This, Samuel pleads. Without awe/fear of the Lord, the people will perish.

1 Samuel 12:24–25 NIV

24 But be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things he has done for you. 25 Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will perish.”

Consider what Great Things the Lord has done For You

This is a bonus point. It’s free; won’t cost you a thing. But I think it’s significant.

Samuel has already told the people to stand still and see what great thing the Lord is going to do before [their] eyes.

And now, he tacks this on to the end of his speech (verse 24): consider what great things He has done for you.

This is personal. For you.

Consider what great things He has done for you. Can you name a few? What has this brought to mind? What great thing has He done for you?

Deuteronomy 10:21 NIV

21 He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.

To consider what He’s done for us is the best habit we can have. We need to make this our daily routine.

This one action, I’m convinced will turn our minds and our hearts heavenward.

To consider what great things the Lord has done will cause us to call to mind who He is. This considering will fill us with awe; awe that the Holy God would condescend and work great things for us.

Our great God, motivated purely by mercy and grace and love—a love unlike any other—has worked salvation for us. Not just from human enemies, nor merely from Satan and His minions, not only from our sins, not just from the wrath we deserve—but from it all God has sent His Son, Jesus, to take our place.

Our Substitute, our Savior, Jesus Christ came to us. He robbed our sin and made us holy.

He beckons and calls to those who are far off. His salvation is full and free, bought with the precious blood of Christ.

He purchased us, redeeming us, reconciling us. We are His special possession, SO THAT we would declare the praises of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvelous light.

He has done great things! This—this—is what we need to hear.

Be confronted with the truth about who He is and what He has done.

Stand still and see what He’s about to do.

Stand in Awe of Him.

And consider what great things He has done for you, because He has.

“He is great, and greatly to be praised!”