1 Samuel chapter 7 and verse
3. And Samuel spake unto all the
house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with
all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtoreth
from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve
him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did
put away Balaam and Ashtoreth, and served the Lord only. And
Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Misspe, and I will pray for
you unto the Lord. And they gathered together to
Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD. And fasted
on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the LORD.
And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. And when
the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered
together to misbehave, the lords of the Philistines went up against
Israel. And when the children of Israel
heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the children
of Israel said to Samuel, cease not to cry unto the Lord our
God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a suckling lamb,
and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel
cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as
Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew
near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a
great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomforted
them, and they were smitten before Israel. and the men of Israel
went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them
until they came under Bethkar. Then Samuel took a stone and
set it between Mizpah and Shenn and called the name of it Ebenezer,
saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. So the Philistines
were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel,
and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the
days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines
had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto
Gath, and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the
hands of the Philistines. and there was peace between Israel
and the Amorites. And Samuel judged Israel all
the days of his life, and he went from year to year in circuit
to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those
places. And his return was to Ramah,
for there was his house, and there he judged Israel, and there
he built an altar unto the Lord. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. I mentioned some time ago when
we were thinking about the book of Judges, and we were thinking
about some of the individual judges at that time, that although
Samuel is spoken of as a prophet, he is also accounted as a judge
of Israel. and indeed some people add him
to the list of judges that are spoken about in the Book of Judges. Eli actually is also included
there under some reckonings. However, Samuel's ministry was
unique and it bridged a period in Israel's history between the
judges proper and the times of the kings of Israel. So Samuel had a fairly long ministry,
it would appear, although it's not always easy to be sure of
timings in Samuel's ministry. But he had a fairly long ministry,
it would appear, and his ministry covered this transition period
between the times of the judges and the times of the kings of
Israel. The first couple of kings are
going to be Samuel and David, but we will learn about them
on a future occasion, God willing. It appears that there was a 20
year period with the Ark in Kyrgyz-Jerum. Now we didn't read these opening
verses, perhaps we should have done, but we didn't read them.
But those verses tell us that the Ark remained at Kyrgyz-Jerum
for 20 years. And it seems as though over those
20 years that the Lord was silent in Israel. Remember, Samuel was
just a young lad at the time when the ark was taken into the
land of the Philistines. And so he would perhaps only
be around about his early 30s or so by the end of this 20 years. And during this time, there was
a general thoughtlessness and carelessness towards God. There was the practicing of idolatry,
which always seems to have been an issue amongst the children
of Israel. And this is, again, one of the
things that Samuel had to deal with amongst the Israelites. But one thing we can say about
this 20 years is that though there doesn't appear to have
been an outward ministry, nevertheless God the Holy Spirit was still
at work and the people of Israel began to come under conviction
for sin and conviction about their idolatry. And we read in
verse 3 that all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Now, sometimes people think that
coming to the Lord is an easy experience and a joyful experience. But the truth is that when we
really begin to understand the work of God, and when we really
begin to see the hand of God in our lives, it often isn't
a pleasant experience. It seems to be around about this
time that the Lord sent Samuel to preach amongst the children
of Israel and to point them to God for forgiveness and for true
worship. And I think we can make a little
bit of an application here because sometimes we feel that there's
little interest in the things of God and sometimes Days can
become months, months, years, years, decades. And we feel as
if things are just getting worse and worse and colder and colder
and the things of God are less and less cared about. I'm sure
that Samuel must have thought that in the days in which he
lived as well. Our own day is like this period
in Israel when no one seemed to care about the Lord. Nevertheless,
the Lord stirred up the hearts of the people and he sent them
a minister and a preacher to point them to the things of God
and to remind them of the things that they had forgotten or perhaps
had never known. When the Lord is preparing to
call men and women to repentance and faith, he sends them a preacher. And now Samuel's influence and
his ministry began to grow throughout the land. He preached in Rama,
where he lived, and he went out around the country and among
the people, denouncing sin, correcting disobedience, and awakening the
people to a sense of their need. To lead them, if you like, to
repentance and faith. and his labours under God were
so successful that we read, all the house of Israel lamented
after the Lord. There was a great revival in
Israel of true faith and trust in the Lord, perhaps like there
had never been before, and perhaps like there never was again until
the days of the Acts of the Apostles. Here we find that the house of
Israel, all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. children of Israel did put away
Balaam and Ashtaroth and served the Lord only. So we see that
when the Lord began to do a work of delivering his people out
of the hands of the enemy, he first opened their hearts to
see their sin and then he supplied that need by his means in his
own time. And we have to be patient and
wait for the Lord sometimes. We would like things to happen
quickly, we would like things to happen easily, but sometimes
it takes a time of lamenting, sometimes it takes a time of
waiting, sometimes it takes us learning to be patient and then
the Lord will do all his will. Samuel's fame began to rise in
the country and the people under his ministry felt a need of God's
help and they came to God's prophet and they asked him to pray for
them. And Samuel called the people
together for a time of prayer and worship and the people gathered
at Mispe where Samuel led them in worship and we read of a pouring
out of water before the Lord. This seems to have pictured the
idea of repentance and sorrow and perhaps weeping over sin
and perhaps it was a confession of the felt weakness and need
of the people. However, what we also find is
that the Philistines were aware of what was happening in Israel
and though they had for a time been subdued, they continued
to harass the children of Israel and learning about the gathering
at Mizpah, they perhaps thought that Israel was preparing to
attack them and that's why this big gathering had taken place.
So they decided that they would attack Israel first and they
sent an army to confront Samuel and the people during this time
of worship. And fearing what could happen,
the people asked Samuel to pray to the Lord for help and deliverance. I wonder if you notice, I wonder
if you can compare with me, the difference in attitude that the
people here had this time of Samuel than they had 20 years
earlier. Do you remember when they called,
they were fighting against the Philistines and they called for
the Ark to be brought to the battlefield? They lost the Ark
on that occasion and the nation suffered a terrible defeat. But
here we see a different attitude. This was a true awareness of
their need before God and their trust in God as opposed to that
time of superstitious religion. And we're told that Samuel made
a sacrifice and he prayed and he prayed for Israel and the
Lord heard him. And this appeal, this representation
by Samuel on behalf of the people is a picture of the Lord Jesus
interceding for his people. Just as Samuel went to God on
behalf of the people, so the Lord Jesus Christ goes to his
father on behalf of his church and people. The Lord Jesus Christ
was the sacrifice offered on our behalf and we know that God
always hears his Son when he intercedes for us, just as he
heard Samuel on this occasion. And now we learn the nature of
this deliverance that Israel obtained. We're told that the
Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines
and he discomfited them and they were smitten before Israel. Now, that little reference there
to before, It refers to time and not place. Here's what I
mean by that. It means that the Lord troubled
and slew the Philistines before Israel even began to fight, so
that the battle was the Lord's. And fearing death, the Philistines
ran away. They fled and the children of
Israel pursued them and smote them and subdued them. But it was God who had won the
battle in the first instance. And then, as it were, the children
of Israel chased after the fleeing Philistines and took the victory. So that for the rest of Samuel's
leadership, Because the Lord was with Samuel, the Philistines
did not dare to enter again into the land of Israel. Samuel, like
Christ, was a shield of defence for the people from their enemies.
And we too have enemies, such as temptation from this world,
the devil who tries to come into our lives, he lies, and even
our own sinful flesh deceives us and causes us to fail and
to do things wrong. These are our enemies and we
can ask the Lord to protect us against our enemies just as Samuel
protected the children of Israel against their enemies. I want
to just draw a couple of quick lessons for you from these verses. I think they're valuable. Here's
one. When the Lord is preparing to convert his people and bring
them salvation, he sends a preacher amongst them. The Lord softened
the hearts of the men and women of Israel and he gave them faith. And then he sent Samuel to preach
the gospel of salvation and deliverance. The Apostle Paul tells us in
Romans 10, how shall they believe in him, that's the Lord Jesus
Christ, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? A preacher is important. And I like to turn this around
the other way as well. And I think to myself that when
the Lord sends a preacher, it's a good sign that he is getting
ready to gather some of his elect to himself. And that's why I'm
very encouraged, even in this little meeting that we have and
share together, because I believe that it is a very good and positive
thing that we get to hear the gospel preached, because that
is the way that God works grace in his people's hearts. And here's
another thing that we can just say on this little passage. Israel
did not go to Mizpe in order to conduct war against the Philistines,
but to worship the Lord. Nevertheless, the Philistines
took opportunity to attack them there. But the Lord defended
his people and troubled his people's enemies by his own means and
methods. It was a thundering that took
place. I don't know exactly what that
entailed, but it was sufficient to cause these people to turn
and flee and run away. But do you see the difference
here? When Israel fought the Philistines in their own strength,
they were thoroughly beaten and thousands and thousands of them
were slain. But when Israel prayed to the
Lord for help, the Lord heard and delivered his people. Samuel
made a sacrifice and this pointed to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
just so, when we trust in the Lord and we look to the perfect
sacrifice of Jesus Christ for our help, for our forgiveness,
the Lord delivers us from all our enemies, even before we have
any need to raise a hand in our own defence. When we trust the
Lord, he makes all things work together for our good. And then
just a final point. After the victory, Samuel took
a stone and he set it up between Mizpah and Shenn, and he called
the name of it Ebenezer, saying, hitherto hath the Lord helped
us. This stone was not set up to
be worshipped, but to act as a memorial to the people of the
goodness and care of the Lord. When they saw the stone, they
remembered what the Lord had achieved for them. And each time
the Lord's people gather for worship, just like us today under
the preaching of the true gospel. It's as though we are called
to remember what the Lord has done for us. These gatherings,
this little gathering here today is an Ebenezer for us by which
we remember the Lord Jesus and the salvation he won on the cross. Every time we hear the gospel,
we should say a little thank you to God that we have such
a saviour as the Lord Jesus Christ and such a great salvation. Samuel judged all the days of
his life, how many days that were, that was, I'm not sure. He preached in his own home,
he carried his message around the country in a large circuit,
Samuel is a type of the Lord Jesus. It is the Lord who intercedes
for his people, who ministers the gospel to us and who judges
righteously in this world to defend and deliver and protect
his own. And I'm sure that when the people
saw Samuel coming to their town or their village or their city,
they rejoiced when Samuel came and brought with him the words
of eternal life. Let us rejoice also when the
Lord Jesus comes to us in the gospel and let us take care to
listen carefully to his words and follow his ways as he gives
us grace to do so. Amen. Thank you very much for
listening.