The Power of God's Mercy, Part 1 - 1 Samuel 7:3-10

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The Power of God's Mercy, Part 2 - 1 Samuel 7:8-15

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For those of you that have been with us, I've been alternating with Cornel. Cornel just finished up 2

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Corinthians and will be preparing to teach an

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Old Testament prophecy book. So he will be teaching in a couple of weeks.

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We are in 1 Samuel chapter 7, and we left off actually in chapter 7 and verse 1, but I want to recap, but I first want to read the chapter.

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But before we do that, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, we just thank you this day for the privilege of gathering together to worship you.

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And we worship you, Father, because of what you have done and who you are.

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You have provided us with your Son, who has brought us the way of salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

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We ask this morning that you would be glorified through the teaching of your Word and the preaching of your

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Word and the praise and song that we lift up for your glory. We ask that you would bless your

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Word, that you would enable us to have a better idea of how you work through your people throughout the

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Old as well as the New Testament and throughout human history. We just give you thanks,

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Lord, and ask that you would guide us. We just pray this in precious name of our

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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So if you would turn to chapter 7 in 1

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Samuel, I'm just going to read from verse 1 to verse 10.

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I was going to try to go through 12, but I will probably just go to verse 10.

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And the men of Kiriath -Jeriam came and took the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill and consecrated

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Eleazar, his son, to keep the ark of the Lord. From the day that the ark remained at Kiriath -Jeriam, the time was long, for it was twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the

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Lord. Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying,

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If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the astaroth from among you, and direct your hearts to the

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Lord and serve him alone, and he will deliver you from the hand of the

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Philistines. So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the astaroth and served the

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Lord alone. Then Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the

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Lord for you. They gathered to Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the

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Lord, and fasted on that day and said there, We have sinned against the

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Lord. And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah. Now the

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Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered to Mizpah. The lords of the

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Philistines went up against Israel, and when the sons of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the

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Philistines. Then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, Do not cease to cry out to the

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Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the

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Philistines. Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it for a whole burned offering to the

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Lord. And Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.

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Now Samuel was offering up a burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.

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But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel.

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Then the men of Israel went out Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them down as far as Bethkar.

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Father, we just thank you once again. We ask now that you would open our eyes to the understanding and give us also,

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Father, the relevance to us this day as your people. We ask this in Jesus' precious name.

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Amen. The last time in chapter six, we completed the chapter and found that the

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Bethshemites had sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath -Jeriam.

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The Philistines have brought back the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you.

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Now these Bethshemites had not mourned over their sinful practices nor their irreverence of the ark of the covenant.

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Rather, they mourned over the heavy blow that the Lord had dealt them, killing all those who violated

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God's law. So they weren't repentant in their mourning. Rather, they were mourning because God had struck down these men who had violated

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God's word. And they looked at themselves. They asked the right question though.

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Having recognized that they were just as guilty and sinful as those whom

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God had struck, the Bethshemites, who had violated God's ceremonial law regarding the care and treatment of the ark of the covenant, they asked the right question.

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But their response wasn't right. Their response was to send the ark away, not to repent and honor

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God by proper service and care of the ark of the covenant. So instead, they sent the ark away, much like what the

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Philistines had done. City to city, they sent the ark. And at every place that had that ark captured, they had a plague.

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And God gave them oils and he gave them disease.

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Some of them died. So they were fearful of the ark. They had returned it to the Bethshemites, and they didn't want to keep it for the fear that they themselves would be killed.

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They had celebrated with burnt offerings when they received the ark at Bethshemesh.

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They offered sacrifices when the ark of the Lord was returned.

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Now these unrepentant Bethshemites, they wanted nothing but to send the ark away.

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They didn't care. They were glad that Israel had it, but they didn't really want the responsibility because they weren't repentant.

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How easily we can be duped, thinking somehow we've repented of something and all of a will see how

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God worked through his servants to bring about repentance.

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The relevance of this text for God's people, the one we covered in chapter six, was clear.

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It is the reverence of a holy God that we serve. It isn't just praying and thinking that we're in worship, but if we don't have a right heart, we cannot lift our prayers up to the

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Lord. The Israelites didn't learn that. Remember back in chapter four when the

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Israelites were going to go and battle once again with the

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Philistines, they were fearful because they had just lost 4 ,000 men. So they did not want to go against the

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Philistines. Philistines were warriors. They were brutal warriors and they had lost 4 ,000.

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Then before going to battle, they stopped and let us go to Shiloh that we may take the ark with us.

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They didn't take the ark out of respect for Jehovah God. They took the ark to help somehow to assure their victory.

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That's what they did. So as we look at this text, we understand just how evil the sin of the

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Israelites was. Throughout God's people in the Old Testament, though they weren't indwelt by the

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Holy Spirit, we recognize a teaching from the New Testament that shows how

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God worked through them. In Galatians chapter three, you don't have to turn there, I'll just read it.

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Verses six through eight says, even so Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.

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Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

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The scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham saying, all the nations will be blessed in you.

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In John MacArthur's commentary, he makes this statement on Galatians three, six through eight.

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He says, all nations, Jews, Gentiles alike are justified and blessed for the same reason

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Abraham was justified and blessed, their faith. That was the guiding and empowering strength.

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God working through them was their faith. To be blessed means to be the recipient of all that divine love, grace, and mercy that he grants upon those who are in Christ Jesus.

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So now let's go to chapter seven and verse one. And the men of Kiriath Gerium came and took the ark of the

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Lord, brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill and consecrated

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Eleazar, his son, to keep the ark of the Lord. Now why would they send it to Kiriath Gerium?

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That's a question that many would ask. Why not take the ark back to Shiloh?

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There's nothing revealed in the text at all about that. So there were some

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Jewish historians and scholars that did some research, and the tradition was that the when they conquered the 30 ,000, killed the 30 ,000

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Israelites, they sacked and destroyed the temple in Shiloh.

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We don't know that, but that's what the scholars, the historical scholars tell us.

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In verse two, seven two, it says this, from the day that the ark remained at Kiriath Gerium, the time was long, for it was 20 years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the

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Lord. So the ark remained at Kiriath Gerium for a period of 20 years.

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Kiriath Gerium apparently had the reputation that they were

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God's people. They served God, they worshiped God, and they were obedient to God.

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They had that reputation. That's why they chose that location for the ark of the covenant to be sent.

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But now, as we progress into this chapter, we're going to see a new work that God is doing in his people

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Israel, an exciting work, one that brought about a dramatic change in all the people of Israel.

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Verse two, from the day the ark remained at Kiriath Gerium, the time was long, for it was 20 years, and all the house lamented after the

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Lord. Now that word lamented was interesting because I went through several commentaries on that just to see how it's rendered in this context.

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And one of the Reformed commentators by the name of H .D .M. Spence said this regarding his observation.

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The word lamented used here is rare, and all the versions all differ in their translation of it.

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It has dual meaning. One, it conveys the sentiment of joyful returning of Israel to their

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Lord God, Jehovah, once again. The other is that they sought him with deep humility and repentance.

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They were having a change of heart, slowly but gradually, end quote.

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So he, looking at that word, it emphasizes the deep work that God would do as they lamented after him.

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The Israelites were still under the oppressive tyranny of the

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Philistines. They plagued them, they attacked them, they did everything to try to destroy the

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Israelites. They hated the Israelites, and the Israelites resisted. Even though they feared these

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Philistines, they knew the losses that they had taken and how brutal they were in battle.

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And verse three says this. Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, if you return to the

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Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtoreth from among you, and direct your hearts to the

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Lord, and serve him alone, and he will deliver you from the hand of the

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Philistines. What a great promise. But it was conditional. It was conditional upon what they did.

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God was ready to forgive them, but he wanted them to turn to him and fully, humbly repent before him.

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Turn from their sins, turn from their idols, and turn to him fully with all their hearts.

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So we see in verse three, Samuel's back in the scene. Now, we haven't seen

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Samuel for several chapters. When he comes back, we remember back in chapter four, now 20 years had passed.

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The ark remained there, Kiriath Juriam, and all Israel mourned after Jehovah.

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But when Samuel told them this, if you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods, the

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Ashtoreth, from among you, and direct your hearts to the Lord, serve him alone, and he will deliver you.

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Everything was ready for change. The Philistines now recognized they served a holy

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God, a righteous God, and now they recognized that was their God, Jehovah.

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They wanted to serve him. The act of correcting their faults was done privately.

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It wasn't done collectively. They just didn't all stand up and say, you know, start repenting.

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But each individual came to repentance. It was an individual, as it is always amongst

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God's people. It wasn't a collective, as this text might lead you to think, but it was them individually humbling themselves before God.

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Samuel knows that in order to lead the Israelites to victory against their enemy, they have to seek the

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Lord and put away their idols, the

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Ashtoreth and the other idols. He calls the Israelites to put away their idols and their foreign gods as well as the

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Ashtoreth. Israel's repentance must be genuine before God.

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God will not give them victory. The foreign gods were sometimes represented in some kind of an idol.

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They are now called to take outward action, showing the turning away from their idols and repenting as well as destroying and forsaking their idols.

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Ashtoreth was the name of the goddess known in Canaan as Ashtar, which is associated with Baal, which was also one of the main idols of the

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Phoenicians. In chapter 4 -3, it's quite a contrast to what we read here.

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I'll read 4 -2 and 4 -3. The Philistines drew up in battle array to meet

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Israel. When the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines who killed about 4 ,000 men in the battlefield.

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When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, why has the

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Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh, the

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Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, that it may come along with us and deliver us from the power of our enemies.

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These Israelites at that point were extremely unrepentant. They didn't care about turning their hearts back to God.

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They just wanted victory. So instead of reverencing the Ark of the

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Covenant, which was just a mere symbol of God's delivering his people from the

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Egyptians, they took it as a battering ram, not as a battering ram literally, but they took it as a token of God, some kind of item that would bring them success and victory.

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They did so with wicked hearts and they were defeated. Yes, Rick?

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Yes, that was going to be one of my questions. Did you hear what Rick said? One of the questions is this, how does this correlate to today with the believers today?

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What kind of symbols do they idolize? What is it that sometimes

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Christians embrace rather than seeking God himself?

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What idols do they put in their place? So we'll ask that question at this point because that was one of the questions

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I wanted to ask in this text. So give me some ideas. What is it that contemporary

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Christians sometimes put before God? Money, social justice, politics, social justice.

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Excellent. Careers, social media.

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Think about that. All those things are things that are pleasing to the flesh, every one of them.

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Not enhancements of our spiritual walk, but rather the focus on the temporal, rather the eternal.

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Good comments. Yes. Yes. No. Good point.

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Lanny said it's anything you actually put before God. That's a good comment because we do have many things that we can enjoy that God has provided for us, but they aren't things that we put in front of God, nor do we put any kind of an emphasis on things or success, none of those before God.

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It is God that we seek first, and all those things would be added. So as we think of this, this is a warning to all

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God's people, not just the Israelites, but also to the church today.

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There's many things that are used by the enemy to draw our attention away, anything that he can use.

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Media, entertainment, wealth, health, all those things come in front of God, and there's preachers ready to grab that up knowing how much people covet things.

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The whole word of faith movement is anchored on that pretext. So in chapter 3, when

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Samuel called the Israelites to repent, we recognize this was a total repentance.

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They were going to destroy their idols, turn from them, forsake them, and turn to the

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God of Israel. In the book of Judges, the sons of Israel in chapter 2, verses 11 through 13, says this,

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Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the

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Baals. And they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were around them, and bowed themselves down.

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to them. Thus they provoked the Lord to anger, so they forsook the

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Lord, and served Baal and Ashtoreth. The very same things that they're doing right here in chapter 7.

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That's why they were called to repent. That's why Samuel brought them together and gave that admonition.

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One Hebrew scholar historian by the name of Joseph S. Excel makes this comment in his commentary on 1

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Samuel. This must have been done by a public act in which the images of their

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Baals and Ashtoreths were taken from their shrines and thrown down and broken into pieces.

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These idols were worshipped throughout the eastern regions. So he believes historically just from traditions passed down that they collectively gathered and they destroyed these idols.

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Now some of these idols, this Ashtoreth that they worshipped, was an idol they thought brought them their successful crops.

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Isn't that something? Verse 4.

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So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtoreth and served the Lord alone. The people of Israel responded to Samuel's call for repentance by putting away their idols and turning to God and God alone.

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Verse 5. Then Samuel said, gather all

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Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you. Now Mizpah means watchtower.

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Now a watchtower in that ancient society was an elevated structure that they put on a high elevated position that they could see above their city.

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In all directions and they would have a watchman in the tower all the time.

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He would be watching all the perimeter areas for enemies and if any enemies approached he would warn those in the city so they could take protective measures.

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So that's what the watchtower is but that was the name that was given to Mizpah.

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Mizpah was a city located somewhere around five to eight miles northeast of Benjamin.

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It was one of the cities which Samuel visited every year in his circuit.

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He would travel to all of the Israelite cities in the local area and then he would return to his home in Ramah.

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But once a year he would visit all the cities and of the people.

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Yes Rick. Okay the question that Rick asked was this.

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At this period of time in the Old Testament they did an overt act of bringing all their idols and destroying them and in significance of that was showing that they were no longer going to put their trust in that.

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So Rick's question was this. How does that pertain to today? Today we live under the new covenant so our idols are of the heart.

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It isn't the outward so much. I mean if we had anything that was a distraction anything that would turn us from God that was an actual item we would rid ourselves of it.

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Bad book or bad anything that would turn your head away from the

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Lord and distract you and to sin basically. But for today our hearts are what

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God wants. He wants us to turn to him with our total heart. None of that would matter to us if we're fully dedicated to God.

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Yeah we have temporal things to take care of. We have conveniences all those things but they don't come before us in the way of blocking us from our

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Lord or changing our heart to the temporal. So if there's something tangible that is actually a distraction or something that would put your attention and draw it from God get rid of it.

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But it isn't a legalism act like I've heard this text preached and they try to say well they all brought their televisions and all the stuff and they had a big bonfire and threw everything in.

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That's legalism because the heart could still go back to those things. So as we look at this we want to make sure that we understand

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God looks upon the heart not the outward. Yeah if we're committing sin outwardly deal with that.

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But this is what he's talking about here. Turn your hearts to the

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God of Israel. He was speaking to the Israelites. For us we focus on our

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Lord. He is the one that empowers us to do his work and he is the one that wants our hearts fully given to him.

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Good question. Did that answer it? Okay. Verse six.

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They gathered at oh wait a minute. Yeah okay.

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Six. They gathered 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

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Lord and Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah. Now there's a lot in this verse and we have to break it down because here's the gathering that Samuel himself had called which was very significant.

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Samuel had called them to this assembly which was a very solemn assembly and then he performed what is known as a water libation or water sacrifice showing their true condition.

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This was pouring out of water upon the ground. Since water is necessary for maintaining physical life this represents

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Israel's confession that the Lord's favor was more important to them than life's sustaining water.

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That's what it represented. It was a symbol that life itself was nothing without their

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God and that was the libation offering. However this is the only time in all of Old Testament that this was done in a religious what they call convocation which is a gathering of the entirety of Israel people,

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Israelites. So it was done in a public gathering, collective gathering of Israel.

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This offering was made. It was never done like that before. We have an account in 2

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Samuel 23 16 we read this. So the three mighty men broke through the camp of the

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Philistines and drew water from the well Bethlehem which was by a gate and took it and brought it to David.

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Nevertheless he would not drink it but poured it out to the Lord and he said be it far from me

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O Lord that I should do this shall I drink the blood of the man who went in jeopardy of their lives.

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Therefore he would not drink it. So there it was a private sacrificial offering on behalf of David because his three warriors, his three men had gone through enemy lines to Bethel to get him water and crawled back out and brought it to King David.

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That was a sacrifice they did for their king. He wouldn't even take it. He poured it out as an offering to the

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Lord. So that was in a small group. It wasn't collective. On this occasion they he knew the risk that they took so he could not drink it and when we look in Genesis chapter 35 in verse 9 as well as 13 through 14.

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Verse 9 it says then God appeared to Jacob again when he came to Padan Aram and he blessed him.

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God said to him your name is Jacob you shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel shall be your name and in verses 13 and 14 in the same chapter he says this then

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God went up from him in the place where he had spoken with him. Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him.

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A pillar of stone and he poured out a drink offering upon it. He also poured out oil upon it.

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So the libation offering could be water or precious oils. It's pouring out of a liquid to the

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Lord. So on this occasion it was a theophany.

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God appeared to Jacob and this occasion God spoke to Jacob and he set that pillar there as a remembrance of God's appearance to him and what he had said.

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In 1st Samuel 7 6 the libation sacrifice was done in the form of a sacrificial offering.

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A symbol of Israel's contrition and repentance saying this we have sinned against the

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Lord. Following the sacrificial offering we read and Samuel judged the sons of Mizpah.

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Now Samuel was the acknowledged ruler over Israel now.

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At this point on this verse identifies Samuel now as judge over Israel.

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So what does that consist of? The word judge. It's not in the typical sense that we would use that term but this was the role of a judge.

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He would be ruler. He had a ministry over the people to preside over their affairs of all the

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Hebrews in this period which he was after Joshua and Israel regarding both the civil authority as well as the military authority.

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In other words Samuel would deal with any of the civil issues amongst the Israelites or the military issues.

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He was their leader. He was recognized now by all of Israel. Now let me ask this question.

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We've seen Samuel in the previous chapters. What was some of his roles of service so far that we have seen

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Samuel take in this book? I'll give you a hint.

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There's three roles that he fulfills. Anyone?

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High priest. Well he was a priest. Wasn't a high priest either. Michael said that one of the roles that Samuel served was that he was a high priest.

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Now you'll have to go back in which I'll read in just a while but Samuel remember

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Hannah? She was without child and what did she do?

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She prayed. She was weeping with sorrow because God had not granted her a child.

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So she prayed but when she prayed what did she do?

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Good. Brian said this. She vowed to give, if God would grant her a son, she vowed to give him back to the

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Lord's service all his days. I'll read the text. It's in Samuel 1 10.

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This is speaking, this is Sarah, I mean Hannah, excuse me. Hannah praying.

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She greatly distressed prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. She made a vow and said, oh

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Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on my affliction of your maid servant and remember me and not forget your maid servant but will give your maid servant a son then

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I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and a razor shall never come to his head.

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Now that razor never coming to his head was like a Nazarite bow setting him apart for the service of the

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Lord. So her prayer was answered. What's the first thing that Hannah did after she weaned him?

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She took him to the tabernacle in Shiloh and put him under the teachings and tutelage of Eli the high priest.

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So as we see this his dedication started. I mean he was dedicated to God if God granted her that child.

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First thing she did when the child was weaned is take him to the tabernacle in Shiloh.

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So his first role was priest. What was his second role? Prophet.

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Good. In chapter 3 verses 2 through 18

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Samuel was given a prophetic call. He was given a prophecy from God.

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Now it's unsure, I mean in the text it appears that he also had a theopathy or theopany.

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So when God came to him he went to Samuel. First he spoke to him. Remember Samuel and then

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Samuel. Yes Lord. And who do you think it was? He thought it was Eli but it was actually the

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Lord himself and he did it the second time and then the third time and then Eli said this was

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God not me. So he knew that God was speaking to him and when he gave him the prophecy even though it was the doom of Hophni and Phinehas which were wicked people he prophesied that they would be taken and Eli his answer his response was let it be done as he said.

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So he honored the Lord he served. What was the third role now? Judge.

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Now so we have him serving as a priest. Short period. Prophet. Just the prophecy he had given to Eli.

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Now judge over all of Israel. He is recognized, respected.

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He was a servant of God. He was set apart from the mother's womb. He was a faithful servant.

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So as Samuel had become the acknowledged ruler and the role of the judge in that period of course was ruling over the civil matters and the military matters.

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He took that. He took the responsibility. He wasn't afraid.

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He didn't back off. He just was able to be God's servant. In verse 7 we're probably not going to get through much more.

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Now when the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered to Mizpah the lords of the

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Philistines went up against Israel and when the sons of Israel heard it they were afraid of the

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Philistines. Two things here. One they knew that they were gathered at Mizpah.

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Somebody had given them that information. They knew they were gathering there.

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It wasn't for battle. So what did they do? They were ready to attack and what the

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Israelites do they were fearful. Why? Because they were brutal warriors.

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That's why. They knew what those Philistines could do and how brutal they were.

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How many men they had lost. So their natural response was fear.

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Yes. No at this time

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Rick asked a good question. Do you think they were fearful because God was not going to back them?

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No. But they remember they were just freshly had turned their hearts to God.

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So they were also remembering back to the battle. 30 ,000 lost the second time.

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The first time 4 ,000 brutally and they fled. They didn't even stay in battle.

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They retreated. So the Israelites knew what they were facing and yet Samuel was going to go before him and we're going to see another miracle of God here which was indeed a miracle.

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When Samuel called the people of Israel to repentance the Philistines somehow received the word of the assembly at Mizpah and decided to attack them.

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Instead of utilizing the ark of the covenant this time they had already turned their hearts to God.

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Now they were going to rely upon God. There was still fear. Isn't that human for us to fear that kind of a ferocious warrior that we know we're going against and yet they knew that the only victory they'd have is

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Jehovah God that they served. Yes.

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Right. Good point. Nathel brought this out. It's an extremely important point. We know that God is sovereign over everything and yet there are certain things we may be fearful of doing.

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Giving the gospel to a friend, a neighbor, a relative, or a person you work with.

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You know that that's God's command for us but the humanness comes out and sometimes we fear doing that.

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It is our own humanness. So here it's easily understood.

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These men knew and they had already faced battle against the Philistines. So even though they were fearful they weren't going to try to turn to the ark of the covenant or anything like that.

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It wasn't there anyway but they were trusting in the God that they served.

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So what did they do? They were going to battle. In verse 8, then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, do not cease to cry out to the

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Lord our God for us that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.

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Here what we're wondering was what are they going to do? Waiver? Are they going to turn back to their idols?

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No. They called upon Samuel to intercede for them as their judge and leader.

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The now recognized leader and that's exactly what he did. This was a proper response of the

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Israelites. Even though they feared the Philistines they would still go to battle against them.

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Now Samuel wanted to go before them in intercessory prayer. This was not the same approach they took back in chapter 4, remember?

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In verse 10 it says, so the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated and every man fled to his tent and the slaughter was very great for there fell of Israel 30 ,000 foot soldiers.

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That's fresh in their minds and they're still going to go out to battle. Not thinking about the ark but turning to the

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God that they serve. Time -wise it's 1018.

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We got some time? No? Okay we're going to stop here because I want these coming verses are really crucial.

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It's going to show what God does on behalf of those who turn to him with all their hearts.

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He is going to intercede on behalf of Israel to go against the

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Philistines and he does so in a miraculous way. Let's remember as we look at this text.

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What can we apply here? Even though sometimes we fear to do what

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God's called us to do our trust is in him, not in our abilities or how articulate we may be.

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It is we serve a living God. His spirit dwells within us on every believer.

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He desires our humble hearts. He desires us to be repentant and turn to him fully, not partially, not one foot in a world and one foot in Christendom but fully our hearts are to turn to him.

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That's the relevance of this text for all people today. Let's close.

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Heavenly Father we just thank you for this text and how you preserved your word for us

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Lord and we just praise you and thank you for the God that you are. We turn to you

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Lord for a strength to obey your word and the grace to do so for your glory.

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We ask now Father that you'd continue to be glorified as we offer song and praise and the proclamation of your word and may you be glorified and may the saints be edified.