Advice to Spiritual Israel

By Tom Holt

I Samuel 12

AS soon as he was weaned, Sam-uel was dedicated by his motherHannah to serve in GodÕs temple all his life. When he was still a boy, the Lordpersonally told him that he would succeed Ely as the priest of Israel. Thateventuated when Ely died upon hearing that the Ark of the Covenant had falleninto the hands of the Philistines.

Under SamuelÕs priesthood, theIsraelites repented of their sins, subdued the Philistines and recovered theArk. But when he was getting on age, they demanded to have a human king to ruleover them. God then told Samuel to anoint Saul to be their leader.

Saul did well for the peopleat first, defeating their enemy the Ammonites. In celebration, all the peoplewent to Gilgal and confirmed him as their king.

In was then that Samuel made akind of farewell speech to the people. And from that discourse, which appearsin I Samuel 12, we can see that Samuel is a type of God Himself.

I. Eternal God gave us Jesus.

The first two verses read:

And Samuel said untoall Israel, Behold, I have hearkened unto your voice in all that ye said untome, and have made a king over you. And now, behold, the king walketh beforeyou: and I am old and grayheaded; and, behold, my sons are with you: and I havewalked before you from my childhood unto this day.

Describing Himself as ÒoldÓ,God declares that He is from eternity past, the Ancient of Days spoken of inDaniel 7. And His being ÒgrayheadedÓ points to the truth of Proverbs 16:31,ÒThe hoary head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.ÓSurely, our eternal God has provided for us the way of righteousness.

Our King.In the Lord Jesus, God has set a king over us. As our King, Jesus walks beforeus. He is the Good Shepherd that brings out His own sheep and goes before them.

As subjects of GodÕs Kingdom,we are also His adopted children. When He says, Òmy sons are with you,Ó He istelling us that we now have a whole family of  brothers- and sisters-in-Christ.

Our High Priest. Samuel is also a type of God the Son. In verse 23, He promises:

Moreover as for me, Godforbid that I should sin against the Lord inceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way.

ItÕs most comforting forbelievers to know that their High Priest in heaven  Òever liveth to make intercession for themÓ (Heb. 7:25). Andbeing the Word of God, Jesus teaches us the good and the right way to live theChristian life.

II. God owes us nothing.

Samuel stresses in verses 3-5that throughout his lifelong ministry, he has not robbed, defrauded noroppressed anyone:

Behold, here I am:witness against me before the Lord , and before his anointed: whose oxhave I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have Ioppressed? or of whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyestherewith? and I will restore it you. And they said, Thou hast not defraudedus, nor oppressed us, neither hast thou taken aught of any manÕs hand. And hesaid unto them, The Lord  is witness againstyou, and his anointed is witness this day, that ye have not found aught in myhand. And they answered, He is witness. (vv. 3-5)

Since Samuel is a man withfeet of clay, this claim makes more sense in the spiritual context than thehistorical. You see, God has never wronged us and He does not owe anyoneanything.

Believers are well aware thatGodÕs grace means God giving us things that we donÕt deserve. Yet, many stillthink that we can win GodÕs favor by serving Him extra hard. How often we hearpeople say: ÒGod will surely bless you for doing this or that.Ó

Whenever we suggest that Godwill especially bless a person for doing something good, we imply that God owesthat person a reward for what he has done. That cannot be. Every good andperfect gift comes from the Father of Lights to us by His grace.

But isnÕt there any blessingin obediently serving God? Yes, of course. And that blessing is the joy ofdoing the will of God and the privilege of being used of God.

III. He rescued us by grace.

And Samuel said unto thepeople, It is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron, and that brought yourfathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still, that I mayreason with you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord, which he did to you and to your fathers. When Jacobwas come into Egypt, and your fathers cried unto the Lord, then the Lord sentMoses and Aaron, which brought forth your fathers out of Egypt, and made themdwell in this place. (vv. 6-8)

Before we were saved, we weremuch like the Israelites in Egypt. We were enslaved to Satan, to the world andto our sinful nature.  But when Godopened our spiritual eyes, we began to see the sorry spiritual state that wewere in, and we started to cry out to the Lord for mercy.

And entirely by His mercy andgrace, God delivered us from the power of darkness.

First, He used the Bible ingeneral, and the law given through Moses in particular, as a schoolmaster tobring us unto Christ. He makes us realize that we are sinners in need of aSavior. And in the Lord Jesus, He also gave us a High Priest who sacrificedHimself once for all to atone for all our sins. As a result, we have beenrescued from ÒEgyptÓ and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son.

IV. He gives us repentance.

Now therefore stand andsee this great thing, which the Lord will dobefore your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call unto the Lord, and he shall send thunder and rain; that ye mayperceive and see that your wickedness is great, which ye have done in the sightof the Lord, in asking you a king. So Samuel called unto the Lord; and the Lord sentthunder and rain that day: and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said unto Samuel, Prayfor thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not: for we haveadded unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. (vv. 16-19)

More often than not, rain inthe Bible represents the gospel or other blessings from above. Not so in thiscontext. We learn from Proverbs 26:1, ÒAs snow in summer, and as rain inharvest, so honour is not seemly for a fool.Ó

Harvesting wheat requires goodweather, lest it rots in the barn. Hence, when God sent thunder and rain onthat day of harvest, the people became fearful. They then repented of theirsins and asked for mercy. And indeed they were forgiven, for we read in verse20:

And Samuel said unto thepeople, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside fromfollowing the Lord, but serve the Lord withall your heart.

V. He empowers us to be obedient.

At the moment of salvation,God gave us a new soul that makes us desirous of being obedient. Verse 14reads:

If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebelagainst the commandment of the Lord, then shall both yeand also the king that reigneth over you continue following the Lord your God.

Romans 3:10,11 declares:ÒThere is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, thereis none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they aretogether become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.Ó So,by nature we donÕt understand what it means to be right with God; we donÕt seekGod; we simply rebel against Him.

Therefore, if we begin to fearGod and understand what the Bible teaches, and if we begin to have an earnestdesire to do things GodÕs way, then we can know that we have become followersof Christ. In short, we have been born again.

VI. He disciplines us for our good.

Andwhen they forgat the Lord  their God, he soldthem into the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazor, and into the handof the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab, and they foughtagainst them. And they cried unto the Lord, andsaid, We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord, and have served Baalim and Ashtaroth: but nowdeliver us out of the hand of our enemies, and we will serve thee. And the Lord  sent Jerubbaal,and Bedan, and Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of yourenemies on every side, and ye dwelled safe. (vv. 9-11)

Because we still have a sinfulnature, we are not always obedient. Forgetting God, we insist on doing things ourway. Result: We find ourselves in deep waters. And because we are still livingin a hostile world, we also face all kinds of trials and tribulations.

Thankfully,all these difficulties are a part of GodÕs sovereign plan to chasten ordiscipline us. They are meant to cause us to draw near to Him when we stray, tostrengthen our faith when we faint, and to make us lean more on Him when wetrust in our own strength. ThatÕs why the Bible tells us to Òcount it all joywhen ye fall into divers temptationsÓ (James 1:2). Through them, we get tolearn that God does deliver us out of the hand of our enemies.

Themore we experience GodÕs deliverance, the more we understand the mighty powerand the great love of our Savior. In response, we revere and want to serve Himmore. Thus, verse 24 says:

Only fear the Lord , andserve him in truth with all your heart; for consider how great things he hathdone for you.

VII. He is faithful for His nameÕs sake.

Forthe Lord  will not forsakehis people for his great nameÕs sake: because it hath pleased the Lord  to make you hispeople. (v. 22)

We have already establishedthat by nature there is nothing good in us to merit GodÕs love. Why then has Hesaved us? Among other places in the Scriptures, we read in Psalm 23:3, ÒHerestoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his nameÕssake.Ó God has saved us strictly for the glory and honor of His name.

It is for the same reason thatonce we are saved, we can count on His never leaving us nor forsaking us. Thisis most reassuring, because if GodÕs faithfulness were to depend on who we areor what we do, He would have left us long ago. Thankfully, God is jealous ofHis holy name, and it is His good pleasure for Him to make us His people. So,He will stand beside us.

VIII. He warns professed Christians againstself-deception.

Butif ye shall still do wickedly, ye shall be consumed, both ye and your king. (v.25)

One must never take oneÕssalvation for granted. This is the warning conveyed by the closing remark ofthis discourse. If we call ourselves Christians but persist in living our oldlife, then we are just fooling ourselves. When Judgment Day comes, weÕll findourselves standing before GodÕs Judgment throne, being found guilty of allkinds of sins, and being condemned to eternal punishment in hell.

 

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