Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Book: 1 Samuel

  • Samuel Rises, Eli Falls

    Samuel Rises, Eli Falls

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, August 24, 1997.

    About this sermon

    Samuel rises and Eli falls, and together they foreshadow a larger replacement, the old covenant giving way to the new. The likenesses between Samuel and Christ belong to the structure of the story. In the end Christ abolishes the Levitical priesthood that Eli represents.

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    Sermon transcript

    To begin our scripture reading this morning in 1 Samuel 2, we are beginning our reading at verse 22. This is the word of God. Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel, and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.

    And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? For I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons, For it is no good report that I hear you make the Lord’s people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against the Lord, who can entreat for him? Notwithstanding, they hearkened not unto the voice of their father, because the Lord would slay them.” And the child Samuel grew up and was in favor both with the Lord and also with men.

    And there came a man of God unto Elohim, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house? And did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to offer upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? And did I give unto the house of thy father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel? Wherefore kick ye up my sacrifice and up my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation? and honorest thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the cheapest of all the offerings of Israel my people. Wherefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should walk before me forever.

    But now the Lord saith, Be it far from me, for them that honor me I will honor. and they that despise me shall be rightly esteemed. Behold, the days come that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy father’s house, that there shall not be an old man in thine house. And thou shalt see an enemy in my habitation, and all the wealth which the Lord God shall give Israel. and there shall be an old man of thine house, there shall not be an old man in thine house forever. And the man of thine whom I shall not cut off from mine altar shall be to consume thine eyes and to grieve thine heart, and all the increase of thine house shall die in the flower of their age.

    And this shall be a sign unto thee that shall come upon thy two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas, In one day they shall die, both of them, and I will raise up a faithful priest that shall do according to that which is in mine heart and in my mind. And I will give him a sure house, and he shall walk before mine anointed forever. And it shall come to pass that everyone that is left in thine house shall come and crouch for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priest’s offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.”

    Then, turning over to John’s Gospel, the eleventh chapter, beginning at verse 47, John 11.47, Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and said, What do we for this man do with many miracles? If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, Ye know nothing at all, for consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, that the whole nation perish not. This spake he not of himself, but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and not only for that nation, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then, from that day forth, they took counsel together to put Jesus to death.

    Father, if your word is food, may we consume it. If it is drink, may we drink deeply from it. Lord, may we be satisfied in you, and when we feel then the pangs of hunger, may we be driven, Lord, to this word. And not only so, but even when we are full, may we take up the word, may we rehearse it, may we remember what we have been taught. We pray this for ourselves and for your people throughout the world. Through Christ, the Living Word. Amen. This morning I want to talk to you about two things.

    First of all, the unitary nature of 1 Samuel chapters 1-7, and then secondly, the place of Eli within these chapters. First of all, then, chapters 1-7 in 1 Samuel are meant to be taken by us as a unit. If you are in the habit of marking your Bible, you might draw a line at the end of Chapter 7 and inscribe the note, the conclusion of Part 1. Now, this division is mandated by a number of things.

    It is mandated by the fact that in what follows we are introduced to a completely new phase in Samuel’s life, and we are given a new angle of vision with respect to him. You will note that beginning in chapter 8 in 1 Samuel, we are introduced to Samuel’s with regard to his own science. That failure is spoken of, particularly in verse 3 in that 8th chapter, and you will notice with regard to it, that it is a failure that sounds strangely familiar. In fact, it sounds like the failure that had occurred in the family of Elah earlier in this book. So it seems that we are beginning again. We are opening a new chapter, a new section in 1 Samuel.

    In light of this failure on Samuel’s part, the story now turns to the replacement of Samuel, to the replacement of Samuel as judge, with a king in keeping with the people’s desire. Similar to the replacement that had taken place earlier, the replacement by the administration of Samuel of Eli and his family’s administration over the people of Israel. The first section of 1 Samuel, therefore, comes to an end with the conclusion of chapter 7. Further now, you will note, with regard to this division, 1 Samuel 7 ends with a reference, appropriately positioned, a reference to Samuel’s building of an altar to the Lord, chapter 7 verse 17. This altar stands, you will note, not in Shiloh, where the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant had been situated during the time of Eli, but instead in the town of Ramah, Samuel’s very own hometown. So it is, by the conclusion of chapter 7, the displacement and replacement is complete. not just the priesthood, Samuel for Eli, but the sanctuary and its service, Ramah for Shiloh.

    We are brought thus into a different environment, a different setting for the approach to God by God’s people. Truly, then, it would appear with the close of chapter 7, the old has passed and the new has arrived. The old has passed and the new has arrived. And this is precisely the way in which you are to receive and appreciate these chapters. As you witness in the course of them, the way God moves his people from the old administration into the new. A process, I suggest to you, that will culminate in the fulfillment of the old covenant with the arrival of the new covenant, a process that will culminate in the passing of this world with the coming of the kingdom of God and the arrival of the new creation.

    In other words, in 1 Samuel chapters 1-7, you are being forced to see nothing less than the gospel at work. To which these chapters, by God’s own sovereign superintendence, press us. Reading these chapters, then, without seeing the gospel in them is a misreading of them. And so serious is this misreading that if you do not see the gospel in these chapters, you do not understand these chapters at all.

    This is why responsible interpretation of these chapters see in them the very form of Jesus Christ. For example, responsible interpretation of these chapters sees in Samuel’s birth and in Samuel’s priesthood nothing less than the coming birth and priesthood of Jesus Christ.

    Of course, there is the obvious parallel that none of us should miss between Hannah, Samuel’s mother, and Mary, Jesus’ mother. A parallel that is underscored and established and confirmed by a comparison between the two songs of the mothers. Hannah’s song at the beginning of 1 Samuel 2, and Mary’s song in the middle of Luke 1. But then there are those parallels that are less obvious, less clear.

    For instance, the fact that both Samuel and Jesus seemingly lack any hereditary claim to the priesthood whatsoever. Jesus, as you know, hails from the tribe of Judah, not from the priestly tribe of Levi. while Samuel’s tribal link is purposely omitted in the telling of the story as we have it for us in these chapters in 1 Samuel. It would seem then that both Samuel and Jesus can be included under the heading that appears in Psalm 110, where the Lord declares, not after the order of Levi, but after the order of Melchizedek.

    But further, we have the fact that there is movement for Samuel geographically, and this too speaks to us about the coming gospel. Samuel’s movement is from Ramah, his hometown. to Shiloh, the place where the sanctuary was set, and the services to God were performed. But at the end of this portion of 1 Samuel, the scene is set back once more in Ramah, where things had begun. This movement from Ramah to the place of the sanctuary, back to the home region once more, anticipates the movement of Jesus geographically in his ministry. From Galilee, where his home was, to Jerusalem, where the sanctuary was, and then, after his resurrection, back to Galilee, there to receive the worship of his disciples.

    That even more, this movement that we see geographically for Samuel, and then confirmed in Jesus, has a higher meaning still. For Jesus is just not simply a latter-day priest. Much like Samuel, he is the Son of God. The place that he comes from, his home, is in heaven.

    He comes from heaven to earth, where there is the earthly sanctuary, and then he returns to heaven for the purpose of establishing the ministry in an eternal sanctuary above in glory. So from Ramah to Shiloh back to Ramah anticipates Galilee to Jerusalem back to Galilee, but more than that, it anticipates heaven to us back to heaven. Away from an earthly sanctuary to a heavenly sanctuary. Away from a sanctuary that will be destroyed to a sanctuary that cannot be destroyed.

    One other factor paralleling Samuel and Jesus is Samuel’s residence in the tabernacle. He is deposited there. He lives there with Eli. Indeed, he questions the priests and the teachers there. He makes inquiry of them. you might judge that the inquiry is constant and perpetual.

    I suggest to you that this anticipates the incident in the life of Jesus when he disappears into the temple, away from his parents, And when he is finally discovered by them, he declares to them, Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house? Luke 2 verse 49. But now I want you to note the progress of things as they are on unraveled for us in 1 Samuel 2 with respect to Samuel and his position in the tabernacle of God. In chapter 2 verse 26 we are told that Samuel grew in stature and in favor with the Lord and with men. Does that remind you of anything? I ask you to turn to the close of Luke chapter 2, immediately after the story of Jesus in the temple as a boy, there discovered by his anxious parents. And what do we read there? We are told by Luke, after that event, that Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature and in favor with man, with God, and with men.

    The intersection of Samuel and Christ is deliberate. You are to see your Savior in this man who comes before them. And true to the prophetic tradition, as true as John the Baptist himself, this man Samuel will be a forerunner. In Samuel, therefore, we are being introduced in Old Testament form to the grand, the glorious transition which God is effecting in the history of redemption that comes conclusively in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

    It will be along these lines and within this overarching biblical pattern that we must deal with Eli. It is plain to us, is it not, that 1 Samuel 1-7 presents us with the increase of Samuel and the decrease of Eli. You can chart the development for Samuel himself and the diminishment of Eli through the course of these chapters.

    We have repeatedly compact comments about Samuel, and these are deliberately laid within the texts as For instance, in chapter 1, verse 28, we are told, even though this Samuel is but still a recently weaned child, he worships the Lord. Something is being made of the child. In chapter 2, verse 11, we are told that Samuel now ministers to the Lord before Eli the priest, even though he is still a mere boy. The importance of the figure, the grandeur that we are to consider superimposing itself upon this boy. Chapter 2, verse 18, Samuel appears once more, still the boy, but now, believe it or not, wearing a priestly garment, wearing the ephod that belonged to the priests. In chapter 2, verse 21, he is described as growing before the Lord, as if the Lord himself In chapter 2, verse 26, the text we’ve already noted, still the boy, Samuel is maturing in stature and in approval from God and men. In chapter 3, verse 1, still the child, however not in his service, he is clearly edging out Eli and Eli’s household. In chapter 3, verse 19, through the opening of chapter 4, now Samuel appears full-grown.

    He is a man, and in the power of his office he performs his functions before the Lord. He is a prophet through whom the word of the Lord comes to all Israel. And then, in chapter 7, verses 3 through 17, Samuel now stands alone, Eli’s household, He stands alone without and apart from Eli as that one in whom a new priesthood in a new ministry has emerged. Watching Samuel come into full view as you move through 1 Samuel 1 through 7 is a marvel. in the presence of the opening up of this figure is powerful in itself, and we are being ministered unto by the Holy Spirit through a profound literary hand. But meanwhile, Eli’s star has been fading. His moon is eclipsed. To be sure, Eli’s positive service to Hannah fills out for us chapter one. We hear no disparaging word about him or his sons in that chapter.

    In fact, in his mediatorial role in his administration of the house of God, Eli comes across even Christlike, one in whom we can perceive the pattern of our coming Savior. In chapter 2, verses 12 through 17, Eli’s sons now, however, come off quite badly in their ignorance of the Lord, in their disregard for his law, in their proclamation of the sacrifices, in their coercion and threats of violence against the people of God.

    Their ministry, so it would seem to them, is to provide them with the best provisions best for us. Their God is their appetite. Now, you must understand, these are men who are in the covenant. They are men who are members of the Church. Not only that, they are ministers, and their God is their appetite.

    Interestingly, Eli himself is not indicted in verses 12-17. but instead again appears quite positively in verse 20, where he blesses Elkanah and Hannah, Samuel’s parents. And this positive vein for Eli continues, it seems, into verses 22 through 25, when in his extremely advanced years he reproves his sons for their reprehensible behavior. They are now serving their appetite by turning the house of God into a brothel. with acts true to Canaanite worship, not worship to the Lord. But it is at this point that Eli’s positive, priestly, and prophetic service is now to be held up to closer scrutiny.

    In verses 27 through 36, the first shoe drops As the unnamed man of God, the anonymous man of God, delivers the scrutiny of the Lord, we’re not ready for what we hear any more than Eli was. It is a scathing indictment in which Eli is finally exposed.

    He who appeared innocent is not innocent at all. He who appeared blameless before the law is not blameless at all. Do you hear the footsteps of the gospel? He who even on occasion seemed so Christ-like, one in whom we could see the form of Christ himself, now stands opposite and contrary Christ, and over against God’s saving intentions.

    Eli is implicated with his sons in their corruption, in verse 21, because he partook of their And he also made himself sat by way of their robbery. He is guilty before God because, as the man of God says, he honored his sons before he honored the Lord.

    And I hope you are all listening. You who worship your children. It is not just, then, in the final analysis, those who profane their profession by adultery and fornication. It is those who profane their service to God because they really, in the end, don’t worship God, they worship their family.

    Eli’s sons placed their appetites at the center of their religion. Eli placed his sons at the center of his. But you must not think Eli merely a man a bit overzealous for family devotion and loyalty. For as his sons translated their appetites into a comprehensive religion, a world unlike you. So Eli translated his sons into a religion very similar. In other words, the way in which this man, Eli, approached his sons became the very substance of his religious expression, the very heart and soul of the content of his religious drive and motivation. It became his world and life view. He may not have rushed into the morally debauched excesses of his sons, but in his own way he was just as worldly, with a hope that completely depended upon an earthly glory for all the fathers and sons of Israel.

    Eli, at the end of the day, serves the interests of this kind of religion. But you make a mistake if you read Eli as his sons, for that matter, in a narrow, provincial, individualistic manner, as if this was a problem for them alone and a problem for their time. The man of God who comes to Eli sees it differently, for he places Eli and his sons in the brightest context, those in whom we are to see the entirety of the Levitical order, the whole of the Old Testament priesthood and its administration.

    So it is in verse 27, the man of God speaks to God and says, did I not reveal myself to your father’s house? That’s Eli’s house when they were in Egypt. So also in verse 30, I did indeed say that your house and the house of your father, that’s Levi, should walk before me forever. You see, Eli’s house is but an extension of Levi’s house. When God now moves to bring down Eli’s house, he is declaring his intention to bring down Levi’s house. The indictment against Eli’s house is an indictment against the entirety of the Old Testament Levitical system.

    That system is no more able to reform itself than Eli could reform itself. In the end, that system will have no more spiritual strength than the age of Eli has physical strength. In the end, the Levitical system, like Hophni and Phinehas, will be corrupt beyond reclamation because of its own avarice and lust. And in the end, That Levitical system like Eli will be incapable of acting for the true and heavenly kingdom of God because it has embraced the religion of the world, a religion that reveres its children and a promise with regard to the children before God himself, and the promise of the world to come. I am not here just speaking about Old Testament Judaism. I am talking about twentieth-century American Christianity, and I am talking about liabilities that are alive and well in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

    Caiaphas is Eli’s spiritual descendant, and would rather save the nation and its children than serve the Messiah. the man of God finishes his message to Eli with the promise of a new and faithful priest for an enduring administration. Only the faint outline of the fulfillment of that promise is seen in Samuel himself, or even in the priesthood that would eventually emerge under David’s administration under the headship of Zadok. To be sure, when the other shoe drops and Eli dies of shock upon learning of his son’s death and the loss of the Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines, Samuel will be left standing as a symbol of that which he has yet promised. But Samuel, much less the house of Zadok to come, in the final analysis is no more capable of bringing in the eternal priesthood than was Eli.

    That privilege belongs. to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who becomes both sacrifice for sin and mediator for sinners. In the new and lasting heavenly sanctuary to which he ascends, he having been crucified for us and raised from the dead for our justification. If you are a stranger to this last and final Great High Priest, may you be a stranger no longer, for he alone is the last and true sacrifice and mediator for sinners by whom you must be saved. And if you know this priest, May you live honorably in his administration, purifying yourself even as he is pure, always perceiving the heavenly nature of his new and perfect ministry, lest you be overcome by this world as was Eli.

    And because of a religion of this world, a religion of family and property, you forfeit your inheritance in the world to come. by your word, drive us into it that we may profit from it. May we see what you are about, what you are saying. May we see what you have done to make clear your purpose.

    Father, we ask that we might delight in Christ even as he is commended to us in the book of 1 Samuel, and may we love him dearly as we should. May we be pleased to serve him, even in keeping with the heavenly administration which he has inaugurated through his death, resurrection, and ascension. Now, O God, give us strength to live in the household that he establishes, that we might live with all purity. and that the proper and right determination might be ours, that we would serve you above all else.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Shiloh, Jerusalem, Judgment

    Shiloh, Jerusalem, Judgment

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, July 27, 1997.

    About this sermon

    The Septuagint’s own division and naming of these books offers a clue to how 1 Samuel 1-7 forms a single unit, not a loose collection of stories. Shiloh’s fall and Jerusalem’s later judgment, read through Jeremiah, follow the same pattern of God’s holiness meeting unfaithfulness. Christ’s own journey is already prefigured across these seven chapters.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are jumping ahead a bit in 1 Samuel to chapter 7. from year to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizba, 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. And it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel. Now, the name of his firstborn was Jules, and the name of his second, Abiah. They were judges in Beersheba. And his sons walked not in his ways, but turned aside after Lucre and took bribes and perverted judgment.’

    Then, turning over to the prophecy of Jeremiah, chapter 7, it says, Chapter 7, beginning at verse 1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.

    Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt, then will I cause you to dwell in this place in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever. Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense under bale, and walk after other gods whom ye know not? and come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations.

    In this house which is called by my name, is this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first. and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I speak unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not, and I called you, but ye answered not, therefore will I do unto this house which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.’ and I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me, for I will not hear thee.”

    Father, may we be zealous for your word, not only here but throughout the world. We ask, Lord, that you would prosper your word today, that you will grant to those who hear it, saving faith. even as you fill up your assembly for the courts of heaven. Lord, may we do our part. May the preaching of the word here be in keeping with your intention. Lord, we ask that our prayers on behalf of those who proclaim your word would be constant and earnest. May we be faithful in our intercessions. And Father, insofar as we can speak well of our Savior, may we take opportunity and do that as well. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen. some divisions of the books in our English Bible Old Testaments are somewhat artificial.

    For example, did you know that our books of 1 and 2 Samuel in the original Hebrew were actually a singular, continuous work? But further, did you know that these books, 1st and 2nd Samuel together with the books that follow, 1st and 2nd Kings, were viewed by the Jews of the 3rd century B.C. to be so unified that they were identified under a common title? Therefore, our books of 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings are known in the Septuagint, that is the 3rd century B.C. translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek, as the first, second, third, and fourth books of the kingdom. that designation for them be especially appropriate. And we may well be in tune with the appropriateness of that title because of our review of the opening chapters of 1 Samuel, which we could encapsulate under the heading, The Coming of the Kingdom. At any rate, you should be aware that the overall integration of these books is supported by a wonderfully intricate structure, internal to each of the individual volumes within the series, running from 1 Samuel through 2 Kings.

    Now, this is of some help to us in our procession of faith, because it contributes to our understanding of the unity of Scripture. how the whole of Scripture holds together, this being especially important to us who are of conservative and orthodox confession, because there are so many who have attacked the Bible and told us that it is not a unity at all. Even as we would investigate the wonderful and intricate structure that underlies the composition of these books, we are given, as it were, spiritual meat. We are helped in our faith to see again the strength of the unity of the Word of God. This morning I want to speak to you about the wonderful intricate structure of 1 Samuel 1-7.

    Now, you might be a bit worried. You’re thinking to yourself while you sit there, this is a very warm morning. And it sounds like this is going to be a very technical sermon. So yes, it is going to be a technical sermon. But it’s not without its encouragements.

    Let me point that out to you. For we have raced ahead to the seventh chapter of 1 Samuel. We are making progress. Now, I have isolated for you this morning chapters 1 through 7 in 1 Samuel, because it is obvious that these chapters form a unit. You say, well, it may be obvious to you. Why is it that I hold that these chapters are a unit? In the first place, you will notice how Chapter 8 begins, and we read that opening portion of Chapter 8.

    The opening of 1 Samuel 8 speaks of Samuel’s age. Verse 1, he is an old man now. It also speaks about his two sons, verse 2. And in verse 3, it speaks about the fact that these two boys are less than exemplary. But I might ask you at this point, of whom are we reminded by these remarks at the opening of 1 Samuel 8? Are we not reminded of Eli, back at the beginning of 1 Samuel? Are we not reminded of Eli in his old age, and Eli with his two sons, who were less than exemplary?

    Tragically then, and for all that’s glorious about Samuel, chapter 8 begins a new section in 1 Samuel, in which this great man himself becomes the opportunity to observe that recurring cycle of weakness and sin that we see so often presented, so powerfully presented to us, in the pages of the Old Testament.

    That recurring cycle of weakness and sin that cries out for the Lord’s conclusive resolution, such a resolution as he will bring in his Son, in the person and work of Jesus Christ. again, obviously forms an integral unit because of the way chapter 7 ends. Not just the way chapter 8 begins, but the way chapter 7 ends.

    You see, 1st Samuel 7 ends in Ramah. It ends in Ramah. in, because that’s precisely the place in which we began in chapter 1, verse 1. You will remember, 1 Samuel opens with mention made of Samuel’s father. He is described in the opening verse as that certain man from Ramathilin-zochin, that’s Ramah, in the hill country of Ephraim. There follows, in the first two chapters of 1 Samuel, the account of Samuel’s parents and their repeated journeys from their home in Ramah to Shiloh. where the sanctuary was set, and then back home again.

    Rema to Shiloh, and then back home to Rema. When Samuel’s parents disappeared from the story partway through the second chapter of 1 Samuel, we are left with the boy Samuel in Shiloh, he having come from Rema. But he is left now in Shiloh, the place where the tabernacle of God rested, the place of the official ministry of the Levitical priesthood now established in Eli, and where the sacrifices to the Lord were being offered through the hands of his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. But now at the end of 1 Samuel 7, The sanctuary at Shiloh with its ministry has been displaced, it has been removed, and Eli and his sons are dead.

    We are told as that seventh chapter wraps up, Ramah has become the depot for Samuel’s judicial circuit. and the stakes for an altar of sacrifice which he has built, obviously the place where he is offering up the sacrifices now on behalf of and for Israel. Samuel’s yearly journeys from Ramah and back again, spoken of in 1 Samuel 7 verses 16 and 17, paid off his parents’ previous yearly journeys from Ramah and then back again, with which this book of 1 Samuel began. But furthermore, Samuel’s overall journey throughout these seven chapters has been from Ramah as an infant to Shiloh as a child, back now to Ramah as a mature judge over Israel. And with the end of 1 Samuel 7, the story has come full circle.

    It is a unit It is meant to be taken as such, to be understood as such. But what is the point? God is sovereign over all of this activity and in all of this endeavor. the use of Rema and Shiloh and Rema again. What’s the point? What are we to make of the circle?

    What are we to make of the unitary character of these chapters? For one thing, you are to understand that 1 Samuel chapters 1 through 7 are something of a complete story. A complete story. In fact, we can say this Samuel 1 through 7 gives us, as it were, the whole story. I’m sure many of you know what I mean by this.

    In other words, it’s as if we can see in this limited section of this single Old Testament book something of the whole story of the entire Bible, right here. And because that is true, it is as if we can see in this limited portion of this single Old Testament book something of the powerful message of the coming gospel. It too is laid within these chapters. But how is the gospel laid within these chapters? How is the gospel heard here?

    In order to answer this question, let me first of all concentrate with you not on Ramah, but on Shiloh. And take my cue from the prophet Jeremiah. In the seventh chapter of Jeremiah, that great prophet is told, as we have read this morning, to stand in the gate of the temple, and there he is to preach to the people are not to entrust themselves to deceptive lying words such as, this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. The Hebrew mantra. According to the Lord himself, there is no security in the temple when God has directed his holy anger against his people for their sin. And in order to stress this very point, the Lord reminds Judah through the prophet Jeremiah about Shiloh. Therefore the Lord says in verses 12 through 14 of that seventh chapter in Jeremiah, go now to the place which was called Shiloh.

    Go out and look for it. I made my name to dwell at the first and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, I will do to the house which is called by my name, specifically this temple in Jerusalem, in which you trust, as I did to Shiloh.” Are you beginning to see the connections?

    The history of the sanctuary at Shiloh is prophecy. The history of the sanctuary at Shiloh prefigures, no, even contains the history of the temple in Jerusalem. The story about Shiloh and its sanctuary preaches the story about Jerusalem and its temple. Go and look at Shiloh. and understand what’s coming. As the judgment came to Shiloh, judgment also is promised and comes on Jerusalem and its temple.

    A judgment, I might add, that comes not once but twice first in the Old Testament during the times of the prophets, but then again conclusively in the New during the time and the ministry of Jesus Christ. But you might still be having trouble making all the connections. You might be thinking, I thought you said that the story in 1 Samuel 1-7 reflected the whole of the story about salvation, and that in it we could hear the powerful message of the gospel. But where exactly is the gospel in what we have heard thus far? I haven’t heard it in Jeremiah’s words, and in its parallel, the parallel between Jerusalem’s temple and Shiloh’s sanctuary, and I might add, While I’m at it, I certainly haven’t heard it in the technical observations that you’ve made about the structure of 1 Samuel 1-7.

    So there! But please remember, my claim was that the Jeremiah passage is but a clue. It moves us in the right direction in order to make the right connections. You see, to this point, and as is obvious from the Jeremiah passage, we have as yet only concentrated on Shiloh. So far, we have seen that Shiloh rightly matches up with Jerusalem. But now we must ask, what about Ramah? To what does Ramah match up? Remember now, 1 Samuel 1 through 7 began and ended at Ramah. What is now going to impress itself upon us is a pattern. Yes, it is somewhat abstract. The pattern from Ramah to Ramah.

    And what we observe in this pattern is the fact that Rhema becomes a place relative to Shiloh and its sanctuary. Rhema becomes a place relative to Shiloh and its sanctuary. Now I realize that this might be a little difficult, and appreciate the heat, but hang in there with me.

    Rhema, therefore, is that place, away from, separated from Shiloh and its sanctuary, from which there is movement toward Shiloh and the sanctuary. But then, in turn, toward which there is movement away from Shiloh in the interests of a new sanctuary. Shiloh becomes that place, away from, separated from Shiloh and its sanctuary, from which there is movement toward Shiloh and the sanctuary there. And then, again, toward which there is movement away from Shiloh in the interests of a new sanctuary altogether.

    Such a place has its counterpart in the origins of the prophets. They come from outside of Jerusalem. into Jerusalem, their ministries often sealed in death at Jerusalem, they then ultimately moving us, by virtue of their witness and their testimony, away from Jerusalem and toward a new place of worship outside of Jerusalem altogether. Now this is the reason why I have asked you to hang with me in this, because we are about to burst into the New Testament and its revelation. And that revelation is utterly consistent with what we have perceived now, not only in the lives of the prophets, but in 1 Samuel 1 through 7, and the movement from Ramah to Shiloh to Ramah. Here we go.

    Jesus himself will approach Jerusalem and its temple along these very same lines. He, in true prophetic style, enters the city from outside, from the regions of Galilee, and following his own ministry there. in which he seals that ministry with his own life, returns to Galilee in his resurrected body, and to a mountain there to receive the worship of his disciples, and you can read all about that in Matthew 28. But of course, you know, do you not, that the full journey is hardly, in Jesus’ case, from Galilee to Jerusalem back to Galilee, for the sake of worship on one more mountain in this failing, faltering world. Jesus’ full journey is from the holy hill of glory, and I will tell you here that the There is method in all this. Jesus’ full journey is from the holy hill of glory, heaven itself, to the earthly Jerusalem, there to fulfill his ministry for sinners by way of his death on the cross. And then through his resurrection, Yes, this in order that he might return to that holy hill of glory, Heaven itself, for the establishment of an eternal worship in a world that never falters or fails.

    There it is. despite the oppression of the heat. It is that worship, that worship, into which those savingly united to Christ even now have entered, and that is where you are. The movement of Samuel from Rhema to Shiloh, back to Rhema, where he has his altar and a new sanctuary, anticipates, prophesies all of this. My friends, I do believe I hear the gospel rising off the pages of 1 Samuel 1-7. And I hope what you have heard here is very instructive to you.

    For Ramah, in turn, is no more the site of the final sanctuary than was Shiloh. But neither was Jerusalem during the time of the kings and the prophets. Neither that Jerusalem during the time of Jesus. And certainly with this lesson made clear to us now by God’s holy word, we can hardly make any city in this creation the focus of our religious devotion, as if that city housed the final sanctuary of God. Rome, not Rome, not Constantinople, not Geneva, not Canterbury, not even Philadelphia, the earthly city that houses the headquarters of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

    The final sanctuary, the last and lasting temple, is in heaven. Jesus Christ’s very own lima, that sanctuary in heaven, from which this one greater than Samuel has come, even to his earthly shiloh, the city of Jerusalem, and from that Shiloh he has returned to his Ramah for the establishment of that final worship in the final and lasting temple into which you now have entered because of him.

    Well, as far as I’m concerned, that’s gospel. It also closes the matter, let’s pray. Father, you train us that we would not dote upon this world or even those places that are set up seemingly to focus our attention in our religious devotion. Lord, may our eyes be above all directed toward heaven, the heavenly sanctuary and worship that is transpiring there And may your churches here in the world have a conscious realization of their participation in what is taking place above. May we, Lord, appreciate more and more how we are participants in that worship, in the eternal worship of the last and lasting temple, and may we glory in you, Lord, even though this world dissolve and the elements themselves melt. For we know, O God, that as our Savior is preserved from death and as that sanctuary in glory stands, we also stand in glory with him and in him. Now, Father, we ask that you will grant us grace as we would review our own religious and that you would help us, O God, lest we become worldly, lest we become the servants of Baal rather than the servants of Jehovah.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Lost to Be Found in Christ

    Lost to Be Found in Christ

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, July 13, 1997.

    About this sermon

    Hannah dies to her son in 2:11-18 by giving him up entirely, and she rises again in verse 19’s picture of ongoing provision. The rich young ruler in Matthew 19, and Peter’s question about reward, follow the same logic Job learned. We give ourselves away to nothing so that we may be found in Christ.

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    Sermon transcript

    We begin our scripture reading this morning in 1 Samuel 2, and we are beginning at verse 18. This is the word of God. But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child girded with a linen ephod. Moreover, his mother made him a little coat and brought it to him from year to year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife and said, The Lord give thee seed of this woman for the loan which is lent to the Lord, and they went unto their own home. and the Lord visited Hannah so that she conceived and bare three sons and two daughters, and the child Samuel grew before the Lord.” Then, turning over to Matthew’s Gospel, the nineteenth chapter, we begin reading in Matthew 19 at verse 16, And behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?

    And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness. Honor thy father and thy mother, and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

    The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up. What lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. and come and follow me.’ But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

    Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of an eagle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus beheld them and said unto them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.

    Then answered Peter and said unto him, Behold, we have forsaken all and followed thee. What shall we have therefore? Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that ye which have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of his glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake shall receive an honored full, and shall inherit everlasting life. that many that are first shall be last, and the last shall be first.

    Let’s pray together. Grant us your peace, O God, even as we consider your word and its sufficiency, as we think upon its effectiveness in our lives, in the life of this church, in the life of your church around the world, and surely, O God, as you have placed it in the hearts of your servants, and you have caused them to speak in keeping with that word, declaring your gospel in truth. Even, Father, as by that word sinners are beckoned, as those who are coming out of darkness into your marvelous light. Lord, prosper your word today. May sinners be converted, may saints be chastened and corrected, may they also be encouraged in the word of righteousness. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    She had disappeared, but now she is back. I am speaking about Hannah. She had disappeared from our story in 1 Samuel. She had been removed most dramatically, but now she is back. The storyteller by the Holy Spirit that made so much of her in the opening portion of this book in the Bible. from the beginning of this book through chapter 2, verse 10. You would very likely conclude that the story was actually all about Hannah. She is the main figure. She has set a stage, it seems.

    But then comes chapter 2, verse 11, and suddenly as this opening section of 1 Samuel closes, Hannah is gone, and instead her husband surprisingly appears in prominent position, and is spoken of as if he were the focus. Not one word being offered about Hannah. The text reads, Then Elkanah went to his house at Ramah. So Hannah had disappeared. But now she’s back. That is, before the story of Samuel is allowed to progress, Hannah reappears. She reappears prominently in verses 18 through 21. And her reappearance is especially striking against the background of her former disappearance.

    It’s almost as if, in terms of the force of the matter, it’s almost as if she had died, and that her reappearance was something of a resurrection. Or even more overpowering, if it’s possible to trump the resurrection, even more overpowering It is as if her reappearance were a recovery out of the void, out of nothingness itself. that I may recover strength before I go hence and be no more. So prays David in Psalm 39.

    But Hannah disappears as one who has gone hence. and is no more, only now to reappear as if out of the void, as if out of the world of no more. Her existence itself gone. But there is something you must understand about this void. There is something you must understand about Hannah’s disappearance into this world of no more.

    You see, Hannah chooses them. You are not ready to hear this. Because you love yourselves too much. And you hold on to your world and your life. Everything else is too important to you. Not so with him. This woman is going to speak to you today. I will say it again for you.

    There is something of the greatest importance that you must understand about this void, something you must understand about Hannah’s disappearance into this world of no more, of non-existence. She chooses them. And by so doing, she reveals the profound depths of her soul and the greatness of her faith. Now please understand me by calling attention to Hannah’s choice here and her faith. I do not want you to forget the essential focus of her life and the messages that we have preached on her to this point. You must not miss this truth, therefore. Hannah is carried along, yes, above her choice, above her faith, she is carried along by the irresistible sweep of God’s sovereign, inscrutable, providential dealing.

    She is but clay, the Lord is the potter. He has closed her womb, the text states as much. Chapter 1, verse 5, and it is the Lord who opened that womb. Even her choice, even her faith, in the end, are gifts from God, and He is the sovereign one in dispensing both.

    And even more than that, God has assigned to this woman an identity, one which joins her to those women before her, to Sarah and to Rachel. In an identity beyond these women’s comprehension, even beyond their own cooperation. such identity-speaking volumes, not about them personally, but about the entirety of the people of God. By the Lord’s design, in keeping with his sovereign purpose, these barren women serve the story of salvation. For we see in them the people of God as a whole, as if the people of God were in them. They being corporate personalities.

    In them, then, we see the people of God as those people move in history from fruitlessness and futility, from even the impossibility of bearing fruit and their inability to deliver themselves from their futility, into the glorious provision of God. In the births of Isaac, Joseph, and Samuel, You witness the movement, yes, the movement in the entirety of the history of salvation, so it is not just the people of God who are in the women, the whole of the history of redemption is in the women. You witness in them the movement from the old to the new. You can see in them the movement from the old covenant to the new covenant, from the old testament to the new testament. the patterns coming to expression, those that will peak in the great salvation realized in Jesus Christ. I want you to start looking at the people in the Bible like this. It will be a great antidote to your inherent selfishness.

    Again then, even as you would consider Hannah’s personal choice and her personal faith, don’t forget this point. Hannah herself is carried along by the irresistible sweep of God’s superintending, sovereign, providential dealings, and this in the interests of his eternal, predestinated purpose in saving his elect through his Son. And we can say that Hannah even disappears that she is even surrendered to the void, to that world of no more, of non-existence, by the predetermined counsel and foreordination of God. But it is this same predetermined counsel, this same foreordination of God that brings her back in the course of this story. in which she has been allowed by the sovereign hand of the Spirit to disappear. And this God also does in the interests of salvation history. But notice now how subtly and yet how wonderfully Hannah is reintroduced for you.

    It’s incremental through verses 18 to the conclusion there in 21. Verse 18 doesn’t mention her as such. It tells us about Samuel, her son, ministering before the Lord while wearing the linen ephod. We have seen how these words speak volumes about Samuel’s position and what is intended for him. Yet nothing, as yet, is said about Hannah.

    The verse 19 finds Hannah, not named yet, but identified as Samuel’s mother performing service to her son with the yearly sacrifice. But you will remember in this regard the force of this verse. the force of verse 19 that moves us to think that the yearly sacrifice was peculiarly Hannah’s, and that in a way that simply could not have been the case in ancient Israel. For it was the males who were responsible for the yearly sacrifices, you will remember. Here she brings Samuel a robe yearly, when she would come up to offer the yearly sacrifice.

    And in verse 20, Eli then blesses Elkanah, but now she is especially in Jew. And at the end of that verse, and in contrast to the beginning portion of verse 11, where Elkanah alone is mentioned, Hannah and Elkanah are mentioned in their return to Ramah, their home city. Hannah’s recovery during the course of these three verses is near complete, but verse 21 finishes it off. Here, instead of Elphanna alone mentioned, followed by a statement about Samuel, as was the case in verse 11, we now have Hannah, she herself, named, alone mentioned, followed by a statement about Samuel.

    She is back in full view, and how appropriate For if it is true, as I’ve said, that Hannah in her move from barrenness to childbearing is one in whom we must see the history of the people of God over which the poor ordination of God presides, then the same is true for her move into and out of the nothingness. The same is true as she disappears only to reappear with such prominence in this story. Hannah by the end of verse 21 with her three additional sons and her two daughters is presented as a picture of the people of God in the superlative blessedness of the kingdom. in her we witness the people of God not simply in their ultimate fruitfulness in Christ despite their former fruitlessness, but in their ultimate recovery through Christ from oblivion, their reconstitution by Christ out of the void, their resurrection with Christ from the dead. There is another Old Testament figure in whom we witness the same pattern.

    I have in mind Job. You know his story, how God allows Satan to destroy his livelihood, remove his children in death, and afflict his body until Job curses the day of his birth and wishes that he had never been. that in his extremity, Job is confronted by God, and through this revelation, Job beholds his own wretchedness as never before. The conclusion of Job’s story finds him, we are told, restored to his fortunes with seven other sons and three other daughters. And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. Chapter 42 in Job, verse 12. But you know, of course, do you not, that this story about Job is not about the possibilities that are out there for you and for me?

    That if you or I lose our jobs, we’ll always get a better one, won’t we? And if I were to lose my children before this day were out, other children would be born to me, others would be given to me to compensate for the loss. And if I were to lose my health, greater health and long life await me as an assured guarantee because God likes me. That is how the majority of the Church reads Job, tragically and sadly, and even many within the Reformed faith.

    Job is no more about my personal posterity than is Hannah. Neither of these figures is about personal tragedy and the promise of compensation in times in this world over and above their loss. Both of them, both of these figures are about the history of the whole of the people of God, the history of redemption. Job’s story is the history of true Israel as that Israel is left utterly destitute, there to be confronted with her utter wretchedness until God reveals himself in Jesus Christ and God’s elect are raised up to enjoy the eternal prosperity of the kingdom of heaven. That’s what Job is about.

    Hannah’s story is the history of true Israel. as that Israel is given the child of salvation, when that Israel has no ability whatsoever to generate that child, or is even worthy of that child. But also as that Israel is given over to total disillusion. Given over to total disillusion. given over to the world of no more, given over to death, swallowed up as it were in the grave, lost in that world of nonexistence, only to be brought back to be resurrected to the sublime glory of heaven in Christ. That’s what Hannah is about.

    Jesus confronts his disciples, lest you think I’m spinning fables here and making this up, confronts his own disciples with these very truths in the aftermath of his encounter with the rich young ruler after challenging this man to leave all for his sake and for the sake of treasure in heaven. Jesus must deal with Peter who boasts of having left everything to follow Jesus.

    Peter thinks that his own present privation, his own present loss of earthly blessing, is only temporary. Once we reach Jerusalem, and that conclusively, all that I have sacrificed will be infinitely repaid to me, and blessings untold will be keeped upon me for my enjoyment in this world. Jesus’ answer is cryptic to him, and through him, ironical to the disciples. The personal prosperity he holds out to Peter has nothing to do with a large Jewish estate, and a burgeoning apple and happy family living in the countryside.

    It has to do with the church and the multiplication of fellowship in it. That’s what Jesus is ultimately speaking about to Peter when he mentions brothers and sisters, mother and father, wife and children. That’s what he’s talking about. You can think of just how this registers upon a Jewish mind. For after all, Family is God. And so is the land, of course. But you knew that, right?

    The real issue is eternal life, as Jesus makes clear at the end of his statement to Peter and the rest of the disciples. And that eternal life is now that which conditions all the blessings that are to be aspired, appropriated, and appreciated. And it’s appropriate that we should be speaking at this moment about disciples.

    For this brings us back to Hannah. and the remark that I made early on in this message when I said that Hannah chooses the void, emptiness, nothingness, her own disappearance. Here you are touching the profound religious issue in Hannah’s experience You see, in the end, it will not simply be that the disciples or Job or Hannah become the occasion to observe, to be sure, in the most remarkable way, the irresistible sweep of God’s sovereign, inscrutable oversight of the history of salvation. No, these figures, and yes, Hannah herself most portedly, become the occasion to observe the exercise of genuine faith. How far will your faith go? Will you give yourself over to nothingness out of your confidence that God will bring you back?

    Why I am nothing. Who am I? I’m but a worm. I’m less than a worm. I choose nothingness. I embrace it. I am the true nihilist. did she was a fake. So here she is, the occasion to observe the exercise of genuine faith of the most profoundest sort, to observe the religious self-conscious choice which she makes, over into nothingness, to lose herself, even to lose herself in an identification assigned her from God, and that her joy, to be lost in the history of salvation and in the identity that swallows her up in the people of God, and that in the most intimate fashion. To choose that history as her very own, to give up herself in its interests. Hannah’s choice and faith are reflected in the course of the telling of her tale, in her untroubled serenity, recorded for you in the 18th verse of that first chapter, after her first interview with Eli. She went away, and she ate, and her face was no longer sad. She didn’t even have yet had the child! Nor did it matter! This woman was free!

    You see it again underscored for you when she gives the child away. And then you see it in her prayer in verses 1-10 at the beginning of chapter 2, and we’ve been over that, but you know by now that this is not a reflection upon her personal circumstance. for her personal circumstance and herself have been forgotten in the interests of God’s comprehensive kingdom. Hannah’s disappearance then in chapter 2, verse 11, she’s gone from the test, is consistent, and I might add, in order to underscore the point for you, It is completely and utterly unproblematic to her.

    Wait a minute! I’m supposed to be in here! And to this one who in her faith makes herself last as if nothing, who gives up her life, who surrenders herself to loss, who disappears as if into the void, as if into the land of forgetfulness, the land of no more, as if into death itself, she, breathing in of that spirit from whom we all are to receive, becomes first, gains all, reappears out of the void, rises to life again, before the Lord’s anointed steps out upon the earth, the anointed one that she mentions in the last verse of her song, chapter 2, verse 10, before that one steps out upon the earth, the religious spirit to receive him and serve him is discerned in this woman. she will give up everything for him she already has. But now you know that the Lord’s anointed has stepped out upon the earth and subsequently been seated in his glory above. And may each one of you have that spirit which we have observed in Hannah, the spirit of genuine faith, receiving him and serving him, that spirit which by faith gives up one’s life, that life might be gained forever. I think you’re listening. I hope you are. Because you have just touched the profound depths, not only of Hannah’s soul, but of the soul of God.

    O Father, with our eyes open, we choose that statement concerning ourselves that we are nothing, that we are given over to nothingness. Father, in faith, we so surrender ourselves in the confidence that you are able to reconstitute us. and that you are able to raise us from the dead. What confidence is ours, O God, that that which you have made plain in Christ, who on the cross surrenders himself utterly and completely in his trust of his Father. Father, we ask that you might then grant us mercy as your children, that understanding these things we would not hold on to the dear life in this world, but rather hold on to you, to your Son, to the Kingdom, and let everything else go.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Seeing Christ in Samuel

    Seeing Christ in Samuel

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 29, 1997.

    About this sermon

    Reading the Old Testament in light of the New means learning to see Christ in Samuel himself, not merely finding proof texts. Hannah’s yearly sacrifice in verse 19 carries a significance easy to miss: an early picture of what baptism will mean for women in the new covenant. John’s own writing about Christ’s coming depends on this same way of reading backward.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are beginning our reading in 1 Samuel 2, and we are reading verses 18 and 19 of this chapter. 1 Samuel 2, beginning at verse 18. I give you attention to God’s holy word. Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy wearing a linen ephod. His mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him from year to year, when she would come up with her husband to offer the yearling sacrifice. We begin reading at verse 11.

    Now, if perfection was through the Levitical priesthood, for on the basis of it the people received the law, what further need was there for another priest to arise according to the order of Melchizedek and not be designated according to the order of Aaron?

    For when the priesthood is changed of necessity, there takes place a change of law also. For the one concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe, from which no one has officiated at the altar. For it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning And this is clearer still if another priest arises according to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become such not on the basis of a law of physical requirement, but according to the power of an indestructible life. For it is attested of him, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. For on the one hand, There is a setting aside of a former commandment because of its weakness and uselessness, for the law made nothing perfect.

    And on the other hand, there is a bringing in of a better hope through which we draw near to God. And inasmuch as it was not without an oath, for they indeed became priests without an but he with an oath through the one who said to him, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever. So much the more also Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. The former priests on the one hand existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus on the other hand because he continues forever, holds his priesthood permanently. Therefore he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

    For it was fitting for us to have such a high priest, holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens. who does not need daily, like those high priests, to offer sacrifices first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people, because this he did once for all when he offered up himself. For the law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of the earth, which came after the law, appoints a son made perfect forever.”

    And turning over to Acts 8, verse 12. But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized. men and women alike. Let’s pray together now. Our Father, who lifts our day from ourselves. Truly, you lift it to yourself and to your son. Likewise, Lord, you lift our gaze to the ends of the earth and the innumerable company of those redeemed by you. And Father, may our hearts be bound with those whom you love. the world round. And Father, even in our commitment to you, encouraged as it is by your word, may we be committed to all of those who call in faith upon your name. We ask your blessing fully, magnificently, even unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the true Israel of God. This we ask in Jesus’ name, amen.

    In John 4, verse 23, Jesus makes his famous statement to the Samaritan woman. “‘But an hour is coming,’ he says, and now is, “‘when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth.’” This is but one of a number of statements Jesus makes in John’s Gospel in reference to the approaching, but already present, hour. It is Jesus’ way, according to John’s Gospel, for announcing the great change that has now occurred in space and time, because He, the eternal, only begotten Son of God, has now come for the purpose of giving God’s elect, through faith, everlasting life. In the other Gospels, Jesus speaks about the approach and the arrival of the Kingdom. In John’s Gospel, Jesus speaks about the approach and the arrival of the hour.

    The former administration, called by John the Law, has ended. And the new administration called by John, Grace and Truth, has commenced. So we have, at the beginning of John’s gospel, chapter 1, verse 17, this statement from the gospel writer. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.

    But while the new administration of grace and truth arrives in Jesus Christ, and it is understood to stand properly in contrast to the older administration of the law, this does not mean, this does not mean that the law itself does not serve and even anticipate within its very structure and message the greater the final administration of grace and truth, the administration of the impending and enduring hour, or the administration of the impending and enduring kingdom.

    Jesus, in one of the most neglected speeches which is recorded for us in John’s Gospel, makes this very point. In John chapter 5 verse 39, Jesus challenges the Jewish authorities who read the Old Testament scriptures, their Old Testament scriptures, in search of eternal life. But Jesus tells them in the most striking fashion that these very scriptures that they search testify of me. Later in this very same context, verse 46, Jesus becomes specific about Moses. And he says to the Jews, have you believed Moses? You would have believed me, because he wrote about me.

    But I remind you of these things this morning because it is important that you read the Old Testament scriptures that you read the law within those scriptures the way in which Jesus has instructed you to read them. In other words, the responsible reading of the older administration is always in light of the new. that reading which discerns in the old the pattern and the prophecy of the new, that reading which perceives in the old the forms and the shadows of the impending, enduring hour, the impending and enduring kingdom. This is, in fact, the way we have been approaching 1 Samuel chapters 1 and 2. My hope for you, as you approach the preaching on these chapters, as you approach the preaching of God’s Word Sunday by Sunday in this church, or wherever you might is that you would be like those Greeks mentioned elsewhere in John’s Gospel, those who approached Philip and said to him, We would see Jesus. May you indeed see Jesus. That, as really in the Old Testament, as you see him clearly. in the new. You are then, I say confidently, you are then to see Jesus in Samuel, and you are to see Jesus in Samuel as he is presented to you in the second chapter of 1 Samuel, the 18th and the 19th verses.

    You stand in this test at a great transition point in the Old Testament history. for you are being moved out of the previous era of the judges and into the period of the established monarchy. And this monumental change into which you are now brought, in which you now are included, is the opportunity for you to witness certain dynamics that will be at work when the even greater transition in biblical history occurs, the transition from the Old Testament into the New. In both cases, in this transition that is being set before you in 1 Samuel, And in that ultimate transition, the change is presented to you as effected through a child. Through a child.

    It is not without reason that the prayer of Hannah that begins the second chapter of 1 and the Magnificat of Mary, found in Luke 1, verses 46 through 55, bear such similarities. It is not without reason that Christians like yourselves throughout the ages, in reading about Hannah and Samuel, have in the most natural way thought about Mary and Jesus. and I might even put it in reverse. It is not without reason that Christians like yourselves throughout the ages, in reading about Mary and Jesus, have in the most natural way thought about Hannah and Samuel. What I am endeavoring to tell you, and that with all earnestness, even with all intrigue, is that such connections as these are the very ones that God wants you to see.

    Are you in question as to what you are to derive from your Bible reading and your Bible reflection? I am here to tell you and it is part of my office to declare it to you. The connections that I have just outlined for you are the connections that you are to see. This is what God wants you to extract from your Bible.

    This means, then, that these connections are deliberate. They are not my connections, but they are the connections that are established according to the plan of God, and because of that plan. These connections are predestined. It is not just individuals who are predestined. It is the scriptures and all of the connections and interconnections found in the scriptures. Let’s not settle for an anemic Calvinism. Let’s go whole hog. Do I need to underscore it for you a little more? That these connections between Hannah and Samuel and Mary and Jesus are not simply happenstance. Well, it just turned out that way.

    For about the time the Father was going to send the Son into the world, he said, well of course, Hannah and Samuel, I’ll use that as a model. and then congratulated himself for being so clever. But you will also note that common both to the transition during the days of Samuel and the greater transition during the days of Jesus. is what we have focused upon in our reading today, the priesthood. Specifically, a change in the priesthood. We witness that change in the Old Testament setting as Samuel is set before us as the priest, even while he is a child. who is replacing Eli and Eli’s descendants in the priestly administration. Now, such a replacement as this, I’m sure you will agree, is blatantly obvious from any fair reading of the story. But it is reinforced by a number of subtle features that we find throughout the account. such as the description of Samuel’s clothing in verses 18 and 19. Samuel, we are told, as a child, wears a linen ephod, the priest’s garb, and he also wears a robe in the next verse, which, like the yearly offering of his parents, is regularly provided for him by his mother.

    All this subtly underscoring the fact that Samuel, even here as the child, is being presented to us as the priest. But Jesus also, while still a child, is presented as a priest. The early chapters of Luke’s Gospel intend nothing less than the presentation of Jesus, the promised and final priest. The account of Luke peaks at the end of that second chapter of Luke, where we find Jesus in the temple at a young age, conversing with the doctors of the law, confounding them.

    He, having been separated from his parents, his parents now finding him, questioned him about his presence there in the temple and his absence from them, and he responds to them, you will recall, Do you not know that I had to be in my father’s house? In other words, my dear friends, here is the priest. His place of service is in the sanctuary of his father. But so radical is this change. This change from Samuel to Luke, if you will, captured in the stories of Samuel and Jesus.

    But those stories present us with figures now. who from the way in which their stories are presented has no right to the priesthood at all. That’s the way they are portrayed. There is absolutely no hint in the text of 1 Samuel that Samuel is a Levite. We are not told that. In fact, the indications seem calculated deliberately to move us in precisely the opposite direction.

    The family comes from the hill country of Ephraim, his father, Elkanim, while in fact the Levite, hailing from the family of the Kohathites, that never mentioned in Samuel, only in 1 Chronicles, hardly officiates or serves at the altar at Shiloh, but rather brings his sacrifice just like any other Jew.

    Thus, in the Samuel story, the transition from the one era to the other is effected through one who is made to look as if he has no priesthood or any right to it. But the way in which Samuel is made to appear, again, is deliberate, for it anticipates who, as you know, and as is made much of in the letter to the Hebrews, as we’ve read this morning, had no right to the priesthood according to the old administration.

    But the change affected by Jesus is a transition so monumental that it brings with it a change even to what seem to be the lasting character and qualities of the priesthood. The character of the changed, in the end, proves to be such a one in which we witness a transition now from an earthly priesthood to a heavenly priesthood, and that via resurrection and indestructible life conferred upon this priest which is now ours. from a faulty temporary priesthood to a perfect eternal priesthood, from an extension of the priesthood of Aaron to a culmination in the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. Samuel’s priesthood presented without the apparent proper priestly pedigree forecasts the coming of Jesus Christ’s priesthood. Samuel’s priesthood in its own way although still bound to the earth, prepares us for Christ’s coming heavenly priesthood. And as the great change in the history of God’s dealings during Samuel’s day is captured in the change in the priesthood, so the even greater change as we move from the earthly to the heavenly, in and through the ministry of Jesus Christ, is captured in a change to the priesthood. The occasion for this change, in the case of Samuel, is the corruption of Eli’s sons, their wickedness, and, yes, the oncoming arrival of the Old Testament kingdom as it will be focused in the figure of David eventually. The occasion for the change In the case of Jesus, is the inherent limitations of the entire Old Testament priestly and legal system, and the arrival of the superlative, transcendent, heavenly administration of the Son of God.

    But while the greater and more glorious administration belongs to Jesus, commends itself to us in terms of its better hope, through which we draw near to God, Hebrews 7.19.

    In that Jesus, our great High Priest, is able to save forever we who draw near to God through him, Hebrews 7.25. Still, the administration of Samuel, anticipating Christ’s coming, Priesthood, does itself hint becoming superlative character of the ultimate order. The hint, just in case you missed it, is laid within the nineteenth verse of First Samuel 2. Within that verse, there is laid for you an indication of, a hint about, the superlative blessing that will come in the greater administration to which Samuel’s priesthood points. Previously, in another message, I commented on how shocking, in verse 18, it is to see Samuel, a mere child, dressed up in the priestly ephod. We are taken back by that. But here, in verse 19, we are faced with another shock. It doesn’t concern Samuel and his Rome. Rather, it concerns Hannah and her sacrifice. Are you with me?

    You see, in the Old Testament It is not customary, in fact it is against the law, for a woman to have such prominence when it comes to the regular annual sacrifices. In fact, in the ordering of things at the tabernacle and the temple, the women were not permitted to approach. But there is no question that in this nineteenth verse, Hannah is given prominence, and that with regard to the sacrifice.

    To get the power of it, to feel the effect of it, I ask you to leave out the dependent clause concerning her husband and read the text again. If you do, it reads this way, and his mother would make him a little robe and bring it to him year by year when she would go up to offer the yearly sacrifice. Now, of course, in the full reading, Belcanna, her husband, is mentioned.

    Still, it is clear that she is placed in the most extraordinary life, as one who herself now draws near to God through the mediation of the priesthood express. Hannah anticipates the greater day of inclusion, the greater day of access and freedom for all those women who in the greater final heavenly administration do now, do now draw near to God through the mediation of the superlative eternal priesthood of Jesus Christ. In their own words, in their own name, they walk right into the sanctuary of God. As the apostle Paul would have it, and as we prefaced our worship this morning, our call Here is that inclusion in the far superior inheritance, that access to the true intention of the covenant, that freedom belonging to the ultimate eschatological sons of God, male and female alike.

    Sons because heirs. The inheritance belonging to sons is given to the daughters. This is no feminist diatribe. This is no liberationist nonsense. This is gospel. For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

    That’s what Paul says. Luke, mentored by Paul in the Acts of the Apostles, offers his own shocking statement to this very same end. writing about Philip’s ministry among the Samaritans, the people who had included among them the women to whom Jesus spoke in John 4. Writing about Philip and his ministry to these Samaritans, Luke has this to say in his eighth chapter, the twelfth verse. When they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized men and women alike.”

    There it is. We have moved beyond circumcision, haven’t we? Not just the males. The sign of the covenant is given to the females also. They are included because now they are viewed fully. as those who participate in the radiant inheritance. We see Christ in Samuel. In the great transition we witness in the days of Samuel, we see the greater transition coming, the transition from earth to heaven in the days of Jesus Christ. And the hint of extraordinary blessings supplied here, faithfully, in Samuel’s administration, gives way to the fullness of those blessings mediated through the lasting and exclusive priesthood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. May you all know the one to whom Samuel pointed the one to whom you are appointed in Samuel.

    And may you all love his heavenly administration, the light in the fullness of his blessings, and fade fast in obedience to your privileged access, your exalted status as sons of God. And may you know the glories of the sanctuary above, all of you, male and female alike. Amen.

    Our God, again we ask you that we would be blessed by you, not only in terms of the gracious provisions that you give us in keeping with our redemption, the blessings of the Spirit, blessings of life in Christ, but encourage us also, Father, with the blessing of your word that we, with your word, would see in it what we are to see, what you would have us see. And may this be part of our obedience, as much a part of our obedience as any other aspect of our sanctification. May we labor, may we strive to see Christ, to honor him, to honor our God in the perfections of the way in which you, our Lord, have put your word together deliberately, with intention. And may we glory in you, even as we are encouraged to perceive in what might seem to be a faint detail, an inconspicuous hint. May we glory in the full range of the revelation of yourself. and the wonder of our salvation. And may this be true of us, O God, we who are of the greater administration, men and women alike.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Priests Who Served Themselves

    Priests Who Served Themselves

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, June 1, 1997.

    About this sermon

    Hophni and Phinehas turn the priesthood into something that serves themselves rather than God’s people, the exact opposite of how Christ and Paul both ministered. Their abuse of the sacrifices anticipates every later abuse of the Lord’s Supper. Ministry and sacrament are essential to the church precisely because Hophni and Phinehas show what happens without them.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading 4-Hour Scripture, 1 Samuel 2, beginning at verse 12. We will also be reading from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 22. First of all, this portion of Scripture, 1 Samuel 2, at verse 12. I give you attention to God’s word. Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord and the custom of the priests with the people.

    When any man was offering a sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come while the meat was boiling with a three-pronged fork in his hand. Then he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up, the priest would take for himself. Thus they did in Shiloh. to all the Israelites that you shall give it to me now, and if not, I will take it by force. Thus the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for the men despised the offering of the Lord.” When the hour had come, Jesus reclined at the table and the apostles with him.

    And he said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And when he had taken a cup and given thanks, he said, take this and share it among yourselves. For I say to you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine from now on until the kingdom of God comes.’

    And when he had taken some bread and given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.’ And in the same way he also took a cup after they had eaten, saying, This cup which is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood. But behold, the hand of the one betraying me is with mine on the table.

    For indeed, the Son of Man is going as it has been determined, but woe to that man by whom he is betraying.” And they began to discuss among themselves which one of them it might be who was going to be the strength. There arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest. And he said to them, the kings of the Gentiles mourned over them, and those who have authority over them are called benefactors.

    But it is not this way with you. The one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and believer like the servant. Who is the greater? The one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? I am among you as one who serves. You are those who have stood by me in my trials, and just as my Father has granted me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

    When we come to these verses in 1 Samuel 2, the ones that we have read this morning, it is impossible to avoid the subjects of the ministry and sacraments. Both the ministry and the sacraments are grounded so deliberately and so deeply in the person of God. And because we are to see him so profoundly behind both the ministry and the sacraments, at work in both, the sense of blasphemy and profanation is heightened for us when we look at these two sons of Eli, Aphni and Phinehas. In the Old Testament, the ministry of the priesthood is inaugurated. And this ministry of the priesthood moves in two directions.

    In and through the priest moving things in one direction, the people draw near to God. You may recall that the high priest wore the breastplate decorated with twelve gems. Those gems on his breast represented the twelve tribes of Israel, as the high priest approached God for the people, carrying as it were the people with him in his service. The people also brought their sacrifices and their offerings to the priest, which he prepared a representational presentation of that worshipper to his God. So the priest represented the children of God as they would draw near to their Lord. At the same time, the priest expressed the opposite movement, the reciprocal direction. That is, God’s drawing near to his people. Therefore, the movement was not simply the people drawing near to God, but God drawing near to the people.

    And here in view is the remarkable service God performs by humbling himself for the sake of his people, that they might be blessed by him. An example of this is found in the blessing which the priest pronounces upon the people. At the end of Numbers chapter 6, such a blessing is recorded. And in this action of blessing, we are told at the conclusion of that chapter, God is doing nothing less than placing his name upon his people. In other words, God in his name has now been joined to his people for the sake of their blessedness in him.

    The sacraments of the Old Testament themselves are not just the approach of the people to But that means by which God would confirm his people in the sign of his promises to them, and in the seal to them of his union with them. And most particularly, as has been stressed this morning in our prayer, moving off of, working off of Psalm 103, as those signs and seals speak to us about the forgiveness of sins. It is this latter matter, and because of it, the forgiveness of sins, that we are able to appreciate the interconnectedness of the two directions involved in the ministry of the priesthood. that the people of God are drawing near to God, and God is drawing near to them. You see, God’s condescending service to Israel, his humble approach to them, is in order that, is so that they might draw near to him. If we have already established a priority within the economy of God with regard to His people concerning the forgiveness of sins, we are establishing this priority as well. That before the people can draw near to God, He must draw near to them. This is to say, The people’s ability to approach God is laid within God’s own service and his own gracious provision in drawing near to them first. It is this dimension of ministerial service that receives such great attention, particularly when it comes to the ongoing ministerial service that belongs in and to the Church.

    Not that we don’t find language by New Testament ministers in which They speak about their labors as the means for the church to draw near to God. Paul, for instance, talks about his own ministry. Interestingly, as a priesthood in which he offers up the Gentiles to God.

    Romans 15 verse 16. He will also speak about the offering he makes of himself, as if through that offering those for whom he labors might be presented to God, might in fact draw near to God. Such language as this is found powerfully expressed in Colossians 1. Paul there says that he does his part in filling up the afflictions of Christ. He speaks further in explaining his ministry, that he is focused and concentrated, doing everything that he might present these people, complete, soul, whole, unto God. It is the language of priesthood that overlays the ministry of Paul.

    He uses that vocabulary advisedly and powerfully. And you will remember that he also speaks quite passionately and in priest-like fashion about his intercessions for the saints. How often does this man mention his regular, his earnest prayers on behalf of the Church? Through those prayers, through those intercessions, then he believing that a means by which, yes, in some regard, the people of God draw near to their Lord. But certainly Paul the Apostle in his vocabulary of sacrifice and intercession as it is overlaid with priestly concerns has no intention of compromising the essential New Testament message.

    Namely that Jesus Christ is the final and the only continuing high priest for God’s people. And it is through him and through him alone, finally, that we draw near to God. For us, therefore, as Christ’s Church, our approach to God in this gospel refrain is an accomplished fact, a gloriously finished reality. through the mediation of our Savior, God’s true priest, Jesus Christ. As a result, when it comes to the New Testament ministerial service, the minister of the gospel labors to lay before the people that finished work of their only priest. by whom they are now brought near to God, in whom they are to strive for the full benefit of this reality, namely, God’s presence. But such an expression of a New Testament minister merely focuses that minister’s calling for his continuing service. Such service that draws upon that finished work of Christ. Not only in so far as by him the church draws near to God, but in so far as in him, God draws near to the church.

    And as in the Old Testament, we have already seen the pattern. As in the Old Testament, we have already seen the pattern, the pattern being this. The people’s ability to approach God is laid within God’s own service, his own gracious provision in drawing near to them. So now we see the same in the New Testament.

    In fact, with the arrival of the New Testament revelation, this glorious gospel pattern is brought out all the more brilliantly, all the more clearly. And this is the case undoubtedly, is it not, because of the overwhelming power of God’s extraordinary and unique approach to us in his very own revel law of only begotten Son. The gospel itself will receive capsule summation in this declaration, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is to say, our ability to approach God is laid within his own service, his own loving provision, in drawing near to us, first of all, in Jesus Christ.

    Let me tell you then that true ministry grasps this fact and extends itself in genuine Christ-like service as that means by which Christ is extended to others for the sake of their drawing near to God. That becomes the passion. It was the passion for Christ himself in his own ministry, as he is pattering for ours.

    I did not come to be ministered unto, he says, I came to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. The ministry of the apostles was in no sense a ransom for many, still at the same time It was never to be self-serving, insisting on its own privilege and advantage. Its interest was not gain in this world for itself, but gain in glory for others.

    In Luke’s gospel, the telling of the story of Christ’s last meal with his disciples, which we have read this morning, finds them after the meal, arguing over who is the greatest. Jesus tells them, I am among you as one who serves. In John’s gospel, similarly, The record of Jesus last night in this world with his disciples finds him washing their feet. The action of a common slave, and he tells them that such service must define their ministry. And later in John’s gospel, in a setting that reminds us of the sacramental meal, you remember the scene beside the Sea of Galilee as Jesus prepares breakfast for the disciples. In that context, Jesus repeatedly directs Peter to the care of Christ’s own sheep. Tend my sheep, he says. Such service, Jesus indicates, will mean the sacrifice of Peter’s life in imitation of his Lord. Now, of course, nothing. Nothing of this kind of ministry is perceived in Hosni and Finis, the sons of Eli.

    They weren’t interested in serving, they were interested in being served. The language that impressed them was the language of dominion. power. They had no interest in the people’s approach to God, only the people’s approach to them. Nothing of God’s own service, of his own gracious provision, as he draws near to his people, is discernible in these priests. Only their own cruel, criminal, greedy approach to those who became the victims of their lust. Hockney and Phineas’ ministry was engaged for the sake of a counter-kingdom, one in which they, not God, were lord.

    And in this kingdom, the means of grace The sacraments, meant to be testimony of the bond between God and His people, became the opportunity to manipulate and even coerce the people. Religion, with its appointed ordinances, is subordinate to a worldly vision, one especially corrupt, in which the true religion is made to serve a totally temporal existence in the most thoroughly expressive fashion imaginable in which we hear the notes of self-importance, self-congratulations, and self-satisfaction. One further thing remains to be said. The type of ministry people receive tends to produce in them the features of that ministry.

    An unchecked Hofne and Phineas’ ministry will generate in Israel the same contempt for the Lord’s offerings as found in them. Note verse 17 in 1 Samuel 2. Things have not changed much, it would seem. In the New Testament Church, the Apostle Paul becomes alarmed by the profaning of the Lord’s Supper among the Corinthians. due to the type of ministry those people were receiving.

    That ministry was divisive, as certain leaders sought to carve out for themselves little kingdoms. Such a worldly ministry appropriately excited worldly appetite among the worshipers. In the crudest profanation of the supper, The rich separated themselves from the poor.

    Some drank themselves drunk. Others gorged themselves at an attendant feast. Paul makes it plain that such sensuality and selfishness, such misuse of holy things, is not even then going unpunished. Because of this, some of you are sick, and some of you sleep.

    Now there might not be any separation of the rich and the poor among us. We all being relatively poor. We may have even set in place any number of measures to guard ourselves against the intrusion of the flesh in our celebration of the Lord’s Supper. Nobody will be gorging themselves here this morning on these little cubicles of bread. Much less will anyone be drinking themselves drunk on these thimble-full natures of creatures. But that doesn’t mean, despite all of our precautions, all of these natures that we have instituted to guard ourselves against the flesh, this does not mean that we are incapable of profaning the sacrament and blaspheming God as we come. Such profanation, such blasphemy is ours.

    We setting ourselves in the company of the rebellious at Corinth We, setting ourselves in the company of Aphne and Phineas, when we refuse to bring to this table, and also to our lives, the self-sacrificing service that we observe in our God, in his Son, and in the rest of their ministers, who would underscore the marvelous message of the gospel that God inexplicably has drawn near to you, even before you did or could draw near to him.

    If indeed, O God, we are to found a ministry worthy of the name, we will have to look into your word and to yourself. We will have to view the Christ. We will have to take to heart all that we see, observe, and hear. And Father may it please you according to our prayer, our petition to grant your church in this day a wonderful, a genuine, an honest, a forthright ministry of the word. Father we ask that this ministry may have its proper effect as you bless it by the Spirit even as it is true to the gospel. so that such self-sacrificing ministry would have the effect of producing in your people that demonstration of self-sacrifice and love truly the minister with the people reflecting you and your Christ. Father to this end This message has been preached. To this end, O God, we trust this ministry is engaged. To this end, O God, we come to the table. We ask for your mercy that by it we might be refreshed and even revived in our determination to live for you. This we ask in Jesus name, Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Giving Yourself Away

    Giving Yourself Away

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, May 4, 1997.

    About this sermon

    Philippians’ own logic, giving yourself away for the sake of the gospel, frames how Christ, J. Gresham Machen, and Hannah each disappear into a larger purpose. Hannah herself vanishes from the narrative almost entirely once her song is sung. That disappearance is not a loss but the whole point: she gave herself away.

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    Sermon transcript

    We are reading this morning once more 1 Samuel 2, beginning with verse 1, reading through verse 11. 1 Samuel 2, beginning with verse 1. This is the Word of God. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My thorn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in my salvation. There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry cease so that the barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.

    The Lord killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he bringeth low and lifteth up, he raiseth up the poor out of the dust. and lifted up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and he has set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces, Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them, the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and he will give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.’

    And Delcana went to Rema to his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest.” In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth. to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. and the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God.

    And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end.” Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.

    Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, for with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.”

    Lord, help us in our prayers that we would be faithful in them, that we would be faithful in them Sabbath by Sabbath and day by day. And Lord, with our prayers, we turn to your word. asking that you may make us, yes, a people of prayer, but also that people of your word. May we give ourselves to your word, Sabbath by Sabbath and day by day. Father, as you then bless us in our days with prayer and with your word, May we be those who are faithful to you in what we say and in what we do. We ask our Lord that you will be mindful of the fellowship that we sustain one to another, that as we contemplate your word and as we offer up our prayers that we would have each other upon our hearts. Father, we ask that you will be merciful, therefore, to those for whom we have concern. Receive our praise, O God, for your blessing in the Gerges family, how you have ministered to them in these last few weeks. And our prayers are also offered, O Lord, for the Stater family and for their expectation that you would wonderfully bless them with a child that is healthy. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

    A few years ago I preached a series that dealt with Paul’s letter to the Philippians, and during the course of that series it was as if I were working out the theme of that very important letter as I went along. As things developed I came to the conclusion that the theme to the epistle to the Philippians is this, the joy of giving yourself away. The joy of giving yourself away.

    I think that you recognize that Philippians is that letter from Paul in which the word joy and other words connected to it are readily at hand, seem so prominent, seem to dominate what the apostle has to say. And how many Bible studies have we been through in the Epistle to the Philippians, how many sermons have we heard on that letter from Paul in which the leader to the Bible study, or the Bible study material, or the preacher has concentrated on that word, joy? But we must not allow that word to stand by itself. as if the Apostle were merely interested in effervescence, as if he were merely interested in getting us to be bubbly about our Christian confession and enthusiastic in our walk. So it is not joy standing alone, as if joy in itself were worthy of our attention. As the series developed on Philippians, it became apparent to me, and I hope to those who were a part of that series who heard it, that this joy had a particular context. What the Apostle was encouraging was the joy of giving yourself away. Now, once more, it’s not as if here we’ve merely filled out the word joy to make it a little more comprehensive a philosophy of life, to which we are all bound, to which we ought to be obliged.

    For at the very center of what the apostle has to say, to the Philippians is what he says about Jesus Christ. Do I need remind you of the second chapter in Philippians, and that marvelous text from verse 5 through 11, where Paul takes up the matter of Christ’s joy? how he gives himself away, how he humbles himself being made in the form of a servant, even humbling himself to the point of death upon the cross. Jesus gives himself away. No, even more sublime, the Son of God gives himself away.

    And therein is his joy. Now, it’s not as if the apostle here is asking for something from these Philippians that is not evident in himself, for in speaking about this joy that is found in giving oneself away, the Apostle is hard-pressed then to declare to these Philippians that he has been at work doing that very thing. He tells them in the seventeenth verse of that second chapter, even if I poured out of the drink offering upon the service of your love. I am willing to do that, and that is a joy to me.

    The Apostle gives himself away. He has no life but this life which is extended. And you might even say extendable. in the interests of the gospel and for the sake of other people, why he will pass out of existence, that the existence of others may be confirmed and established.

    Such then is the admonition and the encouragement that he gives to these Philippians. He tells them that he wants them to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in them, both to will and to accomplish His good pleasure. What do you think stands at the foundation of that particular imperative from the Apostle Work out your own salvation. How might it be that these Philippians will work out their salvation? Will it not be by them giving themselves away? Don’t allow yourselves to be miserable. If you are looking for the joy of this gospel faith, you cannot disassociate that joy from the expenditure of your very person.

    There is then the constraint that comes upon the Philippians as they are then called upon by Paul to live out the citizenship that is theirs. they having been made to be citizens of heaven, the expression of that citizenship will be a life in which they give themselves away. The letter is written, however, because the Philippians need to be reminded of this. The letter is still in our Bibles because we need to be reminded of this. You need to read Philippians because you need to be reminded of this. in this reminder that we receive, there is the address to our wills, the call to our hearts, the appeal to our minds, that in all that we are, we might then give ourselves to this gospel identity and endeavor.

    And recognizing that we are not perfect, there are the constraints of providence itself, where, in keeping with his appointments, we are driven to give ourselves away even though we don’t want to. He who has begun a good work in us will, in fact, perfect it unto the day of Christ’s coming. And he may have to drag you along the way. Well, what Paul has to say here is obviously not just pick out of the air.

    He hasn’t made up this gospel which he proclaims to these Philippians. This gospel comes to him from and through Jesus Christ himself, and if we check out the gospel records, we find nothing different there than what we find from Paul in his writing to the Philippians.

    This very message is faithful to what Jesus has to say. Do we miss it and still claim Christ? Do we hold on to Him and somehow our eyes are shut to this central truth, to the gospel that He proclaims? Jesus declares about Himself that the very heartbeat of the gospel which He declares is this giving of himself away. I didn’t come to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. Now, what else is that but the giving up of oneself, or the giving away of oneself?

    He calls upon those who believe in him, those who would claim to be disciples, those who would follow him, that they deny themselves, that they take up their cross, that they lose their life for his sake, that they might find it unto eternal life. And what is then laid out to constraint for the Philippians in Paul’s letter to them is also viewed as constraint within the gospel records concerning Christ himself. Is it not he who says in the garden, not my will, but thy will be done, as he faces the cross, the supreme act by which he would then pour out his life on behalf of others? And what about the disciples epitomized in Peter? Jesus makes it very plain to Peter after the resurrection, when you were young, you gird up yourself, you went where you wanted to go. When you’re old, someone else will gird you, and they will take you where you don’t want to go.

    There will be, then, yes, that conformity for our wills where we agree with what God has declared in his gospel. Yes, we are concerned to be about the business of this gospel, even after the image and the likeness of Christ giving ourselves away as he gave himself away. that even here we will be constrained by providence and by circumstances that are beyond our control. We will be forced to it. Such is our identification with him in the gospel.

    I don’t want to give myself away. If you have any questions about the mystery of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, here, my friends, is the unraveling. Do you think this church was Machen’s idea? Do you think it’s the product of thoughts in his brain and his cleverness in manipulating history to get it to turn out the way it did?

    He did not want to go in this direction. He was pulled this way, and in the balance, he gave up his life. He was a rich man. His family owned an entire block in Baltimore. His family spoke French at the breakfast table. This man was money. He was privilege, and he lost it all. What about Hannah? What about this woman? Hannah, during the course of the story about her given to us by God, gives away her life, and this is her joy. She moves from bitterness, severe, extreme bitterness. She is in pain, and it is not just because of the attacks of Panaina upon her, Not just because of the attacks of her rival, it’s because she is bitter against God.

    God’s the one that shut up her room! But in the world’s dealings with her, she will become a prime example of growing illustration of the workings of the gospel before the gospel is full-blown. You will see it all in her. It will take hold of her, and instead of having a heart that is agitated by extreme bitterness, she becomes the epitome of faith and trust and restful solace in God. Here is a woman who is free and at peace. First consumed by her bitterness, so much so that she wouldn’t eat, in fact, so much so that it seems as if she’s on a death track. so much concerned by the things and for the things of this life, her life, that she is actually forfeiting her life. But then, in the mercy of God, by His promptings, she entrusts herself to the Lord, and her countenance is no more sad. In losing her life, she finds it. You will note that at the point when her countenance is no more sad, she still has no child. But something remarkable has happened to her, and she is changed. It is important for you to consider the extent, the far-reaching character of that change, and that specifically in relationship to her self-sacrifice. I ask you to note once more her song. and the point that I have made about it previously.

    She, in this song, loses herself to the interests of the kingdom. The kingdom is prominent. God’s workings are prominent. not just hope for a barren woman in Palestine, but hope for the world. Not just the reversal for her circumstance, but the reversal of the circumstances of the people of God, and that unto their glory and exaltation through that One whom God will exalt, namely His Anointed One. She loses herself to the interests of the kingdom of God and God’s glory, and the salvation which God will bring to His people. She is consumed by it. She is absorbed by it. It’s as if she no longer has any identity. She doesn’t express herself, except to express herself in these terms. Such is the obsession. the glorious and magnificent obsession.

    And in this regard, we might then be taken back to the Apostle Paul. I’m often struck by the fact that, as we move through the Acts, we have these reported, these repeated accounts from Paul about his conversion experience, but then you move into the Epistles, and those accounts disappear. Instead, what you have set in front of you is the declaration from the Apostle that his very life has been absorbed into the life of his Savior. For me to live is Christ, he says. When Christ was crucified, I was crucified. When he was raised, I was raised. Here is my identity. I am lost in him.

    But lest you don’t get the point, the Lord graciously supplies you verse 11. and I ask you to account for that 11th verse. The Hannah cycle is not completed in its first turn until you arrive at that 11th verse. But I ask you, where’s Hannah? She’s not there. She’s not there.

    The first read. Then Elkanah went to his home at Raymond. But the boy ministered to the Lord. Before Eli the priest Hannah disappears She disappears in the interests of Elkanah and At that conclusion If we are not shocked we are outraged Has she not been the chief figure as we have moved through this narrative? And yet, when we come to the conclusion, she isn’t there.

    Why? not in the interests of some sort of chauvinistic commitment on the part of Scripture and those who wrote it, but in the interests of a deeply religious and theological point. Just as Hannah loses her life, and yes, loses her life to her husband, So the church loses her life to her husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hannah, then, we see more than the life of an individual woman. We see the life of the people of God. A life lost to the world but found in God and in his kingdom, devoted to the Lord’s anointed. Such a life finds its soul expressed in that woman Hannah foreshadowed.

    Mary says to the angel of the Lord, Behold your handmaid. Be it unto me according to your word. Can you say that? I trust and hope that you can, and that because you can, you also know the joy of giving yourself away for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of your Lord. Our Father, we have been revived by your Spirit, made alive by your grace, that we might live in this life, O God, as those who know the joy of giving ourselves away, even as you have given yourself away in Christ your Son for us. We ask, Lord, that we might be moved by your word to take to heart this instruction, to embrace it more tightly. But also, Lord, as we see those circumstances due to your providence rising in our lives where we are faced with this, may we there also, O God, submit to your will Because, Lord, we are about the business of losing our lives in this world, that you might be glorified, that we might have life with you forever. We pray, Father, that you will grant us mercy in all of our endeavors, but also a spirit that is perceptive of your workings in us and with us, in keeping with your providential care. Through Jesus. Amen.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • The Verse That Eclipses All

    The Verse That Eclipses All

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 27, 1997.

    About this sermon

    Verse 10 eclipses everything that comes before it in Hannah’s song, the real climax the earlier verses were building toward. Speech itself is a major theme running through the whole song, God’s own word exalting Hannah as much as any action does. Mary’s song in Luke 1 picks up exactly where Hannah’s leaves off.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading from 1 Samuel 2, beginning at verse 1, reading through verse 10. This is the Word of God. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceedingly proudly. Let not arrogance come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge. and by him actions are waived.

    The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have tired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry cease. So that the barren have born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.

    The Lord killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory.

    For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s. and he that hath set, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of the saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces, out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and he shall give strength unto his King.” and exalt the horn of his anointing.

    Then, turning over to Luke’s Gospel, chapter 1, verse 46, And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. For he hath regarded below a state of his handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name.

    And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with his arm. He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent away empty. He hath helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever.

    You are gracious, O Lord, to us and merciful. You have been kind to this congregation. Lord, you have built up love here that we as your saints might demonstrate that love one to another. You have encouraged us with your word. You have blessed us with that word, and we thank you.

    But as we have been bound together, O Lord, we pray now that you will encourage us in our prayers one for another. Father, we ask that you will be gracious to Irma Mance, that you will kindly strengthen her. We ask, Lord, that she may be helped at this time, that she may know of our prayers and our concerns. And Father, we also pray that you would be gracious to the students that have been with us through the year, who have visited us from time to time. Lord, we ask that they may do well in their examinations. We also pray, Father, that they might have a very profitable summer and that you will lead them, O God, in paths of righteousness. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. For some, poetry is their cup of tea. They enjoy it thoroughly, and time spent with poetry is never time wasted.

    For others, poetry is more like unpleasant medication. which they are forced to take from time to time. Now, the Church is hardly a poetry forum. It is hardly a poetry society. However, it is impossible for the Church to avoid poetry. given the language of the Scriptures and the language of worship. In fact, we could say that some of the Church’s problems presently, when it comes to the matter of understanding either the Scriptures or the Church’s worship, lies from the Church’s inability to deal with the rich, profound poetry that belongs to her identity as the people of God.

    My encouragement to you, against the background of Hannah’s wonderful poetry, employed by her here in her prayer, is that poetry demands patience. Now, I’ve preached a number of sermons already in the interests of just such patience. Maybe too many for you, because your patience is running out. Enough poetry. Let’s move along. But my hope has been for abundant rewards from this time spent on Hannah’s poem. This morning, we come to the conclusion of Hannah’s psalm-like prayer, her poem prayer. We come to verse 10.

    In the New American Standard, that verse reads this way. Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered. Against them he will thunder in the heavens. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, and he will give strength to his king. and will exalt the horn of his anointed.

    I want to remind you of a few things as we take up this tenth verse. First of all, a word, once again, about the structure of the poem prayer. Verses one through three of this poem prayer form the first unit. Then we have verses four through nine, leading us with verse ten as the finale. We have already noticed a complication with this tenth verse when it comes to this matter of structure, and we will be speaking about that complication a little later on. But for now, the second thing of which I want to remind you, as we take up this poem prayer fresh, is the theme that is laid within it. In the interests of the theme, we have brought together that opening section, verses one through three, the final verse, verse ten, and the middle portion, verses four through poetically framed around the theme of exaltation. Hannah speaks of this exaltation right away as she opens up her poem prayer.

    Her strength, she says in the second line, her strength, or as she calls it there, her horn, is exalted in the Lord. But then you will note how the prayer concludes the very last line in the tenth verse. The Lord will exalt the strength or horn of His anointing.

    But as well, as we have noted before, verse 7, in the heart of that little portion of says, the Lord himself exalts. That’s how you should read the last line of that seventh verse. And then going on into the eighth verse, extending the thought further, the Lord exalts the poor from the dust. Indeed, as the close of that ninth verse tells us, man shall not prevail by his own strength. Underscore that.

    Truly, therefore, exaltation, or, tightening the word a bit, salvation itself belongs completely and wholly to the Lord. The theme of the poem, the theme of this song, uttered by Hannah, is that exaltation is given by God and by Him alone, no one else. Very well then, Hannah strikes the note in the second verse of her psalm. There is no one holy like the Lord. Indeed, there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God. Indeed.

    Now, when we come to verse 10, in my judgment, it is difficult to imagine a more powerful, more fitting conclusion to what Hannah has been saying. First of all, I want you to notice the way verse 10, the first line, powerfully, fittingly completes the middle portion. of her song. We have already said on another occasion that verses four through nine are a self-contained unit, ending on that quite final and satisfying declaration that we find at the end of verse nine. For not by might shall a man prevail. This then leaves verse 10 standing by itself, the concluding statement from Hannah. However, there is nothing forced or isolated about verse 10 in its relationship to verses 4 through 9.

    As if it were an afterthought, as if it were an appendage, as if it were stuck on or tacked even later on. If we are to be aware of anything in our appreciation of biblical poetry, we must be aware of biblical poetry’s flow, its movement, its fluidity. Do you appreciate the flow of Hannah’s words as you move from that ninth verse into the tenth?

    Now, I fully realize But when we come to that concluding line in verse 9, the one about man not prevailing by his own might, it seems that we have come to a breaking point, to an end point, so emphatic, so universal in its strength, that nothing more can be or ought to be said. That’s it. We’re done. But Hannah keeps going, as if to upstage herself, as if to outdistance herself in what she has already stated.

    But how in the world, how in the world is she going to exceed the strength of that last line in verse 9? If that last line in verse 9 is so emphatic, as we have stated, so universal, so conclusive, how is she going to say anything that would not seem to be anticlimactic, and thus distract from the overall impact of what she has stated thus far? In other words, as far as the flow of the poem is concerned, how is she going to keep us from coming to a complete stop with the end of that ninth verse?

    Well, she does two things. One thing she does is to repeat a word that appeared at the beginning of verse four. She repeats the word, shattered. That’s how it’s translated in the New American Standard. In verse 4, she says, but those of the mighty are shattered. And now in verse 10, the opening line, she says, those who contend with the Lord will be shattered.

    She repeats the word. Hannah carries us past verse 9 then into verse 10. Her repetition of the word shattered, giving the impression that the middle portion of the poem prayer, verses 4 through 9, is not completed until we reach that tenth verse. In this way, she moves us past the powerful breakpoint and the dead stop at the end of verse 9. But she also does one other thing.

    She picks up a thought from verse 9, specifically in the second line of that verse, and its statement about the wicked silenced in darkness, and reintroduces this thought, this concept, at the beginning of verse 10. She does this subtly. You see, she focuses upon the speech. She focuses upon that which comes out of the mouths of the wicked. Both in verse nine, and again in verse ten.

    In verse nine, the speech of the wicked is silenced. In verse ten, The wicked are now defined as those who contend with the Lord. They are defined as those who are contentious. That is, the wicked are those who argue and quarrel with and against God.

    The Hebrew word used here is close to the word Meribah. Meribah. You remember Meribah. Both before and after Sinai, the children of Israel quarreled with God because they had no water in the wilderness. God provides them water from a rock. In both instances, isn’t it interesting that Hannah, in verse 2, calls God a rock? But God, in the context of the wilderness wanderings, provides his people water from a rock, and in two instances In the first, Exodus 17, the place itself being called Meribah, and then in the second instance, Numbers 20, the waters that were provided called Meribah. The place and the waters of contention, that’s what Meribah means. of argumentation, of quarreling with and against the Lord Himself.

    In view clearly, then, as we have already indicated, is the speech, is that which comes out of the mouth of the wicked, the speech of the wicked. The movement and flow of Hannah’s poem prayer is thus maintained as she pushes us on to the elevated thoughts in her final words. And as we shall see, these words are anything but anticlimactic. We can therefore say that verse ten, More in one, not only powerfully and fittingly completes the middle portion of Hannah’s prayer, it also powerfully and fittingly moves us into the conclusion of that prayer. This it does by focusing on the issue of speech. Therefore, when Hannah talks in verse 10, line 2, about the thundering of the Lord, His thundering against His enemies. She continues on the line of the same subject.

    The voice of the Lord, His speech, dwarfs now the contentious noise and rumbling from those who call within. They are indeed silenced, if for no other reason than His thundering has driven them into silence. The wicked will be silenced indeed by the overwhelming voice from the Lord, His thunder. They will be terrified into silence by His voice. Their speech stopped. by his devastating speech. If there is reference here in Hannah’s song to Meribah, might there then also be reference in the song to Sinai itself, and the thundering that caused the people of God there at the foot of the mountain to become silent indeed? Such was their fear.

    The Lord has come to his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him. What silence? Even the noise of your grumbling, of your murmuring, of your complaining. You are standing in the presence of the God of all the earth. be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth.”

    We have cross-reference, don’t we? Running to Habakkuk 2.20, running to Psalm 46 verse 10. that now we are prepared, I believe, to understand and appreciate how not just verse 10, the opening line is a fitting conclusion to the prayer’s middle section, or verse 10 as a whole continues the flow and movement from that middle section on to the conclusion of Hannah’s prayer, but how verse 10 now, as such, provides a fitting, powerful conclusion to all that Hannah has to say. Now I say this because Hannah’s words in verse 10 do, in fact, take us back to the beginning of her song. They take us back to verses one through three. For you will remember just how important the whole matter of speech was in those opening verses. You might consider the importance of your own speech on the background of what Hannah has to say about speech.

    Can you be saved without confession? Can you be saved without uttering your confession? Can you be saved without your speech? We are to confess Jesus as Lord. to believe in our heart that God has raised him from the dead, to the sure and certain promise that we will be saved.

    So then, as you have the psalm, the prayer, Hannah’s poem, concluding on the matter of She is returning to the issue with which she began, a concentration upon words, upon speech. Verse 3, Hannah speaks out boldly against her enemy’s speech. Burst no more so very proudly, she says. Do not be arrogant. Let arrogance never again come out of your mouth. She even makes mention of her bold speech in the opening verse, verse one, speaking about that very picturesquely. My mouth, she says, is enlarged. That’s the King James and the literal. My mouth is enlarged against my enemies. I now have a very, very big mouth. the right kind, of course.

    And this one ends with Hannah speaking very positively about the content of her words, the content of her voice. I rejoice, she says—it does take a voice—I rejoice in thy salvation. The poetic force of this connection—hang with her through her poem, hang with me now through this explanation—the poetic force of this connection between the speaking and the speakers in verses one through three, and the speaking and the speakers at the conclusion of the song is genuinely startling. For just as Hannah’s voice quells the voice of the wicked in verses 1 through 3, so the voice of the Lord quells the voice of the wicked at the conclusion of the poem. If you take in what is being said, you are left breathless by the comparison. For now, the true nature of that exaltation of which we have been speaking presents itself and is brought into view.

    The Lord, in granting Hannah salvation, has exalted her as she anticipates and also participates in the Lord’s triumph by which he silences his foes. She is exalted by him to the level of God. I am not going to back off from that. I am not saying to you that Hannah becomes God, that there is a destruction here of the distinction between the Creator and the creature. Not at all.

    But what God does in saving His own is to exalt them to His level. He takes them up unto Himself. Do you see where you stand, and why this is no meaningless or empty consideration for you that are here? Are you taking in all that it means to be exalted or to be saved by the Lord? You are exalted. He lifts you up to His level. The actions that you have expected from God in His speech are now echoed in and reflected in front of ourselves. I want to talk to you a little bit about the exaltation that is yours.

    When you sing the doxology, do you know that you are actually elevated to the point of commanding angels? You are compelling the heavenly hosts in their praise. And you know why? Because you’re more important than angels. God did not send his son to die for angels. He sent his son to die for the likes of you and me. I hope poetry is gaining a few points with you here. As well as the magnificent theology that is laid within this poetry.

    Indeed, are we not left breathless at the wonder of it, and this all of grace? And if this weren’t enough to leave each one of us dumbstruck. We add to it. We add to it the fact. That. Is a woman. This isn’t David. This is one of the prophets. This is Hannah, a woman. Now I want you to think about the whole matter of exaltation.

    Truly those whom the Lord loves are exalted even as Hannah testifies, to inherit the position of the son of the father, or as the King James put it in the fourth line of the eighth verse, the very seat of glory. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free man, male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Hannah, too, is a son and an heir in the Father’s kingdom.

    Hannah’s prayer, her poem anticipates, as you very well know, a greater day than her own, a day longed for by her and by all of God’s children, male and female alike, a day in which even, yes, this woman will participate fully in the inheritance. In that day, God’s voice with thunder, his judgment would appear, his king, his messiah would be empowered through God’s own exaltation, an exaltation that is work for his son. A Galilean maiden visiting the hill country of Judea over a thousand years after Hannah lifted up her voice, would lift up her own in acknowledgement that the day anticipated by Hannah had now commenced. The expectation of the future events in Hannah’s poem, in her words, gives way to the accomplishment of those past events that underscore the words of Mary.

    Mary says, the Lord has exalted those who are humbled. She says, he has given help to Israel, his servant. Mary’s child is Hannah’s King. Mary’s baby is the Lord’s anointed, who out of his weakness will come to incomparable strength who out of the most uncommon humiliation will come to the superlative exaltation.

    By his death and resurrection, the Lord himself will come to know the depths and ascend to the heights, thus providing the substance for the salvation of all who trust in him. As Hannah herself said, my heart rejoices in the Lord. My strength is exalted in the Lord. In the exaltation which is God’s, he himself undergone it. Here is more than poetry, nevertheless, here truly is that which the sublime poetry of the Word of God captures and invites you to enjoy.

    Amen. Let’s pray. Our God, there be many who would put before us a false exaltation one far removed from you, even denying you, we would have the exaltation and the salvation which belongs to you as our God and our Father, that one that is observed in Jesus Christ, your Son. And Lord, may we now, in the blessings of that which is communicated to us by your Spirit, even the Spirit that informed Hannah as she sang, We pray, Father, that we would then participate wonderfully in this exaltation.

    Yes, indeed, we have died even to this world, and we are raised up with Christ. We are exalted in Him to sit in the heavenly places, and this because of your great grace and love, that which you have set upon us from before the foundation of the world.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Shattered, Then Exalted

    Shattered, Then Exalted

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 13, 1997.

    About this sermon

    ‘Exalt’ and ‘shattered’ anchor Hannah’s song, two words that together capture God’s swiftness and intensity in dealing with his enemies and his own. That same intensity secures the perfect vindication and glory reserved for the elect in heaven. Nothing about Hannah’s confidence here is tentative.

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    Sermon transcript

    We are reading again from 1 Samuel 2, beginning at verse 1. Give your attention to God’s infallible word. Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee. Neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.

    The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have hired themselves out for bread, and they that were hungry ceased, so that the barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, but he bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.

    For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness.” For by strength shall no man prevail, the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them, the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and he shall give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.”

    What of your comforts, Lord, that we, by the comfort of your scriptures, may have hope? Lord, if we grieve, grant us blessing with the confidence of your word, that we may have confidence for your people, and confidence for ourselves. Grant mercy, Lord, to the Moyer family and to others who have grieved recently. May it please you, Father, to surround them with your love, convincing them again that they are not alone, and affirming for them the resurrection of the dead. And Father, as we would share in the grief of those we love, we share in the joys as well. Because of that, Lord, we ask that we might have a heart of full support, in joy and in delight, for the news that has come recently concerning Hannah Yatch. May it please you, O God, that this may be the proper diagnosis, and that her progress will be steady. Hear us, Father, as we pray these things, and as we prepare ourselves that we might receive your word gladly. In Jesus’ name, amen. To many, poetry looks like a bunch of words dumped on a page. They can make no sense of it at all.

    And some, after many years of running into these verbal landfills, not by any choice of their own, mind you, have decided that poetry belongs to those who have a certain aptitude. That’s them speaking at their kinder moments. Or is it that these people who are interested in poetry suffer from a deficiency, lacking a chromosome or two, belonging to all the rest of us normal people, not that there aren’t reasons in our culture to hold poetry and poets in contempt.

    From the vile lyrics of too much of our popular music, to the pseudo-sophistications of the culturally arrogant, a number of our modern poets have made shameless commercial success out of verifying shameless commercial success. They have made very public retreats into their private havens, where they have innately assaulted the inanities of life. From their isolated cocoons they have let loose the most self-absorbed, profane howls in which they have had the audacity to pontificate against selfishness and self-righteousness in others.” If you haven’t heard, Allen Ginsberg died about a week ago. that I’m not talking here about the modern expressions and even perversions of the form. I’m talking about the class of literature and the form of communication itself.

    And I judge for many who have come to dislike poetry that their attitude has a great deal to do with their patience, or shall I say, their lack of it, when they run into one of these verbal landfills. There is good poetry, and there is bad poetry. Good poetry, like bad poetry, takes time. demands invariably our patience, but I judge good poetry is worth it. And let me tell you, there is no bad poetry in the Bible.

    Hannah’s prayer is good, no excellence. It is crafted as a song of thanksgiving. It is like a hymn. It comes to us in poetic form. And like all poetry, it demands of us our patience. And being the exquisite poetry it is, and at the same time the word of God, it is worth This morning we come to the second part of Hannah’s song. As we do so, it may be well for us to reacquaint ourselves with the structure of this song, and even make some adjustments to our previous comments about it.

    Here is the outline as I now see it. Verses 1 through 3 form the first unit, as I have said before. The second and third sections, however, of the song demand a slight alteration. The second section contains verses 4 through 9, and here is the change. It also this second section, it also runs from that fourth verse through the first line of verse 10. Now, I know what some of you might be thinking, especially those of you who have no patience for poetry. You’re saying, I knew I didn’t like poetry. It makes no sense to me. It defies logic. It makes up its own rules and changes them whenever it wants.

    With regard to what you’ve just said, how can it be both ways? How can this second section end with verse 9 and also begin, I’m sorry, end with the beginning of the tenth verse? How can this second section end with verse 9 and also with the beginning of verse 10?

    Patience. It’s absolutely necessary. The end of verse 9 is, in fact, a natural stop in place, a powerfully conclusive one. For by strength shall no man prevail. So natural, so powerful, so conclusive is this line at the end of verse 9, that most translations place here the period.

    With an ending here as well, this second section then, running from verse four through nine, presents us with its own inherent symmetry. Verse 4, you will notice, begins with remarks about the vanity of human strength. The bones of the mighty men are broken. And then here, with verse 9, the section ends with remarks devastatingly conclusive and universal. For by strength shall no man prevail. Things have come back, then, to the starting point in the section. We have come full circle in the section.

    We might also notice in the center, at the dense, dead center of these verses, in the second section, we have underscored the central theme of the entire psalm. You may recall that we located that dead center of this second section in verse 7, the second line, the line that reads, he bringeth low and lifteth up.

    Or, as the New American Standard has it, he brings low, he also exalts. The word exalt there at the end of verse 7, now dead center to this second section, especially interests us because it is the same word we find in the first verse. The second line, “‘My horn, my strength,’ says Hannah, is exalted in the Lord.” It is also the same word we find in verse 10 at the very end of the song, the very last line, “‘The Lord will exalt the horn or the strength of his anointing.’” The word exalt appears at the beginning of the first section, at the end of the psalm, at the end of the third section. It also appears in the middle of the second section, dead center, establishing the case that exaltation by the Lord, standing as it does in such direct contrast to exaltation in and by men, is in fact the theme of Hannah’s psalm. But as we pointed out before, there is another occurrence of this word exalt in the psalm, and it appears in this second section. It occurs immediately after the occurrence we have already noted in verse 7. I have in mind the first line of verse 8, which should be read literally. he exalts the poor out of the dust. The word exalts appears once more.

    This double use of the key word, exalt, makes of verses 7 and 8 in this second section of the song, the two sides of a poetic hinge. The second section of the song swings on that hinge like two doors. First part, running through the end of verse 7. The second part, then running on from verse 8 to the conclusion of the section.

    This double use of the word exalt makes us alert to other double usages in the psalm in its entirety, and calls our attention to another instance, namely the repetition of the word broken in verse 4, and again at the beginning of verse 10. the word translated in the New American Standard as shattered.

    But those of the mighty are shattered, the beginning of verse 4. The beginning of verse 10, those who contend with the Lord will be shattered. The effect of this is that while in one sense The second section ends with the dramatic punctuation at the end of verse 9. On the other hand, it ends with the concluding, balancing comment about the adversaries of the Lord at the beginning of verse 10.

    The two doors swing on the hinge of verses 7 and 8, and are therefore verses 4 through 7, one door. and verses 8 through 10a, the other door. This means, of course, for those of you who are ahead of me, that the beginning of verse 10 serves as its own distinct and unique kind of hinge in the song. On the one hand, it serves as the beginning of the third part of the song, and is joined to the thundering of God mentioned in the second line of verse 10. On the other hand, it serves as the wrap, the closure to the second section, matching up with the beginning of verse 4, as we’ve already mentioned. When we come to the third section of this song, verse 10, In our next message, the significance of the double use of verse 10, its opening, will become more clear to us.

    For the time being, we concentrate on the second section, in which we have observed this beautiful, although complicated, if not irregular, symmetry. I want you here to appreciate something more than the symmetry. I want you to appreciate the dramatic movement that is accented by the composition and the development of the lines in this second section.

    Look at verses four and five. If you have a Bible version that lists these out in poetic form for you, it is very helpful. You’ll notice that you have six lines in the space of those two verses, six lines of relatively equal length with alternating content, content either pertaining to the self-exalted or to those whom God exalts, back and forth. The rapid-fire reversal from line to line is meant then, through poetic form, to emphasize the swiftness and the certainty of the Lord’s actions. That’s the power of the psalm. It’s gripping. The bones of the mighty are shattered, but the feeble get on strength. Back and forth it goes. Those with strength boasting in that strength humbled, those with no strength exalted and empowered. But now look at verses 6 and 7 as you get into it. What took two lines in verses 4 through 5 now only takes one line in verses 6 and 7. It’s even quicker, sharper, more pronounced, more punctuated.

    The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave, He raises up, and thus it goes, a pace. That pace quickening, the pulse racing, as the poet is drawn even more deeply into the swiftness and the certainty of God’s actions and His inevitable drop.

    It is meant to overpower you, even in its poetic form. You are caught up in it. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen a Hasidic Jew read the Bible. They do it in caves. It is a very emotional experience. They are gripped by what is going on in the test. They completely misunderstand, unfortunately, tragically, but they are gripped by what is going on.

    Thus it is with this Jewish woman, this poet, in the inspiration of God’s Holy Spirit, the quickens now, rapid fire, the pulse races as she is driven even more deeply into the swiftness and certainty of the Lord’s justice and the greatness of his actions. But not only so, Hannah is being drawn by this emotional intensity as she races through this.

    Carried along in the Spirit, she is being drawn into the very reality of the things of which she speaks. Yes, it’s objective as she speaks of God’s actions outside of her, but she is drawn into this as it pertains to her. It becomes a catalog for her and her life. She is identified with it, and her identity is taken up in it. She is drawn by all of this emotional intensity into the very reality of the things of which she speaks. She is drawn with an affirmation that God is just, and what he does is right. She is the one who had complaint. She is the one who had bitterness of soul. That is past. A new day has dawned. There has been the transition in her. She has moved on by the graciousness of God.

    Objectively, the work of God is out there. Subjectively, she’s drawn in, and she participates now in the reality of that of which she speaks. as one experiencing it directly, living it directly. Such is the conviction now, such is her affirmation, such is her justification of God. This which grips her concerning the Lord’s in saving his people. At the turning point in the second section, we’ve already latched onto what that turning point is. It’s the end of verse 7.

    Hannah is so participating in the reality of the Lord’s great action for his people, that her own exaltation—remember verse 1—my strength is exalted. There’s the word at the beginning of the song, my strength is exalted in the Lord, she had said. Now, her own exaltation is drawn into the pithy, powerful exaltation belonging to God the Lord, as he bequeaths it to his people. It is this exaltation by which the Lord saves His own. But now, Hannah participating in this so directly, so fully, Hannah participating in this is carried beyond the fact that one more bearing woman of Israel has been able to conceive. Her exaltation now is to fall by, even as it is absorbed into, the exaltation of the people of God as a whole, into the ultimate reality, the ultimate reality, the conclusive, the final reality of God’s own vindication of his people. and their enrichment with wealth that outlasts the grave in the resurrection of the righteous. Indeed, the Lord bringeth down to the grave, and he raiseth up. Even in the face of death, I justify God and His ways. I trust Him.

    At this point now, having been reached in the song, with such determined and driving intensity, and I hope you don’t disobey. The door now swings on the hinge, you see. You’ve come to the center of that middle section of the song, and now the door is going to swing on the hinge that you find there in verses 7 and 8. and the lines will explode with glory as you, it seems like, not only does the door swing, you go right through it. Exclusive attention now, it seems, focused upon the glory belonging to the Lord’s exalted people. As Hannah observes their entrance and because of their entrance, her entrance, into that glory itself.

    Verse 8 to the beginning line of verse 9. Look at it in poetic form on the page. Now, if you have that in front of you, it’s very helpful. Verse 8 to the beginning line of verse 9. There are seven lines altogether. through verse 8 to verse 9, that opening part of verse 9. Row 7. It is the vision of perfect vindication. It is the vision of perfect glory. Seven rows, complete and full, laid out in front of you now in poetic form.

    The perfect number. these lines completely diverted to the Lord’s elect. They’re describing God’s people as they, in their exaltation, displace, through the course of these very lines themselves, all thoughts that are contrary and all considerations of the wicked. They’re gone. They’re gone. It is as if the eternity of glory for the elect were here being represented poetically in the sweep and duration of the lines. And again, let me tell you. With Hannah, as for all the people, wonderfully drawn into the description.

    We, then, God’s own beloved poor ones, exalted from the dust, the literal dust. We, his beloved needy ones, lifted up by him from the ash heap, the rubble heap, the place where the world throws its refuse and garbage. And we, of all people, and worthy and weak that we are, need to sit amongst the exalted

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • A Prayer Built on Events

    A Prayer Built on Events

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 6, 1997.

    About this sermon

    Hannah builds her song with real poetic structure, even a chiasm, and that craft serves a larger point. True prayer grows out of events, as Moses’ song does, proclaiming God’s great acts in place of abstract truths about him. Both songs place the praying believer inside those events, crucified and raised with Christ.

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    Sermon transcript

    and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies because I rejoice in my salvation. There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly, let not arrogancy come out of your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.

    The bones of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry cease. So that the barren have born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the bend hill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.

    For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness. For by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces, out of heaven shall be thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and he shall give strength unto his king and exalt the form of his anointed.” Okay. Hannah’s prayer is powerful poetry. Now, that may not interest you a great deal. You may not be into poetry, but I trust that you may be able to get into Hannah’s prayer, nonetheless. And his prayer is powerful poetry.

    And verses one through three in this prayer form a unit, and in themselves provide us also with powerful poetry. These three verses opening up this marvelous hymn-like prayer. are composed of three sections corresponding to the three verses. If you have a Bible version that lines out the verses in poetic form, things will be made a bit easier for you as you look at this text. You will notice the balance of the three verses. Four lines in verse one, three lines in verse two, and then four lines again in verse three. It is this pattern which organizes the unit of these opening verses. As we will see, the two four-line verses, verses one and three, do in fact match up. leading then verse two, the three-line verse, at the center, the dead center.

    The interior movement then of these verses, poetic style then, pushes us to that center, and particularly to the middle line of that second verse. the verse or the line that reads, “‘For there is none besides thee,’ in the King James, or as the New American Standard has it, “‘Indeed, there is no one besides you.’” We sense then the focus upon that middle line in the second verse, and we do so even as we hear this prayer read, or we are reading it ourselves. because Hannah here uses the most familiar and direct form of address when referring to God. Her words are emphatic, as the New American Standard puts it. Indeed, there is no one besides you. The familiar pronoun at the end of that line.

    Verses 1 through 3, then, of this opening to the prayer, therefore converge on that middle line in the second verse. But notice now also the development of the unit that we have in view here, as that development reinforces the movement that we have observed thus far. The four lines of verse one.

    The four lines of verse one begin with comment from Hannah about her heart, and conclude with comment from her about her mouth. My heart rejoices in the Lord, she begins, my form and my strength is exalted in the Lord. My mouth, she goes on, speaks boldly against my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. From Hannah’s heart to Hannah’s mouth. But now, the four lines of verse three. Look at them. They begin with Hera speaking about the mouths of her enemies, and conclude with comment from her about their hearts. Are you with me? Do you see the pattern of the unit? to that third verse.

    Boast no more very proudly, do not let your arrogance come out of your mouth. The beginning of verse three, For the Lord is a God of knowledge, that is, he knows the thoughts and conditions and the intentions of the heart, a theme, by the way, central to the entirety of the books of Samuel and Kings. He knows the thoughts, the condition, and the intentions of the heart, and with him actions, that is, the consequences of the thoughts of the heart in externities, are raised. So then, in verse 3, we have the reverse of verse 1, not from heart to mouth, but from mouth to heart.

    If you were to organize, then, verses 1 and 3 in poetic fashion, you would place the letter A beside the first two lines of verse 1, the lines about Hannah’s heart, and the letter B beside the second two lines of that verse, the ones about her mouth. And then you would go on to verse three and place the letter B beside the first two lines of that third verse, the lines about her enemy’s mouth, and the letter A beside the last two lines of that third verse, the ones about her enemy’s heart.

    You therefore have this structure. A, B, B, A. Two verses, one and three. an order that is intended to provide you with a sense of completeness and closure. You have taken steps only to retrace them, and have provided for you the answer to Hannah’s heart and voice in her enemy’s heart and voice.

    Verse 2 simply underscores what we have observed thus far. It is composed of three parallel lines, but with the middle line a unique and central line. If we are to assign to verse 2 a letter, it would be the letter C, understanding the centrality of that middle line. Indeed, there is no one beside you.

    This being the case, then, we have the poetic ordering for this opening unit, verses 1 through 3, this way. A, B, C, D, A. A perfectly symmetrical, aesthetically balanced, metrical statement juxtaposing believer and unbeliever, heart and mouth. at the center of which stands the expressed confession, verse 2, of striking faith in the singular, exclusive, holy One, the Rock, the One who is acknowledged to be the world, and only He. Verses 1, 2, 3 of Hannah’s hymn-like prayer are powerful and even sublime poetry. They are even more powerful and sublime theology.

    Now, in the theology presented to you here, You are not confronted with the interior condition or the external expression of thought so much, much less the internal condition and the external expression of the enemies of whom she speaks. But true to the structure of this unit, you are confronted with the one who stands central to the political organization, you are confronted with God himself. Now, you must appreciate the precise way in which you are being confronted with that God. the precise manner in which he is being presented to you here in this second verse. That verse reads, one more time, New American Standard Version, There is no one wholly like the Lord, and indeed there is no one beside you, nor is there any rock like our rock.

    Now, we might be likely to think that all Hannah is doing here is upholding the Israelite monotheistic faith in pure and true form, commenting here at this point upon a few appropriate attributes that she latches onto. You might read this verse as if Hannah were merely stating her belief that her God, Israel’s God, is the only God, and that this God is holy in character. That is to say, he is, in his very essence, separated from evil. In the same vein, the fact that God is confessed to be the Rock, in the last line of the second verse, is liable to be understood as a reference merely to God’s steadfastness and his faithfulness. That in a very abstract fashion. Again, an acknowledgment, a somewhat detached acknowledgment of one of God’s many attributes, one of the features of His character, as if those features were being contemplated and meditated upon.

    But this is not Tenna’s approach. This is not what she has in mind. This is not what the Spirit has in mind for her as she expresses herself. In fact, and please understand me in this, she has no terapeutical formulation and view such as we, as Presbyterians, have expressed, say in questions and answers in the short of Catechism, particularly the question that asks, What is God?

    God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, and is being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. We reveal this statement and this summary, and we are drowned to it. and surely it is reflective of the things which Hannah confesses this day in which she prays. But that does not provide the precise entrance into the words that are used by Hannah here in 1 Samuel 2. For we have here something of a different orientation theology-wise. than the summary statements that come to us in catechetical form. Hannah’s prayer is not engaged with the idea of God and what characteristics might be His. Hannah’s prayer is not engaged with the idea of God and what characteristics might be His.

    Rather, her prayer is engaged with what God has done and what His actions declare about it. I will repeat that. Hannah’s prayer is not engaged with the idea of God. and what characteristics might be his, rather her prayer is engaged with what God has done and what these actions say about him.

    With regard to the holiness that is mentioned in the first line of verse 2, Hannah is drawing upon the religious reality that informs her consciousness as an Israelite, such as that is expressed in many places. throughout the Old Testament, and particularly previously in Exodus 15, verse 11. Here, in acknowledgment of, and in full participation in, the great work of God in delivering Israel from Pharaoh and his chariots, Moses and the sons of Israel sing, Who is like you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness? often in praises working wonders. You see, mention of God’s holiness here is no technical definition like contemplation of God. but the specific declaration of God’s exalted nature, His separateness, His singular exclusivity, made plain specifically in the concrete act, in the concrete event of the Exodus, and in the destruction of the people who opposed His own, and that in the deluge of the collapsing walls from the Red Sea. The ascription of holiness to God His proven divine character is inextricably bound to his action. Before which now Moses and the children of Israel stand.

    They are in the presence of his action. They see it, and they say in response, there is no one but you. You are completely distinct, you are completely separated. No one like you, and there is no one but you. Moses, the children of Israel then, do not stand unattached somewhere else, contemplating God and His nature. who God is and what attributes might be His. They are standing right in the event, and they are saying, there is no God like you, for I see the evidence is here. You remember Mount Carmel? The fire coming down on Elijah’s altar, consuming everything in sight, and the people shouting out, The Lord, He is God! The Lord, He is God!

    Now, we see the same things in Hannah’s youth. not just of the word holy, but of the word rock, for God in the third line of that second verse. For if Exodus 15 is an early song of Moses, Deuteronomy 32 is a latter song of Moses. And you might recall how many times Moses uses the word rock to describe God in that latter song. He calls God the rock of Israel’s salvation, verse 15, Deuteronomy 32. He says in verse 18, it was the rock who begot Israel.

    But again, these references, by Moses or by Hannah, have no technical, abstract definition like contemplation of God in view, but are the acknowledgment of the full participation in God’s very own person who has revealed himself as that abiding habitation for his people by creating them as his people when he saved them.

    A curious thing, a curious thing in this grand theology. expressed by Hannah in her hymn-like prayer is that she draws so heavily in her confession now on the language rising out of the experience of the people of Israel when they were saved by God. It is as if she is consciously seeking to incorporate the language that comes from the great saving works of God into her prayer. But even more, it is as if she is subordinating her own recent blessing, the resolution to her barrenness, the provision to her of a son. It is as if she is subordinating her own recent blessing, to the categories of that definitive redemption that undergirds her life as one who belongs to the people of God, those who have been redeemed.

    As if her own life is lost in a life absorbed into the great saving act of God. by which he redeemed his people. That is why, you see, she makes no reference, she makes no reference to her own particular individual situation. She makes no reference specifically to her own barrenness. She makes no reference to the birth of her own child Samuel, or any other particular feature of her experience.

    She is drawn, she is thrown into the great drama of redemption. She gives up her life And as she does, she stands, her face before the God who redeemed Israel. It is as if she now stands in the presence of God’s very act in redeeming his people from Egypt.

    And that action now begins to define her in all of her consciousness. She thinks in these terms. She has no other terms to think in. The redemption of God gives great action, consumes her. She has no life left but that life. This is the heart, the soul, and the concession of a godly woman. Not a woman who’s turning every situation around. So it is one more occasion for her to consider herself, and her value, and her importance.

    This woman, like the true people of God, loses herself in God and His redemption, and her language proves it. Her prayer proves it. She stands then full faith before the God, taking this little event and seeing it in light of the great event, and she says, God is the Lord, He is the only one, He’s the only one, I know it, in confirmation of all that He’s done for His people. He alone is, He alone abides.

    And here is the language of your prayers, for you see, Hannah is an Old Testament embodiment of all of the people of God. They are all in her. Here is the language of your prayers, and the very substance of your life. As you are drawn, not so much into the events of the Exodus, In order there, on the other side of the Red Sea, to affirm and know God’s exclusive sacredness and rock-like permanence, but into the great events, at Jerusalem and outside, into Christ’s very own death and resurrection, which now defines you and informs the substance of your prayers, and even provides the substance for your life.

    I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. There is no other God. He is holy, exalted. shelter and abiding place. Here truly is the definition of your existence. For me, to live is Christ. Let’s pray.

    Our God, show us Lord, how we do then live in Christ’s death and in his resurrection, how we are not only acquainted with but participate in the great saving act which you have performed, from which then comes forth the confessions and acclamations You alone are God, you are the Holy One, you are the Rock, and there is no one besides you. Father, as we come to the table today, may this too be impressed upon us, that by this meal we are reminded of our participation with Christ. in the great saving act which has been performed by you for us. May we give glory to you, O God, rejoice in your provision, knowing that we are unworthy of your least consideration, but have been blessed because of your inexplicable love with which you have loved us from before the foundation of the world.

    The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.

  • Hannah’s Horn Exalted

    Hannah’s Horn Exalted

    This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “I Samuel 1-7” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, March 23, 1997.

    About this sermon

    Hannah functions as a transitional figure here, standing in for elect Israel as a whole rather than only herself. Her song’s careful structure turns on the meaning of ‘horn’ and ‘exalt,’ words that reach past her own circumstances. Paul’s confession in Romans 10:9 shows where that exaltation finally lands: in Christ’s own ascension.

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    Sermon transcript

    This morning we are reading from the book of 1 Samuel. We are in chapter 2. 1 Samuel 2, beginning at verse 1. Hear the word of God. And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, my form is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.

    The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased, so that the barren hath borne seven. and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.

    The Lord killeth and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he bringeth low, he lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, to make them inherit the throne of glory.

    For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and he shall give strength unto his King, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

    Delcana went to Rema with his house, and the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Lord, you would give strength to your servants who would proclaim your word this day. Father, we would ask that you would give grace to us here, that the word would be proclaimed for us, our benefit, Father, truly, we desire to profit from it. Show us, Lord, the marvelous riches of your word, and may we delight in them. Encourage us, Father, that our hearing might be also an obeying. And, Father, we would please you May our prayer then, Lord, not merely be for ourselves, but for all of your church, that your church would hear your word and marvel in its riches. We ask this in Jesus’ name, who himself is the living word. Amen.

    Hannah, or a certain type of pious person, has become the patron saint for those suffering disappointment and discontentment. Just as Hannah experienced mental anguish and personal grief in her inability to conceive a child. So these pious persons have regularly turned to the figure of Hannah in their anguish and grief. And as Hannah, just as Hannah received her answer from God being delivered from her distress, These pious persons have looked to Hannah in hopes of the same.

    But we make a mistake when we turn to Hannah as the key to our personal problems. Hannah is not. Hannah is not the patron saint for the forlorn. who, in their devotion to her and what they think she represents, wish to see their own fortunes reversed as her fortunes were reversed. Now, Hannah is not the patron saint for the full war.

    Rather, Hannah is a woman whose place in the Bible turns on her position in the history of salvation. She is important to us not because she provides material for an inspirational story about prayer and one woman’s answer to her own. material appropriate for the next issue of Guidepost magazine. Now, Hannah is important to us because God has made of her a woman in whom we are to see his elect. And through her, the story of the redemption of God’s elect. Hannah, whose name means grace, is therefore to be seen and appreciated as elect Israel, who, although beloved of God, is perilous, perilous to conceive. and yet, by the mercies of God, fulfills the meaning of her name in the arrival of a new day under God’s sovereign disposition and action, the day of the coming of the Kingdom of God.

    The transition in this woman, therefore, from distress to joy, is not for the purpose of teaching us the secrets to psychological and emotional stability. Instead, that transition in her teaches us about God and his mighty acts, as he moves his people from distress to delight through the gracious gift of his kingdom. Hannah is, therefore, a transitional figure in whom we see the end of one era in the history of redemption and the beginning of another. The end, if you will, of one world and the beginning of a new.

    Samuel, the miracle child granted to her is, in effect, the announcement of the New Day. In this New Day, we witness in its Old Testament form the approach of the Kingdom, as the stage is set for the appearance of that One close to the heart of God, David the King. And just as The Virgin Mary, while carrying the Christ child of David’s greater Son, sings her own song in Luke chapter 1, in acknowledgment of the arrival of the kingdom and all of its genuine potency. So, Hannah here sings her song in this preparatory stage. with lines rich in anticipation, eloquent with the message of gospel accomplishment. We come, then, to Hannah’s song.

    Now, you’re going to kick yourself for not bringing your Bible this morning. If someone near you has one, get close. There have been many proposals for the ordering, the arrangement, the structure of this song. Let me give you mine. I propose verses 1-3 as a unit, the first movement of the psalm. Then verses 4-9 as the second movement and the main body. Finally we have verse 10. as summary and conclusion, the final movement. Here is my organization, verses 1 through 3, once more, verses 4 through 9, and finally verse 10.

    Now let me point out to you certain features of the psalm which I hope will help to establish this outline. and also encourage us in our understanding. I’m going to do a little bit of literary analysis today. One feature is the way in which verse 10, the last verse, returns to the beginning of the song. You come to the end and there you’re reminded of things at the beginning. Now, this backward look may be more obvious to you in some versions than in others. The version that I like to work off of is the New American Standard version, and it is generally helpful to us.

    The backward look from verse 10 becomes obvious to us if we look at that first line in verse 10 and the verb to shatter, as it is translated in the New American Standard Version, or as it is translated in the King James, to break. Some have suggested that the word means to confound. But at any rate, this word, to shatter, picks up the same word that had been used in verse 4, the first line. The bows of the mighty are shattered, or are broken.

    So you have, at the end, this backward look, this return. language used at the conclusion that you found at the beginning, but further along this line. The remaining four lines in that tenth verse, if you have a New American Standard or a New International Version, you’ll see that that tenth verse is laid out for you in five lines. The remaining four lines in verse ten take us back to the first three verses. Now, there is a great deal here that we must leave for now for later consideration in this message. However, for now, presently, notice the obvious links.

    The repetition of certain words, the repetitions of words like exalt and horn. Verse 10, line 5, and he will exalt the horn of his anointed. Compare that with 2 in the psalm, verse 1, my horn is exhausted in the Lord. I want to cite at this point, you may be confused by the use of the word horn. We certainly have sung about horns a lot this morning in the psalms that we have sung. You may be confused about that use of the word horn.

    It is derived from the image of the ox. horn was a symbol of strength. We see this meaning in the parallel between lines 4 and 5 in verse 10. He will give strength to his king, then the parallel line, he will exalt the horn of his anointed. You notice that there is a strict parallelism as you run through those last two lines of verse 10. And the word that is standing there, described later as the horn in the last line, is the word strength in the previous line. So, horn equals strength.

    At any rate, we have the return in verse 10, the last verse of the song, to parallel thoughts expressed earlier in this song, so that it doesn’t seem inappropriate to say, as we have, verse 10, is a summary and conclusion to the song, bringing us, as it does, back to the beginning. But I want you to notice another feature.

    It is the recurring use of the word exalt. The word exalt. Now, our English translations invariably pick up on this in verses 1 and 10. I was reading the King James this morning for the scripture reading. It was not obvious, because it’s not there. The New American Standard and New International only get half of the story.

    We find this word, the same word, exalt, at the end of verse 7. He brings low, he also exalts. and we also find it in the first line of verse 8, he exalts the poor from the dust. That’s what the Hebrew says. This means, then, that not only do we have this word at the beginning, verse 1, and at the end, verse 10 of Enison, we also have it appearing in the center, or in the heart of the song. But I want you to see just how much at the center of the song this word exalt is.

    Look at the second movement that we have isolated, verses 4 through 9. Now, if you have a New International or you have a New American Standard, I want you to count the lines. I want you to count the lines in those verses. They are laid out for you in poetry form. If you count them correctly, I judge you will come up with 19. 2 in verse 4, 4 in verse 5, 2 in 6, 2 in 7, 6 in 8, 3 in 9, a total of 19 in all. Now let me ask you, which is the middle line? The middle line in a series of 19 is line 10. Nine lines before, then the tenth, followed by nine lines more. And which is the tenth line?

    It is the end of the seventh verse. He brings low, he also exalts. The word exalts. And then, so as to emphasize the point, Hannah repeats the word in the next line. He exalts the poor from the dust. Now, in light of all of this torturous literary analysis that has some of you possibly near slumbering, I ask you, what is the theme of Hannah’s song? What is the theme of Hannah’s song? Would you not say, looking at the beginning, looking at the conclusion, looking at the middle, that the theme is exaltation, or exalting? Hannah’s point, then, in the song, is exaltation.

    Now, the sense that she attaches to this exaltation seems to be this. Exaltation is elevation. Exaltation is ascent. Exaltation is going up. It is ascent. to a higher position. In verse one, Hannah tells us that her strength, or her horn, is exalted. Her strength ascends. Her strength goes up In verses 7 and 8, the lowly and the poor ascend. They are lifted up. And in verse 10, the king, the Lord’s anointed, ascends. He is lifted up.

    For herself, Hannah confesses in verse 1, returning to that first verse. You will note that such an ascent for her, such a lifting up, is in the Lord. It is an ascent, it is a lifting up, it is a going up in the Lord. Behind and within these words from her, Hannah acknowledges that the ascent to which he is privileged is grounded in God himself. It is in the Lord.

    It is grounded in God himself, and as she completes her thoughts at the end of that first verse, it is grounded in his work of salvation. This work of salvation, by the end of her song, will center not upon herself, but upon the King, the Lord’s anointed, but expresses itself throughout the song as you see those who are lowly lifted up, exalted, put in a high position. However, there is the suggestion of something even more profound in what Hannah has to say. There is the suggestion here of something even more profound than simply the fact that Hannah’s exaltation is grounded in God himself and in his work of salvation. Returning to that second line in the first verse of her song, my horn or my strength is exalted in the Lord.

    There is laid within these words the hint that the relationship between Hannah and the Lord is so strong, effected by God himself, that Hannah’s exaltation is preceded by and established because the Lord himself has moved, as it were, through his own humiliation, that is, a time of the demonstration, short of his strength, into a time of his strength and exaltation. That the Lord has moved, as it were, through his own humiliation into his own exaltation, and that exhibited by the work which he has accomplished in the salvation that he has wrought for his people. Hannah’s strength can be exalted in the Lord because the Lord has himself been exalted in his strength in that salvation in which now Hannah rejoices. In fact, Hannah’s participation in that salvation becomes a participation in the Lord’s very own ascent in triumph, because he has acted, and in his action he has exalted himself. He has been lifted up, he has ascended.

    God has gone up with a shout, the Lord, to the voice of triumph. Hannah, therefore, sees her own salvation, her own exaltation, as a receiving and resting in, if not an extension of, the world’s triumphal revelation of His strength. I am describing to you true faith. I am giving to you the catechism definition of faith. receiving and resting in Christ alone for salvation. Hannah sees her own salvation as a receiving and resting on and in, if not an extension of, the Lord’s triumphant revelation of His strength in His saving might.

    In her salvation, Hannah confesses with her mouth that her God has become the exalted I am paraphrasing here Romans 10.9. Hannah, in her salvation, confesses with her mouth that her God has become the exalted Lord, and she has believed in her heart that he has moved from his prior non-exalted state to the state of manifest glory.

    Isn’t it interesting? that Hannah, in her song, mentions both her heart and her mouth in that opening verse. Paul also mentioning mouth and heart in Romans 10-9. Indeed, as the Westminster Confession of Faith says, the justification of believers under the Old Testament was one and the same with the justification of believers under the New Testament. We conclude this morning by looking once more at the match-up between verses 1 and 10. By observing the same dynamic at the end of Hannah’s song that we have noted at its beginning.

    However, this time it is the King who is in view, the Lord’s Anointed. And here the matter is a little more explicit, though yet not full-blown. As Hannah sings about the exaltation of the Lord’s Anointed, once more we perceive, in Hannah’s words, the movement this time for the King, the Anointed One, from a non-exalted state to a state of manifest glory.

    The Lord will give strength to his King because the King presently lacks strength. the Lord will elevate, raise up, exalt the strength of his anointed, because his anointed has been laid low.” As to the precise nature of that humiliation and that exaltation, from Hannah onward, the remainder of divine revelation will make clear. The remainder of that divine revelation will also make clear the precise nature of the relationship between the exaltation of the Lord himself, in verse 1, and the exaltation of his anointed, in verse 10. In the day for the completion of God’s revelation, it will be made abundantly clear that the Lord’s anointed, in verse 10, is the Lord himself. in verse one, and that his humiliation, the humiliation of the anointed one, has been to the extreme of the death on the cross, and his exaltation, his lifting up, has been to the heights of his resurrection and his ascension into glory.

    Truly, our strength is exalted. it is elevated, it is lifted up, even resurrected and granted ascent only in and through Christ’s, the Anointed One’s, resurrection trial. In Him, we have died to our sins. we have died to death, and in him we have been raised to justification.”

    The Gospel from Hannah. Oh father, may you be patient with your church. If she is slow to recognize. The affinity of her faith. And the proclamation of it gloriously in the pages of the Old Testament. If she passes over the story of Hannah. Contempt there that she sees only a distressed woman who is answered because of her prayers. Much more, oh God. May we see the history of salvation.

    May we see the workings of salvation in the hearts of your elect. May we see the pattern of redemption and justification, and may we give assent, yes, that the justification of believers in the New Testament is one and the same as the justification of believers in the Old. Truly, O God, we are justified by faith, but, Lord, may it be apparent to us, whether old or new, that justification ultimately is in and through you and your son. You, knowing the depths of humiliation for us, knowing also the exaltation that we who would share with you in the death might also partake of the glory. We ask this in Jesus name, the one who is exalted now, lifted up,

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