Grace OPC Sewickley PA

Sermon Series: I Samuel 1-7

Christ’s Double Touch

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 22, 1998.

About this sermon

The blind man Christ heals in two stages, in Mark 8, has drawn plenty of liberal interpretation eager to explain away the strangeness of a healing that doesn’t work the first time. Read redemptive-historically instead, Christ’s second touch gives real, permanent life, not a partial fix. That permanence is bound up with an ongoing, penitent state, not a single moment of healing.

More sermons from 1 Samuel · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

This morning we bring to a close our study of the first seven chapters of 1 Samuel, and in doing that we look once more at that chapter, especially verses 3-6. I give you attention to God’s Word, beginning at verse 3, and Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistine.’ Then the children of Israel did put away Galen and Ashtoreth and served the Lord only. Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mishpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered together to Mishpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.’ And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mishpah.”

Then, if you would, turn over to Mark’s Gospel. First of all, chapter 1, the first verse only, Mark’s gospel, chapter 1, the first verse, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And then, if you would, turn over to the eighth chapter in Mark, to verse 14.

Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, yet neither had they in the ship with them more than one loaf. And he charged them, saying, Take seed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod. And they reasoned among themselves, saying, It is because we have no bread. And when Jesus knew it, he saith unto them, Why reason ye, because ye have no bread? perceive ye not yet, neither understand? Hath ye your heart yet hardened, having eyes, see ye not, and having ears, hear ye not, and do ye not remember? When I break the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?’ And they say, under him, twelve. And in the seven among the four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?’ And they said, seven.

And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand? And he cometh to Bethsaida, and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him. And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town. And when he had spit on his eyes, he put his hands upon them, and he asked him if he saw anything. And he looked up and said, I see men as trees walking. After that, Jesus put his hands again upon his eyes and made him look up, and he was restored and saw every man clearly. And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.

We do ask of you, our God, that as your mercy has been great towards us, we would see, Lord, that mercy multiplied even to the ends of the earth for the sake of your church even those that gather presently in your name. And Lord, would you prosper your word among your saints, and even Lord, be pleased to grant grace to your servants who proclaim your word.

Father, may we have a great company of those who publish the good news of the gospel. But Father, we ask that in this company we would have those who are honest and sincere and forthright in their commitment. We pray, Father, for a good declaration and that in all respects the greatness and the finality and the sufficiency of Christ’s work might be held up before your people. These things we pray, for surely we have been benefited. Truly, O God, may all of your people be benefited. for Jesus’ sake unto the day of his return. Amen.

Mark chapter 8 contains a curious passage, verses that we’ve read this morning, verses 22 through 26. I say these verses are curious, for one thing, because they contain a story found nowhere else in the Gospel. only Mark records the story about the blind man of the Satan. And this being the case, one then might well think that this story, being unique to Mark, might provide the insight into the intention of the gospel as a whole.

But another curious thing about the story, and I’m sure you noticed it, is the fact that Jesus here administers a double touch to the blind man before the blind man can clearly see. With the first touch, the man sees others as if they were trees walking about. But after Jesus laid his hands on the man’s eyes a second time, the man sees everything clearly. Now in light of this double touch, you might ask, what in the world is going on here? The double touch is unique in Jesus’ healing ministry. So you might well ask, what in the world is going on here?

Does this scene give evidence of a weakness in Jesus? Is this an incident where Jesus proves inadequate, at least initially, on the first try? Did Jesus, after the first touch, realize he had failed to apply enough power to restore completely the man’s faith. Between the first and the second touch, is Jesus here actually found mentally calculating the necessary miracle voltage to correct a botched first effort?

There is this occasion in Jesus’ ministry, one in which he falters briefly in his own faith to perform miracles, an occasion in which he reveals his all-too-human nature, he being from time to time attacked by self-doubt just as any other faith healer. Thus, when Jesus asks the man in verse 23, do you see anything?

His question, so it might be thought, brings to the surface his own inner crisis. He was fearful the man might not be seeing anything at all. The second touch, therefore, represents a personal triumph for Jesus, the lesson being he rallied his own faith to himself and tried again. And so should we. But others may prefer a little higher ground than the self-doubting, semi-confused Jesus approach. Here, out of respect for Jesus’ divinity, the problem is located not in Jesus, of course, but in the blind man. The blind man is a representative figure.

Every man, we are told, everyone who in coming to Christ is personally in need of a double touch of divine grace, whether administered definitively in a one-time encounter or repeatedly throughout the course of one’s Christian life. The blind man, therefore, is the convert. just like you and me. And as the blind man received the double touch, so must we.

Whether it is the double touch of justification and then sanctification, or the double touch of Jesus as my Savior and then a little later on Jesus as my Lord, or the double touch of the first blessing of redemption through Christ, to be followed by a second blessing of special gifts in holiness and of Holy Ghost power. According to many charismatic ministries, for example, Those only once touched by Jesus will always see, as it were, men as trees walking. But those twice touched by Jesus through the baptism of the Holy Spirit see everything clearly. We must seek, therefore, the second touch, the second blessing, if we are to have unimpaired spiritual vision and be of greatest usefulness to Christ.

Now, I want you to know, if there was any question about it, that I could not disagree more strongly with such interpretations and approaches to these texts. This story in Mark chapter 8, verses 22 through 26, is actually a gem of gospel hope, preaching to us the marvels of that progress that belongs to the history of redemption. Here is a story in which the testimony to the disciples’ limitations and failures within the context of the history of redemption abounds.

In verse 4 of that 8th chapter, as Jesus is about to feed the 4,000, he having already He is asked by his disciples, where could anyone find enough bread here in this desolate place to feed all these people? This is after the feeding of the 5,000. This is the feeding of the 4,000. Not only are we later in time, but the multitude has been reduced in size. One would think, well if he could feed the pigs, he ought to be able to feed the pigs. The chapter progresses after an exchange with the Pharisees. Jesus regales the disciples in a context in which he reminds them about his feeding of the 5,000 and the 4,000 respectively.

And he asks them in verse 18, having eyes do you not see? Verse 21, do you not yet understand? And then following the passage that we have in view specifically this morning, there comes along verse 27 to the end of the chapter, the story of Peter’s confession, to be sure, but also the story about Peter’s rebuke, verse 33. And subsequent to that, Jesus laying before his disciples the demand of the kingdom and the way of the cross.

The stories that follow in chapter 9 fall out along the same lines. Peter’s obstructionism on the Mount of Transfiguration at the beginning of that chapter and the disciples’ failure to heal the epileptic boy at the foot of the Mount of Transfiguration as the chapter progresses. But in the midst of all this testimony to the disciples’ limitations and failure, there appears, as I said, this gem of gospel hope. Chapter 8, verses 22 and following. that preaches to us the promised progress of the history of redemption.

You see, the blind man in the first place is a reflection of the disciples themselves. The blind man in the first place is a reflection of the disciples themselves. Just as they suffer from a spiritual blindness, or impairment to vision, verse 18, so the blind man now suffers from a physical blindness and is in need of Jesus’ touch. When Jesus first touches the blind man, we receive in that action a picture of Jesus’ efforts for his disciples. and the initial healing that he has brought to them by way of his earthly ministry. You are going to watch the history of redemption as it specifically focuses upon the ministry of Jesus Christ developed through the story, through these verses, as compact and as short as they are. When Jesus first touches the born man, you have here in his action a picture of Jesus’ efforts for his disciples and the initial healing he brings to them by way of his earthly ministry. Presently, as recipients of Jesus’ gracious ministry in the flesh, The disciples are like the blind man who has received but one touch. It is as if, spiritually speaking now, they have had their eyes opened, but as yet see men as trees walking. They don’t get it completely. They don’t see it fully.

But the gospel promise, especially as it is proclaimed by Mark, is that which declares that the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, in the veins of his flesh, chapter 1, verse 1, the very beginning of the gospel, will be completed in the conclusion of the gospel in the age of the Spirit.

The movement in the story about the blind man from one touch to a second is not the movement to be expected in everyone who comes to Christ. No, the movement in the story about the blind man is the movement that shall most certainly occur in the history of redemption as the ministry of Jesus Christ in his flesh gives way to his death and resurrection, to his ministry presently in the spirit. That’s what’s happening. The message, therefore, to you from this story is not that you must plug into the blind man in order to receive your own personal double touch.

The message instead is that you must see yourself, believer that you are, member of Christ’s body, the Church, that you are, as blessed by the disciples who were privileged to live in the days of the first touch, but infinitely more blessed because with them it has been granted to you to live in the days in which the risen Christ in his spirit has definitively touched his life.

We are not preaching religion here. We are preaching gospel, and there is a world of difference, and it is necessary for us to appreciate that difference. religion too often, at least as it is popularly understood, is sentiment. It has nothing to do with gospel event and accomplishment. It has nothing to do with the history of redemption. religion will corrupt this text in Mark 8 for its own purposes and exploit it. But that has nothing to do with what the gospel is all about.

You don’t go through personally now, subjectively. You don’t go through the first touch to get to the second. That’s not the message of the text. You now live fully in the days of the second touch. the days of the first touch, namely the days of Christ’s labor during his earthly ministry, having come and gone, having been completed.

If that wasn’t enough for you, we backpedal into Samuel. and in some circles would have been extremely hard to hear and receive. I’m giving it a second try. What is not true about Jesus, St. Mark, is true about me. I do have to back up and screw up my faith and try again.

When Samuel reappears in the story of 1 Samuel, he comes in the spirit of the future messianic kingdom, and so you must read him. He comes in the spirit of the future Messianic kingdom, but you will notice the pattern of that kingdom’s development as it is found expressed in his service performed for Israel. Specifically now focusing upon verses 3-6. Jesus double-touches the blind man in Mark 8, the pattern of the Kingdom in its movement from Christ’s earthly ministry to his heavenly ministry is set before us. When Samuel now leads Israel through a double repentance, Jesus double-touching the blind man, Samuel leading Israel through a double repentance, the first repentance in verses 3 and 4, the second in verses 5 and 6. The pattern of the coming kingdom is likewise set before us.

The movement anticipated in 1 Samuel 7 is that from the preliminary repentance at the at the preaching of John the Baptist and then confirmed in the preaching of Jesus Christ during the days of his ministry in the flesh, from that preliminary repentance to the definitive repentance that is effected now because of Christ’s death and resurrection, his ascension and his gift of the Spirit specifically on the day of Pentecost. You are moving from the one repentance to the other. The double repentance of 1 Samuel 7 no more preaches the necessity of multiple or repeated repentances than the double touch of Mark 8 preaches the necessity of a second blessing. The double repentance of 1 Samuel 7 no more preaches the necessity of multiple or repeated repentances than the double touch of Mark 8 preaches the necessity of a second blessing.

For just as we have entered the age of the second definitive touch, likewise we have entered the age of the second definitive repentance. an age in which our repentance is no more occasional, periodic, or intermittent than the blessings of Christ’s Spirit which we presently enjoy.

Much rather, then, our repentance has become a way of life. established in and through the definitive repentance into which we have been brought by grace, it is the posture and disposition of our existence until Christ returns. It is the posture and disposition of our existence until Christ’s return.

To use the language of verse 6 there in 1 Samuel 7, our lives are now a continual demonstration of the humility expressed in the drawn and poured out water. That’s who we are. Our lives are a continual demonstration of the humility expressed in the fast. which the people of Israel keep, and in the confession which they make of their sins, we have sinned against the Lord. Those words are continually on our lips as they are expressed continually of our lives. We are continually saying, therefore, because of our connection to the definitive repentance, we have sinned against the Lord.

There never will be a time, short of the Second Coming, when such a heartfelt demonstration of our abject humility and prosperation before God will not be appropriate. And surely it is this that is reflected in the fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. A petition I would remind you that you must pray, a petition which must be on your lips, a petition which is a way of life in itself, a petition which you will be saying, until Jesus returns.

Therefore, you are not moving from one prescribed programmatic, periodic, or occasional repentance to another, be it the repentance through Lent what nonsense, what absolute nonsense in light of biblical revelation, or through some prescription for penance, occasionally programmed as it is, or even the repentances found in the Protestant extensions of these very forms. The Protestant extensions of rent and penance Then revivalism, when everyone once more gets right with God, is converted again in the decisionism of the invocational system. Now, we detect when we go forward foolishness. or in the programs for occasional personal renewal that are generated within many churches. Instead of all of that, you live in a permanent, penitent state. You live in a permanent, penitent state. You live in that definitive repentance that has come by way of the arrival of the Kingdom and Jesus Christ.

This had not been foreshadowed in the service of Samuel, when he ministered the double redemptive historical repentance to Israel in anticipation. of the great coming day. But is my ministry still a call to repentance, spoken out to the unregenerate and the unsaved? Is my ministry still a reminder of repentance to the regenerated and redeemed?

Of course. But that call and that reminder uniformly beckon sinners to find themselves in the definitive repentance established for them by God’s work in Christ and in the gift of the Holy Spirit. A beckoning that most certainly sees you, repentant sinners that you are, living in and from that repentance, a repentance which has become nothing less for you their way of life.

Our Father, we pray that you would bless and strengthen us, your servants, that we would understand even better the work which you have performed, our relationship to it, even as that is declared to us in your word. And Lord, may we not be behind the declaration and proclamation of your word with regard to repentance. With all humility and with utter prostration before you, may we live out our days as long, Lord, as you are pleased to give us days, and even until the day of Jesus Christ. For we pray it in his name.

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.

March 22, 1998
No Pardon Without Repentance

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 15, 1998.

About this sermon

There is no pardon from God apart from real repentance, and the water Israel pours out before the Lord in verse 6 pictures exactly that kind of total surrender. Repentance forces us to reckon honestly with our own deadness, not manage it around the edges. Christ’s own perfect repentance is what makes ours effective at all.

More sermons from 1 Samuel · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

This morning we are beginning our scripture reading in 1 Samuel chapter 4, we begin at verse 1. You might be thinking, oh no, he’s going backwards. Be patient. 1 Samuel 4, verse 1. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel, and when they joined battle Israel was smitten before the Philistines. and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men. And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines?

Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. So the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of Hosts, which dwelleth between the cherry-beams. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God. And when the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again.”

And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the Lord was coming to the camp. And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is coming to the camp.

And they said, Woe unto us, for there hath not been such a thing here before. Woe to us who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods. These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Be strong and put yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that you be not servants unto the Hebrews as they have been to you. Put yourselves like men and fight.’

And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent, and there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. and the ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.

Then in chapter 7, verse 3, Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only. and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ And the children of Israel did put away Balin and Ashtaroth and served the Lord only. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mishpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered together to Mishpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.’ And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mishpah.

Our Father, give us strength as we look to you for encouragement in our prayers. For, Father, we would be availed of the benefit of this means of grace, and we would ask, Father, that in keeping with the intention of our hearts, our prayers might be pure and free from sin. But Father, we would ask at this time that we would be profited by your word, and Lord, that your servants throughout the world would be profited by that word, and that it would please you, O God, to raise up laborers for the harvest. Indeed, The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Would you please then, O God, even from among us, send laborers into the harvest? We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

There are two repentances in 1 Samuel, chapter 7. The first is in verses 3 and 4, and the second is in verses 5 and 6. Now, I have suggested in previous messages ways in which we might approach these two repentances. For instance, I called attention to the relationship between this double repentance of Israel at the beginning of chapter 7 and the double defeat of Israel at the hand of the Philistines at the beginning of chapter 4. It is as if we find in the double repentance now the resolution of the double defeat. It is as if we find now in the double repentance the resolution of the double defeat. The repentance in its twofold presentation matches the defeat in its twofold presentation. The repentance then, leading to life, addresses and answers the judgment leading to death.

The repentance spoken of in chapter 7, leading to life, addresses and answers the judgment leading to death in chapter 4. Israel’s sin and the judgment that came upon Israel found an adequate conclusion than only in a work of God in which Israel responds with adequate repentance.

Now think. Think with me here. In this match-up between the double defeat with the double repentance, I don’t want you to conclude that this correspondence means to teach us that our repentance is to be listed in as a satisfaction for sin, or that our repentance is the cause of our pardon.

At the same time, you must know repentance is of such necessity to our sinners that we cannot expect pardon without it. Repentance doesn’t cause our pardon, but we cannot be pardoned without repentance. unfortunately too often in the life of the Protestant Church. Even amongst those who are descendants, spiritually and theologically speaking, from the Westminster Assembly and the Westminster Divines, whom I’ve just been quoting, as a matter of fact, too often in the life of the Protestant Church because people have some vague notion about the fact that their repentance can in itself create forgiveness. These people have forgotten that that repentance is essential and indispensable for a true confession of faith. In fact, you may be as grieved as I am. that much modern preaching of the gospel has had repentance ripped right out of it. Repentance, you see, assumes sin, and sin means that there are sinners.

These facts in themselves Medic, we are told, for a very negative self-image. Such harsh assessments are best left offstage, because there might be those present who would be turned off by such negative vibrations. But also damaging to the Church, if not more destructive, is the widespread conviction that Christian love, in this case, the highest level of Christian piety being invoked, the widespread conviction that Christian love demands that we forgo repentance. that we not insist upon it, that we forget about it, because we’re bigger people than to expect or demand repentance. You know how the argument goes. You’ve heard it, I’m sure. Maybe in the past, I hope not presently, you’ve used it.

God’s love is unconditional, therefore God’s forgiveness is unconditional too. Since his love and his forgiveness are unconditional, our love and our forgiveness must be unconditional as well. And this means, you can follow out the train, this means that we cannot be conditioned in by any expectation in others with regard to repentance. The beaten, bloodied Christian wife must forgive her criminally cruel husband and unconditionally extend her love to him despite the fact that he has not repented either of his deeds or his pattern of behavior.

Thrown in the face of that woman, as many of you know, will be the classic text, Luke 23.34, Jesus’ words from the cross, Father forgive them for they know not what they are doing, that if this woman’s husband is abusing her, the people who hurl that text at this woman are abusing not only the woman but the text itself.

Jesus’ statement in Luke 23.34 is not a declaration of forgiveness. It is not a declaration of forgiveness, it is a prayer for forgiveness. And just how do you expect Jesus envisions that prayer of his being answered?

By the action of God moving to repentance those guilty of crucifixion. And even in this case, their repentance will not be the cause of their pardon, but you may be assured there will be no pardon without repentance. Truly, then, the Church renders no gospel service, either by promoting a message devoid of the biblical call to repentance, or by encouraging Christians to embrace the silly, sentimental nonsense that Christian love demands of us that we nearly forget about sin. Because that’s the way in which we prove just how Christian we are. The Christian, to be sure, stands ready to embrace the repentant sinner. But the Christian also has no right to declare such repentance as these sinners may offer unnecessary.

Let’s get back to the text. Returning to 1 Samuel, if the double repentance of 1 Samuel 7 matches the double defeat of 1 Samuel 4, but the point is not to establish Repentance as the cause of the renewed love for the Israelites, then what, pray tell, is the point? Well, in light of our discussion thus far, the point we must conclude is not so much what repentance promises, expects, or hopes. but what repentance proves and demonstrates. The point is not so much what repentance promises, expects, or hopes, but what repentance proves and demonstrates. To be sure, now, we embrace the biblical truth. sinners may not expect pardon without repentance.

We also believe in what the Westminster Confession and Catechisms call repentance unto life. We can speak about hope, the expectation, the promise of repentance. We can even acknowledge in the text of 1 Samuel 7 itself that Samuel preaches the gospel of hope in verse 3.

Return to the Lord and remove your idols, and the Lord will deliver you from the ballistics. But all of this notwithstanding, as I have said, the point here is not what repentance promises or hopes, but what repentance proves and demonstrates. How do I know this? the ingenious subtlety of God in dealing with his people. He, even by root of that subtlety, places stumbling blocks in his people’s way.

You see, Israel repents in verse 4. But she continues in the hands of the Philistines. She’s not delivered! I only repented in order to get them off my back! You see where the Lord is driving you? You understand what he’s forcing you to go. I repented in order to secure the blessing, in order to secure the hope, the expectation. They repented, and they’re not delivered. What do you say?

Israel is even drawn further on. She is drawn to Mizpah, verse 5, by Samuel and his word, and convened in such a way that seemingly she repents again, verse 6, but still no deliverance, at least not immediately, not in the immediate verse. Well, it could be that you attempted to say that Israel pursued the second repentance with the attitude, the first repentance was inadequate, we remain in the hands of the Philistines, let’s repent again, let’s give God a second chance.

However, it seems from the reading of verse 6, you could spend a lifetime in that verse. It seems from verse 6 that the mood of the people, even the heart of the people, is one of abject and thorough contrition, regardless of the deliverance. In fact, in verse 6 you see, and possibly deliberately nothing is said about the deliverance. is not one word about the deliverance.

And I judge that it is here that we are burrowing right into the soul of these people in this circumstance, a soul that proves itself in its repentant disposition, its contrite disposition. You and I are looking at a people who have embraced repentance as a way of life. But you should be aware that this proof of the repentant disposition is also a demonstration of the nature of true repentance, and that indeed.

These people move on from the response to Samuel’s voice, his gospel voice and his life-giving message, in verses 3 and 4. to further response now to Samuel’s voice in 5 and 6, and here in verses 5 and 6, expressing now, in their repentance, these Israelites give themselves over completely to God and to his justice. I want you to hear that as this message moves towards its conclusion. It is here now in verses 5 and 6, expressly in their repentance, that these Israelites give themselves over completely to God and His justice. Do you wonder about their action? Has that verse, verse 6, puzzled you week by week as we have read it?

As you have considered the action of these Israelites as they come to Mizpah and they draw the water and they pour it out on the ground, seemingly as a religious activity, some form of religious devotion and expression. What are the Israelites doing here? What are they doing by drawing water and pouring it out on the ground before the Lord?

Well, if you turn to 2 Samuel, chapter 14, verse 14, you will have your answer. Here is the story in the 14th chapter about the woman sent to David by Joab to convict David in the matter of the banishment of his son, Absalom. Today is it about the religious condition and posture of God’s people, who live beneath God’s justice, utterly and completely dependent upon His mercy. She says, King James style now, for we must needs die, for we must needs die, or it is for us to die.

We are like water spilled out on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Repentance in its true expression speaks like this woman. Repentance is a self-conscious surrender of ourselves to God’s justice and to the death You see how inappropriate it is for us to place the hope, the expectation, the promise of repentance in prominence?

You see what you’re doing? You get it wrong. You miss the biblical point. The woman gets it right. She speaks the truth. for she understands that repentance is a self-conscious surrender of ourselves to God’s justice and to the death we deserve. That’s what’s going on in your repentance. You may not be thinking like that.

Repentance is a temporary nuisance. We do it because I guess we’re expected to do it, and we get it out of the way. Independence, therefore, is not the giving of ourselves to the hopeful expectations for our predicament, to the positive prospects and possibilities of our situation, as if we were but endure a measure of discomfort and humiliation, which will be grief if not negotiable. much to the contrary, repentance is the willing surrender of ourselves to God and to his justice, and this in a manner in which we identify ourselves with his justice and judgment. Repentance is the willing surrender of ourselves to God and his justice, and this in a manner in which we identify ourselves with his judgments.

The water is the people. They are making a statement about themselves. The water is the people, drawn up, poured out, incapable of being collected, gathered again. The situation is hopeless. As the water is spilt on the ground, impossible to be regathered, so are the people in their repentance.

They are giving themselves over to repentance, and by so doing, identifying themselves in and with the judgment that God renders concerning them. The corollary fast and the confession, with which the sixth verse concludes, express the Israelites don’t eat because the dead don’t eat. They are playing out their death, and the dead don’t eat. of their sin, we have sinned against the Lord, is the acknowledgment that God is right in casting them off and dealing out death to them.” He’s right. No argument, no equivocation, no bartering, no bargaining.

God is right. the nature of true repentance is being laid out in front of you here. But in conclusion now, repentance is not simply a willing identification with God and his judgments, but it is a prescribed conformity to that judgment. It is a prescribed conformity to that judgment. You are being forced to be conformed to the image of the judgment. You are being forced to be conformed to the image of death. That’s what’s happening.

And thus, our text this morning, 1 Samuel 7, 3-6, and the entirety, going back to 1 Samuel 4, 4-7, begins to come together in marvelous harmony, as to the intention of what the Holy Spirit has been saying throughout the course of the whole. included in this is the biblical rationale for the doubling of the repentance in chapter 7 verses 3-6. In the double repentance of chapter 7, the people of Israel are being conformed to the proportions of the double judgment laid out in chapter 4. They are being forced into conformity to the image of the judgment that has come. They are being made to identify with it, and they are being conformed to it. repentance they are being made to look like the dead and the deceived people of chapter 4.

But you will remember just how this lesson has been reinforced, not among the Israelites, but among the Philistines. in chapters 5 and 6, and thus how those chapters also serve these ends. For you will remember that the Philistines were made to undergo a symbolical repentance when they were compelled to make the burden hemorrhoids and the burden wraps. By so doing, in their symbolical repentance, they were conformed to the likeness of God’s judgment that had come upon them in the form of the plagues. They were being forced to confess that they were not just plagued by God with hemorrhoids and rats, but because of God’s judgment, they were hemorrhoids and rats. By the same token, the Israelites now, in their double repentance, chapter 7, are not only identified with those doubly defeated in chapter 4, they become those doubly defeated.

And as those doubly defeated, they are likewise dead. But as the woman in 2 Samuel 14 says to David, and now in paraphrastic form, that God does not take away life, but devises means. The Lord scheming for you to give back to you the dead life. But you know, you must acknowledge that you are dead and utterly hopeless apart from the intervention of God himself.

And what an intervention! For God has marvelously intervened in our Savior who even without any sin of his own, willingly identified himself with us in our sin, and even willingly conformed himself to the very reality of the judgment we deserve. And in him, now, you find a perfect repentance into which you have been privileged to enter by grace. In no wise is your individual repentance diminished in importance or obviated. It is necessitated that you might declare your identity with the Christ who has preceded you, and provided for you the perfect resolution.

Jesus Christ gives himself on behalf of the hopeless dead, that the hopeless dead, through the workings of God confirmed in repentance, might live in and through him. Amen. ask that we might have patience with your word. We have lingered long over these verses and these passages, but Father, we would wring them dry as best we might, and lord that to the benefit of our souls. Help us to profit, O God, for we would know the nature of true repentance, and O Lord, we would declare even here that our Savior is sufficient and that our repentance in relationship to him is most necessary. And in being informed about the nature of true repentance, may we be ever confident that that repentance is ours.

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.

March 15, 1998
Samuel Summarizes the Prophets

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 8, 1998.

About this sermon

1 Samuel 4-7 works as a compact summary of the Old Testament’s entire prophetic office, not just Samuel’s own career. Read together, these chapters present Christ himself as prophet, priest, and king all at once. Our own repentance, in the end, comes only through Christ’s repentance, enacted at his baptism.

More sermons from 1 Samuel · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

We begin our scripture reading this morning in 1 Samuel 7, verse 3. I give you attention to God’s holy, infallible word. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, and put away the strange gods and the Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtaroth and served the Lord only.

Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah. and I will pray for you unto the Lord.’ And they gathered together to Mizpah and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the law.’ And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a bird, offering holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him.” As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.

But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mithra and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came to Beth-char. Then Samuel took a stone. and set it between Mithra and Shem, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coasts of Israel, and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron even unto Gath. The coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines, and there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life, and he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. His return was to Ramah, for there was his house. and there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord.

In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. and also chapter 4, verse 17, from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Oh Lord, help us with your word. We do treasure it, and Lord, our desire is that we might profit from it fully. But Lord, we would not pray for ourselves alone, but for your church throughout this region and throughout the world. That your people congregated before your servants to receive your word would be profited today. And Lord, we also ask that it would please you to use your word for others as you have used it for us. That word has meant our redemption. So, Lord, today, may many be saved. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

My goal before I reach the conclusion of this message is to speak to you more pointedly about repentance, a major interest in verses 3-6 in this seventh chapter in 1 Samuel. But in order to set the tone for my comments about repentance, I want to give you once more a feel for this passage. I do this so that you might learn to respect the Holy Spirit’s intentions in giving you a text. Our concern here, therefore, is not what I propose, not what I invent, nor is it what you might think in your own minds and hearts. The issue at stake is what the Holy Spirit intends as he speaks to us in the Holy Scripture. So here is the situation as we prepare ourselves to move into 1 Samuel 7, verses 3-17.

Looking back to the beginning of the 4th chapter in 1 Samuel, Israel has suffered a double at the hands of the Philistines. The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord has been captured, and the sanctuary at Shiloh has been laid low. The priesthood and the judgeship of Eli, together with his sons Hosni and Phinehas, has been utterly discredited and destroyed. All three of those men are now dead. The Ark, meanwhile, has gone into exile among the Philistines for a period of seven months, during which the Philistine gods and people have been completely humiliated, the people finally being constrained to admit, through the Lord’s judgments and plagues, just how loathsome they are.

This brings us into the early verses in chapter 6. As we move through that sixth chapter, the exiled Ark is now restored to Israel by the Philistines. But after an initial period of thanksgiving, the Israelites themselves perform the Ark of the Covenant, incurring God’s wrath in such a way that proves them no better than the Philistines. The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord is then moved off center stage as the seventh chapter begins.

The attention now in keeping with the intention of the Holy Spirit, the attention now being deliberately shifted away from the visible structures in Israel’s worship, such as the Ark, such as the Tabernacle in Shiloh, and that in the interests of greater things still. to be sure, these chapters, chapters 4 through 6, entering into chapter 7, are meant to prepare us for what is coming more immediately during the days of Samuel’s ministry, as that ministry prepares for the appearance of David and even David’s son Solomon. who will rule over Israel. But these chapters at the same time had a wider reach, preaching as they do the whole of the Old Testament prophetic era. They even preach to us the whole of the gospel period, but this morning my interest is more the way in which they preach to us the entirety of the Old Testament prophetic ministry. 1 Samuel 4, to the opening verses of chapter 7, preaching to us the entirety of the Old Testament administration of the prophets. the double defeat suffered by Israel, while under Eli’s administration, recorded in chapter 4, anticipates the coming double defeat of Israel as a nation later in her history, while under the leadership of weak kings, false prophets and corrupt priests.

The exile of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord for seven months anticipates the exile of the Jews for seventy years in Babylon. The restoration of the Ark in chapter 6 anticipates the coming restoration of the Jews to the land of Judah. The initial celebration expressed by the Jews at the return of the Ark anticipates the temporary renewal witnessed among the Jews, only to have that renewal followed by proof of Jewish corruption. They are no better than their enemies.

And the receiving of the visible structures pertaining to worship from the center of God’s concern for his people in the receiving of the ark and in the diminishment of the tabernacle in Shiloh, anticipates a coming day in which God will set forth a true and proper worship under the administration of his Messianic King. Days in which God’s people will worship in spirit and in truth.

But this being the case, 1 Samuel 4, running through those opening verses of 1 Samuel 7, preaching to us the whole of Israel’s history from Samuel and the rest of the prophets to the dawn of the New Testament. What do we then make of chapter 7, verses 3-17? The beauty, in part, for these verses is the way in which they pick up the story as if not missing a beat, and carry us along in ways that powerfully suggest the course of the events throughout the entirety of the New Testament age. Let me propose to you an overall theme for these verses, an overall theme for verses 3-17. In chapter 7, Samuel appears and serves in the spirit of the kingdom, that kingdom in which God graciously comes to save his people from their enemies.” Here’s the theme. Samuel appears and serves in the spirit of the kingdom, that kingdom in which God graciously comes to save his people from their enemies. but having given you the theme, let me give you the scheme. I propose a scheme to help us understand these verses in relationship to the course of events yet to unfold in the New Testament age.

The preliminary and preparatory repentance proclaimed in anticipation of the coming preaching of John the Baptist and the preaching of Jesus Christ himself during the days in his flesh. A summation of Old Testament prophetic ministry to repentance. a summation of Old Testament prophetic ministry to repentance. Verses 3 and 4, the preliminary and preparatory repentance proclaimed in anticipation of the coming days in which there shall be the preaching of John the Baptist and the preaching of Jesus Christ during the days in his flesh. giving us a picture of the summation of the entire Old Testament prophetic ministry unto repentance.

Verses 5 and 6. The definitive and conclusive repentance, at which the preliminary repentance aims, the repentance belonging to the administration of the summing up of all things in Jesus Christ, a repentance that belongs to the accomplishment of Christ’s saving work, particularly associated with Pentecost.” the effectual ministry of God’s final priest, Jesus Christ, through his intercession and sacrifice, beneath which God’s Church is privileged to live before the face of an oncoming enemy in the hope of the consummate appearance of God.

The effectual ministry of God’s final priest, Jesus Christ, through his intercession and sacrifice, beneath which God’s Church is privileged to live before the face of an oncoming enemy and in the hope of the consummate appearance of God.” Verses 12-14. The effectual ministry of God’s exalted King. You might note that we are moving through this passage The effectual ministry of God’s exalted King, Jesus Christ, by whom and through whom God injects into the Church’s not-yet-thus-far Ebenezer-like existence the already dimensions of the Kingdom in a present enjoyment of peace. the all-seeing, not-yet-character of the life of the people of God. You have not yet arrived, thus Ebenezer, thus far the Lord has helped us, yet at the same time the marvelous intrusion of peace, peace like that which belongs to the eternal And finally, verses 15-17, the effectual ministry of Jesus Christ as the Church of God is blessed by Christ’s presence, even though his permanent residence is in his rhema, glory, where he serves a transcendent altar which he has established.

These verses, then, in 1 Samuel 7, have their own relevance. They have a relevance and relationship to be sure to the immediate proximate events in the story itself. At the same time, these verses reach out beyond the immediate time frame. they being the very Word of God and speaking to us, still being profitable for us, and present to us those very four in the future. days no less significant than those when Jesus Christ appeared and served not only in the spirit of the kingdom, but as the very embodiment of that kingdom, in whom, by whom and through whom God graciously comes to save his people from all their enemies.

I will labor with you. I will force the issues until you see it. that you must not read your Old Testament as if you were Jews. You must work over them, pour over them, sweat over them, weep over them. Christ himself will show himself in these pages if you are reading them rightly.

What I am suggesting to you, then, is that this word has its own application, its own sufficient application. If read rightly, you are drawn within it, for it speaks, despite the fact that it was written so long ago, it speaks about your present circumstance. verses include you. You are in them. But you may recall, it’s been a while now, that I said this morning’s message was about repentance. and you’ve been very patient. Because I know that you’re all dying to learn more about repentance.

I will proceed on that assumption. How are we so included in these verses that they are properly related so that we are properly related to their message about repentance. This morning I will be concentrating only on verses 3 and 4. I have said already to you that these verses present the preliminary, preparatory call to repentance in which is heard the yet distant preaching of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ in the days of his flesh, preaching which proves a virtual summation or fulfillment of the Old Testament call in light of the impending kingdom of God. That message, as it now expresses itself with the dawning of the New Testament, in a New Testament setting, specifically as it is found in Matthew’s Gospel, sounds like this. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

John preaches it, Matthew 3.2.

Jesus preaches it, Matthew 4.17. Mark records Jesus’ words along a similar line.

The time is fulfilled, Jesus says in Mark 1.15.

Repent and believe the gospel. In order for us to get our fix now, to get our balance, to have a proper orientation, we link on to what is centrally communicated here. in these translation verses as you move out of an Old Testament context into a new. Communicated so powerfully in the gospel verses that I have read is the crisis, the crisis created by the approaching kingdom, the approaching reign and womb of God. God is coming, therefore repent. I do, in fact, set this message of repentance before you in counter-variance to the message that you may often hear. Repent, because sin doesn’t pay.

It makes you miserable. You end up taking pills. It gets you into trouble. It makes you a miserable person. You can’t say all those remedial reasons, all those things that end up being quite self-serving. I will add. But not so when you come to the Bible and its message about repentance. You see, you have to get your definition from the Bible about repentance, not from yourself.

So I will say it to you one more time, that you might hear it in case you missed it. Communicated so powerfully in these gospel verses is the crisis created by the approaching kingdom, the approaching reign and realm of God. God is coming, therefore repent. I will wait until it is quiet. because of the unparalleled crisis.

Repent. Repentance itself, then, is shaped by the urgency created by the crisis in you. Therefore, the repentance in view is more than a general regret due to our common moral deficiencies and our human failings. Rather, biblical repentance is that kind of sorrow expressed now because God himself is coming and we are about to appear before him. biblical repentance brings us right up against the coming of God. That is its context. Therefore, biblical repentance is that requisite prostration toward God prior to his coming, if we are to stand at all. when he appears.

The problem with the repentance of many, sadly, tragically, is that they, in the exercise of their repentance, hardly know where they stand. And because they fail to understand where they stand, They may, yes, go down to one knee, they might even muster two, but they will not go face down, flat out in abject humility toward God. They won’t do it. But unless you do, and this is why I preach, unless you do, you cannot stand when God appears.

In my ministry, I have been privileged to witness many genuine repentances, people moving out of sin and darkness into light and life. I have been privileged to witness the transformations of many. I have been also privileged to witness some within the Church, yes, regenerated, who have stumbled and fallen, who have reversed their direction out of their consideration of the coming of God. At the same time, how many half-hearted repentances have I witnessed in my twenty-seven years of service.

I have preached the gospel in light of the impending coming reign and rule of God, in light of the certainty of his coming, only to watch on as expectant mothers have made excuses for murdering their babies in their wombs. I have watched on as women have found reasons, have found excuses, have found justifications for their affairs, even multiple affairs. I have watched on as men have forgiven themselves for their own dalliances, cruderies, and their various addictions. They’re just being one of the boys. I was told. I have watched people plea bargain their so-called repentance with their spouse, with their employer, and with their church, as if repentance was a negotiation procedure. a process by which we come to agreement about how much of the blame is mine and how much of the blame is yours. I have watched on as people lied to their children, as children lied to their parents, and as Church members lied to their elders, to the congregation and to God. than to offer a repentance in which they wouldn’t as much as break a sweat, let alone shed a tear.

I have witnessed repentances so insincere that the individuals involved have gone right out to do the exact same thing all over again. I have watched people sin as if they had a right to sin, as if it were guaranteed to them in the Constitution. And when these people coughed up their regrets, they acted as if their sin was someone else’s fault. And I have watched the tragic consequences of these halfway repentances. In some cases, chaotic homes, brutalized marriages, wounded children, dissipated lives. But in other cases, self-righteous smirks of self-satisfaction behind a wall of money, if not indifference. these people oblivious to the coming conflagration.

The repentance of Israel at the preaching of Samuel pictures the coming genuine repentance at the preaching of the gospel in preparation for the great and terrible day of the Lord. There is nothing halfway about this repentance. By way of such a repentance, Israel returns now to the Lord. That is the language of Samuel as he preaches his message. Israel returns to the Lord. She goes back to the Lord, forsaking even where she is presently in the midst of all of her idolatry. Repentance then means a return, it means a restart, a going back, and that’s precisely what is underscored in the ministry of John the Baptist. Why do you think he’s out in the wilderness? Why do you think he’s at the Jordan? He’s going back to the origins of Israel’s history, so that the nation might begin again. They’re starting over.

That’s the nature of repentance. You go back, you return. to start again, and you leave behind that world that has become so dear to you, and the practices and even the abilities that you have cultivated within it. Not just crisis, then, but return. and also in repentance now and keeping what we find here with what we find here in 1 Samuel 7.

All the idols, as has already been mentioned, all the idols are put away from Israel for the exclusive worship of the Lord alone. Are we now at the closure point? You can stand with me for the crisis. You can even listen to me when I speak to you about the return.

But now things might start to become very difficult for you, because at the very center of this repentance is the matter of worship, the exclusive worship of God, the Word alone. Repentance, to be sure, is utter and complete prostration, without excuse, without reservation, without hesitation, with a comprehension of the crisis and God’s approach. I will turn to him and write of that return. But repentance is also a forsaking of all others for the sake of the Lord himself, for his own sake, for him. I forsake it all for him. Repentance is therefore measured by one’s devotion in and through worship.

Are there those who are claiming repentance who will not go to church, will not, refuse, who will not worship? My friends, this is no genuine repentance. Because worship is right at the center of the thing. Now, I know that I’ve intruded into the lives of some of you. You have dear friends, you have family members who will not go to church, who will not worship God. Oh, yes, they worship God in their own mess. Foolishly. It is not true.

We are dealing here with a biblical definition of repentance, and that definition includes this matter of worship. Repentance is a forsaking of all others for the sake of the Lord. Repentance is measured by one’s devotion in and to worship, which is itself an utter and complete prostration toward God. I can’t see your soul, but I hope that all of your souls are prostrating before the Lord right now. Repentance is worship.

And one’s reaction to and involvement with worship becomes a major way in which the genuine nature of repentance is assessed. And how could worship How could repentance be other than worship since repentance in itself anticipates my posture and your posture when God comes?

Let me ask you about your posture on the Day of Judgment. How do you envision it? Walking in and having a casual conversation with your good buddy God? I don’t think so. In keeping with this, the announcement of the kingdom demands of me and of you our forsaking of all allegiances and our sole concentration upon the Lord himself, whose kingdom is coming. Turn from your idols and worship the Lord alone. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. If you have not repented, may God be pleased to bring you to it today. Don’t hold back.

If you will repent, you will find what others have found. that there is, even in the repentance itself, a full sufficiency for it found in Jesus Christ, who in subjecting himself to John’s baptism underwent a vicarious repentance for you. He who needed no repentance underwent a repentance in his baptism for you. so that you, in coming to repentance, would have all that you need, even in the repentance itself.

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.

March 8, 1998
Samuel’s Itinerant Ministry

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, February 22, 1998.

About this sermon

Samuel returns to active ministry in verse 3 and sets the pattern for his whole later circuit, prefiguring Christ’s continual, moving ministry. True repentance transforms a person, while its counterfeits only regret. Christ’s kingdom, like Samuel’s ministry, lives by that ongoing transformation.

More sermons from 1 Samuel · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

We are in 1 Samuel chapter 7, reading from verse 3. This is the word of God. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreth from among you. and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtoreth and served the Lord only.

Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord.’ And they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.’ And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

And the children of Israel cried to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a second lamb and offered it for a burnt offering, holy unto the Lord. And Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near. to battle against Israel, but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel.

And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under Beth-kar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shem, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”

So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron even unto Gath. And the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in the circuit to Bethel, to Gilgal and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Ramah, for that was his home. And there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord. After that, John was put in prison.

Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Pray with me now. Do help us, O God, in our hearing, and be with me in my speaking. And may we, O God, give our attention to you as is right. May our spirits be focused and concentrated from the beginning of our worship to its conclusion. Father, may it be so for us, and may it be so for your people throughout the world, even as your word, even as the gospel, is proclaimed. We pray it through Christ, who reigns above. Amen. Thank you.

Samuel has been absent from the story in 1 Samuel since chapter 4 verse 1. But now he reappears in chapter 7 verse 3. But you must understand the reason why Samuel reappears. He does not reappear in this story at this point in the interests of a national Jewish as if the foundations of the national moral order had collapsed, as if the fabric of the moral character of Israel had unraveled, and Samuel had now appeared on the scene for the purpose of reconstructing lost national identity and resolve.

Therefore, it is not as if in labelling Israel’s social ills or cataloguing all of her moral weaknesses, Samuel arrives with just the right prescription, just the right medicine, all the appropriate answers to return Israel to her former glory days. as if he had appeared to salvage the nation through just the right blend of political, economic, social, moral, and religious concern.

Nor does Samuel step out of the shadows in order to resurrect and ignored, neglected, if not forgotten, Jewish world and life view. A Jewish Belsen Shalom. As if Samuel were the agent of a virtual Jewish renaissance, within the nation with respect to her culture, in which all aspects of Jewish life are now again properly balanced and limited because of their relationship to a transcendent religious norm. Nor does Samuel come forward because he has observed a particularly neglected segment of Jewish society. His mother Hannah was a great woman, but the structure of Jewish society made it impossible for her to reach her full potential. to receive the recognition and enjoy the empowerment rightfully belonging to her. Might Samuel’s appearance then be for the purpose of addressing the evils inherent to a wicked patriarchal system? Or maybe it is. that Samuel feels the pain of one of the many tribes in the Israelite commonwealth.

Maybe he’s especially sensitive to the pain of the Benjaminites. They are a diminished tribe. They lack numerical strength. They are particularly high-pressed, and we are aware of that if we remember the conclusion of the Book of Judges, where the tribe of Benjamin took it on the nose.

But maybe it was more than Samuel could bear. He could stand it no longer, his conscience suppressed too long. He no more must speak out, no, he must act. He marches out, he having become convinced that God, if there be a God, has no cause presently but the cause of the oppressed Benjaminites. and that God has no existence if God be God, but that existence which is expressed in the cause for equality for the Benjaminites. I am the first to admit that this is a very difficult message, because the train is about to run over many of our most cherished convictions and attitudes. If it has not already. The worst isn’t over. The worst in this message is yet to come.

Samuel does not reappear in 1 Samuel 7 in the interest of any of these things I’ve spoken. But for the sake of something of far greater significance, Samuel reappears for the sake of the kingdom of God, and in the spirit of that kingdom he comes. But even here, Even here we must be very careful, and I say that we must be very careful, because in identifying the interest of his reappearance as being along a spiritual line, we are liable again to misread the Scripture’s intention.

Samuel most certainly does not come in the interests of Israel’s social, cultural, and moral reconstruction. Neither is his purpose the correcting of society’s injustices. But by the same token, neither is Samuel the emissary of a religious revival. At least not as we have come to understand religious revivals. At no point in this Biblical account is there any indication that at a certain point in Libertarianism, he decided to follow God. And there he has committed himself to bring people back to the Lord. We have no suggestion in this story or in Samuel of some sort of inner spiritual crisis that he could use later as the bedrock for his ministry as he appealed to others that they might have a similar inner spiritual crisis. Nor are we given any testimony from any who gathered around Samuel in recognition of his calling as a prophet and a judge.

Any recognition of those who would gather around him acknowledging his calling, who would then provide support for his revival campaigns, who would orchestrate and manage his schedule, who would raise his money, who would enlist celebrities, distribute publicity, and generally guarantee the success, the statistically driven bottom line of all of his visits here and there in Israel. Now, I am serious. There are different tracks that you can be on in this Christianity business. And it is imperative that the Church of Jesus Christ now begin to take stock of exactly what track she is on.

Samuel is not the instrument of commercial religion. He is not the instrument or the tool of pen-style religion. Instead, Samuel is the instrument of the kingdom of God, from God’s own sovereign plan of redemption, the story of salvation. Samuel does not live and serve for the sake of a repeatedly revisited religious rush, revivalistic style, through which the backsliding, if not the unconverted Israelite masses, might have yet another chance to get it right with God.

It is true that the conclusion of 1 Samuel 7, Samuel, does itinerate. He does move from place to place, but his itineration is for the purpose of judging Israel, not evangelizing Israel, verse 16. Samuel’s ministry is the nurturing and admonishing ministry directed toward the Old Testament Church, as Samuel in his movements anticipates the coming continual presence of Jesus Christ’s constant ministry to his people. That’s what’s going on at the end of 1 Samuel 7. In Samuel’s itinerating ministry, we see an effectual ministry of continued nurture and admonition to God’s covenant people, His Church, with elect, rising out of the distinctive acts of God earlier performed in and through Samuel. at the center of which now stands, according to verse 17, an altar established by the prophet, priest and judge Samuel, in anticipation of the true altar established in glory of God by the true prophet, priest and judge Jesus Christ. This means, then, that when Samuel is reintroduced in verse 3 of that 7th chapter, it has nothing to do with the regularly repeated religious rushes of revivals.

As if the cycle has now commenced for Samuel’s career as a mass evangelist. In actual fact, Samuel’s reappearance has everything to do not with the often repeated revival events, but with the once-for-all accomplished definitive event of the coming of the Kingdom of God. Here, in provisional, shadow-and-testament form, the coming conclusive work of God rushes upon us, we who fear of it.

I might, just in passing, note for you that the repeated religious rush of revivals and revivalism is the evangelical counterpart to the repeated religious sacrificial rush of the Roman Catholic mass. Both the general and genuine interest of the gospel and the true spirit of the Protestant Reformation stand opposite to revivalism. This is not your heritage. This is not the train you are on.

I trust that by now what I am telling you helps you to see the events in 1 Samuel 7, not in terms of what you might hope to see and often repeated in your experience, but in terms of the realization of the gospel in the unrepeatable event of the coming of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And Samuel comes then when he reappears in verse 3 of chapter 7, he does so in such a way that we perceive in him the coming ministry, attendant to the kingdom, in its appearance. We perceive in it something of the ministry of John the Baptist and of Jesus Christ himself, both of whom preach repentance and faith because the kingdom has died. Samuel preaches repentance and faith. You hear it in his message, in his words. It is as if you can hear in Samuel’s words, Jesus O, repent and believe the gospel.

Mark 1.15. Samuel’s message of repentance comes in the words, return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve him alone. The call to believe the gospel, the good news, is heard in Samuel’s words, and the Lord will deliver you from the hands of the Philistines.

The remarkable response to this Old Testament picture of the preaching of the gospel is not because of Samuel’s charm, or his good looks, or his cleverness. It is in demonstration of the power of God’s word. God himself moving his people to respond in repentance and faith.

And the fact that all Israel responds has nothing to do with any notion of universal salvation, but everything to do with the truth concerning God’s election. The uniform response to Samuel’s message expresses the biblical truth that all the elect And all who are of the true Israel will, in fact, be saved. But note further, the repentance and faith worked in Israel by God through Samuel’s word is thoroughly religious in character.

It focuses upon God himself and upon pure worship, a worship that repudiates forms and images, a worship that is established away from the tabernacle and without the Ark of the Covenant. both of which have been prominent in the story of Israel to this point. In other words, such worship is now in view, as Christ will announce, as the extension of his gospel, worship that is in spirit and in truth.

In fact, the defeat of the Philistines is promised specifically without any mention of the Ark of the Covenant being made, the Ark having figured so prominently in the early story about Israel’s encounter with the Philistines, chapter 4. It is as if the story of the ark in 1 Samuel 4, up until 1 Samuel 7, was the equivalent of the Old Testament administration under its external forms. And the disappearance of the ark now with 1 Samuel 7, 2, and the appearance of Samuel in 1 Samuel 7, verse 3, is the equivalent of the dawning of the New Testament age. The first preaching of repentance and faith by Samuel in verses 3 and 4 here leads to the convening of the assembly of the Old Testament Church, verse 5 and following, which in the deepening of her faith and repentance, through a constant humility and faithful confession, now awaits at her watchtower at Mizpah, on the basis of Christ’s completed work, the final onslaught of the dreaded enemy.

This enemy shall not be overcome by Israel’s own strength or by her own doing, but only by God and in God, and only through the effectual ministry of Jesus Christ, who makes continual intercession for his Church. The Church’s enemy is overcome only through the effectual benefit of Christ’s own sacrifice, he being the Lamb of God, the final true birth, sacrifice, and offering, presented to God for the preservation of all who are true to God, the true Israel of God, a preservation administered from heaven, and the heavenly altar from which our exalted prophet, priest, and king conducts in the Spirit his present ministry among us. Here is the gospel reading of 1 Samuel 7.

It stands over against the nationalist, cultural, moralistic readings of this chapter. It also stands over against the revivalist reading of this text. The revivalist reading of this text has no appreciation for the definitive, completed, once-for-all character of what 1 Samuel 7 is saying. It instead lives by and for the repeat of the events described herein. More particularly, to the extent 1 Samuel can be judged meaningful, so says the Revivalist interpretation, it must speak principally about an inner change in me.

The gospel reading of the text does not ignore the inner transformation within the sinner. But what it does is place that transformation not in the context of potentially perpetually repeated religious experiences, but in the context of the coming of the Kingdom of God in Jesus Christ, a divine and conclusive event in which you now have been caused to share, into which you have been brought for participation. By the same token, the gospel reading of this chapter includes a gospel reading of verse 6. When we read about the Israelites drawing water and pouring it out before the Lord and fasting on that day and saying, we have sinned against the Lord, the gospel reading of this chapter includes a gospel reading of verse 6. And this verse sets before you the constant disposition of those who have come into the kingdom. The revivalist approach would read verse 6 as an example of the periodic, intermittent, personal religious paroxysms to which we might come from time to time in our lives.

The Gospel reading sees the text as reflective of the continual spiritual attitude and posture of Christ’s people as they, having been gathered by Christ to their mispot, that is, their watchtower, they now await God’s final deliverance at the end of the world.

The pouring out of the water is a way of life, folks. It is not an occasional experience for you, it is a way of life. The confession that is being made here by the people where they state the case concerning themselves and their sin is a way of life. It is not an occasional experience that we resort to from time to time in our lives. This is a description of the people of God. This is a description of you until Christ comes again. Is it not true that you are awaiting the deliverance finally from the last enemy death? Is that not true? Are you not well set upon your watchtower to await the coming of Christ? And while you wait, what do you do?

You pour your heart out, your soul like water upon the earth, and you maintain in faithfulness your confession of your sins and the greatness and the glory of God. That’s how you live. And in conclusion, the revivalist reading of verses 15 through 17 here finds in these verses an example of the kind of itinerating demanded by every true and respected evangelist as he moves in the interests of bringing revival and producing religious crisis in the lives of those who hear him. The Gospel reading sees here the foreshadowing of the enduring ministry of Jesus Christ. who moves by his Spirit among his people, the Church, to constantly nourish and admonish them on the basis of his finished work, a work in which you have been included. He moves among you for the sake of your access to the heavenly sanctuary and the altar that has been established there over which he presides. You see in Samuel Christ and his coming service and ministry to the Church, to you.

This does not mean that the evangelistic word will not go out. This does not mean that souls will not be changed. And you, some of you, are testimony of that today. You can tell the story of your own transformation. This is not a denial of any of that. It is merely to tell you that your story of transformation, of inner reformation, is now subordinated to the grand and glorious story of God’s accomplishments in the transition of the ages. when he turned time upside down and changed everything.

This message is not meant to diminish in any way the evangelistic call of the Church of Jesus Christ and our commitment to missions. But we would see, in fact, God raising up many who are gifted, who carry his word to the end of the earth, who build up the assemblies of God’s elect as they declare that word in his power. And it is not to mitigate in any way your own personal responsibility as you speak well of your Lord day by day and you live for him. in everything that you do. It is merely to place in context what is being said here in 1 Samuel 7, lest you be misled and you displace true things with false things and end up going down the wrong track. You dare not compromise the accomplished, finished work of Christ.

That is the foundation, that’s what you’re drawn to. You cannot allow yourself to slip into a religious mode of mind that leaves you subject to the rising and falling of your emotions, or whatever religious whim might be taking control of you at the moment. You are moving from one conversion experience to another. You are being born again a thousand times before you reach the end of your life. That is not biblical religion. That is not biblical Christianity. to invest our money and our interest, our energies, in such ministries as that, is misdirected.

And I would plead with you to see clearly here, and appeal from God himself, in Old Testament form, for the proper and right ministry of the Church, and the service which she renders. Here is a very difficult message, and I know that it is difficult for some of you to hear. You may even find it confusing and disorienting.

But I ask you to consider once more the accomplishment of Christ and the finished character of his ministry when he comes to bring the kingdom and the relationship of his test to what God is doing in that regard. This is my Ebenezer. in our gospel reading of 1 Samuel 7. Thus far hath the Lord helped us. our God, we stand before you and we ask, Lord, that we would receive the full benefit from your word which you have ordained for us, and that, Lord, that we might live before you as we ought to live, and that the things that are set before us here in this text this morning, by properly and rightly, grab hold of us that we in no way, O God, would compromise the accomplished work of Christ, that we in no way, O God, would diminish the significance of the appearance of our Savior and the realization of the kingdom of God in him, and that we would see, O Father, that even this text is preaching to us these things and teaching us about them. Father, we ask at your church at the same time, that she is zealous for a proper and right reading of the text, might also be zealous for a proper discharge of her responsibility in the realm of evangelism and missions.

And may it please you, O God, to raise up many who will proclaim your word, and may you be pleased to even raise them up from this church. And may your gospel be published, and may sinners be converted, and may they be incorporated into Christ, and may they be a participant in the great transition of the ages, the coming of the kingdom in Christ.

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.

February 22, 1998
Ebenezer: Hitherto Helped

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, February 15, 1998.

About this sermon

Israel’s double repentance directly answers its earlier double defeat, restoring what sin had cost. The victory and peace that follow are already real and not yet complete, the same tension Paul describes in Philippians 3. Samuel’s stone, Ebenezer, ‘hitherto hath the LORD helped us,’ names both what has happened and what is still to come.

More sermons from 1 Samuel · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

We begin our scripture reading this morning in 1 Samuel 7, verse 3. Give your attention to the reading of God’s word. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreth that are among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ Then the children of Israel did put away Balaam and Ashtoreth and served the Lord only.

And Samuel said, and I will pray for you unto the Lord.’ And they gathered together to Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.’ And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. Then the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah, The lords of the Philistines went up against Israel, and when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.

And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord God for Israel. and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the bread offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel.

And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under Beth-kar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mishpah and Shem, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel, and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto Gath. And the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines, and there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.” And then turning over in the New Testament to the book of Philippians chapter 3. This is Philippians chapter 3, we begin reading at verse 7.

Paul says, But what things were given to me, those I counted lost for Christ? Yea, doubtless, and I have counted all things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. For whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but done, that I may win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that which is through faith, through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead. Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, for giving those things which are behind unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded, and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.” Brethren, be followers together with me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us. For an example, for many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Pray with me. Bless us, O God, as we would give our attention to you. We pray, Father, that you would have our undivided attention, that we would not be distracted by the things of the world, the thoughts that intrude into our minds, even those things in our hearts that would draw us aside, right in themselves, but not right presently. Father, we ask that we then, profiting from your word, would live obediently to you. For we ask these things, O God, as we come to your word through Christ, the living word. Amen.

When Samuel is reintroduced to us in 1 Samuel 7, verse 3, after not having been mentioned since chapter 4, verse 1, his reintroduction is meant to move the story along into the accounts about Saul and then, of course, about David. These figures still to appear in the book of 1 Samuel. Samuel, therefore, is a prophet, a priest, and a judge, whose ministry prepares us for the coming kingdom, the kingdom that will be manifest in David, and even beyond that, he is preparing us for the appearance of that kingdom of which the Old Testament kingdom is but a shadow. when Samuel is reintroduced to us here in 1 Samuel 7 verse 3.

He is meant to bring to a conclusion the story the Holy Spirit has been telling. He is meant to move us along, but also he is meant to bring us to a conclusion. A conclusion in this particular story which the Holy Spirit has been telling. Now, there are many indications of this in the text itself. Many indications that a conclusion of sorts is in the purview of the Spirit. Just to name a few.

With the reappearance of Samuel here in 1 Samuel 7, there is also the reappearance of the phrase, All Israel, or as it is expanded in 1 Samuel 7, All the house of Israel. If you look for instance to chapter 4 verse 1, you find these words, The word of Samuel came to all Israel. This is the last, either all Samuel or all Israel or Samuel are mentioned until we arrive at the seventh chapter. But in the seventh chapter, both are reintroduced and both together, Samuel and all Israel. In verse 2, as praying to Samuel’s reappearance, the Holy Spirit tells us, “‘All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.’” Again, in verse 3, “‘Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel,’ and moving down to verse 4, “‘Then Samuel said, Gather all Israel to myself.’” The reintroduction of the phrase, All Israel, together with the reappearance of Samuel, is intended to form a literary wrap, a literary wrap and closure on these chapters. As we come to what is given to us in the seventh chapter, then, we are taken back to the point where we last saw Samuel and all Israel.

Another indication that Samuel’s reappearance is meant to conclude the story that the Holy Spirit has been telling. is the repetition in this story that we find in 1 Samuel 7 of the place named Ebenezer, mentioned for you in verse 12. When Samuel took a stone and set it between Mishpah and Shem, and named it Ebenezer, that you will remember. that this is the name of Israel’s camp, mentioned previously once more in verse 1 of chapter 4, the place at which Israel’s army had gathered before its devastating double defeat at the hands of the Philistines. This man, Ebenezer, is resurrected to memorialize Israel’s victory in God the Savior.

We can judge, therefore, with the double mention of Ebenezer, with the complete inversion of the other. We mingle from the defeat in chapter 4 and the mention of Ebenezer there, to the victories of chapter 7 and the mention of Ebenezer there, that the Ebenezer of chapter 7 is the answer to the resolution of the Ebenezer of chapter 4. Ebenezer in chapter 7, then, is the closing of the tale, the concluding of the story, the reversal, the inversion of what had been described, what had been told earlier. But this story that we have here is also completed in keeping with the intention of the Holy Spirit, not simply by the inversion of the two Ebenezers, but also by the reversal in Israel’s spiritual condition and in the outcome of her circumstance as we move through the account that is given to us here.

You might have noticed, for instance, As we were reading the text this morning, the double repentance from Israel in those early verses of chapter 7, the double repentance that is recorded there. Verse 4, and then again repeated verse 6, a double repentance. Might it be that this double repentance answers and resolves the double defeat spoken of concerning the Israelites at the hands of the Philistines in chapter 4 when the story began? The double repentance, the doubling of it, answering the double defeat at the beginning, the reversal, the turning inside out of Israel’s condition spiritually.

Beyond this, as we look at it closely, there is the wonderful abject contrition now observed in Israel. the ever-prosperation of spirit, and this most definitely answering and resolving the arrogant ignorance we witnessed earlier in the story when Israel under Hophni and Phinehas, those wicked priests, brought the Ark of the Covenant into the camp, thinking that they might then guarantee for themselves their army’s victory.

The sheer weight of these clear and close correspondences is, in my judgment then, conclusive. When Samuel is reintroduced to us in 1 Samuel 7, verse 3, and that in company of all Israel, he is meant to bring to conclusion the story the Holy Spirit has been telling us, especially since chapter 4, verse 1. You have a wrap, a closure. But just how great a closure and a conclusion to which the Holy Spirit is bringing us may in fact surprise us. Possibly you sensed some of the magnitude of it. of this conclusion and closure when we were reading verses 13 and 14 this morning in that seventh chapter.

The way in which these verses read makes it sound as if Israel has been brought into something of a perfect state of peace. as if Israel has been brought into the full possession of her territorial inheritance. So full is this possession, and so perfect this peace, that from the plain reading of the text, one would think that nothing less than the coming glory of David’s kingdom had arrived. had already been reached. But you will note further that as you read these verses, and especially as you read the thirteenth verse, there is something of an absolute quality given to the words. So the Philistines were conquered and did not come any more.

Now, you may have some real difficulty here. You may have some real trouble, because you know the story of Israel in 1 Samuel. You are aware of what is coming. You may in fact have difficulty understanding this statement in verse 13 of chapter 7, because you know what’s coming in 1 Samuel 13 and 16, and the accounts that are given there are for this keen invasion into the territory of Israel and back even while Samuel is still living.

Is 1 Samuel 7.13 wrong? Has an historical inaccuracy intruded upon the text? Are those who have given up on the inerrancy of Scripture and its infallibility correct? Why the incongruity? Why the discrepancy?

There’s no error here. There is no inaccuracy here. This message is what the Holy Spirit has given, the Holy Spirit and what he inspires in verses 13 and 14 of chapter 7 wants you to see in God’s victory over the Philistines the impression of the coming triumph of David’s kingdom, that even more than that, The Holy Spirit wants you to see, in God’s victory over the Philistines, the conclusive, the final triumph of God, when he, in awesome finality, will deliver his people into the ultimate peace in which they will lay hold of the true inheritance in full. That is what is intruding upon the test. It is as if the present victory of God over the Philistines partakes of the yet future day when all God’s enemies will be vanquished and his people will live forever in perfect security and serenity.

You are being given a picture of it. Now, your response to this spiritual reading of verses 13 and 14 in 1 Samuel 7 may well be, I still sense the incongruity, I still feel the tension as I move from this verse, these verses into what comes later. But don’t you see? That’s specifically what the Holy Spirit wants you to feel. He wants you to feel that tension. He wants that tension to register upon you.

He has this in the text so that you will stop in your tracks and you will begin to consider why it’s there. that your response to this spiritual reading of the text may also be, but doesn’t this leave then the Israelites, as they are described here, just a little bit detached from reality?

Obviously the great kingdom of God, be it David’s or the final kingdom, has not arrived yet. And still these Israelites have themselves described in certain ways here as if it had arrived. But once more you have to realize that the Holy Spirit himself is not unaware of the tension that he has placed deliberately within the text. It’s his way of forcing you to consider the issue. of glory when they aren’t in glory yet? How does this make any sense?

To be sure, the victory of the Lord has cast upon Israel the radiant light of David’s coming kingdom, but even beyond that, the radiant light of the consummate salvation of God’s people. as if that glory had already arrived for his people. But at the same time, Samuel, the Lord’s servant, the emissary of the Holy Spirit who is responsible for what you find here in this text, that servant of the Lord is inspired of the Spirit to set up a memorial, a reminder, that the world’s people, although in some sense partaking already of glory, have not yet reached the final expression and the full enjoyment of those blessings to which verses 13 and 14 point. Thus you have, verse 12, we’ve backed up through the text, Samuel takes the stone, he sets it between Mishpah and Shem. He calls the memorial rock Ebenezer, which means stone of hope, and then he declares, thus saw, to this point, or as the King James has it, hitherto, the Lord hath helped us. In powerful images with staggering vocabulary, in wonderful heightened blessings magnificently described in verses 13 and 14, the already of the kingdom overlays Israel’s life as if the kingdom’s consummate glory had arrived. But memorialized for Israel as she enters upon those blessings, mediating her appreciation and appropriation of those blessings is this rock. This memorial rock, Ebenezer, a witness to the not-yet of Israel’s attainment. The already-not-yet is in the Old Testament.

Now, I will be bold in my speculations. and some of you have judged me to be so. But I am bold in these speculations again at this point. I take my cue from Samuel’s naming of that memorial stone in verse 12, to conclude that the name that he assigns points us in the direction of the significance of the other names given. The naming of the stone points us in the direction of the significance of the other names and sites mentioned, between which then that stone of memorial is placed. Watchtower. That’s what the name means. Watchtower. Shen. Tooth. Tooth.

Or Fang. do I venture too far to suggest to you that God has brought Israel thus far by his mighty work as she stands in her present life short of glory between the call to stand guard on her watchtower, Mizpah, and the threat of death by the teeth of enemies more heinous and even more subtle and more persistent than the Philistines’ shed.

I wouldn’t be so blind to suggest these things to you. if there were such powerful parallels found for us in our situation, in our circumstance. We, the leaders here, the Church of Jesus Christ, have been blessed by the arrival of the Eternal Kingdom through our Savior Jesus Christ in a way the Old Testament Israel of 1 Samuel 7 could only faintly anticipate.

In Christ we have been blessed already with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, so says Paul, Ephesians 1.3. But such blessing, real and true, in all of its heavenly magnificence, does not mitigate for us the all-too-clear character of the not-yet nature of our lives. We therefore, after the pattern of what we have found here in 1 Samuel 7, see ourselves between truth and sour, between sin and mischief, on the alert and also subject to attack. on the alert in our watchtower and subject to attack from those who would devour us. While we at the same time declare, taking our stand upon our memorial rock, Jesus Christ himself. Thus far, liturgy hath the Lord helped us.

Peter reminds you where you stand with his own tooth and tower statement. Be silver, he writes, be on the earth. There’s the tower. Your adversary the devil prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. You stand in your life presently short of glory between tooth and tower. That it is called to in the spirit provides you with the quintessential tooth and tower statement. I have in mind Philippians 3.

Blessed already with kingdom glory, marrying Jesus Christ, having Jesus Christ, gaining Christ as Lord, Paul knows he must as yet attain unto the resurrection, verse 11, the not yet of his experience. He fully realizes his not yet situation, and from his evanescer, that is, from Jesus Christ, that one who has laid hold on him, verse 12, he presses on toward the goal for the prize of the upward path of God in Christ, verse 14. to the enemies of the cross, who prefer the earth, who prefer to feed their own stomachs and gullies their own lusts, who prefer this world even over against heaven and its glory. directly to some of you today, some deeply beloved by many who have lost their way. Can you not see yourselves afresh with the rest of us here in the Church of Christ? in vital connection to a text like 1 Samuel 7, even as this chapter prepares you for the conclusion of all things summed up in Jesus Christ your Savior.

Will you not recognize yourselves in the Israel brought to Ebenezer? and brought there by way of repentance, brought there by way of the triumph of God over your enemies. Will you not recognize yourself in the Israel brought to Ebenezer? And will you not acknowledge afresh, Jesus Christ is death and resurrection as your stone of help, even while you stand between tooth and tower. And will you not, as you find yourself presently between tooth and tower, the wonderful glories of heaven even presently being mediated unto you, will you not content yourself to wait faithfully, faithfully and patiently for the appearance of your Savior from heaven, whose appearance will mean that your vile’s body will be transformed into the likeness of his glorious body.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mithra and Shem, and named it Ebenezer, saying Hitherto has the Lord helped us. Let us pray. O our Lord, we pray that we might Realize where we stand, where you have positioned us, that in keeping with your sovereignty, your almighty power and purpose, and that though we find ourselves called upon to always be on the alert, and though we are perpetually warned against the danger of those that would seek to devour us, In our present condition, let us delight in the glories of Christ’s accomplished redemption for us. But at the same time, Father, be thoroughly and completely serious about our position and the jeopardy in which we still stand. Help us all, we the new Israel, to always be on the alert, and to reside in you our protection against the teeth of every enemy, even unto the day of Christ. May it so be.

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.

February 15, 1998
Samuel’s Prophetic Silence

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, February 8, 1998.

About this sermon

Ahab and Eli both function as mixed figures, capable of real faithfulness and real failure at once, not simply villains. Samuel’s own near-total disappearance from the narrative between 4:2 and 7:2 turns out to be prophetic rather than accidental. That silence anticipates both John the Baptist’s wilderness years and Christ’s own hidden decades before his ministry began.

More sermons from 1 Samuel · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

We begin our scripture reading this morning in 1 Samuel 7. We are at verse 3. Give your attention to God’s word. and Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If you do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistine.”

Then the children of Israel did put away Baleen and Ashtaroth and served the Lord only. Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. And they gathered together at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, We have sinned against the Lord. Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah. And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpah, the words of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And Samuel took a second lamb and offered it for a great offering wholly unto the Lord. And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him. And as Samuel was offering up the great offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel.

But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mista and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under death’s car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mista and Shem and called the name of it Ebenezer, So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coasts of Israel, and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron, even under Gath. And the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines.

And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites, and Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in circuits to Bethel and Gilgal and Mispah, and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Ramah, for there his house was, and there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord.”

And turning over to the book of 1 Kings, chapter 18, beginning with verse 41, this is 1 Kings 18.41.

And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink, for there is a sound of abundance of rain. So Ahab went up to eat and to drink, and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. And he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees, and said to his servant, Go up now, and look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go up again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time that he said, Behold, there arises a little cloud out of the sea like a man’s hand.

And he said, Go up and say unto Ahab, prepare thy chariot and get thee down, that the rain stop thee not.’ And it came to pass in the meanwhile that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain, and Ahab rode and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel.”

Pray with me now. Our Father, may there be for the good of our souls the building line upon line from your word, that even as there is this building enterprise for your word, there would be your building enterprise in us as we are built up in the knowledge of our God and built up unto the full maturity of Christ our Savior. Lord, bear with us in our weaknesses, bear with the weaknesses of your people, be gracious for Christ and may we, in the confidence of his cross and resurrection, continue to offer our petitions and to live our lives in thankful acknowledgment of all that he has done. In this day, O Lord, as your word has been a benefit to us, may it be a benefit to many. and may your church be established to your glory. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Is it possible for someone in the Bible to appear to us in two distinct lights? To be presented to us in two distinct hues? Now, I have in mind here a little more than the moral and spiritual ambivalence we observe in any number of figures throughout the course of Scripture.

Something more than the temporary moral collapse we observed in David, for instance. Even more than the spiritual obtuseness we observed in, say, Peter in Accessory of Sinoplast, Jesus rebuked him for standing between him and the cross, for minding the things of man, not the things of God. Although Peter and David may be compressed examples of the things I have in mind, I’m thinking more about a figure like Ahab, that wicked king of Israel whose wife was the equally, if not more, wicked Jezebel. This vile man absorbs into himself all that was corrupt in Israel.

He is a man of whom we might say he had no revealing features. At the same time, he becomes Exhibit A for the very thing of which I speak. someone made to appear in a completely different light than that which we might expect. And I’m thinking about the story in 1 Kings 18, verses 41 and following, which we have read. It is a story in which Ahab is made to look, believe it or not, very, very good. In fact, here is a story in which Ahab is made to look so good that he appears to be someone no less in stature than the royal son of God.

Elijah, you will remember, has slain the prophets of Baal earlier in this chapter. And that after the contest on the heights of Carmel, where Elijah had challenged those prophets of Baal to prove that Baal was God, the true God. But even after this triumph for Jehovah and the prophet Elijah, The drought that has been plaguing Israel for three years continues. So the story goes on and tells us about Elijah’s effectually fervent prayer for a way and the answer to that prayer.

Finally it is. The heavy showers come. that not before Elijah sends word to Ahab to be sure to precede those rains to Jezreel, his capital city. But as Ahab races towards the city ahead of those showers, Elijah, we are told, in the last verse of that eighteenth chapter and first case, Elijah, we are told, girded up his and ran before Ahab to the city. Now, you have this scene. Elijah, forerunner to the king. Elijah, forerunner to the king.

The king entering the city as the great showers of blessing ending the drought descends. I hope, even if you haven’t heard me speak on this text before, that you have run before me to the end of the story and into its meaning. This story, as obscure as it may appear, previews the coming of Christ, the true King of Israel. That one who will be preceded by his own Elijah, John the Baptist, that one who will enter into as the spiritual reigns from glory fall, eternally refreshing his people.

Ahab in 1 Kings 18, at the end of that chapter, stands before us as one upon whom and in whom the very Son of God shines, in whom we perceive the ultimate anointed one. So yes, someone in the Bible can appear to us in two distinct and even contrasting lights. You may recall some earlier messages from 1 Samuel. Eli himself, in certain instances, comes across quite positively that despite the negative judgment that is rendered upon him finally. You may recall Eli’s mediation beautifully presented on behalf of Cana in the first chapter. That mediation reflective of the coming mediation of the great priest Christ. And you might recall Eli’s response to the message from the child Samuel, Samuel having just received word from God concerning the judgment that was going to come on Eli’s house. Eli’s words at that time, strikingly powerful, wonderfully mature. It is the Lord. Let him do as seems fit to him.

But if a figure in scripture can be seen in one light in one story, and then in a different light in another story, Is it possible for someone in the Bible to appear to us in two distinct, different lights in the same story? Now, I readily admit I am very close to crossing over a line beyond which we are all liable to be lost in mass confusion. You might well be asking, well, just how many bells do I have to juggle when I’m interpreting the Bible? You might be asking further, why do you always make things so complicated?

If I go elsewhere, things seem to be quite simple, straightforward. When I come here, it’s like I’ve walked into a sophisticated golf game, and I don’t know the rules. I came in here expecting a little game of marbles. I find out that everybody’s playing chess. When I sit here and I listen to you, my brain begins to hurt.

I like the oldies, but you seem to like the real oldies. Be assured, my goal continues to be communication, not application. But my goal also remains to get to the bottom of the text. It remains the investigation with you and for you of the complexities of Scripture in order to open up with you and for you the full disclosure that God makes of Himself in His Word. That is why I forge on. That is why I insist upon this direction. and this type of preaching and exposition. Therefore, I ask again in all seriousness, despite the complication, is it possible for someone in the Bible to appear to us in two different lights in the same story? not in successive stories, but in the same story.

Take Samuel now, for instance, and his relationship to what we find in 1 Samuel 4-7. We spent time last week looking at these chapters in Ben Wright. investigating in them how Samuel, over the course of what is described here, embodies the whole of the Old Testament prophetic ministry of which he is the head. How, by looking at the events in 1 Samuel 4-7 and relating them to Samuel, we are able to see the history of the Old Testament people of God as they move through their history as a nation under the prophets.

Therefore, as I have said again and again, Israel’s double defeat at the hands of the Philistines at the beginning of 1 Samuel 4 anticipates the coming future double defeat of the nation of Israel in its northern and southern kingdom. The exile of the Ark of the Covenant in chapters 5 and 6 anticipates the exile of the people of God, particularly the people of Judah, exiled into Babylon some 500 years later. And the restoration of the Ark of the Covenant at the end of chapter 6 anticipates the restoration of the Jews to the land of Israel after the exile. with the sin of the men of Beth Shemesh spoken of in chapter 6 verse 9, anticipating the continuing corruption of the Jews after the restoration. The judgment of the Beth Shemesh that comes upon them anticipates the world’s censure of Israel’s nation for a form of worship that built upon externals such as the Ark of the Covenant, thus bringing us through the time of Malachi, the last of the Old Testament prophets, even to the end of the prophetic period.

And when Samuel 7 appears in 1 Samuel 7.3, with his message of repentance, After having been out of the scene for three chapters, we do not misjudge when we see in his appearance the capstone of the whole of the Old Testament prophetic ministry. We do not misjudge when we see in his appearance the anticipation of John the Baptist who leads us to Christ.

Now that’s quite a whirlwind tour. That’s quite a bicycle ride. But what happens now, if I discern in this very same picture in this very same story, another image altogether, one superimposed upon the other, as if you were looking at a double exposure. What if I were to say that somewhere the relationship to these chapters not only leads us to Christ, that also reveals Christ. What if I were to tell you in this one series of events, this one portion of scripture, you have the presentation of John the Baptist from one angle of vision, and then you are given an entirely different angle of vision, is in the same context. On the one hand, a figure who is leading us to Christ, but at the same time one in whom we perceive Christ himself.

What if I were to say that 1 Samuel 4-7 anticipates the entirety of the prophetic ministry leading to Christ, but also anticipates Christ himself and his ministry, which leads us up to nothing less than the end of the world. We have already had hints of Samuel’s Christ-likeness in the earlier chapters of 1 Samuel.

Hannah, Samuel’s mother, reads Samuel’s miraculous birth in light of the Lord’s climactic triumph over all the forces of evil. The bones of the mighty, she sings, are shattered, but they reach good on strength. Chapter 2, verse 4. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, she sings. He will give strength to his king and will exalt the throne of his anointed. Chapter 2, verse 10.

But beyond Hannah’s song, there is also Samuel’s presentation to us in those early chapters in priestly fashion. even though he has no priestly connection identified for us in the course of the text. He serves at the sanctuary in Shiloh, and he wears the linen ephod in priestly style, chapter 2, verse 18. But throughout the course of the story, throughout the course of the telling of the tale, there is not one word about a levitical connection for this person, Samuel.

He is presented, therefore, as one who, without priestly lineage, without priestly connection, assumes priestly status and performs priestly ministry. When looking for the reason for this, we are reminded, are we not, of the coming Christ, who, although being of the tribe of Judah, assumes priestly status and performs priestly ministry. He is no descendant of Levi, but in his priesthood he belongs to an eternal order, one that transcends the order of Levi. It is described in various places in scripture as the order of Melchizedek.

Samuel appearing as it were without any Levitical birthline prefigures Christ, who is similarly presented to us. But that brings us back to 1 Samuel 4-7, and the manner in which Samuel, in relationship to these chapters, presents to us and preaches Christ. Now, at first this may baffle you a bit, because as you look at these chapters, you note that As I have noted often in this series, Samuel disappears after chapter 4 verse 1, only to reappear three chapters later in chapter 7 verse 3. How then is Samuel to be approached in these chapters? How is Samuel to be related to Christ when Samuel doesn’t as much appear in the main course of what is being presented here? How are we to perceive Christ in Samuel when, in fact, Samuel has been removed from view?

You no longer see him there. Well, the point is, of course, and possibly you’ve raced on before me once more, the point is, of course, that Christ also is removed from view. and removed from the scene. He is removed from the scene and from view by his death, his resurrection, and his ascension into heaven. But now I observe carefully the pattern of things subsequent to his removal, Christ’s removal. First judgment comes upon the old Israel and its institutions, and the glory of Israel departs.

By way of the Church to the Gentiles. Next, the Gentile gods are overflown, and God’s enemies themselves are humbled through the gospel. Then Christ reappears. He comes again and vindicates His name among those who are called by His name, and among those to whom His glory has circulated.

But look again at the story of 1 Samuel 4-7. The pattern is exactly the same. It is identical, Samuel is removed from the scene in chapter 4 verse 1, just as Christ shall be removed from the scene by his death, resurrection and ascension. Judgment then comes upon Israel, and she is defeated at the hands of the Philistines, just as judgment comes upon Israel following Christ’s ascension at the hands of the Romans. Then Dagon, the Philistine god, is overthrown, and the Philistines are humiliated by the token of God’s presence through his Ark of the Covenant, just as the Gentile gods and even the spiritual powers behind them are overthrown, and at the same time the Gentile nations humbled by the token of God’s presence in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And finally, Samuel reappears. in the midst of the vindication of God’s name among those called by God’s name, namely Israel, and among those in whom his glory in the ark has circulated, namely the Philistines, just as Jesus Christ will reappear and vindicate his own name among those called by his name the Church, and among those to whom his glory in the gospel has circulated, namely the nation.”

Samuel’s reappearance in 1 Samuel 7.3 is like the second coming of Christ. This means that the story of 1 Samuel 4-7 not only leads up to the presentation of Jesus Christ, as we said last week, but these chapters declare the coming departure and return of Jesus Christ in the coming departure and return of sin.

So yes, It is possible for someone in the Bible to appear to us in two distinct lights in one and the same story. Because this is so, we have for us the depths of the scripture which cannot be fathomed, as their comprehensiveness confirmed, the extent of their reach. In fact, the reach of scripture startles us, because it appears that even a text like 1 Samuel 4-7 is so dynamic, is so vital, is so alive, that it reaches out to include us. You see, it may well be that these chapters present the history of Israel leading up to the appearance of John the Baptist, and in that sense we may say that they simply have historical since the events in view precede us and our time. But now it is clear that these chapters also present the history of Jesus Christ, from his ascension to his return, the very time in which you presently find yourself, the present time in which you live. these chapters, even these chapters, by God’s design, reach out to touch the end of the world.

That is why the liberal critics around, they would scour a text and look for indications of a lingered date of composition. And if they find reference to the exile in an Old Testament text, they say, well, this means that this text was written after the time of the exile.

Foolishness, baloney, garbage! They have no idea what they’re talking about, and they have virtually no comprehension. of what is in view in the Word of God. You can’t get to the end of the images and the references. Mention of the exile in a text prior to the happening of the exile in the history of Israel doesn’t mean that that text was written after the exile, it means that it was written by God. who sees the exile from afar, who even stands himself beyond the exile. These texts in the Old Testament are envisioning things that are taking place to the end of the world.

How do you get beyond that? Where do you date the text? These chapters, then, in 1 Samuel, preview the present time, the time in which you live, the time in which the crucified risen, ascended Christ triumphs over idols, humbles nations, overthrows spiritual strongholds in preparation for his sudden reappearance when he shall judge his Church and the world, just as Samuel presented in 1 Samuel 7 judges Israel and mediates the defeat of the Philistines. The question is, of course, do you rejoice in this present time in Christ’s present activity, and do you await with longing expectation the day of his reappearance? Are you prepared to greet him?

May it be so. Let’s pray. Our Father, we pray for a patient spirit as we look to your word, that we would wring out of that word all that you have for us. And if we are to see Samuel in the light of John the Baptist, O God, may we appropriate that. And as we are to see Samuel as a prefiguration of Christ himself, may we benefit from that. us in our determination that we will not allow that in which we engage, when it comes to the Scriptures, to become foolishness and childish. We would be stretched, O God, and challenged, even as you force us and prod us to the deep things of the kingdom, and that knowledge of you in the profoundest sense. May our service to you in this regard be like our service to you in all regards, even as we prepare ourselves for the return of our Savior. Samuel comes again, but there is one greater, Jesus Christ, and he even presently is preparing to reappear. O Lord, may we be ready. 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.

February 8, 1998
Samuel, John, and 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, February 1, 1998.

About this sermon

Acts 3:24 treats Samuel’s prophecy as foundational to everything the later prophets say, a claim worth taking seriously rather than passing over. Abraham’s own itinerary through Genesis 12-14 already displays God’s predestining hand at work, long before Samuel. A straight line runs from Samuel through John the Baptist to Christ himself.

More sermons from 1 Samuel · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Our scripture reading begins in 1 Samuel 7, beginning at verse 3. This is God’s word. And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’ Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtoreth and served the Lord only. Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord. and they gathered together to Mizpah, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord.’ And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpah.”

Then turning to the New Testament, Acts chapter 3, picking up with this account at verse 11, Acts 3, verse 11, And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. And when Peter saw, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why do ye marvel at this? And why do ye look so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?

The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his son Jesus, whom he delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.

And his name, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong. whom ye see or know, yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that through ignorance ye did it, and did also your rulers, that those things which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted. that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.

And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me. Him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you. And it shall come to pass that every soul which will not hear that prophet shall be destroyed from among the people. Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days. the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in my seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, and turning away every one of you from his iniquity.”

Father, by your Spirit you give us life, and that Spirit joined inseparably with your Word. We, having received the Word and treasured it, receive your Spirit and treasure him. O God, he is as a witness to your Son, and Lord, we would receive that witness gladly joyfully, even as we hear him exalted in the proclamation of the word. May your church so proclaim Christ, even to the close of the age. We ask it in his name. Amen.

It is not easy for us to understand the significance of sin. It is not easy for us to understand the full meaning of his reappearance here in 1 Samuel 7 verse 3, after he had last been mentioned to us in chapter 4 verse 1. To do justice to either of these matters, his significance and his reappearance in the text, our hearts must be truly alive to God and His worth. Now, the reason I say this to you is not that I want to make you feel small, because you haven’t come up with the things that I’m going to come up with as we preach through this portion of Scripture.

God gives us teachers for our benefit. and may he continue to give us very good teachers in abundance. Now, the reason I tell you that your hearts must be alive to God and his word in order to grasp Samuel and to appreciate more fully his re-appearance here in 1 Samuel 7 is because it is the heart alive to God and his word that will resonate to the opening up of the man, the presentation of the man, and the flowering of the text, as that is laid bare before you. And it is that heart, alive to God in his Word, that will rejoice in greater appreciation to God at the marvels of his revelation. God continually enables us to see many things in his Word.

As we mature, may he grant us greater insight and illumination, always. But it is important to remember that here at the outset of this message and in these prefatory remarks, I have joined God to his word, and that we dare not separate the two. even though many do.

How sad it is, therefore, to observe those who say that they are alive to God, who claim that they are alive to God, but have no real or genuine interest in His Word. By some route or other, they have come to the spiritual vitality. that it is not specifically related to his Word. They have notions of God, they feel after the Deity and after the Divine, they have mystical experiences, but none of this is specifically related to the Word of God. For such as these, I dare say, a sermon on the significance of Samuel or the full meaning of his reintroduction in 1 Samuel 7 will be of little or no consequence. Such people, sadly, are not in need of the history of redemption or the history of God’s dealings with his people. They have God, very self-assuredly. They have God by way of their experience, and that satisfies them.

Of course, we might well reverse the matter. say that they have great interest in the historical figure of Samuel, and their names and claims do have interest in the details of 1 Samuel 7, while at the same time not being alive to the true God who speaks in his Word. College and seminary libraries have shelves lined with books from just such people.

May we all be alive to God and his word. reprising that word from our Lord more and more, more than money, more than silver and gold. That word being sweeter to us than honey dripping from a honeycomb. Our hearts bursting with spiritual delight as our God is more fully disclosed to us, even in the figure of Samuel. and in a text like 1 Samuel 7. As for the significance of Samuel, let me direct your attention once again to that classic we being committed to compare scripture with scripture in order to understand the full meaning.

That classic text, Acts 3.24.

This verse appears, as you know, in Peter’s second great sermon recorded in Acts. His first great sermon being his Pentecostal sermon found in the previous chapter, Acts 2. But here, in his second great sermon, preached to all the Jews who had run to him after the healing of the man born lame, Peter identifies Samuel as the head, the first of the line of the Old Testament prophets proper, who had spoken from God. Peter says, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward announced these things, which Kela declares to these Jews.

According to Peter, then, Samuel is a pivotal figure. He is a significant figure, an important figure. There he may be eclipsed by others in the pages of the Old Testament Scriptures, by Abraham, by Moses, by Joshua, by David, by Isaiah, by Elijah. According to Peter, Samuel is a pivotal figure, one in whom the prophetic office and ministry are given unique expression, certain defining qualities.

Often we meet a personality like this in scripture, an inaugurating, unique, pivotal, even redemptive historical transitional figure in whom we are faced with someone who in fine covenantal style includes in himself those who will follow after him, includes in himself Those who follow after him. Those who, in God’s scheme, are bound to him. The two foundational figures for all human existence, for all human history, in this regard, are Adam and Jesus Christ the second Adam.

Think of Romans 5.15 in this regard. For if by the transgression of the one, that’s Adam, the first Adam, the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one man Jesus Christ, here’s the second Adam, abound to many. Or what about this verse? For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” 1 Corinthians 15, 22.

But we must not stop with these foundational and most important figures when it comes to this matter of the bond that exists between strategic, biblical personalities and those who follow them, those who come after them. You are given the pattern of covenantal arrangement and bond in Adam and in Christ, but that becomes the means by which you will read other relationships as you come across them in Scripture. Think about Abraham, one of my favorites from the Bible. when considered along these lines. Take stock of Abraham’s life, at least as much as is recorded for us in Genesis 12-14.

He comes into the land of Canaan from the north, from all the Chaldees and then Shortly thereafter, he travels down into Egypt, where he deceives Pharaoh about Sarah. Then he comes up out of Egypt, back into Canaan, where he has conflict with his neighbors, the Philistines, Abimelech, once more concerning Sarah, his wife. only then to get into a dispute that divides his family, a dispute with Lot, his nephew. Then to see Lot carried off captive by the king of Shinar, that is, the king of Babylon, Roth then subsequently graciously restored as Abraham and his entourage greet the mysterious figure of Melchizedek, the King of Salem, upon return to the land at the conclusion of Genesis 14.

Now, if you are paying close attention to this itinerary, You will have noticed the striking similarities between it and the history of the Jews as a nation. The history of that nation over which Abraham stands as covenantal head. Listen to the rehearsal of it once more. Jacob, descendant of Abraham, the one who’s given the name Israel, also comes down into Canaan from the north, from his uncle Laban’s home. His family descends into Egypt into slavery, only as a nation to come back up out of Egypt into Canaan where it has conflict with the Philistines, but in surviving only to become entangled in civil war that divides the nation, tribes separated from one another, then to see the captivity with Judah led away by the king of Babylon, with Judah later restored graciously, and the remnant nation finally brought to greet one even more mysterious than Melchizedek.

This one, the Prince of Peace, the King of Eternal Zion. You see now, if you have not seen it before, Abraham, the father of the Jews, stands covenantally bound to the nation. and the entirety of the history of that nation, that nation which he as yet carries within his loins.

By looking at him, we see the pattern of the life and the history of the people over whom he is the head. This should build you up in your confidence in the doctrine of predestination. Should it not? before the nation is even formed, you are seeing the history of the nation and the man. Is it not apparent to you now, the kind of God that you serve, who is surveying the whole from the conclusion of the matter? He sees it all, he knows it all, he has an ordainment all. This should build you up in your confidence in the Reformed doctrine of predestination before it happened. It is telegraphed.

Before Israel as a nation is formed, its history to which it is predestined is played out in its covenantal head. by way of extension, if you will, Romans 8.29, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate, to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. My friends, the case is closed. The matter is determined, it is settled. The Bible is thoroughly, from beginning to end, predestinarian and covenantal.

Now I don’t want you to think more highly of yourselves than you ought, but you are in the right place this morning. Because you see, this is where these doctrines will be honored and will be preached. Without apology. But this brings us back to Samuel and to his significance. You will want to see him in connection with those with whom he is biblically bound.

According to Acts 3.24, he is bound to the prophets. things will work themselves out here similarly to the way they have worked themselves out with Abraham and the nation of Israel. By looking at Samuel and the events related to his labors as a prophet we witness, he being that inaugurating, unique, pivotal, redemptive, historical, transitional figure that the entire history of the prophetic ministry to Israel.

That ministry will perform its service to Israel as the nation falls into corrupt religious and judicial decadence, as seen in the house of Eli earlier in the book of 1 Samuel. This nation will, yes, ultimately collapse to a double defeat at the hands of its enemies. Northern and southern kingdoms in Israel will be destroyed, with the sanctuary of God decimated and the Ark of the Covenant lost from view, just as occurs in the account in 1 Samuel 4.

But after the exile shall come restoration for Judah, returning from Babylon just as the ark returns from Philistia in 1 Samuel 6. We’re going through the beginning chapters of the book. But once restored, the continuing corruption of the Jews will show itself once more, demanding the Lord’s discipline and judgment, just as the Lord brings judgment upon the mammoth that is Shemesh for looking into, or even better, gazing at or upon the ark.” That’s the conclusion of 1 Samuel 6. Finally, as the prophetic ministry runs its course. there will be a move away from the accoutrements of that adored worship for God that characterizes the Old Testament order, with attention redirected toward the Prophet himself.

Just as in 1 Samuel 7, the ark in the beginning verses is taken out of view, off center stage, and Samuel now comes striding again into view. We haven’t heard a word about Samuel since chapter 4, verse 1. But now he re-emerges at the conclusion of this preview of the prophetic era for Israel’s history.

He re-emerges with a message of what? He comes with the message of repentance. Sound familiar? Are you with me? Just as John the Baptist will step forward with the message of repentance, John then being the last in the prophetic train, the last figure. in this march of the prophets. So it is, then, that Samuel leads us to John the Baptist. That is his significance. And John the Baptist leads us to Christ, the very one whom you have acknowledged to be the goal of the entirety of the prophet’s ministry, the one to whom you, by way of repentance, have the one to whom you even now have come to partake by faith, even in the supper which he has set for you. Your covenantal head, Jesus Christ, whose life includes you. Is that not so? Is that not so for you? I trust that it is. and may we all rejoice. Let’s pray.

O Lord, may we profit from your word and from those servants which you set forth for us in the word May we benefit more and more from them even as we work with your word and you are pleased by your spirit to grant us mercy. Father, may the significance of your prophets and Samuel himself be accented for us even as we are recognized now. according to the words of Peter, your servant, to be the sons of the prophets. Indeed, those who inherit the message and the reward of the prophets themselves. Father, bless us then as we come to the table, for we are those who come having been benefited by the prophets. having heard the message of repentance, having responded to the gospel for Jesus’ sake. 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.

February 1, 1998
Worship in Spirit and Truth

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, January 25, 1998.

About this sermon

Israel’s wilderness journey is the church’s own journey, not a distant history lesson Paul happens to reference in 1 Corinthians 10. These Old Testament stories are events, not illustrations, each one already showing Christ’s redemption at work. The Puritans understood this, and their own worship, in spirit and in truth, took its shape from exactly this conviction.

More sermons from 1 Samuel · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

We are beginning our scripture reading this morning in 1 Samuel 6, and we are at verse 13 once more. Give your attention to God’s word. And they of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley. And they lifted up their eyes and saw the Ark, and rejoiced to see it.

And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth Shemite, and stood there, where there was a great stone. And they clayed the wood of the cart, and offered the cattle a burnt offering unto the Lord. And the Levites took down the Ark of the Lord, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone. and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices the same day unto the Lord.

And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day. And these are the golden hemorrhoids which the Philistines offered for a trespass offering unto the Lord, for Ashdod one, for Geza one, for Ascalon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one. And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the Lord, which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite? And the Lord smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked upon the ark of the Even he smote of the people fifty thousand threescore and ten men. And the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter. And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God, and to whom shall he go up from us?

And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jerim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the Lord. Come ye down, and fetch it up to you. And the men of Kiriath-Jerim came and fetched up the Ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eliezer his son to keep the Ark of the Lord. And it came to pass while the Ark abode in Kiriath-Jerim that the time was long, for it was twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” Then turning over to the New Testament, to 1 Corinthians 10, verse 1.

Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and did all eat the same spiritual meat. and did all drink the same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ.

But with many of them God was not well pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now, these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now, all these things happened unto them as examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Wherefore, let him that thinketh he standeth take heed, lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted. Above that ye are able. that will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it. Wherefore, my dearly beloved, flee from idolatry.”

Pray with me now. Lord, you prosper your word in us, and Father, we thank you for that. You nourish us in Christ by your Spirit, and we rejoice. And Father, we long for the completion of your plan and purpose for us and for this creation, and to that end, O God, may you, by your word, gather your elect today, and may they be saved. Father, to the ends of the earth your word goes out, and surely our prayers accompany that word, and we participate in the ministry performed. Lord, we thank you for this, that we have this share in the gospel. Hear us now, Lord, as we would give attention to your word for the benefit of our souls. In Jesus’ name, amen.

In 1 Corinthians 10, all links a predominantly Gentile church in the first Christian century to a wilderness generation of Jews from the 15th century B.C. This link-up by way of analogy effectively makes those first century Christians, and us with them, a wilderness generation. We are moving from our bondage to our inheritance in and through Jesus Christ.

Therefore, you must not think that the Apostle Paul has simply picked up a convenient Old Testament story in order to illustrate his call to these Corinthians to live exemplary moral and religious lives. In other words, Paul’s interest here is not to grab hold of Old Testament material for the purpose of warning these Corinthians against the consequences of idolatry and immorality, with a message as simplistic as, bad things are sure to happen to idol-worshipping fornicators. Now, they most certainly will.

But to Paul’s mind, the wilderness journey experienced by Israel in the 15th century B.C. actually had in view, deliberately anticipated, the later wilderness journey to be experienced by the Church from the first Christian century to the end of the world. The ministry of Moses, the baptism in the cloud and in the sea, verses 1 Corinthians 10, the common spiritual food and drink, verses 3 and 4, the trial and temptations undergone by the Israelites in the wilderness, verses 5 and following, are but a shadow of the true wilderness experience known to the Church in her present history. You then, with the saints in the first century, are the true wilderness generation, baptized not into Moses, but into Jesus Christ. Eating and drinking not manna, not water from a rock, but through the Holy Spirit, partaking of Jesus Christ’s body and blood. meeting with Christ not hidden in a rock, but revealed in the gospel.

You then called upon, after the submilitude of your Israelite forebears, to endure the testing of the Lord until your journey’s end is accomplished in glory.” But remember, you are no mere extension of the shadow or the shadow world of the Old Testament, another provisional generation belonging to a preparatory assembly like the Jews. Instead, you belong to the last, the final exodus, the final and consummate wilderness journey, since you are those upon whom the ends of the ages have come. All those things that previously happened, recorded for you in the pages of the Old Testament, are written down expressly for your sake. It is all for you, and you were in mind when those words were penned.

Now, having witnessed how Paul deals with the Corinthians and us in them, having witnessed how Paul deals with the Old Testament exodus and the wilderness journey, do you close your Bible with the thought, well, alright, you’ve convinced me, Paul sees the Church on the true wilderness journey, and his appeal to the experience of the Old Testament Jews is more than an appeal for the sake of moral and religious example. It is, in fact, an appeal to the redemptive historical connection and the covenantal relationship between Israel and the Church. But even granting that, what right do I have to take other stories from the Old Testament and connect them to the New Testament and to the Church.

What right do I have to take these stories, not commented on by Paul or anyone else in the New Testament for that matter, and make similar connections? For example, no New Testament text comments directly on Samson and Delilah. No New Testament text comments directly on David and Goliath. No New Testament text even comments on Daniel standing among the lions. What right do I have, or what right does the Church have, in approaching these stories the way Paul approaches the Exodus in 1 Corinthians 10? Better to stick to the approved approaches to those Old Testament accounts.

Samson, don’t get tied up with loose women. That’s the message, right? That’s all there is to it, right? David, don’t underestimate the power of faith when facing insurmountable obstacles, like giants. That’s the joke, right? That’s all there is to it. And Daniel? Stand by your principles even though you might be eaten alive. By lions, no less. Dare to be a Daniel, as the hymn says.

But now you will notice that these safe and regular and approved approaches to these stories have one thing in common. Each of these stories is read as if it were a morality tale, content merely to cultivate in us some moral or spiritual strength or other.

In fact, laying upon us the imperative, the command, that we cultivate this or that virtue, but without, and this uniformly, without any appeal to the redeeming work of Jesus Christ or to the history of God’s great saving work, focused in and realized by him. We are left with the notion, whether intentional or not, that moral and spiritual virtues are commendable in themselves, even if the foundation isn’t there, even if the redemptive context is removed, even if it is ignored and forgotten. Moral and spiritual virtues are commendable in themselves. You best read Plato, not the Bible. You’re better off with Immanuel Kant, not the scriptures. We are left, as I have said, with the notion that moral and spiritual virtues are commendable in themselves.

And the suggestion we are left with is that these moral and spiritual virtues are attainable by us in ourselves, regardless of what tip of the hat we might make to the grace of the gospel. I beg to differ with those who come to the Bible with such an approach, who may, in looking at 1 Corinthians 10, say, well, all right, I grant you a point here with 1 Corinthians 10, but this is an exception to the general rule. We have no warrants here. No warrants in 1 Corinthians 10 for reading Jesus Christ, the Church, and the history of redemption out of the rest of the Old Testament record.

But that is my point exactly. Paul’s use of the Exodus story and the wilderness experience of Israel in 1 Corinthians 10 is not meant to be exhaustive, exhaustive of his intention or his expression, it is meant to be suggestive, suggestive and directional to the Church, for the Church, and thus authoritative in the Church for the way in which she is to approach her Bible. His intention is suggestive and comprehensive. Here is an example of what is going on in the man’s head. Any closer study of his writings will make it apparent to you, I trust, that he is always conscious at every point. of the centrality of Jesus Christ, the context of redemption for any moral or spiritual imperative. So what about 1 Samuel 6? Let me lay out the pattern for you, if possibly you’ve missed it. The story in 1 Samuel 6, in its immediate context, is part of the greater story in 1 and 2 Samuel, even stretching into 1 and 2 Kings.

Here is the story about the coming of the kingdom in its Old Testament shadow form. That is the key to the door of four Old Testament books, the ones I just listed for you. The coming of the kingdom in its Old Testament shadow form, the old order, was represented by Eli, his wicked sons, and the tabernacle service that was celebrated at the city of Shiloh. This older order is now being replaced by the new order, and that new order is represented by Samuel, and the Temple service eventually to be established under the dynasty of David. But you will note now the way in which God brings about this new order. It is not merely a change of administrations. One party stepping aside as the other party takes the reins. God brings in his new order by way of judgment upon the old. Eli is judged, his wicked sons are judged as well. They are dead at the hands of the Philistines. Eli is dead at having heard that the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord had been captured by the Philistines.

But this is in preparation for the change, the monumental change that is coming to the priesthood as such. Shiloh, that former site of the sanctuary, has been devastated, and the ark resident in it has been sent off into captivity, as the Lord now rejects Ephraim and Ephraim’s heritage to the north, the tribe of Joseph, for Judah and David’s coming ascendancy. In 1 Samuel 6, this is the reason why the Ark of the Covenant does not return to Shiloh when it comes back from Philistine territory. Instead, it is moved south, proximate the territory of Judah, ready for the repositioning in Jerusalem. Furthermore, in our present story, the Ark is now served, as the story concludes, by a man named Eliezer in the house of Abinadab, a household about which nothing is said in the text concerning the priesthood.

The reason for this is that the interests of an entirely new priesthood are being served. The old order is giving way to the new. We have then the pattern, God judges his people. He himself undergoes temporary exile in the ark and returns to establish the new order in a new sanctuary under a new priesthood for a new royal administration. But the story isn’t over. The sad truth is that when the new order arrives in force with the temple service set up in It proves to be as corrupt as Ephraim Shiloh and its sanctuary. The pattern, therefore, repeats itself. As with Shiloh and its priests, so with Jerusalem and hers.

The judgment that comes now, in the interests of a newer order still, even a final order, presents us with an exile, its own exile, one not just for the ark, but for the ark and the people alike. In 1 Samuel it is the ark that goes into exile, but later on in Israel’s history it will be the ark and the people themselves that go into exile. In the latter account, not for seven months, as was the case in 1 Samuel, but for seventy years. The events in 1 Samuel anticipate then the latter consummate exile, when the people are taken off into Babylon and then returned in the sixth century B.C. and when they return they will engage in great celebrations and sacrifices in Jerusalem, just as the people did at the great stone in the field of Joshua, the Beth Shemayit. Furthermore, the events of 1 Samuel anticipate this latter consummate exile now.

Not that this latter exile ends with its eyes on the establishment of the new order, but with its own sanctuary and priesthood in an entirely new administration. The kingdom of God in shadow form, be it in the entirety of the Old Testament, now gives way to the kingdom of God in reality.

This means that Israel, being restored to Jerusalem and its ministry, must look further still, even as those who in 1 Samuel 6 and 7 were compelled to look further still, even through the tears of their lament for the Lord. Chapter 7, verse 2. But when the Lord does arrive for the sake of that latter, greater consummate exile, He will bring down his judgment on Jerusalem this time, just as he brought it down upon Shiloh. But more importantly, in our context this morning, just as he brought it down on the men of Beth Shemesh, who profaned his worship.

Now there is a question about the text here, how it ought to be read. But from the way the Hebrew text is constructed, the force of the verse is not that the Jews here, the men of Beth Shemesh, looked into the ark, but that they looked at or upon the ark.

And more is involved here than a curious Actually, their intention is religious, and it sets them opposite now the direction and content of that true spiritual worship which the Lord desires and at which he aims when the kingdom truly comes. You see, the arc for these people had become a religious fixation. It had become an object of worship in itself, of a piece with the statue of Dagon mentioned earlier in the story. In their worship, the men of Beth Shemesh doted upon form, image, visible object, external manifestation and representation. over against them stands the true intention of God for worship, that intention made clear when, in the day to which the later exile pointed, Jesus Christ inaugurated the administration of genuine spiritual heavenly worship, thus pronouncing God’s anathema upon all earthbound, incomplete, formalistic styles of worship.

It is precisely here that our text this morning comes down to cases in 1 Corinthians 10 style. We, the Church, live under the sign of the exile by which God, for Christ’s sake, has graciously introduced us into the true and eternal worship of God, who is Spirit.

And having been introduced into such glorious, soul-satisfying worship, we must not, like the men of Beth Shemesh, or the Jews in Jesus’ day, for that matter, exhibit a preference for a worship that dotes upon forms externals which, in the end, are indistinguishable from pagan practice. There is nothing so serious to God as his own worship. It may well be that worship earthbound to externals was in full display all this last week in Cuba. But you, being of Protestant conviction even, reformed persuasion, must not wrap yourself in a cloak of smug self-righteousness.

1 Corinthians 10, in its reflection on the Exodus, ends its redemption-based, Christ-centered message with an imperative, flee idolatry, verse 14. This message, based on 1 Samuel 6, and its anticipation of the latter consummate exile ends its redemption-based, Christ-centered message with an imperative. In all your worship, concentrate upon the invisible God who, by way of the presently unseen Savior, calls you by his word to worship him in the heavenly realm of the Spirit that realm of absolute completion and fulfillment, a realm that is free of all defilement.

You may not know it. It may not have struck you. but you are about to enter the war of wars. And that war is going to be over worship. The stock and heritage which is yours is Puritan. This is plain style. It is my conviction it is also right. Why? Because you are not to be distracted in this service. You are not to be distracted from the invisible God, his presence with you, perceived by faith, his presence mediated unto you by the Spirit, by the Word. Everything that I am speaking about here, focus your attention upon the invisible, those things that are not apparent to you. And the reason why I have mentioned the Puritans to you in this regard, and the heritage which you claim, is precisely this.

If the Puritans didn’t get anything else right, and I know the rap, they did get anything right. If they didn’t get anything right, they got this right. They got worship right, they see it, they understood it, they knew what it was about. They saw that at the center of worship was the invisibility of God and your invisible communion with Him.

That’s why you are not to be distracted by external forms, by rituals, by architectural and liturgical bric-a-brac, by services that are clamored by objects of worship, even, that are set up before you and command your attention and demand your devotion. The Puritans understood that.

Now, your judgment about that, sitting where you are, is that they were especially austere and, if nothing else, boring. But let me tell you something. There was no one as spiritually engaged in his worship as the Puritan. Why? Because he knew that proper worship took every ounce of his energy and his concentration. Every ounce of it.

Because he had to continually call his mind and his heart back to the invisible God Communing with the invisible soul via the invisible spirit through the word He didn’t let himself go to sleep Such was the character of the Puritans intensity But I might add, such was the comprehension of the Puritan concerning the one before whom he was assembled.

Plain style, biblical worship, New Testament worship is under assault. is coming from many directions. The seriousness of worship is being trivialized, it’s being attacked by childishness and adolescence. It’s also being attacked by the intrusion of form and externals.

I plead with you, have nothing to do with this. Instead, be concentrated in genuine Reformed style upon the invisibility of God, who is presently communing with your heart. Let’s pray. Father, if it is a matter of us repenting, then Lord, may we be about it. May we lie down before you prostrate, knowing, O God, that even in our worship we may have proved an offense to you. But help us by your mercy that we might worship you, O God, even in the spirit, that spirit that pleases you, even that to which you press your people from the Old Testament times, that they might arrive to that day when you be in spirit. even in keeping with the ministry of Christ, are worshipped in spirit and in truth. Bless us then, O God, as a worshipping people, who know the one before whom we are convened, and respond appropriately. This we ask in Jesus’ name.

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.

January 25, 1998
All Creation Bows to 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, January 18, 1998.

About this sermon

The Philistines’ own forced confession turns out to be prophetic: all creation will eventually bow to Christ the same way Dagon already has. Psalm 78 supplies the interpretive key for reading 1 Samuel 5 and 6 rightly, tying Israel’s history together as one continuous act of God. Paul’s charge to preach the whole counsel of God in Acts 20 follows that same pattern of withholding nothing.

More sermons from 1 Samuel · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Our scripture today is in 1 Samuel 6, and we are beginning our reading at verse 13. 1 Samuel 6, verse 13. I give you attention to God’s holy, inspired word. And they of Beth-shemesh were weeping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it.

And the cart came into the field of Joshua, Abed Shemant, and stood there, where there was a great stone, and they clad the wood of the cart, and offered the cattle a burnt offering unto the Lord. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and the copper that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone, and the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices the same day unto the Lord. When the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day.” And these are the golden hemorrhoids which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the Lord. for Ashdod, one, for Gaza, one, for Ascalon, one, for Dath, one, for Ekron, one. And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the Lord, which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua the Beth Shemai.”

And the Lord smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked into the ark of the Lord. Even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men. And the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.

And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God, and to whom shall he go up from us? and they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kyriak-Jerim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the Ark of the Lord, come down and fetch it up to you. And the men of Kyriak-Jerim came and fetched up the Ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eliezer his son to keep the Ark of the Lord. And it came to pass, while the Ark abode at Kyriak-Jerim, at the time was long, for it was twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” Then turning over to Psalm 78, we begin reading at verse 60.

So the Lord forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men, and delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy’s hands. He gave his people over also unto the sword, and was wroth with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage. fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation. Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shalteth by reason of wine. And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts, and he put them to a perpetual reproach.

Moreover, he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim, but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved. and he built his sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which he hath established for ever. He chose David also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds, from following the youths great with young. He brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.”

O God, it is your word that we desire, this word that has meant life to us. And Lord, as it has been for us, we know that it is the same for your people around the world. Build your people by your word. May you be merciful, even as you call some who are estranged and others who are alien. Bring them in, restoring, reviving, converting, transforming. Lord, you filling up your assembly for the great death. Father, in this, even in this prayer, teach us to look beyond ourselves and to your interests for your kingdom and for Christ’s church to the end of the age. This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. How can you, a sincere believer in the Scriptures, be assured about the meaning of any one passage in the Bible? How can you, bringing matters down to cases, be assured about the meaning of 1 Samuel 6 verse 13 through chapter 7 verse 2? Now, some matters in this text will become clearer to you by considering the passage in its own light, in its own setting.

For example, what we have read this morning makes clear to us what the advice of the Philistine priests and wizards was all about, the advice that they had given to the Philistines recorded in verses 3 through 9 at the beginning of the 6th chapter. That advice meant, in light of what we see before us now, and that explicitly, that the five golden hemorrhoids and the five golden mice or rats, as some interpretations had it, made as a guilt offering to the God of Israel by these Philistines, are intended to say something about the five Philistine lords and the five Philistine cities over which they ruled.

In other words, there is a connection between the golden articles that have been formed by the Philistines and the Philistines themselves. There is a connection between them, just how close a connection becomes evident by looking at verse 4 in chapter 6 and then moving to verses 17 and 18. The point being that the offering presented by the Philistines serves as a form of confession by these Philistines to the God of Israel. that the Philistine captains, the Philistine lords and their people, have not merely been infected with hemorrhoids and rats, but that they are hemorrhoids and rats. The Bible is very blunt. Therefore, the relationship between the golden articles which the Philistines have formed and the Philistine lords and cities is repeated in verses 17 and 18 of our text this morning. The repetition of this relationship, especially after the mention of the retreat of the five Philistine lords in verse 16, serves to accent the triumph of God and the utter humiliation of his enemies, the Philistines. Such a confession run out of the Philistines, anticipates the coming confession in that day when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess.

Well then, some things in this passage become clear to us by paying close attention to the passage itself. But often in our reading of the Bible there are obscure matters, no apparent light on them being offered in the immediate context. Also there are any number of suggestions for wider meaning laid within a passage. often within what seemed to be incidental details, so easily passed over. How are you, the believer, assured about the meaning of these obscure matters, or even the wider meaning laid within the passage, even laid within incidental details?

In addressing this question, you should know the value of the heritage of which you are a part. The Westminster Confession of Faith says, the infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself. That’s something that I can appeal to outside of Scripture, not my mind. not my feelings. The infallible rule of interpretation of Scripture is the Scripture itself, and therefore, when there is a question about the true and full sense of any Scripture which is not manifold but one, it must be searched and known by other places that speak more clearly. That’s the Confession, chapter 1, paragraph 9.

Now, it has been the habit of some Reformed people, and gloriously so, when explaining the one true, full sense of any scripture, to appeal to Acts chapter 20, verse 27, wherein is recorded the Apostle Paul’s comment concerning the whole counsel of God. the true and full sense of any scripture which is not manifold but one, and appear to Acts 20.27 and Paul’s words concerning the whole counsel of God.

In summarizing his ministry, while speaking to the Ephesian elders at Miletus, Paul says, I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God. For those of you familiar with this text in Acts, or those of you even presently scanning that text in your Bibles, can’t help but notice that this statement stands yoke to other similarly phrased remarks from the Apostle Paul. The first is found in verse 20. where Paul says that he did not shrink, same verb as in verse 27, he did not shrink from declaring to these Ephesians, publicly and privately, that which was profitable for them. The second similarly phrased remark from Paul in the context is in verse 25. Here he identifies the Ephesians as those among whom he circulated. preaching the kingdom of God.”

In yoking these passages together, verse 20, 25, 27, in yoking these verses together now, are you able to pick up on the Apostle’s intention? Are you able to see that the declaration of what was profitable, in verse 20, equals the preaching of the kingdom of God, in verse 25, equals the declaration of the whole counsel of God, in verse 27.

This is the one true and fair sense of Paul’s apostolic ministry. And I would suggest to you that the scripture itself has no other singular, true, and full sense than this. At the very center of the Bible is the message about the Kingdom of God. which the Old Testament anticipates, and the New Testament realizes when God the Father offers up God the Son as sacrifice for sin, and then raises him from the dead by God the Holy Spirit for life in an eternal heavenly sanctuary into which the Church is now being gathered. Here is the exposition of the whole counsel of God. Here is the exposition of the kingdom. And if you did not catch it the first time, I will repeat it for you.

At the very center of the Bible is the message then about the Kingdom of God, or the whole Council of God, which the Old Testament anticipates and the New Testament realizes when God the Father offers up God the Son as sacrifice for sin and then raises Him from the dead by God the Holy Spirit for a life in an eternal heavenly sanctuary into which now the Church is being gathered. It is therefore the kingdom of God and its realization, historically in the event of Jesus Christ’s redemptive work, which expounds for you the whole counsel of God and provides the content and controlling interest to all so-called practical instruction.

And that is why this pulpit will never become therapeutic. And I might add, that is precisely why the Bible is not essentially therapeutic. It has at its center the declaration to you of the mighty acts of God.” So I do not come to the Bible in the first order looking for myself. I come to the Bible looking for God.

So then, in profiting properly from the meaning of any one particular passage, here is that at which we end. When we go searching for the solution to an exegetical puzzle, or the meaning of a passage’s wider range of interest, This is what we, in good Reformed and Calvinist style, keep before us. And I ask you to keep this in mind, not only when you become unsure of yourself in reading your Bible, but also when you are more than a little dazed and confused by the interpretation that you may hear of a various passage from this pulpit. Not that an appeal to the redemptive, historical, biblical, theological, properly biblical reading of the kingdom of God can ever become a blanket covering for shoddy, shallow, speculative, fanciful interpretation. But at the same time, we must not shy away from reaching into a text to gather up the gems, or stretching from our position in a text to touch the genuine horizons to which that text withdraws. to 1 Samuel 6, verse 13 through chapter 7, verse 2. If you have been with me through the course of these messages, you may have heard a number of things that left you gazed and confused.

But you are certainly aware of my approach. We need here no mere recounting of the events by which the Ark came back to Israel after it had been captured by the Philistines. We do, of course, have a recounting of those events. We always insist upon the accuracy of the history reported, but we have more than that history. as the story renders service to the kingdom of God and the overarching history of the realization of that kingdom in Jesus Christ. This passage is Christ’s sin. Can you find it?

I have told you in the course of these messages that what you are reading here, what you are hearing here, is not bare history, but prophecy. It is prophetic, and as such it anticipates the full history of Israel, the full history of the people of God, as that history leads up to the coming of the kingdom in Jesus Christ. I have suggested, furthermore, that this passage actually anticipates the yet distant exile for Israel and the subsequent restoration of the people to the land in the 6th century B.C. as they come back from Babylon. That is, the capture of the Ark by the Philistines anticipates the capture of the Jews by the And the return of the Ark anticipates the return of the Jews to the land of Palestine in the sixth century B.C. Before it happens, it is being telegraphed.

Before it happens, it is being declared. The history is being announced before it transpires. who are not convinced that we are to see in this test the history of the people of God and preparations for the coming of the Kingdom in Jesus Christ, we ask the question, Is there any corroboration of this particular interpretation anywhere else provided us in Scripture?

If, in fact, Scripture is to interpret Scripture, then, Mr. Denison, will you not prove your case by an appeal to some other passage in the Bible? Yes, I will. I’m not pulling this stuff out of the air, I’m not making it up, I know that some of you believe that. This isn’t contrivance, it is meant to excite your spirits and to open up the Word of God for you, so that you begin to see that the whole of the Bible is a Christian book from beginning to end, and that it has at its heart the Lord Jesus Christ and his Church, and you can find him on every page. That is the intention of this exercise. I strive for this with you, and in the message that goes from this Church, because I am convinced that no other approach does the Bible justice. So where is the test that corroborates your interpretation of 1 Samuel 6?

You read it. Psalm 78. Oh, it’s real good. I have in mind the verses that I’ve read, but you can read the entirety of the psalm, it’s a magnificent psalm that we don’t concentrate on enough. But I have in mind verses 60 through the conclusion, verse 72.

These verses provide an inspired commentary on first sin. and even particularly for Samuel 6. A number of things in these verses make this evident. For one thing, the psalm moves toward the establishment of David’s throne, and that’s the overall movement of the Samuel material in the Bible. You’re moving toward the establishment of David’s throne. So as with the psalm, so also with 1 Samuel, even with our text, keep in view, as verse 70 says in Psalm 78, the Lord, or he, also chose David his servant, the very point to which 1 Samuel 6 in its historical context aims.

But furthermore, verse 60, backing up. to the verse with which we began. Verse 60 mentions the site of Shiloh. Sound familiar? I hope so. For this was the site of the tabernacle and the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant prior to the defeat of the Israelites at the hand of the Philistines. The site from which the Ark went when it was captured by the Philistines.

Verse 60 speaks about God’s abandonment of Shiloh because of the sin of Eli the priest and his sons, because of the complicity of Israel itself. Rahi ran very much in view, of course, with the story that has been presented to us in 1 Samuel. But now I want you to look at verse 66, and you can thank God for the King James. You really can, and I suppose that some of you picked it up as we were reading that particular verse. Verse 66 clinches the case. It tells us that this psalm most definitely has the specifics of our story in 1 Samuel in view, in mind.

In fact, verse 66 confirms the interpretation that I have given you, that the plagues that came upon the Philistines were not mere tumors who were running treacherous sores, but hemorrhoids. You see, the actual rendering of that verse runs like this. He smote his adversaries in their back parts. The King James has in their thinderpots. Notice how the psalmist explains the Lord’s action at this point, as the verse is completed. He goes on to say, He put on them an everlasting reproach.

In other words, as humorous as this plague might have been, and what scorn was heaped upon the Philistines as a consequence of it, in the midst of that humor is meant to register the most profound and devastating humiliation. These proud Philistines before the Lord meant to look ridiculous made a shame. It is my judgment that the Philistines got the point, even if we don’t.

But I said that our story is also about the exile. That’s the point to which we have been driving here. It is about the exile and the subsequent history of Israel as a nation. How do I get the theme of the exile and restoration out of Psalm 78? Psalm 78 sees the abandonment of Shiloh, the humiliation of the Philistines, and the establishment of David’s throne against the background of the coming exile and restoration of God’s people. How do I know that?

This verse tells us that the Lord gave his strength, that is, the Ark, to captivity, there is the word. He gave his glory, the Ark, into the hand of the adversary, the Philistines. The verse is describing, therefore, the capture of the Ark. that portrays that capture in terms of a captivity. The captivity into which the Lord himself enters in connection with the ark forecasts the coming captivity into which the people of God will enter.

That captivity, which is a picture of death, promises hope and holds out expectation. Not because God’s people are worthy in themselves, not because they are worthy of deliverance, not because they are righteous. not because they have the strength to deliver themselves from death, but because God himself is gracious and has already showed them that he himself has entered into death and into captivity for them and with them, even before they experience it.

And that in itself will prove to be their benediction. To be sure, restoration means for Israel further judgment, just as our story tells us in 1 Samuel 6, just as that passage communicates to us in its depiction of the men of Beth Shemesh who defiled the ark and failed to sanctify the wall. But even here, the coming events with regard to the exile and restoration are being forecast. For these words uttered by the men and the people of Beth Shemesh have a strange ring to them and a familiarity to them.

The people say, Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? These words are echoed later, after the restoration from exile, by the loss of the canonical prophets, Malachi himself, who says in his third chapter, the second verse, Who may abide the day of his coming, and who shall stand when he appears? And just as the words of the people of Beth Shemesh prepare for the appearance of David, so Malachi’s words prepare for the appearance of David’s greater son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Even Psalm 78, in its presentation of the story found in 1 Samuel, about Shiloh and the arch’s capture and restoration, prepares for the appearance of David’s greater son, one who would be given not an earthly throne, but a heavenly throne.

This is the meaning in conclusion. This is the meaning of verse 69 in Psalm 78. If you are an earthbound Jew, you will not get it. You won’t see it. It is meant for those who are born of the Spirit, whose life is elsewhere. Verse 69 envisions not a sanctuary like Shiloh mentioned in verse 60, a sanctuary which God abandoned. Rather, here is a sanctuary built by God himself.

One, according to the text, like high palaces. King James rendering. Like high mountains. The New International rendering. Like the heavens. The New English Bibles rendering. like the heavens. The mention of the earth that completes the verse sets us up.

The earth that is mentioned there appears to be established forever, but it is not. That which is in view carries you beyond the earth and its stability. But because of its appearance, because it appears to be stable and established, it provides for the Old Testament people of God that image by which they may perceive the permanence of heaven. You look to the earth and then beyond. Your eye glances off the earth and it touches heaven. You dare not beware to this world. The comments of the psalmist with regard to the establishment of the earth are meant to be taken metaphorically.

There is the appearance of prominence, and you work from that appearance of prominence to the true prominence of glory. and it is that sanctuary into which you now have been drawn. You do not belong to an assembly that is threatened by Philistines or Babylonians or anyone else. You do not belong to an assembly that is threatened by invisible powers in heavenly places, spiritual wickedness abroad. You belong to an assembly and to a sanctuary that cannot and will not be disassembled. It cannot be lost, and you have been drawn into it by the gracious work of God, who brings the captivity of Israel to a conclusion, not in a return to Jewish territory or Mediterranean real estate, or into a sanctuary in Jerusalem built by hands of men, but into the provisions of an eternal sanctuary in the kingdom of God.” And we are back to Acts 20.

I trust that this message for you confirms for you the fact that you have not been wasting your time here. And I trust that your reception of this message confirms to me that I haven’t been wasting my time on you. At the very least, I hope that it does confirm you with regard to the interpretation that I have been presenting to you of 1 Samuel 6. And also, hopefully, will help to confirm you in the general approach to the Bible that you hear from this pulpit and from this church. That whereby we interpret Scripture by Scripture in keeping with the overarching, profitable instruction concerning the Kingdom of God, which is nothing less than the whole Council of God.

Would you know it? Do you recognize it and love it? Father, we know that we having been given your word is only the beginning of the matter. But now it is applied to us and we apply ourselves to it. And Father, in that is an arduous task from which we must not shrink. So let us be up and about the business. of your word, to the benefit of our souls, and to the encouragement of your church, even as she is well instructed, and begins to know the truth of every text, and understand the single, true, and full sense of your word. We pray this, O God, that we might be the children of the faith, the children of the heritage that has been committed to us, those who are bound by Sola Scriptura, the Scriptures alone. We pray this through Christ.

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.

January 18, 1998
Forms That Cannot Reach God

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, January 11, 1998.

About this sermon

Two parallel stories, 5:1-6:12 and 6:13-7:2, both reenact the exodus pattern in miniature, judgment followed by deliverance. Neither the forms nor the symbols involved, the ark, the cart, the golden images, ever actually reach the essence of God himself. The law works the same way: it points toward the Spirit without ever becoming it.

More sermons from 1 Samuel · Browse all sermons

Sermon transcript

Psalm 78 is certainly a great psalm. It’s got the whole of the history of redemption packed in there for you. It’s wonderful. Our scripture reading this morning is from 1 Samuel. We’re returning to our study of 1 Samuel, and we are in chapter 6. We begin our reading at verse 13. 1 Samuel 6, verse 13. Give your attention now to the reading of God’s holy words.

And they of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark and rejoiced to see it. And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth Shemite, and stood there where there was a great stone, and they claimed the wood of the cart and offered the cattle a burnt offering unto the Lord.

And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone. And the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the Lord. And when the five lords of the Philistines had seen it, they returned to Ekron the same day. And these were the golden hemorrhoids which the Philistines returned for a trespass offering unto the Lord, for Ashdod one, for Gaza one, for Ascalon one, for Gath one, for Ekron one. And the golden mice, according to the number of all the cities of the Philistines belonging to the five lords, both of fenced cities and of country villages, even unto the great stone of Abel, whereon they set down the ark of the Lord, which stone remaineth unto this day in the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite. And the Lord smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they looked into the ark of the Lord.

Even he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men, and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter. And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? and to whom shall he go up from us?

And they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-Jerim, saying, The Philistines have brought again the ark of the Lord. Come ye down and fetch it up to you.’ And the men of Kiriath-Jerim came and fetched up the ark of the Lord and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the Lord. And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kiriath-Jerim, that the time was long, for it was twenty years, and all of the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.

For God, we would trust that your word would be effectual. You have made it effectual in us by bringing us to yourself. Lord, our prayers go up in the interest of the effectual character of your word, its effectiveness today, that you might, by it, strengthen your people, but also through it, call many to life. Lord, we would not simply look to foreign lands, we do that of course, praying for your servants who bring that word, but we pray also for this land and those who would preach, proclaim your word presently in it. Lord, grant your people your blessing in your word, and that through servants who are determined to give themselves to your word and to bring its treasures to your people week by week. In this manner, Lord, strengthen your church, but also add to it, as you would set the gospel before those whom you are calling. Lord, we pray this, even through Christ, who is himself the living word.

Amen. The Bible is like blocks in a box. This is my Dr. Seuss message. The blocks are the thoughts. The box is the history of God’s sovereign self-disclosure, his self-revelation. The box, that is, the thoughts, fit into the box, and this box has a picture on it of how the blocks themselves are to be arranged.

That picture is the person and work of Jesus Christ. Now, keeping in mind that the thoughts presented in Scripture come in the box of God’s historical self-witness, keeping in mind that these thoughts and the box ultimately communicate Jesus Christ, and you will have a leg up on understanding better and better, more perfectly, what the Bible is saying, what it is all about. Now by this I mean that you will not simply have the facts down. and that you might even understand something of the progression of those facts. Rather, I have in mind that you will have a grasp on the proportion and symmetry of God’s Word, thereby increasingly capable of understanding any particular text in it.

1 Samuel challenges us when it comes to the blocks in the box. Much too often, to far too many Christians, the blocks here, as at other points in Scripture, in considering those Scriptures The blocks are left isolated alone, a few together gathered on the floor beside the box, but not in it. My job as a preacher, as a teacher, is to help you pick up the blocks and put them away. They’re not on the shelf. but hopefully in your heart and for the good of your soul.

One thing that you will notice about these blocks in this passage—passage that we’ve read this morning—is that they look very much like others that we’ve already seen in the story in 1 Samuel. You’ll notice, for instance, that the account we find in 1 Samuel 6, verse 13, through chapter 7, verse 2, actually bears striking similarities to what immediately precedes I have in mind the fifth chapter, the first verse, through the sixth chapter, the twelfth verse. I suggest to you then that what you have here is a parallel construction. Texts that are meant to be taken in tandem, to be read together, they are a mirror to each other. The first passage from chapter 5, verse 1 on, that passage is about the Philistines, while our passage this morning is about the Israelites. But follow now their parallel development.

In the first passage, the Philistines take possession of the Ark, that as a spoil of war. Chapter 5, verse 1. In the latter account, our text this morning, the Israelites take repossession of the Ark. They get it back. Notice further, in chapter 5, the Philistines set the ark in a sacred environment within the temple of their God. Chapter 5, verse 2. In chapter 6, in our text, the Israelites set the ark in a festal and sacred setting. Verse 14 and following. In both chapters, in both accounts, the priests Those who have been set apart within their respective societies, the priests are spoken of specifically. Chapter 5, verse 5, and then in chapter 6, verse 15, the Levites appear. Further, each story speaks about a sacred deposit set before respective symbols of deity.

In the case of the Philistines, the ark is set before the statue of Dagon, the Philistine god. In the case of the Israelites, the golden hemorrhoids are set before the restored ark, the very symbol of God’s presence. Moving along, both stories contain references to the five Philistine lords and their cities.

Moreover, in the first story, the Lord strikes, in connection with the Ark, both the religion and the people within the Philistine cities. In the second story, the Lord strikes, again in connection with the ark, both the religion and the people in the city of Beth Shemesh.

Chapter 6, verse 19. Story number 1 tells us about the Philistines’ outcry at the Lord’s judgment. Chapter 5, verses 10 and 12. while story number two tells us about the Israelites’ cry, or lament, because of the Lord’s judgment. Again, chapter 6, verse 19, and you’ll note as well, chapter 7, verse 2.

Both stories contain accounts of the demand that the Ark be removed from its immediate setting, first by the Philistines in 511, then by the Israelites in 620. Both stories describe the moves for the Ark, first among the Philistines and then among the Israelites. Both stories mention the length of time for the Ark’s sojourn. In Philistia, seven months, chapter 6, verse 1, among the Israelites at the house of Abinadab, Etiriat Gerim, twenty years.

Chapter 7, verse 2. And finally, along the more theological line, both stories contain overt references or allusions to the Old Testament exodus. In the Philistines’ story, the mention of the priests and the diviners in chapter 6 verse 2 reminds us of the magicians in Egypt, and the plagues visited upon the Philistines remind us of the plagues that have visited Egypt in the course of the Exodus experience.

While in the Israelite story, we are introduced to a man named Joshua, strategically positioned as the ark comes back into the land and the inheritance is reaffirmed, just as in the Exodus story. And you will note also that in this letter text, A man by the name of Eliezer is mentioned in chapter 7, verse 1, who serves as guardian of the ark. The name of significance, because you see, that was the name of Aaron’s son, who assumed the high priesthood upon Aaron’s death during the days of the Exodus. as we’ve moved through these parallels, you might have noticed, if you were counting as I have, that we have eleven all told.

The exact number I came up with last week in dealing with an entirely different story. The story about Jesus in the temple First of all, after his eight-day experience of circumcision, and then in his twelfth year, maybe I’m on to something here. I’m sure if I have enough time I’ll be able to come up with the allegorical significance of 11.

But kicking out the parallels now, as helpful as that may be, really does not serve us well if we do not go on and grasp the conclusions to which the text would lead us. We are helped ultimately only if we I’m encouraged to put the blocks properly back into the box.

There are any number of commentators who have drawn upon the parallels between these two texts, but it would seem that not many are capable of or bold enough to go on to present to us through their exposition the full range and intention of these passages.

What then do you make of these parallels? What do you make of these parallels? Well, immediately, the thing that strikes you, and that which you will want to keep in mind, is that the Israelites end up looking frightfully like Philistines. But in order to build toward our consideration of that rather overwhelming conclusion.

We might also pick up on that last parallel that I marked out for you there, the more theological, and treat it as something as a key for answering the question of What is this passage, or these passages, all about? That is, we might look at the parallel between 1 Samuel 5, 1 following, and chapter 6, verse 13 following, along the lines of the Exodus story. Do we see then in the capture of the Ark by the Philistines a reenactment here, this time by God Himself in and with the Ark of the Covenant, a reenactment by which He Himself descends into Egypt, there bringing upon the Philistines those plagues that lead to His exodus His release again in and with the Ark, he then experiencing an entrance into the Promised Land, and this in connection specifically with a figure named Joshua, only to see God judge Israel subsequently for its sin. as was done at Beth Shemesh and moved to a more lasting resting place under the priestly administration of another Eleazar. Now, in hearing this reading of the story, in light of the theme of the Exodus, you may well respond, well, that’s not half bad. I think I’ll go with that. Sounds pretty good to me. But you’re driven further now, you’re driven further. What would be the purpose of such correspondence, of such a match-up?

Would it be to strike Israel with this truth, to confront her with her own depravity and duplicity, her own waywardness and wickedness?

To strike at her with this truth, not only with regard to the wickedness and sinfulness of Israel, but also to confess her afresh with God’s act of condescension for her, for her sake, by which he reaffirms his commitment to his people by actually entering into a reenactment of their life, by reliving their life, such being his identification with them, his love for them. sealing this fact that it will only be by him and what he does and what he accomplishes that they will be delivered. And by this rule, might he not also renew his promises in a Joshua-like figure and in a restoration of priesthood in the house of Eliezer. It could well be, then, that the Exodus imagery that we glean from these texts serves the purpose, as you’ve noticed in the telling of the tale, of carrying us even into the next and immediate stages of Israel’s history. Those events not yet realized, being anticipated. a judgment upon Israel, and a movement through a Joshua-like figure even unto someone like unto Eliezer for the reestablishment of God’s purposes and intentions for his people. This suggests to you that here you are not merely reading history or a history that reflects upon past events such as the Exodus. But you are reading something here that has the capability of reaching out beyond itself, of going further, of touching even points that are not as yet touched in the development of the story.

I say this to you because of the significance of Joshua, that mean with regard to administration within the people, possibly a royal figure in view. But not only that, specifically because of the house of Eleazar. Did you know that the house of Eleazar, the house to which the high priesthood fell upon Aaron’s death, had been dislodged from the high priesthood by Eli’s house? Eli being from the competing house of Ithamar. When the Ark comes to Eleazar in chapter 7, verse 1, is there the anticipation of the restoration of the high priesthood to the descendants of that Eleazar, son of Aaron? a re-establishment that would take place in the days of Solomon, when Zadok would become the priest. God, therefore, is reliving the Exodus for his people, and in this means to revive sinful Israel in a new day in the land under the true priesthood. so keeping all of his promises.

But now, before you’re too satisfied with what I’ve said, before you’re too convinced that all of the blocks are back in the box and in their proper arrangement, I want to take you back to 1 Samuel chapter 4. the chapter that set the stage for chapters 5, 6 and 7.

I want you to recall what we said about Israel’s double defeat at the hands of the Philistines, recorded for you in the first eleven verses of that fourth chapter. We said these verses intend to tell us about a double devastation yet to be realized in the history of Israel. One coming for Israel at the hands, not of the Philistines, but of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Devastation that would come when the kingdom was divided north and south, Israel and Judah. Devastation that would come and result in exile.

You see, before we get to the Exodus imagery in chapters 5 and 6, and its essential backward look, and even the limits to which it can take us as we project in the future, we are taken, catapulted into the far future in the Israel’s history. We are catapulted to the time of the exile. We are carried ahead. so that the full reach of the eschatological realization for Israel is baffling even these events and determining them. Here with the theme of the exile is the more comprehensive and satisfying route into the passage before us.

Samuel’s prophetic word that came to all Israel mentioned in 1 Samuel 4.1 comprehends the entirety of Israel’s national life. He is seemingly seen as the transitional or foundational or fundamental prophet who is anticipating now in his ministry all that is coming, all that is going to come about for Israel in her national life. And what follows in chapter 4 verse 2 through chapter 7 verse 2, in its own distinctive way, serves to place the entirety of the national life of Israel before the people, even before it transpires. Just as judgment is coming presently upon Israel and Eli’s house, at the hands of the Philistines, so it will come about at the hands of the Assyrians and the Babylonians. God will not simply go into the exodus and experience, He is telling the people He is going to go into exile. The capture and the departure of the ark is the exile of God.

And he will go into that exile, which is yet future, for and with his people. He will go into that exile before his people go into exile. And in the context of that exile, he will confound the slaves of false gods and false religions, humbling them, even humiliating them like he did the Philistines. and at restoration. He will indeed renew and fulfill the Exodus, but more. He will bring on his own people the judgments that he had brought on the nations.

It is in the interest of the coming judgment that the Lord will go into exile. for the sake of the deliverance of those who in faith will look to him. But this exile for the Lord also serves as warning for all who will not close with him, all who will not deal with him. The humiliation of the Philistines is but anticipation of the coming humiliation for Israel, and beyond that, you might say, the coming humiliation for the world. God then will bring upon his people the judgments that he brought upon the nations as those judgments are turned back upon their heads.

And this is stressed and underscored in our story this morning, in the text we’ve read this morning. When, in fact, the men of Beth Shemesh gaze into or upon or at the Ark, when they gawk at the ark. The judgment that will come upon the people of Israel, like unto that which comes upon the Philistines and upon the Assyrians and the Babylonians, is because of a religious spirit that cannot get beyond form and symbol, and because of that it never gets to God Himself. it never reaches Him. Even here, in 1 Samuel 6, There is communicated to you the true interests of the Lord when it comes to worship. Is it the ritual? Is it the form? Is it the trappings? Is it even the Ark of the Covenant?

Or is it God himself? in reference to the dependence in Israel to external form, the Lord moves toward an administration in which the leadership carries the intention of the older priesthood, even as it carries Eleazar’s name, but stripped of any of the trappings that prove to be, in the end, a distraction. that nothing is said of Abinadab’s or Eliezer’s Levitical connection. Nothing is mentioned.

Chapter 7, verse 1. The horrifying truth, therefore, is that Israel is just like the Philistines, just like the Assyrians and the Babylonians to come, and like them she will destroy herself by her religion. be it even the religion that comes from Sinai. She will destroy herself by her religion, by way of the law, which she has misunderstood, by way of the priesthood, which she has not comprehended, by way of sacrifice by way of external religious symbol like the Ark itself. She will go upon the external, she will go upon the Ark, she will gawk at the Ark and not see beyond all of the forms to God himself. Well, now, having dealt with Exodus and exile Are all the blocks picked up and put away properly? Almost. For we dare not forget the picture on the blocks. The ultimate intention is to preach Christ, to declare Christ himself.

For the ultimate showdown will not be with Dagon, a Philistine god, or any of the gods of the Assyrians and Babylonians. It will be with principalities, powers, and spiritual wickedness in heavenly places. At that time, for the accomplishment of this great consummate realization of God’s own vindication, God will come out of exile in his Son, Jesus Christ, and he will be rejected in Christ in his death by those who seek the visible and its assurances in this world, only to identify himself in Christ’s own resurrection with an administration that claims no earthly priestly pedigree. Jesus is of the house of Judah, he is not of the house of Levi. On earth, he has no right to the priesthood.

But, of course, you in this new administration do yourself no favor if you fail to see that the Church is distinct from the world and separate An entirely unique and distinct religious spirit animates and directs you, setting you apart from Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, and whoever else is out there. You are the Church of Jesus Christ, excluded from you, and the realization of this, however, is also the fact that there cannot be any boasting in yourself or in your religious practices, nor in any confidence with regard, in any regard, directed towards their performance. Our boasting is not in ourselves, for how will we distinguish ourselves in the end from the Philistines? How will you distinguish yourselves in the end from the Chaldeans and the Assyrians?

Certainly, boasting in ourselves and in our religious practice is not going to save us any more than it saved the Israelites, when the God behind and above the Ark Jesus Christ, in fact, the Savior of the world, returns to his Church to scrutinize her.

Having moved from the Old Testament Church to the New Testament Church, we now have the blocks in the box. And seeing all of these matters pointed to and resolved in Jesus Christ our Savior, we have them in proper order. And I trust that you are storing up all of these things, not behind some closed door in a closet, but in your heart.

O God, your grace is that we might be prepared for the judgment. And as your grace is displayed wonderfully to the Israelites to the point where you take to yourself their life, you affirm your union with them. So also, O God, for us in Jesus Christ, for in and through our Savior, you have made our life yours. But likewise, O God, We are moved on from this grace to the certainty of judgment, that we would be warned and prepared for what approaches. The Old Testament Church is a warning to us that surely, most emphatically, your judgment begins at the household of God.

Father, with the grace that you have granted to us, we ask that we would then be prepared, especially now in light of our passage, that we would not give ourselves to a formalism and the externalism of worship, but that we would move on and see that the objective of our worship is you yourself. And Father, knowing the full range of Christ’s work that we might in fact have you, may we acknowledge that you have been given to us, even as we shall see the fullness of our inheritance in the great day when Jesus comes again. Father, we pray these things 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.

January 11, 1998