This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of “The History of Salvation” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, April 22, 1990.

Tonight we come to the book of first Samuel. And we will start our reading chapter one. We will be reading from the nineteenth verse of the first chapter. Through verse ten of chapter two. Here the word of God. Then they arose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord and returned again to their house in Ramah.

And Elkanah knew Hannah, his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And it came about in due time after Hannah had conceded that she gave birth to a son, and she named him Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord. Then the man, Elkanah, went up with all his household to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and pay his vows. But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, I will not go up until the child is weaned, and I will bring him that he may appear before the Lord and stay there forever.

And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, Do what seems best to you. Remain until you have weaned him. Only may the Lord confirm his word. So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her with a three-year-old bull and one ephah, a flower, and a jug of wine and brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh although the child was young. And they slaughtered the bull and brought the boy to Eli.

And she said, Oh, my Lord, as your soul lives, may the Lord as your soul lives, my Lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. This boy, I prayed and the Lord has given me my petition, which I asked of him. So I have dedicated him to the Lord As long as he lives, he is dedicated to the Lord, and he worships the Lord there. Then Hannah prayed and said, My heart exalts in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is no one holy like the Lord. Indeed, there is no one besides thee, nor is there any rock like our God. Boast no more so very proudly. Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and with Him actions are weighed.

The bows of the mighty are shattered, but the feeble gird on strength. Those who were full hire themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry cease to hunger. Even the barren gives birth to seven, and she who has many children languishes. The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to shield and raises up. The Lord makes poor and rich. He brings low. He also exalts. He raises the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ashy to make them sit with nobles and inherit a seat of honor.

For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s and he set the world on them. He keeps the feet of his godly ones, but the wicked ones are silenced in darkness. For not by might shall a man prevail. Those who contend with the Lord shall be shattered. Against them he will thunder in the heavens. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth, and he will give strength to his king and will exalt the form of his anointing.” Then turning over to chapter sixteen. Beginning with verse one.

Now, the Lord said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go, I will send you to Jesse, the Bethlehem knight, for I have selected a king for myself among his sons.” But Samuel said, How can I go? When Saul hears of it, he will kill me. And the Lord said, Take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. And you shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do. And you shall anoint for me the one whom I designate you.”

So Samuel did what the Lord said and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came trembling to meet him and said, Do you come in peace? And he said, In peace. I have come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice. He also consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. Then it came about when they entered that he looked at Eliab and thought, Surely the Lord’s anointed is before me, is before him.

But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance. But the Lord looks at the heart. Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. Next, Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one. Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not chosen thee. And Samuel said to Jesse, Are these all the children? And he said, There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep. Then Samuel said to Jesse, Send him, bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.

So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint him, for this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward, and Samuel arose and went to rain.

Our father, we thank you for your word, which coming to your people in might and in strength, for by it your people are made strong and they are enlivened. We ask, Lord, that we may rejoice at the proclamation of your word today, that your blessing may rest mightily upon those who proclaim that word truly. May those churches that revere the word be strengthened themselves, and though they be weak and apparently ineffectual in the eyes of the world, may you make them strong, and may their honor be revered in heaven. We ask this in Jesus’ name.

Amen. Now if you want some exciting reading, if you want some thrilling tales, if you want moving accounts, turn to the book of 1 Sam. Great stuff. Magnificent personalities portrayed for you. The complexity of Eli. The even more remarkable complexity of Saul. Have you been intrigued by him? This rather striking individual who begins so well and ends so poorly? What of the mystery of Saul? What do you make of it?

There are the stories that are compelling and attractive in themselves, the capture of the Ark, the Ark’s sojourn in the land of the Philistines, God’s dealings with the Philistines, the restoration of the Ark, Samuel’s personage the power of God manifest in him, then the rise of David, a little shepherd boy against a giant. The complexities of that relationship between Saul and David David, the hounded and the hunted, the one who is persecuted, though the anointed of the Lord, the one who suffers for the sake of the anointing that he bears, and then the most remarkable figure of all, John.

The crown was his. The throne was his. And he gave it up. Because he saw in David the very form of the one who was to come. The Book of First Samuel ends on that tragic note of the death of Saul and Jonathan. But the note really doesn’t end. Its echo is heard into the opening of Second Samuel, when word is brought to David about the death of Saul and his son. Then, one of the most remarkable of all the Psalms, the Lament of David, for Saul the king, and for Jonathan the one he loved, above all others. Well, here is the stuff of life and death, of sin and salvation, the stuff of grace and glory. Hardly anything in the Old Testament as magnificent as this.

But what is it all about? What’s going on in 1 Samuel, and why does it seem to stand out in the pages that record Old Testament history? What makes it so unique, so power-packed, so attractive? What is it about 1 Samuel that draws us to it? There is this fact. The book of 1 Samuel signals for us a change. A radical and monumental change for the people of God. This is commented on even in the New Testament. Samuel is mentioned in the New Testament, you may want to turn to Acts chapter four. I’m sorry, it’s Acts chapter three. And here you have one of the messages of Peter. And there is the citation with respect to Moses in verse twenty two.

Moses said the Lord shall. Raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren to him you shall give heed in everything he says to you. It shall be that every soul that does not heed that prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.” And then in the 24th verse, “…and likewise all the prophets have spoken.”

From Samuel and his successors onward also announced these things. Samuel, his appearance, marks a transition. He is spoken of here by Peter as that one in whom a transition is effected for the people of God from Samuel onward. There is specifically then this focus upon that which would be accomplished in the days of Peter and the other apostles. So, Samuel, and first Samuel then, the book of the Bible, signal for us a change, a radical shift in the life of the people of God. And this is apparent to us as we reflect upon the circumstances surrounding the rise of Samuel himself.

For the period of the judges must, in fact, come to an end. It must, in fact, reach an end point. Do you recall the conclusion of the book of Judges? The last verse of the 21st chapter of that book, in those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

That’s a circumstance that cannot go on. It cannot be allowed to continue. Israel is a divided nation, embroiled in tribal factions. She is divided also because of the moral degeneration that has overtaken the nation as a whole. The nation is facing moral collapse. Not only is there this raging individualism that is expressing itself, in the people and in the tribe, but you have it focused at Shiloh. There Eli presides, but not just Eli, you recall, his sons as well, Hophni and Phinehas. I don’t think I have to tell you again about the lives and the actions of Hophni and Phinehas. and Phineas.

Priests of God who were who were despicable in every respect vile vile man. Administratively then religiously the leadership of Israel was corrupt thoroughly corrupt you can read about it as you complete the second chapter of first and go on from Hannah’s prayer and read about the corruption. In effect, Israel was failing at every level locally and at the tabernacle where the arc was where Eli presided. The priesthood had failed. Eli though a man of God himself was tragically inept when it came to dealing with his own children.

He exerted no influence upon them. He could not control them. They were wreaking havoc upon the life of the people. The sin of these sons of Eli appears to be. So there you have it. You see, the period of the judges has reached a terminal point. A change must come.

The situation is so desperate that God must act or Israel is We could compare the situation in Israel at this time to the situation for the world in the days of Noah. If God does not act, the world is lost in the days of Noah. And if God does not act here at this time, Israel is lost. And if Israel is lost, God’s program is jeopardized and his promises fall to the ground.

It is, then, a circumstance, a situation that cries out for God’s action. But there are also other angles to this whole matter of the monumental shift that we find in this book. Not just the matter that Israel is facing dissolution because of its corruption because of it. There is the matter of God’s wisdom and the way in which he has structured the way he is building. What of the structure of Old Testament revelation as a whole. It is threefold. First of all, you have God acting concretely in history so as to save his people. And you have the record concerning that saving activity.

God acts to save his people in the monumental circumstances and actions surrounding the exodus. He delivers his people from the enemy, from the Egyptians. He rescues them by his power and through his grace. And after you have this constitutive, redemptive action on the part of God, he then grants to his people a time in which they are led by remarkable, charismatic leadership. Men extraordinarily blessed, raised up seemingly spontaneously for the occasion.

So after that redemptive act, there follows a period in which you find the remarkable leadership of figures like Joshua and the judges. But that period must give way to another, for you can’t live at the level of that charismatic explosion and spontaneity.

The time for building comes, you build upon that foundation, and thus, there is the evidences of a permanent order that takes shape within the life of the people of God. So you move from redemptive event to charismatic leadership to the building of the structure in which the people of God will then live the days of the monarchy, the kingdom.

Three-fold structure, saving event, charismatic leadership, and then the building of the edifice into which God’s people will be incorporated for kingdom. This threefold structure that we find in the Old Testament is repeated for us in the new in a much more compact fashion. Do you see how we move from the Gospels, the record of God’s saving God’s great mighty saving act that is even greater than that saving act performed for Israel when he delivered the Israelites from the Egyptians. So the gospel gives you the record of the saving event. Then you move to that period of charismatic leadership. You have the book of Acts. You have the testimony in some of the epistles to the explosion. of spontaneous charismatic gifts within the congregation, such as the congregation at Corinth.

But you don’t stay there. You don’t stay there in the foundational level of the days of New Testament apostles and prophets. No, you have to build the superstructure now into which the people of God will be incorporated. So you move on, for instance, to the pastoral epistles to the book of the Ephesians through the letter to the Hebrews.

And there you see something of the permanent order and structure of the church impressing itself upon the consciousness of the people of God. So the shift that is taking place here is a remarkable shift because it’s introducing you to the period of the monarchy in which you will be faced with that pattern of permanence from the Old Testament testimony that will then have its corollary in New Testament times as the church itself takes shape through the actions of God.

Yes, sin demands a new order. But the days of the unstable, charismatic administration also demand a new order. And finally, the world itself demands a new order. Even if there had been no sin, would there have been a new order? Even if there had been no sin, would a new order have arisen? Would a new order have been necessary? was a new order in view in creation.

Original. The answer to that question is yes. The pattern would be the movement from the old to the new for even if there were no sin, In the creation order, that creation would become old and give way to the new. Adam would not have lived perpetually in the Garden of Eden. He wouldn’t have remained there. The order of this creation was not the permanent order.

You had to move on to that which was ultimate and eternal. The creation, irrespective of sin, was a passing order, is a passing order. Tell me about Earth Day. Is it eternal? This world, irrespective of sin, is passing away. It never was intended to be the permanent order, so you pass from old to new. We cannot In fact, hold on to the old when the new asserts itself. Has not Jesus told us that? He told us about new wine and old wineskins. You don’t hold on to the old when the new has come.

And what we see taking place in 1 Samuel is a demonstration of the fact that the new is indeed coming. As the new then asserts itself, it will assert itself in circumstances that give testimony to the fallenness of creation and the tragedy of man. As the new asserts itself, it will do so in the midst of circumstances that testify to the fact that the impermanent must give way to the permanent. And as this is worked out in the pages of 1 Samuel, The ways in which the patterns of the New Order are made clear to us are remarkable. As the New Order asserts itself, as it makes itself felt, this is what we see.

A child. A child. A baby boy. in whom resides the purposes and power of God for that time. A woman without strength, who is given power to conceive. And when all of that takes place, it’s a remarkable lesson in how God works, how He operates. He will take the things that are as nothing, and He will make them something. He will take those things that are ineffectual and weak, and He will make them those things in which we see His purposes and power perfected.

The child Samuel stands over against Hophni and Phinehas, the epitome of power and wickedness. And through this child, God will triumph. Read that psalm of Hannah and marvel It will, in fact, be the lowly. It will, in fact, be those whom the world discards and dismisses. These are the ones in whom God will exalt Himself, and in exalting Himself, He will exalt them. He will take the last, and He will make it first. That’s the story of God’s work by which He renews The story that tells us the tale of the gospel itself.

What is the significance of Saul? Of what tribe is he? You know he’s the son of Kish, but of what tribe? He’s from the tribe of Benjamin. What’s the significance of that? Why should God choose Saul of the tribe of Benjamin? Because you see, Benjamin is the last of the tribes and the least of the tribes. The weakest, and in the economy of Israel, the most insignificant. So, here in Saul, you have one who is taken from that which is least, and he is exalted, he’s made first. What of the tragedy of Saul? The one who was last made first then thinks he ought to be first. And he’s made last again. The mystery of Saul, you see, is the mystery of Israel as a nation. Who was she among nations? She was least. She was last. She was nothing. She had no power. But God took that which was least and made it great. But then that nation thought that it was great in and of itself. And God made that which was first. than last.

So it’s all the last becomes first and in his pride is made last. We’ve read the story of the anointing of David one. Of Jesse’s sons which is it. the last. He is made first. So you see, as you are told about the new order The enduring and permanent order of God, you are told, about an order in which the last is made first, the humble are exalted, those who are lowly are made something, those without power are given new strength, those who are dead are raised to life. But you are told something else. You are told about the nature of the covenant by which then the new order triumphs and prevails. And that’s why you’re told about John. He is the one who had the opportunity to become first and he gave it up and became last. For the sake of the one who was first, David.

If, in fact, Saul is a picture of apostatizing Israel, Jonathan is a picture of faithful Israel. Binding himself to David, their souls knit together, and a perfect love. A perfect love. We have, in 1 Samuel, then, the patterns of the new order, a revelation of the heart of the covenant in the figure of Jonathan. We have prophecy concerning the future of Israel in the figure of Saul himself. We have a picture of the coming Messiah, Christ.

At times you will see him in the figure of Samuel. Then you will see him amazingly in the figure of all. You will see him in the figure of Jonathan but you will see him most remarkably in the figure of David who is the anointed of the Lord is persecuted and assaulted. And Saul would kill him. He would pin him to the wall he would pierce his flesh. He would nail him to a cross. for the sake of gaining and maintaining what he deems to be his own.

We are given then in 1 Samuel a picture of the coming order in which there is a changing of the guard. An old order giving way to a new. There is the old prophet Eli giving way to the new prophet Samuel. There is the old priests Hophni and Phineas giving way to the new priesthood of Zeta. There is the old king Saul giving way to the new king David.

And in all of this, we are prepared for the coming of the kingdom itself, in which Jesus Christ, the final prophet, priest, and king, will preside over his people for the maintenance of an eternal and permanent order into which you have now been brought, and in it you will not suffer loss, nor will you be moved.” Forever. Forever. The very gates of hell will not prevail against the Church of Jesus Christ. So first Samuel, Samuel, Saul, Jonathan, David, the change, a shift of monumental proportions, the new order, the coming of the kingdom of God. 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.