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, September 14, 1997.

This morning we will be reading from 1 Samuel 4, and from there we will be turning over to Matthew 9. 1 Samuel 4, beginning with verse 1, this is the word of God. 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 Aphex. And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel, and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew the army in the field, about 4,000 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 hence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherry beans. 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 come into 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 heretofore. Woe unto 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 quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews as they have been to you. Quit yourselves like men and fight.

And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man to 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. And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent and with earth upon his head.

And when he came low, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside, watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told it, all the city cried out. And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What meaneth the noise of this tumult? And the man came in hastily and told Eli. Now Eli was ninety and eight years old, and his eyes were dim that he could not see. And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army.

And he said, What is there done, my son? And the messenger answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and by two sons also. Hophni and Phinehas are dead, and the ark of God is taken. And it came to pass When he made mention of the Ark of God, that Eli fell off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck broke, and he died. For he was an old man and heavy, and he had judged Israel forty years.

And his daughter-in-law, Phineas’s wife, was with child, near to be delivered. And when she heard the tidings that the Ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and prevailed, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death, the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not, for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel, because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken.

And then turning to Matthew chapter 9 verse 35, And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. Father, how would we estimate the power of your word, it overcoming sin and death in us, sin and death in your people? your word sustaining us in ways that we do not comprehend.

Yet today, O God, your word is declared throughout the world. There are many whom you have called to declare it, and, Father, would you bless them even as they declare that word to those who do not yet believe? We ask, Father, that there would be mercy shown, that there would be great rejoicing as sinners are called to repentance, as they are in fact brought into the kingdom of heaven. Lord, strengthen us in our prayers for your people throughout the world, even those whom you are drawing to yourself presently.

This we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen. Now, I want you to notice how the fourth chapter of 1 Samuel opens. The word of Samuel comes to all Israel. But I want you to keep in mind as you take note of that sentence, this word from Samuel is the word of the kingdom coming to all God’s people.

And as such, it is much more in its operations. For consider, it is that word, in fact, by which those things now to be described, now to be described, will transpire. It is that word by which these events will be put into motion, by which they will be motivated and brought to their conclusion. Such is the significance of this word. But there is more still.

This word from Samuel is that word by which God’s children be made aware through the Holy Spirit. will be compelled, nor even driven, to know the deepest things of God. This word of Samuel referred to here at the opening of 1 Samuel 4. will specifically reach from the opening of this chapter into the seventh chapter, particularly the second verse of that chapter as being an endpoint, but yes, even extend itself beyond that second verse in the seventh chapter, reaching to the conclusion of that seventh chapter. In its scope, is about to take you on the most extraordinary journey. One more remarkable than the journey of the Ark into Philistia and then back into Israel again. For this word, from Samuel to all of Israel, spoken of at the outset of the fourth chapter there, must be appreciated in the most comprehensive sense. Not just all Israel in a mere territorial sense, that is, all Israel alive at the time at which Samuel spoke the word. but much more all Israel, in terms of the chronological sense of the phrase touching the very end, the conclusion of Israel’s history itself.

What I mean to tell you is this. What you are about to be given in this portion of 1 Samuel is the whole of Israel’s history. compactly presented. Now, I suggest to you that this is the meaning of Samuel’s disappearance. I suggest to you that this is the meaning of Samuel’s disappearance.

You see, Samuel will not be mentioned again until you arrive at verse 3 in chapter 7. He’s gone. just as he disappears from the scene after 4-1. So he will disappear from the scene in death at the conclusion of his ministry. And just as he, as the Lord’s prophet, has his word established in his absence, throughout the course of what is coming in the next chapters. So also, his word, the prophetic word, will prevail, it being the word of the Lord, after Samuel’s own departure at death, even to the fullness of God’s purpose for Israel as a nation.

Let me suggest to you, then, that in 1 Samuel 4.1, in relationship to all that follows until we reach chapter 7, verse 3, we have a parallel set out for us that will coalesce with the entirety of the rest of the Old Testament.

This is real prophecy. It won’t be just the words of the prophets that tell you what is going to take place. The events that transpire attached to the ministry of Samuel will be a preview themselves. Prophecy is not merely a matter of words, it is a matter of event.

This is why I think the journey you are about to take in these chapters is most extraordinary. But now let me emphasize further for you, even though Samuel disappears from these coming verses, we must not think that the words that appear here are devoid of the Prophet’s presence. Because you see, his word includes the whole of the people and the whole of their life. His word becomes something of an extension of his presence, an extension of his person into the circumstances that are in view. It is this observation that drives me to the conclusion that when we deal with the rather odd construction at the beginning of chapter 4, we are not thereby to be cut off guard.

As words read, thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now, you might be cut off guard by those words because you expected to hear something different. you expected to hear something like this, thus the word of the Lord came to all Israel, thus the word of Samuel, or thus the word of the Lord came to all Israel through Samuel. And this would make perfect sense, given the conclusion of chapter 3, where you find the final verse ending with reference to the word of the Lord. The most natural thing, and certainly the most theologically correct thing to do, would be to carry through with the phrase, the word of the Lord. Instead, as the fourth chapter opens up, we are given the phrase, the word of Samuel.

Doesn’t this word of Samuel, in this particular context, seem to be given a bit too much credit to the man, too much credit to Samuel himself? Isn’t the text elevating the prophet beyond what is proper here? There are two things that are important for us to keep in mind when we think of Samuel in terms of his office as the prophet. For one thing, we must think of the dignity of the office that he bears. The prophet, you know, appears as the Lord’s appointed spokesman. He is the appointed speaker for the war.

When Moses was being called, the Lord told him when he objected due to his lack of rhetorical he told him that Aaron would be a prophet for him. In explaining what that meant, the Lord said that Moses then would put the words that he had received from the Lord into the mouth of Aaron, his brother. The relationship then between Moses and Aaron was to parallel the relationship between God and his prophet. God puts his word into his prophet’s mouth, as Moses then was to put the word that he received from the Lord into Aaron’s mouth.

The prophet, therefore, is elevated by virtue of his calling, since he has the very word of God in his mouth. When the angel carries the coals from the altar to touch Isaiah’s lips in that marvelous scene in Isaiah chapter 6, that chapter giving us the account of Isaiah’s call to the office of prophet, this action by the angel is by no means for the sole purpose of moral cleansing, to remedy the fact that Isaiah is a man of unclean lips. Now it is for the purpose of Isaiah’s calling, since as a prophet, the very word of God will be placed in his mouth. But as dramatic as this was in the case of Isaiah, it is even more dramatic and direct in the case of Jeremiah. For in Isaiah’s case, it was the seraph, the angel, who applied the coals to Isaiah.

But in Jeremiah’s vision, the Lord himself stretched out his hand and touched Jeremiah’s mouth and said, Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. So realistic a feature is this of the prophetic calling that this whole matter of putting the word into the mouth informs the later experiences of both Jeremiah and Ezekiel as they are described as ingesting the word. They eat it.

The placement of God’s word in the mouth of his prophet is thus so central to the prophet’s that God’s great and grand promise concerning the coming prophet has this feature at its very center. I have in mind Deuteronomy 18, verse 18, which contains the promise concerning the coming prophet. For if the Lord says to Moses, I will raise up a prophet from among your countrymen like you, and I will put my words in his mouth.

In light of this elevation, for the Lord’s messenger, for his prophet, it would seem then that the intersection of Samuel’s word and the Lord’s word, as we move into the fourth chapter of 1 Samuel, is not a matter that need concern us. But there is a second thing that we must keep in mind when it comes to the elevation of Samuel in his role as a prophet, and this has to do with what I have said to you on earlier occasions. Samuel is portrayed in scripture as the landmark prophet.

He is presented to you as the great transitional figure in whom you can see the old Israel fading and the new Israel taking shape. He stands at that prophet in whom we are able to see the intersection of the old world and the new, in which we are privileged to see the coming of the kingdom of God. That one who in his person serves the purpose of defining the new age that is to come, and specifically as that new age will take shape through the agency of the prophet of the Lord. That one in whom we are able to see the pattern for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to send the ultimate prophet spoken of in Deuteronomy 18.

This means, then, that whatever links we find between Samuel and the later prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel, we are compelled to grant to Samuel a unique place. You see in that unique place, as that landmark prophet, as that great transitional figure appearing in the pages of the Old Testament, through whom Israel is moved from the old into the new, as that one in whom we see the coming of the kingdom, in whom we find the outline of the coming promise of prophet, Samuel himself is made like unto the Son of God.

So it is when we hear the sentence, thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Though it may at first sound strange and even seem to make too much of Samuel, its intent is to elevate this prophet not simply as one in whose mouth God’s very word has been placed, but as that one who wonderfully prepares God’s people in a special way for the appearance of Jesus Christ. Thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel, and Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the kingdom of God. But now as Samuel prepares God’s people in a special way for the appearance of Jesus Christ, Does the pattern of his word to God’s people that we see working itself out from this fourth chapter on anticipate the scope of Jesus’ own words to God’s people later?

More specifically, are we able to see In 1 Samuel 4, 1 through 1 Samuel 7, verse 2, and even to the conclusion of the seventh chapter, something of the coming ministry of the Messianic word to and for the people of God. The answer to that question is an emphatic yes. What I want you to do now is to place these chapters from 1 Samuel. What I want you to do is to place 1 Samuel 4, verse 1, through that 7th chapter, verse 2, and even take a look at the conclusion of the 7th chapter, and place them beside the service of Jesus Christ, and note the results. Here are the highlights.

Samuel’s word, being the word of the exalted prophet like unto the Son of God, extends itself into the whole of the life of Israel, comprehending and determining that life. Jesus’ word, being the word of the exalted Son of God Himself, extends itself into the whole of the life of His people, a new Israel, comprehending and determining their life.

2. Samuel, the exalted prophet like unto the Son of God, disappears from the story of the Old Testament here, at this juncture, even while that story is carried on to its completion, and that by his word. Jesus, the Son of God, disappears from the story of the New Testament. by way of his death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven, even while the story in view is carried to its completion by his word.

3. Samuel, the exalted prophet, like unto the Son of God, even though physically absent from the picture, And this, in keeping with his word, which endures, which survives, effects the departure of glory from the old Israel, the ark is gone, and the visitation of that glory among the Gentiles, even to the point of the triumph of that glory over the Gentile gods. Jesus, the Son of God, even though physically absent. And this, in keeping with his word, effects the departure of glory from the old Israel, and the visitation of that glory among the Gentiles, and the subsequent triumph of that glory over all of the Gentile gods.

4. Samuel, the exalted prophet, like unto the Son of God, returns in 1 Samuel 7 verse 3, and this for the purpose of vindicating God’s name among those among whom God’s glory has resided for a time, and that in a climactic, decisive judgment upon all of God’s enemies. Yet Jesus, the exalted Son of God, risen and reigning, returns to vindicate God’s name among the nations among whom God’s glory has resided for a time by way of the gospel and through the ministry of the Church. His return is for that climactic apocalypse and decisive judgment upon all of God’s enemies and the enemies of his people. As I said in the beginning of this message, the word of Samuel that came to all Israel has the power to drive God’s children, those who have been blessed by the Spirit of God, into the deep things of God himself. In fact, this word drives us into the meaning of Israel as a nation, of the Philistines as a threat.

It drives us into the meaning of Eli, into the meaning of his sons. It drives us into the very heart of God in the way in which it presents to us the fate of the ark. As that ark journeys itself into exile and into humiliation. Likewise, in all of this, we ourselves are driven into the profound depths of the gospel, touching here our own meaning, that meaning setting us in the context of the ends of the earth and the end of the world.

Samuel’s presence, 1 Samuel 4, his disappearance, 4-6, his reappearance, 1 Samuel 7, previews the coming of Christ the disappearance of Christ into heaven and his coming again. And as surely as Samuel reappeared, Jesus Christ is going to do the same. You have been warned. What I am telling you is that the way in which God is presenting to you the certainty of His Son’s return is through the figure of Samuel. as sure as Samuel came back, so also will his son. Now I think that you can complete the message. Amen. One who had the word of the Lord in his mouth said, Prepare to meet thy God. Are you ready?

Father, may we rejoice in your word and in the servants that you raised up to give us that word. May we give to them, Lord, that honor that is due, even as you are reflected in them and operative in them. Father, we also pray that we would not be strangers to the message that you sent through them. even as that message culminates in Christ your Son, who truly is the last prophet given to this world. We pray, our Father, that by His word we might be instructed, but also know that His word is effective to bring about those things that have been declared by Him. And surely, O God, as he has announced the coming day, that day shall come. And Father, as he has pled with us that we would be ready for that day, we ask that we shall be. Father, may your servant Samuel serve the purpose that you intend, even as he would prepare us for what is coming. We ask it 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.