Alright, 1st Samuel chapter 12, just by way of review, remember what we have seen. In chapter 7, the people of Israel actually do what Samuel says. In chapter 7, it tells us that Samuel judged Israel. He called the people to repentance, to put away their idols.
They did that. Then the Lord God sent, or the Lord God drove out the Philistine threat. They erected an Ebenezer. They acknowledged that the God of heaven and earth had been their help.
So chapter 7 was a positive statement concerning Israel under the judgeship of Samuel. When we get to chapter 8, however, we see that Israel rejects God in essence. They want a new form of government to meet with the Ammonite threat that has presented itself. And remember that God tells Samuel to give them what they want, and he tells them or describes for them what manner of king or what sort of practice the king will engage in.
Well, then when we get to chapter 9, we have a story about lost donkeys and a found king. And in chapters 10 and 11, Saul is anointed to the kingdom, he is the monarch, and in chapter 11, specifically, it's his first war. Saul showed himself as a leader, as a military leader, as one who gave victory to Israel over the Ammonites. And so what we have now in chapter 12 is probably a covenant renewal ceremony.
Davis said that Israel had broken covenant in asking for a king, and this covenant must be renewed. For that reason, repentance and renewal constitute Samuel's agenda at Gilgal. So they're still at Gilgal. That's where chapter 11 ended.
And here in chapter 12, as I said, Samuel addresses the nation of Israel. It would be similar to what we find in Joshua 24, covenant renewal there at Shechem. here Covenant Renewal at Gilgal. So beginning in chapter 12 at verse 1. Now Samuel said to all Israel, indeed, I have heeded your voice and all that you said to me and have made a king over you.
And now here is the king walking before you. And I am old and gray-headed. And look, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my childhood to this day.
Here I am. Witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken?
Or whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I received any bribe with which to blind my eyes? I will restore it to you.
And they said, you have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man's hand. Then he said to them, the Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand. They answered, he is witness. Then Samuel said to the people, it is the Lord who raised up Moses and Aaron and who brought your fathers up from the land of Egypt.
Now therefore stand still that I may reason with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous acts of the Lord which he did to you and your fathers. When Jacob had gone into Egypt and your fathers cried out to the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. And when they forgot the Lord their God, he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them.
Then they cried out to the Lord and said, we have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and Ashtoreths. But now deliver us from the hand of our enemies, and we will serve you. And the Lord sent Jerob, Baal, Bedan, Jephthah, and Samuel, and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you dwelt in safety. And when you saw that Nahash, king of the Ammonites, came against you, you said to me, no, but a king shall reign over us, when the Lord your God was your king.
Now therefore, here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. And take note, the Lord has set a king over you. If you fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God. However, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you as it was against your fathers.
Now, therefore, stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes. Is today not the wheat harvest? I will call to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking a king for yourselves. So Samuel called to the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day.
And all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. And all the people said to Samuel, pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves. And Samuel said to the people, do not fear. You have done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.
And do not turn aside, for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing. For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people.
Samuel's Prophetic Intercession
Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. But I will teach you the good in the right way. Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.
But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king. Amen.
Introduction and Outline
Well, as we look at this particular section, there's four observations or four subsections that I want to notice. First, the vindication of Samuel in verses 1 to 5. Secondly, the indictment of Israel in verses 6 to 12. Thirdly, the exhortation to pursue faithfulness in verses 13 to 19.
And then the reminder of God's covenant in verses 20 to 25. Though the word covenant is absent, the concept, the idea, the realities of covenant religion are present throughout this particular chapter. As I said, it's similar to what we find in that covenant renewal ceremony in Shechem in Joshua chapter 24. So part of the procedure here is that Samuel wants the people to own the fact that they have sinned against God.
You do not renew covenant without repentance. You do not seek to fix something without first humbling yourself before the Lord God Almighty. And as a result, the things that we see in this particular chapter are very practical for us in the Christian church today, and I hope will prove to be helpful to each and every one of us because we certainly all find ourselves in a position where we have sinned against the Lord and we need to repent and we need to humble ourselves and go to Him. Well, ultimately, the reason why we can go to Him, it's not because of our goodness, it's not because of our righteousness, it's not because of our wisdom, but it's because of the God of the covenant.
It's his oath, his covenant, his faithfulness that provides the foundation upon which we go back to him in repentance.
Vindication of Samuel
So let's look first at the vindication of Samuel. This is something that Moses does in the book of Numbers. He highlights the fact that he had not stolen, he had not exploited. Paul the Apostle does this in Acts chapter 20.
I have covenanted no man's silver. You know that I have worked hard. What I think Samuel is doing is vindicating himself before Israel because he currently is the defendant, but he's going to become the prosecuting attorney. He is going to upbraid them and indict them for particular breaches of the covenant.
So initially, he sets out his covenantal innocence, not the fact that he's an innocent man, not the fact that he's a sinless man, but in terms of God's covenant with the nation of Israel, it's Israel who has violated it, it's not Samuel. Samuel has proven to be a faithful servant to God. Samuel has been a faithful servant to the children of Israel, and so very specifically notice in verse 1, he says, Indeed I have heeded your voice and all that you said to me, and have made a king over you. And now here is the king walking before you, and I am old and gray-headed, and look, my sons are with you.
I have walked before you from my childhood to this day." There are indications there of this transition as well, from judgeship to kingship. Samuel refers to the fact that I have walked before you. My judgeship is formally over. His job as prophet, his job as intercessor, his job as a religious reformer in this particular nation has not ceased, but in terms of judging, he doesn't do that now because Israel has a king.
She has a monarch. So he speaks specifically of having a king and he speaks specifically of him having walked before them previously, or before the Lord previously. So the transition is complete. Remember there was a private anointing of Saul, there was this public election of Saul, there was battle that Saul won, victory that he achieved over the Ammonites, and then this sort of public declaration, long live the king, and a celebration and feasting and rejoicing in God for the good gifts that he had given unto them.
And so then Samuel turns his attention to his integrity and to his fidelity. He says, Witness against me before the Lord and before his anointed, whose ox have I taken or whose donkey have I taken, or whom have I cheated, whom have I oppressed, or from whose hand have I received any bribe with which to blind my eyes? I will restore it to you. Now, we like the concept of blind justice, you know, that statue of Lady Justice that There's the scales and she has a blindfold on.
Well, that's a good thing. The idea is that justice is blind in the sense that we're no respecters of persons. It doesn't matter if you're rich or you're poor. It doesn't matter if you're black or you're white.
It doesn't matter if you're Canadian or you're an African. Justice is blind to those particular things. That's not what's in view here. The idea being is that he has not received a bribe to blind his eyes so that he doesn't render justice, so that he doesn't give righteousness with reference to these particular judgments.
Matthew Henry comments on this particular section because, as I think you'll see throughout the remainder of the chapter, it's straightforward. He tells Israel, you have sinned against God, you need to repent, you need to forsake, and you need to get your act together according to the covenant. We ask the question, why does he spend these first few verses vindicating his own righteousness? Matthew Henry says he designed, in the close of his discourse, to reprove the people, and therefore he begins with a vindication of himself.
For he that will with confidence tell another of his sin must see to it that he himself be clear." I think that's a great principle. Samuel is highlighting the reality that he has not violated this particular principle, and so he's in a very excellent position or posture to be able to sue these people for their breach of the covenant. Remember Jesus' words with the woman caught in adultery, he who is without sin, let him cast the first stone. Jesus is not saying he who is a sinless perfect man.
He's saying he who is without this particular sin. He among you that doesn't have a problem with adultery. He among you that doesn't have a girlfriend on the side. He among you that hasn't violated this particular precept.
Built into the law is this idea that if you're going to testify against someone, you really ought to make sure that you have your act together, or else it's hypocrisy. Now again, that does not mean that they're still not sinful and wrong, but this whole idea of justice, especially on the part of a civil leader in Israel, this is absolutely crucial and absolutely necessary that he lays this foundation. And notice what the people have to say at this particular report. Verse four, they said, you have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man's hand.
Now, if we could just moralize for just a bit, I don't want to get far afield here, but wouldn't it be wonderful to live in such a way that when we're old and we're gray headed, we're able to say with Samuel, you know what manner of life I've lived among you. You know that I did not exploit your people. You know that I did not steal your stuff. You know that I was a man of integrity and faithfulness and fidelity to God's arrangement or to God's covenant.
And to have the people that we know the best say something like this, you have not cheated us or oppressed us, nor have you taken anything from any man's hand. I think certainly the emphasis in this section is not on the example of Samuel, but we would be foolish not to take a moment to appreciate the example of Samuel. He is a faithful man. He is a godly man.
He is a man who in the 11th hour is able to say to the people that he led and that he governed and that he communed with. You know that I have not oppressed. You know that I have not cheated you. And those people say, absolutely, we know, Samuel, that you were indeed a faithful man.
May God instill that in us so that when we're on our deathbed and we're able to say something like that, our children aren't rolling their eyes or they're not saying, really, is that actually the case? Because We thought you were just a big fat hypocrite. We ought to strive to be faithful now, so that when we are on that deathbed, we're able to testify in such a way. I've always thought that about the statement of the Apostle in 2 Timothy chapter 4.
You know, that great statement concerning the Apostle when he realizes that his time to die is at hand. Chapter 4 of 2 Timothy, verse 6, for I am already being poured out as a drink offering and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. The only way that a man can say that in the eleventh hour.
The only way that a man can say that when he is facing certain death is because for hours 1 to 10, he's actually done it. You cannot say, I have fought the good fight, if you haven't fought the good fight. You cannot say, I have finished the race, if you have not successfully run the race. And you certainly cannot say, I have kept the faith, if you have not had a pattern and a habitual acclimation to faith keeping throughout your life.
You see, brothers and sisters, Samuel is able to make this testimony and have the people of God say, you're right, you haven't done these things, you've been a faithful man. Paul is able to say this in 2 Timothy chapter 4, because they were faithful in life. We need to strive and pursue and seek by the grace of God to be the things that the Lord calls us to be. We are justified freely by His grace.
Nobody rejoices in that truth like I'd rejoice in that truth. We are not commended to God, or we do not enter into heaven, based one iota on any of our works. We are justified freely by His grace, according to the active and the passive obedience of our beloved Lord Jesus, but certainly as justified sinners We now enter into the life of sanctification. And those justified freely by His grace want to pursue the things that are pleasing to Him.
They want to be faithful as husbands, as wives, as fathers, as mothers. They want to be faithful in their workplaces. They want to shine His lights in a crooked and perverse generation, out of gratitude to God, out of a love and appreciation to God. Samuel was a faithful man.
And brothers and sisters, if we profess saving religion in Christ, it needs to be the case that we put our money where our mouths are and that we live faithfully now so that we can die well then. That is what Samuel was able to achieve.
Indictment of Israel
And then notice, after this, he moves into this indictment of Israel. Now, very specifically, why does he do this here? I think John Gill answers. He says, and he wisely took this opportunity of reproving the people for their sin of desiring a king when Saul was settled and established in his kingdom, and when they were in the midst of all their mirth and jollity.
Now, I just love that phrase, mirth and jollity. Do you see what Gil is saying? They have just installed Saul as the monarch. What was Saul's first order of business?
Killing Ammonites until the heat of the day. Saul neutralized the threat of Nahash and the Ammonites. Wouldn't the people be inclined to forget their sin in asking for a king? In their mirth and jollity, they would be rejoicing in the reality that Saul had delivered them from Nahash.
Remember, Nahash was that especially nasty fellow that liked to collect right eyes from Israelites so they weren't militarily ready for combat. Nahash was the sort of guy that liked to make necklaces with eyeball. I don't know if he actually did that. but he wanted to gouge out right eyes as the terms of a covenant. I mean, Nahash was a nasty fellow.
So that Saul was able to neutralize that threat, the children of Israel could have been inclined to forget the reality that we rejected Yahweh in our desire for this king. So I think Gil is absolutely right. When Saul was settled and established in his kingdom, and when they were in the midst of all their mirth and jollity, who might from the success that had attended this first adventure of their king conclude that they had done a right and good thing in requesting to have one? So you see, Samuel has a particular agenda.
If it's covenant renewal that's in view at Gilgal, Samuel has to first start with the bad news. You see, we do not repent and we do not forsake our sins. unless it is pointed out to us. Now certainly it's pointed out when we're studying our Bibles or when we hear sermons. There is that utilization or that utility of the text of Scripture.
Convince, rebuke, exhort. It's profitable for doctrine, conviction, reproof, and instruction in righteousness. The Word comes to us and it finds us out. But there are times and seasons in our Christian life where because of a faithful brother, or a faithful sister, or a faithful husband, or a faithful wife, where they come to reprove us for our sin.
We gotta know the bad before we actually start to deal properly. We've got to embrace the reality that we have sinned against a holy God before we start to fix things. We've got to get our house in order, and this is precisely what Samuel is going to do with the people here. Now notice, with reference to the indictment of Israel, verses 6 to 12, we see it break down into two sections.
God's Faithfulness in History
First, the Lord's acts on their behalf, and secondly, the people's rejection of God. Now notice in verses 6 to 11, what is Samuel saying to that? Samuel is saying that God has always been there for you. God has always been there for you.
When the people of Israel went down into Egypt, who came to deliver them? Yes, it was Moses and Aaron in terms of the human instrumentality, but it was God. God raised up Moses. God dispatched Moses.
God sent Moses to Pharaoh and said, let my people go. God orchestrated the exodus and the deliverance of Israel from the land of Egypt. when they get into the promised land and they sin against God. And then God raises up these foreign oppressors. And then these foreign oppressors come and start to deal severely with the children of Israel.
And then it comes time for deliverance. What does God do? God delivers, God raises up the judges. So he moves from the Exodus to the period of the judges.
And if you notice very specifically in verse 9, what is their crime? It says, And when they forgot the Lord their God, Now that is the highest breach of the covenant. I mean certainly if you've got a body of law and documentation on how you are to relate to your God, at the very top has to be the forgetting of God. I mean, you could probably eat a jackdaw and it would probably be alright with you, or a carrion vulture.
Those things were prohibited under the terms of the Old Covenant, but probably not as bad as forgetting God. You see, they weren't just playing with a little bit of sin, they forgot God, They bowed to Baal, they bowed to the Ashtoreths, and as a result, God sent in these foreign oppressors, and then they cried out, and God delivered them.
Israel's Rejection of God
Notice specifically at verse 11, a reference to the judges. The Lord sent Jerob Baal Badan, or B-Dan. Who is this B-Dan? The marginal reading in the New King James ascribes it to Samson.
I'm sorry, Beric. The Septuagint and the Syriac version have it as barren. Kyle and Dalich agree with that. They say it was probably a scribal error, and that means just a misprint of a word.
The original autographs of the scriptures are without error. When these documents were copied, occasionally scribes made mistakes. That's why there's what's called variant readings from time to time. in the Bible. So probably this Bedan is Barak and he fits with the rest of these particular men.
The Lord sent Jeroboam, that is Gideon, Bedan, Jephthah, and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side and you dwelt in safety. So you see what he's doing. What shows a people their sin or what frames the people of God's sin better than the grace of God, right? I've often thought that a man who goes out and commits adultery against his wife is a terrible criminal.
He's a horrible man. I think we'd all agree with that. He's a wretch. He's a vile man.
He's a wicked man to go out and commit adultery. Now, there are some times when a woman has rejected the overtures of her husband, and she has been a terrible wife. Not that we justify the man for that, but there is a context. But what if a woman who's godly upright, meets all the needs of her husband, she goes overboard to make sure that she's a faithful, good, godly wife.
I think that man's crime is exacerbated. It looks that much worse because he has a good wife and he has sinned against much grace. The same is what is going on here. What Samuel is doing is framing their rejection of God in the most grave terms.
God has been there for you. God was there at the Exodus. God was there with the Philistines and with the Moabites when it was the period of the Judges. It was God who sent Ehud with that message for big Eglon when he stuck him with that knife.
It was God who was behind jail when she took the tent peg and drove it in Sisera's head under Barak's watch. It was God who raised up Jephthah, a man who was an outcast of Israel, a man who was disdained by his own nation. And nevertheless, God sends that man to deliver the children of Israel. God was there every step of the way.
God has preserved you. God has blessed you. God has delivered you. And notice what happens according to verse 12.
He says, and when you saw that Nahash king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, no, but a king shall reign over us when the Lord your God was your king. We can just read through that and not think twice about it. But just imagine, Samuel has said, God saved you through Moses and Aaron. God saved you through Jephthah.
God saved you through Barak. God saved you through me. God saved you through Samson. God saved you through Gideon.
God saved you every step of the way. And when Nahash and the Ammonites show up, suddenly God's not good enough? Suddenly God can't do it? God can't destroy Nahash and the Ammonites?
Davis says, ah, but the most contemporary crisis always seems the worst. Now I want us to see that this is us, brethren, in our lives God delivers, God blesses, God helps, God keeps, God is there, and then a crisis comes and what happens? We freak out. We lose it.
The last person we go to is God. The last one we bow before is God. We look for all these other helps. We look for all these other means.
We look for all these other techniques to fix our particular problems. Even though God has always been there, God has always carried us, God has always delivered us. That's the emphasis of the passage. Nahash comes, and you forget God?
Nahash comes, and you forget the exodus? Nahash comes, and you forget the judges? You just lose all sense of reality, and you cry out for a king? Davis says, but the most contemporary crisis always seems the worst.
In the current emergency, the memory of Yahweh's righteous acts, that's the language used in verse 7, dissolves in Israelite amnesia. Here comes Nahash. Isaac will appreciate this. Davis is a bit of a punster too.
Wreaking optical destruction. Wreaking optical destruction. I love that. He wanted to gouge out right eyes, right?
That's optical destruction. Here comes Nahash wreaking optical destruction. There is no cry for help, but a demand for a king. No seeking for deliverance from Yahweh, but specifying the method in which deliverance must come.
No appeal to the true king. No trust in Yahweh to send adequate leadership as he had always done. Their help, they assume, is not in the proven arm of Yahweh, but in the new form of government. You see, I understand it's difficult when things hit us, when difficulties come, when trials face us.
What is our response? Is it typically, God Almighty, please help us? Now, I'd like to think that is our response. But maybe it's not always that.
I've got to fix this. I've got to do this. I've got to call this person. I've got to sort this out.
Let's just be still and know that God is God. Let's reflect upon his power, his might, his majesty, his works. Let's reflect upon Romans 8.32 when it comes to dealing with a specific spiritual issue. Romans 8.32, you hopefully know the particular passage.
He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, How shall he not with him also freely give us all things? God delivers you from Egypt? God delivers you during the period of the judges? God's not going to deliver you from Nahash and the Ammonites?
Is Nahash and the Ammonites better, bigger, stronger, and more powerful than Pharaoh? Is he bigger, better, stronger, and more powerful than all of the men that ruled in the pagan nations at the time of the judges? But even more than that, is he bigger, better, and stronger than God Almighty? God was able to do amazing things in Egypt.
How did the people leave that with Egyptians throwing gold at them? Go already, please, take this and leave. I mean, talk about a turn of events. Look at the period of the judges.
Who would have thought that sturdy jail would have used her tent peg that morning to crush the head of an oppressor of God's holy people. You see, God is in this. God is for us. God does not leave us nor forsake us, and Israel forgot that.
Samuel reminds them and he indicts them accordingly in verses 6 to 12. So God's grace is the backdrop that highlights the gravity of our sin against God. I think about this as Christians. I mean, we've got the blood of the covenant.
We've got the Lord Jesus, who in his doing and dying and rising has saved us from our sins. Perhaps it's that thought in mind that Paul then uses when he speaks things like what we find in 2 Corinthians 7. Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." I mean, when Paul comes to deal with sexual immorality in 1 Corinthians 6, that whole idea of not being joined with a harlot, what's his fundamental argument? Christ died for you.
Christ purchased you body and soul. As a result, don't give that body to a harlot. You see, it's a pretty simple stretch of logic or simple application of logic. What about Romans chapter 12?
It's our reasonable, our rational service to give everything to God. I beseech you, therefore, brethren. And Romans 12.1 is a peculiarly well-located exhortation, because what happens in Romans 1 to 11, the exposition of the Christian gospel, the great truths of total depravity and the universal condemnation of sin, the reality that but now A righteousness has come that was witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, received through faith in Christ. Justification by faith alone, imputation because of the righteousness of Christ, the ideas of sanctification and the Spirit.
All these things have been expounded in detail. So 1 to 11 is the doctrinal foundation. In chapter 12, verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. I think the idea is, is that based on what God in Christ has done in bringing you out of darkness into marvelous light, It is reasonable.
It is rational. It is spiritual. It is a no brainer that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. He has saved you body and soul.
He didn't save you body and soul so that you may continue in sin, but rather he saved you so that you will no longer present your members as instruments of unrighteousness. Romans chapter six. You see, it's a no-brainer. The grace of God leads inevitably to gratitude which is fleshed out in lives that pursue those things which are pleasing to the Lord God Most High.
So Samuel effectively indicts the nation of Israel. I doubt if anyone at that particular time were saying, What do you mean, Samuel? They knew exactly what he meant. And Samuel knew they knew exactly what he meant.
Exhortation to Pursue Faithfulness
So that brings us to verses 13 to 19. He exhorts them to pursue faithfulness. And this is in the covenant. Again, the word covenant isn't there, but the sanctions of the covenant are specified. verses 14 and 15.
If you obey God, you get the blessings of the covenant. You disobey God, you get the cursings of the covenant. This is a covenant people living under this arrangement. Samuel has upbraided them and indicted them for their sin.
He now tells them their specific response and their specific duty under God with reference to their covenant obligation. Verse 13, now therefore here is the king whom you have chosen and whom you have desired. Essentially what he's saying as well is that we've gone from transition, we've gone from the period of judgeship to kingship, but the covenant hasn't changed. Whether you're under the Judge Samuel, you're under the Judge Samson, you're under the Judge Gideon, or you're under the King Saul, you're under the King David, whatever that arrangement is in terms of national government, you're still under obligation to God to give him the honor and the glory and the obedience that you entered into with him. back at Sinai.
So basically, what he does is tell them, notice in verse 14, if you fear the Lord and serve Him and obey His voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God. Where do these things come from? Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28. Those are good passages to keep in your noggin.
Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28. This is backbone. This is foundation. This is the sanctions attached to the covenant. there's blessings if you obey in the land, there's cursings if you disobey in the land.
Now, we know, because we've read the rest of the Old Testament, that they go, oh, about a minute, and then they sin again, right? Isn't that the continual pattern? Isn't that the repetition that we see? Isn't that the consistency in the Old Testament?
Remember that the law of God functioned in Several ways in the Old Testament, but one way in particular was to show the people their need for Christ. Every time God said, keep my law, and they broke it. Every time they tried to do what the covenant said, and they broke it. There was that opportunity to remind the people that there's a Messiah coming.
There's a Christ coming. There's a deliverer coming who will obey, who will achieve righteousness, and who will ultimately die for his people so that he may save them from their sins. So yeah, every covenant renewal ceremony, what happens a chapter later? I mean, they get the Ten Commandments in Chapter 20 of Exodus, right?
They get the covenant law in 21 to 23, the application of the decalogue. 24, what do they say? Not once, but twice. All that you have said, we will do. Right?
Wasn't that the obligation under the old covenant? Isn't it beautiful that Jesus is our covenant head in the new covenant? Isn't it beautiful that Jesus says, all that the Father has given me, I will do? That we are united to him by grace through faith, that he won, he merited, he did what Israel could not do.
Israel at Sinai swears fidelity to the covenant and they break it. 32, right? You go from 24, they start building the tabernacle. 32, Moses comes down. What does he see? They're dancing before a gold calf.
I mean, that's the pattern in Old Covenant religion. Yes, God knew that. It's not like God's saying, oh man, I can't believe they're doing that. There was a period of tutelage.
When Paul talks about us not being under a tutor anymore in Galatians 3, it's not the moral law, not as if that's abrogated. It was the old covenant system that served as a tutor for these people to drive them to Christ, the telos, so the end of the law, the end of that old covenant era and system because Jesus did what they could never do. Truly beautiful, the way these things jive and work together. Nevertheless, it was a real promise, if you fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and do not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then both you and the king who reigns over you will continue following the Lord your God.
And there were good times, there were good seasons in Israel. Remember, the old covenant is not exactly what the new covenant is. There was a national element, there's a political element, there's a body politic element involved in the Old Covenant. So when they went in the land and they obeyed, God did bless them.
But notice in verse 15, however, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you as it was against your fathers." So you see, not only did God engage in righteous acts and delivering them with reference to Egypt and with reference to the period of the judges, there was a lot of judgment along the way, right? When Israel sinned, what happened? They reaped the curses of the covenant. Covenant renewal.
The sanctions associated with the covenant. The sanction is simply, if you obey, you get blessed. If you disobey, you get cursed, right? You all know what sanctions are.
Well, not all of you. If you have children, you know what they are. And if you have been a child, at least in a Christian home, you know what a sanction is. You touch that and I spank you.
That's a sanction, okay? It's that simple. God says to Israel, you go and you do that, then you will be disciplined. You will be chastened.
The Sign of Thunder and Rain
Now notice this sign for confirmation of what Samuel has said. Have you ever heard of Death Valley in California, right? Now, it doesn't snow in Death Valley in July. It just wouldn't happen, right?
Just couldn't happen. I mean, it could, feasibly. It's not like it couldn't, but it's just not normal. Well, rain during the wheat harvest in Israel is just not normal.
It just doesn't happen. You get early rains, you get latter rains. May, June, when you bring in or you harvest the wheat, there's no rain. It just doesn't rain.
And so when Samuel says in verse 16, now therefore stand and see this great thing which the Lord will do before your eyes is today not the wheat harvest. I will call to the Lord and he will send thunder and rain that you may perceive and see that your wickedness is great which you have done in the sight of the Lord in asking a king for yourselves. Isn't it too bad, in some sense, that he has argued so logically? And he has argued so consistently?
He has argued so rigorously that now he has to use a sign? I think we should conclude from this, or at least extrapolate a principle. Let the Word of God itself move us to repentance. You shouldn't need, you know, rain or snow and Death Valley to get you to repent.
You shouldn't need an act of Congress. You shouldn't need, you know, some miraculous thing. Well, when the Lord sends, you know, sunshine in February, well, actually, he's done that. I can't say that.
Chilliwack's been amazing. It's really been amazing. When He does this, then I'll know He wants me to repent. The Word of God tells you to repent, repent.
That's it. Christian, if you know you're in sin, and the Bible tells you that, you do not need to wait for affirmation. You do not need to be confirmed. You don't need to pray about it.
How many times do people do it? No, you need to repent. Pray, prayerfully repent, repentfully pray. I just need to think.
No, you don't need to think about it. When you are sinning, you need to repent to God right away. I don't know where we got this whole, well, I just need to think about it. No, you just need to repent.
That's it, right? How come it isn't that cut and dry? How come it is that we actually think it's OK to get away with things or to try and get away with things? So what happens here is that Israel has to actually hear thunder and rain in May, June, during wheat harvest, That's what ultimately brings them to this place.
Now, I realize they could have said, but Samuel, we're ready to repent. Samuel just goes into this sign of confirmation. But I'm just making the observation. Don't make it have to come to that.
I mean, don't make it be the case that your earth has to crumble before you'll repent, that life has to completely be in shambles. Okay, I think I'll repent now. The moment you see the sin in your heart, the moment you face that stuff in the scripture, maintain short accounts with God. If 1st John 1.9 means anything, it means that.
Maintain short accounts with God. Which, by the way, as we proceed through this passage, we can put 1st Samuel 12 right next to 1st John 1.9. We can put 1st Samuel 12 right next to Psalm 25.11. Right next to Psalm 130 verses 3 and 4. 1st Samuel 12 is that glorious of a passage.
Now, 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We know he's dealing with Christians. We know he's dealing with believers. We know that he's dealing with people who have come by grace to God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, why do we need to confess our sins to God? Some have thought. Because God not only has that judicial role and He has justified us freely by His grace and declared not guilty because of the doing and the dying and the rising of Christ, but He's our Father, right? And we want to maintain good relations with our Father.
We want to make sure that if we confess our sins, we realize He's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We want the smile of God. And sin is a breach in that arrangement. And so when we see our sin, we ought to confess it, we ought to forsake it, and we ought to find mercy.
Proverbs 28, 13, another one that's in this strain of text that we'll see in just a moment. But back to this rainstorm. Notice. So Samuel called to the Lord, verse 18, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.
I thought, that's interesting. Of course you fear the Lord, because he sent the thunder and the rain. But you also fear the man who asked for it, and it happened. Right?
I mean, come on. Samuel has just prevailed mightily with God. When they cry out to Samuel in the next verse, pray to God for us, they know why. Because Samuel has the ear of God.
Samuel has access at the throne of grace. Samuel goes. And Samuel's, again, faithful man. Samuel says, it would be sin for me not to pray for you people.
It's an amazing passage of scripture. At any rate, so Samuel called to the Lord, the Lord sent thunder and rain that day and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. Davis said this, he said it showed this sign, this thunder and rain, it showed that covenant curses were not mere official words talked away in a canonical document. Remember about eight minutes ago I said there's two passages you should remember.
You should put them in your noggin. Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28. Very good. Here's what he's referring to.
This thunder and rain on that day showed that the covenant curses were not mere official words tucked away in a canonical document, but lively threats of a living God who had the power to impose them at any, even a most unlikely time. So when that rain came and that thunder blasted, they realized that this god has the ability to wipe out the very wheat we are supposed to be harvesting. I mean, some speculate that that's actually what happened, that that was the case, that this was judgment from God for them having rejected him and seeking out a king. And then notice, it provoked them to fear the Lord.
Again, Davis makes this beautiful comment. He said, if God grants us a sight of our own sin and of His displeasure, this is very important. I quoted Davis, I've quoted him freely this time, I do a lot, but he's just really nailed this section. He said, if God grants us a sight of our own sin and of his displeasure, we can be sure he does not do so merely to see us tremble, but to see us both tremble and be restored.
You see, there's a remedial end here, okay? This is all grace and kindness and mercy and goodness. You see, if God didn't care about Israel, He wouldn't approve that. If God didn't care about Israel, He wouldn't send Samuel.
If God didn't care, he wouldn't deal with them at all. The fact that God shows you your sin, yes, it is to promote trembling, but it's also with a view to restoration. Davis says in 1 Samuel 12, we see both the kindness and the severity of God. I love that bit in Revelation chapter 3, when Jesus rebukes the worst of the churches in Asia Minor.
Revelation chapter 3. I mean, the worst is Laodicea. I mean, Jesus threatens to spew them out of his mouth, to vomit them right out of his mouth. That's terrible, right?
The old covenant, the land would vomit out its inhabitants, and the new covenant, the Lord Christ will vomit out those who make a profession and live like the devil. But notice what he says to the church in Laodicea. Verse 18 of chapter 3, I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed. that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed, and anoint your eyes with eyesalve that you may see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." Isn't that beautiful?
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. What's God's way or what is God's means to call us back to himself? Very often it's through rebuke and chastening.
We'd like, you know, emails and Twitters and you know, little love notes from God, hey, come on back. But it's chastening and it's rebuke. You see, we're hard-headed and we're hard-hearted and sometimes we need the weight of the law of God to crush us so that we will repent. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, therefore, be zealous and repent.
That is essentially what's going on in 1 Samuel chapter 12 as well. So the people ask for prayer on their behalf. Pray for your servants to the Lord your God that we may not die. For we have added to all our sins the evil of asking a king for ourselves.
That's good. They got it. They got it. It's, you know, found its way into their heads and hearts.
Reminder of God's Covenant
And that brings us finally to the reminder of God's covenant. Notice in verses 20, to 25.
Encouragement: Do Not Fear
First, the encouragement to God's people. Then Samuel said to the people, do not fear. You have done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. This is the passage that I indicated earlier that you can set next to Psalm 2511.
Pardon my iniquity for your name's sake, for it is great. Psalm 130, he says, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared. First John 1.9, we've already covered that.
Look at what Samuel says in verse 20. Samuel said to the people, do not fear. You have done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart." Isn't that beautiful? That's God.
Notice he doesn't say, well, that's it, it's over, you're done. It's over, you're gone. Davis, again, makes this statement. He says, do you see it?
You don't go back and wallow in your guilt, relive the tragic mistake, the big one that has soured your life. You don't make yourself miserable by bathing your mind in the memory of your rebellion, punching the replay button and going over the whole messy episode in lurid and precise detail as though such misery makes atonement. I think that's in us. I remember hearing Al Martin on the Atonement once, and he said, there is a sin among Protestants.
It's a Protestant penance. If you were brought up Roman Catholic, you know the idea of penance. Penance is punishment. You go into the box, and the priest says, OK, your sins are forgiven you, but.
You gotta go say, you know, 10 Hail Marys and 5 Our Fathers or whatever the arrangement may be. Again, terrible. We're gonna punish you by making you pray. Imagine teaching children that.
Here's your punishment. You have to pray. No wonder people, when they hit 18, flock out of the Roman Catholic Church. It's been a nightmare, man!
At any rate, so what we have is this penance. I have to do something before I'm fully accepted with God. Albert Martin is right. There's an evangelical penance.
The idea of confessing our sins, finding forgiveness, and moving on is sometimes absent among the people of God. Albert Martin uses the illustration, a man sins against his wife. He finally confesses it to God, he gets forgiveness from God, confesses it to his wife, gets forgiveness from her, and then he walks around pouty and this and that, and I'm sorry, and I can't... Look, you've been forgiven, you need to move on.
And this is precisely the flow of the narrative. Samuel said to the people, do not fear. You have done all this wickedness, yet do not turn aside from following the Lord. This is a problem with a simple answer.
There's times when people say, you know, brother, I haven't been reading my Bible as I ought. Then read it. Pick it up. It's one of those problems that has a very simple answer.
I've sinned against the Lord. Confess it, forsake it, and find mercy. That's what Proverbs 28, 13 actually says. You say, well, that will make you have low views of sin.
No, it won't. It will make you have high views of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. You will value grace, you will sing the praises of God, you will realize that once we have done this great wickedness, nevertheless our God says there is a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Davis says, the big one that has soured your life.
You don't make yourself miserable by bathing your mind in the memory of your rebellion. Punching the replay button and going over the whole messy episode in lurid and precise detail as though such misery makes atonement. Misery, on your part, does not make atonement. It's the blood of Jesus.
Galatians 2.21, I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes to the law, then Christ died in vain, brethren. If somehow my standing with God is bettered because I have misery, what are we saying about the cross? We are with Rome saying that the cross isn't fully efficacious and that we need to add some merit to it to make it full and robust. Now again, I'm not suggesting for a moment some antinomian spin that has no concept whatsoever of sin.
I've said, repent of your sin. But brethren, when you repent and you confess, according to Proverbs, according to 1 John, according to Psalm 130 verse 4, and according to 1 Samuel 12 20, God forgives you, God restores you, God receives you. David says, no, you go forward in basic, simple fidelity to Yahweh from that point on. That's the point.
Yet, do not turn aside from following the Lord. What happened to David? David gets found out in grievous sin. Does he go sit on a pole?
Does he go to the priest and get his, you know, penance of 10 Hail Marys and five Our Fathers? I have sinned against the Lord. Say, well, that wasn't enough. Why wasn't that enough?
Why is it not enough to do what God actually says? He who confesses and forsakes shall find mercy. Why isn't that enough? Well, he has to feel bad.
What are we talking about here? You don't think he actually felt bad for having committed murder and adultery? How do you know what he's got going on in his head? Brethren, the idea is, is that when we sin, we go to God through our mediator, the Lord Jesus.
We believe the gospel, the truth of the power of the blood, and we move on, man. We read our Bibles, we pray, we go to church. I mean, sometimes I've heard that. Sometimes I, you know, people say, I just, it's been so long since I read my Bible.
I've fallen into this pattern. My answer is very simple. Read your Bible. You don't have to go feel bad for 15 days and then read your Bible.
I got to really show God I feel bad and then I can read. Just read the Bible, man. That's it. Pick it up and read it.
There's problems in the Christian life that have very easy fixes. We just need to do it.
God Will Not Forsake His People
And then notice what is central in all of this is verse 22. Essentially in verse 21 he says, stay away from idols. Do not turn aside to idols, for then you would go after empty things, idols, which cannot profit or deliver, because they're idols, for they are nothing. Verse 22 is central to the entire chapter, for the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you his people.
That's covenant. That's it. Right there. It's God.
It's God's will. It's God's sovereignty. It's God's do we? It is according to the Geneva Bible of His free mercy, and not of your merits, and therefore He will not forsake you.
With reference to His name, God calls Israel to be His chosen people, to be His special possession, so that when the nations look upon Israel, they know that Yahweh is their God. So because God is so connected with the nation of Israel, if they suffer or if they are cut off, it reflects upon God, it reflects upon His name. Gil comments on this phrase, for the sake of Himself, His honor and His glory, should He forsake His people and suffer them to come to ruin, His name would be blasphemed among the heathens. He would be charged either with want of power to help them, or with want of faithfulness to his promise to them, and with inconstancy to himself, or want of kindness and affection for them, all which would reflect upon his honor and glory.
See, God has a vested interest in keeping his people, doesn't he? God has covenanted to do this and not to forsake them. God is in this for the long haul with Israel and certainly in the new covenant arrangement Our Lord Jesus has us in his hand, and there is no one who can snatch us out. We are safe and secure, not because of our good deeds, but because of Christ's gospel, because of his life and his death and his resurrection.
So 22 is ultimately the anchor to the entirety of the chapter. They're in covenant because of God. They are protected because of God. They are not forsaken because of God.
It's all about God. So the whole idea here is you have sinned, you have done this great wickedness, yet do not turn aside, follow after him. Why? Because he set his love upon you, not because you were more numerous or because you were more righteous, but because God in his free grace and his mercy elected you under this covenant arrangement.
And then notice at the very end, 23 to 25. Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord and ceasing to pray for you. Samuel says, if God, the Lord, isn't going to reject his people, then I'm certainly not going to reject his people. Samuel is going to pray for them.
And Samuel, along with other prophets mentioned in the scripture, pray for the people of God. and Samuel as well teaches. So we see this prophetic ministry with a hint of the priestly in terms of prayer, intercession. Samuel typifying or at least pointing forward to us or for us to the one who intercedes for his people, the one who instructs his people, the one who has ultimately saved his people. And then it ends with this exhortation in verse 24, only fear the Lord and serve him in truth with all your heart for consider what great things he has done for you.
You see that pattern? We think about what God has done for current. strength in the present. That's why reading your Bibles, that's why attending church, that's why the Lord's Supper, all these things are helps to promote a recollection, a recall, a remembrance of who God is and what he does so that when we face those difficulties, we have that to guide us, to keep us, and to stay us in the midst of it. Davis says in another place that amnesia produces apostasy.
We forget God. And we end up in a bad, bad place. Well, brethren, this is a wonderful chapter. The faithfulness of Samuel is certainly a good lesson.
The righteous acts of God is certainly something we ought to consider as well in this context, as well as in our context. Do this in remembrance of me, the Lord Jesus said. Certainly, as we reflect upon the fact that God did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. How will he not with him? freely give us all things.
This ought to encourage us, and this ought to help us, and this ought to promote for us faithfulness in terms of God's Word. And that Edward moat, we sang it tonight, I think it ties in well with verse 22. His oath, his covenant, his blood, support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives way, he then is all my hope and stay.
Amen.
Closing Prayer
Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for this look at 1 Samuel 12. We thank you for the theme that runs through it, of your mercy and your goodness and your kindness to your covenant people. May we reflect upon that in our situation and how wonderful it is that the mediator of the new covenant is even the Lord Jesus Christ, who has secured our salvation, who has fulfilled all the terms and obligations of this covenant arrangement and how we thank you that you've blessed us richly.
And may these things promote in us a desire to pursue those things which are pleasing in your sight. We ask that you would go with us now and watch over us and bring us together on the Lord's day that we may worship you in spirit and in truth. And we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.