1 Samuel 6:20-7:17

Hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are at 1 Samuel chapter 6. We're going to finish up chapter 6. There's a little bit left there and then through chapter 7. We're going to go through all of chapter 7. Yeah, it's not very long. Yeah, it's not long.
So, let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll find out what happens with the ark and this Samuel dude. So, Eli's dead. The sons are dead. What happens with Samuel? Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word.
No. You didn't even wait for me to offer. No. How did you know I was going to offer it? No. Okay. You want to pray or you want me to? You pray.
God, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for the time that we get to read your word. We pray that you would help us, that your Holy Spirit would teach us, and that we would understand your word, and that you would let us not just know it as a book of history, but that your Holy Spirit would teach us what it means for our own lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
All right, here we go. First Samuel, chapter 6, beginning at verse 20. We just got like two verses in chapter 6, and then it seamlessly merges into chapter 7.
And the men of Beth Shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God, and to whom shall it go up from us? So they sent messages to the inhabitants of Kirjath-Jerim, saying, The Philistines have brought back the Ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up with you. Then the men of Kiriath-Jerim came and took the Ark of Jehovah and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eliezer his son to keep the Ark of Jehovah. So it was that the Ark remained in Kiriath-Jerim a long time. It was there twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.
Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Asherahs from among you, and prepare your hearts for Jehovah, and serve him only, and he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Asherahs, and served Jehovah only. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you. So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out for the Lord. And they fasted that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.
Now when the Philistines had heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. So the children of Israel said to Samuel, Do not cease to cry out to Jehovah our God for us, that he may save us from the hands of the Philistines. And Samuel took a suckling lamb, and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. Then Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.
Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering of Philistines junior to the battle against Israel. The Lord thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as Beth-ka. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shed, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, Thus far the Lord has helped us. So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come any more into the territory of Israel. And the hand of Jehovah was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. Then the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath. And Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. Also there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. and Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. He went from year to year on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in those places. But he always returned to Ramah, for his home was there. There he judged Israel, and there he built an altar to the Lord.
Alright, so we need to ask ourselves. A. What is this about? B. What is the best for us to summarize? And C. What are we called to do?
Alright, so it starts off kind of interesting, right? This is the Ark of God. The Ark of God got captured by the Israelites. The Philistines had captured it, put it in the temple of Dagon, their merman god, half fish, half man, Dagon.
idle idle oh no tumors rats city city you're trying to kill us we need to get rid of this thing send it away if the cows take it to beth shemesh we know it's of god cows go to beth shemesh oh this is great israelites yay what do they do with the ark open up the lid and and sixty thousand die oh no this is bad and here we are what happens now in verse 20 um I think Israel repents. They've had their consequences and now they repent.
Well, first, the men of Beth Shemesh called the men of Kirjath-Jerim and they told them, hey, take the ark from us. We need an actual priest. We need an actual priest, not just a Levite doing this type of stuff. People are dying around here. We've got to fix this. That's what 20, 21, and chapter 7, verse 1, we're getting at, right?
So, they consecrate Eliezer, his son, to keep the ark of the Lord. So, Abinadab's son, Eliezer, and this is a new line of the high priest has begun, right?
So, but just because there's a new high priest, what about Samuel? So that's where this naturally leads us, is what about Samuel?
Well, verse two. So as the Archimandite Kiergesturim a long time, it was there twenty years, and all the house of the Lord lamented after Yehovah. They're crying out. It's sad. Then Samuel spoke to all the house. So Samuel, this whole time has just kind of like been, we've not seen him in the narrative, but now he comes forward, and what does he say? Why is all this stuff going wrong with them? Because they've sinned. They need to repent. They've not treated God like God's supposed to be treated.
Okay, and so what have they been doing? Worshiping idols, treating God like just a The biggest one here he points out is their idolatry. He says you need to get rid of these Asherah bulls and get rid of these Baal idols. This is why this is going on. If you do this, if you repent, the Lord will be gracious to you.
So what do they do? They repent. Even as they're repenting and things are going well, they gather together for this public repentance. What happens? The Philistines are like, ooh, they're all over the place. We'll squash them like a bug and boom, be done with them. Maybe they're going to have like an uprising, too, right? Like, oh. And then what happens? The people ask Samuel to pray to God. They ask Samuel to pray to God. He offers the sacrifice. And the battle is about to happen. The Philistine warriors are there. And what happens? God thunders. Now, that's interesting. Do you know who Baal was supposed to be? Wasn't he the god of the sky? The god of thunder, storms, and they just put away his idols, turning their hearts back to Jehovah and Jehovah, the maker of heaven and earth. It says he's the one who thundered. and the Philistines get all concerned and run away. This is the whole point of counterfeit idols. They steal glory from God himself.
Asherah is this god of fertility, and somehow that they're going to have good, plentiful harvest, and their seed is going to produce well, and that's working out for them. But they turn their hearts to the Lord, even in battle, at the gates, And the actual God shows up. Jehovah knows what's going on. It's one of the most amazing stories for me. When I found out that that's who Baal was, I remember being like, whoa, that explains a lot of the Old Testament.
All right, so there was peace. The Israelites regained their land. All these blessings turned back as a result of their repentance. And what about Samuel? He becomes a judge. He's a socket judge. We're in 1 Samuel, though. I thought Judges was a few books back. It is. So are we in Judges or are we in 1 Samuel? Well, I'm pretty sure... Isn't Samuel... Isn't Samuel... Like, somewhat... In chronological time, right? Isn't Samuel in Judges? Samuel is the bridge between the Judges and the Kings. Yeah, Samuel is the last Judge. In some ways, Ruth is stuck in between these two books. Actually, that's not the order of the books in the Tanakh, in the Hebrew scriptures. The point is, Ruth fits in there chronologically, so that's why we have it in ours. She's a historical one, so put it in there, but if you're in the Hebrew Scriptures, you would just flip a page and move from judge to first Samuel seamlessly.
Well, that's where, like, Samuel was judge, but he also was the one who anointed the kings, the first two kings. Good. Well, don't get ahead of us, man. Come on. You're a spoiler alert. Yeah, right. So, yeah, what would you underline in your Bible as the best verse to summarize this? I'm going to go with verse 10. Okay, you like verse 10? That's when the thunder happens? Okay. Yeah, I have verse 13 and 14 underlined in my Bible, but yeah, I could go with verse 10. Either of those is good. What do you think is
We know what this is about now. We've gotten our best verse, what we think would be a good summary, so now tell me, what are we called to do? How does it actually impact your life, and how does it point you to Jesus Christ?
Well, I think, this past year, I was thinking like, washing these ashtray poles and stuff like that, and they would have consequences. Battle, death, thirty, God, which is not that important, and they would die. And then, then they repent. And it's not that God, God stops these consequences from happening. And they repent by One of the things that I like about this is they repent by using a lamb. And for us, we don't have a lamb, a lamb that we kill, but there was the ultimate lamb, and he died for us. And so I think that's what this puts us down. You know, I didn't even pick up on that part, that the lamb had to be sacrificed. Yeah. Great point, man. We repent, but we have the Lamb who was slain before the foundations of the world. We don't need these repeated sacrifices. Praise God for sending us Jesus, huh?
Ready to pray? Yep. God, we pray that we would turn away from our own idols. We thank you for sending us Jesus Christ. a Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And we thank you that we can trust in Him by the power of your Spirit. And so, Lord, we pray that where we find sin, where we find idols in our hearts, Lord, we pray that we would turn and trust you, that we would repent. Lord, please help us to live lives filled with holiness. Thank you for a great story this morning that points us to the hope of the gospel. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Well, may you trust in Jesus Christ, the Lamb who was slain, and may you, out of a love for Him, walk in His ways. We'll see you next time. Bye. Bye.