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1 Samuel
Chapter Seven
1 Samuel 7
Chapter Contents
The ark removed to Kirjath-jearim. (1-4) The Israelites
solemnly repent. (5
6) The Lord discomfits the Philistines. (7-12) They are
subdued
Samuel judges Israel. (13-17)
Commentary on 1 Samuel 7:1-4
(Read 1 Samuel 7:1-4)
God will find a resting-place for his ark; if some thrust
it from them
the hearts of others shall be inclined to receive it. It is no
new thing for God's ark to be in a private house. Christ and his apostles
preached from house to house
when they could not have public places. Twenty
years passed before the house of Israel cared for the want of the ark. During
this time the prophet Samuel laboured to revive true religion. The few words
used are very expressive; and this was one of the most effectual revivals of
religion which ever took place in Israel.
Commentary on 1 Samuel 7:5
6
(Read 1 Samuel 7:5
6)
Israel drew water and poured it out before the Lord;
signifying their humiliation and sorrow for sin. They pour out their hearts in
repentance before the Lord. They were free and full in their confession
and
fixed in their resolution to cast away from them all their wrong doings. They
made a public confession
We have sinned against the Lord; thus giving glory to
God
and taking shame to themselves. And if we thus confess our sins
we shall
find our God faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
Commentary on 1 Samuel 7:7-12
(Read 1 Samuel 7:7-12)
The Philistines invaded Israel. When sinners begin to
repent and reform
they must expect that Satan will muster all his force
against them
and set his instruments at work to the utmost
to oppose and
discourage them. The Israelites earnestly beg Samuel to pray for them. Oh what
a comfort it is to all believers
that our great Intercessor above never
ceases
is never silent! for he always appears in the presence of God for us.
Samuel's sacrifice
without his prayer
had been an empty shadow. God gave a
gracious answer. And Samuel erected a memorial of this victory
to the glory of
God
and to encourage Israel. Through successive generations
the church of God
has had cause to set up Eben-ezers for renewed deliverances; neither outward
persecutions nor inward corruptions have prevailed against her
because
"hitherto the Lord hath helped her:" and he will help
even to the
end of the world.
Commentary on 1 Samuel 7:13-17
(Read 1 Samuel 7:13-17)
In this great revival of true religion
the ark was
neither removed to Shiloh
nor placed with the tabernacle any where else. This
disregard to the Levitical institutions showed that their typical meaning
formed their chief use; and when that was overlooked
they became a lifeless
service
not to be compared with repentance
faith
and the love of God and
man.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on 1 Samuel》
1 Samuel 7
Verse 1
[1] And
the men of Kirjathjearim came
and fetched up the ark of the LORD
and brought
it into the house of Abinadab in the hill
and sanctified Eleazar his son to
keep the ark of the LORD.
Fetch up —
That is
by the priests appointed to that work.
Hill —
This place they chose
both because it was a strong place
where it would be
the most safe; and an high place
and therefore visible at some distance
which
was convenient for them
who were at that time to direct their prayers and
faces towards the ark. And for the same reason David afterwards placed it in
the hill of Sion.
Sanctified Eleazar —
Not that they made him either Levite or Priest; for in Israel persons were not
made but born such; but they devoted
or set him apart wholly to attend upon
this work.
His son —
Him they chose rather than his father
because he was younger and stronger
and
probably freed from domestic cares
which might divert him from
or disturb him
in this work.
To keep the ark — To
keep the place where it was
clean
and to guard it that none might touch it
but such as God allowed to do so.
Verse 2
[2] And it came to pass
while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim
that the time
was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after
the LORD.
Kirjath-jearim —
Where it continued
and was not carried to Shiloh its former place
either
because that place was destroyed by the Philistines when the ark was taken
or
because God would hereby punish the wickedness of the people of Israel
by
keeping it in a private place near the Philistines
whether the generality of
the people durst not come.
Twenty years — He
saith not
that this twenty years was all the time of the ark's abode there
for it continued there from Eli's time 'till David's reign
2 Samuel 6:2
which was forty years: but that it
was so long there before the Israelites were sensible of their sin and misery.
Lamented —
That is
they followed after God with lamentations for his departure
and
prayers for his return.
Verse 3
[3] And
Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel
saying
If ye do return unto the
LORD with all your hearts
then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from
among you
and prepare your hearts unto the LORD
and serve him only: and he
will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
Spake — To
all the rulers and people too
as he had occasion in his circuit
described
below
mixing exhortation to repentance
with his judicial administrations.
If — If you do indeed what
you profess
if you are resolved to go on in that which you seem to have begun.
With all your heart —
Sincerely and in good earnest.
Put —
Out of your houses
where some of you keep them; and out of your hearts
where
they still have an interest in many of you.
Ashtaroth —
And especially
Ashtaroth
whom they
together with the neighbouring nations
did more eminently worship.
Prepare your hearts — By
purging them from all sin
and particularly from all inclinations to other
gods.
Verse 6
[6] And
they gathered together to Mizpeh
and drew water
and poured it out before the
LORD
and fasted on that day
and said there
We have sinned against the LORD.
And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.
Poured it out — As
an external sign
whereby they testified
both their own filthiness and need of
washing by the grace and Spirit of God
and blood of the covenant
and their
sincere desire to pour out their hearts before the Lord
in true repentance
and to cleanse themselves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit.
Before the Lord —
That is
in the public assembly
where God is in a special manner present.
Judged —
That is
governed them
reformed all abuses against God or man
took care that
the laws of God should be observed
and wilful transgressions punished.
Verse 7
[7] And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered
together to Mizpeh
the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And
when the children of Israel heard it
they were afraid of the Philistines.
Went up —
With an army
suspecting the effects of their general convention
and intending
to nip them in the bud.
Afraid —
Being a company of unarmed persons
and unfit for battle. When sinners begin to
repent and reform
they must expect Satan will muster all his forces against
them
and set his instruments at work to the uttermost
to oppose and
discourage them.
Verse 8
[8] And
the children of Israel said to Samuel
Cease not to cry unto the LORD our God
for us
that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.
Cease not
… — We
are afraid to look God in the face
because of our great wickedness: do thou
therefore intercede for us
as Moses did for his generation. They had reason to
expect this
because he had promised to pray for them
had promised them
deliverance from the Philistines
and they had been observant of him
in all
that he had spoken to them from the Lord. Thus they who receive Christ as their
lawgiver and judge
need not doubt of their interest in his intercession. O
what a comfort is it to all believers
that he never ceaseth
but always
appears in the presence of God for us.
Verse 9
[9] And
Samuel took a sucking lamb
and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the
LORD: and Samuel cried unto the LORD for Israel; and the LORD heard him.
Cried —
And he cried unto the Lord. He made intercession with the sacrifice. So Christ
intercedes in virtue of his satisfaction. And in all our prayers we must have
an eye to his great oblation
depending on him for audience and acceptance.
Verse 12
[12] Then
Samuel took a stone
and set it between Mizpeh and Shen
and called the name of
it Ebenezer
saying
Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.
A stone — A
rude unpolished stone
which was not prohibited by that law
Leviticus 26:1
there being no danger of
worshipping such a stone
and this being set up only as a monument of the
victory.
Eben-ezer —
That is
the stone of help. And this victory was gained in the very same place
where the Israelites received their former fatal loss.
Helped us — He
hath begun to help us
though not compleatly to deliver us. By which wary
expression
he exciteth both their thankfulness for their mercy received
and
their holy fear and care to please and serve the Lord
that he might help and
deliver them effectually.
Verse 13
[13] So
the Philistines were subdued
and they came no more into the coast of Israel:
and the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
Came no more —
That is
with a great host
but only with straggling parties
or garrisons.
All the days
… —
All the days of Samuel that is
while Samuel was their sole judge
or ruler;
for in Saul's time they did come.
Verse 14
[14] And
the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel
from Ekron even unto Gath; and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the
hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
Peace — An
agreement for the cessation of all acts of hostility.
Amorites —
That is
the Canaanites
often called Amorites
because these were formerly the
most valiant of all those nations
and the first Enemies which the Israelites
met with
when they went to take possession of their land. They made this peace
with the Canaanites
that they might he more at leisure to oppose the
Philistines
now their most potent enemies.
Verse 15
[15] And
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
Samuel judged —
For though Saul was king in Samuel's last days
yet Samuel did not cease to be
a judge
being so made by God's extraordinary call
which Saul could not
destroy; and therefore Samuel did sometimes
upon great occasions
tho' not
ordinarily
exercise the office of judge after the beginning of Saul's reign;
and the years of the rule of Saul and Samuel are joined together
Acts 13:20
21.
Verse 16
[16] And
he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel
and Gilgal
and Mizpeh
and
judged Israel in all those places.
In all places — He
went to those several places
in compliance with the people
whose convenience
he was willing to purchase with his own trouble
as an itinerant judge and
preacher; and by his presence in several parts
he could the better observe
and rectify all sorts of miscarriages.
Verse 17
[17] And
his return was to Ramah; for there was his house; and there he judged Israel;
and there he built an altar unto the LORD.
Built an altar —
That by joining sacrifices with his prayers
he might the better obtain
direction and assistance from God upon all emergencies. And this was done by
prophetical inspiration
as appears by God's acceptance of the sacrifices
offered upon it. Indeed Shiloh being now laid waste
and no other place yet
appointed for them to bring their offerings to
the law which obliged them to
one place
was for the present suspended. Therefore
as the patriarchs did
he
built an altar where he lived: and that not only for the use of his own family
but for the good of the country who resorted to it.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on 1 Samuel》
07 Chapter 7
Verses 1-9
The time was long
for it was twenty years.
An absent God
Well might it be said
“The time was long.” Twenty hours
without
Thy presence
are long indeed
and cloud the brightest day
and veil the
loveliest scenes. How should you like to be twenty years away from your beloved
father or mother? Would not the time seem very long? And have you ever mourned
an absent God? Have you been like Job
when he looked on every side and found
Him not? (Job 23:8-9); or
like Mary Magdalene
whose tears were her meat
day and night
until she found Him whom her soul
loved? See how she stands beside the empty gravel Peter may leave--John may
leave--they may go to their house
or to their nets. The place where the body
of Jesus had lain was sweeter and dearer to Mary than all the sweets of earth:
and though her tearful eyes had too plainly told her His precious body was not
there
yet again she stoops
again she looks in
as though she hoped her ardent
wishes might bring Him back again. Yes
blessed woman
and they have power with
thy God
and prevail. Quickly was He at her side whom she sought sorrowing: and
quickly
at His presence
are tears exchanged for joy unspeakable
Happy art
thou
O Israel
when thou canst mourn an absent God! We have a beautiful
description given us of real
godly sorrow
in 2 Corinthians 7:10-11. If one of you
were to ask a gentleman or lady to come and see you
would you sit with the
cottage all in litter and confusion? would you not be tidying it
cleaning out
every corner
dusting every piece of furniture
and getting it as nice as you
could? Oh! when you truly cry to the Lord to return unto you
how diligent you
will be preparing your hearts unto the Lord! (2 Chronicles 30:19.) What
carefulness
lest there should be anything left undone! What clearing of idols
and rubbish! what indignation against the things which have usurped His place
in your heart
and robbed you of all your joy! what vehement desire to see Him
again filling the whole
and bringing every thought into captivity! what zeal
to make up for lost time! what revenge against ungrateful
treacherous self!
Would you wish to know the first step a soul takes in departing from God? You
may find it in your secret chamber--beside the little bed or chair
where you
once used to hold sweet communion with Him. “Thou hast restrained prayer
” is
the print of the first footstep in the downward road. Would you know the first
step of the returning soul? Go again
and look in the secret chamber: now that
distressed soul seeks Him early; and soon its youth is renewed like the
eagle’s--it walks
it runs
it flies (Isaiah 11:81). (Helen Plumptre.)
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel
saying
If ye do
return unto the Lord with all your hearts.
Samuel the Judge
For more than twenty years the Philistines had held undisputed
sway over the greater part of the territory of Israel. Shechem and Shiloh
the
ancient sanctuaries of worship
were both in the possession of the Philistines.
Even the sacred ark of the covenant had been surrendered ingloriously into the
hands of the uncircumcised. Restored by miracle
it still remained in the
Hivite town of Kirjath-jearim upon the border. Israel was without a sanctuary
as well as without a ruler. The power of the oppressor was to be broken.
Deliverance was to come in the only way in which it could come
through the
interposition of Divine aid. This help of God bringing deliverance is the great
theme brought to our consideration.
I. The help of God which brings
deliverance comes through the agency of a personal deliverer. This is the first
great historical lesson of those dark days in which the judges ruled. Each of
the hero-judges was officially a type of the great Deliverer. In each
succeeding one the personal analogies to the great Antitype become more and
more apparent
until in Samuel
the last and noblest of the line
we reach one
of the most illustrious types of Christ to be found in Old Testament history.
II. The help which brings
deliverance comes only upon condition of sincere repentance for sin and
whole-hearted return to the Lord. Samson adventured all upon personal prowess.
Conscious of extraordinary powers
he sought to annoy and intimidate the
Philistines into submission. Wasting his strength in brilliant but vain
exploits
a romantic life was crowned with a glorious death
yet he passed
away
leaving the Philistines still in possession of the land. Samuel
tracing
the miseries of the people to their true source in the chastisement of God for
their sins
realising that the first step towards disenthrallment must be taken
in repentance and reformation
sets himself quietly but steadfastly to work to
rekindle in the hearts of his countrymen the smouldering fires of religion. At
the basis of all true freedom from the Philistines that rule the heart
from
the bondage of corruption
from the fetters of guilt
from the “lusts that war
against the Soul
” is this bitter work of repentance
this putting away the
idols of the soul
this turning with the whole heart to the service of the
Lord.
III. The help which brings
deliverance comes through a covenant sealed with blood. As deliverance from
Philistine bondage came only through the provision of the covenant with
Abraham
as that covenant was ratified and rested in by the oppressed and
suffering people
so deliverance from the bondage of Satan comes only through
the provisions of the covenant of grace
as that covenant is sealed with the
blood of Christ and joyfully accepted and rested in by the sin-oppressed soul.
IV. The help which brings
deliverance comes in answer to prayer. The Church of God has never yet tasted
to its lull extent the power of prayer. It is Samuel’s memorial that he is (Psalms 99:6) “among them that call
upon God’s name
” who “called upon the Lord
and he answered them.” Luther
Knox
Whitefield
Wesley
the men who carried forth great movements and
accomplished glorious works for God
have been men preeminent in prayer.
V. The help which brings
deliverance comes in the use of appointed means. Not when the first alarm was
sounded
and the people
started by the unexpected assault
“were afraid of the
Philistines
” did the Lord appear
but when Samuel
going calmly forward with
the sacrifice in the face of the advancing enemy
had shown the sincerity of
his trust in God--when the hosts of Israel
drawing inspiration from the faith
of their dauntless leader
had set the battle in array and were making use of
all available means of defence. In all our convicts with Satan
the world and
sin
help comes from God
but only as direct effort is put forth by us. It
comes to give efficiency and success to our efforts. We may not sit idle and
wait for some marvellous interposition of God’s power. We may not first do our
part in our own strength and then wait for God to do His. It is in and through
our working that Divine power is put forth and Divine help given. We work out
our own salvation with fear and trembling
for it is God which worketh in us
both to will and to do of His good pleasure
VI. The help which brings
victory in the first conflict is the pledge
to be gratefully recognised
of
complete and final deliverance.
VII. The help which brings
deliverance engages to the lifelong service of Him who so graciously interposes
for our relief. Each mercy received should be a silken cord binding more
closely to the service of God. Instead of presuming upon gracious
interpositions in the past as occasions for indulgence or inaction in the
present
we should find in these both incentive and encouragement to steady
progress and patient labour in the Christian life. (T. D. Witherspoon
D. D.)
An ideal statesman
The words “twenty years” should be connected with the following
sentence
“and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” Thus twenty
years had elapsed before they began to revive from their sad state of religious
decline. “And Samuel spake.” Now Samuel appears upon the scene. He has been
absent since the third chapter. But now he is seen with all the energy of
spiritual fortitude
consequent upon deep devotion
trying to excite in other
hearts the aspiration of his own. Such an occasion is worthy of his presence
and in the sequel we have at once presented the power and praise of a devoted
life. We have here before us a pattern statesman.
I. He was a man of spiritual
disposition. It generally happens that the leading spirits of a nation are
those famous for philosophical thought
scientific discovery
or political
revolution. The problem may be atheistic
the analysis anti-Christian
and the
social change debasing
yet
because the man has by some marvellous display of
genius flashed his name into the bewildered eyes of an astonished world
he is
called to eminence. Thus national prominence is attained by the sheer force of
mind power
irrespective of character
and while life is so commercial in its
tendency and so secular in its habit we must expect such to continue
This was
nee the case under the old Jewish theocracy. Samuel
the central figure of
these times
was raised to authority
not by mere thought power
but by the
Intense spirituality of his character. The spirituality of Samuel’s disposition
is manifested--
1. By his expostulation with
the people (1 Samuel 7:3). This expostulation
contains
2. By his supplication to the
Apostate nation.
3. By his strict recognition
of God This is observable:--
II. Such character may
hopefully anticipate the cooperation of heaven. “But the Lord thundered” (1 Samuel 7:10). Samuel
the holy
legislator
was the connecting link between God and help. How dependent is
human life upon leading powers!
1. A religious assembly
mistaken for a national army (1 Samuel 7:7). Now the Philistines
draw near for battle. This is a typical incident; the effort of moral
improvement necessarily excites opposition
either the sneer of forsaken
friendship
the persecution of sects
or the enmity of Satan.
2. The surprised worshippers.
The issues of victory.
3. In the elevation of
spiritual character
we have a guarantee for the execution of justice. “And
Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life” (1 Samuel 7:15).
4. Home the sanctuary of
public life.
Samuel the Judge
The interval between the time of the Judges and the time of David
is filled by the history of Samuel. His influence it was that safely led the
nation through two revolutions--the one in religion
the other in government. A
priest
yet Samuel was the first of a new spiritual order that was henceforth
to be greater than the priesthood
far more directly the mouthpiece of God
more authoritative
the true leader of the people
if steadfast and unflinching
service to the people
if fearlessness and faithfulness
if unfailing goodness
and wise guidance can entitle any here in Israel to stand beside Moses and
Elijah
that man surely is Samuel. Yet in addition to these two offices
priest
and prophet--the greatest that any man can fill--he is also Judge of Israel
that is
king in all but name
and in all but the outward trappings and
personal advantages. “Samuel was one of those great men of manifold gifts and
functions whom God raises up In great crises and for great services. He was not
like Moses
the founder of the economy
nor like Elijah
its restorer. But he
was its preserver through a revolution that had become inevitable; which be
opposed as long as he could
which he reluctantly accepted when he Could oppose
it no longer
and which by shear force of character he regulated and moulded so
as to prevent national disorganisation. Like Luther
he built the new
foundations on the old. As far as circumstances permitted he reformed his age
and by his genius
his piety
and his wisdom he powerfully controlled the
turbulent elements of the national life.” It is interesting to trace the
analogy between John the Baptist and Samuel. There is a striking similarity in
the circumstances of their birth
in their early separation to the service of
God
in the rumour that spreads concerning them throughout the land
awakening
the expectation of a great religious revival. Each of them marks a transition
period in the history of Israel. Samuel is the last of the judges and the first
of the prophets
as John the Baptist is the last of the prophets and the first
of Christian preachers
standing and crying
“Behold
the Lamb of God.” Each of
them commences his work by summoning the people to a great national act of
repentance before God
and in each case the symbol of their repentance has a
singular similarity. We must remember that it was no light and easy work which
was thus demanded of them. Idolatry was not a mere perverse fancy; nor was it
only a selfish indulgence. It was the severance from all the association with
those about them
the setting of themselves up to be the peculiar people of
God--a thing that always costs as much effort and courage as most things a man
has to do. The national repentance is followed by a great national assembly.
Samuel bade the head men and representatives come together for a holy
convocation in Mizpeh. By contact with himself and by communion with one
another he would lead the people further in this work of reformation. As long
afterwards the repentance of Israel found its expression in coming to John for
baptism in the Jordan
so here they gathered together solemnly to confess their
sins and to declare their purpose of amendment. Samuel bowed before the Lord in
prayer for the people
whilst they “drew water and poured it out before the
Lord
and said
We have sinned against the Lord.” Like the symbol of baptism
it was the token of their death and burial unto sin
that they might rise into
the new life of God. It is thus that the wise woman of Tekoa spake to the king
“For we must needs die
and are as Water spilt upon the ground
which cannot be
gathered up again.” Standing beside the altar high up on Mizpeh
the
watchtower
Samuel stretched up his arms to Heaven pleading for the people.
Swiftly the black clouds gathered
as if the great artillery of God came forth
to the fight. Whatever the manifestation may have been
whether or not attended
by an earthquake
as Josephus asserts
it is certain that the Philistines never
lost the dread memory of that praying figure on the lonely heights
with hands
uplifted to the God of Heaven. That one man was mightier than all their hosts.
It seemed as if he were able to open the windows of heaven
and summon all its
force against the foes of Israel. “They came no more into the coasts of
Israel.” (M. G. Pearse.)
Solitary power
As prophet of the Lord
Samuel’s will was supreme--all the main
features of the history derive their expression from the spirit of Samuel.
There is authority in his word
there is inspiration in his encouragement
there is death in his frown. Under these circumstances you see how naturally we
are led to meditate upon the profound influence of one life.
I. In the first place
look
at the sublime attitude which Samuel assumed in relation to the corruption of
the faith. Samuel distinctly charged the house of Israel with having gone
astray from the living God. Distinctly
without reservation
without anything
that indicated timidity on his part
he laid this terrible indictment against
the house of Israel. In doing so he assumed a sublime attitude. He stood before
Israel as a representative of the God who had been insulted
dishonoured
abandoned. We find sublimity in the attitude
imperial force in the tone. How
did Samuel’s influence come to be so profound upon this occasion? The instant
answer is
Because his influence is moral. Moral influence goes to the heart of
things. He who deals with moral questions deals with the life of the world. Any
other influence addresses itself to affairs of the moment; all other influences
are superficial and transitory. He who repronounces God’s commandments
and
tells to the heart of the world God’s charges
wields a moral
and therefore a
profound influence. Herein is the supreme advantage of the Gospel. The Gospel
of Christ lays its saving hand upon the human heart and says
“This is the
sphere of my mission. I will affect all things that are superficial and local
and temporary; but I shall affect them indirectly. By putting the life right
I
shall put the extremities right; by making the heart as it ought to be
the
whole surface of nature will become healthful and beautiful.” We need men in
society who stand apart frees the little fights
petty controversies
and angry
contentions which seem to be part and parcel of daily life
and who shall speak
great principles
breathe a heavenly influence
and bring to bear upon combatants
of all kinds considerations which shall survive all their misunderstandings.
Regard Samuel in this light
and you will see the sublimity of his attitude.
Herein
again
is the great influence of a moral teacher
a revealer of
Christian truth. Whenever we hear a preacher who speaks the right word
we hear
God the Father
God the Son
God the Holy Ghost; through his voice we hear the
testimony of the angels unfallen; out of his words there comes the declaration
of all that is bright
pure
true
wise
in the universe of God!
II. Now let us look at the
holy attitude which Samuel assumed in relation to the guilt of Israel. In the
first instance he describes the corruptness of the case
points out the right
course
exhorts the people to take that course instantly
and then he speaks
these healing words: “If ye will do these things
and gather yourselves
together to Mizpeh
I will pray unto the Lord for you.” That is all we can do
for one another--the work of an instrument
the ministry of an agent. “I will
pray for you unto the Lord.” Then the human needs the Divine. We never
find--taking great breadths of history
ages and centuries--that the human has
been able to exist alone
and to grow upward and onward in its atheism
What
became of the Philistines? Now that Israel is getting its old heart back again
and its eyes are being turned to the heavens
what becomes of the Philistines?
The Lord thundered that day upon the Philistines
and discomfited them
and
they were smitten before Israel. The Philistines came against a praying army.
We must consider not what the praying army did in the first instance
but what
God did. Observe when it was that Samuel said he would pray for the house of
Israel. The great lesson here turns upon a point of time. When Israel returned
unto the Lord with all their heart; when Israel put away the strange Gods and
Ashtaroth; when Israel prepared the heart unto the Lord and was ready to serve
him Duly; when Israel had done this part
then Samuel said
“I will pray for
you unto the Lord.” Under other circumstances prayer would have been wasted
breath. We find a great law here
which applies to the natural and the
spiritual. Is there a plague in the city? Purify your sanitary arrangements
cleanse your drains
disinfect your channels
use everything that is at all
likely to conduce to a good end--then pray unto the Lord. After nature has
exhausted herself
there may be something for the Lord to do
may there mot?
Sometimes worldly people say--“Pray for us.” Men have said that to us. What
kind of men were they? Sometimes men who have made wrecks of themselves
who
have gone as far devilward as they could get
whose hearts were like a den of
unclean beasts
men who had no longer any grip of the world--the whole thing
was slipping away from them--they have said to the minister whom they had
previously characterised as a canting parson
“Pray for us.” But one condition
must be forthcoming on their part. There must be self-renunciation
contrition
moral anguish
pain of the soul
repentance towards God. When these conditions
are forthcoming
the servant of Christ may say
“I will pray for you unto the
Lord.”
III. In the third place
look
at the exalted attitude which Samuel assumes in relation to his whole lifetime.
We read in the fifteenth verse of this chapter
“Samuel judged Israel all the
days of his life.” Think of being able to account for all the days of a whole
human history! Think of being able to write your biography in one sentence!
Think of being able to do without parentheses
footnotes
reservations
apologies
and self-vindications! When we attempt to write our lives
there is
so much to say that is collateral and modifying in its effect--so much which is
to explain the central line. So our biographical record becomes anomalous
contradictory
irreconcilable. Here is a man whose lifetime is gathered up in one sentence.
“Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.” We have seen him in his
childhood
we have had glances of him as he was passing up to his mature age.
Today we see him in three impressive and remarkable attitudes. His whole
history is in this sentence: He was a judge of God all his days. Think of
giving a whole lifetime to God. There are those who cannot do that now. But
young men may be able to give twenty
thirty
perhaps fifty years all to
Christ. See then the profound influence which may be exerted by one life. We
are dealing with Samuel
and with Samuel alone. Samuel’s life is not confined
to himself; it is a radiating life
streaming out from itself and touching thousands
of points in the social and national life of others. Who can tell what may be
dons by one man? Speak the truth of God
and eternity itself cannot exhaust the
happy effect of that blessed influence! (J. Parker
D. D.)
Samuel the Judge
This scene at Mizpeh
and the results following
suggest several
lessons. We learn that:
I. One
to have power over
men
must have power with God. Why are the people
though late in their
repentance
now so willing to listen to the prophet’s words and obey them?
Samuel influenced the people
because God influenced him. The secret of his
power over men was his power with God. In a preeminent degree
this prophet and
judge of Israel was a man to whom unseen realities were brought near. Thus
God
fitted Samuel to do a work in Israel in the transition period between the
theocracy and monarchy
making him an eminent judge
the first in the regular
succession of prophets
the founder of the prophetic schools
the anointer of
Israel’s first and second king
and the man whom the people--even when
debauched by idolatry--reverenced
and whose voice was to them like the voice
of God. He was all this
because he held close intercourse with Heaven. The
hand that is outstretched to save
must clasp the throne. Ministers are weak in
the pulpit whenever they are weak in the closet.
II. The necessity and value of
religious ordinances
rightly used. It was not enough that Samuel assemble
Israel at Mizpeh. Gathered there
the people must be so influenced that the
impressions made would be permanent
and they fixed in their new attitude of
loyalty to God. Samuel must instruct them in the proper use of religious rites
and show them how God can be so approached as to win His favour. Thus
far back
at Mizpeh
were taught the truths of Calvary. God is approached reverently
with confession
with sacrifice
and with supplication. These two ways of
approaching God--Samuel’s with sacrifice and supplication
and Israel’s of
bearing aloft the ark with heedless shoutings--teach us lessons respecting the
methods by which
now
God is
and is not
appropriately worshipped. Not by
magnifying the outward
by giving prominence to the seen and the tangible
while the unseen and spiritual are lightly esteemed. The value of religious
ordinances consists not in what man’s eye sees or his ear hears
but in what
his heart feels
and in what the eye of God perceives within the breast. No
wonder that Israel
thus addressing the Throne of Grace
were prevalent over
their toes. God heard their cry
and the arm of Omnipotence was their defence.
What though the Philistines
or Israel
or the prophet himself
could not
answer the question how God at that moment put a voice into the arching
heavens
or kindled up the clouds with electric fires? What though
then as
well as now
and now as well as then
the philosophy of prayer baffles finite
skill? Is it
therefore
any the less true that the prayer of penitence and
faith prevails with God? One other element now is needed to make the worship
complete--that is
an expression of thanksgiving. It was a fitting sequel
therefore
when Samuel “took a stone and set it between Mizpeh and Shen
and
called the name of it Ebenezer
” saying
“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” We
learn
therefore
that expressed gratitude to God should find a prominent place
in all our worship. Israel not only felt grateful
they gave it utterance; they
clothed with form the sentiments their hearts felt. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Repentance and Victory
I. Preparation for victory in
repentance and return. At the time of the first fight at Ebenezer
Israel was
full of idolatry and immorality. Then their preparation for battle was the mere
bringing the ark into the camp
as if it were a fetish or magic charm. That was
pure heathenism
and they were idolaters in such worship of Jehovah
just as
much as if they had been bowing to Baal. Not the name of the deity
but the
spirit of the worshipper
makes the “idolater.” How different the second
preparation! If we are to have His strength infused for victory
we must cast
away our idols
and come back to Him with all our hearts. The hands that would
clasp Him
and be upheld by the clasp
must be emptied of trifles. To yield
ourselves wholly to God is the secret of strength. Confession breaks the entail
of sin
and substitutes for the dreary expectation of its continuance the glad
conviction of forgiveness and cleansing. It does not make a stiff fight
unnecessary; for assured freedom from sin is not the easy prize of confession
but the hard-won issue of sturdy effort in God’s strength. But it is like
blowing the trumpet of revolt--it gives the signal for and itself begins the
conflict. The night before the battle should be spent
not in feasting
but in
prayer and lowly shriving of our souls before the great Confessor. Our enemy is
strong
and no fault is more fatal than an underestimate of his power. If we go
into battle singing
we shall probably come out of it weeping
or never come
out at all. We should think much of our foes and little of ourselves. Such a
temper will lead to caution
watchfulness
wise suspicion
vigorous strain of
all our little power
and
above all
it will send us to our knees to plead
with our great Captain and Advocate.
II. Victory on the field of
former defeat. The battle is joined on the old field. Strategic considerations
probably determined the choice of the ground
as they did the many battles on
the plain of Esdraelon
for instance
or on the fields of the Netherlands. At
all events
there they were
face to face once more on the old spot. On both
sides might be men who had been in the former engagement. Depressing
remembrances or burning eagerness to wipe out the shame would stir
in those on
the one side; contemptuous remembrances of the ease with which the last victory
had been won would animate the other. God himself helped them by the thunder
storm
the solemn roll of which was “the voice of the Lord” answering Samuel’s
prayer. “They were smitten before
” not by
the victors. The true
victor was God. The story gives boundless hope of victory
even on the fields
of our former defeats. We can master rooted faults of character
and overcome
temptations which have often conquered us. So
though the whole field may be
strewed with relics
eloquent of former disgrace
we may renew the struggle
with confidence that the future will not always copy the past. We are saved by
hope; by hope we are made strong. It is the very helmet on our heads. The
warfare with our own evils should be waged in the assurance that every field of
our defeat shall one day see set up on It the trophy of
not our victory
but
God’s in us.
III. Grateful commemoration of
victory. Where that gray stone stands no man knows today
but its name lives
foreverse This trophy bore no vaunts of leader’s skill or soldier’s bravery; One
name only is associated with it. It is “the stone of help
” and its message to
succeeding generations is: “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” That “hitherto”
is the word of a mighty faith. It includes as parts of one whole the disaster
no less than the victory. The Lord was helping Israel no less by sorrow and
oppression than by joy and deliverance. The defeat which guided them back to
Him was tender kindness and precious help. Such remembrance has in it a
half-uttered prayer and hope for the future. Memory passes into hope
and the
radiance in the sky behind throws light on to our forward path. God’s
“hitherto” carries “henceforward” wrapped up in it. The devout man’s
“gratitude” is
and ought to be
“a lively sense of favours to come.” The best
use of memory is to mark more plainly than it could be seen at the moment the
Divine help which has filled our lives. (A. Maclaren
D. D.)
Repentance and revival
There are two great services for God and for Israel in which we
find Samuel engaged in the first nine verses of this chapter.
1. In exhorting and directing
them with a view to bring them into a right state before God.
2. This being accomplished
in praying for them in their time of trouble
and obtaining Divine help when
the Philistines drew near in battle.
1. In the course of time the
people appear to have come to feel how sad and desolate their national life was
without any tokens of God’s presence and grace “All the house of Israel
lamented after the Lord.” These symptoms of repentance
however
had not shown
themselves in a very definite or practical form. Now the putting away of the
strange gods and Ashtaroth was a harder condition than we at first should
suppose. Some are inclined to fancy that it was a mere senseless and ridiculous
obstinacy that drew the Israelites so much to the worship of the idolatrous
gods of their neighbours. In reality the temptation wan of a much more subtle
kind. Their religious worship as prescribed by Moses had little to attract the
natural feelings of the human heart. It was simple
it was severe
it was
self-denying. The worship of the pagan nations was more lively and attractive.
Fashionable entertainments and free-and-easy revelries were superadded to
please the carnal mind. To put away Baalim and Ashtaroth was to abjure what was
fashionable and agreeable
and fall back on what was unattractive and sombre.
Was it not
too
an illiberal demand? No. If the people were in earnest now
they must show it by putting away every image and every object and ornament
that was connected with the worship of other gods. But the people were in
earnest; and this first demand of Samuel was complied with. Then the first
steps towards revival and communion must be the forsaking of these sins
and of
ways of life that prepare the way for them. It is not enough that in church
or
at some meeting
or in our closet
we experience a painful conviction how much
we have offended God
and a desire not to offend Him in like manner any more.
We must “prepare our hearts” for this end. We must remember that in the world
with which we mingle we are exposed to many influences that remove God from our
thoughts
that stimulate our infirmities
that give force to temptation
that
lessen our power of resistance
that tend to draw us back into our old sine.
Having found the people so far obedient to his requirements
Samuel’s next step
was to call an assembly of all Israel to Mizpeh. It is important to mark the
stress which is laid here on the public assembly of the people. When Samuel
convened the people to a public assembly
he evidently did it on the principle
on which in the New Testament we are required not to forsake the assembling of
ourselves together. It is in order that the presence of people like-minded
and
with the same earnest feelings and purposes
may have a rousing and warming
influence upon us. The next scene in the panorama of the text is--the
Philistines invading Israel. Here Samuel’s service is that of an intercessor
praying for his people
and obtaining God’s blessing. The Israelites knew where
their help was to be found
and recognising Samuel as their mediator
they said
to him
“Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us
that He will save us
out of the hand of the Philistines.” With this request Samuel most readily
complies. But first he offers a sucking lamb as a whole burnt offering to the
Lord
and only after this are we told that “Samuel cried unto the Lord
and the
Lord heard him.” The lesson is supremely important. When sinners approach God
to entreat His favour
it must be by the new and living way
sprinkled with
atoning blood. All other ways of access will fail. Luther humbles himself in
the dust and implores God’s favour
and struggles with might and main to reform
his heart; but Luther cannot find peace until he sees how it is in the
righteousness of another he is to draw nigh and find the blessing--in the
righteousness of the Lamb of God
that taketh away the sin of the world. (W.
G. Blaikie
D. D.)
An Old Testament revival
I. In the beginning a sermon
was preached. A crisis had been reached; and in his searching and solemn
discourse Samuel seems to have sought to make these four points
which
certainly are worthy of employment always:
1. Those people must admit
the necessity of a new departure in their conduct and life immediately; they
must “return unto the Lord with all their hearts.”
2. They must put away every
sign and vestige of a bad past; “strange gods” would have to be entirely
relinquished.
3. They must instantly enter
upon a fresh spiritual consecration: they would have to “prepare their hearts
unto the Lord and serve Him only.”
4. Then they must trust
wholly
to the ancient promises God had made to their fathers and to them; for
He had covenanted to “deliver them out of the hands of” their foes.
II. Then followed an exemplary
response from the nation: “Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and
Ashtaroth
and served the Lord only.” This sudden and thorough cleansing of
themselves from forms of idolatry reminds us of what in Britain used to be
called “a reformation of manners.”
III. Next their leader summoned
a great assemblage for a religious service of prayer.
IV. Now comes what might be
called a protracted meeting. There is always a point at which human mediation
in behalf of sinners must cease; then the sinners must take up the duty of
supplication for themselves
or be lost. This was true of even such a
prophet-priest as Samuel (Jeremiah 15:1): “Then said the Lord
unto me
Though Moses and Samuel stood before me
yet my mind could not be
towards this people: cast them out of my sight and let them go forth.” In this
case the people were intelligent enough to undertake at least these four duties
which are mentioned.
1. They came to a direct posture
of humiliation; they “fasted on that day.”
2. Then these people made
confessions of sin: they “said there
We have sinned against the Lord.”
3. Next
these repenting
people soberly renewed their covenant: “They drew water
and poured it out
before the Lord.” One of the Targums renders the clause thus: “And they poured
out their hearts in penitence as waters before the Lord.” Gill says: “This
signified that they thoroughly renounced idolatry
that nothing of it should
remain
as when water is poured out of a cask there remains no smell
as there
does when other liquors are poured out.”
4. They put themselves into
condition for fresh activity in devotion. The best explanation of that
statement
“Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh
” seems to be that
he reorganised the people afresh
for military service and for civil order and
for religious worship.
V. Thus there came the
descent of blessing in fulfilment of the Lord’s covenant.
1. Real consecration of
Christians generally evokes new opposition from foes.
2. Importunate prayer is the
condition of all success.
3. The full consecration of
one’s soul must recognise the sacrifice for sins. This lamb was the suggestion
of atonement made by a Redeemer.
4. God is faithful to the
instant in His interposition.
VI. There remained now nothing
more than to erect a memorial of the transaction.
1. All glory and honour of
the achievement should be distinctly ascribed to God: “The Lord hath helped
us.”
2. We should make our
acknowledgment as permanent as possible. Samuel chose stone; so did Jacob (Genesis 28:18).
3. We should take pains to
group our memorials so that one shall strengthen the other. Samuel set up his
pillar between Mizpeh
where this deliverance was vouchsafed
and Shen
where
another had been vouchsafed in the victory gained over the Philistines twenty
years before. Thus he linked the histories together
like pearls in a necklace.
4. Each successive
deliverance by a gracious God should deepen our trust and quicken our
expectation.
The careful investigation of such an incident as this has given us
certain conclusions which might well be stated at the close of our study now.
1. A revival of religion is
located in the church
and assumes a previous state of sad and guilty
backsliding.
2. The conversion of sinners
is not a revival; it is the gracious result that follows one which is genuine.
3. Any “measures” are
allowable
provided they are decent and orderly
that will lead believers to
penitence and duty.
4. Blessed is the
congregation whose spirituality is lifted and whose life is saved by a day of
God’s visitation.
5. More blessed still is that
church which never had a revival in all its history
and never needed one. (C.
S. Robinson
D. D.)
A city changed by a revival
When that worst of the Popes
Alexander VI
occupied the Papal
chair
about the end of the fifteenth century
the preaching of Savonarola at
Florence might well cause such alarm among Pope and Cardinals at headquarters
as to ensure the silencing and martyrdom of the preacher. What was the effect
of his preaching in Florence in 1495? The aspect of the city was completely
changed. The women threw aside their jewels and finery
dressed plainly
and
bore themselves demurely; licentious young Florentines were transformed as by
magic into sober
religious men; hymns took the place of Lorenzo’s carnival
songs. All prayed frequently
flocked to the churches
and gave largely to the
poor. Most wonderful of all
bankers and tradesmen were impelled by scruples of
conscience to restore ill-gotten gains
amounting to many thousand florins. All
men were wonderstruck by this singular and almost miraculous change; and
notwithstanding the shattered state of his health
Savonarola must have been
deeply rejoiced to see his people converted to so Christian a mode of life.
Disaster aids repentance
When men have suffered sorely as a consequence of their misdoing
or of their lack
they are very likely to strive with earnestness to guard against
a recurrence of such disaster. There is no time when it is safer to travel over
a great railway line
then just after a collision through the carelessness of a
switchman or a train starter. And while the whole country is shocked at the
loss of life and property through the giving way of an imperfectly constructed
dam
there will be reasonable care in the inspection and in the building of
dams. It is perfectly natural
therefore
that the people of Israel
who had
suffered defeat because of the misuse of the ark of the Lord by those who were
set to guard it
should be ready to bring it again to a fitting place
end to
set apart a fitting person to guard it sacredly. It is better to try to do well
after a great disaster than not to try at all; but how much better than all it
is to do well from the beginning. (H. C. Trumbull.)
Returning to lost experiences
A man upon the way
having accidentally lost his purse
is
questioned by his fellow traveller where he had it last. “Oh!” says he
“I am
confident that I drew it out of my pocket when I was in such a town
at such an
inn.” “Why
then!” says the other
“there is no better way to have it again
than by going back to the place where you last had it.” This is the case of
many a man in these loose
unsettled times; they have lost their love to
Christ
and His truth
since their corn and wine and oil have increased; since
outward things are in abundance added unto them they have slighted the light of
God’s countenance. When they were poor and naked of all worldly comfort
then
they sought God’s face both early and late
and nothing was more dear and
precious unto them than the truth of Christ. What
then
is to be done to
recover this lost love to Christ? Back again
back again directly where you
last had it! Back to the sign of the broken and contrite heart! There it was
that you drew it out into good words and better works; and though it be since
lost in the crowd of worldly employments
there and nowhere else
you shall be
sure to find it again. (J. Spencer.)
Three decisive steps
I. First
then
these people
were in a very hopeful condition. “All the house of Israel lamented after the
Lord.” What does it mean?
1. It means that they were
greatly oppressed. Their goods ware taken from them. They were beaten. They saw
their children slain. They were the slaves of the Philistines.
2. I think that
by the house
of Israel lamenting after the Lord
is meant
next
that they began to be
inwardly convinced that nobody could help them but the Lord.
3. It seems to me that
while
they desired Him
they were afraid that He would not deliver them. They prayed
after a fashion
but there was a dash of doubt about it.
4. Moreover
these people had
very little hope
but they had very much desire.
5. If you read the third
verse
you will see that
all this while
they had not parted with their idols.
They lamented after the Lord
but they did not get the Lord
because they
wanted to have the Lord and to have their idols
too. John Bunyan tells us
that
when he was playing at the game of “cat” one Sunday
on Elstow Green
as
he was going to strike the cat with his stick
he thought he heard a voice
crying
“Wilt thou keep thy sins
and go to hell; or wilt thou give up thy
sins
and go to heaven?” That question
without an angel’s voice
you may hear
at this moment. I put it now to some of you who would like to keep your sins
and yet go to heaven. You lament after the Lord. You would be a saint; but then
you want to be a sinner
too. It is useless lamenting after the Lord
if it
does not lead you to give up your idols.
6. It meant that they could
never rest till God returned. Some of you have tried many ways to get rest.
Some years ago you got harpooned at a meeting; and though
like a big whale
you have dragged out miles of line
and gone to the bottom of the sea of sin
the harpoon sticks in you still. I know what you have been doing to get rest.
You have tried the world
and now there is nothing there that pleases you. I
wonder what you will try next. Will you try dissipation? Will you try
drunkenness? Will you try the use of drugs? Well; if God means to save you
you
will never rest till you are anchored in the port of Christ’s atoning
sacrifice. I sometimes hear of persons getting very angry after a gospel
sermon
and I say to myself
“I am not sorry for it.” Sometimes when we are
fishing
the fish gets the hook into his mouth. He pulls hard at the line: if
he were dead
he would not; but he is a live fish
worth the getting; and
though he runs away for a while
with the hook in his jaws
he cannot escape.
His very wriggling and his anger show that he has got the hook
and the hook
has got him. Have the landing net ready; we shall land him by-and-by. Give him
more line; let him spend his strength
and then we will land him
and he shall
belong to Christ forever.
II. These people were called
upon to take three very decided steps.
1. The first thing that they
were to do was to “put away the strange gods.” Every man seems to have a
different idol. One has pride: he is so wonderfully good
so self-righteous; he
has never done anything wrong. He is quite as good as a Christian
and rather’
better. Another man’s god is his self-confidence. Hear him talk. He understands
everything; he does not need to be taught anything; and if there is anything in
the Bible that he does not understand
why; then he does not believe it.
2. Now
notice the next step
of decision: “Put away the strange gods
and prepare your hearts unto the
Lord.” The mere outward reformation was not enough. They might have torn down
every idol in the land
and have been no nearer God for that. See
in France
today
how the people who have for so long bent the knee in superstition and
idolatry
have
many of them
flung away their vain worship
only to sink into
infidelity. What better are they
when they exalt the “Goddess of Reason” where
before stood the altars of the Papacy
when the heart is untouched
and God is
not in all their thoughts? Still
there are many in that land
as I trust
there are many here
who are lamenting after God
and only await the
preparation of the heart
which comes from Him
to how in allegiance before His
throne. What
then
is the way to prepare the heart? The first thing is
confession of sin. Then resolve in your soul that you will quit these sins.
Then there must be much prayer; for so it was with these people. Cry mightily
unto God: “Lord
save me!” Remember
too
that there must be trust
or else the
heart is not rightly prepared. Then
break away from the world.
3. That is the next step
the
service of God: “Serve him only
” said Samuel. “Then the children of Israel did
put away Baalim and Ashtaroth
and served the Lord only.”
III. They were helped to do all
this by having faith. It was faith in Samuel
as we have already noticed. You
can be much more helped
yea
graciously enabled
if you have faith in Christ.
1. They believed Samuel’s
word.
2. These people believed
chiefly in Samuel’s prayers.
3. The people had faith in
Samuel’s sacrifice.
4. Israel also accepted
Samuel’s rule.
The Lord help you to believe in God incarnate
in God making
sacrifice for sin
in Jesus dead
buried
risen
ascended
sitting at the right
hand of God
and soon to come in glory! Let him enter your life
and dwelling
in your heart
judge your every action
and rule over your entire life. (C.
H. Spurgeon.)
The revival
Revivals of religion have been the blessed experience of the
Church in every era of its living history. At Bochim
in the early age of the
Judges
a great revival took place. In the days of Samuel the Church of God was
gladdened by another. Hezekiah’s reign was greatly signalized by the general
revival of religion; so was Josiah’s. The nation of Judah was preserved from
idolatry by means of these great awakenings. In the time of the building of the
second temple there was a revival of religion which wrought most influentially.
Pentecost stands prominent in the history of revivals. Ordinances and means of
grace may have been performed in dull routine
but they were “Faultily
faultless
icily regular
splendidly null.” But when times of refreshing came
the power of the Spirit was felt. Two features have generally marked these
periods of spiritual awakening--the power of prayer
and the power of
preaching. Prayer then recovers its unction
its wrestling
and its efficacy.
It may be that a few only are found seeking one thing--the renewing of God’s
work; but these are in earnest--they pray in faith
in the Holy Ghost
and in
expectation of the blessing. Ere Pentecost occurred
the company of the
believing were much in prayer. It was so in a remarkable degree in the
eighteenth century. In such seasons preaching has been with power. The
preachers were awakened
and spake their word with boldness and freedom
and in
expectation of success. We need only to name Baxter and Doolittle
Alleine and
Flavel
of the Puritan age
whose ministry was largely blessed; Jonathan
Edwards
Thomas Shephard
and Tennant
of America
who scarcely ever preached
without success; Wesley and Whitefield
and their coadjutors in England; William
Burns
and Robert M’Cheyne
and Asahel Nettleton
of our own time. These all
were men radiant with godliness
burning with earnestness
untiring in labour
and singularly clear and pointed in their enunciation of the gospel. They were
instruments of reviving. The revival under Samuel was brought about by prayer
and preaching. To this man it was instrumentally to be traced. He wrestled in
secret and exhorted in public; waited for the blessing
and
under God
led the
blessed revival. When the ark of God was taken
and Ichabod became the fittest
name of Israel
the cause of godliness was deplorably low. Form
which had for
a time supplanted faith
at length departed with the ark. God in great mercy
taught them that form was unavailing without living piety. Had the victory
remained with the Hebrews at Ebenezer
the ark of God would have been made an
idol
and the ordinances of a divine religion been corrupted into heathenism.
But its capture was permitted
even though that disgraced the religion of the
people
rather than this danger should be incurred. When the ark was restored
to Israel the chosen people were not prepared to convey it again to Shiloh. The
men of Bethshemesh
after their first enthusiasm and sacrifice were over
felt
no more interest than an idle curiosity
and presumed to inspect that which had
been commanded to be covered from all but the high priest’s eyes. And
though
so many perished by the hand of God for their sacrilege
no spirit of
repentance and reformation moved the people. The Bethshemites are not without
their parallels. Unfeeling souls may be met with everywhere. Mercy and judgment
move them not. Grace and law melt them not. They can hear the pleadings of
incarnate Love suffering to save
and never wish a personal interest in His benign
salvation. The Bethshemites besought the inhabitants of Kirjath-jearim to take
away the ark of God; but when this was done there does not seem to have been a
single priest in attendance to welcome the holy symbol or to deposit it within
the tabernacle. During twenty years the children of Israel forgot their God and
Redeemer
and they were perverted by their foul idolatries. Apostasy from God
never improves the soul. False worship cannot elevate. Israel did not recover
their independence or their happiness until they were as a people brought back
to God. This was the great object of the reformation under Samuel.
1. Samuel preached
repentance. This has ever been the subject of earnest exhortation in times of
attempted revival. It rang through Germany by Luther’s lips of music
and
echoed among the Alpine valleys from Zuingle’s patriotic soul. It was the
subject of Latimer’s blunt home thrusts at the practical heart of England
and
it thundered throughout Scotland from the stern and fearless Knox. The doctrine
of repentance is the appendix to every republication of the Ten Commandments
and the preface to every offer of the Gospel. So
when Samuel taught
this was
his awakening theme. The law of God was his great argument
and the acquiescing
consciences of the people his responses to the truth; therefore
with authority
and with boldness did he convince of sin
of righteousness
and of judgment.
The people began to awake. A deep impression fell upon them all from Dan to
Beersheba. They saw their sin in the light of God’s law. Twenty years of
unpardoned sin was a heart-breaking retrospect. And therefore did they lament.
It was well to be awakened from the long spiritual sleep. It was well to be
sorry for their sin.
2. Samuel sought fruits meet
for repentance. The people were anxious
for sin oppressed their souls; but
Samuel did not rest satisfied with the expressed emotion. He demanded instant
proof of professed sincerity. To give up evil ways is one of the earliest signs
of a penitent soul. It is indispensable to separate from whatever contaminates
the soul. To put away idolatry was
therefore
the first requirement which
Samuel made of the awakened people. At the time of the Protestant Reformation
when the people were awakened
they cleared the churches and also their houses
of all images used for worship. When Christianity was successfully introduced
among the South Sea Islanders
She burning of the idols was the proof of their
sincere awakening.
3. Samuel urged a believing
return to the Lord. Repentance does not constitute reformation. It is only the
outer court. By faith we enter into the holy place. Faith lays hold of a
covenant God
of His pardoning mercy and justifying righteousness. Faith is the
reunion of the soul to the Lord. The heart must have an object. No person is
without a god
to whom all his efforts are devoted
and on whom his affections
are placed. It may be the world
or the creature
or self
or some
superstition
or else the true God. The tendency of the heart is to the false
and the worldly. But the awakened conscience finds no satisfaction in anything
less than God. When the work of reformation was being wrought among the people
Samuel felt anxious that all the nation should realise the benefit. He
therefore summoned all Israel together. “They drew water and poured it out
before the Lord.” This was not a Divine institution; but it was a practice
frequently observed to give confirmation to solemn pledges. It perhaps implied
that as “water is spilled upon the ground and cannot be gathered up again
” so
their vow was never to be recalled
but to be preserved in all its obligation
and obedience. It is like that testimony which Scotland
as a nation
once gave
to the Covenant in a time of spiritual revival. “At request of their devoted
leaders in the Reformation
the people crowded to Edinburgh from all parts of
the country
and assembled in the Greyfriars’ Churchyard to the number of sixty
thousand! Alexander Henderson stood forth in their midst
and
in a prayer of
wondrous power and pathos
confessed the nation’s sins
and their desire to
return to the Lord and to the purity of worship commanded in His word. It was
then proposed to join themselves in a covenant engagement to maintain the
Lord’s cause. The deed was read and explained.” Those that had doubts were
conferred with ere the deed was subscribed. “Again
” says the historian
“a
deep and solemn pause ensued; not the pause of irresolution
but of modest
diffidence
each thinking every other more worthy than himself to place the
first name upon this sacred bond. An aged nobleman
the venerable Earl of
Sutherland
at length stepped slowly and reverentially forward
and with
throbbing heart and trembling hand subscribed Scotland’s covenant with God. All
hesitation in a moment disappeared. Name followed name in swift succession
till all within the church had given their signatures. It was then removed into
the churchyard and spread out on a level gravestone to obtain the subscription
of the assembled multitude. As the space became filled they wrote their names
in a contracted form
limiting them at last to the initial letters
till not a
spot remained on which another letter could be inscribed. There was another
pause. The nation had framed a covenant in former days and had violated its
engagements
hence the calamities in which it had been and was involved. If
they too should break this sacred bond how deep would be their guilt! Such seem
to have been their thoughts during this period of silent communing with their
own hearts; for
as moved by one spirit
they lifted up their right hands to
heaven
avowing by this solemn appeal that they had now joined themselves to
the Lord by an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten. In Israel
Samuel stood forth and led the services of worship. Nor could that day be soon
forgotten by the people. It witnessed the renewal of their covenant with the
Lord. It recorded their marvellous mercy
when the crimson stains of twenty
years were forever wiped out by God. It celebrated the recovery of a nation’s backsliding
when sins which as a thick cloud had darkened their moral firmament were
blotted out;. Backslider
Mizpeh speaks to thee! That spectacle of a nation’s
penitence
and the healing of a long backsliding
tells thee that there is
mercy with God
and illustrates His words of love
“Return unto me
ye
backsliding children; I will heal your backslidings.” Unconverted sinner
Mizpeh speaks to thee! That scene of repentance after twenty years of sins
reveals many who then first found the Lord. Backsliders were restored
the
impenitent might be saved. (R. Steel.)
Gather all Israel to
Mizpeh.
The brotherhood of worship
In the establishment of one of our great goldsmiths is a vast iron
safe with many locks
containing immense treasure
but no one can open that
chest; the keys are in the hands of many trustees
and only by their
concurrence can the hidden wealth be made manifest. Thus it is in the natural
and in the spiritual world
the wealth of the Divine blessing can be reached
only through the brotherhood of man
the brotherhood of saints. “Not forsaking
the assembling of yourselves together.” (W. L. Watkinson.)
Verses 7-11
The Philistines went up
against Israel.
The holy war
The revival of religion
has ever had a most important bearing as social and political improvement. The
return of man to God restores him to his brother. Restoration to the earnest
and hearty performance of spiritual duties towards God leads to a corresponding
reformation in relative and political duties. It was the revival of religion
that gave such liberty to the Protestant nations in the sixteenth century. It
was the revival of religion which secured the Protestant succession in England
and many of the liberties which we now enjoy. It was the revival of religion
that gave such a martyr roll to the Scottish Covenanters
and led to the
Revolution settlement of 1688. It is to the religious revivals that America
owes much of the political happiness which
amidst the most discordant
elements
it has possessed. In the reformation under Samuel patriotism was
revived
the independence of the nation was recovered
and in such a way as
showed the gracious interposition of a covenant God. Many revivals have had
trying ordeals at the outset and a baptism of fire. Pentecost was immediately
succeeded by a Moody persecution. The planting of the Church among the heathen
was in the midst of enmity and opposition. Ten fierce persecutions were the
experience of the religion of Christ
while it was advancing successfully
through the Roman Empire. Few reformations were accomplished in the sixteenth
century without martyr fires. So we find in the days of Samuel that the renewed
Church of Israel was a child of storm and conflict. It was not strange that
when the preaching of Samuel had been instrumental in awakening the Hebrews
and when they were seeking to reform their worship and renew their covenant
with God
their oppressors should attempt to restrain their incipient
patriotism
and to inflict a chastisement. Persecution is the first object of
tyrannical powers when a subject people are revived to freedom of thought and
devotion to God. When the cause of God receives any new spiritual impulse there
are not wanting those who seek to arrest it by persecution
by controversy
or
by secular temptations. When the fagot cannot pervert
dissension may weaken;
when threats fail
bribery may corrupt. The first prevailed in Spain
when the
dreadful Inquisition destroyed the rising Protestantism. The second nullified
the influence of the Reformation in some of the German States. The third
prevailed where a tempting Erastianism reduced the Church to worldliness. The
time of revival is therefore a season of imminent danger. The Philistines are
then upon you. Are you awakened to spiritual concern? Satan is also aroused to
effect his intended ruin of your soul. Are you about to take up the cross and
to make a Christian profession? He is active to bring about your fall. The
Philistines are then upon you. On a former occasion
when they were in similar
danger
they reposed their trust in the ark of the Lord; but now their
confidence is in the God of the ark. They confided in the form
now in the
reality. Before they were apostate and impenitent; now
they are awakened
reconciled
and devoted to the service of God. In their extremity
therefore
they urge prayer. They seek Samuel’s intercession.
1. It was
the most powerful means of aid. “Prayer moves the arm that moves the universe.”
It can wrestle with the Angel and have power with God end prevail. It is the
divinely appointed means of assistance: “Call upon me in the day of trouble
and I will deliver thee.”
2. It was
prayer in which they had all a believing interest. The people are ready to join
when Samuel uttered his supplication. Their earnest desire gave intensity to
Samuel’s words; their faith gave power to his believing intercession. Many
hearts united in one exercise.
3. It was
prayer to their covenant God. “Cry unto our God for us.” They had just renewed
their covenant with God
and accepted Him as theirs. He had been their father’s
God--a prayer hearing
covenant-keeping God. They knew to whom they addressed
their cry. It was to no unknown god
nor to an imaginary deity. Rest your soul
on Jesus. Then every prayer is offered to a Friend in whom you have confidence
and from whom you may expect a blessing.
4. It was
prayer for a definite object. They specified their want. They stated the desire
of their hearts. Too many pray in a way so general as to exhibit little
interest in what they ask. When public prayer was made a sacrifice was offered.
The intercession was dependent on atonement. The efficacy of the petition was
in the acceptance of the substitute. Thus it was that Samuel took a lamb in all
the purity of its youth and offered it wholly unto the Lord. The atonement made
by the Redeemer was infinite
and is sufficient to take away wrath from thee.
“Behold the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sin of the world!” Our prayers must
ever rest for all their efficacy on the Lamb of God. Ascending in the name of
Jesus they will prevail. This is what is meant when we ask for Christ’s sake.
Samuel’s prayer prevailed
and the answer came ere his worship was performed.
They had returned to God; they had secured His help. The Lord listened to their
prayer of faith
and that day fought their battles. The artillery of heaven was
moved against the Philistines. Israel was victorious without feats of arms. Nor
was this the only instance in their history. God had made the waters of the Red
Sea His weapons to overcome the Egyptians. In the Valley of Ajalon hailstones
did the work of conquerors
and the natural day was prolonged to give Joshua
the victory. In after days
too
the hosts of Sennacherib were vanquished by
the destroying angel in answer to the prayer of Hezekiah. And in the future yet
to be realised the believing supplication of the ransomed Church will secure
the interposition of God on the field of Armageddon to baffle the armies of the
world united to destroy his cause. “If God be for us
who can be against us?”
is the lesson we may draw from this event in the days of Samuel. The Church of
God is threatened in critical times. All over the world events seem preparing
to try the faith and energy of professing Christians. But so long as prayer is
so blessed a resource the little flock need not fear. God is the glory in the
midst of His cause
and the wall of fire around her. (R. Steel.)
National deliverance
The great thunder with
which God thundered on the Philistines carried down from God the answer and the
needed help. There is no need for supposing that the thunder was supernatural.
It was an instance of what is so common
a natural force adapted to the purpose
of an answer to prayer. Natural
but not casual. Though natural
it was God’s
answer to Samuel’s prayer. But how could this have been? If it was a natural
storm
if it was the result of natural law
of atmospheric conditions
the
operation of which was fixed and certain
it must have taken place whether
Samuel prayed or not. Undoubtedly. The uniformity of natural law enables the
Almighty
who sees and plans the end from the beginning
to frame a
comprehensive scheme of Providence that shall not only work out the final
result in His time and way
but that shall also work out every intermediate
result precisely as He designs and desires. Surely
if there is a general
Providence
there must be a special Providence. If God guides the whole He must
also guide the parts.
1. Let us
apply this view to the matter of prayer. The prayer of Samuel was prayer which
God had inspired. What more reasonable than that in the great plan of
Providence there should have been included a provision for the fulfilment of
Samuel’s prayer at the appropriate moment? The thunderstorm
we may be sure
was a natural phenomenon. The only thing miraculous about it was its forming a
part of that most marvellous scheme--the scheme of Divine Providence--a part of
the scheme that was to be carried into effect after Samuel had prayed. If the
term supernatural may be fitly applied to that scheme which is the sum and
substance of all the laws of nature
of all the Providence of God
and of all
the works and thoughts of man
then it was a miracle; but
if not
it was a
natural effect. It is important to bear these truths in mind
because many have
the impression that prayer for outward results cannot be answered without a
miracle
and that it is unreasonable to suppose that such a multitude of
miracles as prayer involves would be wrought every day. We do not deny that
prayer may be answered in a supernatural way. But it is most useful that the
idea should be entertained that such prayer is usually answered by natural
means. By not attending to this men often fail to perceive that prayer has been
answered. Let the means be as natural as they may--to those who have eyes to
see the finger of God is in them all the same. But to return to the Israelites
and the Philistines. The defeat of the Philistines was a very thorough one. The
impression thus made on the enemies of Israel corresponds in some degree to the
moral influence which God-fearing men sometimes have on an otherwise godless
community. In the great awakening at Northampton in Jonathan Edwards’ days
there was a complete arrest laid on open forms of vice. And whensoever in a
community God’s presence has been powerfully realised
the taverns have been
emptied
the gambling table deserted
under the sense of His august majesty.
Would only that the character and life of all God’s servants were so truly
godlike that their very presence in a community would have a subduing and
restraining influence on the wicked!
2. The
step taken by Samuel to commemorate this wonderful Divine interposition. (W.
G. Blaikie
D. D.)
Verse
8
And the children of Israel said to Samuel
Cease not to cry unto
the Lord our God for us.
The cry for mediation
I. Mediation sought. The
Israelites
unarmed
undefended
are in great dismay. They turn to Samuel and
implore his continued intercession.
1. Times of humiliation for sin and of reformation from sin are times
in which the foe is very busy--doing what he can to binder.
2. Times of humiliation and awakening produce a sense of need of an
intercessor from personal unworthiness
from the gravity and danger of the
occasion
from the difficulty of relation to the unseen. We want someone to act
for us. The principle of mediation in the Gospel of Jesus Christ does fit in
with our nature and condition.
II. Mediation exercised.
Samuel prays and sacrifices.
1. Takes a young lamb.
2. Prays. The mediation of Jesus Christ is so divinely suitable and
sufficient
as He is both priest and sacrifice. His offering and intercession
may give us “boldness and access with confidence.”
III. Mediation accepted. “The
Lord heard him.”
1. Interposition by means of the elements of the natural world.
2. The foe is completely routed. (H. Gammage.)
Verse 12
And Samuel took a stone.
The everlasting memorial
How few of Egypt’s modern
inhabitants know who built those works of wonder that still draw crowds of
travellers! It might be said
in the words of one who longed for posthumous
fame
and had done much to merit it
but who knew what had been the experience
of departed greatness--it might be said with Solomon: “There is no remembrance
of the wise more than of the fool forever: seeing that which now is
in the
days to come shall all be forgotten.” (Ecclesiastes
2:16.)
But there is a memorial which shall never be erased--a monument that shall
never crumble into dust
and persons who shall never be forgotten. The events
connected with the life everlasting have all their stones of remembrance
and
the righteous shall ever shine as the sun in the kingdom of the Father. The
providences which ministered to the children of God are all recorded in the
heart
and will ever be recalled with thanksgiving to the God of grace who
ordered them. In the history of His Church God has commemorated the
interpositions and providences of His hand. Many a monumental stone stands in
the chronicles of Israel. Ararat is ever associated with Noah’s thank offering
after the Deluge. Mount Moriah has been embalmed in believing hearts since
Abraham built there his altar and called it Jehovah-jireh--“The Lord will
provide.” Since Jacob set up the stone which had been his pillow on that
memorable night when he saw the ladder
Bethel has been fondly cherished by all
who love the House of God. When Jordan was crossed by the pilgrim Church twelve
stones marked out the spot where the priests’ feet had stood; and Bochim became
associated with the record of a nation’s tears. So when Samuel and the children
of Israel received such a token of the Lord’s love and help in their victory at
Mizpeh in answer to prayer they erected a stone and called it Ebenezer
to
perpetuate their gratitude. Thus has the Church of God advanced. Constituted a
pilgrim through this wilderness to the land of promise
every step of progress
marks her gratitude. Commissioned to war against sin
every conquest becomes a
spiritual march in music. Sent to evangelise
every convert is a trophy and
“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” is the chorus of every stanza in her
progressive song. Thus David set to music the history of Divine mercy to His
people
and recalled the past in their daily praises
while the experience of
his own soul became the “Hitherto” of the common chorus. The perils to which
the children of Israel were exposed were beyond their own strength to overcome.
They were weakened by oppression. They were faint by backsliding. They needed
help from the hand of God. They had met together at Mizpeh
and
amidst general
weeping
had confessed their sins
and renewed their covenant with God. But as
they were paying their vows
and joining in a religious service
they were
wantonly attacked. Their newborn zeal was put to an early test; but as their
penitence was sincere
their vow hearty
their prayer believing
so was the
faithfulness of God availing in their need. How many hearts were that day
restored to God
confirmed in faith
and revived to prayer! Temporal
deliverance and spiritual restoration went hand in hand
and a common Ebenezer
marked the rare experience. The Church was blessed with a revival
and the
State with liberty; souls were awakened
and citizens restored to patriotism.
The spiritual man became the truest patriot
the best subject of the laws
and
the most courageous defender of the State. Thus they had reason for this stone
of remembrance and this eucharistic inscription. But they teach us a
lesson--both in temporal and spiritual things to recognise the answer to our
prayer
and to give thanks. Have you experienced the providential mercies of
God? They demand recognition--a stone of memorial
and an Ebenezer--a psalm of
thanksgiving. Have you been brought onward in life to this day
finding daily
bread and watchful care? But there are other blessings of greater importance to
the soul
and which call for special notice and unceasing gratitude--the helps
vouchsafed in grace. The deliverance of the soul from sin is a Divine
interposition of the grandest kind. The recovery of the soul from backsliding
is an appropriate occasion for an Ebenezer. It was this especially which was
Israel’s national blessing. Their deliverance from the Philistines followed
their restoration from the backsliding of twenty years. It was a touching token
of the Lord’s acceptance of their tears and of their prayers. It was a manifest
pledge of His unchanging love. After a season of carelessness
spiritual sloth
and coldness in prayer
have you been revived? Has your first love returned?
Then
have you returned to give God thanks
and in a more consistent
devotedness inscribed the Ebenezer of your soul? These Ebenezers are useful to
the believerse They remind him of dependence
and recall his confidence in the
strength of God. They encourage him by the past
to trust and not be afraid in
all future trials. (R. Steel.)
Ebenezer
It is certainly a very
delightful thing to mark the hand of God in the lives of ancient saints. But
would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to remark the hand
of God in our own lives? Ought we not to look upon our own history as being at
least as full of God
as full of His goodness and of His truth
as much a proof
of His faithfulness and veracity as the lives of any of the saints who have
gone before? Have you had no deliverances? Have you passed through no rivers
supported by the Divine presence? Have you walked through no fires unharmed?
Have you had no manifestations? Again
it is a very delightful exercise to
remember the various ways in which the grateful saints recorded their
thankfulness. Who can look without pleasure upon the altar which Noah reared
after his preservation from the universal deluge? Would it not be quite as
pleasant
and more profitable for us to record the mighty acts of the Lord as
we have seen them? Should not we set up the altar unto His name
or weave His
mercies into a song?
I. The
spot where the stone of ebenezer was set up.
1. Twenty
years before on that field Israel was routed. Twenty years before
Hophni and
Phineas
the priests of the Lord
were slain upon that ground
and the ark of
the Lord was taken
and the Philistines triumphed. It was well that they should
remember the defeat they had sustained and that amidst the joyous victory they
should recollect that the battle had been turned into a defeat unless the Lord
had been upon their side. Let us remember our defeats.
2. The
field between Mizpeh and Shen would also refresh their memories concerning
their sins
for it was sin that conquered them. Had not their hearts been
captured by sin
their land had never been captured by Philistia. Had they not
turned their hacks’ upon their God
they would not have turned their backs in
the day of conflict. Let us recollect our sins; they will serve as a black foil
on which the mercy of God shall glisten the more brightly.
3. Again
that spot would remind them of their sorrows. What a mournful chapter in
Israel’s history is that which follows their defeat by the Philistines.
4. While
dwelling upon the peculiarity of the locality
we must remark that
as it had
been the spot of their defeat
their sin
their sorrow
so now before the
victory
it was the place of their repentance. You see
they came together to
repent
to confess their sins
to put away their false gods
to cast Ashtaroth
from their houses and from their hearts. It was there that they saw God’s band
and were led to say
“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” When you and I are
most diligent in hunting sin
then God will be most valiant in routing out foes.
5. You
must remember
too
that Ebenezer was the place of lamentation after the Lord.
They came together to pray God to return to them. We shall surely see God when
we long after Him.
6. On
that day
too
Mizpeh was the place of renewed covenant
and its name signifies
the watchtower
These people
I say
came together to renew their covenant with
God
and wait for Him as upon a watchtower. Whenever God’s people look back
upon the past they should renew their covenant with God. Put your hand into the
hand of Christ anew
thou saint of the Most High
and give thyself to Him
again.
II. The
occasion of the erection of this memorial. The tribes had assembled unarmed to
worship. The Philistines
hearing of their gathering
suspected a revolt. A
rising was not at that time contemplated
though no doubt there was lurking in
the hearts of the people a hope that they would somehow or other be delivered.
The Philistines being as a nation far inferior in numbers to the children of
Israel
they had the natural suspiciousness of weak oppressors. If we must have
tyrants let them be strong ones
for they are never so jealous or cruel as
those little despots who are always afraid of rebellion.
1. The
victory obtained was by the lamb. As soon as the lamb was slaughtered
and the
smoke went up to heaves
the blessing began to descend upon the Israelites
and
the curse upon the foes. “They smote them”--note the words--they “smote them
until they came under Bethcar
” which
being interpreted
signifies “the house
of the Lamb.” At the offering of the lamb the Israelites began to fight the
Philistines
and slew them even to the house of the lamb. If we have done
anything for Christ
bear witness that it has been all through the Lamb.
2. As in
this occurrence the sacrifice was exalted
so also was the power of prayer
acknowledged. The Philistines were not routed except by prayer. Samuel prayed
unto the Lord. They said
“Cease not to cry unto the Lord for us.” Let us bear
our witness that if aught of good has been accomplished it has been the result
of prayer.
3. Again
as there was prayer and sacrifice
you must remember that in answer to the
sweet savour of the lamb and the sweet perfume of Samuel’s intercession
Jehovah came forth to rout his foes.
III. The
inscription upon the memorial. “Ebenezer
hitherto the Lord hath helped us.”
The inscription may be read in three ways. You must read first of all its
central word
the word on which all the sense depends
where the fulness of it
gathers. “Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.” Note that they did not stand still
and refuse to use their weapons
but while God was thundering they were
fighting
and while the lightnings were flashing in the iceman’s eyes they were
making them feel the potency of their steel. So that while we glorify God we
are not to deny or to discard human agency. We must fight because God fighteth
for us. I said this text might be read three ways. We have read it ones by
laying stress upon the centre word. Now it ought to be read looking backward.
The word “hitherto” seems like a hand pointing in that direction. Look back
look back. Then the text may be read a third way--looking forward. For when a
man gets up to a certain mark and writes “hitherto
” he looks back upon much
that is past
but “hitherto “is not the end
there: is yet a distance to be
traversed. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
A New Year’s Sermon
That battle was won before
a single blow was struck. That victory was achieved at the Throne of Grace
where many a glorious triumph has been gained which never could have been secured
elsewhere. Prayer was the mighty weapon which Israel wielded to the utter
discomfiture of the Philistine hosts. The power of prayer lies in the power
which prayer commands: the power of God.
I. The
principles of the text
as they enter deeply into religious experience. We are
taught:
1. That
we all need help from God. Christians need assistance from a power superior to
their own as certainly as did Israel at this crisis. Sin
which has robbed man
of his original rectitude
has also deprived him of strength. Unrescued by
Divine grace
he is utterly powerless. Nor does the most matured Christian
possess the least spiritual energy but as he receives it from on high. There is
no equality between the power of the Christian’s enemies and his own unaided efforts.
There are times when the Christian becomes so painfully conscious of this that
he is almost ready to quit the field
but this
instead of driving us to
despair
should operate powerfully in leading us to God for help
so as to feel
with the Apostle: “When I am weak
then am I strong.”
2. The
help of God is bestowed in connection with the use of the means appointed by
God
and it is only in their employment that we can reasonably expect Divine
aid. Neither the fact of our weakness nor the promise of Divine assistance has
been revealed to lead to the exclusion of human exertion. The text implies that
it is “help” that is promised
not the performance of the work for us
but
assistance by which we shall be enabled to do our duty.
3. The
actual bestowment of this help. The text records a fact: “Hitherto hath the
Lord helped us.” It was not help promised or provided merely
but help actually
bestrewed. Help implies just that amount of assistance which the case requires
and by which the Christian shall be sustained under every trial
and delivered
out of the last.
II. The
character of the help which God supplies.
1. Suitable
and efficient. Without adaptation in the remedy the case must remain
unrelieved. The source of the Christian’s help stamps its character. It is
Divine.
2. Divine
help is certain. Human aid
feeble as it is
is very uncertain in its
bestowment. By a sad perversity of human nature
there is a disposition to
confer favours with a liberal hand on those who are already affluent
while the
indigent are sometimes allowed to drag out a miserable existence and pine away
in penury. If a man once opulent should be ruined by misfortunes
persons who
proudly recognised him when on the height of prosperity pass him by as if the
man’s calamities had so altered every feature of his countenance that they
cannot recognise him. Should an individual fall a prey to his own folly
pride
and extravagance
he must struggle with his self-caused miseries alone. And not
infrequently a cold
inactive
good-for-nothing sympathy is all that is
manifested toward the most deserving. But the causes which render human aid so
uncertain cannot affect God. The relation which He sustains to His Church
renders it impossible for Him to regard the interests of any of its members with
indifference: “God is in the midst of her; . . . God shall help her and that
right early.”
3. This
help is seasonable
it comes at the right time to a moment. It may not be given
just when it is expected
nor when to human eyes it would seem most desirable.
But are the Divine plans and arrangements to be precipitated and thrown into
confusion just to meet human fretfulness and patience? The God by Whom help is
bestowed knows the most opportune season for its bestowment. God is attentive
to “times end seasons;” and the Divine slowness has never been opposed to the
Divine punctuality.
4. The
help of God is constant and unfailing. “Hitherto
” wrote Samuel
“the Lord hath
helped us.” This was at a protracted period in the history of God’s people
and
up to that time there had nothing failed of all that the Lord had spoken.
Whenever they were defeated it was not the result of failure in the Source of
their supplies
but of their own unfaithfulness and sins. The promise of Divine
help is conditional; and only let the conditions of the promise be fulfilled
and the help shall be continued. The last soldier on the field of Christian
warfare; the last labourer in the vineyard of the Lord; the last pilgrim in the
toilsome way to heaven
will need help from God as we do at this moment; and
all shall have it.
III. This
conduct to which this help should lead on our part.
1. Grateful
acknowledgment of past favours. The expression of gratitude was public and
monumental. There is a way of making the expression of our gratitude monumental
and lasting by making it practical. Seize every opportunity of testifying to
the goodness and faithfulness of God. Let the world know what a wise and
almighty Helper ours is. Strive to spread the truth of God; and labour to
perpetuate the institutions and auxiliaries of the Christian Church.
2. Past
help should lead to confidence in God at the present moment. The words of
Samuel were retrospective; but this recognition of past help was designed to
teach the practical lesson: “Have faith in God” now. When friends meet who have
a past to look back upon they soon talk over the difficulties and trials with
which they have had to struggle
memory generally recalls them first. At a
deeply afflictive crisis in David’s life
when our harps would have been
unstrung and mute
the Psalmist swept his and pealed forth: “I will sing of
mercy and judgment.” He saw that the two were blended
and he would sing of
both; but as “mercy” greatly predominated
he placed that first in his song.
3. Inspire
hope as to the future. (Samuel Wesley.)
Ebenezer
God must be acknowledged
in all our mercies
and it is delightful to be able to see in them the answer
of believing and fervent supplication. “Not unto us
O Lord
not unto us
but
unto Thy name give glory.”
I. Let
us consider what we have to record.
II. Let
us now consider with what views and feelings our stone of memorial should be
set up
and this expressive word
Ebenezer
inscribed upon it.
1. With
sincere piety. To ascribe the honour and power of a work of grace to ministers
instead of God the Spirit
is about as irrational as it would be to give praise
and glory to the pen with which Milton wrote his immortal poem
instead of
giving it to the sublime genius of the bard himself. O let me be forgotten as
far as possible
and Christ only thought of.
2. This
expression
Ebenezer
must be uttered by us
as it was by Samuel and the Jews
with adoring wonder.
3. Can
joy be absent or unsuitable on this occasion? Impossible!
4. A
sense of unworthiness should make our gratitude the more intensely fervent. (J.
A. James.)
Ebenezer
Monuments generally have
two objects They are intended to ornament a country or town
and to celebrate
the glories of the hero to whose memory they are raised. A monument is erected
after a successful battle
in order to glorify the leader under whose auspices
the battle was fought and the victory won. The cathedral of St. Paul’s is
by
the inscription above the doorway
a perpetual proof how even a great man may
be thinking rather too prominently about himself when he is rearing a temple to
the Most High God. But Samuel
though he has been instrumental in achieving
very much more than a triumph in battle--for he has effected a great moral
revolution and revival--never thinks about himself. Two thoughts and purposes
vividly occupy and fill his mind. One is to magnify Jehovah
to exalt His name
to keep Him before the people; and the other is to be useful to the people. He
wants to assist them to be trustful and brave
because relying on God.
I. Ebenezer
is the landmark of work accomplished. There are some people
as you know
or
perhaps I ought to say that it is a peculiarity which characterises all people
more or less
that they have a very keen sense of evils and disadvantages which
belong to the present
and a very dull perception of the privileges secured and
the progress which has been made. Of this we have a familiar illustration in
the Israelites themselves. Men are constantly looking with affectionate regret
upon the past--
“That past which always wins a glory from its being far
And orbs into the perfect star we saw not when we moved therein.”
Whatever millennium there
may be is there in the “good old times.” Hence
the world is always standing
still or going back. Now against such tendencies as these Ebenezer is a needed
and useful protest. There may be other hills to climb
and they may be hills
which will try our strength to the very utmost; but let not this prevent our
acknowledging with joy and thankfulness that one hill has
at least
been climbed.
The Church is a long
long way from perfection
I know. The grey dawn is not
breaking at this very moment into the golden tints of the millennial morning;
nay
the clouds may be as thick as they were in Israel under Ahab and Jezebel.
Nevertheless
let Elijah remember that that glorious scene did take place on
Carmel
the fire did come down from heaven
and the king of darkness did
receive a staggering blow. Say what you will
the Lord did thunder in the
heavens with a great thunder
and the Philistines were discomfited by it
therefore set up a stone and call it Ebenezer. The world is bad enough
God
knows
but thank God it is not without its Ebenezers. In those good old times
to which you are looking back there were not so many cases of drunkenness recorded;
but neither were there so many people to get drunk nor so many newspapers to
bring the sin to light. In those good old times the English artisan and the
English yeoman were little better than serfs; and though the day of
emancipation is bringing out a generation as demoralised (or so they say) as
that which followed Moses out of Egypt
and is marked by excesses as wild as
those which raged at Meribah and Massah and under the mount
still the day of
emancipation has dawned
and my firm expectation is that the womb of the future
is bearing within it a race of Israelites indeed
who will enter into the
promised land. In those good old times the traffic in human souls
which
degrades man to the level of goods and chattels
was not only tolerated
but defended
on Christian principles. In the good old times war was an expedient to which
any tyrant who felt himself strong enough would resort without compunction
and
without exciting any deep indignation. Now a moral sense in regard to war has
grown up
which can compel even the most powerful of tyrants to pause ere he
wantonly draws the sword. Yes; the Philistines may not be driven out of the
country; they may not be utterly annihilated; but their grip
which was at our
throat for more than twenty years
has been shaken off. They have been heavily
smitten; they are at least quiet. Raise then a stone
and call it “Ebenezer
”
for hitherto hath the Lord helped us.
II. This
stone is a monumental memorial of the secret of success. Come near to it and
read what is written thereon
and you will find--not some inflated bombast
extolling the valour of the Israelites
but--a very simple sentence
giving
glory to Jehovah of Hosts. And see how the future which is briefly epitomised
in the next verse confirms this “hitherto.” “The hand of the Lord was against
them all the days of Samuel.” And what was Samuel?--a mighty man of valour? a
Moltke among generals? a Bismarck among statesmen? Nay; but a judge who built
up a kingdom of righteousness
and preeminently a man who could pray. Praying
as his very name implies
was his forte. It was as one who called upon the Lord
that he was distinguished. And it was under the regime of prayer that
the Philistines were held in such complete subjugation. The truth which is thus
condensed in the word Ebenezer is of the utmost practical importance. There is
a Divine Ruler who providentially governs and personally superintends the lives
of individuals and the histories of nations. We are not living under a reign of
abstract law or inexorable fate; we are not moved round by a mechanism of
wheels
revolving in predestined cycles
and grinding out an unalterable
sequence of causes and effects. Let devout faith set up then a stone and write
upon it
Ebenezer
and with what awful and yet rapturous solemnities life
becomes invested. I have often stood with a feeling of almost reverence upon
me
high up on some mountainside
looking at vast mysterious boulders
once
deposited there by forces which it is hardly possible to conceive
but to the
existence of which these mighty masses of rock are the indisputable testimony.
But when I come upon Ebenezer
I come upon a stone which says to me
“The
mighty God
even Jehovah Himself
has been here. Here the sword of the Lord has
been flashing unsheathed
and here the banner of the Lord has been waving
unfurled.” Let devout faith set up a stone and write upon it Ebenezer and with
what calm
persistent
uncompromising steadiness we are inspired to advance
just living and working out the everlasting will of righteousness
and simply
do that which is just and true and acceptable to God. The only peril you have
really to fear is the extinction of Samuel as a reigning influence; for then
you will be on the same footing as the other nations of the earth
and the question
will be: Can you send as many battalions as they can into the field? So long as
Samuel
the man of righteousness and the man of prayer
is influential
you
will come safe out of every crisis
under the banner of the God of battles.
Remember Ebenezer
and let that keep you from meddling
hasty tactics
as well
as from despondency or dismay; and let the believer come and rest his soul upon
this stone. (R. H. Roberts
M. A.)
God’s past mercies the
encouragement to future trust
In forming our opinion of
certain actions
and in pronouncing them to be either good or bad
useful or
injurious
their character must be ascertained from the principle on which they
are wrought A splendid deed
which mankind would applaud
may
in the sight of
God
be almost as strong an indication of a corrupt heart
as a foul
transaction
which all would unite in condemning. The fact is
man regards the
outward appearance only
the Lord looks on the heart. A simple stone set up in
the name of the Lord may as effectually denote the overflowings of gratitude
as a costly magnificent temple
dedicated with all the pomp and solemnity of
modern architecture. Such was the case in the instance recorded in the text.
The prophet Samuel
though dead still speaks to us; he seems to afford a practical
illustration of Solomon’s admonition
“In all thy ways acknowledge God
and He
shall direct thy path.” This is the duty inculcated
which we would earnestly
desire to see transcribed in your lives If
then
we add our wonderful
preservation from seen and unseen dangers; the way in which the Lord hath
helped us over our mountains of difficulty
or out of the depths of
tribulation
smoothing our path when it was rugged to our step
or
straightening it when it was crooked; if we have experienced that a blessing
hath rested on the operation of our hands
or on the meditation of our hearts;
if
in the domestic relations of life
we have been favoured with any special
tokens of God’s superintending providence and fostering protection (and who has
not had them?)
what gratitude ought to be ours; what abundant occasion have we
to adopt--what demons of darkness should we be if we did not adopt--the
sentiment of Samuel
“Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” But this may be a mere
empty expression of the lips
or
at least
a mere transitory ebullition of
feeling
evaporating with the event which has called forth the sentiment. We
would wish that the impression should be permanent
such as would only
terminate with our lives; we would wish to see erected some standing memorial
of the loving kindness of the Lord
which should declare his goodness
and
bespeak our gratitude. How is this to be effected in the present day
since
such a rude memorial of Divine mercy would be inconsistent with the notions of
modern refinement? It may be accomplished in two ways. Those who have omitted
to do so
may lay the foundation stone of a domestic altar
and rear a
structure in their houses
on which may be placed the morning and evening
sacrifice of prayer and praise. But the conduct of Samuel may be imitated in
another point of view
by the reception of Christ Jesus in our hearts; thus to
erect a spiritual edifies in our souls
and to make our bodies the temple of
the Holy Ghost. Christ is indeed that living stone
which we would see the
tenant of every bosom testifying in a lively way of providential and redeeming
mercies: a “stone disallowed indeed of men
but chosen of God
and precious;” a
“tried stone
” a “sure foundation;” but to “some a stone of stumbling
and a
rock of offence:” a stone
which the builders
in their impiety and folly
rejected
which is now become the head of the corner; yes
it is indeed this
Rock of Ages
which we desire to see set up in all our hearts
at all times
and upon all occasions
as the stable basis on which to erect; a structure of
temporal or eternal blessedness; as the sure refuge and hiding place from the
storm of adversity
or the gale of prosperity. Here
then
we have the line of
conduct we earnestly recommend for your adoption
strongly enforced by the
patriarch of old: receive Him into your hearts
whom we preach unto you
as the author and finisher of your salvation. Let the idol altar be thrown
down
and the name of Jesus Christ be inscribed thereon; may that natural
dead
indurated heart yield its place to the living stone
which will impart
new life and vigour to all its energies and emotions
and gratefully record the
achievements of Divine grace to the glory of God the Father. (H. S.
Plumptre
M. A.)
Memorials of Divine Mercy
There is a distinct
recognition
here
of the hand of God in providence; and there is a marking of
the event of God’s interference in their behalf by some visible outward sign
which would serve to bring it back to them. For no man
after the battle and
the victory
returning that way
and beholding this stone
would forget it.
They would cherish it in their memory
and tell their children of it. And if
their occasions or needs ever took any of them again through the region of
their old captivity
their old fear
the old battle and the old victory
that
outside memorial would stand to remind them
not merely of each external event
but also of the interior moral truth that it was of the Lord’s mercies that
they were preserved
and that it was of God’s interposing providence that they
were victorious. Now
we are in many respects like the Israelites. There are
in the history of every man
certain remarkable events that are worthy to be
remembered. The gracious and providential interference of God in our behalf
deserves to be noted. The memory of all His mercies ought to be perpetuated.
Every critical period
as the turning of the year; every point of success in
any enterprise of life; every point where we gain a higher joy
whether it be
secular
or social
or spiritual; every new relation which promises great;
blessedness to us; every business achievement which seems to lift us out of
darkness and out of difficulties; every great mischief that impended as a
threatening sky
but; that is rolled away--every such event or experience ought
to have a distinct recognition. We should think of them in their individuality
and in their sequences; and it would be well for us if we could set up some
memorial
and be able to say to one and another
“Hitherto the Lord hath helped
me.” It is the Lord--not my skill
not my wisdom
not my prowess--that hath
helped me hitherto. “Our true” life is the inward life. It deserves
therefore
to be specially watched and recorded. No other thing deserves such celebrations
as a man’s inward victory--his inward deliverance. A blessing that comes from
God should be recognised by us
though it comes in no visible form. No one who
has a constant succession of good fortune
keeps any ideal in his mind of the
number of Divine mercies of which he is the recipient. If God were to recount
what He has done for us
it would seem as though our life were a golden chain
in which one golden link clasped another
every hour being a link
and every
day lengthening the chain. I sometimes think
of a night
that it is a sin to
go into the house and leave God’s glory flashing abroad in the Northern Lights
or in the stellar exhibitions in all the broad expanse above
without a
witness--certainly without my witnessing them. I feel as though it were a
stupidity to retire to sleep with all this amazing display going on. For
what
are men’s inventions and ingenuities compared with those astonishing
developments which every summer’s day shows us in the clouds
in the storms
and in frescoes of light and beauty? Every single day there is enough in the
silence of nature
and in the might of nature
enough to fill the soul with joy
and gratitude. But
while day tells it to day
and night repeats it to night
man sees but little of it. There may he kept a calendar of dates. It is astonishing
how much one can preserve in this way with very little trouble. When travelling
in Europe
I was so full of excitement end enjoyment that I had not time to
keep a journal; so I just put down under each date one single word--the name of
the city; or the name of the picture; or the name of the mountain; or the name
of the pass; or the name of some person whom I had met; and now I can go back
ever a month’s travels
and
though there are but these single words
that
whole history starts up when I look at them. If you regularly take a memorandum
book
at night
and think back through the day
and bring up before you what
God has done for you
what He has shown you
what significant thing has
happened
and put down the caption of it under the proper date
you will be
surprised to find what a calendar your book will become at the end of every
year. In some of the German houses there is a charming habit of this sort.
Instead of papering their rooms
or frescoing them in the ordinary way
they
employ the ablest artists of their times to paint their walls with the most
exquisite landscapes
which are to stand there for ages. And in these
landscapes are representations of their own family here and there. Here
for
instance
are the grandparents; there are the children; and here are the
friends and neighbours. And so
one has in his house
a kind of memorial of his
social relationships
and of everything significant in his family history. It
is a most charming idea if it
be executed fitly. But I would not recommend to
you any such custom as this
which is very expensive
and unfitted to our
habits and manners And yet
it is quite possible for one to have objects on his
wall
which shall answer very much the same purpose: A leaf here
an anchor
there
or a little flower
plucked
dried
and hung in its proper place
may
mark some significant passage in one’s history This may be seen in castles. The
man of the castle says
“Do you see those antlers? Do you see that frontal? I
will give you a history of that hunting expedition.” They are memorials which
he has preserved of various experiences in hunting. Why should not every
dawning mercy have a star blazing from the wall
and saying to every one that
looks upon it
“Hitherto the Lord hath helped me?” Why should our houses be so
barren of our own history? Why should we leave our eyes so entirely without the
aid of interpreting symbols? I know not why a person’s house should not become
a kind of memorial of personal history. Or
a journal might be made of the
Bible. If you keep a kind of register
so that the text refers to and is
associated with the event
your Bible becomes a memorial. You are setting up
all the way through it stones of remembrance
as it were. You are providing a
record for your old age. And by and by
when you take down your Bible
and put
on your glasses
and look back upon your past life
not only will it be the
word of God
but you will find bow the word of God fed you in the wilderness
strengthened you in sickness
and comforted you in circumstances of
discouragement. How many things a man can record on the fly leaves of his Bible
which will afford him pleasure and profit in after life! And how precious that
Bible will become to him when he has woven it into his experience as a kind of
epitomising of his life. Or
one might
if blessed with means
take the
occasions of God’s hopefulness to him
and make them also occasions of charity.
There are what are called “memorial windows” in churches Such windows are put
in often
by affection
to be the memorial of a wife
or sister
or parent
or
child
or friend. In the old country there are a great many of them. One of the
most affecting things I ever saw in my life was in the church of the
“Succouring” Virgin--that is
of Mary
the Succourer. It was
I believe
in one
of the French cities. The whole church was filled with tablets. Here was one of
an officer
for three days’ deliverance
on such
and such and such dates. It
was a little marble slab let into the wall
inscribed with letters of gold. On
inquiring and comparing dates
I found it was during the battle of Inkerman
at
a time when the French army were in great danger. The man had been preserved;
and when he came back
he put up in this church this tablet
recalling the
mercy of God in sparing his life. Another inscription was
“My babe was sick; I
called to the Virgin; she heard me; and my child lives.” There was the tablet
that celebrated that event. And I could not read these inscriptions without
having tears fall from my eyes like drops from a spice bush when shaken in a
dewy morning
blow
everybody ought to have a church somewhere for himself--not
a literal church; but someplace where he can celebrate God’s special goodness
to him. (H. W. Beecher.)
The place of memorials in
the Christian life
I. What
the memorial commemorated. It was erected on a battle field where they had been
twice defeated. Thus it reminded them of their own
1. Helplessness.
But it was also erected on a spot where they had witnessed a great victory
won
by God’s help. It therefore also reminded them
2. God
was their Helper. The stone also commemorated--
3. The
extent of their victory. “Hitherto hath the Lord helped them
” as far as this
place. It was a kind of border stone marking their advance on a former
position.
II. How
it helped them. They called it “Help Stone.” In commemorating past help it
proved a present help.
1. By
keeping them from self-trust.
2. By
stimulating their activity. The sight of this stone aroused their patriotism
and religious fervour. It was like the flag which stirs the soldier’s martial
spirit.
3. It
deepened their sense of obligation. To retreat from the position marked by this
memorial would have been as disgraceful as for an army to lose its standard.
III. The
place of memorial is a Christian life. A written pledge or a spoken vow is for
us what “Help Stone” was for Israel. By that act we warn the enemy that he has
no more claim upon the territory of our hearts. And each subsequent communion
is a gazing afresh upon the memorial of victory won by Christ. (R. C. Ford
M. A.)
God’s help
1. Observe
the language here of the writer is retrospective. It takes in the wide sweep of
the Jewish history.
2. Thus
it becomes the language of gratitude.
3. Then
too
consider how the inscription on the stone set up by Samuel
lays a good
foundation for hope and trust. And it is upon this help we ground too our
faith. The true Christian must always feel deeply humbled at the remembrance of
his transgressions
but in the effort of a true repentance he is conscious of
God’s merciful aid and compassion. The text furnishes a motive for future
perseverance.
5. The
text indicates that those who are Divinely assisted in their undertaking
will
find in the end that their life of labour and of uprightness
as regards both character
and conduct
has not been in vain. No. In some matters of an outward kind
at
first sight
it may seem that even the most exemplary career has ended in
disappointment
in perfect uselessness.
6. Hence
arises the duty of cooperation with the help of the Almighty. The builder when
furnished with proper materials must use them. It would be downright folly for
him to fold his hands
to make no exertion
and only to call aloud for help.
The Christian too must take his place in the Church
as in a city
and although
he knows that without God’s help his watchfulness will be of no use
still he
must not sleep at his post. (W. G. Horwood.)
The Lord’s Helping His
people
doctrine.
It is the duty of the
Lord’s people to keep the memorial of the experience which they have of the
Lord’s helping them. I shall discuss this point under two general heads.
I. The
Lord’s helping His people.
1. How
doth the Lord help His people?
2. Let
us inquire why the Lord helpeth His people.
II. To
speak of the keeping up of the memorial of the experiences which they have had
of the Lord’s helping them.
1. What
it is to keep up the memorial of the Lord’s helping us.
2. Inquire
what of these experiences of the Lord’s helping should be recorded and kept in
memory.
3. Inquire
why we should keep up the memorial of these things
The Lord our Help
From this passage we are
forcibly taught
in the first place:--
I. that
it is our especial duty
under the apprehension of any impending calamity
to
seek unto God for deliverance by fervent believing prayer.
II. We
are taught by this portion of sacred history
that God will hear the relieving
prayers of His servants. We are far from affirming that prayers
offered up in
faith
and “for things agreeable to God’s will
” will always be granted in the season
or in the manner that the supplicants might either desire
or in their fallible
judgment might deem most proper No! This would be to usurp God’s prerogative
and to substitute our own erring judgments in the place of His wise and all
disposing sovereignty. All that God permits us to do
is to approach Him in
importunate
believing prayer
leaving the result to His own unerring disposal.
III. It is
our duty to recognise the hand of God in every deliverance.
IV. A
public acknowledgment of gratitude is due to almighty God for mercies received
and for deliverance from impending evils. In perusing the history of the
heathen world
we are particularly struck with the practice of perpetuating the
memory of great events to future generations. When nations were delivered from
impending calamities or favoured with unlooked for blessings
they raised the
song of gratitude to those whom they esteemed their preserverses The praises of
their deliverers were sung by the poet
and extolled by the historian; their statues
adorned the cities which gave them birth; and other striking memorials were
instituted to convey to future generations an abiding sense of the value of
their services. If
from the heathen
we turn to the enlightened world
we
shall find that the memorials which
in the one
were erected to the statesman
or the conqueror
were
in the other
expressly instituted in token of
gratitude to God--the great and only Deliverer.
V. Let
your recollection of God’s past mercies inspire you with the feelings of future
unreserved confidence.
VI. Let
me call upon you to testify your sense of the Divine mercies
by an increasing
devotedness to the service of your God. (Robert Cook.)
Retrospection and
Gratitude
The character of Christian
gratitude
etc. “Hitherto the Lord hath helped us.”
1. Christian
gratitude is retrospective.
2. Christian
gratitude is devout. It connects the thought of God with the travelled past.
There may have been second causes: gracious interpositions and friendly
agencies; but above and beyond all
the good man recognises the hand of God
and in real devotion says
“Hitherto the Lord hath helped me.”
3. Christian
gratitude is joyful. Every event in the providence of God has a message of
mercy in it to the good man. Day unto day is saying to him
“Rejoice in the
Lord
ye righteous
and shout aloud for joy
all ye that are upright in heart.”
4. Christian
gratitude is ever trustful. It speaks thankfully of the past
and looks forward
hopefully to the future; hitherto sounds the keynote of hereafter. (W. G.
Barrett.)
Verses 15-17
And Samuel judged Israel all the darts of his life.
The prophet judge
In the hopeful emergency of Israel’s lamenting after Jehovah
“Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel;” and the clear
bright word
and
the wise act of that and subsequent days
show him to us as worthy to be a
prophet of the Lord
and a judge or ruler of a great people. Great soldiers
have been admired for the way in which they have seized the black and bloody
opportunity of a crisis in a battle in order to plunge into more successful
carnage; but what better is that than the shark’s swift and well-timed whirl
and dash at its almost escaping prey? How much loftier and demanding what
higher gifts and power is the act of him who sees and grasps the opportunity of
raising a nation from its almost ruin
and even before the delivering time has
come sees the flower of hope blooming among the ruins? Such was Samuel’s act in
this passage; and such in our own day the hope and deed of Cavour and Victor
Emmanuel
who foresaw and made possible the growth of united Italy
at a time
when the priests and soldiers had brought the Italy of history to a degradation
that only soldiers and priests know the way unto. It is of the greatest
importance that we should understand Samuel’s arrangements for the national
recovery
and apply the principles involved as piously and intelligently as we
can
1. Notice
then
that Samuel’s first great act in his character of
prophet-judge was to call the people to a thorough religious and moral
cleansing: religious in that they were required to disown the idolatry that was
in their lives and opposed to the worship of Jehovah; and moral in that the worship
of Baal and Astarte was licentious
degrading; vicious in society as well as
profane before their God. Samuel required this of them as well as “lamenting
after the Lord.” Israel needed the true worship of the pure God. Purity of
heart
temperance of spirit
chastity of body
righteousness to one another;
these things
aimed at for the love of God
are His true worship; these were
the true ways of putting from them the false and foul idols that God abhorred.
So we have to learn. Mourn after God; be penitent and contrite; but aim after
Godlikeness as well. Mourn over your sins
but show the true contrition that
seeks to be like God; that says
“I will arise and go to my father.” Remember
that the invader was in the land; the polluters of the sanctuary still in the
sacred places. A soldier “patriot” might have earned renown by military
expeditions and dashing raids into the conquered territory; but the dark day of
soldier-judges was gone. There was now a man leading who preferred his
country’s purity to her prosperity
and would have rather seen his nation die
than have her prosper with the work and wages of iniquity. Therefore he called
them to a national purifying. But the call of Samuel is intended to be to us.
For it is not the only duty of a nation to summon its armed bands and squadrons
in times of national peril
or international anxiety. Nor is it less than
profanity to send armies forth invoking the “God of battles
” forgetting that
before the barbarity of man shed human blood in war
God was a God of purity
and is to be remembered in war and strife
and before conflict and carnage
as
the God of righteousness
who will require unjustly or heedlessly shed blood at
the hands of those who have poured it out to cry unto Him from the ground.
2. Samuel’s next great act as a prophet-judge was to summon the
people to a great prayer assembly. So distinctly did he put the duty of
consecration to God before all things that
instead of military deliberations
instead of holding a great council of war
he said to them
“Gather all Israel
to Mizpeh
and I will pray for you unto the Lord.” But this mighty act of
penitence and prayer was rudely disturbed. Like the royal and prelatic
dragoons
that rushed down the mountain side against the meetings of the
Scottish Covenanters
to stain the heather with their blood
the Philistines
marched swiftly to Mizpeh against their defenceless tributaries. Evidently the
Israelites had made no military preparation; and all seemed to threaten that
the meeting for prayer and purification would end in a horrible massacre
like
many similar meetings in Christian times. The only brave heart there was
Samuel’s. The best man was the most courageous. Penitence led to prayer
prayer
to victory
and victory to praise. Such is our soul’s sure way. The prominent
feature of the day in connection with Samuel is one that repeatedly shows
itself in his life
and that is his character of intercessor. He prayed
hopefully when all was gloomy and foreboding
and he did so not because or when
he could do nothing else. He did not act as we so often do; he did not make
prayer a last resource
but first and foremost he cried unto the Lord. It was
for prayer that he assembled the people
and it was while he was uttering his
peculiar cry of earnest intercession that the voice of the Lord’s thunder was
heard. Nor
in thinking of Samuel’s prayers and the people’s penitence and
their efficacy
must we forget the instructive contrast there is between this
day of unexpected triumph and the day of battle at the same place; when
notwithstanding the presence of the ark and all the Divinely ordained
accompaniments of its mystery when it led the armies of Israel
there was
nothing but disaster
disgrace
and death. Under Samuel
without the ark
or
priest
or any symbol of the presence of God
Israel’s enemies were destroyed
and the penitent people delivered. The difference was in the penitence; in the
setting of their hearts towards the Lord in contrition and prayer. Ichabod was
the word that ended the day of trusting in the ark; but Ebenezer crowned the
day of penitence and prayer.
3. Samuel’s next great act as a prophet-judge was to consolidate the
reformation and prosperity by systematic righteous judgment. “He went from year
to year in circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpeh
and judged Israel in all
those places.” He was too wise not to know
and too devout not to remember
that a land left with only a military success
and rejoicing chiefly over the
damage done to its political rivals
would ever be a temptation to itself
and
would expose itself more and more to the perils of raillery ambition and
adventure. History is full of instances of this. Ambition will govern the
military nation
and avarice the commercial
with little regard to the God of
justice in either. But by judging for God
witnessing regularly to the presence
of God’s law as he went through the various districts
Samuel prevented the
people’s penitence being only fugitive
“as the morning cloud and as early
dew
” and guarded against the perils of their enormous deliverance from foreign
oppression. Concentrate the truth of this on the smaller range of your own
private lives and personal development. For it is possible that penitence
if
only fleeting
and the great kindnesses of God may be made the occasions of
greater condemnation. And this grace of knowing the Lord and the revelations of
Himself to His earnest souls are not spasmodic
interjectional
and unreliable;
for “His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall came unto us as
the rain
as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” Consolidate your
penitence into piety
your thankfulness for deliverance into earnest devotion
and regular good doing. Go
round your nature
and set everything and every
power to the acquirement of “holiness
without which no man shall see the
Lord.” (G. B. Ryley.)
Samuel the Judge
Samuel is a splendid model of sanctified authority. Even as Mount
Gideon towers in rugged
regal grandeur above that broad tableland on which the
fortunes of the Jewish monarchy were afterwards unrolled
so his strong pure
character towers in magnificent sublimity above the fickle
selfish age in
which he lived. He was the highest type of a ruler. There are two kinds of
authority
that which is sustained by force of arms
and that which is held by
force of character. Samuel had the latter; the former is hard to get and hard
to keep. It is the possession of tyrants. We have had in these later days a
striking illustration of these two kinds of power in the Czar of Russia and the
late ex-Emperor of Brazil. A certain writer in commenting on the life of the
former says: “No one in the world is so grand a monarch
and yet no one in the
world today is more wretched. He knows that the spirit of Nihilism is abroad
throughout his vast domains
he fears to see in every face the look of an
assassin. Turn now to the other picture
Dom Pedro
for many years the loved
and trusted emperor of the Brazilian people
the friend of the oppressed
the
emancipator of the slave
the patron of the arts and sciences
who was willing
when his people had become
through his own generous influence and training
ripe for a republican form of government
to abdicate his throne and to go
uncomplainingly into exile. His was an authority resulting from character. He
held a throne within a throne which could not be touched or overthrown by the
vicissitudes of a progressing civilisation. The influence of the last of the
Brazilian emperors
like the influence of the last of Israel’s judges
will be
felt throughout successive
generations. The authoritative power of a strong
continuous character is a fact familiar to us all. Samuel ruled by virtue of
what he was in himself
and he was what he was because of his early training
and continuous growth in character. I would like to say a few words about this
continuity of righteousness. As a rule the men and women who have the strongest
influence in the world today are those whose moral characters have been built
up from their youth time. I do not wish to say anything that shall discourage
those who have emerged from the wild excessses of youth into a manhood
comparatively strong and influential. I think of men like Augustine
and John
Bunyan
and John Newton
and John Gough
who
having emerged from the fiery
furnace of dissipation
went about among their fellow men and
despite the
awful scars upon their characters and the smell of fire upon their garments
wielded a mighty influence for good and exercised a moral authority in the
world which might have been impossible had they
like Timothy and St. Anthony
and Edward the Sixth of England
led lives of unbroken righteousness. And yet
these men may be regarded as exceptions to the general law of influence. The
wild oats theory is all wrong
the assertion that you must be a profligate and
a prodigal before you can be a prince among men is devil’s gospel. I have no
doubt that the devil over-reaches himself and cheats himself
but in any
transaction between you and him he is longer-headed than you are. If you give
him a mortgage on your life in the early days
he will be pretty sure to get
out of you double the face of your note before he gets through with you. Many a
reformed man
many a converted man
is obliged to lament today
as Job did
because “the iniquities of his youth” possess him. The sin is forgiven
but the
disabled body
the weakened will
the impaired influence
the thought of those
who have been led astray by his example
must abide with him. Chaucer
“the
bright herald of English song
” a man of surpassing abilities
failed to be the
power that he might have been because of his early sins. He cried out
repeatedly On his deathbed: “Woe is me that I cannot recall and annul these
things; but
alas! they are continued from man to man and I cannot do what I
desire.” I had a letter from one of these unfortunates only a few days ago. He
has for many years been yielding to temptation. Again and again he has striven
to break away from the thraldom of his past life
but as yet in vain. He says:
“I have been on a disastrous downhill slide for the past few weeks; nothing
wrong other than dissipation
which ought to be a criminal offence
particularly for me. Sinning and trying to repent seems to be my lot. Why
cannot I be saved?” The difference between a character that has grown up into a
matured strength from early goodness and purity and that which results from
some sudden and violent conversion after years of weakening excesses is like
the difference between the stalactite and the icicle: they look much alike
they are formed by the same forces of nature; but the one is many years
forming
and the other grows in a night-time. Keep the icicle under right
conditions of temperature and it remains
like the stalactite
solid and
beautiful; but change those conditions
put the two together under the burning
heat of the sun
and the creation of a night time will molt away
while the
deposit of many years will be strong and solid still. The prince among men who
is the greatest moral power in the world today
the man who can do the most in
moderating and guiding the passions of his fellow men
who is best able to help
the weak and encourage the faint
and who impresses his character upon the age
in which he lives
is the man who
like Samuel
can look back through middle
age and youth and childhood upon a life which has been clean and true. (C.
A. Dickinson.)
Samuel the Ruler
Other books--the works of great men and possessed of great
merit--have been written for the use of princes in training for a throne; but
in preference to all such
were we a prince’s tutor
we should select the
Bible; and for a pattern for rulers him whose name stands at the head of this
chapter. America boasts her Washington; England her Hampden; Scotland her
Wallace; Greece and Rome their patriots or patriot-kings; but among the few
illustrious men whose deeds shine in the annals and whose names are embalmed in
the heart of nations
where
in all history
sacred or profane
is there one so
eminently fitted to rule as Samuel--who presents such a remarkable combination
of mental power
the purest patriotism
and the highest piety?
1. He was a patriotic ruler.
2. His object was not his own personal aggrandisement. “L’etat
c’est moi” (“The State
it is I”)
said Louis XIV to one who
happened to speak in his presence of the interests of the State. A striking
picture that of one who
though called “the great
” was an incarnation of the
worst passions of human nature--of selfishness
pride
heartless cruelty
insatiable ambition
and abominable lust!--a truer picture
though drawn by his
own hand
than any left by Bossuet
or Massillon
or the other flatterers of a
bloody tyrant and ruthless persecutor of God’s heritage. We meet with no such
scenes under the rule of Samuel. Unlike those that had preceded
or were to
follow
the sword slept in its scabbard all the days of Samuel--that great
battle excepted which inaugurated his reign
and was won by his prayers. Under
his government--Samuel himself the highest example of it--piety flourished; the
stream of justice ran pure; the rights of all classes were respected; private
property was safe; and the public burdens
pressing lightly
were easily borne
by a prosperous people. I can fancy
when old men described the happy and quiet
life they led in the good days of Samuel
how many felt that when their fathers
clamoured for a king
on that occasion
as old Bishop Latimer said of another
the vox populi was rather the vox diaboli than the vox Dei--the
voice of the devil than the voice of God.
2. Samuel was a pious
as well as patriotic
ruler. It would appear
that in the rudest times of old an altar always rose near the throne; and that
an indispensable part of every palace was the chapel
where he to whom others
knelt
knelt to God; and learned to remember that there was One above him whose
throne overshadowed his; at whose mercy seat kings had to seek for mercy; whose
laws were to form the rule
and his glory the chief end of their government.
Simply the vicegerent of God
and no king
Samuel had no place in Israel; the
palace
if such it could be called
was the tabernacle
where God dwelt within
the curtains of the holy place
No armed guards protected the person
nor
gorgeous retinue attended the steps of Samuel. No pomp of royalty disturbed the
simple manner of his life
or distinguished him from other men; yet there rose
by his house in Ramah that which proclaimed to all the land the personal
character of its ruler
and the principles on which he was to conduct his
government In a way not to be mistaken
Samuel associated the throne with the
altar; earthly power with piety; the good of the country with the glory of God.
“He judged Israel
” it is said
“all the days of his life
and went from year
to year in circuit to Bethel
and Gilgah
and Mizpeh
and judged Israel in all
these places; and his return was to Ramah
for there was his house
and there
he judged Israel
and there
” it is added
“he built an altar unto the Lord.”
That altar had a voice no man could mistake. In a manner more expressive than
proclamation made by the voice of royal heralds with painted tabards and
sounding trumpets
it proclaimed to the tribes of Israel that piety was to be
the character
and the will of God the rule
of his government. What an example
Samuel presents to our magistrates
our judges
our members of parliament--to
all entrusted with authority
and how should all who love their God and country
pray that every post of honour and of public trust may be filled with a man of
the type of Samuel! Religion is the root of honour; piety the only true
foundation of patriotism; and the best defence of a country
a people nursed up
in godliness--of such virtue
energy
and high morale
that
animated with a
courage which raises them above the fear of death
they may be exterminated
but cannot be subdued. It
is not
as some allege
our blood
with its happy
mixture of Celtic
Saxon
and Scandinavian elements
but the religion of our
island--our Bibles
our schools
our Sabbaths
our churches
and our Christian
homes--which
more than any and than all things else
has formed the character
of its inhabitants; and to that more than to the genius of its statesmen
or to
its fleets and armies
Britain owes her unexampled prosperity
and the peace
that has brooded for a hundred years unbroken on her sea-girt shores. (T. Guthrie
D. D.)
The judge in circuit; or
religion in business
In every State much depends on the proper administration of
justice
and it is of the first consequence to sustain it incorrupt. It is with
the body politic as with the individual. Regard must be had to those secondary
laws which influence health and contribute to our fitness for discharging
ordinary duties. If we pay no respect to the laws of diet
exercise
and
ventilation
by which health is conserved
we become unable to perform our
business
the internal economy is deranged
and all the members of the body
suffer. In society there are principles that regulate order and prosperity
which cannot with impunity be set aside. If the administration of justice be
neglected or perverted
liberty and religion must seriously suffer. But when
religion is revived
it is of vast moment to bring all civil affairs under its
purifying influence. Without this
religious ceremonies would serve as cloaks
for sin
and liberty excuse licentiousness. It was
therefore
the great
business of Samuel
when by God’s blessing he had godliness recovered and
national order re-established
to free the judgment seat from corruption
and
to make it a respect and a dread through all the land. The civil government of
Israel was peculiar. It had its origin from God
and was as much a Divine
institution as the Church itself. Jehovah was their lawgiver and king
both in
Church and State. Church and State being co-extensive in Israel
the Levites
acquired a large share in the administration of justice. In the days of David
we read that six thousand of the Levites were officers and judges (1 Chronicles 23:4)
in addition to
the number employed in the tabernacle service. Members of the State were
subject to the law of the Church
and the members of the Church were citizens.
Religious error was criminal in civil law. Idolatry was treason
for God was
their king. Offences against society were subject to ecclesiastical censure
and cut off the guilty from the congregation of the Lord. The two forms of
government were mutually helpful and interdependent. The revival of piety
purified the State
and spiritual officers led rulers to reform. Samuel was a
Levite
and was devoted to the sanctuary by the circumstances of his birth. But
he also discharged high civil offices on account of the position into which he
was providentially raised. He officiated as a priest
and he ruled as a judge.
Samuel was an upright and godly judge. There is a danger of separating the
official from the personal character
and whenever this is done the individual
is seriously injured. There have been good men who have been bad judges
and
bad men who have made respectable judges. There is another danger to which a
judge is exposed
when he is tempted to indulge personal feelings while seated
where impartial judgment should be given. It is recorded of Aristides
one of
the brightest names in ancient Greece
and a man to whom his contemporaries
awarded the title of “the Just
” that when he was a judge between two private
persons
“one of them declared that his adversary had greatly injured
Aristides.” He thus hoped to awaken the personal feelings of the judge against
his opponent and secure a verdict favourable to himself. But the just judge
replied
“Relate rather what wrong he hath done to thee
for it is thy cause
not mine
that I now sit judge of.” Private feelings may
however
sometimes be
tried severely. When Brutus had to occupy the seat of justice and his two sons
were placed at the bar charged with treason against the State
it was trying
for the patriot to set aside the parent
and for duty to act against affection.
But the majesty of law prevailed over the emotions of kindred
and the spectators
are said to have gazed more at the judge than on the culprits on that august
occasion
and to have regarded the scene as a most illustrious exhibition of
moral heroism. Party feeling is another danger to which judges are exposed.
When Richard Baxter had to bear the coarse ribaldry and unjust judgment of
Jeffreys
it was evident that party feeling ruled the decision of that wicked
man. A judge should be upright
and Samuel brought to the judicial seat a
character fitted for the high office he had to discharge. The altar was beside
his bench and his home. The profession of his faith was beside his robe of
office. The believer was in the judge. He connected the official with the
personal so intimately that he could not be a godly man without also being at the
same time an upright judge. Nor has he stood alone in the lives of judges. Sir
Matthew Hale was a man after Samuel’s pattern. Under the power of godliness and
familiar with the word of God
he sought to evidence the principles of religion
in the practice of his profession. When he was an advocate
he would not plead
a cause
if he were convinced of its injustice; and when he rose to the bench
and was Chief Baron of the Exchequer he was noted for the impartiality of his
decisions. A peer of the realm who had a case in court once called upon him to
give him private information
that he might have fuller understanding of it
when it was brought up for judgment. Sir Matthew is reported to have said that
“he did not deal fairly to come to his chamber about such affairs
for he never
received any information of causes but in open court
where both parties were
to be heard alike.” The duke complained to the king; but his majesty observed
that “he believed he would have used himself no better
if he had gone to solicit
him in any of his causes.” Sir Matthew feared God and regarded man
but his
integrity of righteous action was not to be sacrificed. Samuel did not forget
whose law it was which he dispensed
whose worship he observed
whose altar was
at his house. After the fatigue of official duty
the exercise of devotion at
the family altar was sweet refreshment. Before entering upon the anxieties of
judgment or the vexation of litigation
domestic worship was his best
preparation. Amidst the difficulties of the conflicting cases before him he
would remember the altar
and seek wisdom requisite for the occasion from the
Lord most high. Secular engagements did not pervert his godliness
or lead him
to neglect family worship. He could come from the strife of tongues to the
peace-speaking blood
and approach with humble faith the altar of his God. That
is not a complete house which is without an altar. It may have a hearth to
warm
and accommodation to suit the body
but it has not that which likens it
as it links it to heaven. You may have a respectable business
and conduct it
well
and yet want what blesses it--a domestic altar. A house without an altar
lacks its brightest ornament
its clearest light
its best principle
and its
sure consecration. But where the altar is in the house it has a safety lamp.
Numerous have been the testimonies to the value of the domestic altar. (B.
Steel.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》