1 Samuel 7 verses 2 to 17 Samuel’s Solid Leadership

 

Introduction

 

What makes a good leader?

 

What makes a godly leader?

 

I’m sure we could all think of good answers to these questions. But we could also answer these questions by looking at our passage today.

In Samuel we see many of the attributes of a godly leader. And today’s passage is a perfect example of Samuel’s solid leadership.

Here we see Samuel calls the people to be totally devoted to God. He leads the People in worship. And He encourages the People to remember God’s help so they might live faithfully.

So, our passage today could be understood like this:

Call to Total Devotion

Powerful Intercession

Wise Commemoration

And in Samuel’s solid leadership we have a pointer to Christ and a picture of the Gospel. In Samuel God provides the leader His People need. In Christ God has provided the ultimate leader of His People.

Let’s see that now as we turn to verses 2 to 4 and hear Samuel’s…

Call to Total Devotion

In verse 2 we learn that it has been twenty years since the Ark had been lost to the Philistines. Way back in Chapter 4 at a place called Ebenezer (remember that name for later) the Philistines had defeated the Israelites in battle and captured the Ark.

They had taken great pleasure in placing the Ark in the temple of their pretend god ‘Dagon’. They thought this showed everyone who was in charge. Soon they would realise the error of their ways.

For seven long months they endured the heavy hand of God in the form of a deadly plague across the land. When they had enough, they sent the Ark back to Beth-shemesh. And for twenty years they continue to hurt and harass God’ People.

But then Samuel- who has been strangely absent since Chapter 4- reappears and the story takes another turn. God is at work once more.

We might rightly assume that Samuel has been praying for God’s People and urging them to return to God in these twenty years. If so, then the last words of verse two provide the answer to faithful Samuel’s godly prayers: ‘…all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the LORD…’.

Twenty years of oppression finally made Israel feel deep sadness over God’s absence in their lives. In response, Samuel displayed Godly leadership by calling the People to total devotion to God; in verse 3 we read:

And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

Samuel didn’t want the Israelites to just feel sorry for a moment. Instead, Samuel wanted to lead God’s People in true repentance and restore them to a proper relationship with their God.

Samuel says that if the people are truly sorry, then they must get rid of their pretend gods and follow the LORD only. They must say they are sorry for their sin, but they must also show they are sorry.

This is true repentance. It is not just words. It is actions. If you are truly repentant, then you will do all that you can to avoid sin.

We may often seen people express sorrow for sin. But then they refuse to do what they need to do to avoid it. The reality is that they are sorry about the effects of sin, but still want to hold onto the sin itself. They are sorry for the pain it has caused them, not the pain it has caused God.

We must run from sin. Do whatever we can to flee from it. If we are not strong enough to fight it, then we must flee from it as fast as we can.

True repentance leads to action. But worship is important too. True repentance is a movement away from sin and back to God. In repentance we turn to God and see the glory of God as the true and living God who offers us complete forgiveness and full life in Christ.

 

It is the grace of God, in Christ, that calls us to total devotion to God and His Way. When we see all that God has done for us at the Cross we are set free to turn from sin. When we see the beauty of God’s love for us in Christ, we can more clearly see the ugliness of our sin and turn from it.

Samuel called the people to true devotion to the true and living God. Christ, likewise, calls us to leave behind our sin and follow Him completely. And when we turn from sin we are set free to enjoy forgiveness and fullness of life.

This is the Good News of the Gospel we, like Samuel, are called to declare. And this is the Good News that empowers us to live for God, totally devoted to Him and His perfect Way.

Samuel called God’s People to total devotion, then he led them in…

Powerful Intercession

In verses 5 and 6 Samuel displays his godly leadership of God’s People once again. This time he calls the people together to seek God’s blessing by confessing their sin and then prays on their behalf. This is intercession: God’s leader representing God to His People, and His People to their God.

Once the people had gathered, in verse 6, they responded in a couple of actions designed to show just how sorry they really were. The pouring out of the water probably symbolised pouring out their hearts in repentance and humility before their God. Likewise, fasting displayed that they were truly sorry for their sin and were sincerely seeking God to bless them.

We can understand why the Israelites would act this way- after twenty hard years they longed for God and His blessing. But why would God accept their confession and forgive them?

At Mizaph, the answer is clear: Samuel ‘interceded’ for God’s People before the Lord. Serving in his role as leader of God’s People, Samuel was to represent the people to God and God to the People.

There is a wonderful contrast between what happened here and what had happened before at Shiloh with Eli and his wicked sons. Now there was a godly leader who would lead the people and pray for them. And Samuel brought reconciliation with God in verse 9:

Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it up as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him.

By making the sacrifice for the People Samuel was bringing peace with God. The sacrifice would bring forgiveness of sins, and the Israelites would once again enjoy the blessing of being God’s dearly loved People.

Samuel offered a sacrifice to atone for the People’s sins. This is the only way that sinners can be forgiven by God and restored to His favour.

When we read God’s Word we see that every sin deserves the death penalty. But God in His mercy has provided a substitute to pay the penalty for sin. As we read the whole story of the Bible we see that the substitute is ultimately God’s Son who came into the world to save His People from their sins.

This is the Good News we declare to the world: there is forgiveness through the sacrifice Jesus made for our sins. There is no other way that will bring sinners into God’s Family. There is no other Gospel that will bring true peace.

The message of Samuel’s sacrifice, and the message of the entire Bible, is this: no sinner may come before God’s holiness without the blood of a proper sacrifice, but also any sinner may come through the precious blood of Jesus. Or, to put it another way, our God is a God of awesome glory and amazing grace.

In Samuel’s lamb we are pointed to Christ, our perfect sacrifice. But in Samuel himself we are also pointed to Christ. In verse 9 Samuel ‘…cried out to the LORD…’ so that the people would be accepted by God. Like Israel, we are reconciled to God through the ministry of One sent by God. In Jesus, both God and man, we have one who makes us acceptable to God and who prays for us before God’s throne.

Surely this must be the greatest encouragement to all who would seek to follow Christ and live for God. In Jesus our sins are forgiven. In Jesus we have the Perfect One who stands in our place and who pleads our case before the Throne of God. We live the Christian life in the assurance of this wonderful truth: if you are a Believer then you are the subject of Jesus’ heavenly prayers.

And Christian faith is always lived out in a dangerous and hostile world. Notice that when the Philistines heard about the gathering at Mizaph they responded with aggression in verse 7.

 

It must have seemed like a replay of the earlier disaster. At the first battle of Ebenezer, the Philistines had appeared in their might. On that occasion, Israel’s leaders had arrogantly sought to employ God’s power through the Ark.

But this time they appealed to Samuel in verse 8: ‘Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.’. Here we see the difference between true and false religion. Instead of trying to manipulate God’s power for their purposes, God’s People humble themselves and seek His mighty grace.

In verse 10 God shoes His power to save. Inspired by God’s intervention the Israelites take the battle to their enemy in verse 11.

This is the difference of true faith over false religion. This is what it means to trust in the true and living God of awesome power and amazing grace: we confess our sins, appeal to God’s amazing grace, and trust in His power to help us as we live for God in this fallen world.

Samuel called God’s People to total devotion, then he led them in powerful intercession, finally, he established a…

Wise Commemoration

At Mizpah God won a great victory for His People. In response Samuel once again displayed godly leadership; in verse 12 we read:

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the Lord helped us.”

 

Samuel wisely wanted to commemorate the victory God had won for His People. Samuel wanted God’s People to remember what God had done for them- he knew how easy it is for God’s People to forget God’s salvation.

What is interesting is the name he gives to the memorial. He calls it ‘Ebenezer’ which means ‘help stone’. It was a monument designed to remind the People of God’s help.

But remember how Ebenezer was the location of Israel’s defeat twenty years earlier. At that time the name appeared ironic- God has refused to help because of Israel’s unbelief. Now, acting in faith, Israel had experienced God’s help. And Samuel wanted the People to realise that what had been lost through sin at the first Ebenezer, now, through repentance, was restored at the second.

But Samuel didn’t just want the People to remember what God had done. Notice how in verse 12 he says: ‘Thus far the LORD has helped us.’. This victory is just the latest in a long line of God’s mighty acts for His People. The Ebenezer, then, was designed to inspire thanksgiving to God for the victory He had won for His People and help them not to turn to pretend gods again.

Samuel wanted the People to remember what God has done ‘thus far’, so that in the future they will turn to Him and live faithfully for Him. So, Samuel’s ‘Ebenezer’ functions as a promise of God’s future deliverance, if Israel repent of their idolatry and put their faith in God.

The hymn Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing (which we will sing in a moment) contains the lines:

Here I raise my Ebenezer; Here by thy great help I’ve come; And I hope, by thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home.

We do not often sing this hymn because most people do not know the origin of the meaning of ‘Ebenezer’. But this is where it comes from.

For Christians our Ebenezer is the Cross. At the Cross, we see the seriousness of sin, the weight of glory, and God’s amazing grace. We look to the Cross and say ‘Thus far the LORD has helped us’. And if he has helped us by giving His own Son, then surely he will bring us safely home to glory; as it says in Romans 8:

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?

When you feel overwhelmed by your problems, or when you feel God has abandoned you, or when you feel threatened by the circumstances of your life, look to the Cross. The Cross is our Ebenezer, the great declaration of God’s help.

In verses 16 to 17 we see Samuel remained judge over Israel. As he toured the land He kept the People united and prepared the way for the King to come. And as he stopped and spoke we can be sure that he continued to call the People to serve God- the true and living God of awesome power and amazing grace- remembering what God had done for His People when they turned to Him in repentance and faith.

May we never forget God’s grace to us in Christ. May we never forget what God has done for us- how He has helped us ‘thus far’. And may we live our lives relying on God’s grace and power to see us through until He calls or comes.

Conclusion

In our passage we see the kind of leader that Israel actually needed. Their need was not for a great military hero or a brilliant political mind. Israel’s great need was a leader who would bring them back to God. They needed a leader who would lead them in righteousness- God’s Right Way to live. They needed a Samuel. And God gave them Samuel!

In these verses we are pointed to the leader we need. The Lord Jesus Christ is the leader God has sent for us.

In Christ we have the Perfect One who calls His People to be totally devoted to God; who leads His People in worship and prays on their behalf; and who points His People to God’s faithfulness and encourage them to live faithfully.

In Christ we have the One who gave Himself to bring us complete forgiveness and fullness of life. In Christ we live for God as we remember His grace to us- Our Lord, Our Saviour, Our Help.