WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:23.695 There's nowhere in scripture you're called to fully understand God. You're called to fully trust God. And in fact, you cannot fully trust God if you do fully understand him. If you understand him completely, there's no area left for trust in him. It's those parts of God that we cannot understand that are the exact places in which we are challenged to put our trust in him. 00:00:23.935 --> 00:00:36.530 The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ. 00:00:39.570 --> 00:00:42.475 Well, good morning, everyone. If you wanna get 00:00:42.475 --> 00:00:43.675 a head start, can begin to 00:00:43.675 --> 00:00:50.395 turn in your Bibles to first Samuel chapter two verse 26. We're gonna go all the way 00:00:50.395 --> 00:00:51.755 to the end of chapter 00:00:51.755 --> 00:00:59.450 three. I'm excited to continue to take you with me through the story of Samuel this morning. 00:01:00.730 --> 00:01:23.500 We're gonna see some interesting things. We're gonna hear about quite a bit this morning. We're gonna hear about God's judgment. We're going to continue to see this theme of rising and falling established in Hannah's song in chapter two with regard to Samuel and Eli here. We're gonna hear an important prophecy about a faithful high priest who God is going to raise up. 00:01:23.900 --> 00:01:33.820 And then we're gonna see Samuel's first act as a prophet of God. That's pretty special. So good amount of things to cover in this story. I'm excited 00:01:33.820 --> 00:01:35.900 to get to it. Let me pray for 00:01:35.900 --> 00:02:05.100 us and then we'll get in. Lord, you are so merciful to speak to us. You're so merciful to communicate with us, to write it down so we can go over and over it again and again and again. Thank you that we all have copies of scripture, that we study this, we can look at the words, we can look at the connections, that's such a grace, and I pray your spirit will be leading us through it as we read it, and of 00:02:05.100 --> 00:02:09.735 course today as it's preached. Pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. 00:02:10.535 --> 00:02:47.095 So a little reminder where we are in the overall story of Samuel. It starts with, of course, Hannah, a woman who is unable to have children, but she prays to God saying, God, if you will give me a child, I will dedicate him to you in service at Shiloh, the temple. And God grants her Samuel, and once Samuel is weaned, she sends him to Shiloh to serve under the high priest Eli. Samuel's there serving under Eli, the high priest. Eli has two sons as well, Hofne and Phineas, and they are not serving the Lord reverently. 00:02:47.895 --> 00:03:15.145 In fact, they are blaspheming the Lord. They're having illicit relationships with the women there. They're also eating the fat of the sacrifice. If we talked about last time, that's a huge problem because that specific part of the sacrifice is dedicated to God alone, and Eli's sons were demanding it for themselves. Now all the while, Eli is aware of their sin, and he hasn't forcefully gone up against it. 00:03:15.145 --> 00:03:26.170 He's spoken to them. He's given them a scolding, but he hasn't stopped them. He said to them, If you sin against the Lord, there's no one to intercede for you. You're not gonna be 00:03:26.170 --> 00:03:30.570 able to escape judgment, and that's good, but that's all he did was just give them 00:03:30.570 --> 00:04:13.245 a bit of a word of warning. Meanwhile, we have the bad guys here, again, Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli. We have Samuel, our protagonist, and he is growing in favor with both God and with man. And so what we saw was this rot in the house of Eli, and the kind of toppling of this house. We know it's going to fall, and then we've got the raising up of Samuel here, and remember that those are the themes that were established in Hannah's song in chapter two, and she said, It's the Lord who raises up and brings down, and all of this we know God is leading towards eventual raising up of his anointed one who's going to 00:04:13.245 --> 00:04:40.305 be the king of Israel, so that's where we're headed. Let's pick up the story then with Eli receiving some ill fated news from an unnamed man of God. 27, And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, Thus says the Lord, did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh? 00:04:40.865 --> 00:05:28.595 Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel. Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel? Therefore, the Lord, the God of Israel declares, I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever. But now the Lord declares, Far be it from me, for those who honor me, I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. 00:05:28.755 --> 00:06:14.860 Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father's house so that there will not be an old man in your house. Then in distress, you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever. The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men. And this, that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you. Both of them shall die on the same day. 00:06:15.820 --> 00:06:40.000 What a heavy word of the Lord coming through this man of God to Eli. Now the first thing I wanna point out to you is that God is not breaking a promise here. God is not lying here. At first glance when you read through us, it seems like God promised this, but then this was messed up and now he's taking back that promise. That would be a scary thing if God did that. 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:42.320 And we're wondering as we read through this, at 00:06:42.320 --> 00:06:48.505 least I was, you think, did God lie? Is it okay to lie? Well, the answer is no. 00:06:48.985 --> 00:06:58.905 Not at all. Lying is wrong in the first place because it's something that God never does. It's against his character. That's what makes something right or wrong. God is not a liar. 00:06:58.905 --> 00:07:09.080 He does not lie. But then what do we make of this statement? Because it seems kind of clear that God promised this, and now he's going back on it. That doesn't seem right when you look 00:07:09.080 --> 00:07:17.905 at it there, and this is time where it's good to keep in mind a scriptural principle for interpretation. 00:07:17.905 --> 00:07:20.945 I think it's helpful for us, and that's this. I mentioned it before, 00:07:20.945 --> 00:07:24.705 but I'll mention it again here. When the Bible appears 00:07:25.080 --> 00:07:45.915 to present God as doing something wrong, or when the Bible appears to affirm something that's wrong, we kinda have two options there. First, it may be that we're reading the text correctly, but our heart is in the wrong place. So I read something like pray for those who persecute you. I think I'm not gonna do that. That's unjust. 00:07:45.915 --> 00:07:51.995 That's impractical. That seems wrong to me. I'm not gonna pray and do good to those who 00:07:51.995 --> 00:08:00.690 are persecuting me. All right, well, I'm understanding the text correctly. God really is asking me to pray for my enemies, but 00:08:00.690 --> 00:08:07.650 my heart is not in the right place. I'm not willing to accept that word from the Lord. So in this instance here then, heart change would 00:08:07.650 --> 00:08:08.130 be necessary. 00:08:08.645 --> 00:08:33.050 Right understanding, wrong heart. A second option though, is that when we're reading something in scripture that we think is wrong, it may be that our heart is in the right place, but we're reading the text incorrectly. So say you're going through the Bible for the first time and you see where God says to Abraham, sacrifice your son Isaac to me, and you shut it and say, nope, that's not good, I'm done with the Bible. If God wants that, he's evil, and 00:08:33.050 --> 00:08:36.075 the Bible's evil for promoting that. Okay, well 00:08:36.075 --> 00:08:48.235 in this case, your heart's actually in the right place. You should be appalled at human sacrifice. God is appalled at human sacrifice. Heart's in the right place, but you're misunderstanding the text. God is testing Abraham's faith. 00:08:48.235 --> 00:08:52.800 God never intends or would ever allow harm to come to Isaac in that way. 00:08:53.360 --> 00:09:00.160 So in this second case then, our heart's all right, but we need a better understanding of the text. 00:09:00.800 --> 00:09:25.480 So again, sometimes we recoil from a passage because our hearts just need to change. We've understood it just fine, or sometimes we recoil from a passage when our heart is in the right place and we've misunderstood the passage. So which one is it here? We recoil everything, oh, it looks like God lied. But what's needed here is a bit of a deeper understanding of the passage, what really is going on here. 00:09:25.720 --> 00:09:29.080 So the promise that God quotes, your 00:09:29.080 --> 00:09:29.800 houses and the 00:09:29.800 --> 00:09:56.490 house of your father shall go in and out before me forever, That promise wasn't given to Eli. That promise was given to the very first priest of Israel, Aaron, Moses' brother. This is from Exodus 2seven 21 and Exodus 20 nine:nine. God says the house of Aaron will be his priests throughout all the generations of Israel. That's a promise that's being referenced, and 00:09:56.490 --> 00:10:02.105 simply what's happening is Eli is being taken out of that promise. So here's how 00:10:02.105 --> 00:10:19.300 it works specifically. Aaron had four children, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar. Now Nadab and Abihu offered impure sacrifices before the Lord. God literally incinerated them, so we can just kind of put them to the side for now, they're not in 00:10:19.300 --> 00:10:42.300 the picture anymore. That leaves us with Eleazar and Ithamar. The lines of both these priests served the Lord as priests in Israel. Ithamar's line leads down to Eli. That is a section that God is peeling away from this promise, but that still leaves Eleazar's line to serve as priests before the Lord. 00:10:42.380 --> 00:11:02.055 They continue to do so throughout the end of the Old Testament. So God is not going back on his promise. There still remains a house of Aaron, namely Eleazar, who continues as his priests. It's simply he's removing Eli's portion from that promise. Again, God's promise to Aaron is kept. 00:11:02.055 --> 00:11:04.615 Eli is removed from that. It's important for us 00:11:04.615 --> 00:11:12.350 to know that, and I emphasize that because all that we believe are promises of God. I'll never leave you nor forsake you, and 00:11:12.350 --> 00:11:31.685 that nothing can separate us from the love of God. And if we read things that kind of chip away at our confidence's promises, that could be hurtful for our faith. So rest assured here that God is continuing his promise he made to Aaron. However, Eli is being removed from that. The other thing to mention here before we 00:11:31.685 --> 00:11:35.920 move on to 35 is that this is a good time for us 00:11:35.920 --> 00:12:06.660 to just kinda soak in and think a bit about God's judgment, because most of us are uncomfortable with this sort of judgment or uncomfortable with God's judgment, especially if we tend to spend most of our time in the New Testament. Because the New Testament we read about Jesus, we dwell on Jesus, and what's Jesus do? Well, he's the one who absorbs judgment for his enemies. That is of course until Revelation 19 when he comes back on horse as the leader of 00:12:06.660 --> 00:12:14.995 a heavenly army to inflict judgment on his enemies. Nevertheless, we tend to kind of get this bad taste in our 00:12:14.995 --> 00:12:19.875 mouth when it comes to God's judgment, and what we need to understand is this. We just need 00:12:19.875 --> 00:12:43.365 to accept this, that God is a righteous judge, that God is allowed to take life. He is. There's nothing wrong with him taking the life of Eli's sons. There's nothing wrong with him taking the lives of those in Eli's house whom are judged. Now statements again like that, you say it and make us uncomfortable. 00:12:43.525 --> 00:13:06.050 Why is that? It's because we don't understand that while God is like us in many, many ways, God is also completely unlike us in other ways. We cannot picture someone doing a judgment like this and it being righteous. We can't picture 00:13:06.050 --> 00:13:19.985 that, and rightly so, because we as humans could not carry out a judgment like this justly. We would kill the innocent. We would kill from malice. We'd kill from vengeance or anger. Wouldn't really truly know what is deserved. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:24.960 Even if we did, we don't have the authority over life and death to do judgments like that. That's a 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:26.720 way in which God is different. 00:13:29.040 --> 00:13:35.040 God does have the authority to do that. Again, remember Hannah's prayer. I'm gonna quote from Hannah's prayer. 00:13:35.265 --> 00:13:58.690 The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and raises up. Humans have neither the authority nor the ability to make life. God gives life when he sees fit, and humans are not ultimately in charge of taking life. God takes life away when he sees fit. 00:13:58.850 --> 00:14:05.505 He ordains the day of every person's conception. He ordains the day of every person's death. Of course, Jesus adds to 00:14:05.505 --> 00:14:08.305 that in Matthew. He says, Not even a sparrow falls to 00:14:08.305 --> 00:14:29.910 the ground apart from our heavenly Father. God has complete authority to determine when and how a life is taken, and yes, all lives are taken at some point. None of us live forever in this mode. So we might be tempted to question God judging Eli's house in this way, but none of 00:14:29.910 --> 00:14:43.215 us would have a problem if they all died old and in their sleep. Why is that? It's because we're a bit inconsistent. We're limited in our judgment and our knowledge. We're extremely biased towards time. 00:14:43.375 --> 00:14:55.620 We're time centric. We have this very human viewpoint, unlike God who sees all the way into eternity, who understands all things perfectly from the end to the beginning. We can't even get into 00:14:55.620 --> 00:15:05.145 the mindset of God in that instance because we're so limited. Unlike us, God has the perfect ability to judge justly and he has 00:15:05.145 --> 00:15:10.825 the perfect authority to judge justly. And when we don't understand that, 00:15:10.825 --> 00:15:36.325 when that kind of chafes against our hearts, It's a really good time to remind ourselves of who we are and of who God is. He is good, we are sinful. He fully understands, you understand a very, very small sliver. He has rightful authority over every molecule in the universe, we don't. He is capable of judging justly, 00:15:37.045 --> 00:16:09.525 we are not. God is like us in many good ways, He's also unlike us in many good ways. Remember Isaiah 50 five:eight-nine, For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, declares the Lord. As high as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than yours, and my thoughts than yours. So again, perhaps for some of us, certainly for me, God's judgment is a part of him we actually really can't understand fully. 00:16:10.310 --> 00:16:32.765 That's okay. There's nowhere in scripture you're called to fully understand God. You're called to fully trust God, and in fact you cannot fully trust God if you do fully understand him. If you understand him completely then there's no area left for trust in him. It's those parts of God that we cannot understand that are the exact places 00:16:32.845 --> 00:16:33.405 in which we 00:16:33.405 --> 00:16:44.480 are challenged to put our trust in him, and that's what we need to do, and maybe his judgment is one of those areas where we need to exercise that faith and that trust in God that he is good, and he is righteous, and he has authority for that. 00:16:45.920 --> 00:16:52.725 Let's continue on 25 through 36 and see what else this man of God has to say to Eli. 00:16:54.565 --> 00:16:56.565 And I will raise up for myself, 00:16:56.805 --> 00:17:00.085 remember this is God speaking through the 00:17:00.085 --> 00:17:23.345 man of God, and I will raise up for myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever. And everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread and shall say, please put me in one of 00:17:23.345 --> 00:17:28.305 the priest's places that I may eat a morsel bread. God's going 00:17:28.305 --> 00:17:43.730 to raise himself up a faithful priest. Again, notice that rising language again established by Hannah. Now who is this? At first you might think, oh, this is Samuel. The narrative is framed Samuel's rise in accordance with Eli's fall. 00:17:43.730 --> 00:17:58.650 That makes sense. And we see Samuel throughout the book performing priestly roles. He wears the linen ephod. He does sacrifices. He's in charge of feasts, so he seems like a pretty good fit at first, but then you kinda end 00:17:58.650 --> 00:18:21.875 up noticing that he's never referred to as a priest in scripture. He's called a prophet in 03/20. He's called a He does judging. He judges in chapter seven, but there's nowhere where Samuel is called a priest, so most scholars do not think this applies to Samuel. And you think, okay, well maybe it's David. 00:18:22.540 --> 00:18:32.700 After all Samuel's rise is only really significant because he's the one through whom God will raise up David, make David an anointed ruler. Furthermore, have 00:18:32.700 --> 00:18:48.195 some interesting things going on with the language here. God says he's gonna raise up someone, a priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart. Remember God calls David the man after his own heart. Connection there. Also it says, I will build him a sure house. 00:18:48.595 --> 00:18:54.810 Well that matches what God says of David in two Samuel seven eleven where God says, Moreover, the 00:18:54.810 --> 00:19:12.185 Lord declares to you, that's to David, that the Lord will make you a house. There's some strong correlations there then. That's pretty tightly connected. And, yeah, David's never portrayed as a priest in the narrative. He's clearly fulfilling a kingly role. 00:19:12.825 --> 00:19:25.130 So there's some crossover, maybe some kingly language that applies to this high priest, but it's not David. It's not Samuel. Many scholars think it's Zadok. I haven't introduced you to Zadok yet, 00:19:25.930 --> 00:19:30.410 but remember how I told you Aaron had two lines of his house that 00:19:30.410 --> 00:19:48.630 were left, Issamar led down to Eli, and that part of the priestly service was peeled off, but we still have Eleazar in his priestly line serving before the Lord. Well Eleazar, who has Phineas, which is a good one, the good Phineas, who my son is named after, and you follow that line all the way down, 00:19:48.630 --> 00:19:52.390 and that goes down to someone named Zadok. Run into him later in 00:19:52.390 --> 00:20:00.230 the narrative. Zadok does replace Eli's house, so we do see the priest Zadok kind of 00:20:00.230 --> 00:20:15.090 being raised up in lieu of Eli's house falling, so that kinda matches up. Furthermore, Zadok and his descendants do continue to serve as priests in Israel for the rest 00:20:15.090 --> 00:20:51.850 of the Old Testament, so they do continue to serve before the Lord's anointed following David's bloodline, so that matches, and also later on in the narrative much later, we'll see that Zadok Ramaeans remains faithful to David. Later on, David's going to be exiled from the kingdom, and Zadok is one of the few characters who really remains faithful to him while he is exiled. So we do have a faithful priest here who's raised up by the Lord. Contextually, Zadok seems to fit the situation, and so when we consider this prophecy kind of short term and immediately, Zadok seems to be the one this is talking about, and most scholars will settle on it being 00:20:51.850 --> 00:20:58.105 Zadok. However, really ultimately the identity of this faithful priest raised up by 00:20:58.105 --> 00:21:16.440 the Lord is largely left an open question at the end of Samuel, and I think that's because in the long run, ultimately, we know that it's kind of impossible for any human to do all the things that were written out here. Even Zadok, he can't live forever. He can't minister forever 00:21:16.840 --> 00:21:20.600 for the Lord. He'll die eventually. He can't do all that's 00:21:20.600 --> 00:21:44.630 in the Lord's house. Zadok is going to sin good as he is. Ultimately, who is the only one who can fulfill what we see here? Well, it's Jesus who is king according to scripture, who's prophet according to scripture, and who is faithful priest according to scripture. Jesus is the only priest who is totally and ultimately faithful to 00:21:44.630 --> 00:22:00.215 the heart of God doing all that the father wills. Hebrews three:one says, Therefore consider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession who was faithful to him who appointed him. 00:22:00.855 --> 00:22:44.240 Jesus is the only priest who can serve forever. Psalms one ten:four, You are a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, and Hebrews seven twenty three. Former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he's able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. Jesus is the faithful priest who God raised up, literally raising up from the dead, so that he can continue to make intercession for us before God the Father forever. 00:22:45.520 --> 00:23:14.740 Notice this faithful priest is the answer to Eli's question he asked earlier in 02/25. When Eli was scolding his children, he that he made this theologically weighty pronouncement. He said, If one sins against a man, God will mediate for him. But if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him? As people who are aware of the New Testament, we should read that and think, Oh, woah, that's a big statement. 00:23:14.740 --> 00:23:33.835 Who can intercede for someone who sins against God? Well, here's our answer. Here's Eli's answer. Here's our answer as well because we all sin against God. Any evil anyone commits is against God because God is good, and that which is evil automatically opposes God. 00:23:34.460 --> 00:23:43.580 Sin is against God. So we're all in the place of Eli's sons. We all sin against the Lord. Who's gonna intercede for us? An earthly priest? 00:23:43.980 --> 00:23:59.715 No. They're just as sinful as we are that they sacrifice for their own sins and then sacrifice for the sins of others. They cannot stand between us and God's judgment. Not to mention those sacrifices that an earthly priest gives, they're only temporary. They don't really cleanse from sin. 00:23:59.715 --> 00:24:41.235 Hebrews ten: two, But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin every year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. And every priest stands daily at his service offering repeatedly the same sacrifice for sin, but when Jesus Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. For by a single offering, he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. So who can intercede for someone who has sinned against the Lord? Jesus Christ, God himself can. 00:24:41.635 --> 00:25:11.525 Who will serve as the faithful high priest who stands between us and the judgment of God allowing us to come into his presence, to be in relationship with God the Father, having our hearts sprinkled completely clean of sin? Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one to whom the entire book of Samuel ultimately points to, Jesus, the faithful priest raised up by God, whom we have a hint of in this passage right here. What an amazing thing to see 00:25:11.525 --> 00:25:24.500 these foreshadowings of Christ in the Old Testament, even in a passage about judgment like this concerning Eli. So we read that, we think that's that's part of 00:25:24.500 --> 00:25:27.540 the gospel. It's part of the good news for us. 00:25:28.740 --> 00:25:35.405 But of course, in the context here, this is not good news for Eli. I want you 00:25:35.405 --> 00:25:44.365 to picture him in this moment sitting there under the weight of this prophecy, and kind of our scene kind of fades to black there. 00:25:44.845 --> 00:25:54.130 We move into chapter three. Scene also begins with black. It begins with darkness. We're in the temple. It's early, early morning. 00:25:54.130 --> 00:25:59.730 We've got Samuel and Eli sleeping there in the temple. That's what we read. 00:26:01.205 --> 00:26:15.620 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord in the presence of Eli, and the word of the Lord was rare in those days. There was no frequent vision. At that time, Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he 00:26:15.620 --> 00:26:40.375 could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was. So we begin this kind of dark, quiet setting, but this is more than just a physical darkness. There's a spiritual darkness over Israel here. Notice this. 00:26:40.455 --> 00:26:44.630 The word of the Lord was rare in those days. God was not speaking, 00:26:44.950 --> 00:27:13.450 and there was no frequent vision. God was not manifesting himself there. We've already seen the wickedness of the priesthood, but we get this correlation here between Eli's fading eyesight and God not manifesting himself in vision anymore. This seems to be kind of a poetic way of communicating that the priesthood, which is supposed to serve before the presence of the Lord, has lost sight of him, and so too has Israel. But then look at verse three. 00:27:13.450 --> 00:27:32.815 There is yet a little bit of light here. The lamp of the Lord had not yet gone out, and we see little Samuel there. Notice how the author is doing this. He guides our minds kind of through the darkness of eyes and darkness of ears, correlated with Eli, and then moves us with a little light here. We see Samuel show up 00:27:32.815 --> 00:27:51.505 with some light. We think, okay, where's the story taking us? Then the Lord called Samuel and he said, here I am, and ran to Eli and said, here I am for you called me. But he said, I did not call, lie down again. So I went and lay down. 00:27:51.905 --> 00:28:13.190 And the Lord called again, Samuel. And Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am, for you called me. But he said, I did not call you, my son, lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. Okay, well we get some anticipation building here. 00:28:13.190 --> 00:28:28.625 It seems that something new is being ushered in and it's being ushered in through Samuel. Now Samuel starts the same situation as everyone else. He can't really perceive the Lord's voice. He's never heard it before. It was rare in those days. 00:28:28.625 --> 00:28:41.690 That makes sense. But look what the narrator is doing for us here. He did not yet know the Lord. The word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. What's your response as a reader when you read that? 00:28:41.770 --> 00:28:42.730 You say, not yet. 00:28:43.355 --> 00:28:47.755 Oh, that means he's going to know the Lord. That means the word of the Lord is going 00:28:47.755 --> 00:29:01.230 to be revealed to him. Something's about to happen. This is exciting. Even more exciting is God's personal activity breaking into the story here. This is the first time God has spoken in the story. 00:29:01.470 --> 00:29:26.330 He's gone through intermediaries, like Hannah prophesied, and the man of God prophesied, but these are God's exact words, God's first speech act in the story. And it's all centered on Samuel. He's doing something here. Let's continue. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time, and he arose and went to Eli and said, Here I am for you called me. 00:29:26.650 --> 00:29:54.990 Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, Go lie down and if he calls you, you shall say, Speak Lord for your servant hears. So Samuel went and laid down in his place and the Lord came and stood calling as the other times, 'Samuel, Samuel.' And Samuel said, 'Speak for your servant hears.' So Eli finally realized what's going on here. 00:29:55.310 --> 00:29:58.270 And he tells Samuel, God's speaking to you. 00:29:58.270 --> 00:30:25.980 He gives him instructions on how to respond properly this time. Now don't miss the way the narrative is working here. God's presence is slowly moving closer and closer coming into the scene here, coming into Samuel, until he quite literally steps into the scene. So he started in the dark and then the quiet. The word and the vision of the Lord were rare, and Eli and Samuel were sleeping, and we had this little hope of the candle, and then all of 00:30:25.980 --> 00:30:31.100 a sudden we heard the actual voice of God, but it 00:30:31.100 --> 00:30:38.205 was not understood. Samuel couldn't understand the voice, and it seems to him coming from a distance, Samuel gets up and leaves the room to go see 00:30:38.205 --> 00:30:52.950 where the voice is coming from. So God is calling from outside the room, but you can see he's coming closer. Then what happens next? God shows up. He stands there and repeats the call, Samuel, Samuel. 00:30:53.510 --> 00:31:00.935 This is a dramatic entrance of the Lord actually stepping onto the scene. We think, well, the word of the 00:31:00.935 --> 00:31:07.255 Lord was rare and there was no vision. He wasn't manifesting himself at that time. Well now here he actually is standing there 00:31:07.255 --> 00:31:11.975 and he's speaking and he's speaking to Samuel. We think, wow, what's he 00:31:11.975 --> 00:31:14.455 there for? And this is big. What's he there for? 00:31:16.160 --> 00:31:20.000 So God says this, then the Lord said to Samuel, behold, 00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:56.100 I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house from beginning to end. And I declared to him that I am about to punish his house forever for the iniquity that he knew because his sons were blaspheming God and he did not restrain them. Therefore, I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offerings forever. Samuel lay until morning. 00:31:57.225 --> 00:32:06.745 Then he opened the doors of the house to the Lord, and Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. But Eli called Samuel and said, Samuel, my son. 00:32:07.145 --> 00:32:17.020 And he said, Here I am. And Eli said, What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also 00:32:17.020 --> 00:32:21.100 if you hide anything from me of all that he told you. 00:32:22.875 --> 00:32:28.635 So Samuel now receives this weighty message from the Lord, 00:32:29.275 --> 00:32:45.430 and he's just a little boy. And this is difficult. He has to tell his father figure about this terrible judgment. And yet this is the role of the prophet. They hear what God says, and they need to say it faithfully, and it often ends up being very, very difficult. 00:32:45.590 --> 00:32:59.205 A lot of prophets get killed for that. Jeremiah thrown in the well. Later on in the book of Kings, a prophet Micaiah is locked up in a king's jail cell. The king locks him up because he doesn't like what he has to say. It's kind of comical reading to you what the king says about him. 00:32:59.365 --> 00:33:10.730 He says, There is yet one man by whom we may inquire of the Lord, Micaiah, but I hate him for he never prophesies good concerning me. So when you're a prophet of the Lord, a lot 00:33:10.730 --> 00:33:20.205 of times you've gotta say bad things, hard things, people like to hear that, and you get in some trouble. Well, Samuel's getting started young. He's got 00:33:20.205 --> 00:33:27.565 a hard thing to say to Eli, whom no doubt he loves. And he's afraid. It says it right there. He's afraid. So what's he gonna do? 00:33:27.565 --> 00:33:28.685 And we see this a lot in the 00:33:28.685 --> 00:33:38.220 book of Samuel. We get this choice between fear and disobeying the Lord, that's the result of fear, or faithfully following the Lord, doing 00:33:38.220 --> 00:33:45.895 what he says despite fear. We think, okay, is Eli gonna or is Samuel gonna lie? Is Samuel maybe gonna just kinda withhold some of 00:33:45.895 --> 00:33:59.255 the truth and give a partial truth? What's he gonna do here? Verse 18. So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, this is Eli speaking, It is the Lord. 00:33:59.810 --> 00:34:08.610 Let him do what seems good to him. So Samuel, for his very first prophecy, does perfect, flawless, and that's what 00:34:08.610 --> 00:34:15.715 we'd expect, based off of how the narrative has been framing Samuel. That's what we'd expect, and really Eli does what we would expect for 00:34:15.715 --> 00:34:29.560 him to do based off the narrative so far. He's not evil. He does not oppose the Lord. He's just a bit passive, and so he accepts this judgment of the Lord. Doesn't buck against it at all. 00:34:30.680 --> 00:34:48.965 Verse 19. And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and let none of his words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the Lord. And the Lord appeared again at Shiloh, for 00:34:48.965 --> 00:34:59.980 the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the Lord. So here's our resolution to this story. We have the establishment of a new era. 00:35:00.460 --> 00:35:02.220 Samuel grows, 00:35:02.220 --> 00:35:13.425 and this pattern continues that God is speaking through Samuel. And he becomes a prophet of God, a famous prophet of God from Dan in the North till Beersheba in 00:35:13.425 --> 00:35:26.460 the South. And Israel knew that once again, God's speaking again, and he's doing it through Samuel. So remember at the beginning of chapter three, the word of the Lord was rare. The vision of 00:35:26.460 --> 00:35:44.545 the Lord was rare. That's not so anymore. With the rise of Samuel, that's not the case anymore. The Lord now appears again at Shiloh. His presence is back at Shiloh, and what's more, he's revealing himself through his word, through Samuel. 00:35:44.545 --> 00:36:13.315 So no longer is the word of the Lord something rare. His presence has returned, and God is doing a new thing now in Israel. He's beginning this new movement in salvation history, and it's all focused on and happening through our character, Samuel. So we end the story then this morning with Samuel functioning as a prophet of God. Eli has heard about the impending judgment for his sons and his whole house. 00:36:14.035 --> 00:36:16.435 God's presence has returned to Shiloh, 00:36:17.220 --> 00:36:25.700 and we're going to see where all of that will lead next time in Samuel chapter four. Let me pray for us in closing. 00:36:27.620 --> 00:36:30.660 Father, thank you that you are faithful to your promises. 00:36:32.435 --> 00:36:36.675 Thank you that we can trust you in your judgments. Help us 00:36:36.675 --> 00:36:41.235 to have faith there. There are many areas in which we need faith. Help us to have faith when 00:36:41.235 --> 00:36:50.560 we don't understand something that you've done, something that you've allowed. God, we pray for help there. But thank you that you are righteous. Thank you that 00:36:50.560 --> 00:37:23.270 you have all power and that we don't, that we're not actually in control of judgment because we could never do it well or rightly. Thank you that you take care of everything. Lord, let our faith in you be strengthened. Thank you that we have a high priest who stands between us and God the Father. When we sin against you, God, we have Jesus Christ who makes intercession for us, who has cleansed us, who allows reconciliation. 00:37:25.030 --> 00:37:32.075 And God, if the characters of the Old Testament could know that, they'd be very grateful for it, we'd be grateful for it. Thank you for 00:37:32.075 --> 00:37:39.690 that. I pray for your blessing in this word that it would be received, understood, and bear fruit in 00:37:39.690 --> 00:37:41.930 our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. 00:37:42.090 --> 00:37:59.915 Thank you for listening to this message from King's Tree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.