Read 1 Samuel 9:1-10:16

We live in an age of idealised leadership. We like our leaders to show certain characteristics; successful, charismatic, engaging, with a hint of the common touch. Youth is also seen as a distinct benefit, although depending on the situation the affable older man might still fit the bill. Competence is an optional extra. I also concede I am being slightly cynical. Slightly.

Israel in Samuel’s day were also looking for their own type of king, not the divine leadership which God provided. They wanted a king like the nations, and God granted them their request to teach them a lesson. But it was also a means of advancing his salvation plan. In Chapter 9 and 10 of 1 Samuel we are introduced to The People’s Prince, Saul, and see how God’s hand of providence leads Saul to a kingship he found when all he was looking for were some lost donkeys.

We are introduced to Saul by way of his lineage, which was not particularly distinguished (none are mentioned previously in the Bible) though Saul’s father had amassed substantial wealth (v.1). Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, which had a notorious past (Judges 19-21) but was usefully sat in the middle of Israel so could act as a negotiator between the northern and southern tribes.

Most important is the description of Saul. He was “a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people” (v.2). He was exactly the type of man that worldly Israel was looking for as king.

What follows is a providential description of how God caused Saul and Samuel to meet. Saul’s father lost some donkeys and sent Saul and a servant to find them (vv.3-5). Instead of returning empty-handed, Saul’s servant convinced Saul to visit a man of God for help, and providentially he had the right money to pay for services rendered (vv.6-13). Saul’s servant seems a better leader than Saul.

As they entered the city, they came upon Samuel (v.14)! Samuel knew that God was sending him a man from Benjamin to anoint as prince over Israel, and as Saul entered God pointed him out to Samuel (vv.15-17). However, Saul did not seem to recognise Samuel (v.18), not exactly a ringing endorsement of his spiritual life.

After identifying himself to Saul, Samuel told him not to worry about the donkeys which had been found (vv.19-20), compared to Saul himself with the characteristics which made him desirable to the elders of Israel (v.20). Saul was completely befuddled by Samuel’s statement of him, especially given his origins (v.21).

What then followed was Samuel wining and dining Saul; receiving a place of honour at a banquet, the best cuts, and a comfortable place to sleep (vv.22-26). 

In the morning, when Saul went to leave, Samuel told his servant to go on ahead so he could speak privately with Saul (vv.26-7).

At that point, Samuel anointed Saul with oil to recognise God’s anointing of him as leader, and kissed him to recognise kingly submission (10:1). To demonstrate that Samuel was not mad, he provided specific signs which demonstrated God’s providence (vv.2-7).

The third of these signs was that Saul would prophesy “and be turned into another man” (v.7) as God’s anointed one (messiah) to deliver Israel from the Philistines. When this happened, it came as such a surprise to Saul’s peers, who knew his family were not known prophets, to note the occasion (vv.8-13). “Is not Saul among the prophets” became a “wonders never cease!” idiom.

Yet despite all these events, and Saul’s prophetic utterances, he did not demonstrate a changed heart to do God’s will. Instead of acknowledging his anointing, he refused to tell his uncle anything other than that he had been to Samuel and been told the donkeys were found (vv.14-16). Instead, he seemed to slip back into his old life and ways, as if nothing had changed.

Saul was the ideal worldly leader. Handsome, tall, affable. Yet not a very good leader. He could not even find his father’s donkeys, let alone care for the flock. He was swayed by his servant’s opinions. He was the type of leader the world desires, but not one that seeks God.

While managerial types and CEOs might make attractive worldly leaders, they do not necessarily make good spiritual leaders. The world might like such, especially with a dash of youth, but the church requires godly, spiritual leadership by mature Christians who can teach. A bit of life experience does no harm either.

We can be swayed by the worldly ideal shown by Saul, or seek the divine example of Jesus. Jesus was the opposite of Saul in many ways, yet it was Jesus who defeated our enemies and whom God anointed eternal king. It is to Jesus that we should ultimately submit, serve, and follow, not worldly leaders who ultimately fail to lead us in paths of righteousness.

Read 1 Samuel 8:10-22

There is a well known idiom that there are only two certainties in life – death and taxes. That certainty is definitely advanced by the presence of the government in our lives. Before you flag me as an anarchist, and probably too late to avoid flagging on some security service list, God has given us government for our good; to restrain and judge the evildoer. But the government is full of sinners, and sinners corrupt everything.

The reality of kingship, and of government in general, is the focus of 1 Samuel 8. Israel sinfully wanted a king just like the nations around them, because they lacked trust in God to lead them and to fill the leadership vacuum which Samuel’s fast-approaching death would cause. Samuel passed on God’s warning about the nature of human leadership to Israel, for our benefit as well. To remind us of the sinful nature of human government, and to instead seek our solace in the sinless rule and reign of Jesus Christ.

When Samuel complained of Israel’s demand, God reminded him that they were rejecting God, not him, and told Samuel to “solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them” (v.9). Samuel did (v.10). The way of kings is described in terms of take and serve.

Firstly, the king will “take your sons” to serve in his armies, fight his battles, and die in his wars (v.11). When they were not busy fighting, some would be made to “plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots” (v.12).

Lest they think that only their sons were at risk, the king would also “take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers” (v.13). After all, that army, the king, and his court could not be expected to feed themselves.

Thirdly, the king would “take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants” (v.14) to reward them for their service.

Fourthly, the king and his closest advisers would need to be kept in the manner to which they were accustomed and entitled, and so he would “take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants” (v.15) on top of that given to God.

Then he would take “your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work” (v.16) so they could no longer work in their own fields for their own gain.

Finally, the king would stock his fields by taking “the tenth of your flocks” with the end effect after all this that “you shall be his slaves” (v.17) just as they were in Egypt. Then when they cried out to God, God would not answer them because they chose it for themselves (v.18).

One would think this warning was enough to scare off the Israelites, but no. Israel refused to listen and demanded a king to lead them in battle (vv.19-20). After once again bringing Israel’s words to God and being told to go ahead and give them their sinful heart’s desire, Samuel dismissed the elders, telling them to “Go every man to his city” (vv.21-2).

Essentially, if the Israelites did not want a divine king but wanted an earthly king like the earthly, pagan nations around them, they had to expect the consequences. They could not have their cake and eat it, too.

Worldly leaders are driven by ambition, and even the best of leaders who seek to “make a difference” with the best of intentions are flawed and corrupted by sin. The nature of worldly leadership is that compromises must be made, allegiances bought and sold. Appearances must be kept; MPs are too busy to mow the Parliamentary Lawn. At worst, as we see in many places the world over, corruption and self-enrichment is too easily attainable near the seat of power.

We cannot divorce ourselves from the government, we must render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, even when Caesar is busy doing and paying for things sinful and objectionable (Mark 12:17). Neither, though, should we view government as the answer to all our problems, whether it is morality, economy, or society.

Yes, Christians can and should engage in political processes when available. But the state will not save the world; it cannot. It is tainted by sin, and sinful itself (Revelation 13). Given the chance, the state will seek that all worship it, like Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 3) and Caesar did.

Instead, all must look to Jesus, the true king whose reign is sinless and selfless. Unlike sinful governments, Jesus’ reign is righteous, and Jesus did not take but gave of his own life so that we could reign with him now and in the eternal kingdom to come, enjoying the riches and blessings of God. It is to that man that we should bow the knee and serve.

Read 1 Samuel 8:1-9

What happens when leadership change happens among God’s People? All ministers are eventually called elsewhere, to a well-earned retirement, or home to glory. When these changes occur, do we seek God’s leading and timing or seek our own worldly solutions?

In 1 Samuel 8, a leadership crisis arose as Samuel grew old and his sons showed themselves unsuitable. So Israel sought a king, as the nations around them desired. Ultimately, this was a rejection of God’s leadership. It serves as a reminder that it is God who leads and provides leaders, because sometimes when we get what we want, it is not good for us.

Samuel’s leadership as a Judge over Israel led to decades of peace and prosperity, as he led them spiritually in worship of God (17:15-17). However, like all men, Samuel became old (8:1). The time of his leadership would come to an end. Who would fill the vacuum?

Worldly solutions often come first when problems arise. Samuel’s worldly solution was appointing his two sons, nobly named Joel (Yahweh is God) and Abijah (Yahweh is Father), as Judges in Beersheba (v.2). This was in the south of the country, away from Samuel’s rule. Sadly, his sons failed to live up to their names and Samuel’s example. “They took bribes and perverted justice” (v.3).

This all provided a convenient pretext for Israel to seek a king. While the elders of Israel should have prayed and waited on God to reveal the instrument of his leadership in Samuel’s place (just as God anointed Joshua to lead after Moses), instead they forced the issue themselves.

The elders met Joshua and told him “behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations” (v.5). Since Samuel was old, and his sons were unworthy, Samuel needed to solve the looming leadership vacuum by appointing a king like the nations around.

Much like Samuel looking to a hereditary handover, the elders of Israel were looking to a worldly solution, and not to God to provide a way. They thought that the problems of Israel would be solved by an earthly autocrat; after all, it worked for all the other nations around them!

Not surprisingly, Samuel was unhappy with the elders for seeking a king (v.6). Unlike the elders, Samuel turned to God in prayer to seek an answer (v.6).

God’s answer may surprise us, considering that the elders were acting from a lack of trust in God to provide leadership. “The LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them” (v.7). 

No doubt Samuel felt that he had failed in his leadership, considering he had for many years encouraged Israel to seek after God. But God pointed out that the rejection was not of Samuel and his leadership, but of God. Samuel had not failed in his service to God of leadership of Israel.

Instead, the rejection shown was just another in a long line stretching “from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods” (v.8).

God’s answer, funnily enough, was to “obey their voice” (v.9) and give Israel what it wanted. But not without warning them about the problems of kingly rule (v.9). Like a parent who sometimes lets a child have their way so that they learn the consequences, God would grant the elders their request as its own punishment.

God had foreseen the provision of a king in his Law (Deut. 17). However, the elders were asking with wrong motives. They needed to experience the wrong kind of king, so they would desire the right kind of king; the type who followed God’s ways, not man’s.

This passage deals with a reaction to a perceived leadership vacuum. Ultimately, God led his people, just as Jesus Christ is King and head of the Church. But it is natural, though generally driven from the same sinful desire to be like the world that Israel’s elders expressed, to seek worldly leadership solutions over God’s solutions.

The Church does not need CEOs, or appropriately “diverse” and “inclusive” leadership, or dynastic succession, it needs leadership by men who demonstrate the qualities God established (1 Timothy 3). It is our privilege to prayerfully identify these men and appoint them to the roles God has set them apart for, in God’s good timing.

Like Samuel, God will uphold those leaders, as he does any parent for that matter, who leads those under their charge Godward, not worldward. If children or church members reject God, that is on them, not on the faithful leader or parent.

God blesses us with faithful leaders, appointed by God, to direct us to Jesus our true king. This passage reminds us to wait on God to raise up and provide these leaders for us, not seek worldly leaders and ways.

Read 1 Samuel 7:2-17

It is a terrible thing to experience God’s displeasure and judgement. And yet, despite our sinfulness and our deserving of punishment, God graciously shows his love and affection for us. Through repentance of sin and faithfully seeking God, we enjoy renewed fellowship and the reminder of God’s repeated blessing in our lives and the lives of those who have gone before us.

For Israel, just as the Ark had returned to them, so too they needed to return to God. In 1 Samuel 7, Israel individually and corporately laments their sin, turn away from idols, and follow after God. As a result they experience God’s blessing in their lives, and spiritual blessing and direction from Samuel.

The Ark returned from the Philistines to Israel, and remained at Kiriath-Jearim for twenty years (v.2). As the years went by, the people mourned for their lost relationship with God (v.2).

Samuel, sent by God to lead God’s people, instructed the Israelites to turn from their sins. If they were returning “with all their heart”, they needed to “put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only” (v.3).

This was more than just intellectual and emotional assent. The foreign gods and the Ashtaroth were often associated with fertility of people and land. The “worship” practices associated with these deities involved sexual immorality. How sinfully, delightfully, convenient.

Therefore putting aside these gods meant not only stopping any idolatry, but also sexual immorality. It was turning from a way of life to pursue another way of life; one patterned after following God and his standard of living as revealed in the Law.

It was also to separate themselves from the practices of the world around them, which happily pursued the Baals and Ashteroth and the extracurricular activities associated with it.

If they did so, God promised that he would bless them. In that context, Samuel described this blessing as relief from the Philistines who oppressed them (v.3). Reflecting their lament and godly repentance, Israel turned from the worldly idols and turned to God (v.4).

To recognise this act of repentance, the people of God gathered at Mizpah where Samuel led them in a rite of confession. This involved prayer, fasting, and pouring out of water (perhaps as a symbolic act of cleansing) to God (vv.5-6).

For the Philistines, word that the Israelites were throwing off their gods and turning back to the one true God was not welcome news. They perceived it, perhaps rightly, as an Israelite revolt against their rule. So up they came against Israel, once again, to fight (v.7).

Unlike in Chapter 4 where Israel tried to blackmail God into helping them, this time Israel turned to God in prayer (v.8). Samuel, as their priest, offered a lamb as an offering and cried out to God for Israel’s deliverance (v.9). God heard. God acted, blasting the Philistines into confusion, so in a reversal of fortune the Israelites struck down the Philistines (vv.10-11).

To memorialise the event, Samuel raised a memorial at Mizpah called Ebenezer, or rock of help, because “Till now the LORD has helped us” (v.12). This rock not only pointed to God’s victory at Mizpah, but the long line of salvation experienced by God’s People over centuries.

Added to this blessing was freedom from the Philistines, who no longer entered their lands, and peace with the Amorites (vv.13-14).

The final verses of this text summarise Samuel’s career. Samuel judged Israel, and rotated the place of his religious and political leadership around the lands of Israel (vv.15-17). Unlike the previous judges, some of whom only judged a part of Israel, under Samuel the whole Israel came to be judged under one man.

The twenty years of Samuel’s leadership were years of plodding, rather than drama. That plodding reflects the Christian’s life. While we might have an occasional experience of religious high, that is not the norm.

Notice also the difference when God’s people trusted God by faith, rather than trying to blackmail God into supporting them.The same is true for us. If we trust in God by faith, then we can be sure that God will ultimately vindicate us from among the nations, and completely destroy our greatest enemies, sin and death.

Our trust in God to defeat sin and death is built up when we look at God’s many saving acts in history. Till now the LORD has helped us, by his work in our lives, his care for his church, his saving acts recorded in the Bible. Times like Easter where we especially remember Jesus’ death on the cross and his resurrection are our own “Ebenezer” that remind us of God’s help.

It is not easy to leave a sinful way of life and follow God’s design for life, trusting in him for salvation. But just as God was a rock of help to Israel in ages past, so too is God our rock of help, through Jesus Christ, today and into eternity.

Read 1 Samuel 6:1-7:2

All is not well in the world and its relationship to God. But that does not mean that all is right with the way the Church as a whole operates in its relationship to God either. If we are to truly worship God, then we should take care to worship him as he has revealed, not as we would like, or we may invite God’s displeasure.

In 1 Samuel 6 we see examples of the unbelieving world and God’s covenant people both offending God. The Philistines, suffering God’s judgement, sent the Ark back to Israel with their own ideas of what sacrifices might avert God’s wrath. Meanwhile the Israelites failed to treat the Ark as God had instructed them, and suffered the consequences. This reminds us to guide our lives and worship by God’s revelation, not our own thoughts, and to rely on Christ to stand in God’s holy presence.

Terror had swept the Philistine cities, as wherever the Ark of the Covenant went, sickness and death followed amongst the unbelievers there. After seven months, the people and their leaders had had enough (v.1). They asked their own diviners how to get rid of it, and hopefully the divine enemy they had made along the way (v.2).

Much like treating an offended spouse, the religious leaders of the Philistines suggested sending the Ark back with an offering to say sorry (v.3). While there was a great deal right with this statement, the suggested offering was not what God desired.

While God would have delighted in repentance, instead the religious leaders suggested making images of tumours and mice from gold and sending those back with the Ark (vv.4-5). It seems that while they had learnt from the lesson of Egypt in the Exodus (v.6), and recognised that a costly sacrifice had to be made, they did not recognise what was truly required. Mice were ritually unclean (Lev. 11:29), and tumours likewise.

To make sure it was definitely Israel’s God who had afflicted them, they suggested putting the Ark and offerings on a cart pulled by milk cows, who had never been yoked to a cart, with new calves to send it back (vv.7-9). The logic made sense – it is completely unnatural for such an animal to leave its newborn and pull a cart anywhere, unless by divine intervention.

Sure enough, the Philistine leadership did as advised, and the milk cows took the Ark straight to Israelite lands, to the town of Beth-Shemesh (vv.10-12). The Philistine leadership saw the Ark had gone back to Israel, heaved a sigh of hopeful relief, and went home (v.16). God, in his providence, chose to end things there (for then) with the Philistines.

Unfortunately, the Israelites also failed to follow God’s commands. The townsfolk of Beth-Shemesh were busy harvesting when the cattle appeared, and rejoiced when they saw the Ark returned to them (v.13). They quickly established an altar and offered sacrifices to God; it turns out in God’s providence that he Beth-Shemesh was a town assigned to the levites responsible for caring for the Ark (Num. 4, Josh. 21).

Except that for sacrifices, they offered the milk cows which carried the Ark back (v.14). Wrong move; only unblemished bulls were to be sacrificed as such (Lev. 1). Even worse, it seems that they turned the Ark, the golden mice, and the golden tumours (vv.15-18) into their own Hobbiton, despite God’s clear commands (Num. 4:20).

God was not amused, and struck down seventy townsfolk (v.19). Their response was not repentance, but like the Philistines: “Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And to whom shall he go up away from us?” (v.20). Get God away from us, they said!

Ironically, the Levites asked the folks of Kiriath-Jearim to take the Ark, which they duly did and set apart a man to take care of it (v.21-7:1). Kiriath-Jearim was a Gibeonite town, a town of Canaanites who had avoided destruction by deception during Joshua’s day but were subject to servitude (Josh. 9). Those non-Israelites were more faithful to God than their Israelite overseers, keeping it safe but not setting themselves up as a new priesthood (v.2).

The Gibeonite response is the response God seeks of his people. Not just joy and sacrifice, but the reverence and respect for God’s commands which comes by faith. After all, when confronted with the punishment for their offence against God’s holiness, Beth-Shemesh were just as quick as the pagans to reject God’s presence in apostasy and unbelief.

God’s holiness requires proper sacrifice and service, not like that offered by the Philistines or Beth-Shemeshites. In their day, the sacrifices established in the Law; which pointed forward to Jesus, the true sacrifice and sacrifice-maker for the sins of God’s People.

Jesus’ sacrifice turns away God’s wrath from us for offending his holiness, clothes us with righteousness, and enables us to offer our lives as living sacrifices, holy and acceptable to God. That is how we can stand before a holy God.

Read 1 Samuel 5

It seems like the Church of Christ is on the back foot in the West today. Many treat the Church, Christians, and God’s standard of holiness and morality as a joke. Even many professing Christians casually and easily bow to the desires and pleasures of the day. We live in a Pagan culture; one where it is possible to despair for our children, each other, and the Church.

But despite the gloom, God still reigns and is in control. The gods of this age will be laid low, one way or another. It has happened before, it will happen again. It happened in Samuel’s day when the Ark of the Covenant was taken to the Philistine lands. There, the pagan Philistines learned that their idols were no match for God, and that God will send judgement on unbelievers for their rebellion against him. 

The defeat of Israel sent shockwaves through Shiloh. The Ark of the Covenant, the visual reminder of God’s special presence and relationship with his people, was taken. People tore their clothes and mourned, Eli the high priest died, and his daughter-in-law died in childbirth.

In Chapter 5, the fate of the Ark unfolds. As with armies everywhere, this prized possession was taken back as booty by the Philistines to one of their towns, Ashdod (v.1). There, they placed the Ark in the temple of one of their gods, Dagon, who seems to have been a fertility/agriculture idol (v.2). This followed the pattern of ancient cultures, where the captured idols and symbols of other nations were placed as “prizes” in the temples of the “conquering” god. In effect, the Philistines were saying that Dagon bet God.

God had other ideas. In the morning, Dagon’s statue was knocked over (v.3), lying prostrate before God’s Ark like a subject bowing down low before their king. God laid low the false god in front of the Ark which represented the presence of the One True God.

The Philistines “took Dagon and put him back in his place” (v.3), upright. But the next day, God took Dagon and put him back in his place – on the floor (v.4). With the head and hands chopped off. This act mirrored the ancient custom of chopping the hands and head off of slain enemies as macabre trophies. Years later, Dagon’s priests would not step on his temple threshold as a result (v.5).

The humiliations did not end there. God punished the idolatrous pagan Philistines of Ashdod by afflicting them with tumours (v.6), probably bubonic plague which in ancient times (up until recent years) was spread by rodents via ships.

The fine pagan folk of Ashdod could bear it no more and, perhaps hoping the problems were location-based, shipped off the Ark to Gath (vv.7-8). But God is not confined by city limits, and the problems simply moved to Gath with the Ark (v.9).

The People of Gath were not interested in death by plague, so they tried to pass the Ark onto the next major town of the Philistines, Ekron (v.10). The Ekronites immediately rebelled in terror: “They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people” (v.10).

Wherever the Ark went, a terrible deadly panic fell on the idolatrous Philistines, along with bubonic plague and death (vv.11-12). God’s hand “was very heavy” (v.11) wherever the Ark was, bringing judgement on those who stood against God.

This event from the past has been repeated through history, whether in Babylon (Daniel 5) or in our own world today (though we refuse as a culture to recognise God’s heavy hand through means such as war and disease). One day, God has revealed that he will bring judgement on all the nations; on every nation and economic-cultural industrial complex throughout history which opposes his rule.

Ultimately, God is in control and quite capable of taking care of himself. Our job is not to “take back the nation for Christ” by political or other means but to worship God and proclaim the Gospel, and let God put the idols of our culture in their place.

We ought not to let the Church become easy prey for the culture to subvert to its own glory, offering false praise as bounty to its idols. Our call is to promote the peace and purity of the Church, starting with our own lives as part of the corporate body.

This passage reminds the world around us, whether they want to admit it or not, that God is in control. That Jesus sits at God’s right hand, having defeated sin and death. One day, Jesus will return to put all enemies under his feet, to break down every idol, and to bring deathly terror to every unrepentant sinner. Our job in the meantime is to announce the promise of God’s pardon to the world through faith in Christ, no matter how they receive it.

Even though they might think God is a joke today, one day they will not be laughing.

Read 1 Samuel 4:12-21

There is a saying that victory has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan. There is no worse failure than that which leads to God’s glory departing from a people. Sadly, many churches and individuals in our day have walked away from God, and God has walked away from them. Are there echoes of this sadness in history?

In the beginning verses of chapter 4, God’s People took the Ark into battle with the Philistines as a talisman to trap God into helping them against their foes. The Ark was lost, and Eli’s two sons fell in the battle. This tragedy was God’s judgement against Eli and his house, and expressed God’s displeasure at Israel. But it also opened the door for a new era of God’s goodness and fellowship with his people.

While in our current day the internet provides real time updates of news at the battlefront, in Samuel’s day the news of a battle was carried by a runner. The marathon comes from a Greek runner bringing good news of victory against Persia. Sad news came via a runner too, usually just ahead of the retreating forces.

The day of the loss of the Ark and the death of Hophni and Phineas, a Benjaminite ran to Shiloh bearing sad news, with his clothes ruined in the traditional sign of mourning (v.12). When that man arrived, the high priest Eli was sitting, waiting for news (v.13).

Eli was not a picture of hope or health. Old (98), blind, and “heavy” from the stolen food his sons gave him (vv.15, 18), Eli knew from a man of God and Samuel that God would soon bring judgement on him and his family for their sinful deeds in the Temple grounds. His “heart trembled for the ark of God” (v.13) because he knew that it should never have left Shiloh without God’s say-so (Deut. 12:5-11).

When the bearer of bad news arrived, all of Shiloh cried out (v.13). Eli knew it had to be bad, and caught the man’s attention as he passed by (v.14). The man hurried to inform him (v.16); he was, after all, the high priest.

The news just kept getting worse. “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great defeat among the people” (v.17). Terrible news, but not unexpected in Israel’s recent history. “Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead” (v.17). Also terrible news, but that happens in war, and God had already announced their pending deaths so it was perhaps not a complete shock.

One piece of news was even worse, though. “The ark of God has been captured” (v.17). This was worse news than all the rest. The Ark was the very symbol of God’s presence with his people; and it had been taken away by pagans.

This was the news that Eli could not take. As soon as the man said it, “Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died” (v.18). Thus ended a dark chapter in Israel’s history, as Eli judged Israel for 40 years while his sons stole from the people and from God. It was a long fall from Joshua to Eli, longer than the seat to the ground.

The sadness for Eli’s family did not end there. Eli’s daughter-in-law heard of the deaths, and the capture of the Ark, and was shocked into labour (v.19). Sadly the suddenness of the labour led to her death (v.21). She lived only long enough to express more piety than Phineas, her late husband, by calling her son Ichabod which roughly translates as “no glory” (vv.21-2). 

Thus Eli’s grandson bore a name forever reminding of terrible tragedy, into terrible circumstances; an orphan, with no immediate family to care for him. God’s glory had in a sense departed Israel with the Ark’s capture. But it was not permanent.

This passage teaches us that sometimes God’s presence has to depart, or seem to depart from us, for us to recognise our sinfulness and repent. We cannot continue to sin against God and expect him to continue in goodness towards us. Sometimes, God hands us over to trials and judgement to draw us back to him.

While God’s glory may depart from individuals or churches, it is not necessarily permanent. If we repent and seek God, he promises in Scripture to return to us (Zech. 1:3). While sadly many individuals and churches have walked apart from God and no longer enjoy his goodness and presence, if we repent and turn from our sin God will not forsake us.

There is forgiveness and grace to be found, because God’s glory departing was not the end. Many years later, angels visited announcing glad tidings of great joy, because God had come to dwell with his people as a baby in a manger. Jesus, God’s glory in our midst, laid down his life for our sins so we can enjoy God’s presence forever.

Read 1 Samuel 4:1-11

Lots of people in life, whether they admit it or not, are practical atheists. But when bad times come, they are quick to pick up religion like a lucky charm in the hopes that God will put them right. Some churches and Christians seem to treat God in the same way, as if God’s will can be bent to ours.

But God is sovereign and we are not. We cannot back God into a corner. In 1 Samuel 4, the scene shifts from the birth of Samuel to the beginning of God restoring his name and honour among the Israelites, starting with a reminder that God is not a cosmic porter who can be summoned to their support on call. This passage reminds us as Christians and as a Church not to behave in the same way today.

The first three chapters of 1 Samuel have focused on God beginning a new phase of his salvation plan through the birth of the boy Samuel to two faithful Israelites, Hannah and Elkanah. The faithfulness of these two and their son, Samuel, is contrasted with the unfaithfulness of Hophni, Phineas, and (by extension for his failure to discipline them) their father Eli.

In chapter 4, the story pans out to show the wider context of Israel, which was in much the same state as at the end of the Book of Judges. Thus the behaviour of Israel in this time reflects a coldness towards God that needs to be thawed if the covenant relationship is to continue.

The start of God’s work to restore his name and honour among the Israelites comes through the renewal of the Philistine threat to Israel. The Philistines were foreign settlers into Canaan, who were both pagans and technologically advanced. Samson defeated the Philistines, but now they were back.

The Philistines marched out of their cities and up into the hills to attack Israel (v.1). The two armies gathered to fight, and the Philistines won the engagement, inflicting significant losses on Israel (v.2).

This defeat led to some reflection from Israel’s leaders (v.3). After all, if they were God’s People then surely God should be with them and help them defeat their foes, as they had during the conquest and (selectively remembering) in Judges.

Sadly the reflection did not last long, and consider if their defeat were the covenant curses coming upon them for their unfaithfulness to God (cf. Deut. 28:25). No, the answer was they needed the Ark of the Covenant there to ensure God would be with them (v.3)!

There are multiple ways to interpret this move. Perhaps, charitably, they thought that they needed to see the Ark as a symbol of God’s presence with them and success. More likely, though, they were trying to back God into a corner; to force God to grant them victory by associating the Ark with his presence. They may have even falsely believed that God’s power and presence was tied to the Ark, just as the pagan nations did with their idols.

Sure enough, the arrival of the Ark with Hophni and Phineas from Shiloh led to excitement in the Israelite army (vv.4-5). On the other hand, the superstitious Philistines reacted in fear just as the Israelites hoped, as they recognised that a symbol of Israel’s God (or gods, they were not too sure on that point) had entered their opponents camp (vv.6-8).

Unfortunately for Israel, the fear did not last long. The Philistines encouraged each other to stand up and be a man, in case they were defeated and became slaves to Israel (v.9).

Another battle. Again, the Philistines won an even larger and crushing victory over Israel, who were so demoralised that they fled the battlefield (v.10). Even worse, in Israel’s eyes, the Ark of God was captured (v.11). And just as God had promised, Hophni and Phineas died (v.11).

Israel may have thought they were onto a sure thing by trying to force God to fight for them through bringing the Ark to the battlefield, but they were wrong. God is not waiting to act on command for our benefit, before returning back to his desk. God is not our servant. We are God’s servants.

We cannot live our days ignoring God except when it is useful to us. When things go wrong, or there is something which we would like; whether a new job, a new house, a spouse, or anything else.

God cannot be manipulated or forced to act, whether for us individually or for his church. Might God respond to a prayer vigil? Yes. Must he? No. Can you buy God’s blessing with enough devotions or donations? Nope.

God desires to help us in our trials, and to deliver us from the problem of sin, but God did it his way, not ours. Through sending Jesus, who died on the Cross for our sin, and calling us to repent of our self-reliance and to trust in Jesus always. In Christ, we will prevail against our foes and enjoy God’s presence always.

Read 1 Samuel 3:1-4:1

God calls us to repentance and faith, and some to particular lives of ministry for his people. While we may not receive a vision or hear a voice, the call changes our lives as we experience God’s goodness and the call to proclaim Christ until his return.

God’s call to Samuel signals the beginning of his service as God’s prophet to Israel. In God’s call to Samuel, we see God’s goodness and patience demonstrated, the reality of the message from God, and the effect of God’s Word on his life. While we may not hear God speaking audibly to us today, God’s Word still has those effects on us too.

Some time after the man of God spoke to Eli announcing judgement on his house for his and his son’s unfaithfulness to God’s Law, Samuel was ministering in the Temple under the watch of Eli (v.1). We do not know what age Samuel was, but he could have been anything from a schoolboy to his teenage years.

What we do know is that in those days “the word of the LORD was rare… there was no frequent vision” (v.1). Possibly because of Israel’s sinfulness (see Judges), God had largely withdrawn from communicating with Israel. They were stumbling around in the spiritual darkness they desired.

In the same way, Eli’s eyesight was faint with age, and it was before dawn (when “the lamp of God had not yet gone out”) in the Temple, as both Eli and Samuel slept (vv.2-3). At that point, God demonstrated his goodness and patience.

God called to Samuel, who hearing an audible voice and not recognising it, assumed it was Eli needing help and ran to assist, only to be sent away since it was not Eli who called (vv.4-5). This repeated three times.

As verse seven tells us, Samuel did not yet know that it was God himself calling out to him, to declare God’s Word (v.7). While he was not an unbeliever, he did not have an intimate relationship with God.

There is no hint of impatience here, like mine when I repeat myself to my kids. God is good and patient, and recognised that Samuel was trying to be obedient, but he did not know who was calling him!

Eli realised something was up, and told Samuel to respond to God, not him (vv.8-9). Finally, when God came and appeared again, Samuel answered God’s call (v.10).

While Samuel enjoyed the privilege of an intimate relationship with God, it came with a price. That price was the reality of the message God gave Samuel.

It was an ear tingling message (v.11). God declared that the words announced against Eli’s house would be fulfilled, “because his sons were blaspheming God, and he did not restrain them” (vv.11-14).

Unfortunately, Samuel was called by God to deliver God’s Word, whether good or bad. He could not skim over the tough parts to focus on the positive.

Samuel lay until morning, no doubt both excited and unsettled by his encounter with God and afraid of how Eli would take the message (v.15). But Eli called Samuel and insisted that he announce the whole counsel of God’s Word, and not hide it for himself (vv.16-17). 

Based on how Eli spoke in warning Samuel, I suspect he knew what was coming. Samuel told Eli, hiding “nothing from him” (v.18). Eli acknowledged God’s judgement, recognising its reality and certainty (v.18).

God’s call of Samuel did not leave him unchanged, but affected his life. As Samuel grew, God continued to speak through him and empowered his words as prophet, so that all of Israel came to recognise that God spoke through him (vv.19-20).

Further, God again visited in his special presence the Temple where Samuel served, recognising that he was about to work mightily, in part through Samuel his servant, to serve and deliver Israel (v.21).

While we may not hear God calling us audibly today, we do see in God’s call of Samuel the patience and kindness of God extended to us. God is not a strict Sergeant Major expecting instant obedience, but is patient in his love for us and his call is to repent and obey. If he were not, we would already feel God’s wrath.

However, God’s patience does not mean he does not care about sin. Like Samuel, those who must announce God’s Word must announce the full counsel of the reality of our nature, not the nice parts. We cannot slide over or minimise the need to repent from sin or face God’s judgement. Tempting as it is to enjoy the world’s favour, it will put us offside with God.

But if we faithfully announce the truth, we can be sure that God’s Word will not return empty from our lips. We will enjoy God’s grace and favour in our lives, as his Word renews and sustains us, encourages us to rest in Christ’s sacrifice for our sins, and makes us more like Jesus until God calls us to his side.

Read 1 Samuel 2:11-36

Contrasts are effective because they are so clear. While we are tempted to view life in shades of grey, obedience to God does not fit so easily. You are either faithful to God, or unfaithful. We either obey God, or we sin. We are either faithful servants, or unfaithful.

In the early chapters of 1 Samuel, contrasts have been clear. In Chapter 2, the contrast is between faithful little Samuel who grows under God’s blessing, and Eli’s unfaithful sons who fall under God’s curse. This passage reminds us that faithfulness to God is so terribly important, especially for those put in positions of leadership in God’s Church. 

After Elkanah and Hannah returned home, Samuel remained as promised at the Temple in Shiloh to serve God in the presence of Eli, the High Priest (v.11).

Contrasted to Samuel, who ministered to God, were Eli’s sons. They are described as “worthless men” who were unbelievers (v.12). Their first set of sins were “liturgical sins” against the commands God gave about sacrifices and worship.

While the Law provided generously for the feeding of the priests (Leviticus 7:28-36), the sons helped themselves to more by stealing some of the cooked sacrifices meant for the worshipper’s family (vv.13-14). Worse still, the sons would help themselves to portions of the fat (the yummiest part) which was specially reserved for God (Lev. 3; vv.15-16). They held the offering to God in contempt (v.17).

Compared to this contempt, little Samuel was faithfully serving God in a cute little ephod (v.18). Every year, Samuel’s mum would make him another robe to wear as he served God, and Eli would bless Samuel’s parents for their faithfulness to God and their love for their son (vv.19-20). God indeed blessed Hannah and gave her further sons and daughters, as Samuel “grew in the presence of the LORD” (v.21).

Compared to their faithfulness, Eli’s sons were morally unfaithful. They had turned the women who served the Temple (Ex. 38:8) into their concubines (v.22). Everyone in Israel knew it, but all Eli did was tell them off (vv.23-4). While Eli warned, his sons did not listen, because their sins were so disgusting to God that hardened their hearts against repenting, “for it was the will of the LORD to put them to death” (v.25).

In contrast to this moral unfaithfulness which brought scandal on the Temple and the priesthood, “Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the LORD and also with man” (v.26).

The present unfaithfulness could not remain, God had to purge the evil. So God sent a prophet to Eli to announce judgement (v.27).

In the past, God had been good to Eli and his family, rescuing them from Egypt and choosing Aaron and his descendants to be his priests, enjoying a special fellowship with God (vv.27-8). Yet Eli had failed to properly discipline his sons and stop their sinful liturgical and moral offences, apart from some weak words of displeasure and warning (v.29).

Due to Eli’s own unfaithfulness by failing to guard the Temple’s sanctity and purity of its worship, God would bring judgement on Eli’s house. Eli’s family would be all but wiped out (vv.30-32), and his two sons would both die together on a single day (v.34). 

While one of Eli’s line would be spared, his descendants would later die by men’s hands (v.33; 1 Sam. 22) and would be poor (v.36). A faithful priest would instead be raised up to serve God (v.35). We see this in Samuel’s priestly service, but later in Scripture in the service of Zadok (1 Ki. 2:27, 35).

This passage focuses on the unfaithfulness of Eli’s sons to God. Their unbelief borne out in their abuse of worship and morality. It reminds us today that we must be careful in who we appoint to church leadership. Unbelief will display itself in corrupting worship and God’s teaching to serve oneself, through money, gratification, and power. God’s judgement will follow, on those that commit it and those that allow it.

It also warns us about our sins. We do not want to be as Eli’s sons were, so grievously sinning that God hardens our hearts to warnings to repent, when judgement swiftly follows. May none of us face that terror.

Instead, we should seek to serve as faithful servants of God like Samuel did, quietly ministering and growing in God’s favour, choosing God as our portion over what belongs to God. He will bless those who do so, as he blessed Samuel, Hannah, and Elkanah.

Thankfully, for all our unfaithfulness, there was one who was truly a faithful servant of God all his days. Jesus, who lived a perfect life and offered a perfect sacrifice as our Great High Priest, covers our unfaithfulness as God’s servants with his own faithfulness. He is the ultimate faithful priest raised up by God. It is because of Christ’s faithfulness, that we may seek to be ever more faithful servants of God.