Samuel 12 Choose your King

Here are the questions and notes from last nights LightHouse:

1. How does society view sin? How do those different views impact us and our thinking?

2. What is repentance and how is it different from being sorry?

I wonder what you were thinking as we read through the speech, it sounds a little bit like Joshua’s final speech as he nears the end of his life. But there is no carriage clock or special watch in sight for Samuel, he is not about to retire. In fact he keeps on appearing as a significant character; in ch13 when he rebukes Saul, in 15 when God rejects Saul and promises to give the kingdom to another, in 16 when he anoints David, 19 when David flees to Samuel, and it isn’t until chapter 25 that Samuel dies. So why does this speech appear here? It is not, as almost every Bible entitles this section, his farewell address.

It isn’t retirement but it is a moment of significant change in his role. Samuel has up to this point been Israel’s judge (7:15-16)summarizes much of his life “Samuel continued as Israel’s leader [or judge] all the days of his life. From year to year he went on a circuit... judging Israel in all those places.” Samuel is the last of the judges. It’s an end to that role that we see here as he calls the people (1-5) to witness against him as to the nature of his rule as judge. As a king comes to the throne, however, Samuel’s role is changing he becomes a prophet, and it is as a prophet that he speaks in ch12 fulfilling the role of covenant watchdog, putting Israel in the dock for their sin, calling them to faithfulness to the covenant and warning them of the consequences for unfaithfulness.

This passage is helpful because it helps us see how we are to see sin and how the people of God are to deal with sin.

We need to see Sin as God sees it.
(6-7)The image here is of a courtroom. Samuel puts Israel in the dock, hence the call to “stand here”, whilst he confronts them with evidence and God is judge. The evidence will be of God’s right actions and faithfulness and their unfaithfulness and sin.

Samuel looks back through Israel’s history and lays out a pattern for them (8-11). Israel cries out for help, God hears them and rescues them by sending his agents - deliverers - who rescue and settle the people securely as God’s people in his place. But then Israel forget God’s rescue and begin to worship idols, and so God gives them over into the hands of their enemies as a wake-up call, faithful to his word even in disciplining them. Israel come to their senses and cry out repenting and returning to God, and God in mercy sends deliverers who rescue and settle the people securely in God’s good land.

That is the pattern of Israel’s history and God’s grace and faithfulness in the face of their unfaithfulness. As if that wasn’t damning enough this generation have done something even worse! (12)The “But” is the jarring note. It marks a significant change in the pattern, again God disciplines his people by sending Nahash against them and if they follow the pattern of their ancestors it should read Israel cried out to God recognising their sin and repenting of it. But Israel do not return crying out to God, they don’t repent, though they do want deliverance.

They want the rescue without the relationship with God, that’s what is behind their request for a king, they want the deliverer(8:20) but they don’t want to turn back to God and repent which prefaced God sending a deliverer. This is their attempt to get what God gives for themselves without needing to turn back to God or repent or seek him. Asking for a king isn’t an act of repentance it’s an even greater act of rebellion or rejection of God.

And amazingly even then God now through Samuel meets their rebellion with grace and mercy as he calls them again to recognise their sin. As he lays it out before them in black and white and promises them that he is not done with them yet. (14-15)”If you fear the LORD and serve and obey him and do not rebel against his commands, and if both you and the king who reigns over you follow the LORD your God - good! But if you do not obey the LORD, and if you rebel against his commands, his hand will be against you, as it was against your ancestors.” Even now, even after this ultimate rebellion and rejection God lovingly calls Israel to follow him, he lovingly calls them to repent, to live in the light of his love and rescue, grace and mercy.

And the words and call to choose are backed up with a warning sign (16-18)which both verifies that Samuel is a prophet speaking God words and points towards the covenant curses which will fall on the people if they turn from following God. God reminds them that they are dependent on him, that he is their king and it’s his rule that matters even as Saul is on his throne. He provides their crops, he is their deliverer, and he remains their king and his people are dependent on him.

Part of Israel’s problem is that they grew to adopt the morals and view of sin of the societies they were surrounded by, rather than live as God’s people with a distinctive God-centric view of sin and a concern to please God living life in the light of what he had done for them.

As you read the Bible you can’t help but notice how it jars with societies view of right and wrong just as much today as it did then. We need to ensure that we let God’s word govern our thinking and our perspective.

If we let society set our values we will be quick to make excuses for our sin; so and so provoked me, I’m tired, I’m having a bad day, they deserved it did you see how they treated me. Or to justify sin by thinking comparatively; I’m better than so and so, or I can’t be that bad because at least I.... Or to discount things as sin because everyone does them, because they are the norm. Or even to presume upon God’s grace; well I’m forgiven anyway so I can do what I want...

In 1 Corinthians Paul has to write to the church there to confront them about their sin much as Samuel does with Israel here. He confronts them with their divisive support of certain leaders, with their being content, proud even, of sexual sin in the church, with their lack of love for their brothers and their selfish pursuit of what they think is their rights. He calls them to live differently as those who through the Spirit have the very mind of Christ.

His aim always being to see them repent, in 2 Corinthians he writes this “yet now I am happy, not because you were sorry, but because your sorrow led to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in anyway by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regrets, but worldly sorrow brings death.”

We need to recognise first and foremost that it is not wrong for us as believers to feel the weight of our sin, in fact we need to feel it. We need to get God’s view of sin, not adopt societies view, we need to be ready to return and repent not harden our hearts. We need to be asking God to reveal our sin to us as we read his word, as we listen to it taught not deflecting its force by applying it to others, or making excuses, or simply glossing over it. And we need others to be willing to invite others to show us our sin as God sees it, to act as agents of grace in our lives to bring us back to God.

God’s grace means failure isn’t final(20-25)
There is however a danger in seeing our sin as God sees it and it is that we will be crushed by it, that we will be so guilt ridden that we feel burdened and joyless. But notice what Samuel does he doesn’t just expose their sin he drives them to God’s grace.

Israel aware of the power and holiness of God and that Samuel is his messenger(19) turn and repent and ask Samuel to pray for them. And Samuel’s next words are words of comfort, look at(20). The hope for repentant Israel is that failure isn’t final, that God is a God of grace and mercy who is not finished with them yet.

God isn’t vindictive, like we can be sometimes, making Israel aware of their failure getting them to repent and then holding it over them like a guillotine while he decides whether to forgive them or not, or makes them atone for it by doing something. God doesn’t minimise or sweep away the significance of their sin but he meets their repentance with mercy “You have done all this evil; yet do not turn away from the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart.” It is God’s grace that will motivate Israel to serve him, it is tasting the Lord’s forgiveness and finding that he is good, that will unmask the foolishness of idolatry(21). And (22)it is because God is faithful to his name, his promise and his character.

It is important that we get this; God isn’t saying they are to obey and serve him to earn forgiveness, he forgives them when they repent and turn to him and he then calls them to live in the light of forgiveness. And the emphasis is on a heart response which will be evidenced in outward actions, (20, 24)God wants his people to respond to the grace they have received by living as his loved and forgiven people.

Israel have been concerned with external threats, that is what has led them to ask for a king, but God makes them aware that the biggest threat they face is internal. The biggest threat they face is sin, it’s their hearts, its worshipping other things, and it isn’t a problem that they can deal with in their own strength. **What does Samuel promise to do(23)? He will pray for them and he will teach them. Samuel will intercede for them with God and teach them God’s word as Israel recognise their inability and their dependence on and response to God.

Turn to Hebrews 7:25-28. We don’t rely on our ability we depend on what God has done for us in Jesus, and our confidence, our hope, isn’t in our ability to make us holy but in what Jesus has done for us and his intercession for us before the throne. When God confronts us with our sin we turn to Christ we don’t sweep it under the carpet, we don’t wallow in guilt we see its seriousness and grasp hold the grace that is ours in Jesus. Trusting in the perfect work of Jesus for us and living out of response to grace and confident in his intercession for us.

As those who want to take sin seriously we need others to be helping us unmask sin in our lives. As those who take grace seriously we need others who will point us to Jesus and the all sufficient grace that is there for us, and as those who dare not depend on ourselves we need others who will pray with us and for us just as Samuel prays for Israel.

1. What will stop us seeking out and inviting people to do that in our lives?

2. How do you tend to minimise your sin?

3. How can we better help each other in this area?  What things would it help to have in place both formally (as a church) and informally to faciliate this?