Stagnation and Revival • 1 Samuel 7
37:08 Teaching begins
Notes
We have a two part chapter here in 1 Samuel 7.
First part is a nation stagnant for twenty years. They are going nowhere. Nothing is being accomplished. Nothing is getting better. It’s only getting worse.
The second part is the awesome sight of a nation getting right with God and experiencing more movement and progress than anyone has seen in forty years.
How do you overcome stagnation? Going nowhere, doing nothing?
You need a mediator to get you back into relationship with God. After that, nothing is impossible for God.
I’m reading in 1 Samuel 7.
1. Israel goes nowhere for twenty years, vv. 1-2.
A. God Himself brought back His ark from the Philistines.
B. You’d think that would rouse all Israel to seek the Lord. Man, if He can do that, He can do anything, like help us!
C. But we saw that the men of Beth Shemesh couldn’t deal with the Lord any better than the Philistines. They said, “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?” And they get the men of Kiriath-Jearim to take the ark away and store it safely out of the line of people. For twenty years.
D. The house of Israel stagnates for twenty years. That means go nowhere. Nothing changes. Life grinds on and they get weaker and more desolate. Nothing gets better on its own. That demands power, which Israel hasn’t got.
E. Israel just laments after the Lord.
1. They know the Lord is there. He proved He is there, that He is able to take care of Himself and His ark. They Philistines had to give in and respectfully give the ark back and admit they offended the Lord.
2. Israel knows they have lost their relationship with the Lord. That’s why you sorrow: you’ve lost something valued and loved. There’s also remorse, regret, guilt, knowing that you have done wrong.
3. They kind of want God, and they kind of don’t. They are double-minded. They still have their idols. All the idols prove is that they have no power to change anything. It gets to where serving them is a hassle as well.
4. Somehow the conviction grows: this empty powerless existence is our fault. We have forsaken the Lord and we deserve this. It comes from the Lord. He is righteous.
2. Samuel speaks the word of the Lord to all Israel, v. 3.
A. If you return to the Lord then come back with all your heart. Return to the Lord in love.
1. You return to loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength.
2. There is no other way to return to the Lord. It’s not admitting that some theological statements are true. It is a relationship of love that you return to.
B. Return to the Lord in truth: get rid and forget those idols.
1. All these idols are vile and worthless; they are lies. They are against the one, true, living God. These other gods keeps you weak and depressed. They have no power to make life better. Those other gods are the enemy.
2. The people have come to this conclusion. These idols have come between us and our God and because of them we broke our relationship with Him.
3. So just as you forgot and ignored God, forget these idols. Remove them, ignore them, destroy them.
C. Prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve Him only. That means return in knowledge.
1. Deuteronomy 13:4 You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear Him, and keep His commandments and obey His voice; you shall serve Him and hold fast to Him.
2. That word “hold fast” is the same word used in Genesis 2:24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. “Be joined”. Cleave to your wife. Live with her in unity.
3. You have to know your wife to live with her, and a wife has to know her husband. You can’t live with your spouse in ignorance, if you value your marriage. If you don’t value your marriage, don’t learn your spouse. Don’t find out what pleases him, what he can’t stand, how he ticks. Live in ignorance, and you will live alone, even in a marriage. A relationship has to be in knowledge.
4. The whole relationship with God is written out in plain language, what He loves, what He hates, how to live with a holy God. You remember the men of Beth-Shemesh asking, “Who is able to live with this holy Lord God?” Someone who knows Him is able to live with Him in holiness.
D. And then Samuel gives a promise: when you return to the Lord with all your hearts and serve Him only, He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.
1. “Hand” refers to power. The Philistines keep Israel in their power.
2. They are never going to release Israel from their power. The enemy loves to oppress Israel. They never get tired of oppressing. The enemy never goes away by itself.
3. You need the power of God to overpower the enemy and make them let you go.
4. That freedom that they could never win on their own God will give to them as a fruit of their relationship.
3. The sons of Israel decide to return to the Lord and obey His word, v. 4.
A. They caused themselves to forsake and forget the idols and get rid of them.
B. They have to relearn how to approach God, what He requires. They have to relearn His word because you can’t make up anything. God has spelled out his requirements.
C. Whenever God fulfills His promise is up to Him.
1. So far nothing has changed. The Philistines are still in power. Life outwardly has not gotten better.
2. But no one is negotiating with God like some people do. If God does this for me, then I’ll follow Him, but not until He does what I want. There’s no negotiating here, no seeking rights, no serving God for what I can get out of it, get God to bless me the way I want.
3. They humble themselves before God and seek Him for Himself.
4. Then Samuel says to call all Israel together so that he can pray for them, vv. 5-6.
A. All Israel comes together. A tremendous logistical problem. But it’s unavoidable.
1. If you are going to be in relationship with the Lord then you must be in right relationship with those who have a right relationship with the Lord.
2. If you reconcile with the Lord than you reconcile with each other. The result is peace with God and peace with one another.
B. Samuel prays for them because you need someone who is right with God to mediate for you. Otherwise, why should God listen to you? Who are you? But He will listen to a man who is right with Him.
C. They all humble themselves before God.
1. They draw water and pour it out before Him. Once you pour out the water, you can’t get it back. That is a graphic confession that they have done things that they can’t take back. They can’t fix things.
2. They confess their sins to God. “We have sinned against the Lord.” They don’t accuse God, they blame themselves.
3. They fast, withhold food to deliberately make themselves uncomfortable, deprive themselves to say there is something more important than my necessary food: restoring my relationship with the Lord.
D. Samuel becomes the leader in Israel. The people submit themselves under the man God raised up to give out His word. He’s a prophet, a priest, and a political leader like a king, unique in Israel. God did not allow kings to be all three offices, prophet, priest, and king. Two, but not all three. Samuel is unique. But the emphasis is not on him, but on the Lord. The Lord is the one leading the nation through His man.
5. As Israel earnestly seeks the Lord and submits to His lordship He fulfills His promise, vv. 7-17.
A. Now it looks like disaster. Somehow the Philistines get word of Israel meeting together and they are alarmed.
1. The Philistines like Israel weak, discouraged and demoralized. That keeps them in their power. They can do anything they want to them.
2. But Israel gathered together means unite, and with unity comes power to resist.
3. The Philistines assume this means war against them. Whatever draws Israel together is trouble. They quickly want to stamp this movement out. They come armed to kill.
B. Israel is not trying to be a threat. They’re afraid. None of them came with weapons. No one had resistance in mind. They just came to church, as it were.
C. What I think is amazing is that Israel pleads with Samuel to keep on praying.
1. No one is saying, “I told you it was a mistake to come to the meeting! I said if we go to church we’re gonna die! We should have stayed home where it’s safe! Here we came to the meeting and God is going to let us die!
2. They’re scared, anybody would be. But they say, keep praying. Either He saves us or we’re dead. They’re not expecting good from anyone else. It’s the Lord or nothing.
D. Samuel offers a newborn lamb a little more than a week old. Not a very impressive sacrifice—a helpless lamb. But that’s us, weak, helpless, offering ourselves to You. Could anything be more weak, offering this little lamb and just praying?
E. But God answers. He thunders so powerfully that it confuses the Philistines. It freaks them out. Especially if it’s a cloudless, sunny day. Where’s that coming from? They run, and Israel is in motion, no longer stagnant, no longer stuck. They run after the Philistines with no weapons. I think it would be harder to run in battle armor. And the armor doesn’t protect your backside. So if Israel threw rocks and hit Philistines, and trample them, and beat them up with their own weapons.
F. They push the Philistines back across the borders, they recover cities the Philistines took previously, they are at peace with the Amorites. All the days of Samuel the Philistines stay away. This is the promise of God from Leviticus 26:3-9 If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season, the land shall yield its produce, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely. I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid; I will rid the land of evil beasts, and the sword will not go through your land. You will chase your enemies, and they shall fall by the sword before you. Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight; your enemies shall fall by the sword before you. For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you.
G. Samuel makes a memorial of this return to the Lord. He sets up a stone and calls it Ebenezer, the stone of help. Thus far the Lord has helped us.
1. In chapter 3 this is the place where Israel tried to get God to bless their agenda while they weren’t with Him, and He wasn’t with them. They lost the ark and 30,000 men.
2. In the same place twenty years later Samuel sets up this stone and names the place Stone of help. The Lord has brought Israel from broken relationship, defeat, stagnation for twenty years, to restored relationship, victory, freedom, peace. This far the Lord has helped us.
6. So what? This is revival.
A. Recognize that you need revival. How are you in your relationship with Jesus? Are you moving with Him or are you avoiding Him? It’s so easy to do.
1. When you avoid Him you go nowhere. You’re stuck. You know if your life is stagnant. You’re stuck in that loop of misery and you’re going through the motions but you’re not really going anywhere.
2. You won’t go anywhere with a divided heart. No one can serve two masters. You hate one, love the other. You can’t serve the Lord and anything else.
3. This can go on indefinitely until you hear the word of the Lord, like Samuel spoke to Israel: today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.
B. Focus on relationship. As Samuel said, If you return to the Lord, return with all your heart.
1. This is not clean up your life and become perfect and then come back to the Lord. The Lord is not looking for perfection. But He does want your whole heart.
2. This is return to seeking the Lord only, loving the Lord with all your heart. Living with Him only.
C. Then ask your mediator to bring you back. The Lord has a mediator to help you stay in relationship with Him.
1. This person is a lot like Samuel, born in a miraculous way, a servant to God from the womb, the only other prophet, priest, and king. He is unique, there is not another like Him. 1 Timothy 2:5-6 For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
2. Come to Jesus and humble yourself greatly, He will put you in perfect relationship with the Lord and He will keep you there.
3. Everything good comes out of that essential relationship with Jesus. Don’t let anything else get between you and Him.
Let’s pray.