The altar expressed. A desire for God.
Now it's getting this is the Jewish altar.
Now it's intensifying.
So, okay, I believe in God. I need God. Yeah, but do you want him? Do you want them in your life? Or do you feel like, you know what?
God's creeping me out. Because every time I do something, I can't forget he's there. That's part of the process. and the altar of the Jew when done right, spoke of submission to God. Uh You're listening to Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher, Rick Gaston.
Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of 1 Samuel. Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching.
Now here's Pastor Rick with the conclusion of his study called One Man's Influence in 1 Samuel chapter 7. It is encouraging when people go to the house of the Lord and go to the pastors and say, pray for this, please. I mean, I don't mean minutia, you know. Just you know, stack the Prayer list with stuff that is really not under our sphere of responsibility to the point you burn us out. And so we we try to control it a little bit and keep it close to heart.
Because we can't be praying, it's too much, it's just too much, it's overwhelming.
So you have to manage it a little bit. And this is what is happening. This is they're not asking for they're asking for a direct need that affects all of them right now. I'm sure Samuel must have said he must have been very grateful that the people were coming to him and saying, Pray for us. This is in contrast to that debacle at Aphax where they lost the ark.
We read of none of these things. We read of, you know, the two fool priests, Hafthi and Phineas, you know, taking the ark to the battlefield as a mascot. We're not getting that here. They're not even bringing the ark. The Israelites are no longer depending on the Ark of God to be this magical mascot.
They're depending on God directly, and they're going to a man of God to appeal to God. They wanted to depend solely on Yahweh as their God through prayer, the invisible God. That's key because all of the other peoples they had, their gods were invisible. They had a little statue. You could say, this is what my God looks like.
And the Jew would say, You're always invisible. We don't know what he looks like. We don't need to know what he looks like. We know what he can do. Ask the Egyptians.
So the Philistines who were always on the offensive against the Jews at this time, ruling over them.
Now the Jews are going to end up on the offensive and they're going to be the upper hand, bottom rail on top. And verse 9, and Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to Yahweh. Then Samuel cried out to Yahweh for Israel, and Yahweh answered him. There's the whole burnt offering I referenced earlier. I'm not going to go back into Samuel, he's not a priest, although he's a prophet, and that gives him, in these days, a lot of leeway with God, as we see Elijah on Mount Carmel much later.
But he cried out to Yahweh for Israel and Yahweh answered him. Again.
Now the boy Samuel ministered to Yahweh before Eli, and the word of Yahweh was rare in those days. There was no widespread revelation.
Well, here it is. Yahweh answered him. This is the revelation. Things are changing in Israel's history. This is the effective and fervent prayer of a righteous man that avails much.
This is why James could say these things. And of course, Samuel's not the only. Precedence in Scripture for him to say that. Samuel himself was born out of fervent prayer. Everybody knows Hannah prayed fervently.
Except Eli. Eli thought you can, at first he thought she was drunk. But she was fervent. And so he was a man of prayer. And that means he's a man in dialogue with God.
It's not just one speaking, they're both speaking. They're speaking to each other. Verse 10. God has made clear in Scripture what he thinks about Samuel long after Samuel died and went home. We'll come to those verses in a little bit.
Verse 10: Now, as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But Yahweh thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel. There's a parallel here.
Now, Samuel was offering up the burnt offering. What was the burnt offering? It was a suckling, it was a lamb. Parallel is, there's no victory without the Lamb. A Christian looks at this and says, the Lamb of God.
There's no victory without him. 'Cause that lamb is also the lion. And as the Lamb was sacrificed and offered up to heaven, The blessings began to descend upon. The troops and the people, the nation. It was the wrath of the Lamb, Revelation 17, 14.
These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them. For he is Lord of lords, King of kings, and those who are with him are called chosen and faithful. That be us. We are with the Lord. Chosen and faithful.
I know we don't. Not now, we're not totally there, not as we will be, but we are on the road. Charles Spurgeon says this in a sermon on this topic. He says, If any good has been accomplished, it has been through the Lamb. The lamb slain?
Or else the Lamb exalted. Um You read those old guys, you just don't crave a lot of new stuff. They just say such things. I would have gotten to this far on my own, probably. The lamb slain, but I would have left out the lamb exalted, which is the key part of the whole statement.
The lamb exalted. Samuel's offering because this is what the Jews are commanded to do. They know about the sacrifice. God has given them that system. But we come and we look at this verse through the New Testament eyes, we see so much more.
And so, whatever we're going through, we endure. You don't like what God may and may not allow, but we say, You are still worth it, and you are still my God. The Lord gives, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Because we know that there's more beyond this life, and that's where we're going, and there's nothing anybody can do about it.
The Philistines were not defeated without prayer and the righteousness of Samuel. Another lesson. These will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them. The Philistines drew near to battle. They thought this was going to be an easy fight.
More than likely. They're going to be so soundly beaten that they're not going to attack Israel. Again, until Samuel's no longer judge over Israel. This is going to be decisive.
Well, they come to address this uprising, but the Lord, I'm still in verse 10, but Yahweh thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day.
So God is demonstrating that Baal, who is thought to be the God of thunder, which is brings the rain and the harvest and everything you need to live, Yahweh is saying, No, he's not. I control the weather. And the language recalls the prayer of Samuel's mother. 1 Samuel chapter 2: The adversaries of Yahweh shall be broken in pieces from heaven, he will thunder against them.
Now you know Samuel had to remember that because he put the prayer in the book. And in other words, he's connecting scripture, he's connecting what God has done and what God will do and what God is doing. He's connecting it. And so when we come to Scripture, though we learn the scriptural lessons, but we're not always relieved of our problems, the scripture is still scripture. There's still the God of Scripture to answer to.
To love and adore. God is not as upset about our suffering as we are. Most of the time. And yet, The Lord certainly is mindful at the death of the righteous. and our pain, The bottom of verse 10 and so confused them that they were confused uh overcome before Israel.
They weren't puzzled. The thunder didn't puzzle them. Hmm. Did that come from the south or the north? They were inflicted.
With terror. It was just that intense. Verse 11. And the men of Israel went out to Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and drove them back as far as. Beth Carr.
You know, the Jewish soldiers. I can't believe we're winning. I can't believe we're winning. We're finally winning. We're always getting whooped.
Mizpah means watchtower, Bethkar, the house of the lambs. And You can draw any connections you w want to draw from that. Verse 12. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer. Saying, thus far Yahweh has helped us.
Now, this is after the battle they've won. And so he sets up a memorial to commemorate the victory. And whose pattern is he following?
Well, Joshua's. We read about no less than 10 monuments that Joshua set up. Six of them out of stone. Even when he crosses the Jordan, they take the 12 stones out, they put the 12 stones in. This was supposed to serve.
the people so they would remember. that their faith was built on action from God. And if they didn't believe it, that was on them. And so he's following Joshua's lead metaphorically. The stones have ears and voices.
That's why they're set up. Joshua 24, verse 27. And Joshua said to all the people: Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us. for it has heard all the words. Of Yahweh, which he spoke to us, it shall therefore be a witness to you.
Lest you deny your God. Joshua was intense. I would just love to see these faces on these men when they said these things, when the power of God came upon them.
Well And maybe it wasn't as dramatic as I'd like to imagine it was. But I would have liked to have quickly gotten back to air conditioning, indoor plumbing, and things like that.
So it just would have been a little visit. Look. Jesus tells us That the stones cry out. He says, But he answered and said to them, I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out. And of course, this metaphor, this is language rich with meaning.
He's saying it would be such an outrage to miss the king of kings, the God of creation, marching into Jerusalem.
Somebody's got to praise him. And if it weren't somebody, the stones would do it. That's how intense it was.
So Samuel says, thus far Yahweh has helped us. Eben Ezer. The Lord has helped. That's the inscription. Paul said it this way in the New Testament.
I find pretty much a parallel to everything. You've got, again, the 6,000 or more years of history of the Old Testament next to less than 100 years of New Testament history. And yet, in that less than 100 years, History. You have them go back to the Old Testament and just shine light on all of it. Light enough.
Paul standing before Agrippa, the same one as we said, except for these chains, he said, Therefore, having, this is his testimony. This is what caused Agrippa to say, Well, that's incredible, Paul. Therefore, Paul says, having obtained help from God to this day I stand witnessing both to small and great, saying no other things than those which the prophets and Moses said would come. The authority of this man in front of God. I don't care what you do with me.
I'm preaching what Moses taught. Because we have the same God. And I'm not saying anything new. But the words that stand out The Ebenezer part of Paul's Word is, therefore, having obtained help from God. When he was suffering shipwreck, he said, God stood by me, sent an angel to stand by me this night.
John's Gospel chapter 14, and I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever. And so, yeah, it means something to us. It's not something that belongs to the Jewish people and not to Christianity. The stone of hell Our rock. Victory took place on the very spot, the very spot that's marked by defeat, because 20 years earlier, here they were defeated.
this same battlefield. Not all the scholars agree with that, but sometimes they're wrong, and that's one of them. The questioning of their location, I I don't question it. Verse 13 So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come any more into the territory of Israel, and the hand of Yahweh was against the Philistines all the day of Samuel. You know why God has martyrs?
So he doesn't have only people who can stand up here and preach. when everything is nice and calm. Martyrs are those who still preach. as they're being bled to death. Because It's true.
and because God helps them do it. And so those who preach during days of peace know I got the same God. They should come to knives. I go out the same way. Not because of me, but because of him.
And that's true whether a man is in a pulpit or a person is before another person, or believers before unbelievers. This is our faith.
Well, here in verse 13, where it says the Philistines were subdued and they did not come any more into the territory of Israel, and the hand of Yahweh was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
So they stayed out of the Jewish neighborhoods.
So long as Samuel judged Israel, and he judged Israel up until Saul becomes king. Then, of course, the Philistines say, ah, new sheriff in town, let's try him. And they found out that Saul was so obsessed. We're persecuting a righteous man who's just maniacal. That he forgot all about.
Well, he just dismissed the Philistine. He didn't care. He'd rather kill David. Than protect the nation from the Philistines. And as a result, The Philistines killed Saul and his sons.
You go look at Mount Gaboa, and it stands there, like, you know, just out in the open. It's unmistakable. That's where Saul died.
Well, the LORD was against the Philistine all the days of Samuel, or rather, upon them. He kept them in check. No more incursions from them. Verse 14. Then the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel from Ekron to Gath.
And Israel recovered its territory from the hands of the Philistines. Also, there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. Everybody got in line now. They said, oh, Sam, Sam, hey, Samuel's leading the people, not Samson. And everybody just lined up on their side of the town and left the Jewish people alone.
So the tribes and clans, or the clans within the tribes that lost territory to the Philistines, were now resettling their territory. This must have been a huge battle. And Samuel opts to just not put it in. He doesn't put in like 400,000 of them died or something like that. He just, we won.
And it was so decisive, we took cities back. And they left us alone. And the other people who weren't part of the Philistines, they left us alone too. They saw the beatdown.
So this must have been pretty intense. Verse 15, and Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. No retirement for this. He retired. In ministry, not from ministry.
What a man Saul When he comes, he's going to be... The anti-Samuel. Of everything Samuel was, he's not going to be. He will. is shelter paganism and idolatry and immorality if it suits his purpose but Nothing like Samuel.
Verse 16. He went from year to year on a circuit, Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpah, and judged Israel. In all those places. And he held court. He solved the heavy cases of the land.
Now he is shepherding the flock. He's an itinerant preacher. He's traveling around, and one of the good things about an itinerant is he can repeat himself. No one ever says I heard that sermon, because they didn't hear that sermon. And this is why when we come to the New Testament, and Mark will give an account sometimes of something Jesus said, and Luke will give another account, and they're different.
Not sometimes they're just omissions of points but But other times it's because he gave the same sermon in a different town. He gave it with a twist. There's nothing wrong, no corruption there whatsoever. If you preach in the same pulpit all the time, you kind of see that right away. He got to preach at other places.
He could repeat his old jokes, like new things. Where is this place?
So it's called being a guest speaker. You can use all your old material, and they're just yucking it up. And you're going, hope nobody from the old land is from the old country is here. Anyway, Let's go, verse 17. Oh, look at that.
We're almost done. I think I should stop and sing you a short song I wrote on the way in. Take the mic. It's not straight. I want to point one thing out.
about the preaching since we're on it. Do you know why a pulpit is a good idea from God? Who wants to see a pastor strut while he preaches? Stay behind the shield. Anyway, verse 17.
I mean, I see a pastor, you know, whoa, whoa, whoa, don't do it. Get back. We're not interested if your pants are pleated or not. Don't. Anyway verse 17.
But he always returned to Rama. for his home was there And there he judged Israel. and there he built an altar to Yahweh.
So I think Samuel, again, the author of this, maybe he's reciting it. Certainly, others have come in and edited it. Because you couldn't say he lived in Yahrama till he died. Samuel could not have written that.
So that's fair, that's fine. But this is a very touching Realistic touch to the whole story. But he always returned to Rama. He always went home. where Elkhanagh and Hannah had lived.
And Panina. The girl from Panino. Anyway. Yeah.
So he always returned to Rama for his home was there. He's a human, he's like us. There's no place like home. He'd go out, he'd minister, he'd come back home. No place like home.
And then he said, But I gotta go. I gotta preach. And he goes out and he does what not only did he preach, he influenced men. You could see young men come to Samuel and learn from him. We'll pick up that later on in chapter 9, I think it is.
But there he judged Israel. And there he built an altar.
So his headquarters is there. Where he's now influencing the men, of course, they were the forefront of the nation. Here is when Saul is looking for his father's donkeys with. His servant, his father's servant, and Saul is looking, and the servant knows about Samuel. Saul does not, because Saul is just so into himself.
If Saul could look at us now, You know the biggest thing he would envy more than anything about us You can take selfies. He was such a selfish All he lived for himself. I can't wait to get to Saul to just hate on him. No, I don't. I don't like the guy.
Anyway, let's come back to this.
So Look now. There is in this city a man of God, and he is an honorable man. And all that he says. Surely comes to pass, so let us go there. Perhaps he can show us the way that we should go.
And of course, Samuel does that. He's talking about Samuel, he's an honorable man. outside of church and Christian circles. And maybe military circles, even there it's diminishing. When's the last time you heard the word honor?
Or honorable. Does that word, I mean, certainly doesn't come up in any news media. I mean, we've none of.
Well, it's just a word we should grab hold of. There he built an altar to Yahweh.
Now, let me pause. Honorable, I don't mean in the sense of looking down at others as being less than us, I mean as looking up for something better for me personally as an individual to aspire to. to be honorable. If I don't get there, I'll g be a lot better off just trying. There he built an altar to Yahweh.
Further evidence that Shiloh had been destroyed back in chapter 2 by the Philistines when they won that day and stole the ark. We're not told why. He doesn't join the altar to the tabernacle that's just left out. Tabernacle's probably at Nob, what's left of it. Anyway, those things just aren't important.
They must have had a good reason. He's such an honorable man, such a great figure. This man was spoken so highly of God. What we do know is that God approved of him even after he died. is his record.
Jeremiah writes, 600 years maybe later. God speaking through Jeremiah. And we know Jeremiah, God spoke through him, was Jeremiah. Jeremiah would say, You know what? You're going to die in two months.
You were dead in two months. It was just nothing. And there's a list of guys he would put a hit on. It's just because they messed with Yahweh. And they lost, and he's just a fierce prophet in that regard.
Then Yahweh said to me, Jeremiah is speaking. Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, my mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of my sight and let them go forth. These are the people of God. We should never feel like, you know, we're so good at it, we're so hot stuff that we can't offend God.
The Jews were offending him, and Jeremiah says, The first two people God put on my heart to tell you as models of prayer and favor with God, Moses and Samuel. And then Psalm ninety nine, verse six Moses and Aaron were among his priests, and Samuel was among those who called upon his name. They called upon Yahweh, and he answered them.
Now, I'll go tomorrow. I'll be talking to God about some pressing need, saying, You answered them? Why can't you answer me?
So, this altar, we'll close with this. Should take 20 minutes. Uh The altar Expresses belief in God. I believe in God. That is what the altar symbolized throughout the land.
Even if you were a pagan, that's what it symbolizes.
So that's pretty alarming. You mean a pagan can have an altar that claims he believes in God?
Okay, so that's not good enough because he's still a pagan. He believes in a fake God, a forgery.
So Not enough to believe in God, even, you know. The devil believes in God. remains the devil. The altar expresses the need for God. Not only do I believe he's there, because there are many people that will tell you, I believe in a God, but they think they're self-made men.
That's a joke. Because they have nothing except what God has allowed them to have. Again, God can always just pinch the airline. That's all it takes. The altar expressed A desire for God.
Now it's getting, this is the Jewish altar.
Now it's intensifying.
So, okay, I believe in God. I need God. Yeah, but do you want him? Do you want them in your life? Or do you feel like, you know what?
God's creeping me out. Because every time I do something, I can't forget he's there. That's part of the process. and the altar of the Jew When done right, spoke of submission to God.
So not only do I believe in him, Not only do I need him because I'm a sinner, And I have, he's telling me there's mercy for me. That's the whole system of sacrifice. Not only do I want him, but I am ready to surrender to him. I'm ready to want him without trying to lord over him. And so the words of an old saint, my heart an altar and your love the flame.
The altar's a big deal. There he built an altar to Yahweh.
Here it says to the Lord Adonai. It's Yahweh. There he built an altar to the Lord. That's very powerful anything. Uh Thanks for joining us for today's edition of Cross Reference Radio.
This is the daily radio ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, Mechanicsville, in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Rick is in the book of 1 Samuel. If you'd like to listen again to this or other messages or share it with someone you know, please visit crossreference radio.com. Here, you can also listen to interviews with Pastor Rick to learn more about his life and ministry. We encourage you to subscribe to our podcast so you'll never miss another edition.
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