May 16, 2010
Prayer
Hymn 334 - Glad T-i-d-i-n-g-s
Prayer
1 Samuel 12
Now that the children of Israel have a king, Samuel doesn’t have as much responsibility. Saul will take over as the judge. So, at the beginning of this chapter, Samuel reminds the Israelites that he has not done anything wrong while he has been their judge. Vv. 1-3. He says that he has never cheated anyone, or judged in a wrong way; he would restore appropriately if he had.
Vv.4-5. Samuel is going to step aside a bit, because the children of Israel now have a king. God was disappointed, though, when they asked for a king. He had done so much for them, delivered them from Egypt, lead them in the wilderness, given them a good land and He had been their king. But now they want a human king. Vv.6-15. This was the start of a new period for Israel, the time when they would have kings, but they still had to obey God.
Samuel then gave them a sign to show them how disappointed God was that they had wanted a king. Vv.16-19. Samuel prayed and the Lord sent thunder and rain. This was at harvest time, a time when they probably didn’t get much rain. The people are afraid and say that they have sinned. They ask Samuel to pray that their lives will be spared.
Vv.20-22. Now why did God choose the Jews to be His people? The Bible tells us that it wasn’t because of anything that they had done; it was because the Lord wanted to. They hadn’t done anything to deserve it. We haven’t done anything to deserve salvation. There was nothing that we could do; but God will save us anyway, if we trust Christ as our Saviour. This is:
1. The Grace of God
Even though the children of Israel were sometimes disobedient, they were still the Lord’s people. Samuel tells the people that the Lord will not forsake them. V.23. Samuel wasn’t going to forsake his people, either. He still continued to pray for them. Now that He has gone back to heaven, the Lord Jesus is at the right hand of God interceding for us. To intercede means to ask for or talk to for. He is talking to God the Father for us. Now we have:
2. The Intercession of Christ
Samuel didn’t say, “Well, now you have a king, so I’m not going to help you anymore.” He told them that he would still teach them the right ways. In our lives, there is a right way and a wrong way. We need to learn what is the truth. The Bible says that after Jesus went back to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit down to us. God’s Holy Spirit will guide us into all truth. So we need:
3. The Teaching of the Holy Spirit.
It’s good to get together in these meetings so that we can learn the truth. It’s wonderful to have the Grace of God, the Intercession of Christ, and the Teaching of the Holy Spirit.
Vv. 24-25. As we think of the great things that God has done for us, (saving us, giving us eternal life and His Holy Spirit) may we fear Him. The fear of the Lord is a reverence that makes us want to obey Him. If the Children of Israel didn’t do this, they would be destroyed. Let’s follow in the good ways of God, and think of the many great things that He has done for us.
We’ve been reading about how the Jews were earnestly reading the law; we saw how they made a covenant with God for their blessing. What we’re reading now is about 12 years after all this. In that time, they went from order to disorder. What we see in chapter 13 is the making right of things that have gone wrong. Notice that the term evil is used several times (vv. 7, 17, 18, & 27). Nehemiah is taking disciplinary actions when dealing with evil. Those who desire to have things right in the assembly have to be aware of three types of evil: Moral, Ecclesiastical, and Doctrinal. Sometimes we need to put this evil out and sometimes we need to separate from it. We also see another repetition in this chapter: prayer, in vv. 22, 29, &13. There needs to be much prayer when dealing with evil.
In v. 1, we see that the Jews read about the Moabites and the Ammonites. In v. 3, they turned and separated from them. They did this because of how the Moabites had made Balaam curse them. But that happened over 1000 years previously. God does not forget; because of what had happened, many had to separate from their wives and families. It was a big measure, but the truth must be upheld.
Hymn 164 - Have I an object, Lord, below
Prayer