Judges 12

Chapter 12. The Reformation Under SamuelAnd Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” (1 Samuel 7:3)We have looked at the great reformer; let us now look at the reformation. Failure It began in the complete failure of the people themselves and the demonstration of their utter inability to lift themselves out of their helpless condition. God has to let us come to the end of ourselves before He can interpose for our deliverance. A mother stood on the deck of a ship, hardly restrained from throwing herself into the sea to save her drowning boy, while men stood by and waited as he sank again and again. At last, as he rose for the third time, a brave seaman leaped in and caught the sinking lad and held him safely while both were drawn to the deck. “Why didn’t you save him sooner?” cried the frantic mother, as her boy slowly came back to consciousness. “Because,” said the sailor, “I had to wait until his strength was gone, or he would have drowned both himself and me.” And so God has to wait until our strength is gone before he can save or sanctify or heal us. This was Israel’s state when Samuel came to the front as the leader of the new reformation. Politically, the country was under the power of the Philistines. Morally and socially the people were corrupt, and the fearful example of Hophni and Phinehas, the very priests of God who turned the sanctuary at Shiloh and the very services of Jehovah’s worship into an orgy of license, could not fail to have a fatal influence upon the manners and the morals of all the people. Even Eli himself, who was still recognized as the ecclesiastical and judicial head of the nation, while honest and sincere in his purpose, was a helpless tool in the hands of his family. And so the very fountains of justice and religion were utterly corrupted and all that was lacking was the crisis hour when this system of iniquity should fall to pieces by its own weight, as it really did at last. The critical moment came when the Philistines once more invaded the land, and in a moment of presumptuous despair leaders of Israel’s forlorn hope brought out the ark of Jehovah. The Philistines realized at once their danger and their opportunity. They were fighting now not only Israel, but Israel’s God. So with redoubled valor the captains roused the host to do their best, and by one victorious blow not only to crush their enemies but secure for themselves the supernatural secret of their victorious power. Eli’s Death As old Eli sat by the tabernacle court at Shiloh that evening a cloud of dust appeared upon the distant horizon, and a swift runner rapidly dashed along until he stood breathless before the aged judge. As he rushed along, the people had already caught from his manner and his looks the fearful tidings, and a great cry arose throughout the city. Eli heard the tumult and called the messenger to his side. The aged patriarch of 98 was too blind to see his form, and could but dimly hear his words; but he eagerly asked him for tidings from the field, and as those fearful words fell upon his ear, “Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured” (1 Samuel 4:17). That last word broke the old man’s heart, and he sank back in a swoon and fell heavily to the ground. As they picked him up his neck was broken and his life was gone. Among the tragedies of that terrible day was the dying anguish of the wife of Phinehas and the significant name she left with her parting sigh of agony to the poor little orphan child which came that moment into life as the memorial of his country’s shame—Ichabod, “the glory has departed” (1 Samuel 4:21). Yes, it was the deepest, darkest hour of the nation’s woe; but it was the darkness just before the dawn and deliverance was near. Revelation of God The next stage in the preparation of the coming reformation was the revelation and vindication of God as Himself the nation’s hope. The one great design of Israel’s history as a nation was to be the witness and the revealer of God. All the supernatural manifestations of their glorious past were intended not to show the greatness of their leaders, but the glory and all-sufficiency of their divine Lord and Leader. Sometimes, therefore, God had to let the human instruments utterly fail so that He Himself might be the more gloriously vindicated in His own all-sufficiency and power. And so we find in the later history of the nation that there came a time when the kings and the prophets and priests of Judah and Israel completely failed to glorify Jehovah among the nations or to accomplish His purpose for the world, and yet this became the most illustrious day of His own manifestation. He had to let the very kingdom of Judah and Israel pass away in ignominious defeat, and even the temple itself become a heap of smoldering ashes before the victorious power of Nebuchadnezzar. And yet, in that very hour, He called four humble Hebrew youths in Babylon to stand for Him in the furnace of fire and the lions’ den, and so to vindicate His own glory and supremacy that in the hour of his pride Nebuchadnezzar, the mightiest king and conqueror of the earth, was compelled to acknowledge that Jehovah was the only true God, and to issue a decree calling upon his subjects to worship the God of Daniel as the true God and the Sovereign Ruler of the universe. And a little later he compelled Cyrus, Artaxerxes and even Xerxes, the proud despots of Persia, to recognize His supremacy, to protect His people and even to send back the captives from Babylon to rebuild the city and the temple at Jerusalem. God Vindicated And so here we find in this period of Israel’s history that, while the nation failed and the priesthood failed and the very ark of God seemed to fail, God Himself became the more gloriously vindicated even in the midst of His enemies. No sooner had the ark of God been taken by the Philistines than a long train of desolation followed in its path wherever it went. They set it up in the temple of Dagon among their gods, and in the morning Dagon was fallen on his face before the ark of God. They set him up again, and the next morning he was not only fallen down, but shattered to pieces before the awful presence of the God of the ark. The most humiliating and distressing plagues began to fall upon the people. They begged that it should be sent away from Ashdod, but no sooner had they taken it to Gath than there they begged that it be removed. And so they took it to Ekron, but the people of Ekron protested, saying, “They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people” (1 Samuel 5:10). And so at last they called a council and determined to send it back to Israel once more. So, preparing a costly present and choosing two cows, they put it on a cart and committed it to the God whom it represented in some superstitious way to their terrified minds. But it needed no human hand to guide the holy symbol of Jehovah’s presence. Contrary to their own instincts, those Hebrew cows went steadily forward at a divine command which they could neither understand nor disobey, lowing as they went, because their hearts carried them backwards to their calves. Yet on they went at the bidding of a power that drove them in the opposite direction until they reached Beth Shemesh, where the Levites met the sacred ark and took the cattle that bore it and offered them up in sacrifice unto the Lord and presented the costly offerings before the Lord. Thus God showed that He could vindicate His own glory and lead His own way without the help or wisdom of man. And even a more solemn lesson still had to be learned, for as the men of Beth Shemesh presumed to approach the holy symbol of the presence of God with forbidden familiarity they were smitten with death and, as nearly as we can understand from the doubtful readings of the passage (1 Samuel 6:19), 70 men (not 50,070, as the Revised Version states) perished for their presumption. This is the lesson that we all need to learn before we are prepared to truly represent God: God does not need us or our strength, but we need to understand Him and know that He is all-sufficient for His own work. And what He requires of us is that we know Him, bear witness to Him and truly represent Him. He is able to take care of His own cause if we only give Him right of way. “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself” (John 12:32). The best way to glorify God is to hold Him up to men and He will glorify Himself. As we go forth to meet the tests and conflicts of these last days we need to understand our God, and to know that One is in our midst and on our side who, standing between heaven and earth, has already said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me…. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). We have plenty of people today who know the culture and wisdom of the ages and even the theology of the Bible. But what we want are people that know their God and can stand alone and trust Him in the hour of trial, in the face of difficulties, in the midst of enemies, in the lands of the heathen and in situations where there is no hope or help but God and God alone. Repentance The next step in Israel’s reformation was national repentance and the turning of the people with their whole heart from all idolatry and sin unto the Lord. And so Samuel calls them together at Mizpah to a great day of national humiliation, and addresses to them the language of 1 Samuel 7:3, which is the watchword of every true reformation and revival. The essential conditions of God’s acceptance and blessing always must be deep sincerity, penitence and absolute rightness with God. No matter how long or how far you may have wandered, no matter how great your sin, or how deep your sinfulness, the honest, earnest heart will always and instantly find the heart of God. If you have not found Him, it is because there is some reservation, some insincerity, some idol to which you cling, some disingenuousness of heart or cherished crookedness of life. God has fixed the instant when every soul will find Him, and that is “when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). And so they came together, not only with fasting and with the symbolic pouring out of the waters of cleansing before the Lord, but the best of all is that “Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah” (1 Samuel 7:6). It is this judging of ourselves that puts us right with God. It is not emotional feeling nor fountains of tears, but simple calling things by their right names and putting them in their true places. Therefore the promise is, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). He does not say anything about great sorrow or deep feeling, but simple, straightforward confessing. What He wants is to have us see things aright, diagnose the disease, recognize the fault, and then we shall be saved from future deception and disobedience. This is the emphatic meaning of that remarkable passage in 1 Corinthians 11:31 : “If we judged ourselves, we would not come under judgment.” That is, if we would discern ourselves and put everything in its right place in our lives, we should not need God’s heavier blow to wake us out of our deception and hold us back from evil. The Blood The next stage in Israel’s reformation was the precious atoning blood. How beautifully that sacrificial scene is described: “Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it up as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him” (1 Samuel 7:9). This was the difference between the present reformation and many of those that had gone before. There was at this time a thorough recognition of that atoning blood. Without this there can be no radical and lasting change in the life of an individual or people. The disposition to ignore the sacrificial meaning of Christ’s death and to reduce His vicarious offering to a mere object lesson is the most alarming condition of our Christian life and the real secret of the declension of practical righteousness and holiness. The deepest meaning of the blood, too, many of us fail to understand. It means not cleansing, but crucifixion; not blotting out, but burying. It is not merely that the blood wipes out the sin, but it wipes out the sinner, too. The real significance of the death of Christ is that the man who committed the sin is judged, condemned and crucified with Christ, that he is not the same man that lives now, that he has been repudiated and forever put aside, and that a new man, born of Christ and descending out of heaven, has come in his place so truly that we can say in the literal language of the great apostle, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). This is the reason men hate the cross, because it is not only Christ’s cross, but it is bound to be their cross, too. It means not only a dead Savior, but a dead sinner. But this is the only way that the sin can ever cease and the cleansing ever be permanent and complete. The Enemy Next comes the test of faith and the attack of the foe. Just as the deliverance is about to come, the enemy musters in double force, and all Israel’s fears seem about to be realized. How emphatic is the time of this attack. “While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle” (1 Samuel 7:10), and the trembling people stood unarmed, defenseless and dismayed. “Do not stop,” they cried to Samuel, “crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines” (1 Samuel 7:8). And as that smoking sacrifice ascended silently to the heavens, along the sky there burst the artillery of heaven, and a terrific thunderstorm poured down upon the embattled foe, doubtless with quivering lightning stroke and mighty hailstones. As in the day of Gideon’s battle, the enemy fled in confusion, pursued by their triumphant foes until they were scattered and dispersed. So signal was the victory that we are told in the next verse they “did not invade Israelite territory again. Throughout Samuel’s lifetime the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. The towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to her, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the power of the Philistines” (1 Samuel 7:13-14). The victory was complete and permanent, and the reformation had become a restoration. Ebenezer The last chapter was a doxology of praise. “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far has the Lord helped us’” (1 Samuel 7:12). This is ever the consummation of penitence and believing prayer. The sorrow is turned into joy and the prayer is translated into praise. This is the true way to show that we really do believe God. Not until we cease our pleading and begin to thank Him that the blessing is given shall we really have cause for thanksgiving. In the City of Salvation all the gates are praise, and the reason many fail to enter in is because they try to creep through the tunnels rather than enter through the open gates of thankfulness and praise. This is the secret of victory forevermore, to take what He gives and thank Him for it in advance. This is also the secret of defeat and failure—a spirit of gloom, depression, moroseness and murmuring. The moment you begin to grumble God will give you something to grumble about; and the moment you begin to praise He will give you cause for love and praise. The dreary pathway that missed the Land of Promise and for 40 years trod the lonely desert all began in the murmuring at Taberah (Number 1 Samuel 11:1). On the other hand, the glorious renaissance which led through Samuel’s reformation to David’s throne and Solomon’s glory, all began in the stone of Ebenezer, and the praise of a trustful, thankful people. Let us set up today over against every place of failure, over against every sorrow, over against every sin as we cover it with the cleansing blood, not a banner merely, nor even a song, but a stone of Ebenezer, and write upon it, “Thus far has the Lord helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12).