Samuel No.9 Samuel's Nunc Dimittis

Now let's read 1 Samuel chapter 12. What locks have I taken? Whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I cheated? Whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me shut my eyes? If I have done any of these, I will make it right. You have not cheated or oppressed us, they replied.

You have not taken anything from anyone's hand. Samuel said to them, The Lord is witness against you, and also his anointing is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand. He is witness, they said.

Then Samuel said to the people, It is the Lord who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your forefathers up out of Egypt. Now then, stand here, because I am going to confront you with evidence before the Lord as to all the righteous acts performed by the Lord for you and your fathers. After Jacob entered Egypt, they cried to the Lord for help, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your forefathers out of Egypt and settled them in this place.

But they forgot the Lord their God, so he sold them into the hands of Sisera, the commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab, who fought against them. They cried out to the Lord and said, We have sinned. We have forsaken the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtoreths.

But now deliver us from the hands of our enemies, and we will serve you. Then the Lord sent Jeroboam, Barak, Jephthah, and Samuel, and he delivered you from the hands of your enemies on every side, so that you lived securely. But when you saw that Nahash, king of the Ammonites, was moving against you, you said to me, No, we want a king to rule over us, even though the Lord your God was your king.

Now here is the king you have chosen, the one you asked for. See, the Lord has set a king over you. 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 fathers. Now then, stand still and see this great thing the Lord is about to do before your eyes. Is it not wheat harvest now? I will call upon the Lord to send thunder and rain, and you will realize what an evil thing you did in the eyes of the Lord when you asked for a king.

Then Samuel called upon the Lord, and that same day the Lord sent thunder and rain. So all the people stood in awe of the Lord and of Samuel. The people all said to Samuel, Pray to the Lord your God for your servants, so that we may not die.

For we have added to all our other sins the evil of asking for a king. Do not be afraid, Samuel replied. You have done all this evil, yet do not turn away from the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.

Do not turn away after useless idols. They can do you no good, nor can they rescue you, because they are useless. For the sake of his great name, the Lord will not reject his people, because the Lord was pleased to make you his own.

As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. And I will teach you the way that is good and right, but be sure to fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. Consider what great things he has done for you.

Yet if you persist in doing evil, both you and your king will be swept away. 1 Samuel chapter 12 and my address this morning I've entitled Samuel's Nunc Dimittis. You remember the story of the aged Simeon? You don't, of course, read of him in Samuel.

You read of him in the Gospels, in Luke. Simeon was a pensioner. He spent the remaining years of his life in the precincts of the temple at Jerusalem.

And the day came which was climactic in his experience when he cradled the young baby in his arms, the infant, Jesus. And he said, in words which have been immortalized by being incorporated into the Book of Common Prayer, the Nunc Dimittis, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, the glory of thy people Israel. And presumably after that, old Simeon went to be with the Heavenly Father.

And we have as his memorial this beautiful prayer, the Nunc Dimittis, Latin for, let me now depart. Now it seems to me that there's a semblance of that in 1 Samuel chapter 12. When you find another man who doesn't blush to tell you how old he is, verse 2, as for me, I am old and gray, and my sons are with you.

A man who is about to take his leave, not in as much as he's immediately going to be transported into the kingdom of heaven, but rather he's going to go out into retirement. His name, of course, Samuel. And the circumstances that surround chapter 12 are in some ways a little sad.

He's been rejected by the people, moved out into retirement, though he himself is not that willing at a personal level to go, but he submits to the wishes of the people. Now whenever you've been passed over, it's so easy for you to grow a grudge, to become somewhat sour. But not for Samuel, it's against his nature.

And so his final song to the Israelites in terms of a prayer, his final promise, and he'll only come out of retirement on two occasions in the future where there is a national crisis, his final promise is, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. The moment of his departure from the public platform, he confesses his faithfulness in prayer and that he will continue to engage in that holy pursuit. You know, my dear friends, in one sense I would like to suggest to you without being melancholic at all, that all of life should be directed towards this one end as far as you are concerned, and that is that toward eventide your nunc dimittis might be like that of Samuel or that of Simeon.

Lord, let us now thy servant depart in peace. As for me, God forbid that I should sin in ceasing to pray for you. There's dignity that falls even from the lips of those two men to whose story I direct your attention.

So I want to ask you this evening, or rather this morning, how are you living your life? Says Dr. Packer, how many Christians live their lives packed up and ready to go? Says a Puritan preacher, if thou wouldst die comfortably, live conscientiously. If thou wouldst die comfortably, live conscientiously. Well, here is Samuel and he's towards the end of his journey, though there are a few more miles.

But here is his final comment to the Israelites. He's going to continue to pray and he's ready to go at any time that the Father calls him into his immediate presence. Now, what's your nunc dimittis like? What will it be? When you get towards the end, and who knows how near the end is? Again, I'm not being depressive, I'm being realistic.

Could you pen with the Apostle Paul who also engages in writing a nunc dimittis? I have fought a good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day. Can you approach the end of your life like that? You see, here is a challenge.

The challenge of an old man's nunc dimittis. The challenge of a man who is going on into retirement as much a prayer warrior as ever he was. So, somewhat quickly, as the atmosphere is humid and warm this morning, let's break open this verse, the 23rd of 1 Samuel 12.

As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. Here I say, Samuel's nunc dimittis reveals to us the habit of a lifetime. The habit of a lifetime.

The authorized version puts it, God forbid that I should cease to pray for you. And the very logic of using that word cease in a translation indicates that this was something that Samuel had been engaged in during the whole of his years on this earth. You see, here is a man of prayer.

It was instilled in him at birth. It was distilled by him through life. Now that's a challenge.

Instilled in him at birth. Here is Hannah. And she takes the young child that's now three or four years of age and she brings him to Shiloh, back to that scene that becomes familiar to us in the opening chapter of this book.

And with her hand upon the young infant she directs her comments to the priest and she said, for this child I prayed. You see, he was born in prayer. Not only was he born in prayer, but he's named by prayer.

She called him Samuel because of what reason? Well, Samuel means given of God. Or if you prefer, asked of the Lord. And whenever the name of Samuel is used, whenever Hannah calls him to herself, she reminds herself that this child is a special child.

Born of prayer. Named by prayer. Nurtured in prayer.

For she's a woman, is Hannah, who's given over to prayer herself. One of the first who could bear the name of a prophet or prophetess, if you please. And something of what she is rubs off on the boy as most of what a mother is rubs off sooner or later on her children.

And when the young lad Samuel is in Shiloh, there at the school where he's the only pupil, on one occasion his night is interrupted as he appreciates ultimately that a voice is speaking to him that is none other than the voice of God. And in response, Samuel says, speak Lord, for your servant he is. Born in prayer.

Named by prayer. Nurtured in prayer. Trained in prayer.

And that's ultimately what he becomes known as. A man for whom the word of God will come with a greater generosity than to most of the people in those days. For there's only a morsel of food as far as divine revelation is concerned.

But for Samuel there's baskets full, enough and to spare. And he becomes known from Dan to Beersheba as a man to whom God speaks. His life was instilled by prayer at birth.

And when you move into maturity with such a background as that, then your life becomes distilled or prayer distills your life. They know that Samuel is a man to whom they can go because he can speak with authority. He's a man whose life is complementary to the prayer ministry that he engages in.

That's why at the beginning of this chapter as he takes his leave publicly from Israel, he's able to say, look into my career. Can you tell me of any rotten act that I ever did? Is there any mud that you can fling that will stick on me? You see, the man who's instilled in prayer at birth, he will distill the same throughout life. And the prayer man will always be the holy man.

Prayer for Samuel were like the wings of a bird that would take him into flight. Like the tongues of flame that belch from the rocket as it takes the satellite up into space. By prayer he supports himself.

By prayer he's sustained throughout the whole of his long life. And when you see him, you see a reflection of his mother. And so towards the end of the journey with the light of eventide growing somewhat dim, he's able to say to these Israelites, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you.

The habit of a lifetime. My friend, to what degree can you identify yourself with Samuel? You say, well, you know, I've just dropped into the tabernacle accidentally this morning. I'm not really one of these monastic sort that engage in a great deal of religious devotion.

Let me disarm you, my friend, of the prejudices that you have. You see, the life of prayer is the one to which ordinary people are called. It's not just for the cleric.

In fact, I'm not even too sure that scripture warrants a distinction between the clergy and the laity. The man who bends before God on his knees is engaged in the greatest act of wisdom that anyone can engage in inasmuch as he's supplicating his creator on behalf of himself and on behalf of other people. And prayer should be to you as natural as taking in air is to your lungs.

It was a habit of a lifetime to which Samuel makes reference as he sings out his swan song, as he engages in his nunc dimittis. And as it was for Samuel, so it must be for you and for me if we will swim against the tide, if we will run away from the increasing secularism and atheism of the 20th century, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you, reveals a habit of a lifetime instilled at birth, distilled throughout the years. But I hasten on.

It seems to me that Samuel's nunc dimittis exposes a fallacy of the years it exposes a fallacy of the years. Listen again. Far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord.

We'll approach my point in a different fashion just to make it clear and then I'll come back home on it again. There is an adage which says that evil prospers when good men do nothing. Now in one sense you could illustrate this in perhaps a less graphic fashion by saying that there are occasions in life when to do nothing still makes you very blameworthy.

To do nothing fills you with guilt. For instance, if you're a person who is a good swimmer and let's say that you're walking down by the harbour, by the side of the harbour at Little Hampton and someone falls in, shall we say a child, and you refuse to do anything at all, then that very refusal nonetheless makes you guilty. That very refusal makes you guilty.

You see, to do nothing does not necessarily abdicate you from your responsibilities. I hope you get the point. If you're a strong swimmer and someone falls in and you don't do anything about it, then you remain guilty.

Now here is Samuel and he speaks to the Israelites and he said, if I were not to engage in the ministry of intercession, then I would sin against you. And indeed, he puts it more precisely, I would sin against the Lord. For Abraham not to pray for Sodom and Gomorrah would have been a great crime.

For Nehemiah not to have prayed about Jerusalem when he heard about the state of the city walls and its gates would have been great folly. For you and for me, not to engage in a ministry of prayer when confronted with the needs of our country and the needs of our family circles brings us into a state of sinfulness. Do you hear that? This is what I mean, you see, when I say that this nonc dimittis exposes a fallacy of the years.

Not to engage in prayer does not make you neutral in the sight of God. If you have the resources of prayer at your disposal, the ability to change things, and you don't go and fetch those resources and bring about the change, then you are as guilty as the strong swimmer who finds a child falling into the harbor at Little Hampton and refuses to go in and deliver them from what otherwise would be death by drowning. The fallacy is exposed over the years that people have clung to that to be prayerless is still to be guiltless before the Lord.

Says Samuel, No, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. Now let's just delve in a little deeper. If any man had the reason not to pray for this particular bunch, it was Samuel.

Now I hope you've got the context. It was read extremely well, the chapter. I hope you followed Ted's reading.

You see, in front of Samuel are representatives of all the nation of the Hebrews. And they have rejected the man and they've rejected the message of the man. They have opted for a king.

Do you remember how the request is put in an earlier chapter? In the 8th and the 6th verse, when they said, Give us a king to lead us, this displeased Samuel, so he prayed to the Lord. Verse 7, And the Lord told him, Listen to all that the people are saying to you. It is not you that they have rejected as their king, but me.

Yet publicly, the first consequence of this evil request for a king so that they could be like all the other nations in the world, meant that Samuel will be sent off into retirement. The judges are dead. Long live the king.

Samuel is sent away, out to graze. No longer needed. Now, you see my opening sally and its point when I said to you that it is possible that when a man is bypassed for him to entertain such a spirit of grievance and sourness that he refuses to engage in that ministry of intercession for folks who need his prayers more desperately than they ever did before.

But this is the nature of Samuel, you see. This is why I wanted Dorothy to sing that hymn because it brings together all the glowing attributes of Samuel. Not only Samuel's ear, not only Samuel's voice, but Samuel's spirituality.

He's prepared to pray for those who have rejected the man. He's prepared to pray for those who have rejected the message. He goes on to tell them in the eighth chapter of all the potential dangers in a king, all that the monarchy has in it that lurks towards evil should that king become a man who is directed towards sin over against righteousness.

And Samuel's message is rejected. Verse 19 of chapter 8. No, they said. We want a king over us.

So what might Samuel well be disposed to do as he goes into retirement? A plague upon all your houses. All right, that's what you want? Then take it. But not Samuel.

He has nobility. He has dignity. You see, the whole of his life has been directed towards this nonc dimittis in one sense.

It summarizes his whole approach. No, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by failing to pray for you. Now my friends, let's go for the main artery for a moment, shall we? In our application.

You see, although I find it fascinating to preach on the book of Samuel, I'd stay on it for a long time that I'm racing through. The point is not because I'm highly interested in this area of Hebrew history. There is more to preaching than merely a lecture in ancient history.

In fact, that isn't really part of preaching. My concerns are to lift out these principles and apply them first to myself. And that hurts.

And then apply them to you. To what extent are you guilty of this sin of omission? You see, Samuel's an old man. The years have gone by, and yet, when he looks down memory lane, he recalls his faithfulness in prayer.

There's no sin of omission there. Now, some of us are pretty poor if we're measured by the quality of our prayer life. Not so? Remember those immortal words of Mary McShane? I wish I could get them out of my mind.

They haunt me. They hurt me too much. A man is what he is on his knees, and he's nothing else.

He's nothing else. I would put a rider to that. The man who's faithful in corporate prayer is much more likely to be faithful in private prayer.

And now, how do you square? You see, the whole ministry of the Acts of the Apostles is replete with illustrations of people at prayer. They come together to fetch the resources of heaven, to use them against the Jewish and the Roman secular authorities, and to penetrate the minds of unbelieving men with the gospel of Christ. And so they pray.

They have their great prayer meetings. And on we are in the 20th century, and still the principle shouts at us from Scripture that the one thing that God demands of us even more than theological accuracy is consistency in the school of prayer. Now, how's your prayer life? Why is it that many of you, we never see at a prayer session.

This church is known for prayer to some degree, but our reputation is far greater than its actuality. Or you say, well, I don't like the way you handle that prayer meeting. I'll tell you something.

We handle our prayer meetings in such a way that the tastes of the most conservative are catered for, as well as the tastes of the less conservative. We meet together for prayer at 10 o'clock on a Sunday morning here with a handful of saints who move my heart as they come to our coffee house. They pray for the ministry.

Some of us insomniacs, that means who can't sleep, get up early on a Saturday morning and we pray, one of the best prayer meetings. Some come along on a Thursday afternoon on a fortnightly basis and bring before the Lord in a systematic fashion, which is most noteworthy, the needs of our folk for serving God across the waters. Others will meet on a Thursday morning, fortnightly.

Others will meet Wednesday evening. Others will meet with me for an hour or so before that meeting on a Wednesday, when in a very conservative fashion we bring before the Lord the needs of our church. Now I ask you, in the name of God, look into the mirror, see yourself, and put to yourself the question, is it conceivable that the sin of omission is one that I am guilty of? Now a tender word for my older friends.

Some of you can't make it. God bless you for even coming here. If I had your arthritis, I'm sure I wouldn't make it at all.

But you're braver than I am. But with that as a reasonable prohibition, along with some who are really taken up with family responsibility, the 80% of us who remain still have the challenge from the Word of God. What about these sins of omission? Not that one cannot be faithful on one's own, but my corollary is this, to Murray Mike Shane's comment, and if you can disprove it, then please do, because I'd love to be corrected in my understanding of human nature and spirituality.

That the person who is consistent in corporate prayer is much more likely to be consistent in private prayer. Here is Samuel then with his Nunc Dimittis. He reveals to us the habit of a lifetime instilled in prayer.

His personality distilled by prayer. He exposes the fallacy of the years that prayerlessness leaves us innocent. It doesn't.

It leaves us guilty. And now, let me close down. He anticipates what I have called the wonder of the cosmos.

He anticipates the wonder of the cosmos. You say, what do you mean? Well, listen, and you'll understand, and I don't think I'm being too fanciful in my exegesis, in my explanation of Scripture here. You see, every prophet was pointing to the greatest prophet.

Every good king was pointing to the greatest king. Every priest was pointing to the priest who would be priest par excellence. Those three ministries in the Old Testament, they converge in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in one sense, Samuel, he anticipates the Savior. All that is good in Samuel is lifted to its highest in our Lord Jesus Christ. Was Jesus, was Samuel born in prayer? Aye, he was.

So was Jesus. Was Samuel named by prayer? Yes, he was. So was Jesus.

Was Samuel given of God? So was the Lord Jesus. Was Samuel known from then to be a Sheba as a man who had uncanny power to the end that when he spoke, sometimes the very heavens would react and the climate would be affected? So was Jesus. Was there an occasion when the voice of God, what the Hebrews call the bath call, was known to Samuel? Yes, there was.

And so it occurred with Jesus. Was there a time when Samuel went through a thrice rejection of the people when they rejected him as a man and rejected twice over his message? So was Jesus, the man who was constantly being rejected. Did Samuel still not pray to intercede on behalf of the people despite the rejection? So did Jesus.

You see what I'm trying to say? This very nunt dimittis, it anticipates the wonder of the cosmos. Here is the Christ, the Son of God. He comes on earth and he is known as a man who is saturated in prayer.

You find him in the garden of Gethsemane and he's praying. You find him on the cross of Calvary. It seems as though all hell has been let loose at him.

And indeed, that's not a metaphorical expression. That's literally what happens. And the perpetrators of the pain and the shame and all that Calvary stands for, he has them in mind.

And almost his final word is directed towards them. And it's the word of a prayer. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.

When Samuel took his leave of the people, did he not say he would still pray? And when our Lord Jesus was lifted above the earth and above the heavens, until that point came about that the highest name that heaven affords becomes His by sovereign right. How do you describe His ministry? Let the writer to the Hebrews tell you. He ever lives to make intercession for us.

You see, the ministries of our Lord Jesus, they bring together the dimittis of Samuel and also Simeon. Lord, let us now, Thy servant, depart in peace for my life has brought Your salvation. And even in the heavenlies, do I speak like a fool when I suggest there's an echo from Samuel.

God forbid that I should sin in refusing, in overlooking to pray for you. Now, my friends, some of you here have come in as I suggested casually. You're more than welcome, however you came, deliberately or just on the off chance.

Can I suggest to you that the dimittis of Samuel should challenge you? You see, Samuel benefited his people. As the Lord Jesus, who prays His own nunc dimittis, wishes to benefit you, His death on the cross of Calvary is the way in which He did that. And those who confess their sins and acknowledge that He is the Lord and that He died to save them from their sins, then they become Christians.

They benefit from the prayer of Jesus. Have you done that? You see, that's the most important thing. Samuel wanted to spare the people physically and politically from great harm and danger.

Jesus not only is concerned about that, He's concerned about our spiritual well-being. And so He reveals Himself as the Savior of the world and He prays for you, for your salvation. Now, have you made that commitment? In other words, I'm putting it quite bluntly, are you a Christian? Are you a Christian? And you become a Christian, I say, by just responding to all that Jesus did on that cross as I've tried to explain on your behalf.

And then, having become a Christian, do you recognize your Samuel qualities? The very salvation that you have is given by God. The very life that you have is given by God. Stamped across your total personality, almost like Worthing Rock, wherever you break it, has Worthing written across it, within it.

So should be that characteristic owned by the Lord, owned by God. And wherever we find you, we should find you in some semblance, in an attitude of prayer and worship, wanting in whatever you do to bring honor and glory to the Lord. That then is the challenge, briefly stated, of this old man Samuel, his nunc dimittis, anticipating that of Simeon, and both of them anticipating that of Jesus Christ.

Now will you respond in either, or perchance both of the ways that I've suggested, committing yourself to the Savior, committing yourself more to a life of prayer, and thus obviating any charge of committing the sin of omission. Let's sing, shall we? One, three, four. One hundred and thirty-four.

Hallelujah. Sing to Jesus. His the scepter, His the throne.

Let's make that third verse, which is a favorite of mine. Let's really make it rip out. Intercessor, friend of sinners, earth's Redeemer, plead for me.

Let's just ask that our Lord Jesus in that heavenly ministry will continue to remember us and our needs before His Father. One, three, four. His the throne.

His the triumph. His the victory. Jesus, house of peace, we receive thee and plead to your sinners.

Earth's Redeemer, plead for me. For sinners, plead our Lord Jesus. His the scepter.

Now, we're a little early. First time ever, I think, in the town. Let's just have a moment of prayer as our Sunday school comes to a halt.

Let's just stand and pray for one another, for our life as a church, for our ministries in various lands. Then, together, we'll sing God of glory. We exalt your name, if Evelyn will have that available.

Father, we thank you. You give to us the potential of a Samuel, an ability to exercise a ministry of influence amongst men and women today. And our land so desperately needs you.

Our world so deeply requires the message of salvation. Some of us, Lord, are old and infirm and we can't go. But we thank you that the ministry of intercession is one that you've preserved for your choicest of children.

Help us, Lord, in the quietness of our own homes, down by the beach, up in the hills, to bring our hearts' cry to you. Be with those in our church who are worried about parents and worried about children and worried about the salvation of neighbors. Oh, God, we ask that you will enable us through the ministry of intercession to change and transform circumstances.

Father, we continue to pray before you for our country and its great need in these days. Bless our queen, her consort. Bless our prime minister, her cabinet.

These decisions that they're making that are influencing affairs in other parts of the world, oh, God, we ask that they might take some cognition of what is your thinking and what are your plans and purposes. And, Lord, we pray for our own lives. I want to pray for every brother and sister here, for all that they mean to me, for what increasingly we mean to one another.

Some of us have had a bad week, Lord. We blush to think about what we did and about the ways that we let you down. But we just ask that the remedial power of your spirit may heal and cause us to be forgiven for our sins of omission and sins of deliberate activity and words which left our lips which should never have gone out.

And we just ask that you make this week a better week and enable us to live a Samuel sort of life, indeed, help us to live a life that approximates more to that of our Lord Jesus. Humble us, Lord, where we've been stiff and resistant and where we've got tradition that is not from your word that cripples us, then we ask that you will deal with that too. Now hear us, Lord.

Bless these boys and girls as they come to the end of their Sunday school. And bless us as we sing this piece of praise and thanksgiving to the God of glory. Amen.