Farewell
Preached by Ben Bechtel
June 19, 2016
I’m going to start this sermon with a news-flash and if this hurts your feelings or your ego I am sorry. Here it is: we are not all great athletes. Even those of us who are athletic and exceptionally skilled at a particular sport, have to say goodbye to the sports we love at some point due to injury or old age. For me, this sad realization hit once high school was over. For Benjamin and others this was after college. For some others in here that realization hit as soon as you were old enough to catch and throw a baseball. This is my story with soccer. And even the really gifted athletes, the ones who go on to play professionally and rise to stardom, have to give it up at some point. Kobe Bryant is a player we just saw retire from professional basketball, recognizing that his career was coming to an end. Most of the time, if players are as prominent as Kobe is, they will give some type of farewell address. Kobe’s will always be marked by the famous words, “Mamba out.”Chapter 12 of 1 Samuel is the farewell address of Israel’s leader, Samuel. Saul has just been introduced as the new ruler of the people of Israel and it is time for Samuel to step down. This final speech of Samuel’s will reveal that he is a man faithful to God and His people despite the unfaithfulness of his people. He will use this farewell to point Israel to what God has done for her and urge her to say farewell to sin and recommit to God in faithfulness.
1 Samuel 12
1 And Samuel said to all Israel, “Behold, I have obeyed your voice in all that you have said to me and have made a king over you. 2 And now, behold, the king walks before you, and I am old and gray; and behold, my sons are with you. I have walked before you from my youth until this day. 3 Here I am; testify against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox have I taken? Or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or from whose hand have I taken a bribe to blind my eyes with it? Testify against me and I will restore it to you.” 4 They said, “You have not defrauded us or oppressed us or taken anything from any man's hand.” 5 And he said to them, “The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness this day, that you have not found anything in my hand.” And they said, “He is witness.”6 And Samuel said to the people, “The Lord is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. 7 Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers. 8 When Jacob went into Egypt, and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried out to the Lord and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. 9 But they forgot the Lord their God. And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor,[d]and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. 10 And they cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’ 11 And the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety. 12 And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the Lord your God was your king. 13 And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, the Lord has set a king over you. 14 If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. 15 But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. 16 Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. 17 Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.” 18 So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.19 And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.” 20 And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart. 21 And do not turn aside after empty things that cannot profit or deliver, for they are empty. 22 For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself. 23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way. 24 Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you. 25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”
Prayer
In this passage there are three things that confront Israel that also confront us. In this passage we are going to see the trial of Israel (and us), the choice of Israel (and us), and the hope of Israel (and us).
1. The Trial of Israel (1-12, 16-19)
If we look closely at the first half of this passage or so, we will notice courtroom language being used. We see witnesses being called to testify, defenses being made, and charges being pressed. This is a courtroom scene and Samuel steps up to the plate first to be tried. He puts himself on trial before God and all the people before prosecuting the case against Israel. He lays it all out before God, Saul, and the people and is found to be the innocent, faithful leader the book of 1 Samuel portrays him to be.Starting in verse 6, the script is flipped on Israel. The people are placed on trial with God as the witness (and prosecutor) and Samuel as the prosecuting attorney. And the evidence is stacked against them. In verses 6-12 we have a brief retelling of Israel’s story and what we find is not good for the defendant. We read in those verses of how God delivers His people from Egypt and brings them into the Promised Land. We read of how God raises up judges and overthrows their oppressive enemies. And yet, after each of these major victories that God won for them, the people of Israel sin. They turn back to serving idols and do not worship Yahweh their God. I think verse 9 illustrates this well. After reading of how God miraculously saved them from the Egyptians we read:
9 But they forgot the Lord their God.
The text says, “they forgot the Lord their God.” What an understatement! Like we forget where we put one of our socks or our car keys. The God who saves them from slavery in Egypt, the God who reveals Himself to them as abounding in covenant love, the God who parts a sea with simply His breath, they forget.I think the story of Exodus 32 comments on Israel’s damning history well. Moses is up on the mountain receiving the Law from God, the marriage ceremony of this covenant between God and Israel, all the while Israel is making an idol out of gold. Author Joshua Ryan Butler says of this instance:
Israel is caught cheating on her wedding night. God steps out of the room for a minute to plan their home together, and returns to the hotel to find his blushing bride in bed with another man. The irony is thick. This is not one year, five years, ten years into a marriage—after the flame of love has grown cold and temptation struck hard—it’s at the very moment she just devoted herself to God . . . Israel has an affair on the honeymoon and God is rightly livid.1
The story repeats itself after this. God gets together to renew the wedding vows and Israel cheats again and again. God has made His love crystal clear and yet His people say farewell and flee. Friends, is it just me that sees a picture of my life here? I see this in my heart—rampant unfaithfulness to the God who loves and pursues me day after day. It is not just Israel on trial here, but us as God’s new covenant people as well who are on trial. This is a story not only of Israel’s unfaithfulness to her lover but of our unfaithfulness as well.This recurring sin of Israel culminates in their request for a king like the other nations. I see this in verse 12:
12 And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the Lord your God was your king.
This verse pulls back the curtain a bit and reveals the motivation behind why Israel asks for a king. The answer—fear. Israel was afraid of Nahash and the Ammonites pressing around on all sides of them. The people had heard stories of what he had done to other nations. So, they decide they want to fight fire with fire. They want a military leader just like the other nations who will crush this threat. The problem with this the text says, is that they forget they have the King of the universe fighting for them. They forget their true King and want a replacement, one who is much more like them. God is their King, unlike any of the other nations and unmatched in power, and He loves them faithfully and fights their battles for them. But they want their own king.How true is this of us? How much does fear influence us to desire a king “like the other nations” rather than God or to adopt the values of the nations? Does fear cause us to play it safe and live for the American Dream rather than trusting God and inviting some risk into our lives? Does fear keep us from engaging with people and areas that we deem unsafe or that put us out of our comfort zones? Does fear in reaction to an event like what happened last Sunday in Orlando cause us to treat people of different faiths in unloving ways? Fear should not move us to desire a king/leader like the nations or to adopt a value system or way of life like the nations. God is our King and we live under His reign and His values. Fear has no place in His kingdom.Well, if this is a trial, it is not hard to guess what the verdict against Israel will be. And the sentence that is laid down on Israel is a God-sized thunderstorm. Now, if you were like me the first time I read this passage, you might be thinking, “what’s the deal with the big thunderstorm that pops up in this passage and why were they so afraid of it?” Let me back up and give us some helpful information. In verse 17 what seems like a passing detail is made about it being wheat harvest season. This means that, a) there are a whole bunch of crops that are about to be harvested and this huge rainstorm will destroy them all, and b) this storm has to be from God because rain during harvest season in Israel was about as likely as 6 inches of snow in Miami on Memorial Day.2 In other words, they were afraid because this storm threatened their physical and economic livelihood and because they know without a shadow of a doubt this rain wasn’t natural—it was from God. Only God could produce a storm of this magnitude during the dry season. And because of this the people of Israel see the severity of their sin and repent.God does whatever it takes to get His people to repent. And the same is true of us today. If you are His child God will do whatever He has to in order to get you to recognize your sin. You see this storm did not come about ultimately because God is a temperamental dad flying off the handle at His kids. This storm was an act of stern love or as Jason coined it back in the Spring , grace with an edge. Because He is absolutely and unequivocally committed to His people God will do what He has to in order to bring our sin to our attention and heal us of it. More on that later.
2. The Choice of Israel (13-15, 20-21, 24-25)
Israel has faced trial and been found guilty of breaking her end of the covenant. However, the people repent of their sin before and God does not judge them. Rather, He extends grace and a choice before the people. Look at verse 20 with me:
20 And Samuel said to the people, “Do not be afraid; you have done all this evil. Yet do not turn aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart.
Samuel lays it out for Israel here. He says, “Look I’m not gonna lie, you guys messed up big time. But don’t be afraid. God will not bring this judgement upon you. But today, set your hearts to follow God. Turn from your sins of trust in human leaders and idolatry and follow God’s law.”In order to understand this well we have to understand the way that Old Testament covenants worked. Covenants were relationships entered into by two parties that defined the rules of engagement for the relationship. Sometimes covenants would function much like business contracts do today with both parties equally laying out their stipulations, who gets more money, who does what parts of the job, etc. Other covenants however, were undergone between a king and the people subservient to him. This is the type of covenant God makes with His people. And in this covenant, as specified in the book of Deuteronomy, there are blessings laid out for obedience to the King and curses laid out for disobedience, of which the ultimate curse was exile. What we have here in this passage is a covenant renewal ceremony. This happened several other times in Israel’s history, most notably when a leader was about to die or see his leadership come to an end (see the end of Deuteronomy before Moses’ death and the end of Joshua before Joshua’s death). A covenant renewal functioned to refocus God’s people on God’s faithfulness, their own need to obey Him, and what was promised if they did not obey Him. It is the equivalent today of renewing your wedding vows. It was intended to drive down deep the importance of obedience and faithfulness to God while also reminding them of the mighty acts God has done on their behalf.This is largely why we gather together on Sunday mornings as a church body. We sing songs, read and hear the Word preached, pray, and take part in the Lord’s Supper to remind us of who our covenant Lord is and what He has done for us in Jesus. This reminder should always leave us as it leaves Israel, with a choice either towards renewed love and obedience or idolatry and selfishness. As Joshua says in his farewell address to Israel in Joshua 24, the covenant renewal service leaves us to “choose this day who we will serve.”Today I want to present us with that choice. Community, who will we serve? Will we answer like Israel in Joshua 24, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord” or will we answer like Israel just a few chapters earlier, “give us a king like all the other nations”? The God who saved the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt is the same God who saved us from our sin and death in the person of Jesus! May we serve Him.This covenant renewal does not take place in a vacuum. What I mean by that is this: a recommitment to follow God and His Law is not simply a choice we muster up out of our own will power. Rather, it is a result of seeing the beauty of God’s saving actions. Verse 24 illustrates what I mean:
24 Only fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.
The recommitment of one’s heart to serve God, the turning away from sin and back to God, happens as a result of remembering what God has done! Samuel urges the people not to simply obey but to consider the amazing things God has done for them. He holds up the picture of their true King who rescued them from slavery, drove out the nations before them, gave them a land, and who even after all their sin remained faithful to them. For us this picture also includes Jesus life, death, resurrection, and ascension! Look at who our God is and what He has done for us! Remind yourself of God’s action for us in the Gospel and allow this to be the fuel of your love and obedience to Him on a day to day basis. Consider what great things He has done for you.There is still one more question that is begged from this portion of the sermon and the text though: if covenants function with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience then how can we avoid curses? And ultimately exile? How can we keep the covenant? Verse 25 casts an eerie bit of foreshadowing over the rest of 1 Samuel and really the Old Testament story:
25 But if you still do wickedly, you shall be swept away, both you and your king.”
Like when you catch a glimpse of the murder weapon right at the beginning of a scene in a movie, this verse sums up what will happen in the Old Testament narrative. Both the people of Israel and Israel’s kings by and large say farewell to God and His Law and will be swept away by Babylon and Assyria into exile. It seems as if Israel and all of us are stuck in a vicious circle at this point. We sin, repent, renew our commitment to God, repeat and continue to spiral downward. We are destined to fail at the outset. We know that Israel and us cannot keep the covenant. We know at some point we can’t avoid curse.
3. The Hope of Israel (22-23)
In spite of this reality, there is hope for Israel and an answer to the question, “how can we keep the covenant?” If you will look with me at verses 22-23 you will see the dual hope of Israel.
a. A Faithful God (22)
First in verse 22 we see Israel’s faithful God:
22 For the Lord will not forsake his people, for his great name's sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for himself.
The hope of Israel is the unchanging, faithful, loving character of Yahweh and His unwavering commitment to His glory. To make this clear we are going to turn back almost to the beginning of the biblical story to Genesis 15. Genesis 15, if you are unfamiliar with it, is the story of how God makes a covenant with Abraham and his descendants, which end up being the people of Israel. Three chapters earlier in Genesis 12, God promises in this covenant to bless Abraham and to give him many descendants and a land in which to dwell. Then, in Genesis 15 God ratifies this covenant through a ceremony. Now typically, a covenant would be confirmed by sacrificing an animal, cutting it in half, and having the two parties walk through the middle of the two animals. Is this getting weird yet? But this action was highly symbolic. It was designed to say, “if I break this covenant, may I be treated like this animal.”What is interesting about Genesis 15 and this covenant initiation ceremony is that Abraham is snoozing through the entire thing! You see, God puts Abraham to sleep and He walks through the middle of the two animals Himself. God is saying to Abraham and to all His descendants with this act, “if I break this covenant, may I become like this animal AND if you break this covenant and are unfaithful to me, may I become like this animal.” And this is the character of our God! He is absolutely faithful to His covenant promises to Abraham. This means that no matter how bad things get in Israel, and trust me things do end up getting even worse, God was still faithful to His covenant and His people! No matter how many times Israel sinned, even when she was under covenant curse in exile, God is faithful to her. He will not abandon her.God is so faithful to her, He allows Himself to become like that animal for His people. In Jesus, God takes the curses of the covenant upon Himself. Jesus identifies with mankind and lives a life of perfect covenant obedience and faithfulness. Jesus is exiled from His people, rejected, and executed on a cross. He takes the curse of the covenant so that all who believe in Him, who the New Testament calls children of Abraham, are counted as covenant keepers and can receive covenant blessing in Him. God is so faithful to His covenant and His covenant people that He sends His son Jesus to die and be exiled instead of you and I! What a God and what a faithful, covenant love.
b. A Faithful Leader (23)
Not only is Israel’s hope in their God but also in their leader. This might sound dead wrong at first but if you would stick with me and look at verse 23:
23 Moreover, as for me, far be it from me that I should sin against the Lord by ceasing to pray for you, and I will instruct you in the good and the right way.
Samuel commits along with Israel to recommit himself to God. He says, “if they are committed to following God then I must be even more committed as someone who is a leader to serve and guide them in their relationship with God.” Ultimately we know how the story goes. Israel’s leaders don’t guide them in the path of loving God and following His law like Samuel but rather in the path of disobedience and destruction. Israel’s king by and large preys upon the people more than praying for the people. And the nation is left stranded and scattered in Babylon and Assyria without a leader.But God sends Jesus to be the true leader that Israel and all of us need. Jesus is the better Samuel who prays for His people even on the doorstep of His own death. Jesus is the one has ascended to heaven and is praying for us before the Father constantly. He was the ultimate teacher of Israel and now by His Spirit He teaches us. He is the leader we all need and long for. Jesus is our hope, both our faithful God and faithful leader.To close, let me return to the question I asked us all earlier—Community, who will you serve today? Will you serve the gods of money, sex, power, and fear? Will you serve and put all your faith in a particular presidential candidate, a king like all the other nations? Will you serve yourself? Or, will you serve King Jesus, the God who is faithful to His people unto death and leads us perfectly in following God? “Consider what great things He has done for you!” Choose this day who you will serve. I pray it is our faithful God.
1 Joshua Ryan Butler, The Pursuing God (Nashville: W Publishing Group, 2016), 36-37.
2 Dale Ralph Davis, 1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart, 126.
