Good Monday to you my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
Does the bad news of our world sometimes overwhelm you regardless of whether you receive news through your radio or TV or newspaper or internet or cell phone, or no matter which news provider you prefer? Early this morning as I looked at the headlines, I felt almost nauseous as I considered the amount of pain and wickedness being poured out by evil people on every continent of our world.
But don’t lose heart my friends, we are on a 30-day journey toward Christmas and again today I want to bring you HOPE as we look at a person in the Old Testament of the Bible whose life points us forward to Christmas!
His name is Samuel. Do you remember his story? His mother was Hannah who carried the very heavy burden of being unable to bear children. In those days the sterility of a wife gave her husband two choices. He could divorce her, or he could take a second wife who hopefully could bear children to continue their family name. Mr. Elkanah was evidently a kind, loving, and God-fearing man, and he loved his dear wife Hannah even though she was barren. So, Elkanah took a second wife who did bear him children but who also frequently humiliated Hannah with her harsh and mocking words.Hannah cried out to God, promising that if God would open her womb and enable her to bear children, her first born son would be forever given over to God to serve God for his lifetime. Samuel is that miraculous firstborn son and you may recall Hannah kept her promise and after Samuel was weaned, Hannah took young Samuel to Eli the High Priest, giving Samuel over to live at Shiloh as an attendant to the High Priest, learning to serve God with his whole life.
Samuel himself writes the story autobiographically in 1 Samuel 1 & 2. I wonder if already you can see how Samuel’s miraculous life points forward to the miraculous conception and birth of Jesus in the Christmas story.
Of all the places Hannah could have taken her little son Samuel, Shiloh, the place where the Tabernacle of God was located and the High Priest Eli lived and served God, should have been the safest place on planet earth for this little miracle boy. But it wasn’t!
What Hannah didn’t know was that the evil deep in the hearts of people which you and I see reflected in the news headlines today, no matter where you live, was the same evil deep in the hearts of some people at Shiloh where God’s Tabernacle of worship was. Even though the smoke of sacrifices being made to God both morning and evening wafting up into the sky toward heaven should have been a pleasing aroma to God it was a stench to God for 1 Samuel 2:12 reports this: “Eli’s sons were scoundrels; they had no respect for the LORD…the sin of these young men was very great in the LORD’s sight, for they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.” (1 Sam. 2:11-17)
The role of High Priest was a great and holy calling for he was expected to be the most God honoring man alive, and his role was to lead Israel spiritually and provide at the Tabernacle a place for people to come and worship Almighty, Holy God in reverence. If a High Priest had sons, they were certainly privileged to live under the watchful and mentoring eye of their High Priest father who should train them in God honoring living and teach them to serve the people as they worship with the hope that one day one of them would become High Priest.
But Eli failed as a father and both his sons Hophni and Phinehas were wicked hearted men who defiled the Tabernacle with their sinful and shameful behavior. Little boy Samuel found himself immersed in the hypocrisy of wicked men living wicked lives while exercising religious leadership authority over the people! Do you see how that points forward to the time in history when Jesus was born and there was corruption in both government and religious leadership?
1 Samuel chapter 4 is one of the most powerful and dreadful chapters in the history of Israel. Warfare was common then as it is now, and the leaders of Israel found themselves in desperate times. So desperate they requested that priests Hophni and Phinehas do something never before imagined! Bring the Ark of the Covenant of God out from the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle and bring it to the battlefield… in hopes its presence would energize the soldiers to fight more courageously and perhaps God might also pour out His power on the warriors and a great victory could be achieved. But this act was a defilement of the sacred worship of God. This Ark, which represented the covenant between God and His people and contained the tablets of stone Moses had brought down from Mount Sinai about 300 years before, was not to be removed from the Most Holy Place of the Tabernacle.
I wonder what young Samuel was thinking as he stood, perhaps alongside old Eli that day as they watched in disbelief as Hophni & Phinehas led a group soldiers take the precious Ark of the Covenant, representing the very presence of God, out of the Tabernacle and head off down the road out of the town of Shiloh toward the battlefield? A great moral darkness fell over that town that day as God’s presence was removed by wicked men!
It’s a picture for me of what I see has happened in America and many other parts of our world as men and women have insisted that God’s presence be removed from schools and businesses and courtrooms and government offices. My friends, have you learned that when people demand that God leave a place, a great spiritual and moral void opens up and very quickly that void automatically fills with evil and wickedness? Do you see evidence of that in your town, your nation as I see it in my town and my nation?
That very same thing was happening as King Herod sent soldiers to kill all the baby boys in Bethlehem. (Matt. 2:13-18) It happened when the people of Nazareth rejected Jesus the day He read from Isaiah 61, in the synagogue of the town where He had grown up, and claimed that He was the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy. (Luke 4:16-30) It was happening the day Jesus freed a man from a legion of demons and the people of that town asked Jesus to leave their region. (Mark 5:17) It happened when Jewish leaders criticized Jesus for healing a crippled man on the Sabbath. (John 5:1-15)
You may know that in the story of Samuel, the day the Ark was taken into battle was one of the darkest days in Israel’s history. The battle turned and the Philistines defeated Israel that day, they captured the Ark of the Covenant and killed both Hophni and Phinehas! When news of this came back to Shiloh High Priest Eli fell over from his chair, broke his neck in the fall and died, and the wife of Phinehas who was pregnant, gave birth prematurely, dying in the process! Just before her death she named her newborn son “Ichabod, saying, ‘The Glory of the LORD has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God has been captured.” (1 Samuel 4:21)
Was this event pointing forward to the dark day during Passover weekend when by night Judas came to the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus was arrested while praying with His disciples? Jesus was taken by force to the High Priest’s house and a mock trial was held, Jesus was humiliated and beaten and sentenced to death for claiming to be God’s Son, the Messiah. The Jewish leaders wanted nothing to do with Jesus and took Him to Pilate, demanding the Roman governor condemn Jesus to death.
The following morning, as Jesus was crucified, do you remember a great darkness came over Jerusalem lasting three hours? (Matt. 27:45) Can you see my friends how the horrific events in 1 Samuel 4 pointed forward to the horrific events of the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus? But neither the story of the capture of the Ark of the Covenant nor the crucifixion of Jesus ended in despair. God sent judgment on the Philistines who had the captured Ark as Samuel records in 1 Samuel 5 and finally the Philistine leaders concluded the God of Israel is more powerful than their gods and they sent the Ark back to Israel and a great celebration followed.
Just like that Christmas night with angels in the sky announcing the glorious news that God had come to earth as Savior and the shepherds celebrated! Also, just like the resurrection of Jesus, three days after His death, proved the supreme power of God over Satan and death. There was great celebration among the followers of Jesus as they saw the risen Jesus not once but several times over the next 40 days. (John 20, 21)
Today may I urge us to celebrate how the life of Samuel points forward to Christmas and the life of Jesus in so many ways? And may I urge you to NOT be overwhelmed by the evil you see everywhere in our world, for that risen, ascended Jesus reigns in heaven and one day He is returning to gather up all God’s people and bring an end to Satan’s reign on earth. (1 Thess. 4:13-18) Take hope my friends! Here’s another wonderful Christmas song to help us celebrate Jesus today…
Today’s Scripture is 1 Samuel 1-5.
Choose below to read or listen.
1 Samuel 1
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1 Samuel 2 and 3
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1 Samuel 4 and 5
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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