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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends,
May I invite you to look at your extended family for a moment, specifically your direct descendants, your children and your grandchildren, if you have them. If not, look at your wider, extended family. How has the moral and spiritual character of your family changed with each succeeding generation? Certainly, the world in which the generations have lived has changed, hasn’t it, everywhere in the our world?
We’ve been following the life story of Samuel for the past several days, as found in the Bible. In 1 Samuel 8, we find some extended time has elapsed since the end of 1 Samuel 7. Samuel evidently is now an old man and it says he has appointed his sons to join with him as judges for the people of Israel. We have no record of his marriage nor the identity of his wife, nor even if he has more children. What is evidently important is the question I started with today and how these two sons were so different from their father Samuel!
Joel and Abijah evidently lived and served in the southern town of Beersheba, while their father Samuel served the central and northern part of Israel, based in Ramah, as we saw in 1 Samuel 7:15-17. Then as now, it was very important that the people had someone who would settle their disputes.They called them ‘judges’, and those judges were accountable to God for doing their work with justice in God honoring ways!
Perhaps you remember back to the remarkable story of Exodus 18? Moses was leading more than 1 million Hebrew slaves fleeing from their captivity in Egypt. We can only imagine the amount of disagreement and dispute among so many people. Moses was trying to serve as judge and arbitrator as well as leading them in their desert travels. It was exhausting, far more work than any one person should be expected to do.
So Moses received some wise counsel from his father-in-law Jethro. Exodus 18:19 tells us Jethro advised Moses: “You must be the people’s representative before God and bring their disputes to God. Teach the people the decrees and laws of God and show them the way to live… But select capable men… men who fear God, trustworthy men who hate dishonest gain… have them serve as judges for the people…”
So we see Samuel was doing what Moses had done, and evidently Samuel felt his sons, who had watched him serve the people as a God honoring judge, should be well qualified to do as he had taught them. But look at 1 Samuel 8:3 “But Samuel’s sons did not walk in his ways. They turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice.”
Oh my, does that break your heart my friends, as it breaks mine? We saw it with Eli and his wicked sons Hophni and Phinehas, and now we see it with Samuel and his wicked sons, Joel and Abijah! And we see it all around us in our day, don’t we? Children grow up in God honoring homes, watching their parents serve and love God, and sometimes, for some reason, they turn away and push God aside, and choose to live a God dishonoring life rather than follow in their parents path. It’s another evidence of the profound spiritual battle that rages for every family, every marriage, every person.
In Samuel’s case there came a day which must have shocked and humiliated him. It also may have reminded him of the day that “a man of God” came to Shiloh to confront old Eli about his wicked sons, remember we looked at that in 1 Samuel 2:27-36?
1 Samuel 8:4 tells us “So all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah. They said to him “You are old and your sons do not walk in your ways; now appoint a king to lead us such as all the other nations have.”
Oh my! Eli was confronted by one man. Samuel had a whole group of Israel’s leaders confront him! Eli was told his sons would die, and no High Priest would come from his family, and no man would grow old in his family line. But with Samuel, the message from the elders is not just rejection of his sons, they are rejecting God and God’s leadership and asking for a human king so they could be like the other nations!
Once again we have come to a ‘defining moment’ in the history of Israel, and in the life of Samuel. We’ve seen several in Samuel’s story haven’t we?
* Remember Hannah praying & weeping before God and then making a vow to God, that if HE would reverse her infertility and give her a son, she would give the son back to God and he would live and serve God at the Tabernacle for his whole life. That was a ‘defining moment’ for Hannah, and Samuel was that miracle son.
* The visit of the ‘man of God’ to Eli was a significant ‘defining moment’. His message to Eli would redefine his family forever, and predict a soon death for his sons and him!
* The day Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were approached by elders who requested to take the Ark of the Covenant out of the Tabernacle, and take it to the battlefield, was a ‘defining moment’ wasn’t it?
* The day the Ark was captured, Hophni and Phinehas were killed, Eli died, and Ichabod was born, was a remarkable ‘defining moment’ day, wasn’t it?
* The day the Ark was returned to Israel at Beth Shemesh was a ‘defining moment’, as was the “Ebenezer” day in 1 Samuel 7 when the people all gathered with Samuel in repentance of their sin, and God defeated the attacking Philistines.
So here is yet another ‘defining moment’ in the lifetime of Samuel. How about for you my friends? As we draw our reflection on God’s Word to a close today, let’s look back over our life journey’s …what have been ‘defining moments’ for you and your life journey?
Moments when you faced a decision and that decision shaped the rest of your life? Perhaps tragedy moments or crisis moments when something happened which changed the course of your life.
I urge you to take a piece of paper right now, and begin making a list of the ‘defining moments’ of your life, and beside each one, mark the date, if you remember, and a sentence or two which describes how that ‘defining moment’ has affected the rest of your life, and maybe your family.
As I write this today happens to be the 27th anniversary of one of those ‘defining moments’ for my wife Dawn and me. On that day we received a phone call inviting us to consider leaving where we were living, and the missions job I had, and move to New Jersey to serve a congregation as their Pastor. Our ‘yes’ response to that call, changed the course of our family journey and is a major contributing factor to why our daughter and her family live today in Africa as missionaries.
Samuel’s response to this heart-breaking visit from the elders of Israel was “…this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the LORD.” As you reflect on the ‘defining moments’ in your life, what role did prayer have in each of them? To whom did you turn for counsel or help? What key life lessons did you learn in those ‘defining moments’?
What did God show you about yourself, about Him, about the potential future in those ‘defining moments’? And now as you look back, my friends, what has God done in your life journey since those ‘defining moments’?
And because each of us will likely face more “defining moments’ in the future, let’s not miss the opportunity right now, to learn all the Holy Spirit wants to teach us about our ‘defining moments’.
Oh Lord Jesus, as we each take some time for reflection and prayer right now, would you speak into our lives, teach us, help us understand what is in Your heart and mind for each of us as we contemplate how to carefully navigate life ‘defining moments’ with YOU.”
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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