1 Samuel 8

1 Samuel 8
Theme: Israel rejects God and chooses a worldly solution… again!

Read 1 Samuel 8

Another theme of chapter 8 might be, “Taking control: the quickest way to ruin a revival.”

So far in 1 Samuel, Israel has suffered one of the lowest moral, religious and political seasons in their history with the capture of the Ark of the Covenant and the spiritual abuse of the religious leaders. But on the heels of that Spiritual collapse came one of the greatest revivals and corporate turnings to God in the history of Israel.

Chapter 8 is an autopsy of that dead revival. What is a revival? A revival is a little bit of heaven come down earth. A revival is when the church realizes that our purpose is not about getting men into church- its about getting God into men.

A pastor once reported to another pastor that his church had recently experienced a revival. “How many people did you add?” the other pastor asked. “None were added, but 10 were subtracted” he responded.

Revival is an overwhelming sense of the presence of God.

Let me illustrate it this way, suppose Jesus physically descended into this church this morning: What would happen next is what revival looks like (If it did not happen, judgment would certainly follow):
• Worship would be spontaneous and passionate and shameless;
• It should result in an outpouring of love and forgiveness and graciousness towards one another as well as a never-before-experienced humility and personal repugnance towards getting our own way;
• There would be an overwhelming single mindedness towards preaching the gospel and world missions- the church photocopier would be running nonstop to try produce enough tracks to go around;
• people would be quitting their jobs and selling everything to go live in Darfur and China and Burma… and in a short period of time there would be martyrs among us;
• There would be a constant and as of yet unheard of hunger for the word and prayer and personal holiness- prayer meetings would be held every night and go into second and third period overtime;
• And there would be joy! Exhilarating, zealous, fanatical, fervent Joy!

Oh that our church would experience that today!

There have been many great revivals in the history of the church. One of the more recent famous revivals has come to be known as the Welsh revival that occurred in the early 1900’s.
The world still feels the influence of the great Welsh Revival which flamed across the tiny country of Wales at the beginning of this century. But few remember just how this mighty spiritual movement began:
A Christian Endeavor meeting was in progress in a small town in Wales when a timid young Welsh girl arose. She was so nervous that she could utter only one short sentence: “O, I do love Jesus!” Then she sat down. The Lord used that earnest testimony to fulfill His own divine purpose. Spiritual fire came down on that young people’s meeting, even akin to Pentecost. Quickly it spread through that church, then through the little town, and on through the whole of Wales. Its influence was soon felt all around the world.
—Thomas Rayner
But that’s a revival- our text this morning is the aftermath of one such revival and I want us to consider two strategies towards repelling this invasion of heaven and killing a revival and thing that just might result in a revival: 1) the failure of the church; 2) assuming that age brings wisdom.

I. The Church’s Failure: 8:1-3
Now it came to pass when Samuel was old that he made his sons judges over Israel…. But his sons did not walk in his ways; they turned aside after dishonest gain, took bribes, and perverted justice.

Notice the sons’ names were Joel and Abijah? Their names are a testimony- the testimony of their father Samuel: “Yahweh is God and my Father is Yahweh” is what their names mean. In Hebrew that’s poem! But they were meaningless to the sons because they did not walk in the ways of their father but turned aside- they apostatized! What a tragedy that in the same way today many men and women who call themselves Christians and occupy membership lists and deacons boards and elder’s boards and pulpits and missions committees and seminary faculties are like these boys- Christians in name only!

That’s one way to repel and invasion from heaven- allowing the spiritually dead to handle the spiritual things of God! That’s why we must always take membership initiation so seriously in the church- it’s the gate and the gate must be narrow!

Unregenerate Church membership is one of the surest ways to kill a revival.

II. Assuming that age brings wisdom: 8:4-5
4 Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah, 5and said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the nations.”

The sad thing is that the rebellion of Samuel’s sons was common knowledge to everyone and yet, Samuel did not take spiritual authority to remove them. Maybe he thought they would grow into their positions. 1 Timothy 3 warns against putting a novice into a position of spiritual authority “…lest being puffed up with pride he fall into the same condemnation as the devil.”

Maybe putting novices into positions of authority was a failure that was systemic throughout Israelite society. That would explain the pragmatism of these elders.

Pragmatism in the church is one of the greatest affronts to person of God that men can conceive! It says, “God’s ways aren’t working. We know better, so let’s give God a nudge in the right direction by with some of the world’s strategies so that we can be successful.” Most of what passes for church growth in the evangelical church of North America is spiritual pragmatism- Baptizing the methods of the world into church programming and planning and strategizing while ignoring the simple strategy laid out by God in scripture of faithfulness, prayer, preaching the whole counsel of God and dependence upon the Holy Spirit. When we look to the world for our success in the church we are actively rejecting God!

This strategy for killing revival is a little like the first strategy in that both strategies imply that the world is not as bad as God says it is.
Always after a tragedy people (almost always unbelievers because true believes find comfort in the hope that God works all things together for Good to them that love Him) shake their fists at God and ask if He’s real, why did he cause this suffering- to which he must reply, I did not cause it, you chose it when you chose to walk in the way of the world.

But there is hope- the same sun that hardens the clay also melts the ice and hardship and affliction can also be something that God uses to cause us to turn our hearts back to God!

But I fear it may be too late for these Israelites because in vv. 11-18 God warned them that their choice to reject Him as their king in place of a man would result in bringing them into tremendous bondage and affliction. Likewise, when we choose our own way instead of consulting God for his agenda, we bring ourselves into tremendous spiritual bondage until we cry out to God for salvation and liberation. But it may be too late for Israel during the time of Samuel- they have become so reprobate that even though God promises they will be enslaved and taxed and burdened by the king, they refuse to turn from their choice- the people said, “Sounds good to me!”

And I think that this text hints to Israel’s future rejection of Christ as their Messiah!

Oh how often do we do that in the church? We are so numbed to the greatness of the satisfaction of holiness that we would give up its eternal rewards for immediate fleshly temporal gratification- even when we know that that gratification is short lived and the price we will pay to have it is going to be painful we still we choose the petty vain futile and worthless fading things of this world over the surpassing knowledge of the glory of God that transcends all understanding and gives true lasting eternal peace and joy and that’s how we kill revival (if you don’t believe me look at your credit card bill)- in fact, that’s how we make sure revival never even has a chance of happening!

And sooner or later it will bring us to place of despair and we will finally find ourselves on our knees crying out to God for revival, let’s hope we find more grace than Israel because in v. 18 God promised, “And you will cry out in that day because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, and the LORD will not hear you in that day.”

Does it have to come to that for us before we cry out revival? Do we need to come to the end of ourselves before we can throw ourselves upon the mercy of God? Do we need to be like the other nations and the other religions so that we can see how empty and powerless they are before we finally trust God to provide us with His power and guidance and sovereign rule?

I hope not. (This is going to offend some of you) But I’m not seeing any signs of it being otherwise than the way it was for Israel- we are just as prone to killing revival and turning back heavens invasion. But one day heaven will invade in a way that cannot be repelled and then their will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.



III. A glimmer of hope: Samuel finds some wisdom- Prayer: 8:6

There is a glimmer of hope in this text though and a hint at the possibility that things could have been different for Israel had Samuel done this sooner and the hope that it may not be too late for us- v. 6: “But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” So Samuel prayed to the LORD….”

This is Mother’s Day and I want to close with an application for mother’s day but the application comes in the form of a rebuke to the men. That does not mean it is not also a rebuke for the ladies, but I think that if the men get this right the ladies will surely follow. You’ll notice that all the characters in this event are men. And if you’ve read the first eight chapters of 1 Samuel you will notice that the only person who seems to consistently get it right and models biblical faithfulness and godliness is a women- Hannah!

If all the men were like Hannah, we would not need this conversation.

Men, in verse 6 Samuel finally came to the end of himself; he finally realized the fruit of his prayerlessness and things were spinning out of control. Don’t you wish he had prayed in verse 1 instead of waiting until verse 6? If he had prayed in verse 1 he would never have put his sons in charge. But Samuel was trusting his own wisdom; he was trusting his own decision making skills; but he was really just taking care of his own best interests when he put his sons in charge and it took a crisis to get him on his knees.

Men, is your life spinning out of control because the bad decision you are having to make today is to cover a bad decision you made last week which was made to cover a bad decision you made last month to cover a bad decision last year? When are you going to come to the end of yourself and turn it over to God in prayer and trust him to work things out?

It was too late for Israel, but it’s not too late for you!

Jesus taught that we should always pray and not lose heart (Luke 18:1). Let’s follow the example of others who prayed until revival came. In the spring of 1904 a young Welshman named Evan Roberts was repeatedly awakened to pray from 1:00 to 5:00 a.m. By November a powerful spiritual awakening was spreading through Wales.

A revival isn’t just a nice thing that happens in the church that we can live with or without- a revival is radical renovation of the lives of the members of the church. It will affect your finances, it will affect your career choices, it will affect your relationship, it will affect your mental well-being, it will affect your sense of satisfaction, it will affect your physical health, it will affect your marriages and it will affect the rewards that await you in eternity.

Do you want a king or do you want the King of Kings! Then Don’t just make Jesus your Saviour, make him your Lord too because if you don’t you will have neither.