1 Samuel 5–7

And so we pick up in chapter 5. As a matter of fact, I've labeled chapters 5 through 7. Revival, because that's exactly what's going to take place in the household of Israel. And so chapter 5 says this. Now, the Philistines took the Ark of God and they brought it to Ebenezer or brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the Ark of God and they brought it to the house of Dagon and they set it by Dagon.

Now, again, the Philistines were an enemy of the Israelites and they were an enemy that worshipped a foreign God. But remember, Israel wasn't exactly true to God at this point in time. Rather than the representation of the presence of God among them, they were somewhat pagan in their thinking. And so when the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they viewed it as the fact that their God was now victorious over the gods of Israel.

And so the way that they would handle that in that day is that if you had captured or defeated an enemy, you took their God and brought it into the house of your God as if to say your God had victory over theirs. Does that kind of make sense? And so that's what they did. They bring it into the house of Dagon, which was the God of the Philistines. Now, the God of Dagon was kind of a fascinating.

You should sometimes you should look up some pictures of him because he had the head of a fish and the body of a man. Remember, the Philistines had originally come from the area of Crete. They were a seafaring people at one point in time, which is where the head of the fish came from. But the God of Dagon was also known as the God of crops. And so he also had the body of a man.

And so they viewed. They viewed this God Dagon as a pretty powerful being. As a matter of fact, he is also associated with Baal and so really known for his power. And so they bring the Ark of God and they set it right next to Dagon as if to say their God is more powerful than the God of Israel. And in the mind of Israel, the glory of God had departed. But remember, the glory has not departed because I want you to notice what happens to Dagon.

When the Ashdodites, which is a fun word, arose early. The next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and they set him up in his place again. But when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the Ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both of the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold.

Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. Therefore, neither. Neither the priests of Dagon, nor all who enter his house tread on the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod to this day. Now, I just I love this. God has a great sense of humor, right? But also God will not allow his name to be cursed by another God. He will not allow another God to prove himself powerful over him.

And so he will always prove that he is powerful. Listen, even if we don't, even if we don't reflect who God is, he still remains true to who he is. We are told. We are told that even when we are faithless, he remains faithful. And so as he is placed in front of Dagon there, as if to say that their God has more power, they come in the next morning. And how is Dagon?

He is on his face before the Lord, as if to say, even foreign gods will bow at the feet of the one true God, which reminds us of the truth that one day every knee will bow. And one day every tongue will confess that he is Lord. And so they set him back up. And I love that. The people. They all have to set him back up, right? Like he can't do it himself because, because he's a lifeless idol.

The only life that he has in him is demonic in nature because there's demons behind all of the idols, but, but in and of himself, he's just a stone statue, right? So they stand him back up thinking, whew, I don't know how that happened, but let's not let that happen again. So the next morning they come in and what has happened to Dagon? Well, the fish head has fallen off and both of his palms have come off of him.

Now I want you to think about what that means. He has no head to think with and he has no hands to do anything with. He is a powerless God in the face of the one true God. And so they are like, oh, this is really not good. And so as a matter of fact, an entire new precedent for how they handle the threshold of Dagon or the, or the, the floor in front of Dagon was changed from that point in time on.

But God wasn't done showing his power yet. Verse six. Now the hand of the Lord was heavy on the Ashdodites and he ravaged them and smote them. With tumors, both Ashdod and its territories. Then the men of, when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, the ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us for his hand is severe on us and on Dagon, our God.

Now I read a lot about these tumors the past couple of days. What I don't want you to do is go and read about these tumors. I'm not going to tell you everything that I read. Let's just say they're bad, right? Um, uh, some. Have associated them with the bubonic plague. Some have said they're like hemorrhoids. We're just going to leave it at that. Okay. Um, because it's associated with mice or rats, because we're going to find that that's another thing that goes along with us.

So they've got these tumors. I don't exactly know what they are, but everything I read was really disgusting and I don't want to say it over again. Um, it was bad. The hand of God was heavy upon them. Right. And so they're going, Hey, this is, this is a pretty bad situation. Uh, you know, we keep getting tumors. Our God's heads. Keep falling off. Right. I mean, this is just bad, right?

It's a bad situation. So they try to figure out what they're going to do. It says, so they sent verse eight and they gather all the Lords of the Philistines instead of them. What shall we do? The arc of the, with the God of the ark of Israel. And they said, let the ark of God of Israel be brought around to Gath. And they brought the ark of God out, uh, the ark of the God of Israel around.

And after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord is very, or was against the city with very great confidence. And he smote the men of the city, both young and old, so that tumors broke out on them. So they sent the ark of the God to Ekron. And as the ark of the God came to Ekron, the Ekronites cried out saying, they have brought the ark of God of Israel around to us to kill us and our people.

They sent therefore and gathered all the Lords of the Philistines and said, send away the ark of the God of Israel and let it return to his own place. So that. It will not kill us and our people for there was a deadly confusion throughout the city. The hand of God was heavy there. And the men who did not die were smitten with tumors. And the cry of the city went up to heaven.

I love this. So it starts off in Ashdod, right? There's five cities of the Philistines. Uh, we see three of them here, but it, but it starts off in Ashdod. Everything's going really bad in Ashdod. The God keeps falling down. They get these gnarly tumors, right? And so they're like, this is clearly a curse. Of the ark. Let's send it away. And isn't that what we kind of like to do sometimes when God's hand is heavy upon us, when, when we really sense God's sort of discipline in our life.

Don't we just try to cast the blame somewhere else? Don't we just say, maybe somebody else can deal with it now, right? I just don't, I don't want to deal with this anymore. I'm just going to, I'm just going to pretend it doesn't exist. So they, so they send it on to Gath and it gets to Gath and the exact same thing takes place there, right? More tumors and a deadly confusion.

Now, I don't know what a deadly confusion is. I've never really paid attention to the fact that that phrase is in here until this time, but it must be pretty bad, right? If that, if it's confusing you that much, it must be a serious situation. Some form of brain fog was taking place. It was causing major issues. And so they're like, Hey, it's not really going well in Gath.

Let's send this thing to Ekron. Now I want you to think about something. If any one of them would have just surrendered to the God of Israel, I wonder what would have happened amongst the Philistines. I wonder if God would have removed the plague. And ultimately bless them because his presence will be for us. One of two things, his presence will either be for us a blessing or his presence will be to us a cursing.

It all depends on your heart towards God. We're reminded of a similar situation to this or similar verbiage in the book of, I believe it's second Corinthians. It says that we are the fragrance of Christ to those who are being saved. It is the fragrance of life. But to those who are perishing, it is the fragrance of death because that's what God does for us, right?

That's why as believers, we welcome the presence of God and the unbelieving world pushes away the presence of God, which is why the rest of the world doesn't like when speeches are given. They give out godly principles. I was telling my wife the other day, I don't know if you will follow this Harrison Butker thing. I talked about it a little bit Sunday, but basically he gave a speech that, that, that put out godly things, right?

Like godly ideas of marriage. Marriage and family and things like that. And the world just went absolutely ballistic, right? And so I told my wife, I said, I'll never grasp two things in the world right now. Number one, I will never understand how we as the church are shocked when the rest of the world hates godly values. Like, when are we going to stop being shocked by that?

I can't believe how they reacted to the speech. Are you serious? I absolutely can believe they were the way they reacted to the speech. The world has pushed away godly values since the day that Eve said, what? I can be like God? And she ate the fruit, right? The world has pushed away godly values ever since then. Because the one thing that Satan wants to get us to do is say, did God really say, right?

So that's the first thing that I'm like, when are we going to quit being shocked by that? But the second thing is, I'm sorry, this is going to be mildly political, but I'm going to say it anyway. I don't know when the left is going to quit trying to cancel things because every time they do, it absolutely backfires in their face. Right? Like those are two things in the world I don't understand.

I can't do anything about the second one, but hopefully I can do something about the first. We've got to stop being shocked when the world is the world, right? And so we have to stop being shocked when the world wants to push away the presence of God. And that's what the Philistines do. They're like, what are we going to do? We've got to get rid of the presence of God because it is cursing us as we live in our sin.

And so they're having these tumors, deadly confusion. And everything's just going crazy. Their God's heads are falling off. So we come to verse chapter six, verse one. They're going to return the ark. Notice what it says. Now, the ark of the Lord had been in the country of the Philistines seven months. Can you imagine that seven months of gnarly tumors that may or may not resemble gnarly hemorrhoids, right?

Like one month in, I'm like, let's get rid of this thing because this is a bad situation, right? So maybe even one weekend, maybe one day. I don't know. I'm dealing with it pretty soon. And so the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners. And they said, what shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we shall send it to its place. And they said, if you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty, but you shall surely return to him a guilt offering.

Then you will be healed and it will be known to you why his hand is not removed from you. Then they said, what shall be the guilt offering, which we shall return to him? And they said, five golden tumors and five golden mice. Some of your translations may say rats, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines. For one plague was on all of you and on your lords.

So you shall make the likeness of your tumors and the likeness of your mice that ravage the land. And you shall give glory to the God of Israel. Perhaps he will ease his hand from you, your gods and your lords. Why then do you harden your heart as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts when he has severely dealt with them? Did they not allow the people to go and they departed?

Now, therefore, take and prepare a cart and two milk cows on which there's never been a yoke and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home away from them. Take the ark of God and place it on the on the cart and put the articles of gold, which you return to. As a guilt offering on it by its side, then send it away that it may go and watch. If it goes by the way of his territory to best to mesh, then he has done us this great evil.

But if not, then we will know that it was not his hand that struck us, but it happened by chance. There's a great plan, is it not? So they call together all of the wisest people of the Philistines and they're like, this thing cannot stay because the power of God is so great. It cannot stick around. And isn't it amazing that if God will not be glorified by his people, he will be glorified by a people who are not called by his name.

Isn't it kind of amazing that when we refuse to glorify God, he will use the heathens of the world to bring glory to himself. And that's exactly what he's doing here is is the nation of Israel didn't really honor God for who he was. They they viewed the cart as something kind of matter. They viewed the ark as something kind of magical, but they didn't really believe in the power of the ark.

Which is the presence of God himself. But now these pagans are like, dude, this God's powerful, right? So here's what you need to do. You need to make for yourself 10 total golden articles. Like don't send it back without a guilt offering. What do we do for a guilt offering? You can imagine how the how the conversation went. Well, we could send a burnt offering.

No, that doesn't seem right. We could send an extra cow. No, that doesn't seem right. I know what we'll do. And there's one guy in the back, right? The wisest of them all. Sort of sitting there. This is how it plays out in my own mind. Sort of sitting there quietly behind them all. Kind of in that in that Star Wars sort of a this is what you shall do sort of way.

He's like, make for yourselves five golden tumors. Now, if they really are hemorrhoids, I want you to think about this. He said, make for yourself five golden hemorrhoids. Provide for thine self preparation age. No, that's not. Now, that would be funny, would it not? Anyway, five golden tumors. And then make for yourselves what five golden mice and put them on the cart with the ark and send it back.

I just want to know what the people thought when it came in. They're like, are those? Yeah, I mean, it sure looks like that's what that is. Those are definitely mice.

Look at their little little whiskers. They're all gold, right? I don't know how that works. I don't know how they did that. Anyway, those are definitely mice. Those are definitely hemorrhoids. That's a problem, right? Somebody had a real pain in their rear end. Sorry, I'll be done with those now. That's probably not true. I'm probably not done at all. And then you're going to send that back as a guilt offering, right?

But then they go even further because they want to know, is this really God or is it not? Actually, before we get to that, I want you to take note of the fact that they said, don't act like the Egyptians. Is that not kind of interesting? How many years has it been since the children of Israel were in Egypt? At least 400, right? I mean, we are a long ways away from Egypt.

And yet, what are people still talking about? People hundreds of thousands of miles away. People talking about what God did 440 years ago in Egypt. Because when God wants his name to be known, he makes his name known, right? And so, they're like, don't act like the Egyptians and harden your heart like Pharaoh did. How did they know that? God somehow left a witness for himself of that thing.

Don't harden your heart like Pharaoh did. This should be preached to the children of Israel, right? He said, instead, put the ark of God on a cart. And two new milk cows that have never had a yoke put on them. Now, why? Well, because first of all, a cow that's never had a yoke put on it is not naturally going to pull. They have to be broken. They have to be trained to do that.

They will not naturally pull. But the second thing is, if they are truly a milk cow, they will always be drawn to their young. Because their maternal instinct is always going to draw them back to their young. And so, this is like, if this is going to happen, it will win. 100% be a proof that this is God. This is Gideon's fleece, Philistine edition, right? They're like, we're going to know that it's God.

And if not, then all of these things happen by chance. And of course, we know that nothing happens by chance, right? That God's in control of all of these things. And so, that's what they do. Can you imagine being the goldsmith at that point in time? What do I need to make for you today, Phil? Well, Ben, I don't know how to say this, but I need you to make me five golden hemorrhoids.

And five golden mice. Five golden mice and five hemorrhoids. I know exactly what you're talking about. So, they go about and they make these things and they do all of this. Notice what it says in verse 10. So, the men did so. And they took two milk cows and they hitched them to the cart. And they shut up their calves at home. And they put the ark of the Lord on the cart.

And the box with the golden mice and the likeness of their tumors. And the cows took straight way in the direction of Beth Shemesh. And they went along the highway. Lowing as they went. And did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth Shemesh. Now, the people of Beth Shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley.

And they raised their eyes and they saw the ark. And they were glad to see it. The cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth Shemite. And stood there where there was a large stone. And they split the wood of the cart. And they offered the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. Now, the one thing that I hope that you're thinking about is. Why were they able to touch the ark and live?

Right? Are you thinking that? I hope that you are. Because we're going to find in just a moment. That the exact opposite is going to take place with some of the men of Beth Shemesh. Right? So, here's the thing that we know about God. God is a just God. And he judges based on knowledge. Right? The Philistines didn't judge. They did not have the knowledge. That just to touch the ark of the Lord would be off limits.

And because God is a gracious God. And God judges based upon knowledge. He did not judge them for touching the ark. His judgment was more broad. In that he judged them for the fact that they simply had the ark. When it was not supposed to be theirs. And they glorified a God above him. Isn't that cool about God? That God truly does judge based on knowledge. God gets a bad rap a lot of times.

Especially for his judgment. But this is one of those cases that we see that God is just in the way that he handles everything. So, they put it on the cart. And you can imagine the Philistines following along. Right? Because they followed the whole time. The lords of the Philistines are like, please let it go. Please let it go. Please keep going. Please keep going.

And so, the cows just, they go all the way until they come to the field of this guy. Right? And he sees. Can you imagine how this guy thought? Like all of a sudden you see the ark. And remember this is not just some box. Right? This is a box overlaid with gold. And on top of the box. Do you remember? There's cherubim. There's cherubim. There's cherubim facing each other with their wings.

Right? And this is a crazy thing that he sees. And he's like, oh my gosh. That's the ark. So, the cattle arrive. And he breaks the yoke of the oxen. He starts a fire. And he sacrifices the oxen to the Lord. Now, I want you to think about the sacrifice that that truly would have been at that point in time. You and I hear that. And we don't think anything about it.

But it would be like if a work truck came pulling up to your house. And you decided that you would destroy that work truck. As a oxen. Offering unto the Lord. That's a lot of money worth of stuff that you just offered unto the Lord. But it was truly a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Because the ark of God had returned. And so, the ark of God returns. And they realize at that point in time.

It really was the God of Israel who did all of these things. You know what the fascinating thing is? You don't hear about a revival amongst the Philistines. Isn't that amazing? Isn't it amazing that you can see the power of God? And you can see the work of God. And you can. Know what God has done. And yet still refuse to repent. We see it all the time. Don't we?

And so, the ark has returned. It says in verse 15. That the Levites took down the ark of the Lord. And the box that was with it. In it which were the articles of gold. And put them on a large stone. And the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings. And sacrificed sacrifices that day to the Lord. When the five lords of the Philistines saw it. They returned to Ekron.

And these are the golden. Tumors which the Philistines returned. For a guilt offering to the Lord. One for Ashdod. One for Gaza. One for Ashkelon. One for Gath. And one for Ekron. And the golden mice. According to the number of all the cities of the Philistines. Belonging to the five lords. Both of fortified cities. And of the country villages. The large stone on which they set the ark of the Lord.

Is a witness. To this day. In the field of Joshua. The Beth Shemite. And he struck down some of the men of Beth Shemite. Because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. He struck down all the people. Of all the people. 50,070 men. And the people mourned because the Lord had struck them. The people was such a great slaughter. And the men said. Who is able to stand before the Lord.

This holy God. And to whom shall he go up for us. So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath Jerem. Saying the Philistines have brought back the ark. Come down. And take it up to you. And the men came down. And took the ark of the Lord. And brought it into the house of Abinadab. On the hill. They consecrated Eliezer his son. To keep the ark of the Lord.

And from the day that the ark remained at Kiriath Jerem. The time was long. For it was 20 years. And all the household of Israel. Lamented after the Lord. So God did hold the children of Israel responsible. For how they handled the ark of the Lord. Because they should have knowledge. To know how to handle the ark of the Lord. But it ends up at Kiriath Jerem.

And it says it stays there for 20 years. And as a matter of fact. It will stay there. Until David returns the ark. To Jerusalem. Where he will. Where ultimately the temple of the Lord will be built. So it stays there for all of this time. But now that the ark has returned. We haven't heard anything about Samuel for a while. But now what we see. Is a revival.

Under the ministry of Samuel. Notice what it says. In verse 3 of chapter 7. Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel. Saying. If you return to the Lord. With all your heart. And remove the foreign gods. And the Ashtaroth from among you. And direct your hearts to the Lord. And serve him alone. He will deliver you. From the hand of the Philistines. So the sons of Israel.

Removed the Baals. And the Ashtaroths. And they served the Lord alone. And then Samuel. Samuel said gather all Israel to Mizpah. And I will pray to the Lord for you. They gathered to Mizpah. And drew water. And poured it out before the Lord. And fasted on that day. And said we have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged. The sons of Israel at Mizpah. Now throughout all of chapters 5 and 6.

We don't see anything from Samuel. He had been established as a prophet. But this story sort of took place. Away from Samuel. The things that were going on. It was mainly amongst the Philistine people. But God was still at work in the prophet Samuel. And through all of these things. Because God used all of the things that had taken place. To bring the nation of Israel to.

The spot where their heart was ready for repentance. And I think that's a good point to be made. Sometimes when we see. Tragedies take place. We can only look at the tragedy. And we can forget that God uses those things. To prepare the hearts of the people. For revival. And as we see things taking place. In our community. In our society. In our state. In our nation.

And in our world. Sometimes we can become so fixated on the tragedy. That we forget that God will use that for his glory. That God will ultimately use that to prepare people. For the coming revival. And right now what we're seeing. Take place around us a lot. And sometimes we see a lot of really bad things. Right? And sometimes we become fixated on that. We say the glory of God has departed.

Because I don't see how God is at work. In all of this. There's a devotional that I take some couples through. At points in time. And there's this story in there. About the tale of God O. It was a play or a book. I think that was written during the time of World War II. And everybody wanted to know. Where God O was. Because God would not show up. And that was the idea.

Of so many people during that time of World War II. As they viewed all of the tragedy. That was taking place in World War II. And all of that tragedy seemed so senseless. And what they didn't realize was. That tragedy was preparing. The nation for revival. That would ultimately come. A revival not only of the nation of Israel. But a revival that would ultimately come.

In the 60s and the 70s. God was using all of that tragedy. To bring about revival. Right? And so when we see things take place. Sometimes we go. God I don't see you showing up in the midst of this. Until we see what God does. And we look back and we go. God really was at work. I just didn't see him. But that was all. Preparing me for this place of revival. That's happening in my life right now.

Or that's happening in the church right now. Or that's happening in our nation. Or our state. Or our city. You name it. God uses everything for his glory. And God used this time of the ark being away. Where they felt like the glory of God had departed. To prepare the nation. For the revival that would come under Samuel. And so Samuel begins to call out to the people.

And what does he say? Well he tells them to do two or three things here. He says first of all. Return to the Lord with all of your heart. Return to the Lord with all of your heart. And listen. Every revival will always begin. When the people of God. Return to God with all of their heart. Do you know no revival ever starts in the world. No revival ever starts by going out.

In an evangelistic crusade. Do you know where revival always begins? Revival always begins within the church. Because usually the reason why we need revival. Is because the people of the church. Have started to go out. And they've started to go out. And they've started to go out. And they've started to go out. And they've stopped putting God in that central location.

Because the people of the church. Have stopped putting God. Where he rightly belongs in their life. And their heart has been lost. Do you know where the first and second great awakenings. Took place in the United States of America? They started on college campuses. In particular seminary campuses. Where students started finally. Returning to the truth of God's word.

Campuses like Princeton. Right? Which by the way. They could probably use another revival. Today. That's where those things always take place. But it always starts in the church. And so we've got to stop looking at the world. And saying world. You need to get your heart right with God. I would say let's start with the church. And say church. Let's start getting your heart right with God.

Return to the Lord. With all of your heart. You know why? Because what do we struggle with the most? What we struggle with the most. Is a divided heart. That's what God told the children of Israel. In the book of Hosea. He said your heart is divided. It's not truly for me. It's divided between me and you name it. The idols of the world. The pleasures of the world.

The money of the world. For the children of Israel. Their heart was divided between God. And the gods of the world. Do you know who the two main gods that they worshipped were? They're listed for us right there. Baal and Ashtaroth. Baal if you will was the god of the economy. Ashtaroth was the goddess of pleasure and sexuality. So if you will. What the children of Israel worshipped at that point in time.

Was their. Their economic status that Baal provided. And their pleasure that Ashtaroth provided. It's almost like some things don't change. Because what are the two things that we worship today? We worship all of our things. The status that the economy provides. And the pleasure that the world provides. Right? And so what are the things that our hearts are divided between?

God. And the world. So what's the first thing that they have to do? They have to return to God with all of their hearts. But what's the second thing that they have to do? They have to put away their gods. They have to put away their gods. You see. Returning with all of your heart. That's an inward change. But an inward change will always require an outward change.

I can't just say I've returned to the Lord with all of my heart. And then keep doing all of the things that I used to do. Because that means I didn't really return to God with all of my heart. I first have to return to Him. And then I have to put away all of the idols. But did you notice the order of things? We like to take the order in the opposite direction.

We want to deal with all the exterior. And not really deal with our hearts. When God wants to start here. He wants to change our affection. And then begin to shut off all of the things of the world. He says return to the Lord with all of your hearts. And put away your gods from among you. And listen. Then serve Him alone. That's the third thing. Serve God alone.

In other words. Pursue Him with your whole heart now. Now that you've returned. And you've put away your gods. Give Him every aspect of your life. And what does God promise to do? He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. He will deliver you from the enemy that wants to hold you down. And so what the sons of Israel do. I love it. So they removed the Baals and the Ashtoreth.

And they served the God alone. And Samuel said. Gather all Israel to Mizpah. And I will pray to the Lord for you. And so they drew near. So they gathered to Mizpah. And they drew water. And they poured it out before the Lord. And they fasted on that day. And said we have sinned against the Lord. Why did they pour water out before the Lord? If you ask yourself that question.

Why did they pour water out before the Lord? Because they did something symbolic. To show what had taken place on the Israelite. Inside. They were emptying themselves of their idols. Therefore they poured out water before the Lord. As a symbol of them emptying themselves before God. So they emptied out all of that stuff. And they said we have sinned against the Lord.

And notice what it says. It says Samuel prayed for them. And Samuel judged them. He was the deliverer that brought them back to the Lord. And so this great revival is taking place. Hearts are being changed. Idols are being broken. Lives are being broken. People are being set free. And what happens in the middle of this great revival? Notice it. When the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered to Mizpah.

The Lord of the Philistines went against Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard it. They were afraid of the Philistines. When did the Philistines choose to attack? When the revival was going on. What does that mean? It means that in the times of the greatest revival. Both nationally. Community wise. And even in your life. You are open to the greatest attack.

Because the last thing that the enemy wants to see take place in your life. Is a true revival. He will say now is the time that I attack more than ever. Does it feel like God is doing great things in your life? But at the same time you feel like the enemy is trying to attack you harder than he ever has before? Can I just tell you? That's normal. That's a normal thing.

I remember the first time I ever spoke at a camp. I went and spoke at this camp. And God blessed it. God blessed the camp. And I was so excited. I was so geeked up about it. And I came back from this camp. And I had the worst week of my life. Like work was terrible that week. Everything was awful that week. And I remember we used to do college study over at my buddy's house on Thursday nights.

And he had been a youth pastor for quite a while at that point in time. And I came in and I kind of plopped myself down. Because I would show up a little bit early for college study. So that we could pray together. And I plopped myself down. And he goes, what's wrong with you? I said, dude, I've had the worst week ever. And I don't understand. Camp was so awesome.

And now life just seems to be like going the opposite direction. And he goes, oh, I should have told you. I said, told me what? He said, man, when God uses you greatly, the enemy attacks you even greater. That's a normal thing that you're going through right now. And I was like, yep, you should have told me. Because that's exactly what happens with us. So I want you to know.

If you feel like God's really moving in your life. And yet at the same time the enemy's trying to destroy you. I want you to know that's normal. Because in times of greatest revival, that's when the enemy wants to attack the most. And so they attack. And the children of Israel are scared, which is a normal thing. It's great. Did you notice the last time when they lost, they went in with confidence?

We have the ark. No one can beat us now. Now they have this great revival going on. The enemy attacks and they're totally freaked out. It's like, perfect. You're exactly where you need to be. So the sons of Israel said to Samuel, do not cease to cry out to the Lord, our God, for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines. And listen, that is why they were exactly.

Where they needed to be, because where was all of their hope right now? It was in none other than God himself. They were like, Samuel, don't stop crying out to God. Samuel, don't stop praying. As a matter of fact, Samuel was known for his prayer life. Matter of fact, in Psalm 99. I wrote this in the margin of my Bible. Psalm 99, verse six. You might write that in the margin of your Bible.

Psalm 99, six. It refers to Samuel as one of the men of God who prayed. That's what he was known for. He was known as a man of prayer. And so they said, don't quit crying out to God because we need him to save us from the hand of the Philistines. And so Samuel took a lamb and offered it for a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel.

And the Lord answered. Now, Samuel was offering the burnt offering and the Philistines drew near to battle. But listen, I love this. The Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them. So that they were routed before Israel. And the men of Israel went out to Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them down as far as below Beth-kar.

And Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen and named it Ebenezer, saying, thus far the Lord has helped us. And so the Philistines were subdued. And they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel.

And Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. I love it. Samuel cries out to God, offers a sacrifice unto the Lord. And as he's offering the sacrifice unto the Lord, he knows what happened. The Lord thundered a mighty thunder. And what did it do to the Philistines? It put them all into confusion.

Who did it not put into confusion? The children of Israel. It brought them peace. Isn't that amazing? The work of God that brings you peace is the work of God that puts the enemy into confusion. I just love that about that section. So they were able to completely push out the Philistines and everything was restored unto them. And where did it all begin? With revival.

Because Samuel said, if you return to the Lord with all of your hearts, and you put away your idols, and you serve him only, he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. So notice what it says in verse 15. Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he used to go annually on circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah. And he judged Israel in all these places.

Then his return was to Ramah, for his house was there. And there he judged Israel. And he built there an altar to the Lord. And so I want you to take away four things. From chapters five through seven of this revival that took place under Samuel. Four lessons that we can take away from this. Number one. The real power is in the God of the ark. The real power is in the God of the ark.

Remember what the children of Israel said? We have the ark. Everything's going to be great. Because all of their hope was in the ark of God, not in the God of the ark. Because that's where the real power is, is it's in God. And I say that because we do that with lots of other things. We think if I say the right words when I pray, if I perform the right ceremonies,

if I carry the right Bible, if I go to the right church, if I do all of these things, then there's going to be this power in it. But listen. The power is not in all of those things. The power is in God. The power, listen, of this book is not in the words that are written on the page, but in the God who wrote them on the page. Right? We have to understand that.

Because the power is not just in reading what God's word has to say. The power comes from the God who writes it on our hearts. The real power is in God. And listen, we need to seek God. Do you remember what Jesus told the Pharisees? He said, You search the scriptures, for in them you think you have life. But these are they which testify of me. Because the power of the ark is in God.

Right? So, number two. God does not need anyone to defend him. Now I love this, because I've seen some people take some pot shots at God here lately. I've been seeing some things about this, both in my own life personally, as well as things that I see on a public scale. I see some people take pot shots at God and his word. And it's always my natural inclination to think,

I need to respond to that. And every now and then I'm like, I actually don't need to respond to that. Like yes, if we're going to be in a conversation, I'm going to respond. But ultimately, God doesn't need anyone to defend him. Have you ever noticed that God's not really all that insecure? Like he doesn't get really insecure about questions. Questions that people ask him.

He doesn't even get all that insecure when people say they don't believe in him. He doesn't even get insecure when people say they don't believe in his word. You know why? Because you believing in his word is not what makes it true. You believing in God is not what makes him real. You believing that he keeps his promises is not what makes him faithful. God is those things.

It's up to you whether or not you're going to believe it. And we don't have to worry about God being insecure. So when people take all these pot shots at God, I'm learning slowly but surely to just be like, but God doesn't need me to defend him. God will prove himself powerful in every way possible, right? He has shown it over and over and over and over again.

He did it in scripture. He's done it in history. I've seen him do it in my own life where he proves himself to be true, even though everybody else doesn't believe him. Let every man be found a liar. He will be found true. Amen. God doesn't need anyone to defend him. Should you know these things? Absolutely. I just started reading a book this week. It's a great book.

It's called, I don't have enough faith to be an atheist. It's a, it's a, it's a fantastic book. I would highly recommend it. I'm listening to it right now. But, but it's a, but it's a great book. And, and he talks about the fact that God doesn't need anyone to defend him. So why do we study it? We study it for our own personal confidence. And so that we can minister to people the truth so that the evidence of the truth can change their lives.

God doesn't need anyone to defend him. Number three, God is omnipotent. That word omnipotent means all powerful. And I say that because again, I think this is something that we can start to question about God. Amen. Like when we see things take place in the world, we can go, Ooh, that's pretty big. And we can forget that God's bigger. We can forget that God is the all powerful God who knocks down idols.

God is the all powerful God who absolutely destroys every other foreign God. God is the God who is able to deliver us from all powerlessness. All of those foreign gods in our lives, because he is the all powerful God. I say that because we face a powerful enemy every day. Amen. We have a real enemy that we face and he's very powerful. He's not as powerful as God.

He's not as powerful as God. God is more powerful than, than anything that we can ever imagine. Right? I think that the VeggieTales put it best when they said, God is bigger than the boogie man. He's bigger than Godzilla and the monsters on TV. Right? I mean, I know that's kind of silly, but I think we have to remind ourselves of those things every now and then.

So I say the greatest theology that you'll ever learn is in a little kid's book. And then number four with repentance comes victory. With repentance comes victory. I think sometimes we don't see victory in our lives because we don't see repentance in our lives. How did victory over the Philistines come? They returned to the Lord with all of their heart. When they put away all of their idols,

when they served him completely. Repentance. Repentance always brings victory into our lives. And it's amazing how all God is looking for in us is that tiniest bit of repentance. Right? That, that littlest bit. It always takes me back to that same line. I quote it all the time, but it's because it has become so powerful in my life from Andrew Murray's book,

Absolute Surrender. When he said, sometimes all we can do is say, Lord, I am willing that you would make me willing to be surrendered to you. Because with repentance comes victory. Amen. Father, we come before you and I thank you for the time that we have in your word. And I just love these stories. God, I just can't say it enough. Thank you that you have written history for us.

History that is proven over and over again through secular sources. History that is more reliable than anything that we can learn anywhere else. Because it's written by the all-powerful, almighty, all-knowing, all-present God. And so, Lord, give us that boldness and confidence that we need in who you are. And Lord, may our lives reflect the truth of your word as we dive deeply into it.

Not so that we can know the facts of your word, but so that we can know you. Because it is in knowing you that that confidence truly comes in our lives. Father, we thank you and we praise you for who you are in Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.