Abounding Grace

Pastor Ed Taylor: God is often blamed for things when times get tough. Unfortunately, this is all too common. After a great defeat, after a great discouragement, after a great disappointment, after great death—in this case, 4,000—it's very easy to blame God. Why has God defeated us?

They're blaming God rather than getting on their faces and seeking God and repenting of their sin or humbling themselves before the mighty hand of God. They take the easy way out and just blame God.

Guest (Male): From the recent earthquakes, devastating tornadoes, wildfires, we're all too familiar with calamity in this world. And at such times, you might be tempted to blame God like the people we'll meet today through our study of 1 Samuel chapter four.

But is God really to blame, and what should our response be when times get tough? We'll get some answers today on Abounding Grace. Welcome to our program. Here is Pastor Ed Taylor with part one of Trust in God Alone.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Hey, take your Bibles, would you? Open them to 1 Samuel chapter four as we follow along the transition, really, in 1 Samuel from the judges. They're moving on from God's leadership among the people with the judges to, well, eventually, we're going to get to the kingship, from judges to a monarchy. In just a couple chapters, you're going to see that the people are a little frustrated with the current situation and they cry out to Samuel for a king.

But at this time in 1 Samuel, the nation of Israel has a new leader. His name is Samuel. We've learned so far that God loves the people and God loves Samuel. Out of His love, God provides His nation with a faithful, dedicated leader. A leader in a time of great need and lack of leadership.

Not only that, but the world at this time, in the time of 1 Samuel, really lacks a global leader. There's really not a nation in this current condition that's ruling the world like we'll see later. We'll see Egypt come on the scene. We'll see Babylon. We'll see Assyria. We'll see other nations that have an ability to control the world as it's known, but not yet.

Instead, during this time, there are a lot of local leaders or local rulerships, countries and people like the Philistines, which become a great pain in the side of the children of Israel. The Moabites, the Ammonites, the Philistines—basically Israel's dealing with their neighbors, having fights with their neighbors.

The Philistines were no small force. They're an aggressive nation that occupied the southwest area of Palestine. They ruled from five key cities that we'll see over time as well, with five key leaders. The cities are known as Ashkelon and Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza. Together they come as a unified political front, a unified unit.

They possess superior weapons of war. They were advanced compared to the Israelites with shields and helmets and swords. They had gained weapons as far as from that small little country known as Greece at the time. As we meet them throughout Israel's history, we're going to see them fight and fight. They're always a pain in the side of Israel.

Just for you note-takers, you'll see that the Philistines are always a type of the enemy. Obviously, they're a physical enemy, but they also speak to us in a spiritual way where the enemy is always on the prowl, always wanting to do damage. The enemy, he too possesses sophisticated weapons. They're not really new, but he's well-trained. The devil studies us and has an understanding of human nature and has been around.

That's why it's so foolish for us to just think in one time in prayer, "Oh, devil, I'll take you on." Whoa, whoa, whoa. You want to be careful. When the devil comes knocking, just let Jesus answer. You don't want to take him on personally. I don't know how many of us have ever taken the devil on personally, but in the demonic realm, it's bad enough.

The Philistines come and are always undermining and attacking the children of Israel. Verse one, chapter four: "And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines and encamped beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped in Aphek. Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel. And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about 4,000 men of the army in the field."

After being introduced to the young boy Samuel, the miracle of his birth, the faithfulness of God, how God met his mom—remember he's a miracle kid. We studied Hannah in depth. We paused on the difficulties of her life. We showed the faithfulness of God. God was just on display everywhere. God's will's being done. Samuel comes, he's born, he's dedicated, he's being raised up. He's recognized, as we saw in the last chapter, as the leader of Israel.

What's the first thing that happens after good news, after great news? Attack. As soon as something good began to happen, there were the Philistines. There was the enemy. It doesn't take long for spiritual attacks. Let me remind us that that's regular life.

Have you ever felt, have you ever even communicated, have you ever asked, "When is it going to end? Wasn't yesterday such a great day? What happened today?" You're just looking at life and you're thinking, man, it was just so wonderful. The Lord met me. The Lord spoke to me. Why now and why this?

It was a difficult time for Israel as hopelessness and fear were taking root in the hearts of the people. Just when they began to see the light at the end of the tunnel, the Philistines show up. Where were the Philistines in the first couple chapters? I know it was difficult, but it was sort of isolated for Hannah.

Remember the backdrop of 1 Samuel is the Book of Judges. It's been a tough time. In the Book of Judges, everyone's doing that which is right in their own eyes. Eli is a corrupt leader. His sons are corrupt leaders. It's a hard, difficult time. It just seems to be making progress. God provides a miracle kid. He's dedicated to the Lord. His mom fulfills her vow.

He shows up and he's recognized. Remember back in chapter three, verse 19, Samuel grew and the Lord was with him. None of his words fell to the ground. All of Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord. Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. Remember earlier, the Bible said that the word of the Lord was rare in those days, but with Samuel, he's established. You could say that God's hand of approval is upon him. Good times are coming.

Indeed good times are coming, but not without a fight. Paul would say to the church in Ephesus that he would speak of the spiritual armor of God. How important it is to put on the armor of God, to fight the good fight. The Philistines are always knocking at the door.

Remember back in Matthew chapter 17, Jesus was up on the mountaintop transfigured, getting a glimpse of His glory. It was so white and so pure, such a taste of what is to come. There were those that were there with Him, enjoying it, getting to see it, so blown away by it. They were up on the mountaintop.

Many men this weekend were up on the mountaintop. We were in Longmont, so it wasn't that much of a mountaintop, but it was there, right outside of Longmont. We were away in the woods, beautiful scenery. We call those the mountaintop experiences. They were great. Even the time I was able to spend there, as sick as I was, it was just glorious and wonderful to be around men, to hear the men singing, to see the men crying, to see the men crying out for the things of God, receiving the word of God, ready to be changed.

I got feedback that some of the brothers, the Lord spoke to them so much that they went home even before it was over to do business with the Lord and to make things right with their family. Amazing work of God on the mountaintop. You're up on the mountaintop, and I'm certain I didn't do any interviews, but I bet you if we did, talking to the men up on the mountaintop, "Would you like to stay another day?" "Oh, yeah." "Would you like to stay a week?" "Can I?" "Hey, how would you like to stay up here for a year?" "How would you like to be up here forever?"

"Forever? I don't have to..." Well, you have responsibilities, but what if God would just allow you to stay on the mountaintop? Who would turn that down? To be up on the mountaintop with the glorified Jesus. It would be a thought for a moment, and then you would want to come back down to your responsibilities.

The reality is that, like in Matthew chapter 17, who would not want to stay with Jesus glorified? I was on vacation recently, just a few weeks ago, and we were able to get away for an extended time. Let me tell you, if I could live in the vacation bubble the rest of my life, I think that might be okay. I did want to be back, but I also had the feeling, this is awesome.

I was going home and other people were continuing on, and I'm like, "Lord, should we continue on? Should we go home?" You have all the responsibility. I say it just to say this: when you have those mountaintop experiences that we often refer to—it's a figure of speech, although we have in Matthew 17 that mountaintop experience with Jesus being transfigured and being revealed in His glory and giving a glimpse of heaven—it's like, man, let's just stay here.

Let's just stay here. Let's build some tents and never go down. The reality is we can't stay on the mountain of glory. We've always got to come back down to the valley of need. Don't ever forget that. It's from the mountain of glory that often we come down to the valley of need.

You'll recall in Matthew chapter 17 that Jesus came down to the demon-possessed. How's that for a transition? From the mountaintop of glory to the demon-possessed. A dad is there pleading, "Please help my kid. Help us." You don't even have time to process it.

A lot of times, retreats are like that—the men's and the women's, even the high school retreats—where you don't even have time to process it before you're hit with something. Before the reality of life takes over, until the Philistines show up. You're like, "Can't we just have a break? Can't you just give me a week to process it? Can't you just give me two days to enjoy it?"

The reality is the Lord would love to have you in heaven and you can enjoy it all. He would love for you to enjoy. There's an intimacy on those mountaintops. There's a closeness to the Lord. God enjoys that and the enemy hates it. So the Philistines are right there, or even the needs.

Here is this young boy being ruined by the devil, presented to Jesus and His disciples. "Please help me." Those mountaintops always lead to the valleys. Those times of God moving and speaking and blessing, like our retreats, like our time of just getting away.

Throughout the year we extend time to those that are on staff, to the pastors, and we say, "Take a day off and go seek the Lord. Just turn everything off, leave it here if you need to, and just go seek the Lord. What's He saying to you? Get away from the hustle and bustle and come back with a report from God." It's even a battle to get that done and have that completed.

Remember that the mountaintops always come with the valleys. Be ready for them. Moses came down to the children of Israel committing adultery and making themselves an idol. Even the leader, Aaron— "What were you doing, Aaron?" "The people made me do it." Come on! I'm out there seeking the Lord and you're down here fashioning a calf? He's the leader seeking God, and then there's a leader that's been delegated down, and what is he doing?

It happens. The Philistines—remember that. We're going to meet the Philistines a lot in our study through this section of the Old Testament. They're a constant plague, just like the devil, always on the prowl looking for a weak spot. You and I, we come back from great times spent alone with the Lord and find that the valley is there.

What does Jesus do when he's met with that demon-possessed kid and that dad that's desperate? Does he run back up the mountain? Does he blow him off? Does he say, "The glory of God's more important than your demon-possessed kid"? No. He serves. He gives. He delivers. Wouldn't that be great that that's the banner over your life? You serve, you give, and you deliver.

Verse three: "And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, 'Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?'" 4,000 people is a great defeat. The elders of Israel—again, there has been some time since good spiritual leadership—now the elders are the leaders of Israel. They come in and ask, "Why has the Lord defeated us? Let's bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that when it comes along among us, it may save us from the hand of our enemies."

So the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts who dwells between the cherubim. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. Don't miss this. Unfortunately, this is all too common. After a great defeat, after a great discouragement, after a great disappointment, after great death, it's very easy to blame God.

Why has God defeated us? They're blaming God rather than getting on their faces and seeking God and repenting of their sin or humbling themselves before the mighty hand of God. They take the easy way out and just blame God. That was the first thing.

They don't run to God. Verse three doesn't say and the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel called for a fast. They called for a time of prayer. They called for a time of desperation. They called for a seeking of wisdom. These are the elders, these are the leaders. There's no mention of anyone doing that at this point. Instead they say, "Well, why does God defeat us? Why has God defeated us?" That's not what happened at all.

God is often blamed for things when times get tough. I wonder if that's something you've done. When calamity strikes, people want to blame God. They don't want to look at their own lives. They don't want to examine where their hearts are. They don't want to look back and see where they've come from. They don't want to come into a place of humility broken before the Lord.

I know I might be speaking to some of you, but I want you to take this seriously. The blaming of God puts great distance between you and the one that's there to help you. The faithfulness of God—we've looked at this time and time again. I will encourage you to recall that bad things happen because sin is present in the world.

The wages of sin is death. Bad things happen to good people, bad things happen to bad people, bad things happen to followers of God, bad things happen to haters of God. Sin is in the world and we, unfortunately, have to pay the price for the consequences of our own sin, for the consequences of other people's sin.

Had they come to Samuel? Think about what a difference it would have made. Had they come to Samuel and just said, "Samuel, seek the Lord. Can you ask God? You're the prophet. God has given you to us as a gift. From Dan to Beersheba, God has given us a prophet. He's given us a leader. We believe that you're God's man, Samuel. We haven't heard God in forever. We haven't heard the word of the Lord for forever. But we believe you're from Him. Would you please ask Him for us? We don't even know how to call upon God. Would you please find out why 4,000 of our family members have died? Would you find out why the Philistines are coming after us? Would you please cry out, ask God for wisdom?"

Surely the Lord would have answered that prayer. That's the pattern. The pattern is God's blessing, God's blessing, God's blessing, the enemy's attack. Do you think the enemy's attack is going to stop the blessing of God? I tell you what it does do: it stops us seeking the God of blessing.

It's not going to stop the blessing of God, but calamity will often stop us from seeking the God of blessing and the God of clarity and the God of comfort. Whether you're in a stage right now of blaming God or you've never been in a circumstance like that and you hope you never are, I just want to pray for you. It's not God's fault.

God sent His son Jesus Christ to die for you. Jesus was given as a substitute for your life. You belong to Him. When you think of God, you're going to remember that God gave His best for you. Not His second best, not half-heartedly. He made a way for you to come back to Him, not only to be in relationship but to be free from the condemnation and the guilt of your sin.

Lest we're tempted to blame God—why would God do this?—God didn't do it. He's for you, not against you. Now I have to say for those of you that really don't have a relationship with God right now, you're in church, and for that I commend you. It's not easy for someone that's far from God to be in church. It's a little uncomfortable.

I remember the first time as an unbeliever, I was in church thinking, "What am I supposed to do here?" People started to hug me. "Don't hug me. I don't even want to be here. We don't even hug at home. I'm not hugging at church." It was blowing my mind. It was uncomfortable to be there.

It was uncomfortable to have a man up here talking about sin, talking about my sin. Who is this guy to talk about my sin? He doesn't even know me. Why am I arguing with a man that doesn't even know me? I don't even know him. But God is working on me.

I commend you. It's a very uncomfortable place to be in church. It's an uncomfortable place to listen to a Bible study. It's awkward. It's different. It's not like a rock concert. It's not like a play. It's very different. There are very few places where you will go where they will tell you the truth about your life.

To come into a church setting or to be on the radio and flipping through the dial—"I don't even know why I'm staying on this station"—or to be on the internet and somebody gave you a link and you're like, "I don't even want to hear the truth about my life. I like the bubble that I'm living in." Well, when calamity strikes, it's natural for you to blame God because you don't know Him. It's natural for you to say, "God, I don't like you. I don't love you. And this problem in my life is all your fault."

Can I give you a little bit of a different perspective on that? I meet people all the time and have the privilege of praying with them and talking to them that end up through the doors of our church from some calamity, some difficulty. For years they haven't talked about God, they haven't thought about God, they haven't said one good thing or bad thing about God, but when calamity struck, God was on their lips.

Hey, in my estimation, if you want to start talking about God, I'm open to that. If you want to start remembering maybe the God that you were introduced to when you were being raised in a church with your grandmother, I'll talk to you about that. You might remember the Sunday school lessons, or there even are those that were in churches all the way to adults and then decided somewhere along the way to move on, kind of like the prodigal son.

I'm open. I know that God will use calamity to get your attention. To get your attention, sometimes in a small way, sometimes in a large way. For example, one of the brothers here today had an appointment with some electricians because we want to do some work here. There was a scheduled appointment and Micah was downstairs taking care of some things because he's just a gifted graphics artist and he's got that mind of making things look good.

I've asked him to do a couple things, so he had done the appointment and he was downstairs. Judy, who is volunteering today to answer the phone, she came around and said, "This guy has come to pick up some food and he needs somebody to talk to." Micah rearranged everything he was doing and set the electric thing aside, like he should, and comes over and talks to the guy.

I don't know the full story because Micah just shared that little tidbit with me. We don't know the depth of his need. We don't know what the difficulty was. We don't know if he's been hungry for weeks or he's been hungry for hours. All I know is in the moment today where that appointment was made—Pastor Ian helped with that too and he was a part of it—we just made a simple appointment. We want somebody to look at lights. But then Judy was sensitive enough to say, "This guy needs to talk to somebody right now."

Micah comes over and talks to him, we make sure that he gets what he needs. What happens through that conversation? Micah is used by God to lead this brother to the Lord. He gets saved right there because of a box of food. Micah knows it's not him. I know it's not him. I know it's not me. But here's a calamity in someone's life that drew them to a building that most people can't even find when they're looking for it.

We happen to have food in a room that used to be a storage room. That's all it was. But now it's just jam-packed floor to ceiling with food that you donated when the call goes out.

Guest (Male): Well, thanks for studying the Word with us here at Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. Are you interested in hearing the study from 1 Samuel again? If so, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com or oneplace.com.

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When you give a donation of $25 or more to Abounding Grace, you're invited to request a copy of "How to Counsel God's Way." Give us a call, 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also order the book online at calvaryco.store. Glad you've taken time out for our study in 1 Samuel. Join Pastor Ed each day as we continue to learn how to live by God's abounding grace.