1 Samuel 12:16-21 - Stand still and see this great thing

12:16,17

Samuel has reminded them of Israel’s history, but he knows that that will have only a limited effect. So he will also give them a very real demonstration. It was the time of the wheat harvest and “thunder and rain” did not normally occur at that time. So Samuel calls on the Lord to send thunder and rain, which would decimate the harvest. And he does this as a demonstration that in rejecting God as their king, and demanding a king like the nations have, they had done an evil thing.

12:18,19

Samuel called upon the Lord and the Lord sent thunder and rain. And all the people were in awe of the Lord and Samuel. In response the people ask Samuel to pray to the Lord for them, for they feared that they would all die. They even admit that they had done evil by asking for a king. Though the history of Israel shows that this “repentance” did not run very deep.

12:20,21

Samuel tells them not to be afraid. He was fully aware of the evil they had done, but urged them to “not turn away from the Lord, but to serve the Lord with all your heart”. In line with this, they were to turn away from “useless idols”. Pointing out that idols could do them no good, and could not rescue them. The Bible is very clear about how worthless these bits of stone, metal or wood were. Yet Israel would repeatedly turn to useless idols in times of trouble. Human nature has not changed.

1 Corinthians 5:9,10 - I wrote to you

5:9

The chapter closes with Paul addressing a misunderstanding that arisen earlier. It seems that Paul had written to them earlier giving advice either on handling those guilty of sexual immorality in general, or perhaps in relation to the specific issue noted earlier in this chapter. He had told them “not to associate with sexually immoral people”. I think we can take this as being those who persisted in sexual immorality and refused to see anything wrong with it, not those who repented of such sins.

5:10

The problem was that the church had taken it as referring to the immoral people of the world, rather than those in the church. That was not what Paul meant, and he points out that if he had meant that then the church would have to cut themselves off completely from the world. Now there are one or two communities that do actually try to do that. These verses would seem to counsel against that. Note also, that Paul expands this to the “immoral, greedy, swindlers and idolaters”. In view of this misunderstanding, the church probably rejected the instruction on the grounds that it was utterly impractical, which on the basis of their misunderstanding it certainly was.

1 Samuel 12:13-15 - Here is the king you have chosen

12:13

So Samuel presents Saul to them again as their king. He is the one they asked for, and the one the Lord had set over them. So even though they have disobeyed the Lord is still involved in the nation. We cannot get rid of the Lord so easily! Conversely, just because the Lord is involved in what we are doing, does not mean He is for what we are doing.

12:14,15

Despite their rebellion the rules remained the same. If they wanted things to go well then they had to “fear the Lord and serve and obey Him and not to rebel against His commands”. Both the people and the king had to follow the Lord. If they did not obey, but rebelled, then God’s hand would be against them. There was no escaping the truth. Today man tries to escape from God’s commands, but as we do so we find that things don’t work in society and chaos ensues. We see this all around us today. We need to return to the Lord.

1 Corinthians 5:7,8 - Get rid of the old yeast

5:7

Paul is using the feast of unleavened bread (Ex 23:14,15) and the Passover (Ex 12) as an analogy. There they had to make absolutely sure that there was no leaven in the house at all (Ex 12:19). The church in Corinth is to get rid of all the old leaven. This included sexual immorality, and their attitudes of boasting and pride. In Christ they have become an “unleavened batch” through His sacrifice. We can sometimes go down one of two wrong roads. One is to think that because Christ has purified us we don’t need to do anything, the other is to think that it is all down to us. To put this in theological terms , there is the indicative and the imperative. Christ has purified us through His blood (the indicative), but we have a responsibility to live up to our calling (the imperative). The two go together, they are not in conflict.

5:8

So Paul urges the Corinthians to act and live properly. And he is not just thinking of sexual sins, but is concerned with the whole attitude of the Corinthian church. Naming malice and wickedness in addition to the other sins already mentioned. Sin rarely comes alone or remains alone. Instead, we are to get rid of these things and replace them with “sincerity and truth”.

1 Samuel 12:9-12 - They forgot the Lord

12:9-11

Although it was the Lord who brought them out of Egypt and brought them into the Promised Land, they forgot the Lord. All this happened without a king, the evidence showed that the Lord was looking after them, yet they ignored the evidence. So the Lord “sold them into the hands of Sisera ... and into the hands of the Philistines and the king of Moab”. Even so, when they eventually cried out to the Lord admitting their sin, the Lord sent Jerub-Baal (Gideon), Barak, Jephthah and Samuel. He sent them judges to rescue them. The Lord was incredibly patient and merciful.

12:12

It seems that the threat from Nahash had been around before the recording of his threat against Jabesh Gilead (1 Sam 11:1) was not the first threat. The response of the Israelites was to want a king “even though the Lord your God was your king”. We assume that the Lord is inactive, that he does not see what is happening to us, and even if He does, He will not do anything to help us. We would rather have a visible means of support, even if that support is fragile and unreliable. Sadly this is human nature. The Lord is an ever present help in times of trouble (Ps 46:1).

1 Corinthian 5:4-6 - Hand this man over to Satan

5:4,5

So Paul instructs the church when they meet together to “hand this man over to Satan”. Note that Paul says the “power of the Lord Jesus” will be present. There are times to take firm action. It is also important that the action is taken by the church as a whole. Few of us like taking this sort of action, and those that do are likely to be all too willing to take firm action. We need to do this as a church so that firm action is taken when needed, but only when justified by the Bible.  Being “handed over to Satan” means the man would be put out into the world, removed from the covering of the church. “For the destruction of the flesh”. His actions were the result of his human nature and its sinful desires dominating, this needed to be destroyed. “So that his spirit may be saved”. While the action was firm, the purpose was not hateful, but for the salvation of the man. Paul was looking for him to repent and be restored.

5:6

As well as the sin of the man involved, there is the problem of the church’s failure to address the matter properly. Before we look at this, it is worth noting that it is the man who is the focus of attention, rather than the woman involved. He is seen as the primary guilty party. On the latter issue, it is worth remembering that the church in Thyatira is rebuked for tolerating sexual immorality (Rev 2:20), so many of our churches today are open to the same rebuke. Paul tells them why they need to take action, “a little yeast leavens the whole batch”. Sin that is not dealt with grows and contaminates. 

1 Samuel 12:4-8 - You have not cheated or oppressed us

12:4,5

The people reply that Samuel is absolutely right in what he has said, he had always been a faithful leader. Samuel declares that the Lord is a witness against them that they could find no fault in Samuel, and the people agree with this. Why is Samuel doing this? It is to establish that he is a faithful witness, for what he is about to say to them. This Samuel whom they all agreed was a godly man, had warned them against having a king. Yet they had ignored him and insisted on having a king.

12:6-8

Samuel now reminds them of how they have got to their present position. The Lord had appointed Moses and Aaron and brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt. Israel’s nationhood had never depended on having a king “like the nations”. Samuel was going to give them a history lesson. Jacob had entered Egypt. After the time of Joseph the Egyptians forgot how Joseph had helped Egypt and they started to oppress Israel. The people cried out to the Lord, and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron to bring them out of Egypt and eventually to the Promised Land.