00:00:00 --> 00:00:02 Father God, we thank you for the opportunity to gather tonight.
00:00:02 --> 00:00:07 We thank you for your word, and we thank you for this passage that we're looking at tonight,
00:00:07 --> 00:00:11 that you have put it there because you want to teach us something about yourself.
00:00:12 --> 00:00:15 God, I pray that you would help us to understand it,
00:00:15 --> 00:00:20 and I pray that as we understand this truth, that it would shape who we are. Amen.
00:00:22 --> 00:00:26 Who you are, sorry, who you're with makes all the difference.
00:00:27 --> 00:00:30 When I was growing up, I think I might have shared with some of you before
00:00:30 --> 00:00:33 that my family moved to Paris at one point.
00:00:34 --> 00:00:38 It was cheaper for them to stick my dad into Paris because he was working in Africa a lot,
00:00:38 --> 00:00:41 and it was cheaper to fly from Paris to Africa than Sydney to Africa.
00:00:41 --> 00:00:44 So being a kid, we just got dragged along.
00:00:44 --> 00:00:50 So me, and at that point, my one brother and two sisters all went with my parents to Paris.
00:00:50 --> 00:00:54 We moved into a small one-bedroom apartment with the six of us,
00:00:54 --> 00:01:01 and I was four at the time, and so my brother was six, sister five, me four, another sister three.
00:01:02 --> 00:01:04 And so that meant my older brother went into kindergarten,
00:01:05 --> 00:01:09 and me and my older sister went to preschool while my younger sister won the prize
00:01:09 --> 00:01:12 and got to stay at home where everybody spoke English.
00:01:12 --> 00:01:15 And I remember going to preschool.
00:01:15 --> 00:01:19 I was always a fairly big kid, so me and my brother are both quite tall,
00:01:19 --> 00:01:23 but my older sister is adopted, and even aside from that, she probably would have been shorter than us,
00:01:23 --> 00:01:27 but my older sister now is literally about this tall.
00:01:27 --> 00:01:29 She's absolutely tiny, and has been small her whole life.
00:01:30 --> 00:01:34 And I remember going to this preschool, and we both basically couldn't talk to anyone.
00:01:35 --> 00:01:39 We could fumble about in French, but not to the point where anybody understood what we were saying,
00:01:39 --> 00:01:40 including the teachers.
00:01:41 --> 00:01:43 So when we would try and talk to them, they had no idea.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:46 They'd just smile, pat us on the head, and then move on to someone they understood.
00:01:46 --> 00:01:51 And look, it wouldn't have been so bad, because preschool basically consisted of painting.
00:01:51 --> 00:01:54 I remember we had to wear ballet shoes and run around on some padded castle.
00:01:54 --> 00:01:55 That was all fun.
00:01:56 --> 00:01:57 I don't know why, but that was part of preschool.
00:01:58 --> 00:02:03 But the thing that killed it for me was a kid who, in my life,
00:02:03 --> 00:02:05 became affectionately known as the black jacket boy.
00:02:08 --> 00:02:09 He wore a black jacket.
00:02:09 --> 00:02:10 It's not more creative than that.
00:02:11 --> 00:02:14 But the reason he was so significant for me is because every day,
00:02:14 --> 00:02:18 he would come and find the weird Australian kid who didn't speak French,
00:02:19 --> 00:02:20 beat me up and take my food.
00:02:21 --> 00:02:24 He had a bunch of his friends with him, so they would do it day after day.
00:02:24 --> 00:02:26 And I'd go to the teachers, and I couldn't even explain what was going on.
00:02:27 --> 00:02:30 And I'd go home and tell my mum, and she couldn't explain to the teacher what was going on.
00:02:30 --> 00:02:34 So every day, I went to school and got my lunch taken, and this kid would pick on me.
00:02:35 --> 00:02:38 I developed a fairly significant hatred for this kid,
00:02:38 --> 00:02:39 but there was nothing I could do.
00:02:40 --> 00:02:41 There was him and his friends.
00:02:41 --> 00:02:42 I was by myself.
00:02:43 --> 00:02:43 They were bigger than me.
00:02:43 --> 00:02:47 And so every day, day after day, they would pick on me and pick on me and pick on me.
00:02:48 --> 00:02:52 And one day, my sister noticed that this was going on.
00:02:52 --> 00:02:55 Now, again, I was four, so you've got me down here somewhere.
00:02:56 --> 00:02:58 My sister was five, so she's down here somewhere.
00:02:59 --> 00:03:01 And she's noticed what was going on, and she's like,
00:03:02 --> 00:03:02 you know, are you okay?
00:03:03 --> 00:03:04 And I said, yeah, there's nothing I can do.
00:03:04 --> 00:03:05 She's like, sure there is.
00:03:05 --> 00:03:08 And she walks over and kicks this kid fair in the shins,
00:03:08 --> 00:03:12 and never once after that point did I get attacked by the black jacket boy.
00:03:12 --> 00:03:16 So, who you're with makes all the difference.
00:03:17 --> 00:03:22 My intimidating little sister had rescued me, because up to that point, all I'd had was myself.
00:03:23 --> 00:03:29 Now, last week, in 1 Samuel 4, we found Israel having just lost a battle.
00:03:29 --> 00:03:36 Just lost 4 soldiers, feeling kind of terrible, but then they suddenly regain their confidence,
00:03:36 --> 00:03:38 because the ark of God is carried into camp.
00:03:39 --> 00:03:42 They figure ark of God means automatic victory.
00:03:42 --> 00:03:46 For them, that's the same as God walking into camp with them, armor on, ready to go.
00:03:46 --> 00:03:49 They figure we're set now.
00:03:49 --> 00:03:51 Now, it turned out to be false confidence.
00:03:51 --> 00:03:53 We saw that last week as well.
00:03:53 --> 00:03:56 But it wasn't false confidence because God couldn't deliver.
00:03:56 --> 00:04:03 However, it was false confidence because Israel had failed to grasp just how powerful God was.
00:04:04 --> 00:04:08 They'd failed to understand that his power was about more than just protecting them.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:10 His power had a bigger agenda.
00:04:11 --> 00:04:16 They'd kind of limited him down to hurting their enemies and being good to them.
00:04:17 --> 00:04:21 But they hadn't understood that there was more to God than just being their genie rescuer.
00:04:21 --> 00:04:26 And, of course, the result last week, they had an even more significant loss.
00:04:26 --> 00:04:32 4 dead, God comes in, they're feeling really confident, and then they lose 30.
00:04:34 --> 00:04:37 And then we get to the passage that Gus just read out for us.
00:04:37 --> 00:04:43 Having lost the battle, now a messenger arrives from the front line back at Shiloh to deliver the bad news.
00:04:44 --> 00:04:45 Have a look at verse 12 with me.
00:04:46 --> 00:04:50 That same day, a Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh.
00:04:50 --> 00:04:52 His clothes were torn and dust on his head.
00:04:53 --> 00:04:57 When he arrived, there was Eli sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching,
00:04:57 --> 00:05:00 because his heart feared for the ark of God.
00:05:00 --> 00:05:05 When the man entered the town and told what had happened, the whole town sent up a cry.
00:05:07 --> 00:05:08 Sorry, I've managed to lose a page there.
00:05:09 --> 00:05:11 Now, it's only a few verses ago.
00:05:11 --> 00:05:17 If you flick back to verse 5, the ark of the Lord's covenant comes into the camp,
00:05:17 --> 00:05:21 and Israel raises a huge shout that shakes the ground,
00:05:21 --> 00:05:23 because they are so confident that they're going to win now.
00:05:25 --> 00:05:30 And then we get down to verse 13, and another shout is raised, but this one's a little bit different.
00:05:30 --> 00:05:35 This is the shout of widows and orphans.
00:05:35 --> 00:05:39 This is the shout of a country that no longer has an identity.
00:05:40 --> 00:05:42 The thing that made Israel was God.
00:05:43 --> 00:05:44 He chose them.
00:05:44 --> 00:05:45 He called them.
00:05:45 --> 00:05:46 He rescued them.
00:05:46 --> 00:05:47 He protected them.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:51 And now they had lost the symbol that made them his.
00:05:52 --> 00:05:54 They have lost the thing that makes them unique.
00:05:55 --> 00:06:00 Now, I was reading this this week and trying to wonder what it would have been like as this messenger arrived.
00:06:01 --> 00:06:08 I mean, if all of Israel is as misguided as the soldiers were when the ark arrived a few verses ago,
00:06:08 --> 00:06:11 they probably assumed that the army was going to win.
00:06:11 --> 00:06:13 I mean, that's what the soldiers assumed,
00:06:13 --> 00:06:17 so I'm sure that their wives and their kids and their cousins and their aunties and their uncles
00:06:17 --> 00:06:19 just assumed that victory was guaranteed.
00:06:19 --> 00:06:22 They probably weren't waiting eagerly to find out what had happened,
00:06:22 --> 00:06:23 because they figured, we're going to win.
00:06:23 --> 00:06:27 They might have been even making preparations for a victory celebration.
00:06:29 --> 00:06:33 And then in the middle of that, instead of a victory march arriving through the gate,
00:06:33 --> 00:06:39 one disheveled soldier with torn clothes comes running through, out of breath,
00:06:40 --> 00:06:46 to deliver news not only of defeat, but the ark is gone.
00:06:47 --> 00:06:49 The center of their nation is gone.
00:06:49 --> 00:06:54 Now, in this story, Eli is kind of a confusing character.
00:06:54 --> 00:06:56 This has happened a couple of times in 1 Samuel.
00:06:56 --> 00:07:00 We know that Eli is under the judgment of God, because that came up in chapter 3.
00:07:01 --> 00:07:04 But every now and then, we get kind of glimpses as if he's doing the right thing.
00:07:05 --> 00:07:07 And this is one of those confusing bits, I think.
00:07:07 --> 00:07:10 Everyone else might have been thinking, this is a sure thing.
00:07:10 --> 00:07:11 We're going to win.
00:07:11 --> 00:07:16 But Eli is sitting next to the road, waiting and watching, scared.
00:07:17 --> 00:07:19 He fears for the ark.
00:07:20 --> 00:07:23 But I wonder if it's not as noble as it first looks.
00:07:24 --> 00:07:26 What was Eli worried about?
00:07:26 --> 00:07:31 Was he fearing that the ark would get captured by the Philistines like it did?
00:07:33 --> 00:07:38 Or did he fear something that was maybe a little bit more selfish?
00:07:40 --> 00:07:41 I mean, think about it.
00:07:42 --> 00:07:46 So far in 1 Samuel, Eli has been told twice, explicitly,
00:07:47 --> 00:07:50 your two sons will die on the same day.
00:07:50 --> 00:07:52 God has told him this twice.
00:07:52 --> 00:07:57 He has just watched his two sons carry the ark of God off into battle.
00:07:59 --> 00:08:02 Maybe he figured out that that wasn't a good idea.
00:08:03 --> 00:08:06 Maybe what he feared wasn't that the ark would get taken,
00:08:07 --> 00:08:10 but that the ark was going to deliver the judgment that God had been promising.
00:08:12 --> 00:08:15 Maybe his issue isn't so much that he fears for the ark,
00:08:16 --> 00:08:19 but he actually fears the ark.
00:08:20 --> 00:08:21 He fears God.
00:08:21 --> 00:08:24 He fears the judgment that the ark will represent.
00:08:26 --> 00:08:29 Could it be that Eli had sensed God's about to do what he's been promising?
00:08:30 --> 00:08:32 God is about to judge his two sons.
00:08:35 --> 00:08:38 I mean, Eli's a priest.
00:08:39 --> 00:08:41 He hasn't done a great job of it,
00:08:42 --> 00:08:44 but on some level he knows who his God is.
00:08:45 --> 00:08:48 He knows what his God has done in the past.
00:08:48 --> 00:08:53 And even a small understanding of God would have meant that Eli wasn't worried about the Philistines.
00:08:54 --> 00:08:58 He knows that if God wants to, all he has to do is think it and the army falls over dead.
00:09:00 --> 00:09:02 I don't think Eli is worried about the ark here.
00:09:04 --> 00:09:06 I think he's worried about what God is about to do.
00:09:06 --> 00:09:12 Finally, at this late stage, it's almost as if Eli recognizes that God is to be feared,
00:09:13 --> 00:09:15 but it's too little and it's too late.
00:09:16 --> 00:09:16 Verse 14.
00:09:18 --> 00:09:19 Eli heard the outcry and asked,
00:09:19 --> 00:09:21 What's the meaning of this uproar?
00:09:21 --> 00:09:27 The man hurried over to Eli, who was 98 years old and whose eyes were so set that he could not see.
00:09:28 --> 00:09:29 Does that...
00:09:29 --> 00:09:32 Eli is sitting by the road watching, but he's blind.
00:09:34 --> 00:09:38 He's so helpless at this stage, all he can do is sit and look, even though he can't see.
00:09:39 --> 00:09:42 He was 98 years old and the man tells Eli,
00:09:42 --> 00:09:44 Eli, I've just come from the battle line.
00:09:44 --> 00:09:46 I've fled from it this very day.
00:09:46 --> 00:09:47 And Eli asked,
00:09:48 --> 00:09:49 What happened?
00:09:50 --> 00:09:51 The man who brought the news replied,
00:09:52 --> 00:09:55 Israel fled before the Philistines and the army has suffered heavy losses.
00:09:56 --> 00:10:01 Also, your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead and the ark of God has been captured.
00:10:02 --> 00:10:07 When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate.
00:10:07 --> 00:10:11 His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man and heavy.
00:10:11 --> 00:10:13 He had led Israel 40 years.
00:10:15 --> 00:10:17 So Eli is blind when this guy comes running in.
00:10:17 --> 00:10:21 He doesn't get to see a guy who is torn clothes, dirty, out of breath.
00:10:22 --> 00:10:25 But his clue comes when everybody else starts crying out.
00:10:26 --> 00:10:29 His clue that something is wrong comes because everybody else screams.
00:10:29 --> 00:10:32 And so the messenger comes to Eli individually
00:10:32 --> 00:10:35 and delivers the report of what's happened at the front line.
00:10:35 --> 00:10:38 And listen really carefully to what this messenger says.
00:10:38 --> 00:10:42 And listen closely to the order that he says it.
00:10:42 --> 00:10:43 Verse 17.
00:10:45 --> 00:10:46 The man who brought the news replied,
00:10:47 --> 00:10:49 Israel fled before the Philistines.
00:10:50 --> 00:10:52 The army has suffered heavy losses.
00:10:53 --> 00:10:54 Your two sons are dead.
00:10:55 --> 00:10:58 And the ark of God has been captured.
00:10:58 --> 00:11:04 There's almost a crescendo in the way he says it.
00:11:05 --> 00:11:09 You would assume that the worst thing for Eli to happen would be to lose his two sons.
00:11:10 --> 00:11:13 But the crescendo from the messenger is,
00:11:13 --> 00:11:14 the army fled.
00:11:16 --> 00:11:18 Suffered heavy losses.
00:11:19 --> 00:11:20 Your sons are dead.
00:11:20 --> 00:11:23 And the ark is gone.
00:11:24 --> 00:11:26 The ark is the issue here.
00:11:26 --> 00:11:29 When Eli hears of the ark, not of his sons,
00:11:29 --> 00:11:31 he falls over and dies.
00:11:31 --> 00:11:34 It's a pretty undignified end to Eli's life.
00:11:35 --> 00:11:38 He dies because he's so fat that when he falls over, his neck breaks.
00:11:39 --> 00:11:41 That's basically what it's saying.
00:11:41 --> 00:11:42 He's 98.
00:11:42 --> 00:11:43 He's blind.
00:11:43 --> 00:11:43 He's heavy.
00:11:43 --> 00:11:44 He falls over.
00:11:44 --> 00:11:46 And his neck can't support the weight.
00:11:46 --> 00:11:47 And so it's all over.
00:11:48 --> 00:11:51 God has poured out the judgment that he promised in chapter 3.
00:11:52 --> 00:11:54 God had said Hophni and Phinehas would die.
00:11:55 --> 00:11:58 And God had said Eli too would face his judgment.
00:11:59 --> 00:12:03 And the fact that the ark is mentioned right there in that list
00:12:03 --> 00:12:06 means that we're in no doubt God did this.
00:12:07 --> 00:12:11 This isn't the Philistines coming up with an amazing new battle plan.
00:12:12 --> 00:12:13 God did this.
00:12:13 --> 00:12:17 Now God might have used the Philistines.
00:12:18 --> 00:12:21 But ultimately this is God doing what he said he would do.
00:12:21 --> 00:12:23 He said he would kill Hophni and Phinehas.
00:12:24 --> 00:12:25 He said that he would judge Eli.
00:12:27 --> 00:12:30 And into this judgment being poured out one after the other,
00:12:31 --> 00:12:33 there's a strange little bit at the end of this story.
00:12:33 --> 00:12:35 A baby gets born.
00:12:36 --> 00:12:39 One of the hardest things about becoming a parent, I think,
00:12:39 --> 00:12:40 is naming your baby.
00:12:40 --> 00:12:44 There is an absolute plethora of options.
00:12:45 --> 00:12:48 And as celebrities get more and more creative,
00:12:48 --> 00:12:51 it's really hard to have an individual sounding name
00:12:51 --> 00:12:52 that doesn't sound weird.
00:12:53 --> 00:12:55 Now that Apple has become okay,
00:12:55 --> 00:12:56 there's not really anywhere else to go from there.
00:12:57 --> 00:13:00 I did a bit of research on some terrible baby names.
00:13:00 --> 00:13:02 A few for your entertainment.
00:13:03 --> 00:13:04 Harry Pitts.
00:13:05 --> 00:13:06 Emma Royd.
00:13:07 --> 00:13:10 And a genuine one that my parents considered for my older brother
00:13:10 --> 00:13:11 was Job.
00:13:12 --> 00:13:14 Which would have made him Job Low.
00:13:16 --> 00:13:17 And I'm not joking.
00:13:17 --> 00:13:18 That's the sad part.
00:13:19 --> 00:13:20 I even discovered that in New Zealand
00:13:20 --> 00:13:23 there are 71 names that are illegal to name your baby.
00:13:24 --> 00:13:25 People have tried.
00:13:25 --> 00:13:27 They've submitted these as genuine names
00:13:27 --> 00:13:27 and they've been rejected.
00:13:27 --> 00:13:30 Some of them I can't tell you.
00:13:31 --> 00:13:34 But some of them are things like an asterisk
00:13:34 --> 00:13:36 or a full stop,
00:13:36 --> 00:13:38 which on the list was in brackets as a period.
00:13:41 --> 00:13:44 There are a lot of really bad baby names out there.
00:13:45 --> 00:13:47 But I think this one might take the cake.
00:13:47 --> 00:13:49 Not because it sounds ridiculous,
00:13:49 --> 00:13:52 although that's potentially true.
00:13:52 --> 00:13:54 But listen.
00:13:55 --> 00:13:55 Verse 19.
00:13:55 --> 00:13:58 His daughter-in-law, this is Eli,
00:13:58 --> 00:13:59 the wife of Phineas,
00:13:59 --> 00:14:01 was pregnant and near the time of delivery.
00:14:02 --> 00:14:05 When she heard the news that the Ark of God had been captured
00:14:05 --> 00:14:08 and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead,
00:14:08 --> 00:14:10 she went into labor and gave birth,
00:14:10 --> 00:14:12 but was overcome by her labor pains.
00:14:12 --> 00:14:13 As she was dying,
00:14:13 --> 00:14:15 the woman attending her said,
00:14:15 --> 00:14:15 Don't despair.
00:14:15 --> 00:14:17 You have given birth to a son.
00:14:17 --> 00:14:19 But she did not respond or pay any attention.
00:14:19 --> 00:14:21 She named the boy Ichabod,
00:14:23 --> 00:14:25 saying the glory has departed from Israel
00:14:25 --> 00:14:27 because of the capture of the Ark of God
00:14:27 --> 00:14:29 and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband.
00:14:30 --> 00:14:30 She said,
00:14:31 --> 00:14:33 The glory has departed from Israel
00:14:33 --> 00:14:36 for the Ark of God has been captured.
00:14:38 --> 00:14:40 The wife of Phineas,
00:14:40 --> 00:14:42 after finding out that her husband and father-in-law are dead,
00:14:43 --> 00:14:44 gives birth and dies herself,
00:14:45 --> 00:14:48 only surviving long enough to name her child Ichabod.
00:14:49 --> 00:14:52 which means no glory.
00:14:53 --> 00:14:55 For the rest of this kid's life,
00:14:56 --> 00:14:57 he will be remembered
00:14:57 --> 00:15:01 as marking the occasion when God left.
00:15:02 --> 00:15:04 He may as well have been called hopeless.
00:15:06 --> 00:15:09 I mean, it's like calling the kid genocide.
00:15:13 --> 00:15:15 It's almost as if she's given up
00:15:15 --> 00:15:17 and she's given him a name
00:15:17 --> 00:15:19 that is like a curse,
00:15:19 --> 00:15:21 because God's left and there's no hope anyway.
00:15:22 --> 00:15:25 But listen to the way she words it in verse 22.
00:15:25 --> 00:15:26 It's really important.
00:15:26 --> 00:15:30 That glory has departed from Israel.
00:15:32 --> 00:15:35 Both this woman, when she's giving birth,
00:15:35 --> 00:15:36 and Eli know
00:15:36 --> 00:15:39 that what's going on here is God is leaving.
00:15:40 --> 00:15:41 This is judgment.
00:15:41 --> 00:15:43 God hasn't been kidnapped.
00:15:44 --> 00:15:45 God's not trapped in the Ark,
00:15:45 --> 00:15:47 wishing that Israel had a better army.
00:15:48 --> 00:15:49 God has departed
00:15:49 --> 00:15:53 as an act of judgment on sinful and unworthy people.
00:15:53 --> 00:15:54 This is active.
00:15:54 --> 00:15:57 God's not just getting carried along by other people's action.
00:15:57 --> 00:15:58 He's in control here.
00:15:58 --> 00:16:00 But,
00:16:00 --> 00:16:03 in the judgment,
00:16:04 --> 00:16:06 this is grace.
00:16:07 --> 00:16:09 Now, I've been wrestling with this passage all week
00:16:09 --> 00:16:11 and it took me until yesterday to figure this out.
00:16:12 --> 00:16:15 It took me until yesterday to understand how significant this is.
00:16:15 --> 00:16:19 God departs in judgment on a people who are unworthy of his presence.
00:16:20 --> 00:16:22 He leaves because they don't deserve to have him around.
00:16:22 --> 00:16:26 But, that departure is a gift.
00:16:28 --> 00:16:31 It's actually an act of love on the heart part of God.
00:16:31 --> 00:16:33 I mean, if God were to stay,
00:16:34 --> 00:16:37 if he were to remain among these sinful, disobedient people,
00:16:38 --> 00:16:40 his holiness would consume them.
00:16:41 --> 00:16:44 His perfection would destroy them.
00:16:44 --> 00:16:49 As fewer and fewer of them recognize his power and significance,
00:16:49 --> 00:16:53 then more and more of them would have died.
00:16:53 --> 00:16:56 Something similar to the way that Hophni and Phinehas and Eli did.
00:16:57 --> 00:17:00 It's quite similar to what happens at the beginning of the Bible
00:17:00 --> 00:17:01 in the Garden of Eden.
00:17:02 --> 00:17:04 If you're familiar with the story,
00:17:04 --> 00:17:05 you've got Adam and Eve in the garden.
00:17:05 --> 00:17:07 They've been given everything they possibly need.
00:17:07 --> 00:17:09 They're in a relationship with God.
00:17:09 --> 00:17:10 They've got food.
00:17:10 --> 00:17:12 They've got, basically, freedom to do it.
00:17:12 --> 00:17:12 They want everything.
00:17:12 --> 00:17:13 Everything's fantastic.
00:17:13 --> 00:17:15 And they go and eat of the tree,
00:17:15 --> 00:17:18 the one tree that God has instructed them not to.
00:17:18 --> 00:17:18 They sin.
00:17:19 --> 00:17:23 They reject God as the one who is in charge and in control.
00:17:23 --> 00:17:26 And at that point, they get kicked out of the garden.
00:17:27 --> 00:17:29 They get separated out from one other tree,
00:17:29 --> 00:17:31 which is equally important, the tree of life.
00:17:31 --> 00:17:33 Now, that is judgment, plain and simple.
00:17:33 --> 00:17:34 They did the wrong thing.
00:17:34 --> 00:17:37 They did the one wrong thing that God said not to do.
00:17:37 --> 00:17:38 And so they get kicked out.
00:17:38 --> 00:17:40 But it is also grace.
00:17:41 --> 00:17:43 If God leaves them in the garden at that point,
00:17:43 --> 00:17:45 and they eat from the tree of life,
00:17:45 --> 00:17:46 they live forever,
00:17:47 --> 00:17:50 but they live forever in a damaged relationship with God
00:17:50 --> 00:17:51 because they are disobedient.
00:17:52 --> 00:17:55 So God kicks them out and begins a rescue plan,
00:17:55 --> 00:17:57 which ultimately ends in Jesus.
00:17:57 --> 00:17:58 In his judgment,
00:17:58 --> 00:18:03 he actually shows grace and love and generosity to his people.
00:18:03 --> 00:18:06 And the same thing is going on here.
00:18:06 --> 00:18:10 God actually takes them out of the firing line
00:18:10 --> 00:18:14 because his righteous anger is rightly burning against them.
00:18:15 --> 00:18:18 And he departs to spare them.
00:18:20 --> 00:18:23 He still pours out his judgment on Hophni and Phinehas and Eli
00:18:23 --> 00:18:26 and ultimately still on 30 soldiers.
00:18:26 --> 00:18:31 But he saves so many more.
00:18:33 --> 00:18:37 If he stayed, 30 would seem like a fairly insignificant number.
00:18:38 --> 00:18:42 And this is what Eli is worried about as he sits by the road.
00:18:42 --> 00:18:45 Not that somebody is going to pinch the ark,
00:18:46 --> 00:18:48 but he knows that the power of God,
00:18:49 --> 00:18:51 which has been used for Israel's good for so long,
00:18:51 --> 00:18:54 is about to be poured out in judgment
00:18:54 --> 00:18:58 on his two sons and on Israel as a nation.
00:19:00 --> 00:19:04 For Israel, the presence of God was who they were.
00:19:05 --> 00:19:08 His power was central to them existing.
00:19:10 --> 00:19:13 But they need to realize that it's something outside of their control.
00:19:14 --> 00:19:17 That's why God gave them priests in the first place.
00:19:17 --> 00:19:19 That's why they've got sacrifices in a temple.
00:19:19 --> 00:19:23 It's a buffer for sinful people and a holy God.
00:19:23 --> 00:19:25 It's a safety thing
00:19:25 --> 00:19:29 so that Israel can have the benefits of God being around,
00:19:29 --> 00:19:32 the benefits of his power, the benefits of his love,
00:19:33 --> 00:19:35 without being destroyed by his holiness.
00:19:37 --> 00:19:40 But instead, the temple and the ark
00:19:40 --> 00:19:42 has just become a way of domesticating God.
00:19:43 --> 00:19:45 It's become a way of kind of putting him in a box
00:19:45 --> 00:19:47 that they can manage and they can carry around
00:19:47 --> 00:19:49 to pull out as they think is helpful.
00:19:50 --> 00:19:51 They've basically reduced him
00:19:51 --> 00:19:55 so that when they want him, they can wheel him out
00:19:55 --> 00:19:58 and when they don't, they can do whatever they want.
00:19:59 --> 00:20:02 Now, I just want to throw a warning in here
00:20:02 --> 00:20:04 that there is a possibility
00:20:04 --> 00:20:06 that we can do this to God now.
00:20:06 --> 00:20:11 We can actually take a God who created everything,
00:20:12 --> 00:20:14 a God who is in control of everything,
00:20:14 --> 00:20:16 a God who sustains everything,
00:20:16 --> 00:20:19 and we can just kind of shrink him down into church,
00:20:20 --> 00:20:23 into something that we do and gather around for an hour on a Sunday.
00:20:24 --> 00:20:26 Important, but not so important.
00:20:27 --> 00:20:29 Significant, but only for a little bit of time.
00:20:30 --> 00:20:33 And so when I'm stressed, God, I need you.
00:20:33 --> 00:20:36 When I'm in danger, God, I need you.
00:20:37 --> 00:20:39 But when I want to do something
00:20:39 --> 00:20:40 and God has told me it's wrong,
00:20:41 --> 00:20:43 I can just put him back in the Sunday box.
00:20:44 --> 00:20:46 I can put him back in the when it's convenient box.
00:20:49 --> 00:20:51 Israel's done it, but I wonder if you've done it as well.
00:20:53 --> 00:20:55 Have you domesticated God
00:20:55 --> 00:20:59 to the point where not only do you endanger yourself,
00:20:59 --> 00:21:01 but you actually reject the good stuff
00:21:01 --> 00:21:02 that he wants to give you as well?
00:21:03 --> 00:21:06 This isn't just about fleeing the judgment of God.
00:21:06 --> 00:21:08 God's not just some angry guy in the background
00:21:08 --> 00:21:10 looking for an excuse to pour out his wrath.
00:21:10 --> 00:21:13 But Israel is actually cutting God out
00:21:13 --> 00:21:14 of their day-to-day life
00:21:14 --> 00:21:15 and they're missing out on the good gifts
00:21:15 --> 00:21:16 that he's got for them.
00:21:17 --> 00:21:19 They're missing out on the guidance that he has for them
00:21:19 --> 00:21:20 and ultimately,
00:21:21 --> 00:21:24 it costs them the blessing of his presence altogether.
00:21:24 --> 00:21:27 Even in his judgment,
00:21:27 --> 00:21:31 God graciously spares Israel complete annihilation.
00:21:31 --> 00:21:32 Don't get me wrong,
00:21:32 --> 00:21:35 30 people dying is huge,
00:21:36 --> 00:21:38 but it would have seemed pretty insignificant
00:21:38 --> 00:21:39 if God had stayed
00:21:39 --> 00:21:42 and Israel had continued to reject him.
00:21:43 --> 00:21:47 God is supposed to be the defining reality for Israel.
00:21:47 --> 00:21:49 That's why he was in the ark,
00:21:49 --> 00:21:51 which was in the center of the temple,
00:21:51 --> 00:21:52 which was in the center of Shiloh,
00:21:52 --> 00:21:54 which was the center of Israel.
00:21:55 --> 00:21:58 He was supposed to flow out into all parts of their life.
00:21:58 --> 00:22:01 Everything was to revolve around him and his law.
00:22:01 --> 00:22:04 It was what was supposed to make them different.
00:22:05 --> 00:22:08 He was supposed to define how they used their money,
00:22:08 --> 00:22:09 how they treated one another,
00:22:09 --> 00:22:10 how they settled disputes.
00:22:11 --> 00:22:13 He was supposed to be what made them different.
00:22:15 --> 00:22:19 But now, it's his absence that defines Israel.
00:22:20 --> 00:22:21 They're the people without a God.
00:22:22 --> 00:22:26 Now, for us as Christians,
00:22:26 --> 00:22:28 we don't have a temple building or a tent like they did.
00:22:28 --> 00:22:30 There's no ark for us.
00:22:30 --> 00:22:31 There's no priestly system.
00:22:32 --> 00:22:34 We are the temple of God.
00:22:35 --> 00:22:37 I want to read to you two verses really quickly out of Corinthians.
00:22:38 --> 00:22:39 One's out of 1 Corinthians 3,
00:22:39 --> 00:22:40 and it says this,
00:22:40 --> 00:22:44 Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple?
00:22:44 --> 00:22:46 This is talking to the church as a group,
00:22:46 --> 00:22:48 and that God's spirit lives in you.
00:22:49 --> 00:22:51 The second one is in 2 Corinthians 6,
00:22:52 --> 00:22:54 in verse 16,
00:22:54 --> 00:22:54 it says,
00:22:55 --> 00:22:57 We are the temple of the living God.
00:22:57 --> 00:23:08 Those are the same promises that God made to Israel.
00:23:08 --> 00:23:10 But for us as Christians,
00:23:10 --> 00:23:12 we get the fuller version of it.
00:23:12 --> 00:23:13 We get the better version of it.
00:23:13 --> 00:23:34 If you are a Christian,
00:23:34 --> 00:23:36 let that sit for a second,
00:23:37 --> 00:23:41 the power of God lives in you.
00:23:42 --> 00:23:44 The same power that created,
00:23:45 --> 00:23:48 the power of God in your life,
00:23:48 --> 00:23:50 working through you.
00:23:51 --> 00:23:52 What a blessing.
00:23:52 --> 00:23:57 But is it something that's scary as well?
00:23:58 --> 00:24:00 Is it something we should be afraid of?
00:24:01 --> 00:24:03 I mean, what if we stuff up like Eli did?
00:24:04 --> 00:24:06 Do we have to fear that God is going to turn around
00:24:06 --> 00:24:07 and do what he did to them?
00:24:09 --> 00:24:12 What about when we do things that are shameful and rebellious?
00:24:12 --> 00:24:15 What will happen to us if God's there in that moment?
00:24:18 --> 00:24:22 Well, there might not be a tent or an ark,
00:24:22 --> 00:24:23 but there is a priest.
00:24:25 --> 00:24:27 In Hebrews chapter 10,
00:24:27 --> 00:24:28 we are encouraged,
00:24:28 --> 00:24:31 since we have confidence to enter the most holy place
00:24:31 --> 00:24:32 by the blood of Jesus,
00:24:33 --> 00:24:35 by a new and living way
00:24:35 --> 00:24:36 opened up for us through the curtain,
00:24:36 --> 00:24:37 that's his body.
00:24:37 --> 00:24:40 Since we have a great priest over the house of God,
00:24:40 --> 00:24:41 he's the key bit,
00:24:41 --> 00:24:44 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart
00:24:44 --> 00:24:47 in full assurance of faith,
00:24:47 --> 00:24:49 having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us
00:24:49 --> 00:24:50 from a guilty conscience,
00:24:50 --> 00:24:54 having our bodies washed with pure water.
00:24:54 --> 00:24:59 Jesus makes God's presence with sinful people possible.
00:24:59 --> 00:25:04 Jesus takes away that fear that Eli rightly felt
00:25:04 --> 00:25:06 because in Jesus,
00:25:07 --> 00:25:10 God's judgment is satisfied.
00:25:11 --> 00:25:12 God's judgment for sin,
00:25:12 --> 00:25:13 for your sin,
00:25:13 --> 00:25:14 for my sin,
00:25:14 --> 00:25:17 is poured out on Jesus completely and fully
00:25:17 --> 00:25:19 so that for us,
00:25:19 --> 00:25:21 the presence of God is still powerful,
00:25:21 --> 00:25:23 but it's a blessing.
00:25:24 --> 00:25:25 It's not something to be feared.
00:25:26 --> 00:25:28 I think one of the reasons that we wrestle with this
00:25:28 --> 00:25:29 is because when we talk about the cross,
00:25:29 --> 00:25:30 when we go to Easter,
00:25:31 --> 00:25:33 it's really easy to be distracted by the fact
00:25:33 --> 00:25:35 that Jesus is bleeding on the cross.
00:25:36 --> 00:25:38 It's really easy to be distracted by the fact
00:25:38 --> 00:25:40 that he's in excruciating physical pain,
00:25:40 --> 00:25:42 that Roman crucifixion is brutal,
00:25:42 --> 00:25:44 but you've got to understand
00:25:44 --> 00:25:46 there is more going on there
00:25:46 --> 00:25:48 than Jesus suffering physically.
00:25:49 --> 00:25:50 On the cross,
00:25:51 --> 00:25:53 Jesus bears the full weight
00:25:53 --> 00:25:55 of God's judgment.
00:25:56 --> 00:25:58 That's not about physical affliction.
00:25:59 --> 00:26:01 The judgment for sin
00:26:01 --> 00:26:03 is a break in relationship.
00:26:03 --> 00:26:08 That's why God departs from Israel in this passage.
00:26:09 --> 00:26:10 And the judgment that Jesus cops
00:26:10 --> 00:26:13 is the judgment that all of us deserve.
00:26:14 --> 00:26:15 Jesus doesn't go to the cross
00:26:15 --> 00:26:16 to take your crucifixion.
00:26:17 --> 00:26:19 That's not the swap that's going on.
00:26:20 --> 00:26:21 Jesus goes to the cross
00:26:21 --> 00:26:23 to take your punishment,
00:26:23 --> 00:26:24 to take God's judgment,
00:26:24 --> 00:26:26 and he makes it possible for you
00:26:26 --> 00:26:28 to stand confident in the presence
00:26:28 --> 00:26:30 of a God who is holy and powerful
00:26:30 --> 00:26:32 and who will not tolerate sin.
00:26:33 --> 00:26:35 Because Jesus has taken
00:26:35 --> 00:26:36 all that is required.
00:26:36 --> 00:26:37 There is no more.
00:26:37 --> 00:26:38 There's nothing extra.
00:26:40 --> 00:26:41 And so we can look forward
00:26:41 --> 00:26:44 to the day when Jesus comes back
00:26:44 --> 00:26:45 to judge the earth.
00:26:45 --> 00:26:47 Because our judgment is paid for.
00:26:48 --> 00:26:49 It's satisfied.
00:26:49 --> 00:26:49 It's dealt with.
00:26:50 --> 00:26:52 We still wrestle with sin
00:26:52 --> 00:26:53 in our lives now as Christians.
00:26:54 --> 00:26:56 And so we look forward to the day
00:26:56 --> 00:26:58 when that's finally and completely gone
00:26:58 --> 00:27:00 and we get to know Jesus fully and forever.
00:27:01 --> 00:27:02 But even now,
00:27:02 --> 00:27:04 if you are a Christian,
00:27:04 --> 00:27:05 the power of God,
00:27:05 --> 00:27:06 God himself,
00:27:07 --> 00:27:08 dwells in you.
00:27:09 --> 00:27:10 Not near you,
00:27:10 --> 00:27:12 not around you,
00:27:12 --> 00:27:13 not occasionally,
00:27:14 --> 00:27:17 but God dwells in you
00:27:17 --> 00:27:18 always.
00:27:20 --> 00:27:21 Now that has got to shape
00:27:21 --> 00:27:22 the way that we live.
00:27:23 --> 00:27:25 That's got to impact who we are
00:27:25 --> 00:27:26 even when no one else is around.
00:27:27 --> 00:27:28 I remember when I was growing up
00:27:28 --> 00:27:29 in high school,
00:27:29 --> 00:27:31 I had a fairly foul mouth.
00:27:31 --> 00:27:32 I don't know why,
00:27:32 --> 00:27:33 I just swore a lot.
00:27:33 --> 00:27:34 And I remember one of the teacher's
00:27:34 --> 00:27:36 strategies was to ask me,
00:27:36 --> 00:27:36 would you say that
00:27:36 --> 00:27:37 if your mum was here?
00:27:38 --> 00:27:39 My first reaction was,
00:27:39 --> 00:27:40 yeah,
00:27:40 --> 00:27:40 what's she going to do?
00:27:40 --> 00:27:41 But if she'd asked dad,
00:27:41 --> 00:27:42 then I would have been
00:27:42 --> 00:27:42 a little bit more scared.
00:27:43 --> 00:27:45 But sometimes I think
00:27:45 --> 00:27:46 we approach the presence
00:27:46 --> 00:27:47 of God like that.
00:27:48 --> 00:27:49 We think that the presence of God,
00:27:49 --> 00:27:50 would you do that
00:27:50 --> 00:27:50 if God was here,
00:27:50 --> 00:27:52 is a way to kind of remind us
00:27:52 --> 00:27:52 or guilt us
00:27:52 --> 00:27:54 into doing the right thing.
00:27:54 --> 00:27:55 But it's more than that.
00:27:57 --> 00:27:59 It sounds simple,
00:27:59 --> 00:28:00 but we need to sit in this
00:28:00 --> 00:28:01 because we forget.
00:28:03 --> 00:28:05 If the power of God
00:28:05 --> 00:28:06 dwells in you,
00:28:08 --> 00:28:09 and God's word says that it does,
00:28:10 --> 00:28:13 that should give us confidence.
00:28:14 --> 00:28:15 Not just confidence
00:28:15 --> 00:28:16 that one day we will spend
00:28:16 --> 00:28:17 forever with God,
00:28:18 --> 00:28:20 but confidence that there is nothing
00:28:20 --> 00:28:22 that we cannot achieve
00:28:22 --> 00:28:23 with God's help.
00:28:24 --> 00:28:25 confidence that there is
00:28:25 --> 00:28:28 no insurmountable task.
00:28:29 --> 00:28:30 It should give us peace
00:28:30 --> 00:28:32 when we face unknown situations.
00:28:33 --> 00:28:35 In our stress and uncertainty,
00:28:35 --> 00:28:37 we know that the power in us,
00:28:37 --> 00:28:38 the God in us,
00:28:38 --> 00:28:39 is certain,
00:28:39 --> 00:28:40 is sure,
00:28:40 --> 00:28:41 is in control.
00:28:42 --> 00:28:43 It should give us security
00:28:43 --> 00:28:44 when we feel like
00:28:44 --> 00:28:46 no one else around us cares
00:28:46 --> 00:28:48 because His love is unfailing.
00:28:49 --> 00:28:50 He's proved it.
00:28:51 --> 00:28:52 He sent His only Son.
00:28:52 --> 00:28:55 God has promised us in His word,
00:28:55 --> 00:28:56 in Matthew 28,
00:28:56 --> 00:28:58 surely I am with you always,
00:28:58 --> 00:29:00 to the very end of the age.
00:29:00 --> 00:29:01 In Hebrews 13,
00:29:01 --> 00:29:03 never will I leave you,
00:29:03 --> 00:29:04 never will I forsake you.
00:29:04 --> 00:29:07 God is with you.
00:29:08 --> 00:29:09 If you are a Christian,
00:29:10 --> 00:29:11 the same God that spoke
00:29:11 --> 00:29:13 the earth into motion,
00:29:14 --> 00:29:15 the same God that put breath
00:29:15 --> 00:29:17 in your lungs when you were born,
00:29:17 --> 00:29:19 walks in every situation
00:29:19 --> 00:29:20 and every circumstance
00:29:20 --> 00:29:22 for your good.
00:29:23 --> 00:29:25 In verse 5 of the passage
00:29:25 --> 00:29:26 we read last week,
00:29:26 --> 00:29:28 Israel lets out a cry
00:29:28 --> 00:29:29 that shakes the ground.
00:29:30 --> 00:29:31 Faced with an army
00:29:31 --> 00:29:32 that had just killed
00:29:32 --> 00:29:33 4 of their soldiers,
00:29:35 --> 00:29:37 they let out a cry of confidence
00:29:37 --> 00:29:40 because they think God is with them.
00:29:41 --> 00:29:42 And who you're with
00:29:42 --> 00:29:43 makes all the difference.
00:29:43 --> 00:29:47 Israel's false confidence
00:29:47 --> 00:29:47 in battle
00:29:47 --> 00:29:51 is now our rock-solid assurance.
00:29:52 --> 00:29:53 There's nothing false
00:29:53 --> 00:29:54 about it for us
00:29:54 --> 00:29:55 because we know that Jesus
00:29:55 --> 00:29:57 came,
00:29:58 --> 00:29:58 died,
00:29:58 --> 00:29:59 and rose again,
00:30:00 --> 00:30:01 and that God has given us
00:30:01 --> 00:30:02 His Holy Spirit.
00:30:03 --> 00:30:05 We stand before God
00:30:05 --> 00:30:06 confident
00:30:06 --> 00:30:08 in the forgiveness
00:30:08 --> 00:30:09 that He offers
00:30:09 --> 00:30:10 in Jesus.
00:30:10 --> 00:30:13 We stand before exams,
00:30:13 --> 00:30:14 unemployment,
00:30:14 --> 00:30:15 relationship struggles,
00:30:15 --> 00:30:16 temptation,
00:30:16 --> 00:30:17 financial stress,
00:30:17 --> 00:30:17 anxiety,
00:30:18 --> 00:30:19 whatever we stand before,
00:30:19 --> 00:30:21 we stand with confidence
00:30:21 --> 00:30:23 because the God of heaven
00:30:23 --> 00:30:24 stands with us.
00:30:26 --> 00:30:28 There'll still be hard times,
00:30:29 --> 00:30:30 there'll still be moments
00:30:30 --> 00:30:32 where suffering comes
00:30:32 --> 00:30:34 so that God can open your eyes
00:30:34 --> 00:30:36 to understand just how sufficient
00:30:36 --> 00:30:36 He is.
00:30:36 --> 00:30:40 But in all of that,
00:30:40 --> 00:30:42 He will never leave you.
00:30:43 --> 00:30:44 In Him,
00:30:45 --> 00:30:45 there is
00:30:45 --> 00:30:47 and there will never be
00:30:47 --> 00:30:49 anything to fear.
00:30:50 --> 00:30:51 Let me finish
00:30:51 --> 00:30:52 with the words
00:30:52 --> 00:30:53 of Psalm 27.
00:30:54 --> 00:30:56 The Lord is my light
00:30:56 --> 00:30:57 and my salvation,
00:30:57 --> 00:30:58 whom shall I fear?
00:30:58 --> 00:31:00 The Lord is the stronghold
00:31:00 --> 00:31:01 of my life,
00:31:01 --> 00:31:02 of whom shall I be afraid?
00:31:03 --> 00:31:04 When evil men advance
00:31:04 --> 00:31:05 against me
00:31:05 --> 00:31:06 to devour my flesh,
00:31:06 --> 00:31:07 when my enemies
00:31:07 --> 00:31:08 and my foes attack me,
00:31:08 --> 00:31:10 they will stumble and fall.
00:31:10 --> 00:31:11 Though an army besiege me,
00:31:12 --> 00:31:13 my heart will not fear.
00:31:14 --> 00:31:15 Though war break out against me,
00:31:15 --> 00:31:16 even then,
00:31:17 --> 00:31:18 I will be confident.
00:31:19 --> 00:31:20 Amen.
00:31:20 --> 00:31:21 Samson 7000 seanger,
00:31:21 --> 00:31:22 le Dolyn
00:31:22 --> 00:31:24 was the
00:31:25 --> 00:31:39 S-T-G
00:31:39 --> 00:31:39 aae,
00:31:39 --> 00:31:41 Heo,
00:31:41 --> 00:31:43 I