14) God and Samuel / Samuel and God
- Samuel beat the Ammonites!
- Then Samuel gives his last will to Israel!
Finally Samuel said to all Israel: “Here I have done all that you asked of me, and I appointed a king to reign over you. Now here is the king who is leading you!As for me, I have grown old and gray, and my sons are here with you, and I have led you from my youth until this day. Here I am. Testify against me before God and before his anointed one: Whose bull or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded or crushed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me look the other way? If I have, I will restore it to you.”To this they said: “You have not defrauded us or crushed us or accepted anything at all from anyone’s hand.” So he said to them: “God is a witness against you, and his anointed one is a witness this day that you have found nothing to accuse me of.” To this they said: “He is a witness.”
- Remember this expression: God is a witness against you!
- I would say God is a witness about Samuel’s faithfulness to him!
So Samuel said to the people: “God, who used Moses and Aaron and who brought your forefathers up out of the land of Egypt, is a witness. And now take your positions, and I will judge you before God in view of all the righteous acts that God has done for you and for your forefathers. “As soon as Jacob had come into Egypt and your forefathers began calling to God for help, God sent Moses and Aaron to lead your forefathers out of Egypt and to cause them to dwell in this place. But they forgot God their God, and he sold them into the hand of Sisʹe·ra the chief of the army of Haʹzor and into the hand of the Phi·lisʹtines and into the hand of the king of Moʹab, and they fought against them.
- Yes, they were in a hurry to forget God and they paid the price again and again and he would strike them again and again!
And they called to God for help and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have left God to serve the Baʹals and the Ashʹto·reth images; now rescue us out of the hand of our enemies so that we may serve you.’
- Do you see the difference with Job?
- Rescue us and we will serve you!
- What do you say? A chosen people? Not at all!
- Samuel beat the Ammonites!
- Then Samuel gives his last will to Israel!
Finally Samuel said to all Israel: “Here I have done all that you asked of me, and I appointed a king to reign over you. Now here is the king who is leading you!As for me, I have grown old and gray, and my sons are here with you, and I have led you from my youth until this day. Here I am. Testify against me before God and before his anointed one: Whose bull or whose donkey have I taken? Or whom have I defrauded or crushed? From whose hand have I accepted a bribe to make me look the other way? If I have, I will restore it to you.”To this they said: “You have not defrauded us or crushed us or accepted anything at all from anyone’s hand.” So he said to them: “God is a witness against you, and his anointed one is a witness this day that you have found nothing to accuse me of.” To this they said: “He is a witness.”
- Remember this expression: God is a witness against you!
- I would say God is a witness about Samuel’s faithfulness to him!
So Samuel said to the people: “God, who used Moses and Aaron and who brought your forefathers up out of the land of Egypt, is a witness. And now take your positions, and I will judge you before God in view of all the righteous acts that God has done for you and for your forefathers. “As soon as Jacob had come into Egypt and your forefathers began calling to God for help, God sent Moses and Aaron to lead your forefathers out of Egypt and to cause them to dwell in this place. But they forgot God their God, and he sold them into the hand of Sisʹe·ra the chief of the army of Haʹzor and into the hand of the Phi·lisʹtines and into the hand of the king of Moʹab, and they fought against them.
- Yes, they were in a hurry to forget God and they paid the price again and again and he would strike them again and again!
And they called to God for help and said, ‘We have sinned, for we have left God to serve the Baʹals and the Ashʹto·reth images; now rescue us out of the hand of our enemies so that we may serve you.’
- Do you see the difference with Job?
- Rescue us and we will serve you!
- What do you say? A chosen people? Not at all!
