In this episode of The Daily Bible Podcast, the hosts discuss their personal connections to the book of 1 Samuel and its narrative. They cover chapters 4-8, highlighting Israel's battle failures due to misplaced trust in the Ark instead of God, the plagues faced by the Philistines for capturing the Ark, and the Ark's eventual return to Israel. They also discuss Samuel’s rise as Israel’s judge and the Israelites' demand for a king to be like other nations, interpreting these themes through a modern lens of faith, prayer, and leadership. The episode concludes with a prayer for living distinct, godly lives in today's world.

00:00 Introduction and Overview

00:09 Personal Reflections on First Samuel

01:55 Discussion on Preaching and Sermon Preparation

05:44 The Ark of the Covenant and Israel's Battles

10:12 Samuel's Leadership and Israel's Demand for a King

16:05 Concluding Thoughts and Prayer

Find out more about Compass Bible Church.

Learn more about our Bible Reading Plan.

Questions or Comments? Email us podcast@compassntx.org

Hey, everybody.

2

Welcome back to another edition

of The Daily Bible Podcast.

3

Five chapters today, five cha.

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Yeah, it is a lot.

5

I do remember coming across this

one and being like, Ooh, okay.

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It's a big bite, but

man I like First Samuel.

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It's one of my favorite

Old Testament books.

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I just like the narrative.

9

I like the story.

10

I like the process.

11

Of of moving along here.

12

It's a deep breath after, judges is

just oh man, these guys are miserable.

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But you wanna go slower then?

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Yes.

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No, that's fair.

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But I'm just saying reading five

chapters is not the same thing

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as reading five chapters and

judges No it's totally doable.

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Yeah.

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I don't think it takes that much

longer than what we normally do.

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I like Ruth, I'm bummed that

we're only one day in Ruth.

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Yeah, Ruth is good.

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And then it's like, all

right, see you later.

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But yeah, first Samuel's good book.

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It's, it is got a soft spot in my heart

because when I showed up at Compass

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and was made the men's pastor there,

AV back in California, we preached

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through first and second Samuel.

27

So didn't you suggest Song of Solomon?

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At first I did.

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I was like, let me just

come out with guns firing.

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And and that was rejected for some reason.

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Yeah.

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A better part of wisdom.

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They were like, maybe we shouldn't

talk about that right off the bat.

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Let's get to know you in your first year.

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Yeah.

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Okay.

37

That makes sense.

38

A little bit more.

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And we were doing the same study

that the ladies were doing.

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Oh yeah.

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So that would've been weird too.

42

Or maybe.

43

Could have been fitting, could

have been fitting, could have been.

44

So a word on the street is that you're

gonna preach this at Compass nor Texas

45

Now that you have the pulpit here and

you're gonna do Song of Solomon this

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coming fall, That's exactly not the case.

47

Yeah.

48

Word on the street.

49

Streets can be credible.

50

Hang out on different streets on that one.

51

Yeah.

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Yeah I'd be interested to go

back at and hear MacArthur on it.

53

He preached through the entirety of the

Bible, and so I'd be interested to go

54

back and hear him on on Song of Solomon.

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Did he preach song of, I thought he did.

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Only the New Testament.

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Did he preach through the whole Bible?

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I think he preached the whole Bible.

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He wrote commentaries on

the whole New Testament.

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I think he's preached the whole Bible.

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Oh, I thought it was only that

he preached the New Testament.

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Maybe.

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Maybe it was, yeah.

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Oh, I'll have to look at that.

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Yeah.

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Tommy Nelson did Song of Solomon.

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Some others did as well, but yep.

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Yep.

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You're in Matthew.

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What chapter Matthew are you in now?

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Wednesday nights with our Steve.

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Tomorrow night is Wednesday tomorrow?

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Today.

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Tonight.

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Today.

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Night is the 14th.

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Matthew 14.

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Alright.

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How did the parables go last week?

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That was fun.

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Yeah, it was fun.

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It's a, it's our strategy at this point.

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We're covering a chapter a week,

and so necessarily we can't cover.

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Everything.

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And so we're trying to get the peaks

and skip over some of the valleys to

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give them a, the gist or the sense

of what's being said there without

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trying to go too deeply into the weeds.

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And so I think it went okay.

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I think we're still

trying to figure that out.

90

So Lewis is preaching tonight and

he's doing Matthew 14, and I've

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got his outline and it looks good.

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My concern every week is, man,

how do we make sure that we do

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justice to the passage without.

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Trying to do all the justice that could

be ju-just, I wanna squeeze the orange,

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but I don't wanna squeeze it so much

that people drown in the orange juice.

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I want them to be able to drink

it and say, that was really good.

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Yeah.

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Satisfying.

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Even though we didn't get down to every

jot and tittle of what's in there.

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Yeah.

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And I if you're new to the church

or maybe you haven't really

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considered this that's a hard.

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That's one of the harder things that we

do as pastors, is map out a series and

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decide, okay, this is, we're gonna spend

this amount of time in this passage,

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this amount of time, in this passage.

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And man I feel that way.

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I felt that way this past Sunday.

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I just felt man, I just took a chunk

that just felt to me like it was too big.

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I was preaching that fourth point on the

kingdom of God going, man I'm, I've got

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five minutes to treat the kingdom of God.

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What did I do to myself?

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It is funny 'cause when we were

praying that morning, you probably

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recall everyone's prayer was like,

Lord, please, if we have to go so

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much later than normal, please just

give us patience with Pastor pj.

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It was so funny 'cause don't

think it was weeping in tears.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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I think I remember Abe in particular

saying, Lord, if we have to just,

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if we have to go longer, if it goes

longer than what we expect, help

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us just to be grateful for that.

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Everybody was scared, man.

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You had everybody on edge

oh, I've got four points.

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Yep.

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And there's 65 verses here.

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Yeah.

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But you handled it.

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I think it was I don't know, probably the

average length of your sermons, and then

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you threw a community on top of that.

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So I was pleasantly surprised that

you were able to pull that off.

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Yeah, I just felt I don't know.

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I just felt like I, I robbed

the congregation by getting

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back home and being like, man, I

just left so much on the table.

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But to your point, you have

to do that every single time.

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Every single time you preach, every

time you're leaving stuff on the cutting

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room floor if you're doing it right.

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Anyway.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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And somebody else will

come and preach that.

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I remember a pastor told me that

once and I just appreciated that it

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was one of those Hey, young buck sit

down moments for me and that he was

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like, Hey, somebody else is gonna come

behind you and preach this passage.

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You're not the last one

to preach this passage.

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Sure.

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It's a trust.

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Sure.

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That what you don't get to God's

gonna bring to light through somebody

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else preaching that word to them.

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So yeah, someone told me,

finish before they do.

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I thought.

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Okay.

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That's all right.

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Yeah, I guess so.

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I it's, there's a lot of

things, a lot of pastoral wisdom

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on how to preach to people.

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And often it's a matter of saying

just humble yourself and trust that

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God's gonna use it, even if you're

not particularly pleased with it.

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Yeah, for sure.

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For sure.

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It's it's a joy that we get

to do it, and that's true.

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We're excited for it.

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So hopefully Lewis, no

pressure, but do man.

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Don't don't mess up.

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My kids will be there.

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Don't me know.

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Don't mess up.

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Yeah, just don't ruin it.

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Young man.

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Hey, hop.

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John MacArthur completed a

remarkable feat by preaching

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through the entire New Testament.

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Only New Testament.

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Only New Testament.

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Wow.

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So this is multiple, I'm looking

at multiple resources here.

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I asked did he preach the whole Bible?

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And the answer is no.

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Okay, then, man, JMac, let's go.

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You got the Old Testament now, buddy.

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Jeez.

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Genesis one, one.

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Let's go.

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Better go fast.

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Oh yeah.

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Okay.

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There you go.

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I wonder if he's ever done a series on

Song of p Solomon, then maybe he hasn't.

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I think his notes are pretty scant in

his MacArthur study Bible, and if his.

189

A study Bible is any

indication of his preaching.

190

Yeah.

191

Which I think it is.

192

Don't think he's had a lot of

conversations about that one.

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Probably not.

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Probably not.

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We will eventually, but not yet.

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Right now we're in First

Samuel, so let's this fall.

197

Let's go there.

198

Let tell your friends.

199

Yes.

200

I don't know if it's this fall that we'll

get to it in the daily Bible reading,

201

but whenever we get to the, in the daily

Bible reading, we'll talk about it.

202

Alright.

203

First Samuel, 4, 5, 6, 7, and eight.

204

All right.

205

For single four Israel falls

in battle to the Philistines.

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And the reason they fall in battle to

the Philistines here is because they

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put their trust in something close

to God, but not ultimately in God.

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And man, there's so many takeaways

for us as the church about this too.

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They put their trust in the.

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Arc of God rather than God himself.

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As they're drawn up for battle.

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They call for the arc and they say,

man, the arc will go before us.

213

The arc will be our lucky

rabbits foot our good luck charm.

214

It'll win the battle.

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And in fact the Philistines initially

think, oh no, the arc is there.

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A God has come into the midst of the camp.

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God had not come into the midst of the

camp of the Israelites, only the arc

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A and this is going to be a situation

where they are going to be defeated.

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And and they're defeated and

the arc is gonna be captured.

220

And the word eventually is taken

back to the to Eli there that not

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only has the arc been captured,

but his sons have died as well.

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But Eli he doesn't fall over when

he hears that his sons have died.

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He falls over when he hears

that the arc has been captured.

224

And that the point that you made about him

being a larger individual yesterday and.

225

Yeah, yesterday's podcast leads to,

I think his demise as his neck breaks

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under his weight there when he tips over.

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But this is yeah.

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Israel is not putting their

trust in God, but in, in putting

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their trust in the things of God.

230

And we can be tempted to do that

too, thinking that, because we show

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up at church enough that God must

be pleased with us or we know enough

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of the Bible or we've read enough

we can put our trust in the things.

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Close to God, but not in God himself.

234

And that's where our

confidence needs to be.

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Amen to that.

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Yeah.

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I feel like we can often, even if

it's accidental, we can accidentally

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treat God like a lucky rabbit's foot.

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Sometimes we could be this way with

our Bibles and we don't want anything

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on top of our Bibles, which I guess.

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Sometimes it's a matter of respect, but

we can treat God like a trinket to our

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talisman and pretend because we have a

certain prayer that we're saying five

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times, or because we've we've gone

to church on a Sunday that somehow

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we're more protected or something.

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Something like that.

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And the challenge with that is, I

think there, there's something to that,

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praying is a good thing and not putting

your Bible not putting things on top

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of your Bible is a sign of respect.

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There's things that are adjacent.

250

I think the way that, that you put it.

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Something close to God, but they're not

the same thing as honoring God himself.

252

And so I think it's important for us

to realize that even in as Christians,

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we can do something very similar, even

if it doesn't look exactly like this.

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Yeah.

255

Chapter five God's not gonna

allow his arc to remain in

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Philistine possession for long.

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Especially not in the

temple of their fault.

258

God day.

259

God.

260

So the.

261

Philistines take the arc and

they put it in their temple.

262

This was something that was

common and the reason that they

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did this is it was a way to flex.

264

It was a way for them to say,

are God's stronger than the God

265

of the army that we just beat?

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And so God's not gonna b abide by that.

267

So their statue, Dagon falls

down and they pick him back up.

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They're like, oh, that's interesting.

269

They pick him back up.

270

The next day he falls down, his

heads cut off, his hands are cut

271

off, just his torso was left.

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And the Philistines begin to

get the message on top of that.

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Then God begins to afflict them

physically with different ailments.

274

And they fully eventually get the

fact that that this is a problem.

275

And so they decide in chapter five here

that, that they can't keep the arc.

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They need to get rid of this

thing, they need to send it back.

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And they're gonna then begin to

plot how they're gonna do that.

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Chapter six, then the arc

is returned and it's unique.

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They put it on this cart and they put

two oxen who had never hauled anything.

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And not only that, but they

also have these calves back at

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home that, that are nursing.

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These oxen have every reason not

to take the cart, not to go away

283

from Philistine territory there,

but that's indeed what they do.

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They go up and they go up to Beth Sheesh.

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And the people there at Beth Sheesh

initially rejoice to see the arc return.

286

But they did not take care to revere the

arc according to the Old Testament law.

287

So if you go back to numbers chapter four,

verses five and six, it says, when that

288

camp is to set out Aaron and his son,

she'll go and take down the veil of the

289

screen and cover the arc of the testimony.

290

So the common.

291

People of Israel weren't even permitted

to look upon the arc, let alone touch it.

292

And here, I think that's why 70

of them are killed when it says

293

that they looked upon the arc.

294

I don't think they opened up the

arc and looked inside the arc.

295

I think this is, that they did not

take proper care and respect to, to

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immediately when they saw the arc coming,

say, Hey, we need to abide by the law.

297

We need to cover this and

honor it in that regard.

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And because they treated it

commonly, God struck them down.

299

Very similar to what he's gonna do

with Siah later on when David goes

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to bring the arc back into Jerusalem.

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After this the people of Beshe meh

say, Hey, we, this is too much for us.

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We don't want it here.

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So they send it down to a town

called Curth Jarre and to a town,

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a man in the town named Abada.

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And it's gonna remain in his house for

quite a while from that point until the

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ark is called for again by by King David.

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Later on.

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Chapter seven then deals with

Samuel becoming Israel's judge.

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And in doing so, he leads them to repent

from their idol worship, and also seeks

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the Lord on their behalf during the

battles with the Philistines, which drew

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the favor of God causing the Philistines

to retreat from their attacks on Israel.

312

So Samuel's really stepping

forward, demonstrating his

313

leadership here and this is a good

bookend with later on in chapter.

314

Is it 10?

315

Chapter 11, when Samuel pleads

his integrity as a leader.

316

We'll talk about that

in tomorrow's podcast.

317

But you see the outset of his leadership

here is that he's setting the people

318

to seek God and to trust in God.

319

And then he's going to lead in a

good way as a judge here in Israel.

320

I love pointing out verse 12

here, where Samuel takes a

321

stone and he names that stone.

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Ebenezer, which if we ever sang the song,

I don't know if we sang the song recently.

323

Here I raise my Ebenezer that

till now we've safely come.

324

This is a reference here to one

Samuel chapter seven, verse 12.

325

Samuel establishes the Rock of

Remembrance, and this is a rock

326

that says, God has helped us.

327

God has done great things for us.

328

We ought to remember this.

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And again, one of the things that

we can do today is find ways to

330

help incite our memory to remember

what God has done on our behalf.

331

Whatever you do, find a way.

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It's a good, it's a good thing.

333

Samuel's doing it here.

334

We ought to do it now.

335

Yep.

336

Chapter eight, something that's not

necessarily a good thing and yet part of

337

God's plan we've been talking about that

a lot on Sundays, that God is sovereign

338

even over the the error of man and the.

339

The wrong wrongful des

desires and demands of man.

340

And that's what we find here.

341

In chapter eight.

342

The people look at Samuel and they look

at his sons and they go, okay, you're fine

343

Samuel, but your sons, we don't want them

to be judge over us, so we want a king.

344

And Samuel is initially

offended by this and goes to

345

the Lord, and the Lord says hey.

346

Know what they're not really

rejecting you, Samuel.

347

They're rejecting me.

348

And obey them.

349

In fact, that's what

he says in verse seven.

350

The Lord said to Samuel, obey the voice of

the people in all that they say to you for

351

they have not rejected you, but they've

rejected me from being king over them.

352

And so this was more so a rejection

of theocracy of God as king than it

353

was of Samuel or his sons as judge.

354

And God then tells Samuel to

warn them and to say, Hey.

355

Listen, this is what your king's gonna do.

356

He's gonna take all of

these different things.

357

He's gonna take your daughters the

best of your fields, your vineyards,

358

your orchards, the 10th of your grain.

359

He's gonna take all of

these things from you.

360

So just know what you're asking

for here because God was asking for

361

his own offerings and sacrifices

being rendered to him, which.

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They were still gonna have to

do under the, under a king, but

363

then the king was gonna take even

more from them on top of that.

364

But the people refuse to listen to Samuel.

365

They say, no, this is what we want.

366

And I think the grave statement here,

beyond the rejection of God is that they

367

want to be like all the other nations.

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And that's in verse 20 I.

369

Give us the king that we may also

be like all the other nations, and

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that our king may judge us and go

out before us and fight our battles.

371

That's the rejection of God right there.

372

That's God's job.

373

God was judging the people through the

raising up of the judges and the prophets,

374

and he was the one that was leading them

into battle and fighting their battles,

375

and they're saying, no, we want flesh

and blood to do that for us instead.

376

So this is a grave chapter

in the history of Israel.

377

Yeah, this is really important because

I think we have the same tendencies.

378

Verse 20.

379

We wanna be like other people around us.

380

We like not sticking out for

the wrong reason, and I think

381

they feel insecure about that.

382

Oh, all we have is these judges

and all we have is Yahweh.

383

Man, I wish we were more like

the other people down the block.

384

This is trying to keep

up with the Joneses.

385

In the Bible, and we

can do the same thing.

386

We can look at other people and

say, I wish my life were that way.

387

I wish I had Sunday mornings available.

388

Man I waste six or 12 hours at

church or whatever on Sundays.

389

I'm spending all this time doing

these things and I'm serving at

390

this thing and I'm showing up to

this fellowship group over here.

391

It can easily happen in our hearts that

we look at sinners and unbelievers and

392

say, man, they have it better than I do.

393

And I serve the, I supposedly

serve the God of the universe

394

and they have all these benefits.

395

They have a nicer car,

they have a nicer home and.

396

All these things so quickly,

our hearts can turn to envy and

397

jealousy because we're looking at

them instead of looking at God.

398

That's the first thing I think we

ought to see here, is that looking

399

at the Lord instead of looking at our

neighbor is gonna be the better tactic.

400

Number two, one thing I wanna point out

to your attention here is that Samuel,

401

when he hears the words of the people,

he repeats it in the years of the Lord.

402

Verse 21, Samuel.

403

Here's what they say, and he's

I need to go tell the Lord this.

404

Now think about this.

405

Does the Lord not know what's happening?

406

What Samuel They said what?

407

Tell me more about that.

408

I love this because obviously God

knows, but Samuel has a relationship

409

with God that necessitates, that he

communicate with the God that he so loves.

410

We do the same thing with our

spouses or with our best friends.

411

We can say, Hey, did you

hear about that story?

412

And yeah, I read about that too, but

you're gonna talk about it anyway.

413

Because you care about the person that

you're talking with, and so you, you

414

end up sharing your heart and your

thoughts and your concerns about it.

415

And Samuel, what he does here is so

instructive for us, because we ought

416

to be the people who pray to the

Lord and tell him like, I know you

417

already know this, but let me just.

418

Let me just bear my heart and

mind about this to you, and

419

the Lord is happy to hear it.

420

And the Lord told Samuel here, do

what they say and he responds to it.

421

But I just think it's so cool that

Samuel who knows God knows everything,

422

who knows that God knows everything

still communicates to God in prayer.

423

Yeah, that is interesting because I, we've

all been in, in the prayer meetings with

424

the people that they'll go on for two or

three minutes reciting like everything,

425

that's all the headlines of the day.

426

And you're kinda like a.

427

Okay.

428

You're right, God does know this.

429

Like this is not news to him.

430

But you're saying there's validity

in doing that in a relationship.

431

Yes.

432

If you're thinking pure, purely

practical, it wouldn't make any sense

433

because there's nothing you could

tell God that he's gonna be like, oh.

434

Oh, no, thank you.

435

But in a relationship context, it

makes perfect sense that we would tell

436

God everything that he already knows

because he wants to hear from us.

437

I think of a father responding

to his kids, how'd your day go?

438

He probably could make some educated

guests because he knows who you

439

are and he knows the kind of person

that you are, the kind of situation,

440

the classes that you're in.

441

And he knows even your likings.

442

And your proclivities.

443

And so a good dad's gonna say, I

probably know what you're gonna

444

say, but I wanna hear it anyway.

445

Yeah.

446

Oh, I liked that class.

447

Oh, you liked the class

that I knew you liked.

448

Oh.

449

What did you like about it?

450

Oh, you liked that particular

aspect that I knew you liked?

451

A father desires that relationship,

so does God desire that with us?

452

Yeah.

453

Yeah.

454

Or when I watch my boys play

baseball, and then after the game,

455

they wanna tell me everything.

456

I watched the game.

457

They wanna tell me about every pitch.

458

Did you see that?

459

That thing that I did?

460

Yeah.

461

Yeah.

462

No, that's good.

463

That's good.

464

Hey, let's pray.

465

Speaking of prayer and then

we'll be done with this episode.

466

God we want to be different.

467

We want to be unique.

468

Even as we talked about in John

recently, we're in the world, but

469

we don't wanna be of the world.

470

We don't wanna be just like the

world we're called to be separate.

471

In fact, that's the church.

472

Cia, we're called out.

473

We are called out from

the worldly principles and

474

values that we see around us.

475

So help us live distinct lives.

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Help us live holy lives, godly lives that

would bring honor to Christ and not shame

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him by looking so much like the world that

if we were to share the gospel, someone's.

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Would say what's the difference between

you and me, Lord, may that difference

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be evident to the lost in our lives, the

lost around us, such they would desire

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what we have, that they would desire

the difference that they see in us.

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And that's only possible as your

spirit works that within us.

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So we pray that we would be people

of the word, people of prayer, and

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people who are different as a result.

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And we pray this in Jesus' name.

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Amen.

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Amen.

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Keep reading Bibles.

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Tune in again tomorrow for another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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See you.

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Bye.

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Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.

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This is a ministry of Compass

Bible Church in north Texas.

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You can find out more information

about ourChurch@compassntx.org.

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We would love for you to leave a

review to rate to share this podcast

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on whatever platform you happen to

be listening on, and we will catch

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you against tomorrow for another

edition of the Daily Bible Podcast.