GOD’S WORD FOR JUNE 5 ~ ~ 1Samuel 12:22 ~ ~ “For the Lord will not cast away His people for His great name sake, because it has pleased the Lord to make you a people for Himself”
Beginning with excerpts from chapter 4 of John Piper’s book, “The Pleasures of God”, chapter 4 is “The Pleasure of God in His Fame.” He writes:
Over the first draft of this chapter I put the title, “The Pleasure of God in His Name” I still think that would be a thoroughly biblical title. Dozens of times Scripture says that God does things “for His name’s sake” …But if you ask what is really moving the heart of God in that statement the answer is that God delights in having His name known.
The first and most important prayer that can be prayed is, “Hallowed be thy name.” This is a request to God that He would work to cause people to hallow His name. God loves to have more and more people “hallow” His name, and so His Son teaches Christians to put their prayers in line with this great passion of the Father. “Lord, cause more and ore people to hallow Your name.” That is, esteem, admire, respect, cherish, honor and praise His name.
We begin with a story about human sin and divine mercy. It is a story I love because it is so full of God-centered hope. It puts on the table the great news that God’s love for His fame is the foundation of His mercy to desperate sinners. The key sentence in this story is 1 Samuel 12:22, “The Lord will not cast away His people, for His great name’s sake.” Here everyone can see immediately that God’s mercy (“The Lord will not cast away His people”) is grounded in His allegiance to His name (“for His great name’s sake”) But to feel the full force of this God-centered gospel truth, we need to get the story before us.
(Here is the historical setting)
The period of the Old Testament judges is past. Samuel is now on the scene as a kind of bridge between the judges and the kings and the prophets. Until now Israel has had no king. But now the chaos of the land, with everyone doing what is right in his own eyes (Judges 21:25), drives Israel to demand that Samuel give them a king.
You can see this in 1 Samuel chapter 8. Samuel is old, and his sons Joel and Abijah have become corrupt judges. When the people ask for a king, Samuel goes to God for counsel. He was sure Yahweh would not allow it. But surprisingly God said, “Hearken to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. He added this order to Samuel: “Only you shall solemnly warn them, and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them”
So Samuel gave them all the bad news about what it will be like to have a king. Knowing these things, they still wanted to be like the other nations.
So Samuel anoints Saul king , and he defeats many nations. After this, Samuel made a speech to the people, to make sure they knew how evil this decision was, to turn against their Great God. He says:
“Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that He may send thunder and rain; and you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.”
When God sends thunder and rain, the people fear and confess their sins. “Pray for us to the Lord your God, and we may not die; for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.”
Tomorrow we’ll see how all this applies to us today.