In the book of Job Job’s friends have a traditional explanation for his suffering – he must be guilty of some sin. And they become more convinced of this when he protests his innocence. At the end, God himself intervenes, revealing his wisdom and power, greater than any man can comprehend – before which Job humbles himself. God’s opening words to Job are, Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? – and to his friends God says, You have not spoken of me what is right!

So it is with great trepidation that I stand before you today and ask, Do you and I really know what God is like? And, How can we talk about him faithfully, if we have not – like Job – humbled ourselves before God, confessing how little we stand in awe before his majesty, wisdom and power, how prone we are to be selective in what we say to others?

This has been impressed upon me recently, when Valerie and I were reading daily in 1 Samuel. So I want to speak about some of the themes touched on there, in the early chapters – and to see how to link these themes to the character of God revealed to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you know that book, you will know that it begins with the birth of the boy Samuel, granted to his mother Hannah after the most earnest prayer. She gives him up to the Lord while he is still a little boy, to be brought up by Eli, the priest of God, whose own sons are wicked.

Eli is warned by God of impending judgement on his family because of their failure to honour him. In their greed his sons have forcibly taken the best of the sacrificial offerings of the people; and in their immorality they have despised God’s holy law. Those who honour me, I will honour; but those who despise me will be disdained. This message is repeated through Samuel, when he’s old enough to hear from God himself.

Then one day, God allows the Israelites to be defeated in battle by the Philistines. Israel’s response is to take the golden ark, the sacred chest of God containing the Ten Commandments, the symbol of God’s presence and covenant with Israel – and take it onto the battlefield. The army thinks this will ensure victory. But the Philistines, in their dismay, fight all the harder. They are victorious over Israel, capturing the ark, killing Eli’s sons who had accompanied it, and slaughtering many Israelites.

In triumph the Philistines take the ark to Ashdod, one of their five cities, and place it in their temple beside the statue of their god Dagon. In the morning, this idol is found face down, before the ark of the Lord. The idol is returned to its place, but the following morning only Dagon’s body lies before the ark – its head and hands lie broken off, on the threshold.

But that is not all. Rats appear everywhere, and with them what appears to be bubonic plague, for many die with tumours on their bodies. So they move the ark successively to Gath and Ekron, which are also struck down with plague. The narrator writes, Death had filled the city with panic; God’s hand was very heavy upon it.. and the outcry of the city went up to heaven.

So they decide to return the ark to Israel, in a way that will resolve any doubts of their being under God’s judgement – in the hope that by honouring him he will lift the plague. They use a new cart to carry the ark and hitch it to two cows which have never been yoked before, and which have to leave behind their calves. If the cows go unhesitatingly towards Israel, then they will know it is not by chance this disaster has come upon them. And that’s exactly what happens.

After an 11 km uphill pull, the cart arrives at Beth-Shemesh in Israel, to great local rejoicing. The villagers place the ark on a rock, and use the wood of the cart to offer the cows as a burnt sacrifice to the Lord, as no doubt the Philistines intended.

But – the men of Beth-Shemesh cannot restrain their curiosity. They look inside the sacred chest – and the Lord takes their lives. Not surprisingly the people mourn and say, Who can stand in the presence of the LORD, this holy God? They too only want to be rid of his ark. It is accepted by the people of Kiriath-Jearim, who treat it respectfully. And there it stays for 20 years.

During those years Samuel acts as the Lord’s prophet, travelling the length and breadth of Israel, to bring God’s word to all his people. And eventually the people are moved by a desire to return to the Lord in a significant way. This calls forth Samuel’s words, If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of your foreign gods… and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. And so it came about.

The application of the readings to ourselves

That is the story we heard in part as our first reading. What, we should be asking, does that have to say to us? Especially as we put it alongside our Lord’s parable of the disobedient and runaway son?

God is a father:

1. Our Lord describes God as a father, not only in this parable, but in others, too. (Mt 18:23-35; 21:28-31; Lk 11:11-13) We also know he himself addressed God with the most intimate word for father – Abba – and encouraged his disciples to do likewise. We must hold on to this as a great and precious truth as we read the Old Testament, which only occasionally speaks of God directly as father to his people, Israel.

However, the OT speaks many times of the LORD’s loving care, and his yearning over his people’s waywardness. They are reminded continually that he rescued them from slavery and brought them through the wilderness to the Promised Land. When they repented of their waywardness, he heard their prayers and defeated their enemies.

God cares – and therefore disciplines:

2. We learn from today’s reading that the Lord is not indifferent to his people’s behaviour – he cares about them, and especially about the character of their leaders, whom he will judge with greater strictness.(James 3:1) We ourselves may be indulgent parents, unwilling to discipline our children – as Eli was – but God’s purpose for his people – and his own holy character – mean that he cannot turn a blind eye to their faults. He may suffer us to go away from him, without rebuke (like the father in Jesus’ parable) – but equally he does not protect us from the harsh consequences of our rebellion – so that we may be brought to repentance and come back to him. That is what he longs for, as Jesus so wonderfully describes.

Because only a holy people can truly represent God faithfully in this unholy world – and because only a holy people, having God in awe, can truly serve him, and bring others to know him – he must discipline us, as on this occasion with the men of Beth-Shemesh or, centuries later, with Ananias and Sapphira. As the writer to the Hebrews expresses it, quoting from the book of Proverbs, My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines everyone he accepts as a son. (Heb 12:5,6; Prov 3:11,12)

God cannot be manipulated:

3. So it was that God was willing to allow the sacred symbol of his presence – the ark of the covenant – to be captured, and his people be defeated, with the loss of many lives. For one thing, they clearly had quite a wrong idea about God – that they could manipulate God to act as they wished, treating the ark as a talisman.

Do not dismiss this aspect as irrelevant – it speaks to us, if we dare to insult him by regarding the worship of God as a means to some end. How much contempt for God followed from the knowledge that both sides in the Great War prayed to him for victory? How many parents have sent their children to Sunday School, or a Christian school, to acquire a moral education, without ever worshipping God themselves?

Do we ourselves think God will answer our prayers, if only we are more diligent in our church-going, our taking communion, or our giving to charity? Or any other religious activity – if we have not given ourselves wholly to the Lord? Samuel called on the people to put away their idolatrous worship and serve the Lord with all their hearts. We, in our generation, are no less challenged to do the same, for we have other gods we worship.

God responds in loving forgiveness and blessing to those who humble themselves before him. In the parable, the returning, repentant son is not only received with a loving embrace, he is given the best robe, a ring on his finger, and sandals on his feet. He is restored to the full authority of a son in his father’s home.

God cannot be defeated:

4. The Philistines may be thought to have had a better idea of God’s holiness, for they stood in awe of his power. They knew he’d struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues. But they too were mistaken about God, because they thought they’d defeated him by the power of their god Dagon. But the true God cannot be defeated – his sovereign purposes always prevail. Great is our Lord and mighty in power. (Psa 147:5) He works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will. (Eph 1:11) Nothing in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom 8:39)

So it was, in God’s loving concern for this pagan people, that he taught them his uniqueness and complete power over their idols. But they fail to recognise this truth, and the only thing they can think of, is to be rid of God’s presence, just like his own people in Beth-Shemesh. Are men and women of today any different? Ill-fortune and tragedies are not recognised as God’s appeal to us to change, to come back from the far country, to seek him and his forgiveness – because we don’t want God’s closeness in our lives, we see it as restrictive, taking away our freedom. In our pride we are unaware of his fatherly love. This refusal is the essence of sin – why we so desperately need to be rescued from God’s judgement.

God’s plan and purpose among men

If this is how God acts in the realm of men – don’t we need to be reminded of his overall plan and purpose? If we set that before us, we shall know better what he is truly like, and what we are to become, if we truly return to the Lord with all our heart. Let’s spare a moment to see how the Bible introduces us to the intention and purpose of God’s mind.

We assert strongly – that God made man – and made him in his own image. I understand that – at the very least – means men and women were created to reflect God’s moral character. After man’s disobedience and consequent moral corruption, God was grieved… and his heart was filled with pain. (Gen 7:6) Although God tells us, As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isa 55:9), let’s not doubt that God has emotions. His pain and righteous anger are just as real as his compassion and love!

God didn’t start all over again – he continued with the descendants of Noah, even though every inclination of man’s heart is evil from childhood. (Gen 8:21) And God promised to preserve mankind from future total destruction, giving the rainbow as a pledge of his intention. (Gen 9:11-16)

God called Abraham to venture in faith, saying, all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. (Gen 12:3) For I have chosen Abraham so that he will direct his children and his household after him, to keep the way of the LORD, by doing what is just and right… (Gen 18:19)

Joseph expressed to his brothers who had sold him, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish.. the saving of many lives. In saying this Joseph became a pattern of what God would eventually do through Jesus. For just as Joseph saved the lives of many people, Egyptians as well as the family of Israel, so our Saviour died to save multitudes through faith in him.

Joseph predicted, God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land [of Egypt] to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. At the right time God called Moses and by his great power enabled Moses to rescue his people from slavery and brought them through the wilderness. At the borders of the Promised Land, Moses was able to say, You saw how the LORD your God carried you, as a father carries his son, all the way you went until you reached this place…. (Deut 1:31)

The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession. The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers…(Deut 7:6-8)

If there is one theme that runs through the Bible from end to end, it is summed up in these words of the Lord, If you obey me.. I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. (Lev 26:3,12; Gen 17:7; Ex 6:7; Dt 29:13; 2 Sam 7:24; Jer 7:23; 11:4; 24:7; 30:22; Ezek 37:27; Zec 13:9; 2 Cor 6:16; Rev 21:3,7)

Can there be a greater motive for holy living than the knowledge of God’s great loving and saving purpose for each one of us, who have put our trust in him? In Paul’s words: Now we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good. (Titus 2:13,14)

Therefore, let’s listen once again to our Lord’s words to lukewarm Laodicea, Those whom I love, I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me… He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches. (Rev 3:19-22)

Amen.