September 15, 2025 • 24 mins
Have you ever wondered what happens when God's glory collides with careless curiosity? Or why spiritual breakthroughs often trigger immediate opposition? This compelling journey through 1 Samuel 6-7 unveils ancient patterns that still define our spiritual lives today.
The narrative begins with a remarkable scene: the Ark of the Covenant, captured by the Philistines, makes its way back to Israel on an ox cart, coming to rest in "the field of Joshua" beside a large rock. These aren't random details but profound symbolism pointing to Christ as our foundation. Yet celebration quickly turns to mourning when seventy men die after looking inside the Ark—a stark reminder that approaching holy things demands reverence, not casual curiosity.
Then comes perhaps the most haunting line of the passage: "It was a long time, twenty years in all, that the ark remained at Kiriath Jearim." Twenty years of spiritual stagnation summarized in a single sentence. How many of us live in similar prolonged spiritual droughts? Samuel's solution cuts to the heart: "If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, rid yourself of foreign gods." His call for complete repentance—eliminating competing loyalties and idols—created the perfect conditions for divine intervention. When Israel confessed and offered sacrifice, God thundered from heaven against their enemies.
This ancient story reveals a timeless pattern: genuine repentance positions us for supernatural breakthrough. What idols might be preventing God's thunder in your life? What would change if you returned to Him with your whole heart? The glory that defeated Israel's enemies is still available today for those willing to abandon lesser gods and embrace the power of authentic faith in the One, True, God!
Loving Yeshua/Jesus, Loving people... Come as you are and you will be loved!
Feel free to check out our website by typing in lifearoundthefire.com or Life Around The Fire ... We think you'll find some beneficial stuff to look at and apply to your life.
Shalom to you and your home.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
We've been looking at the book of 1 Samuel and right
now we're in chapter 6.
And today we're going to becovering quite a bit of ground.
We're going to be looking atchapter 6, verses 13, through
chapter 7, verse 11.
So we're going to get right inNow.
(00:22):
The people of Beth Shemesh wereharvesting their wheat in the
valley and when they looked upand saw the ark, they rejoiced
at the sight.
The cart came to the field ofJoshua of Beth Shemesh and there
(00:44):
it stopped beside a large rock.
Huh, interesting, the peoplewere harvesting wheat in a
valley right and the ark hadbeen captured by the Philistines
and taken into their region.
(01:05):
And as a result of them takingthe Ark, their area experienced
a significant display of God'sglory and showing the
inferiority of their gods, andit so affected them that they
didn't want that ark in theirterritory any longer.
(01:28):
They wanted to get back to whatthey were doing and the ark was
interrupting what was going on.
And so they sent the ark backto Israel on an ox cart and they
said well, if it goes back,then we know that God has been
(01:49):
the one who has brought thesethings against us and it's going
back to its rightful place, andif not, well, then we'll do
something else.
Well, it went back to Israel.
Two cows brought the ark backwithout being directed, except
(02:09):
they were being directed by theSpirit of God.
So the ark finds its way back.
And the ark stopped in thefield of Joshua, and another
name for Joshua would be Jesus,yeshua.
And it stopped by a large rock,jesus being the rock.
(02:35):
Hallelujah, there's a greatcorrelation here.
And so the ark stopped beside alarge rock.
The people chopped up the woodof the cart and sacrificed the
cows as a burnt offering to theLord.
The Levites took down the arkof the Lord, together with the
(02:59):
chest containing the goldobjects, and placed them on the
large rock.
Interesting, how symbolic isthat right?
The ark is placed on the rock.
The ark, the glory of God, isplaced on Jesus in the field of
(03:21):
Jesus, in the field of Joshua,yeshua, the ark is placed on a
rock, yeshua being a rock in thefield of Yeshua, the kingdom of
God being that field, the pearlof great price.
That's profound how things tietogether.
(03:43):
On the day, the people of BethShemesh offered burnt offerings
and made sacrifice to the Lord.
The five rulers of thePhilistines saw this and
returned the same day to Ekron,or they went back to the region
of the Philistines.
These are the gold tumors thePhilistines sent as a guilt
(04:04):
offering to the Lord, one eachfor Ashdod, gaza, ashkelon, gath
and Ekron.
And the number of gold ratswere according to the number of
the Philistine towns belongingto the five rulers, the
fortified towns with theircountry villages.
The large rock on which theyset the ark is a witness to this
day.
In the field of Joshua, of BethShemesh, it's a witness to this
(04:30):
day.
Jesus is a witness to the gloryof God concerning the kingdom
of God.
To this very day, amen.
But God struck down some of themen of Beth Shemesh, putting 70
of them to death because theyhad looked into the ark of the
Lord.
(04:50):
See, you just don't handle thethings of God lightly.
You don't flippantly go aroundmessing around with the things
of God unless you do themaccording to the way God has
prescribed.
He allowed for the ark to comeback on an ox cart, but that
wasn't his method, that wasn'this way, they were not his
instructions, and there are waysto go about doing things
(05:16):
concerning handling those thingsthat are dedicated to God.
We're talking about God.
We're not talking about justanybody.
We're talking about God.
We're not talking about justanybody.
We're talking about GodAlmighty, who is worthy of all
of our respect, all of our honor, all of our worship, and who's?
(05:36):
He's almighty, he's powerfuland he we just can't flippantly
go around doing things becausewe're nosy, we're curious, we
just kind of want to find outabout stuff and we enter into
things.
We just don't even know whatwe're talking about or doing and
we just kind of think that wecan do that.
(05:58):
That's really not the waythings work.
And so these people found outthe hard way.
The people mourned because ofthe heavy blow the Lord had
dealt them, and the men of BethShemez asked who can stand in
the presence of the Lord, thisholy God?
To whom will the ark go up fromhere?
(06:21):
So they sent messengers to thepeople of Kirith-Jerim saying
the Philistines have returnedthe Ark of the Lord.
Come down and take it up toyour place.
So the men of Kirith-Jerim cameand took up the Ark of the Lord
.
They took it to Abinadab'shouse on the hill and
(06:42):
consecrated Eleazar, his son, toguard the ark of the Lord.
Now it was a long time, 20 yearsin all, that the ark remained
in Kiriath-Jerim.
Now I just read that statementin about three seconds.
It was a long time, 20 years inall, that the Ark remained in
(07:10):
Kirith Gerium.
Now that three seconds?
Right, that was actually 20years, and the story really
doesn't take on full flavoruntil you get the picture a
little bit clearer.
Right, we just breezed right bythat.
(07:30):
It took 20 years.
But when you stop and thinkabout it, 20 years is what?
Over 700 days, right, 700 days,right, 700 days.
And you take 700 days plus andyou just break it down to hours,
(07:54):
that's like 17,000 plus hours,17,000.
Have you ever had an hour justdrag on because it's been really
a hard day or it's been justnot only boring but difficult
draining.
See, like 20 years of thatbeing the same old, same old,
(08:18):
same old, same old, 20 years.
They felt just this heaviness.
The people of Israel mourned andsought after the Lord, but
nothing seemed to be going on,because they still had stuff
(08:41):
that they were doing that didn'tline up with the kingdom of God
and how things function, andthey were called to be
representatives of the kingdomand so they were involved in
things that were just reallyunhealthy.
In fact, the scripture saysthat, and Samuel in verse 3 of
(09:04):
chapter 7,.
And Samuel said to the wholehouse of Israel If you are
returning to the Lord with allyour hearts, then rid yourself
of the foreign gods, of theAshtoreths, and commit yourself
to the Lord and serve him only,and he will deliver you out of
the hand of the Philistines.
So the Israelites put awaytheir Baals and Ashtoreths and
(09:26):
served the Lord only.
That means they put away theirbales and ashtores and served
the Lord only.
That means they put away theiridols, their false gods, the
other things they wereworshiping, giving their
themselves over to and withtheir worship.
There were practices that wentalong with it, and those
practices were part of thiswhole fertility cult activity
(09:48):
going on in the Philistine areaand the surrounding Canaanite
region, and that was templeprostitution, with women, men
and animals giving themselvesover a very vile, degraded way
of living.
(10:08):
And you can't do both serve Godand serve something.
That is contrary to the ways ofGod.
His ways are not like that.
And so Samuel says if youreally want to serve God, then
(10:32):
you've got to get rid of thisstuff.
And the same goes for us If wereally want to serve God.
And it's not like we're givingup something secondary.
I mean, it's not like we'regiving up something that is
greater, we're actually givingup things that are lesser than
God.
But we have a hard time givingthem up because they appeal to
(10:55):
that lower, base nature and alsothey're familiar if we've been
doing them a long time and it'shard to imagine not having them
Like a person using drugs andalcohol and just that kind of
whole lifestyle that goes alongwith that, it seems like man.
(11:16):
It's odd not to think aboutdoing that.
So it's hard to give it up.
It seems like until you reachthat break point and they did
Hallelujah and we can praise God, be led to that break point
where it's just like I'm done,God, I'm done, I'm done, please
(11:39):
help, I'm done.
Whatever it is, it doesn't haveto be drugs and alcohol.
There are a variety of otherthings and, yeah, sex is
included, but it could be yourwork.
A variety of things just aretaking up your precious time
that could be devoted to otherthings, such as worshiping God
(12:03):
and serving him and loving oneanother, for starters.
But he said God will deliveryou if you put these things away
.
And he does, and he did.
Then Samuel said assemble allIsrael at Mizpah and I will
(12:24):
intercede with the Lord for you,meaning I'll stand, I'll pray,
and God knows we need peoplethat are involved in that.
That is one of the highestcallings there could be, and
that is in the calling ofintercession.
Intercession means to stand in,stand in for you, stand in for
(12:52):
someone else, you're on theirbehalf, you're for them, you
want the best for them.
Pardon the dogs in thebackground, it's part of the
ambiance in the house, so I willintercede with the Lord for you
.
When they had assembled atMizpah, they drew water and
(13:13):
poured it out before the Lord.
On that day they fasted andthere they confessed Beautiful,
we have sinned against the Lord.
And Samuel was leader of Israelat Mizpah, we've sinned against
(13:37):
the Lord.
There's nothing like owningyour stuff and saying God, I've
sinned against you, not in frontof others first, but God, I've
sinned against you, not in frontof others first, but God, I've
sinned against you.
I am sorry, please forgive me.
God loves that.
(13:58):
You like that.
When it happens, when someonemakes it good with you, they
come and say man, I've done youwrong, please forgive me.
There's something that happensWell.
God is greater than us and hisheart is moved because he loves
(14:19):
us.
He wants things restored.
He wants things right.
He wants it being righteous,right relationships.
We've sinned against the Lord.
Verse 7, when the Philistinesheard that Israel had assembled
(14:42):
at Mizpah, the rulers of thePhilistines came up to attack
them.
Interesting, they just had aspiritual time, and now the
enemy is going to attack them.
They just had a time of pouringtheir hearts out before God,
getting things right, and theenemy is now going to attack
them.
They just had a time of pouringtheir hearts out before God,
getting things right, and theenemy is now going to attack
them.
Doesn't that sound familiar?
You just get things right andhere comes the enemy in to
(15:07):
attack you.
It might not be a human being,it might be.
It might come in the form of ahuman being.
To Israel.
It came in the form of thePhilistines.
The Philistines came out toattack them and when Israel
heard of it, they were afraidbecause they'd gotten in trouble
before they had been defeatedand the ark was captured.
(15:30):
I mean people would.
They died.
30-some thousand plus peopleright Died in battle.
That's real and they wereafraid.
And that's real.
And sometimes, when weexperience things that come
against us just when we'regetting things right.
(15:52):
It can strike up things fromthe past and it feels real.
You're afraid.
They were afraid because of thePhilistines.
They said to Samuel do not stopcrying out to the Lord, our God,
for us, that he may rescue usfrom the hand of the Philistines
(16:15):
.
So Samuel took a suckling lamband offered it up as a whole
burnt offering, a lamb, the lambof God.
He is the one.
Jesus is the one.
That was a picture of Jesusbeing sacrificed.
And Jesus being sacrificed onour behalf defeats the enemy
before the enemy can even takeus into captivity.
(16:39):
He cannot take us intocaptivity because of the blood
of the lamb.
He took a suckling lamb andoffered it up as a whole burnt
offering to the Lord.
He cried out to the Lord onIsrael's behalf and the Lord
answered him.
(17:00):
God answers prayer.
God answers prayer.
While Samuel was sacrificing theburnt offering, the Philistines
drew near to engage Israel inthe battle.
Right, it was going to happen.
Because he did that.
It doesn't mean that the enemyis going to stop right away In
your life.
(17:20):
It doesn't mean the enemy isgoing to stop right away, but
the day, that day, but that day,but that day.
It's been 20-some years right.
But that day when things gotright.
But that day, because of thelamb, because of the prayer,
(17:41):
because of the confession, thatday, that day, that day, the
Lord thundered with a loudthunder against the Philistines
and threw them into such a panicthat they were routed before
the Israelites, meaning theystarted to retreat in fear.
(18:03):
They didn't know what thethunder was, so significant.
It was so big, loud,frightening.
They didn't understand.
Again, being people that wereaccustomed to believing in gods,
they believed that the godswere against them.
It was the God of Israel thatwas on behalf of the Israelites
(18:27):
and the enemy got routed.
The enemy will get routed inyour life when God moves, and
God is supernaturally movingthese days in a great way across
the nations.
Things are happening on a scalethat have never been happening
before, and this was one of themthat happened.
Then God thundered from heaven.
I can't tell you exactly what'sgoing to take place in your
(18:50):
life, but God will move on yourbehalf.
When you believe in him, whenyou confess, when you have the
blood of the lamb on your life,things will take place because
God will move in ways that causethe enemy to be routed.
The men of Israel rushed out ofMizpah and pursued the
(19:15):
Philistines, slaughtering themall the way to a point below
Beth-kar, meaning a long way.
That's verse 11.
Okay, we covered a lot of ground, man, and you see, in the
picture, in this story that iscenturies old, the relevancy
(19:38):
today, and we see Jesus in it.
That's the amazing thing.
It's a picture of Jesus and theFather and the Spirit moving on
behalf of the people in thesame way that he will do in our
lives today, and even greater,because Jesus said even greater
things than he performed wouldhappen, because he went and now
(20:03):
is at the Father's right hand.
He went to, he ascended to andnow is at the Father's right
hand and we are seated with himin heavenly places.
We have stuff to do.
We are empowered to do them.
We are able to cooperate withGod in things that are divine.
(20:26):
Supernatural things are takingplace and we are called to be
naturally supernatural people.
We need to see supernaturalpower.
We can't see certain thingstake place unless we have that,
and God has promised that to usand we are seeing it happen now
and it's growing more and moreand more and more.
(20:47):
The glory of God is coming moreand more and more because he's
calling us up.
He's calling us up, up up, tosee things from a higher level,
to function with a higher degreeof authority.
We're going up so his glory cancome down.
We are seated with Christ inheavenly places and we can
(21:09):
function in ways that are farbeyond what we've been doing.
And God is teaching us how.
He's showing us in his wordthat he's willing to do it when
we confess our sins, get rid ofour idols and follow him
according to his word.
His word is good, it's a light,it's a lamp, it's the way for
(21:31):
us to live.
We align ourselves with thescriptures.
Things happen, man.
Things happen for us becausewe've aligned ourselves with God
Almighty, the highest, high,most high God, god, hallelujah.
(21:53):
This story shows us the beautyof God doing things in ways that
we can't, but then calls us tofunction with him in seeing
things happen.
The Israelites cooperated withGod, as he provided the means by
(22:18):
which they could then defeatthe enemy, and we need to take
responsibility in defeating theenemies in our life.
I'm not talking about humanbeings.
I'm talking aboutprincipalities and powers,
things in high places, defeatingthem in the name of Jesus,
seeing them topple and seeing adifferent whole environment take
(22:40):
place where we are.
Atmosphere changers,peacemakers, shalom makers,
atmosphere changers.
Praise God.
Let's pray Father, thank you,thank you.
Thank you, thank you for thepower of your spirit, for
declaring things and causingthings to happen.
(23:03):
Thank you for Jesus.
Thank you, jesus, for standingin the place where we needed you
most, for laying down your life, shedding your blood, which we
need the most.
Thank you for the power thatyou've released in your name,
which we need the most.
(23:23):
Help us walk like you, holySpirit, teach us to do that very
thing, and we thank you for it.
We stand here in the name ofJesus and we say Amen.
So be it.
Amen, amen, all right, folks.
We stand here in the name ofJesus and we say Amen.
So be it, amen, amen, all rightfolks.
We love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
(23:44):
free to drop us a line atLifeAroundTheFire, at gmailcom,
or type in LifeAroundTheFire.
Look us up on the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you.
Adios amigos.
We've been looking at the book of 1 Samuel and right
now we're in chapter 6.
And today we're going to becovering quite a bit of ground.
We're going to be looking atchapter 6, verses 13, through
chapter 7, verse 11.
So we're going to get right inNow.
(00:22):
The people of Beth Shemesh wereharvesting their wheat in the
valley and when they looked upand saw the ark, they rejoiced
at the sight.
The cart came to the field ofJoshua of Beth Shemesh and there
(00:44):
it stopped beside a large rock.
Huh, interesting, the peoplewere harvesting wheat in a
valley right and the ark hadbeen captured by the Philistines
and taken into their region.
(01:05):
And as a result of them takingthe Ark, their area experienced
a significant display of God'sglory and showing the
inferiority of their gods, andit so affected them that they
didn't want that ark in theirterritory any longer.
(01:28):
They wanted to get back to whatthey were doing and the ark was
interrupting what was going on.
And so they sent the ark backto Israel on an ox cart and they
said well, if it goes back,then we know that God has been
(01:49):
the one who has brought thesethings against us and it's going
back to its rightful place, andif not, well, then we'll do
something else.
Well, it went back to Israel.
Two cows brought the ark backwithout being directed, except
(02:09):
they were being directed by theSpirit of God.
So the ark finds its way back.
And the ark stopped in thefield of Joshua, and another
name for Joshua would be Jesus,yeshua.
And it stopped by a large rock,jesus being the rock.
(02:35):
Hallelujah, there's a greatcorrelation here.
And so the ark stopped beside alarge rock.
The people chopped up the woodof the cart and sacrificed the
cows as a burnt offering to theLord.
The Levites took down the arkof the Lord, together with the
(02:59):
chest containing the goldobjects, and placed them on the
large rock.
Interesting, how symbolic isthat right?
The ark is placed on the rock.
The ark, the glory of God, isplaced on Jesus in the field of
(03:21):
Jesus, in the field of Joshua,yeshua, the ark is placed on a
rock, yeshua being a rock in thefield of Yeshua, the kingdom of
God being that field, the pearlof great price.
That's profound how things tietogether.
(03:43):
On the day, the people of BethShemesh offered burnt offerings
and made sacrifice to the Lord.
The five rulers of thePhilistines saw this and
returned the same day to Ekron,or they went back to the region
of the Philistines.
These are the gold tumors thePhilistines sent as a guilt
(04:04):
offering to the Lord, one eachfor Ashdod, gaza, ashkelon, gath
and Ekron.
And the number of gold ratswere according to the number of
the Philistine towns belongingto the five rulers, the
fortified towns with theircountry villages.
The large rock on which theyset the ark is a witness to this
day.
In the field of Joshua, of BethShemesh, it's a witness to this
(04:30):
day.
Jesus is a witness to the gloryof God concerning the kingdom
of God.
To this very day, amen.
But God struck down some of themen of Beth Shemesh, putting 70
of them to death because theyhad looked into the ark of the
Lord.
(04:50):
See, you just don't handle thethings of God lightly.
You don't flippantly go aroundmessing around with the things
of God unless you do themaccording to the way God has
prescribed.
He allowed for the ark to comeback on an ox cart, but that
wasn't his method, that wasn'this way, they were not his
instructions, and there are waysto go about doing things
(05:16):
concerning handling those thingsthat are dedicated to God.
We're talking about God.
We're not talking about justanybody.
We're talking about God.
We're not talking about justanybody.
We're talking about GodAlmighty, who is worthy of all
of our respect, all of our honor, all of our worship, and who's?
(05:36):
He's almighty, he's powerfuland he we just can't flippantly
go around doing things becausewe're nosy, we're curious, we
just kind of want to find outabout stuff and we enter into
things.
We just don't even know whatwe're talking about or doing and
we just kind of think that wecan do that.
(05:58):
That's really not the waythings work.
And so these people found outthe hard way.
The people mourned because ofthe heavy blow the Lord had
dealt them, and the men of BethShemez asked who can stand in
the presence of the Lord, thisholy God?
To whom will the ark go up fromhere?
(06:21):
So they sent messengers to thepeople of Kirith-Jerim saying
the Philistines have returnedthe Ark of the Lord.
Come down and take it up toyour place.
So the men of Kirith-Jerim cameand took up the Ark of the Lord
.
They took it to Abinadab'shouse on the hill and
(06:42):
consecrated Eleazar, his son, toguard the ark of the Lord.
Now it was a long time, 20 yearsin all, that the ark remained
in Kiriath-Jerim.
Now I just read that statementin about three seconds.
It was a long time, 20 years inall, that the Ark remained in
(07:10):
Kirith Gerium.
Now that three seconds?
Right, that was actually 20years, and the story really
doesn't take on full flavoruntil you get the picture a
little bit clearer.
Right, we just breezed right bythat.
(07:30):
It took 20 years.
But when you stop and thinkabout it, 20 years is what?
Over 700 days, right, 700 days,right, 700 days.
And you take 700 days plus andyou just break it down to hours,
(07:54):
that's like 17,000 plus hours,17,000.
Have you ever had an hour justdrag on because it's been really
a hard day or it's been justnot only boring but difficult
draining.
See, like 20 years of thatbeing the same old, same old,
(08:18):
same old, same old, 20 years.
They felt just this heaviness.
The people of Israel mourned andsought after the Lord, but
nothing seemed to be going on,because they still had stuff
(08:41):
that they were doing that didn'tline up with the kingdom of God
and how things function, andthey were called to be
representatives of the kingdomand so they were involved in
things that were just reallyunhealthy.
In fact, the scripture saysthat, and Samuel in verse 3 of
(09:04):
chapter 7,.
And Samuel said to the wholehouse of Israel If you are
returning to the Lord with allyour hearts, then rid yourself
of the foreign gods, of theAshtoreths, and commit yourself
to the Lord and serve him only,and he will deliver you out of
the hand of the Philistines.
So the Israelites put awaytheir Baals and Ashtoreths and
(09:26):
served the Lord only.
That means they put away theirbales and ashtores and served
the Lord only.
That means they put away theiridols, their false gods, the
other things they wereworshiping, giving their
themselves over to and withtheir worship.
There were practices that wentalong with it, and those
practices were part of thiswhole fertility cult activity
(09:48):
going on in the Philistine areaand the surrounding Canaanite
region, and that was templeprostitution, with women, men
and animals giving themselvesover a very vile, degraded way
of living.
(10:08):
And you can't do both serve Godand serve something.
That is contrary to the ways ofGod.
His ways are not like that.
And so Samuel says if youreally want to serve God, then
(10:32):
you've got to get rid of thisstuff.
And the same goes for us If wereally want to serve God.
And it's not like we're givingup something secondary.
I mean, it's not like we'regiving up something that is
greater, we're actually givingup things that are lesser than
God.
But we have a hard time givingthem up because they appeal to
(10:55):
that lower, base nature and alsothey're familiar if we've been
doing them a long time and it'shard to imagine not having them
Like a person using drugs andalcohol and just that kind of
whole lifestyle that goes alongwith that, it seems like man.
(11:16):
It's odd not to think aboutdoing that.
So it's hard to give it up.
It seems like until you reachthat break point and they did
Hallelujah and we can praise God, be led to that break point
where it's just like I'm done,God, I'm done, I'm done, please
(11:39):
help, I'm done.
Whatever it is, it doesn't haveto be drugs and alcohol.
There are a variety of otherthings and, yeah, sex is
included, but it could be yourwork.
A variety of things just aretaking up your precious time
that could be devoted to otherthings, such as worshiping God
(12:03):
and serving him and loving oneanother, for starters.
But he said God will deliveryou if you put these things away
.
And he does, and he did.
Then Samuel said assemble allIsrael at Mizpah and I will
(12:24):
intercede with the Lord for you,meaning I'll stand, I'll pray,
and God knows we need peoplethat are involved in that.
That is one of the highestcallings there could be, and
that is in the calling ofintercession.
Intercession means to stand in,stand in for you, stand in for
(12:52):
someone else, you're on theirbehalf, you're for them, you
want the best for them.
Pardon the dogs in thebackground, it's part of the
ambiance in the house, so I willintercede with the Lord for you
.
When they had assembled atMizpah, they drew water and
(13:13):
poured it out before the Lord.
On that day they fasted andthere they confessed Beautiful,
we have sinned against the Lord.
And Samuel was leader of Israelat Mizpah, we've sinned against
(13:37):
the Lord.
There's nothing like owningyour stuff and saying God, I've
sinned against you, not in frontof others first, but God, I've
sinned against you, not in frontof others first, but God, I've
sinned against you.
I am sorry, please forgive me.
God loves that.
(13:58):
You like that.
When it happens, when someonemakes it good with you, they
come and say man, I've done youwrong, please forgive me.
There's something that happensWell.
God is greater than us and hisheart is moved because he loves
(14:19):
us.
He wants things restored.
He wants things right.
He wants it being righteous,right relationships.
We've sinned against the Lord.
Verse 7, when the Philistinesheard that Israel had assembled
(14:42):
at Mizpah, the rulers of thePhilistines came up to attack
them.
Interesting, they just had aspiritual time, and now the
enemy is going to attack them.
They just had a time of pouringtheir hearts out before God,
getting things right, and theenemy is now going to attack
them.
They just had a time of pouringtheir hearts out before God,
getting things right, and theenemy is now going to attack
them.
Doesn't that sound familiar?
You just get things right andhere comes the enemy in to
(15:07):
attack you.
It might not be a human being,it might be.
It might come in the form of ahuman being.
To Israel.
It came in the form of thePhilistines.
The Philistines came out toattack them and when Israel
heard of it, they were afraidbecause they'd gotten in trouble
before they had been defeatedand the ark was captured.
(15:30):
I mean people would.
They died.
30-some thousand plus peopleright Died in battle.
That's real and they wereafraid.
And that's real.
And sometimes, when weexperience things that come
against us just when we'regetting things right.
(15:52):
It can strike up things fromthe past and it feels real.
You're afraid.
They were afraid because of thePhilistines.
They said to Samuel do not stopcrying out to the Lord, our God,
for us, that he may rescue usfrom the hand of the Philistines
(16:15):
.
So Samuel took a suckling lamband offered it up as a whole
burnt offering, a lamb, the lambof God.
He is the one.
Jesus is the one.
That was a picture of Jesusbeing sacrificed.
And Jesus being sacrificed onour behalf defeats the enemy
before the enemy can even takeus into captivity.
(16:39):
He cannot take us intocaptivity because of the blood
of the lamb.
He took a suckling lamb andoffered it up as a whole burnt
offering to the Lord.
He cried out to the Lord onIsrael's behalf and the Lord
answered him.
(17:00):
God answers prayer.
God answers prayer.
While Samuel was sacrificing theburnt offering, the Philistines
drew near to engage Israel inthe battle.
Right, it was going to happen.
Because he did that.
It doesn't mean that the enemyis going to stop right away In
your life.
(17:20):
It doesn't mean the enemy isgoing to stop right away, but
the day, that day, but that day,but that day.
It's been 20-some years right.
But that day when things gotright.
But that day, because of thelamb, because of the prayer,
(17:41):
because of the confession, thatday, that day, that day, the
Lord thundered with a loudthunder against the Philistines
and threw them into such a panicthat they were routed before
the Israelites, meaning theystarted to retreat in fear.
(18:03):
They didn't know what thethunder was, so significant.
It was so big, loud,frightening.
They didn't understand.
Again, being people that wereaccustomed to believing in gods,
they believed that the godswere against them.
It was the God of Israel thatwas on behalf of the Israelites
(18:27):
and the enemy got routed.
The enemy will get routed inyour life when God moves, and
God is supernaturally movingthese days in a great way across
the nations.
Things are happening on a scalethat have never been happening
before, and this was one of themthat happened.
Then God thundered from heaven.
I can't tell you exactly what'sgoing to take place in your
(18:50):
life, but God will move on yourbehalf.
When you believe in him, whenyou confess, when you have the
blood of the lamb on your life,things will take place because
God will move in ways that causethe enemy to be routed.
The men of Israel rushed out ofMizpah and pursued the
(19:15):
Philistines, slaughtering themall the way to a point below
Beth-kar, meaning a long way.
That's verse 11.
Okay, we covered a lot of ground, man, and you see, in the
picture, in this story that iscenturies old, the relevancy
(19:38):
today, and we see Jesus in it.
That's the amazing thing.
It's a picture of Jesus and theFather and the Spirit moving on
behalf of the people in thesame way that he will do in our
lives today, and even greater,because Jesus said even greater
things than he performed wouldhappen, because he went and now
(20:03):
is at the Father's right hand.
He went to, he ascended to andnow is at the Father's right
hand and we are seated with himin heavenly places.
We have stuff to do.
We are empowered to do them.
We are able to cooperate withGod in things that are divine.
(20:26):
Supernatural things are takingplace and we are called to be
naturally supernatural people.
We need to see supernaturalpower.
We can't see certain thingstake place unless we have that,
and God has promised that to usand we are seeing it happen now
and it's growing more and moreand more and more.
(20:47):
The glory of God is coming moreand more and more because he's
calling us up.
He's calling us up, up up, tosee things from a higher level,
to function with a higher degreeof authority.
We're going up so his glory cancome down.
We are seated with Christ inheavenly places and we can
(21:09):
function in ways that are farbeyond what we've been doing.
And God is teaching us how.
He's showing us in his wordthat he's willing to do it when
we confess our sins, get rid ofour idols and follow him
according to his word.
His word is good, it's a light,it's a lamp, it's the way for
(21:31):
us to live.
We align ourselves with thescriptures.
Things happen, man.
Things happen for us becausewe've aligned ourselves with God
Almighty, the highest, high,most high God, god, hallelujah.
(21:53):
This story shows us the beautyof God doing things in ways that
we can't, but then calls us tofunction with him in seeing
things happen.
The Israelites cooperated withGod, as he provided the means by
(22:18):
which they could then defeatthe enemy, and we need to take
responsibility in defeating theenemies in our life.
I'm not talking about humanbeings.
I'm talking aboutprincipalities and powers,
things in high places, defeatingthem in the name of Jesus,
seeing them topple and seeing adifferent whole environment take
(22:40):
place where we are.
Atmosphere changers,peacemakers, shalom makers,
atmosphere changers.
Praise God.
Let's pray Father, thank you,thank you.
Thank you, thank you for thepower of your spirit, for
declaring things and causingthings to happen.
(23:03):
Thank you for Jesus.
Thank you, jesus, for standingin the place where we needed you
most, for laying down your life, shedding your blood, which we
need the most.
Thank you for the power thatyou've released in your name,
which we need the most.
(23:23):
Help us walk like you, holySpirit, teach us to do that very
thing, and we thank you for it.
We stand here in the name ofJesus and we say Amen.
So be it.
Amen, amen, all right, folks.
We stand here in the name ofJesus and we say Amen.
So be it, amen, amen, all rightfolks.
We love you.
If you have any thoughts,questions, concerns, please feel
(23:44):
free to drop us a line atLifeAroundTheFire, at gmailcom,
or type in LifeAroundTheFire.
Look us up on the web.
We would love to hear from youIn the meantime.
God bless you.
Adios amigos.
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