Address—Steve Stewart
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We start the meeting this afternoon by saying 35 and the appendix just the 1St 3 verses the 1St 3 stanzas of 35 in the appendix.
All the paths.
One day I feel.
Like the world.
Oh my God.
Restoration where he said that God right now.
He's afraid. He can't doubt some way now, that's all.
It starts.
We must.
Reinstall.
Get out of the rain.
Come on. Soon. All the time. All right.
We pray.
In Hebrews 13 we read of those who.
Where our guides who taught us the word of God?
Whose faith followed, knowing the end of their conversation. Jesus Christ the same.
Yesterday, today, and forever. The end of their conversation. That is the true object of their lives and their pathway here in the scene was Christ himself. They taught us the Word of God. They were our guides, our examples. And in Colossians 3 we read, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms.
Hymns and spiritual songs singing.
With grace unto the Lord.
Songs teach.
And it's notable that no woman was ever called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ.
No woman ever penned a book of the scriptures that we have in our hands.
But what we do have of what they said is chiefly in song, and it teaches us. And they are, although I know the verse in Hebrews is speaking mainly of really New Testament guides, but they have been to us and are to us guides in our pathway through their song. They teach and their song. And I'd like to look at 1 notable 1, and that's Hannah.
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In first Samuel chapter one, Hannah in her life.
And her song?
First Samuel chapter one In other words, a certain man of ramatham xofim of mountain Ephraim, and his name was El cana, the son of.
Jerome, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zaf and Ephrathite, and he had two wives. The name of one was Hannah and the name of the other Penina and Penina.
Had children, but Hannah had no children, and this man went up out of his city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts.
In Shiloh, and the two sons of Eli, Hopany and Finnehas, the priests of the Lord were there.
And when the time was that El Cana offered, he gave to Penina his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters portions. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her womb, and her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.
And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the House of the Lord, so she provoked her. Therefore she wept and did not eat. Then said El Cana, her husband to her. Hannah, why weepest thou, and why eateth thou not? Why is thy heart grieved? Am I not better to thee, my ten sons? Well, here we have the background.
Of what is to unfold.
In the first two chapters of First Samuel.
The place was Shiloh where they would bring their sacrifices. The persons there noted the sons of Eli, Hoffany and Finnehas. And what a dark backdrop it is, for when we look over in chapter 2, we find of the sons of Eli in verse 12 That they were the sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord.
Belial just means worthless.
They were worthless as to God in their conduct and their ways and their persons.
And we find that many things had come in that were in disorder by this time in Israel's history. And one of them, instead of the prescribed portion that belonged to the priests and the peace offering that was theirs, they would just come and take a flesh hook of three teeth and just put it in the cauldron or kettle and whatever came up.
Out of what the offer had brought, that was the priests.
But these men had taken it much further in their rapacity, and their violence, and their insolence. They came, and they would not have meat, having had the fat removed 1St and offered to God on the altar, burnt offering. But they insisted to have it with the fat that was upon it. They sent their servants.
Insulting in their approach, verse 15 Also before they burnt the fat, the priest servant came and said unto the man that sacrificed, give flesh to flesh to roast for the priest.
For he will not have sodden flesh of thee, but raw. And if any man said unto him, Let them not fail to burn the fat presently, and then to take as much as thy soul desireth, then he would answer him, Nay, but thou shalt give it me now, and if not, I will take it by force. Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord. For men of horde, the offering of the Lord.
All the fat is Jehovah's we read in Leviticus 3.
All that spoke of the inward energies of Christ, the deep motivations of His heart and His pathway that took Him to cross to the cross, were all for God. And that which spoke of that they took for themselves. That which was the food of the offering for God, they took for themselves to satisfy their own lusts.
And men abhorred the offering of the Lord. The pronouncement of the Spirit of God is their sin was great.
And furthermore, Eli speaks to them in.
Chapter 2 Because not only were they sinning against the Lord in that way, in a religious way, so to speak.
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Says in verse 22, Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did unto all Israel, how they lay with a woman that assembled at the door of the Tabernacle, the congregation.
And he said unto them, Why do ye such things? For I hear of your evil doings by all these people. Name my sons, for it is no good report that I hear. Ye make the Lord's people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him. But if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him, notwithstanding they hearken not?
Unto the voice of their Father, because the Lord would slay them.
And God sends a man to Eli to speak to him a little later in chapter 2, and he says.
To him in verse 28, did I and did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel?
To be my priest, that is Aaron's house, to OfferUp upon mine altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me. And did I give the House of thy Father all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel? Wherefore kick ye at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honours thy sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the cheapest.
Of all the offerings of my people. And he goes on to tell him his house would be cut off. There would be none of his house to stand before the Lord. That line of the priesthood was going to be cut off. The backdrop is the complete corruption of the priesthood in Israel.
When the people failed in the wilderness and set up those golden calves, and the law came down into the camp, 3000 died and never actually came into the camp, Moses broke the tables beneath the mount. God came in afterwards, and he set up the priesthood to be his point of connection with his people, to be those who would intercede for the week, those who would teach.
The the people for the priests lips should keep the law we read in Malachi.
And to be his connection with his people here in this earth. But now that link with his people was utterly corrupted and he would not go on with that corrupted link that defiled priesthood. And he's going to introduce something new.
And that new thing was going to be a king.
And the king, unlike the priest who stood as the great representative of the people, the king would have authority to rule over them. And as the king was obedient and good, so the nation would prosper. And as he was evil, so they would not. And the king was going to be that great link between God and the people, and it all hinged.
On Hannah.
And God brought it to pass through a trial in her soul.
And he takes that trial that she's passing through and he's going to blend her heart with his own. He's going to make her feel through her own need and difficulty what he is feeling.
Do you ever think that God may pass you through a trial? That you might feel what he's feeling? Do you have wayward children?
Do you ever think that God has passed you through that so you would be sympathetic?
With him and his wayward children.
Yes.
Do you feel like perhaps sometimes there's not the food that we'd like to see in the assembly meetings and you feel a little frustrated? Do you ever think in that he's seeking to bring your heart into fellowship with his and his desire that his people would be fed?
Oh, we tend to be fairly self-centered in our trials and I think often he's seeking to bring us into communion with his own thoughts and desires.
And so Hannah was in bitterness.
Her womb bore no fruit. Nature to her was without any strength or power. It produced nothing. And nature will never produce anything of profit for God, of value and divine things. But she was in bitterness, and not only that, she was persecuted by Penina. Hannah means free gift.
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Or Grace.
Penina means a Pearl all. Cana spoiled the picture of that Pearl of great price by having two wives.
And Hannah, she needed what her name means. She needed a free gift. She needed God's grace to meet her in her need. Nature was never going to produce it.
And she comes with Alcania, and she comes up year by year in this bitterness which she's seeing something.
As she is burdened year after year about her condition and feeling the persecution of Penina who mocked her because of her barrenness.
She saw what was taking place at Shiloh and the Lord.
Begins to work.
To take the thoughts of her own heart and her own trial.
And blend them with his own burdens as to the state of things among God's people.
And those thoughts become one, and she desires.
What he desires, and he desires what she desires.
She could not eat of the offerings because of her grief at first.
But as time went on, I am convinced that she could not eat because the Lord was not getting his portion. The priests were robbing the Lord of his portion. How could she eat and take her portion of the sacrifices when the Lord was not getting his?
She couldn't.
And no doubt Pangina mocked her and said look at all the children I have there, you won't either. The sacrifices. No wonder the Lord is not blessing you like ye bless me.
No, she was feeling what the Lord felt.
As she observed these things. And so now she finally comes, not just in bitterness, but in prayer.
Verse 9 So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh.
And after they had drunk, now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by the post of the temple of the Lord.
And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O Lord of hosts, that thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid.
And Remember Me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child.
Then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life.
And there shall no razor come upon his head.
What a prayer. What a prayer.
She didn't ask for a child.
For the satisfaction of her own affections. Oh, no doubt she wanted that.
She didn't ask for a child that she could hold and love and dote on.
She asked for a man child very specifically in full accord with Numbers chapter 3, where the Lord told the people that He had given the Levites to the House of Aaron. Al Cana was a Levite we find in Chronicles, and she asked for a man child to give to the Lord.
For a very special service.
She could not take care of the situation as a woman.
Her husband like a kind of, as I think is Wayne Coleman put it one time, a kind of a spiritual dud.
Though he was a Levite, unable.
She asked for a man child.
And she can give back to the Lord.
No razor shall come upon his head.
A Nazarite from the womb.
A Nazarite means separated. She wanted a separated child.
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She wanted a child separate from this world that would be holy for God every day of his life.
No. Thought that he might go off and stray off here or there, no.
Her expectation was that this child would go on for the Lord every day of its life, wholly separated from this world for Him. What kind of a child do you want? What are you praying for?
Do you want a child that's separated from this world wholly for gone?
Do you want a child that prospers in this world, that is able to negotiate well through this world?
To take in the arts and culture of this world.
To be somebody that is capable, able in this world.
Or do you want a separated child for God?
Oh, dear mother.
What an example.
This godly woman's prayer is.
What an example.
No, he would be a Nazarite to God all the days of his life, Amos said to the people. I gave you sons and daughters for Nazarites, but you gave them wine to drink.
You gave them the joys and the pleasures of this world. I gave them to you for separated children. You fed them.
With the pleasures of this world, and now they're not separated from this world for me anymore.
Came to pass as she continued praying before the Lord.
All in that crowd.
There at Shiloh, with all the sacrifices and busyness and commotion, she's alone with the Lord.
She's before the Lord.
Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart. Only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she had been drunken.
Oh, Eli.
No discernment sitting on a seat that was never provided for in the law for the high priest before his work was never done.
Who should intercede for those who are weak, seeing he himself is encompassed with infirmity?
He misses completely.
Lei said unto her along, Wilt thou be drunk, and put away thy wine from thee direct command?
But what about his sons? Oh, I hear these things, my sons, why do you do these things?
He had authority as the priest, he could have commanded for that behavior to stop.
And he had a responsibility to.
He treats Hannah more directly and sternly, and he favors his own sons.
Hannah answered respectfully.
No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken Heather to. Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace.
And the God of Israel grant thee thy petition, that thou hast asked of him.
All he accepted that humble rebuke. I think Eli in his heart, in spite of all his failures, loved the Lord. He loved the people of God, and he takes that rebuke and he blesses her instead.
She says to him she's not one of the daughters of Belia. I'm not like those women that congregate at the door of the Tabernacle with your sons.
I've not drunk neither wine nor strong drink. Oh, she wanted a Nazarite for a son, and she was making sure she was prepared for that. She was a Nazarite in heart.
She was a separated woman. Do you want a separated child to the Lord?
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It won't happen unless you are.
It won't happen unless you are separated to the Lord from this world.
It's a spiritual impossibility outside of the grace of God stepping in in spite of that.
She was preparing herself.
When she hears Eli's blessing, she takes that as from the Lord.
Let thine handmade find grace in thy sight. That's what she was looking for, and answer in grace just like her name, and she goes from there. No more sad in that response. Maybe just kind of sort of a canned answer from Eli. You know, the blessing of the Lord be upon you and so on, although perhaps sincere.
She takes in that that this is the Lord going to answer.
Her prayer.
And so in time, she has that child.
Named Samuel means I have been given given him from the Lord asked of God is what his name means.
Alcana goes up again to offer sacrifice. Verse 21 But Hannah went not up, for she said unto her husband, I will not go until the child be weaned, then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord, and there abide.
Forever and Alcan her husband said, Enter, do what seemeth thee good. Tarry here until thou have weaned him. Only the Lord establishes word. So the woman abode and gave her son suck until she weaned him. When she had weaned him, she took him up with her with three bullocks, Juanifa of flour and a bottled wine, and brought him onto the House of the Lord in Shiloh. And the child was young.
They slew a Bullock and brought the child to Eli.
And she said, O my Lord, as my soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord for this child, I prayed.
And the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him.
Therefore also I have lent him unto the Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be Lent unto the Lord, and he worship the Lord. There you have a marginal reading on Lent, it says, Or I've returned him whom I have obtained by petition to the Lord, not Lent returned.
Those children of yours are a gift from God.
You can give them back to the Lord.
And that's what Hannah did.
All three bullocks, the FA flower, the flask of wine, beautiful picture of Christ and his devotedness to God, wholly offered up to God.
Hear that lowly man walking through this world and all the beauties of his moral glories. Ever before the eye of God, that flower and that flask of wine, he was ever the delight and joy of God.
It all spoke of that, but of all the things she brought.
Nothing.
Was of greater value.
Than that child.
She gave her only begotten Son.
True child of Abraham and his faith, who offered up his only begotten. She gave that which would speak so beautifully to the heart of God, who was going to give His only begotten Son.
She weans him.
She feeds him with food that is needful for him at his age. Mother's milk.
But she weans him. Let's look at a verse in Hebrews 5.
She had prayed for Nazareth. He was going to be a judge in Israel.
He was going to need discernment.
Understanding scriptural understanding. Spiritual discernment.
And in verse 12 of Hebrews 5 we read for when the time ye ought to be teachers.
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You have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God.
And are become such as have need of milk and not strong meat for everyone that useth milk.
Is unskillful in the word of righteousness, for He is a babe.
But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use, have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. Eli didn't.
The time came when he needed to be weaned.
He needed to go from milk to meat.
Dear Mother and father.
You have the privilege.
To wean your children.
All you start them with milk, the simple things of the word of God.
You point to the moon at their earliest age and say, what's that? And they learn the word moon, and you say who made the moon? You say God did.
And pretty soon you say to them, who made the moon, and they say God did.
You start out with those so simple things.
But all that's all you've ever stayed at with your children who made the moon.
I know I'm Speaking of it in very strong terms. If you only stayed with milk.
Of the word.
And they're not weaned. They're not going to be useful to God.
In the way that you would like them to be, you have the privilege to teach them.
The deeper things of the Word of God.
The word of righteousness, the place that righteousness has put us in before God as sons accepted before Him in His beloved Son, and all that flows from the work of the cross and the descent of the Holy Spirit.
Strong meet true Christian position and privilege.
You have the privilege to teach your children those things.
More than that, it's your responsibility.
Wasn't Eli's responsibility to Wean Samuel?
Dear Mother.
How can you wean your child that way if all you feed on is milk?
If you have not learned to eat meat yourselves.
How can you win your little ones if you are not feeding on?
Those truths and in the enjoyment in your own soul of those truths that are proper to your position as a son and child of God.
A member of the body of Christ.
Part of new creation? If you are not in the enjoyment of those things, how will you wean your children? Do you think those books of ministry on the bookshelf are just the territory of some of the brothers who minister in the Assembly, or perhaps who get up and give thanks at the Lord's Table?
And give expression on behalf of the whole Assembly of Thanksgiving.
And praise to God.
Do you think that's just their territory? No.
Those things belong to you.
They're yours.
Look in your hymn book. Look back at the list of authors. Look how many sisters have written hymns. Read those hymns. The depth of the understanding of the Word of God is astounding. 30 of them written by a woman who was a widow at age 21.
Oh, you say. Well, you know, she had time. I'm a mom. I'm really busy. Life is hectic.
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The song we begin with.
Well, I just want to turn to another one quickly 254.
Just to read a little bit.
254.
Death and judgment are behind us. Grace and glory are before.
All the billows rolled over Jesus. There they spent their utmost power.
First fruits of the resurrection. He is risen from the tomb. Now we stand in new creation.
Free because beyond our doom, Jesus died, and we died with him.
Buried in his grave we lay one with him in resurrection now in him.
In Heaven's Bright Day in him, Paul's Doctrine, written by Jeanette Taylor, age 21, on the occasion of her own baptism.
She went on two years later to marry.
John French.
And became Mrs. JA Trench wrote. How blessed a home, the father's house.
Are they a hymn in our hammock, paralleled in its depth without him?
She wrote all the past. The Saints are treading that we begin with trodden by the Son of God. Mother of four children, three girls and a boy. A good friend of Mrs. Bevin, whose name you'll also find in that list of authors. Mother of a happy household of nine.
Six girls and three boys.
Oh, it's for you, sister. It's for you too.
Pulled books off my bookshelf to read.
Out in a lot of libraries from older brethren that have passed on. Thankful for them. I see their initials, the date that they finished them, some sisters, some brothers. There's one set of initials keeps coming up no matter what library got the books from and the date that it was finished. Over and over again I thought, boy, I got to catch up here. Getting ahead of me.
After a while I realize I'm never going to catch up.
Rode far more than I ever have. How are you going to feed? How are you going to wean?
Your children feed them with meat. You're not eating it yourself.
What a gift.
She presented to the Lord.
With Samuel.
She returns him, whom she asked by petition.
For his service.
All nothing will satisfy your heart, dear mother.
Like a child.
That the Lord can pick up and use for his glory, for the building up of His people. So.
Samuel, we read later, was established to be a prophet of the Lord. He begins the first great line of prophets that ends with John the Baptist.
There were prophets before, but just raised up on occasion and not one of them is named.
Samuel is the first named prophet, the 1St with that office of a prophet.
Ends with John the Baptist and he was going to be the one who would anoint that coming king.
Of Israel.
Hannah's heart is full.
Her heart is full. What if she had just?
Been barren for a little while and then.
Lord changed things and she had a child. She'd be so thankful nature was working like it should and she'd have a child to hold and love. But her heart ever has been as full as it was at this moment.
No, no.
You know and.
Job Chapter 26.
After giving a long list.
Of God's ways, or God's creation and his wonders and his creation.
He comes.
To the end. And he says in verse 14, lo, these are parts of his ways, but how little a portion or how little a whisper?
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Heard of him with the Thunder of his power? Who can understand? Now let's connect that with Psalm 81.
Psalm 81.
Hear it Speaking of God's deliverance of Israel out of Egypt and then.
After they came into the wilderness, the difficulty that they encountered with the bitter waters of Meribah, he says, verse six, I removed his shoulder from the burden. His hands were delivered from the pots. That's the deliverance from Egypt.
Thou call us in trouble, and I deliver thee answered thee in the secret place.
Of Thunder I prove the the waters of Maraba. In Revelation 8 we read of a sensor that is.
Has incense laid upon it, and it goes up before the Lord, and it's the prayers of his suffering Saints.
Here on this earth.
He receives those prayers and the Angel takes the same sensor, fills it with coals of fire from the altar before the Lord, and he casts it down into the earth, and it says there were thunders and lightnings in a great earthquake. The prayers of his suffering Saints draw down an answer of Thunder from the secret place of Thunder. All she could have had just an answer of nature, but it would have been just a whisper of His ways.
But she got an answer from this secret place of Thunder. How much better one of his suffering Saints. And he comes in for her in such a wonderful way, and her heart is full. And she sings Sink.
She prayed. But it's a song.
By divine inspiration, for we find it in 113th Psalm as well.
And Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, Mine horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. All she had received an answer in grace.
And her heart rejoiced.
Her feebleness and her weakness. As we had earlier in First Second Corinthians 12, his strength was perfected in her weakness.
And so she can say mine horn. That is the thought of strength. The power of an animal is in its horn.
Is exalted in the Lord, not in herself. Strength made perfect, and weakness His strength. My mouth is enlarged over.
My enemies. Oh, Penina was going to be in silence.
In the end, Hannah triumphed.
But there was more.
Than that there was the failure of the priesthood and all the awfulness that was taking place. There were the inroads of the Philistines that were pressing in deeper and deeper into Israel.
And even beyond that.
Coming day of the tribulation, when He will answer his Saints from the secret place of Thunder.
And so her heart goes, not only through her own circumstances, but out to Israel, the faithful remnant in the coming day and the Tribulation, and out beyond.
There is none holy as the Lord, there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock.
Like our rock for the grace of God.
Which bringeth salvation to appear to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly, lest we should live soberly, righteously and godly.
In this present world, looking for the.
Looking for the coming?
Let's I can't quote exactly, I've got to turn to it. Titus 2.
And verse 13, looking for that blessed hope.
And the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.
Grace teaches us how to walk in holiness in this world.
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She got an answer in grace, but His grace is inseparable from His Holiness. You can't take one part of His nature and divide it from another.
They're inseparably bound together in that wonderful grace as we look back to the cross and what it cost our Savior to redeem us, to deliver us. It should motivate us to a walk through this world that is holy, that is becoming to Him.
Talk no more exceedingly proudly, Let not arrogance come out of your mouth. Forgot. The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full of hired them out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased, so that the Baron had borne. 7 And she that hath many children is waxed.
Feeble.
Oh, no natural advantage, whether it be the bows of the mighty.
Whether it be the womb that is not bearing no natural advantage.
Of man.
Has anything?
Is of anything before God?
He takes the weak things of this world and confounds the wise. He takes the despised things.
And confounds the wise of this world.
They that stumbled are girded with strength by him. Actions are weighed, not natural advantage, education, or whatever it might be.
Not exalted place of a priesthood.
Nothing of that advantageous man before God.
In the end, the end of verse nine, you might say, is one of the grand themes of this song. Prayer. For by strength shall no man prevail.
The Lord verse 7 maketh poor and maketh rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. There's the action of grace. He takes us from the lowest place, as it says the beggar from the dunghill in verse eight, to set them among Princess, to make them inherit the throne of glory.
What brought you into the place of blessing that you have before God? It's His sovereign grace. No natural advantage that you might have in any way. No natural prowess or intelligence or any other advantage that this world might admire. He raised you up.
Dear ones.
I have said some things very plainly.
Connection with children.
And parental responsibilities, and especially to the young mothers. But don't forget.
It's all of his grace.
It's all of his grace.
As they would grow up and go on for the Lord.
No credit to us.
It's all of him.
Never forget that.
Hannah praised this beautiful prayer. She never once mentioned Samuel. Not once. No boast.
No glory in that way.
Not once does she mention Samuel.
The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces out of heaven. He shall Thunder upon them.
That answer from the secret place of Thunder for his persecuted Saints. He shall give strength unto his King, and exalt the horn of his anointed. What King?
There was number king in Israel in those days. Every man did that which was right.
In his own sight. What king is she Speaking of?
Her heart is going beyond, by the Spirit of God, her own circumstances in the present.
Circumstances in Israel, He is bound up her heart with his heart, her desires with His desires, and she is led on by the Spirit of God to things that are beyond her own circumstances, her own knowledge and all that was in Israel looking on to His purpose, how He was going to rectify everything. She prayed for a man child.
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Separated from this world unto God, to be used of God to help.
Rectify the things that were wrong in Israel and he says I'm going to do it.
And she sings it in her song.
This is David.
God's anointed.
But David, is he going to judge the ends of the earth? All this goes beyond David. This goes all the way to Christ.
He is going to set on the throne.
The man of God, said the Eli, I will raise me up a faithful high priest, and he shall walk before mine anointed forever.
And then Zechariah we read of Christ in chapter six. He will set a priest upon his throne in his person. Both priesthood and kingship will be brought together in one in God's anointed. And he will have what he has desired, a priest to walk before his anointed forever, all in one person.
In Christ.
Turn over to.
The Psalms.
I think it's Psalm 78.
There were some great disorders that had come into Israel, not only what we saw with the priesthood.
And its corruption.
But when God brought the people into the land, the one who was prominent of Aaron's sons as high priest was Eliezer.
Eliezer had a son named Finnehas. Finnehas put away evil from before the Lord in Numbers chapter 25 I think it is. And God gave him an everlasting covenant of the priesthood would be his and his sons.
But somehow Eliezer Brothers line Itamar came to the forefront and Finnehas family seems to fade out of sight.
And God judges the House of Eli. You remember the story of Doeg the Edomite once David fled from Saul and he got the sword of Goliath and the loaves of showbread for him and his men.
And Saul asked who it was that helped David and Doeg rats him out.
And.
That whole family of the Himalayas I believe is his name, was slain 85 men that wore the linen. He fought Abiathar alone, escaped. David took him in. He continued in the office of the priesthood until.
Another one comes into the picture named Zadok. Zadok and Abayathar share that priesthood together. Zadok was of the line of Finnehas.
Biathar eventually exposes himself.
When Adonijah seeks to grab the throng.
And these thrusts from the priesthood?
And God fulfills his word by the prophet that spoke to Eli, and Zadok is becomes in his line those that hold the office of high priest. And we read in Ecclesiastes it's the sons of Zadok that will minister before the Lord in the Millennium.
That had gotten out of place. The other thing that had gotten out of place is in the beginning of judges.
When God told them there was still land to be possessed after the days of Joshua, they say who will go up and he says Judah.
Why? Because the scepter will not depart from Judah. We read in Genesis 49 they were to be in the lead of the tribes of Israel, and they go up. But by the time we come to the edge of Judges, Judah has faded off the stage. And you'll find as you go through, Ephraim rapidly comes to the forefront.
And Ephraim tides with Gideon.
And with Jephthah.
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They're proud, arrogant.
They didn't do so good with Jetta.
And they come to the forefront, and Judas fades to the background. You know what that is?
Judah means praise. Ephraim means fruitfulness. God has an order.
From the place of praise and worship flows fruitfulness and service.
Worship comes before service. When service gets in the front seat, it becomes an object in itself.
And becomes proud because it's out of the presence of God.
And Christianity has developed a whole system of things called the clergy.
And putting service before praise and worship. And that had happened in type in that way. In Israel, praise was in the back seat and service was in the front and idolatry came in.
God is about to reverse the order. He is about to change everything.
And it all hinged on Hannah.
And the deep exercises of her heart.
Psalm 78.
Verse 54 And he brought them to the border of his sanctuary.
Even to this mountain which his right-handed purchased, he cast out the heathen also before them, and divided them inheritance by lying. He made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents. Yeah, they tempted and provoked the Most High God, and kept not as testimonies. They turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers.
They were turned aside like a deceitful bull. They provoked him to anger with their high places, moved him to jealousy with their grave and images. There's the history of the judges. God raised 1 judge after another to deliver them time and time again. They would fall into idolatry, would deliver them to their enemies. They'd cry out. He'd send a judge deliver them. Down, down, down it went until the last.
Judge we read of in the book of Judges. Samson needs to be delivered himself.
He raises Samuel up, who judged Israel. Samuel's sons, who he put in the places of judges, corrupted that, and that ended the dispensation of judges in Israel.
The History of the Judges, verse 59. When God heard this, he was raw.
And greatly abhorred Israel, so that he forsook the Tabernacle of Shiloh.
The tent which he placed among men and delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy's hands. And we didn't read it, but that's what happened in Samuel's young days. They went to fight against the Philistines. They were not doing so well. They said, Go get the ark. It will save us dear mothers and dear fathers.
If you think that, you've come up with a formula.
To save your children.
It won't.
Any more than the Ark saved them, they said. This is the Ark, it will save us. No, no formula you might develop will save your children.
The Lord will save them. It's His grace.
Their faith was in an object, the ark, not in the God of Israel, And he delivered the ark to the Philistines glory, and to the enemy's hand.
He gave his people all over also unto the sword, and was wroth with his inheritance. The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage. Their priests fell by the sword.
Hoffany and Finnehas.
And their widows made no lamentation.
Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine, and he smote his enemies in the hinder parts. He did with the Philistines and the emeralds. He put them to a perpetual reproach. Moreover, he refused the Tabernacle of Joseph, chose not the tribe of Ephraim.
But chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion, which he loved.
And he built a sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth, which he hath established forever.
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He chose David, also his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
Stop there.
And God reversed all of those things that were out of order, and David designed the temple. David was the one whom God showed that Jerusalem was a place where he placed His name. David set the priesthood in their 24 courses of service. He penned the psalms that they would sing in the worship of the Lord.
And Judah praised.
Came to the forefront again, and then Ephraim was in his right place.
God reversed it all.
All what thoughts filled Hannah's heart.
Dear sister, my burden especially for you, young sister, don't think.
That the wonderful lines and beautiful things and the deep things of God are the territory of some older brothers that teach they're for you too, and to give to your children.
That they might be here for God.
Sing the last two lines of that hymn.
And by Janetta Trench.
Verse four and five join the same.
Of his great genes, when the soul and art, when the Lord, when we saw the sun.
Where there is one?
Standing again for the joy and spirit sunrise.
Lay down, it is right the 3rd way. It's really needed her son of Allah.
Of the power of God. How many Suns? Now it is never.
Theless.
Our God and our Father, we look forward to that moment when desert waves will be rehearsed. Above all, we must reach the goal at last, and we will surely sing every step that we have. Tron to triumph of thy grace.
We give thee thanks and ask thy blessing on Thy word, in the precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.