Intermediate Lesson Twelve - Book of 1 Samuel

MESSAGE FOR PEOPLE TODAY FROM THE BOOK OF 1 SAMUEL

Church: Pergamos                                      Lesson 17 of 39                                         Theme: Repent

Background Information:

The church of Smyrna taught us how we are to love our neighbor.

Statement of Faith to Say Amen to for the Book of 1 Samuel:

I can learn to pray for my enemy with love by repenting with a true heart.

Essential Question:

Can I learn how to pray for my enemy with love if I believe lying vanities?

1 Samuel:

Have students read pages 62-67 in the book, The Pattern of Sound Teaching.

After students read the information ask them, "What do you want to talk about?"

Remember the Issue:

Does the world teach us to pray for our enemy with love? How does the world get us to build our foundation of faith on sinking sand instead of The Rock of Faith?

The world is trying to separate God from His creation with a worldview that believes in lying vanities and lives in fear of judgements and statutes. We need to know the truth to combat the enemy’s lies.

Remember the Truth Jesus Brought:

We can look to the sacrifice that Jesus made to understand how we are to pray for our enemy with love. In Luke 23:34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Jesus’ teachings on vanity can be misunderstood because Satan wants our heart to desire the vain things of the world. However, we can look at the life that Jesus lived to understand that we should repent from vain behaviors. Just as the world taught a message to associate the sacrifice of animals' blood with how to repent by performing the steps of a ritual for the sacrifice in the past, the world today is teaching a message to associate the sacrifice Jesus made with works. We will look at the Old Testament to understand how people sacrificed to false gods in the Old Testament; they performed the steps as a ritual. A ritual does not connect the heart to the judgements and statutes.

The Old Testament has a message for people today. In the book of 1 Samuel, we learn about a woman who is dealing with an enemy who torments her and makes fun of her. Hannah’s enemy affected her emotional well-being. Hannah’s enemy would say and do things to upset her. Hannah’s enemy was not happy unless Hannah was crying or upset. Hannah went to the temple to make a yearly sacrifice. Two truths are important in this story (1) Levitical priests were the leaders who were to teach the sacrifice as a way to teach people to repent, and people would go to the temple to sacrifice to God, (2) When Hannah went to the temple the priests were not teaching the message of how to connect the sacrifice to God’s commandments, they were only teaching the sacrifice as a ritual. The Levitical priest even accused Hannah of being drunk because she was crying such dramatic tears. However, they were tears that were included in a prayer that she prayed for her enemy. After Jesus came, we no longer needed the sacrifice to teach people how to repent because we have the story of His sacrifice. The Levitical priests were tasked with teaching the Israelites in the Old Testament to understand and remember how to connect the sacrifice to something deeper. The priests who were teaching the sacrifice to false gods were teaching people to sin and just perform a sacrifice each time you repeat the act. With false gods, the message being connected to the heart was to love sin as the best feeling.

Remember the Rock God Established:

In the book of 1 Samuel, we learn how Hannah was being tormented by another woman. Hannah could not get pregnant and Peninnah would say hurtful things to Hannah to make her emotional. Hannah went to make a sacrifice and poured her heart out to God. When Hannah was making the sacrifice, she repented for all the thoughts she had about Peninnah by lamenting and mourning. After she poured her heart out to God, she was not sad anymore. Hannah became pregnant after she made her sacrifice. Hannah dedicated her son to be a priest. The Levitical priests were teaching the Israelites to connect the sacrifice to God’s commandments with their heart.

Eli was the priest who was in the temple when Hannah's son was a baby. Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were responsible for teaching people how to connect the sacrifice to God’s commandments. However, Eli’s sons were only teaching works and rituals; they were not teaching repentance.

These two boys, Hophni and Phinehas, were rascals. They were stealing meat from the people who were sacrificing to the Lord. They were even taking the fat portion of the sacrifice that was for the Lord. Not only were they not connecting the message to repentance, but they were also not even following the directions in the law of Moses on how to perform the sacrifice. People were complaining because Hophni and Phinehas were sending their servants to the homes of the families who had just offered a sacrifice. The servants would enter the house and steal the portion from the sacrifice that was for the offer and his family to eat. God said that Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas would both die on the same day at a young age, and the prophecy came true.

The sacrifices were a temporary covering for sin. The sacrifices were to offer a person’s life to the Lord and dedicate a life to giving by offering to thank the Lord with praise and offerings, and the last offering was to atone for the trespass of unintentionally cheating someone out of something. The sacrifice was teaching repentance of sin. Just as the world taught a sacrifice that was built on lying vanities in the past, the world is trying to separate God from His creation by teaching God’s servants of righteousness to believe in lying vanities, so they will not connect Jesus’ sacrifice to their heart. When we obey, we connect our heart. When Hannah’s son Samuel grew up, he became a Levitical priest, and he taught a message that obeying the Lord is more important than sacrificing to the Lord.

Activity:

The activity directions are located in Appendix 1 – Step 3.

Students will take on the role of a creator in this activity to understand how difficult it would be to have the creation understand the plan of the creator.

Conclusion:

In the book of 1 Samuel, we learn how when the Levitical priests were performing and teaching the sacrifice as a ritual, the people were not connecting the sacrifice to their heart.

Next Lesson:

Ezra was awakened to prepare his heart and go to Jerusalem to teach people that there is more to understand about sacrifice than the law of Moses teaches. There is a deeper meaning about repenting before the sacrifice, and Ezra looked at the agenda of God to see a bigger picture. The agenda of God includes God performing miracles to protect the Israelites when they were presenting an acceptable sacrifice to God and separating from people who were sacrificing to false gods. This also included statutes and judgments because the people serving false gods were punished by God. Now we are awakened to build an internal temple that includes repenting by praying for our enemy with love.