Stand Still … and See What the Lord Will Do

1 Samuel 12:6-19
6And Samuel said to the people, “The Lord is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. 7Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the Lord concerning all the righteous deeds of the Lord that he performed for you and for your fathers. 8When Jacob went into Egypt, and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried out to the Lord and the Lord sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. 9But they forgot the Lord their God. And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. 10And they cried out to the Lord and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the Lord and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’ 11And the Lord sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety. 12And when you saw that Nahash the king of the Ammonites came against you, you said to me, ‘No, but a king shall reign over us,’ when the Lord your God was your king. 13And now behold the king whom you have chosen, for whom you have asked; behold, the Lord has set a king over you. 14If you will fear the Lord and serve him and obey his voice and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, and if both you and the king who reigns over you will follow the Lord your God, it will be well. 15But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. 16Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. 17Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.” 18So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel. 19And all the people said to Samuel, “Pray for your servants to the Lord your God, that we may not die, for we have added to all our sins this evil, to ask for ourselves a king.”

"Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat It."
(George Santayana - philosopher, essayist, poet, and novelist – 1863-1952)

While Santayana coined this phrase, he certainly didn’t invent the concept. Samuel shares this same idea with the people as they stand on the brink of a new identity. In this message, Samuel takes a moment to share their past (again) with them and point them in the direction God would lead. That direction is one of faithfulness. In this rather brief review of their history, Samuel points to their own ancestors for inspiration; ancestors who flourished or failed on the basis of their faithfulness to the Lord. His speech ends with a little object lesson, just in case the people aren’t taking Samuel (and God) seriously.

Key to the passage are the words 15But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord, but rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then the hand of the Lord will be against you and your king. 16Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do before your eyes. As if the historical review were not enough, God provides a thunderstorm just before the harvest to prove His point. If they don’t want to follow Him, they can pay the consequences. His punishment will be just and painful, just as it had been for their ancestors who suffered through the time of the Judges with idolatry and captivity.

I would like to put a positive spin on this passage alongside of this rather negative one, presented by Samuel. I think that we can also lift up our situations before the Lord and then stand still and see this great thing that the Lord will do. And the only way to test that is to try it. While I can be fiercely independent (to a fault) I have also been able to hand situations up to God and then stand still. It is a tremendous and sometimes frightening experience. God moves in His own time and I can struggle with the wait. I can be quick to assume He’s doing nothing – which is never the case. God may often be silent (and sometimes slow) but He is never still. He will provide all that we need (and much of what we just want) if we would only allow Him the time to do so. Samuel used the historical past of the Children of Israel to make his point and we can do the same. A review of what God has already done in your life can take the sting of waiting for Him to act today out of the picture. Those reviews can build your faith and your endurance for waiting on His timing.

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