As my reading goes I have been in the book of 1 Samuel. Now in the Hebrew Bible Samuel is not separated. The reason for this isnt some deep theological ramification but rather they couldn't fit both of the books onto one scroll so they divided it up. Then stinky Westerners were like hey these should be two books??!!! Deep I know! Anyway, 1 Samuel is broken into 3 main parts--simply focusing on the 3 main/important characters:
Chapters 1-7 focus on Samuel (notice how they contrast the faithful Samuel to Eli the disobedient priest).
Chapters 8-15 focus on Saul and his kingship, battles, and eventual fall from the LORDs grace.
Chapter 15-30 focus on David
Now that we have all the background out of the way check out this cool passage I came across a day ago and has just stuck in my mind.
1 Samuel 2:25
"If a man sins against another man, God may mediate for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who will intercede for him?" His sons, however, did not listen to their father's rebuke, for it was the LORD's will to put them to death."
There are 2 parts to this I will tackle the first part then write a second blog for the second part.
Part I. God as mediator
*Whats amazing about this verse is that it displays that when we sin against another person, God may mediate for us. Contextually this verse is Eli the High Priest rebuking his sons because they were sleeping with the temple women, and they were taking the consecreated meat and chowing down. Its kinda like if the Jewish temple hired frat boys??!!!!
Eli is saying that though there will be a need for mediation between people who have disputes, if you offend God WHO will intervene on YOUR part??
We know in this story that the 2 sons were the offenders. Eli knows they have done wrong, it was being spread around EVERYONE knew!! He is telling them guys yes you can hurt others but there will be mediation but who will stand up to you when you have NO MEDIATOR.
And this is why reading the OT and then the NT is so useful:
1 John 2:1-2:
"I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world."
If anybody does sin (Grk. here is Harmatia--to miss the mark or deviate from the path)
We have offended God---with what?? Our sin. We loved sin, our body/flesh loves sin and wants to perform it. By nature we were sinners, from our very birth we were sinners (Eph. 2:1-2; Rom.), So we have offended a holy righteous God. So going back to 1 Samuel---Eli asks WHO will intercede?
I like the direct Hebrew translation of this "who can obtain pardon for himself?"
Ladies and gentlemen John answers this question without a doubt:
"we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense..."
"we have an advocate to the Father..." NASB
"we have an advocate who pleads our case..." NLT
We have one who pardons us from our offense to God. One who brings peace between the relationship between God and man (most translations have the term propitation--this is what that term means). Who redeems, who purchases us, who makes us right before God and who is OUR MEDIATOR: Jesus Christ.
Eli recognized there was no sacrifice that would remove the offense they had incurred. He knew that it would wash away the sin they committed. Hence why he is so worried, my sons you have offended God, who will stand in your place to plead your case, to help, save, redeem you?
Well we have the perfect lawyer: Jesus Christ. He plead our case with God and won. He was the mediator, the ONLY mediator between God and man. Not merit, not status, not how much money we owned, it was only because of His grace and goodness.
I close with this wonderful Paul verse found in 1 Tim. 2:1 before he launches into his discourse on how graceful God is:
"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."
Be Blessed!
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