The First Recorded Cult

The Good Medicine Cult 

 1 Samuel 4:1-11

 1-2: And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek 2 And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men. 3-5: And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. 4 So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5 And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. 6-10: And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp. 7 And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. 8 Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. 9 Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight. 10 ¶ And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. 11: And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. You will notice, as we go on the next few weeks, that we are trying to schedule alternate weeks, one week addressing some of the problem cults that lurk in the shadows of active Christianity, and one week more evangelism. Both are badly needed. Most of the cults we hope to address are more dangerous than the better known cults of Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witnesses because they are in the back closets, as it were, not openly practiced by professing Christians but kept there, either “just in case” we need “a little something extra”, as King Saul turned to the witch of Endor (1 Samuel 28:7), or they are part of the pantheon so often seen in a lot of more primitive mission fields. Many, I fear, are actually in some of these cults without even knowing it. But they don’t stop there! They linger around our door so that even many of you who may rarely read these messages, and are not even in the ranks of “believers” will turn to them when their secular humanism has failed them. Genesis 4:7 so fitly describes it. “…if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire.” Sin, in this case the cult, is pictured as waiting just outside your door, waiting to pounce on you, like a leopard hiding on a branch by the watering hole waiting for a likely prey. Even our so-called “helps to worship” too often become what we worship, becoming a cult as in the case we look at today. Look at 2 Kings 18:4: “He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it: and he called it Nehushtan” (a thing of brass) for instance. It had served its purpose well in Israel’s wanderings, but they had forgotten what it was and what it stood for. The Israelites, always prone to idol worship, soon made it their god instead of the God it was meant to point them to. DON’T LOOK DOWN ON THEM! Twenty-first century Christians still do it today, using rituals as the means of salvation, and even the crosses we wear on our lapels or as a neckless. This is not to say that wearing those crosses is wrong - as long as we do not forget their purpose is to point us to Jesus, who suffered on the cross for our sin, and to identify us as Christians. Just be sure you are not wearing it as a false identification. Jordon R. Lewis, in his book “Confronting the Cults” writes, “Counterfeits always look genuine”. Oh how many of my friends and one time colleagues, discouraged by the sin they see in the church today, and the barrenness of our evangelism, have been absorbed by good sounding cults. Seventh Day Adventists, which draws you back under the law, and “The Church of Christ” - and others like them that want you to join the church in order to get saved - top the list. We will look at them later on, but for the next few weeks we want to look the more subtle cults that linger hidden even in your daily worship. During the years of the judges there were no recorded prophets. “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 17:6 and Judges 21:25) The Tabernacle worship was continued, and God had a few faithful priests and a remnant of faithful worshipers, as seen in Boaz (Ruth) and Elkanah (1 Samuel 1:1), but the priesthood had become so vile (read 1 Samuel chapters 2 and 3) that godly worshipers “abhorred the offering of the LORD.” (1 Samuel 2:17), and God nearly wiped out the hereditary line of priests and started a new line. Amos’ prophecy was fulfilled some 200 years before he pronounced it, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD.” (Amos 8:11) But God will never desert His remnant. He raised up Samuel - not out of the priestly tribe - to lead His people back to the right road. When the line of Seth failed God choose Abraham. When the family of Abraham got into trouble, God sent Moses. Now the nation that came out of Egypt is in deep trouble, and God sends a Samuel. There is quite obviously a span of a few years between 1 Samuel 3:18 and 4:1, easily summarized with 3:19, “And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him…” But those who take the Bible for granted, don’t study the Bible, won’t follow the Bible - and especially those who distort the Bible, or otherwise try to destroy the Bible will find themselves out in the cold when they finally seek some help. “Son of man, speak unto the elders of Israel, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Are ye come to enquire of me? As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will not be enquired of by you.” (Ezekiel 20:3) Another note needed here is to remember that the chapter and verse arrangement was added by the translators, and sometimes is very cumbersome. Here, the first sentence if 4:1 should be either be part of 3:21 or an extra verse. The point simply is that they did not go out to war against the Philistines at the advice of Samuel, and therefore they were soundly beaten. Eli was still officially high priest, and his two evil sons went with the Ark, supposedly assuring God’s presence at Ebenezer. We aren’t going that far in this message, but read ahead to 7:2 (another wrongly placed chapter break) and you will observe that it didn’t work that way. The lesson here is that the presence of the artifacts or rituals does not mean the presence of what they represent. The Jews were using the Ark as a “good luck charm”, as our own Native Americans too often thought the Christian missionary’s message and belief to be just “good medicine” Thus the cult. We worship, and trust in the artifact rather than in God. We use our rituals attempting to win the pleasure of God. We try to mix our “works, grace, and still live in the pleasures (?) of sin lifestyle, secure in the confidence of our idol whether it be the little cross on our neckless or the golden calf at Bethel or Gigal. 1 ¶ Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, which oppress the poor, which crush the needy, which say to their masters, Bring, and let us drink. 2 The Lord GOD hath sworn by his holiness, that, lo, the days shall come upon you, that he will take you away with hooks, and your posterity with fishhooks. 3 And ye shall go out at the breaches, every cow at that which is before her; and ye shall cast them/ into the palace, saith the LORD. 4 Come to Bethel, and transgress; at Gilgal multiply transgression; and bring your sacrifices every morning, and your tithes after three years: 5 And offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving with leaven, and proclaim and publish th, e free offerings: for this liketh you, (is like you) O ye children of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.” (Amos 4:1-4) Bethel and Gilgal are where Jeroboam 1 set up the graven idols in his attempt to keep his people from going back to Jerusalem to worship. Notice the sarcasm God uses in vv. 4-5. But back to our text and its lesson. Israel was using the name and ritual legalism as their “object of worship”, their “good medicine” if you please. We are trusting in our name as Christian. But like Samaria of Amos’ message, or the Jews at Ebenezer in our text, we make a lot of noise but it doesn’t show at the voting booth or in our prayer meetings. We use our anti-abortion and anti-homosexuality as our cult. In our forced tolerance we don’t want to offend our unsaved, abortionist, and homosexual friends so we beat around the bush instead of telling them that these things are sins - sins against a Holy God - an abomination to God and the godly. Where is the God of Elijah, who stood up to the king and told him he was in deep sin? Where is the God of John the Baptist, who stood before Herod and told him, “It is not lawful for you to have her”? Or perhaps better asked, where are the Elijahs and John the Baptists of God? Where are the preachers and evangelists who will boldly challenge our ample supply of dead, cold, although academically correct pastors, evangelists, and seminary professors (loaded down with degrees) - THAT IT’S YOU, not just your congregations, that must be born again. Dear reader, from pulpit to the church mouse, let’s stop playing cliché Christianity, and let the world know that they are going to hell and need the Lord Jesus Christ - and I emphasize all three names - to save them, “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12)1 AND LET US START WITH OURSESLVES! “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2 Corinthians 13:5) 

Pastor Ray