Israel is weak, politically and spiritually.
• Politically they have been suffering under the threat of the Philistines, for decades.
• They are at war with them in chapters 4-6, and now 20 years later, in chapter 7 they are still at war.
• How long do they need to fight on? Until God steps in. You will always be struggling in life WITHOUT God.
And that is the problem, Israel is weak spiritually. They’ve broken their relationship with God, and that for a long, long time.
• Even after the Ark of God was returned to them and placed in Kiriath Jearim, it meant nothing to Israel. It is just a sacred object placed in a particular place.
• Israel had failed to acknowledge God. They have rejected God in their lives.
We are fooling ourselves today, if we think that by having some spiritual things with us we are going to be blessed.
• Nothing could be further from the truth. God is not with them, because they are not with God!
• It doesn’t matter whether you owns a bible, wear a cross on your neck, or a T-shirt that says “Jesus is Lord”. God is not in our lives if we do not have a relationship with Him.
Israel needs a REVIVAL - something to WAKE them up and cause them to RETURN to God. And that BREAKTHROUGH came in chapter 7, after 20 years!
• Twenty years of _____? SUFFERING. 7:2 “It was a long time, twenty years in all…”
• They suffered under the constant oppression of the enemies. They have had enough. 7:2b “all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord.”
That’s the blessing of PAIN. It has a way of at getting to us, in ways that peace and comfort.
• C. S. Lewis: “Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
That’s why I pray for pain to come upon people (sometimes). I’m not suggesting you do that. There are times when I felt a WAKE UP call is necessary and pain does that.
Prov 23:14 “Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.”
Matt 18:8-9 “If your hand or your foot causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life maimed or crippled than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire. 9And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.”
To suffer for a moment (physically) is better than for good, spiritually, eternally.
What did Israel do eventually, after 20 years of pain and wasted time? Repent.
SEE THE BLESSING OF REPENTANCE
That’s the first step in returning to God. Repent!
Repentance is not a dirty word. Repentance before God is a blessing – a blessing of immense proportion.
• 1 John 1:8 “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” The person who knows where he stands before God is wise.
• Psalm 24:3-6 “3Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place? 4He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false. 5He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Saviour. 6Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob.”
Pastor Michael Brown shared this testimony in his book Hyper-Grace. When he was young he was into drugs and stealing money from his father very often. “Not only had I stolen money, I cut through the screen door in the back of the house to make it look as if someone had broken in.” (p.2)
Some weeks after he became a Christian, he was sitting in the kitchen one night, talking with his father and he asked, “Did you steal that money from me a few months back?” Michael said no. He lied.
“After I told him I hadn’t stolen the money, I went upstairs to my bedroom and fell to my knees, feeling miserable. Immediately – and I mean immediately – I was stricken with the Spirit’s conviction, and I knew I couldn’t lie to my father. So I told the Lord I was sorry for lying and that I would tell my dad the truth.”
“I went back downstairs where my father was still sitting, and I told him what I had done. And, as remarkable as this sounds, this is how my father responded (he was not a believer at that time) – “Michael, when I saw the money missing I knew immediately you had stolen it, and I forgave you on the spot. But what hurt me was that you had a need and didn’t come to me for help.” That was my earthly father!
Can you imagine the heart of our heavenly Father? Do we or do we not understand His heart for us? Why did we not come to Him for help?
Parents will understand. When a child say sorry and owns up for a wrong he has done, we are pleased; not for the mistake but the repentance. Saying sorry is a good thing!
• Samuel says in 7:3 that if you are serious with God, then remove all your substitutes.
• 1 Sam 7:3 “Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the LORD and serve him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”
• Baal is a fertility god that they believe enables the earth to produce crops and people to produce children. Ashtoreth is the chief female deity; the female counterpart of Baal.
If you return to God with ALL your heart, it means there is NO ROOM for another.
• This is just plain common sense. There is nothing too demanding about this.
If your GF or BF says, “If you want to marry me, please leave your other GFs or BFs…” and then your response is: “Why are you so narrow-minded? Why don’t we share our time together?” Go on a date and invite more friends. Let’s be more gracious. Be caring.”
You know something is not right here. I don’t even need to explain this.
This is only on a friendship level; we can really have many good, pretty and charming friends to choose from. But not with God - He is the one and only true God, there is no equal. No one is worthy because the rest are fakes.
Before we are too quick to judge the Israelites for having many idols, think of ourselves.
• Is there “something” that has taken the place of God, something that has come between you and God?
• I’m not talking about figurines made of wood, clay or stone. I think we are smarter than that. But we can have many other substitutes, the unseen ones.
• If we are not as close to God as we have been in the past, then something has already come in between. It can be money, fame, fortune, or a goal that you are pursuing.
Remove them, Samuel says, so that God can take His rightful place. We are called to SERVE HIM ONLY, Samuel tells the people.
• Then he gathers the nation together for prayer. He is going to intercede for them (7:5), but with the entire nation coming before God.
• This is the natural, next step – come back and talk to God.
SEEK HIS PRESENCE IN PRAYER
We don’t just turn away from sin, we turn to God. It is the turning to God that keeps us from turning back to sin. Without turning to God, how can we stay away from sin?
1 Sam 7:5-6 5 Then Samuel said, "Assemble all Israel at Mizpah and I will intercede with the LORD for you." 6 When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the LORD. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel was leader of Israel at Mizpah.
• We do not know the meaning behind “drawing water and pouring it out before God” – it could mean they are going for a full-fast without drinking water, or that it symbolises the cleansing of their sin.
• But one thing is clear, they are serious about returning to God. Why am I so sure? Because of their response on hearing that the Philistines had gathered to attack them.
When they heard the news, 1 Sam 7:8 they said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that He may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.”
• This was unheard of, earlier on; they did not consult God for anything. They just do what they like. They were full of self-confidence.
• Now their response is: “PRAY for us. Don’t stop. We need God’s help!”
God’s presence comes with repentance and prayer. It comes when we humble ourselves and pray and seek His face.
• Come near to God and He will come near to you. (James 4:8)
• The LORD is near to all who call on Him, to all who call on Him in truth. (Psalm 145:18)
It’s not rocket science. We don’t have to seek after any spiritual trick/ritual to get God’s presence (like bringing the Ark), come near to God in repentance and prayer.
See what happens when Israel repents and prays to God – God steps in.
• What they had been longing for, after so many years, came in a moment of time.
• God did a miracle. 7:10 “But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.” Israel pursued them and slaughtered them.
• Samuel took a stone to remember what God did. He named it Ebenezer, meaning stone of help. “Thus far has the Lord helped us.” (7:12)
1 Sam 7:13-14 “13So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again. Throughout Samuel's lifetime, the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines. 14The towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to her, and Israel delivered the neighbouring territory from the power of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.”
Look at what God did:
1. God helped them fight their immediate battle, and won.
2. The Philistines were subdued for good, after decades of fighting. Why? Because the hand of the Lord was against them.
Dagon lost its hands; but hand of the Lord is active and powerful.
3. The lost towns from Ekron to Gath were restored back to Israel. Nothing can be really “lost” with God.
4. Israel experienced peace, not just with the Philistines (attackers from without), but also with the Amorites (foreigners from within).
When God steps in, everything changes.
• Why didn’t they turn to God earlier? That’s my question.
• That’s my question for us too. Why don’t we turn to God earlier?
CLOSING HYMN: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing
