1 Then the men of Kirjath Jearim came and took the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD. 2 So it was that the ark remained in Kirjath Jearim a long time; it was there twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD. 3 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you return to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." 4 So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only. 5 And Samuel said, "Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you." 6 So they gathered together at Mizpah, drew water, and poured it out before the LORD. And they fasted that day, and said there, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah. 7 Now when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. 8 So the children of Israel said to Samuel, "Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines." 9 And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. Then Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him.
Twenty Years of Sin’s Misery (vv. 1-2)
Nothing Right without the Lord
Context. In the last section, we were confronted with the Lord’s holiness. “Who is able to stand before the holy Lord God” (6:20)? This remains a pressing question in the new covenant age, for “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29). God’s holiness and majesty are not diminished now that Jesus Christ has come. We may draw near with boldness to the throne of grace only through him. Our sins offend him no less today than in the old covenant. Only through our Savior’s once-for-all sacrifice and heavenly intercession can we draw near to God as our Father, with confidence to seek mercy and grace from him. And how, when we sin, especially when the Lord sends seasons of deep conviction of our sinfulness, can we be recovered to his fellowship? This is the groaning we face in this chapter. Israel was groaning under idolatry. It did not satisfy. And the Lord was offended, for the nation had broken covenant with him. How could restoration of fellowship occur? Upon what basis would the Lord forgive them? What was necessary for individual and national revival of faith to occur? These questions are very pertinent for us as God’s people. Do we recognize the offensiveness of our sins to him? Have we made our peace with the spirit of our times that makes excuses for sins and refuses to turn from them? How can we be forgiven of our sins? What is true repentance and revival?
Some Gave Willing Service. Not all in Israel were infected with the spirit of the times. After the Lord decimated Beth Shemesh for their disregard of his holiness and law, the men of Kirjathjearim were willing to receive the Ark. Abinidab (“my father is willing”) received the Ark into his home and consecrated one of his sons, Eleazar, to be custodian of the Ark. This was likely a Levitical family, as the name connection to Levi makes clear. The Lord blessed this family, for they handled their responsibilities well. First and foremost, they reverenced the Lord, not a golden box. The Ark remained in Abinidab’s home for twenty years, until David brought it back to the tabernacle (1 Chron. 13:5-7). Sacrifices continued to be offered at Nob (1 Sam. 21:1), and Samuel was active during this whole period. But the Lord’s worship was truncated, incomplete. Nevertheless, believing families such as Abinidab’s sought the Lord and were blessed. Samuel likely used them as a foothold to bring the national restoration of faith he was seeking and that the Lord was about to effect. Unless he works, our work is fruitless and powerless. In times of spiritual decline and wickedness, it remains our responsibility to serve the Lord where he has placed us, to do what we can by his strength, to glorify his name and uphold the true faith of our Savior. We should not get sidetracked from willing service to the Lord and his people by every fire in the city of man. The Lord is working, and he judges those who are “outside” (1 Cor. 5:13), his enemies in the world. In our times, the Holy Spirit’s directions to the Thessalonians should be carefully heeded: “And that you study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you; that you may walk honestly toward them that are without…” – same word for “outside” in 1 Cor. 5:13 – those who are outside his church and kingdom (1 Thess. 4:11-12).
Israel Wailing for the Lord
With the Ark out of official commission during this period, how could atoning sacrifices be made acceptably to the Lord? Israel was no longer living in the days of Abraham, without an established order of priests and sacrifices. After Moses, they had God’s law, and every man could not do what was right in his own eyes, which was the wickedness that plagued God’s people during this time. Thus, as the twenty years passed, Israel began wailing for the Lord, pining away for him. They were still engaged in the Canaanite worship of Baal and Ashteroth, which was very pleasing to the flesh – sexual license and perversion pretending to be religion. It did not satisfy. It was empty. We forget this truth. Man is made in God’s image, and his superstitions, materialism, and fornicating ways will prove ultimately dissatisfying. We were made for the Lord, and as his people, we have been redeemed by Jesus Christ.
The church may be enslaved to idolatry and false doctrine for centuries, as in the period of Romanist domination, but she will eventually be recovered. God’s people will begin wailing for him again, looking for him, and become seriously displeased with themselves. Idolatry and immorality cannot last, for they slash and cut the soul. This is what happened in Israel before our Savior came, and it will certainly prove true in our day. We must have the Lord. Without fellowship with him, life is tasteless and pointless. And, because he is merciful and remembers his promises, he will awaken his people to face the horror of unforgiven sin and broken fellowship so that we seriously seek the Lord Jesus Christ and turn from our sins to his perfect sacrifice. If you have never wailed for the Lord, craved forgiveness and to hear him say to your soul, “I have put away your sins,” as he did to David, I urge you to hear these following words of warning from Scripture.
True Turning to the Lord (vv. 3-6)
Three Defining Marks of True Repentance (vv. 3-4)
Do You Return to the Lord Wholeheartedly? We cannot stand comfortably and safely before the holy Lord God Almighty unless he gives us the grace to repent. These verses are the answer to the question in 1 Samuel 6:20. How can we stand before the Lord, be in his fellowship, under his blessing, forgiven and reconciled? Samuel had been preaching for several years to the house of Israel. He made a circuit of the nation (7:16). Do you desire to turn to the Lord with all your hearts? Many sinners dislike the consequences of their sins, but they love their sins. They wished sin was not sin, that sin was good, and that good was sin. They think mostly of how sin makes them feel or its consequences, not what the Lord thinks about their sins, that they have offended him. And if the Lord has graciously given you true repentance, you know exactly what this means. When we face the horrid weight of our guilt before a holy God, we wail. We pine away for the Lord. Our hearts crave his mercy and begin to feel that by far the worst thing about sin is not the way they make us feel badly or what others think about them or even the chastening the Lord brings into our lives. The plague of sin to a renewed heart is that we have provoked our Lord, sinned against his love, spurned his grace, hated his law, and not loved with him with all our heart, soul, strength, and mind. This was the way many in Israel were wailing, the way David later wailed, and Peter still later. It is true in every reborn and quickened heart, not always to the same degree, but always present. True repentance is vertically dominated: “Against you, and you only have I sinned” (Ps. 51:4). It never makes excuses, blames others, resists confrontation, or rests in feelings.
Put Away Your Idols. In all true repentance, there is a turning from sin to God to walk in the ways of his commandments (2 Cor. 10:9-11). If the sin is immorality, true repentance results in forsaking the sexual sin and pursuing bodily purity. If the sin is laziness, then diligence in work is the fruit of repentance. If a man is a vile talker and filled with profanity and denigration of other peoples, then the fruit of repentance is that his words are edifying, peaceable, and gentle. In Israel’s case, their chief aggravation was idolatry – the worship of Baal and his female consort, Ashteroth. This was a very flesh-pleasing religion and thus Israel’s repentance must be mortification of the flesh. This sin is present in some portions of the “church” – serving sexual lusts, calling them virtues, refusing to give them up, and vilifying those who call for purity. Materialism, man-made religious observances, arrogance, and low-demand, convenience discipleship, and cheap grace are also prevalent – as are statism, fear of man, hatred and vilification of other people groups, and passivity in pursuing holiness so that fear of God, his worship, and his holiness are too rarely thought of and therefore more rarely spoken of and impressed upon us. True repentance turns from every idol, searches out the idols of the heart, and seeks to pull them down by God’s grace.
Prepare Your Heart. The verb translated “prepare” means “to make steady or firm.” True repentance is not a giddy thing – it does not feel bad about sins on Sunday, but then return to them on Monday. To prepare one’s heart means to dig up the root of sin and expose it to the light of God’s word and the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ – all by faith and with a sincere desire to turn from sin truly and permanently. This is not opposed to the battle against sin being ongoing and lifelong. A prepared heart is firm in its desire and intent to take up God’s armor and fight against temptations and sins. When it stumbles, a prepared heart knows that there is cleansing in the blood of Jesus Christ and is thus committed to returning to him constantly. Yes, constantly – our Lord Jesus never ceases to be a Savior to us. Our need of his cleansing never diminishes. There is never a season of life in which we do not need to live before the cross, not only for cleansing but also for strength to kill sin (Col. 3:5) through union with our Lord in his death, burial, and resurrection (Rom. 6:1-6; Col. 2:12). A prepared heart must be sober minded about our warfare, undistracted by constant frivolity and social media and the whole entertainment vortex and focused upon Christ and his glories and strength. The lack of a prepared heart is the reason that too many are like Cain, Esau, Saul, and Judas – weeping bitterly, but with cold hearts that hate being found out but resist being turned inside out and renewed by God’s grace.
Serve the Lord only. This is what is meant by serving the Lord only. He will have “no other gods before him.” This includes heart idols – self-reliance, do-it-yourself religion, a coveted possession, position, or relationship. It might be the “right kind of house, car, or bank account,” or being noticed and admired. “Self” is the leading and fundamental heart idol. “You shall be as gods” is Satan’s lie, and we readily believe and practice it in a million ways. Instead of being wholly directed to God, his praise and word, we are oriented toward ourselves, what we want and what pleases us. But true repentance is enabled by the Lord’s grace to turn its back fully on the Sodom’s of life – unlike Lot’s wife. It wants to serve the Lord only and the Lord alone. True repentance confesses with David: “Whom have I in heaven but you, and there is none upon earth I desire beside you” (Ps. 73:25). Repentance is like this because it is a divine grace and power that reorients our life toward God and his word and his praise. It is grieved at having offending him; it desires to walk with him more than anything, to be with him and like him.
Public Repentance and Confession (vv. 5-6)
Israel was God’s holy nation. Their sins were a public scandal and breaking of their covenant with the Lord to serve him alone. In a remarkable display of the sincerity of their repentance, Israel forsook the popular and pleasing worship of Baal. Material worship panders to the eyes and the flesh, the lust of the eyes. God’s worship is spiritual and requires faith to “see him who is invisible.” Samuel called the people together. He had been praying and planning and preaching for national renewal from the beginning of his public ministry. The nation, or at least most of its leaders, assembled at Mizpeh, in Benjamin. They drew water and poured it out before the Lord. This seems to have been a confession of their emptiness without the Lord. It was a very vivid symbol of the pit of idolatry – emptied, dried out, barren. They also fasted that day and made a plain declaration of what they meant by their actions: “We have sinned against the Lord.”
Notice the Godward direction of their confession. This is one of the notable occasions when many of the people were convicted of their sins – not simply complaining about the Lord’s punishment for their sins. Repentance of this nature looks at sin from the Lord’s perspective. It “judges itself” (1 Cor. 11:31), stands with the Lord in condemnation of the sinner, and hopes in his mercy. They use his covenant name. They did not speak of psychoses and problems or of being misunderstood – they confessed their sinfulness. It was a remarkable moment in the history of Israel and of the world. A whole people turned to the Lord, repudiated its idols, confessed its sinfulness, and turned to the Lord. May the fullness of the Gentiles be brought to such a point by the sword coming out of our Savior’s mouth! May the Jewish nation turn to the Lord in faith and repentance! May our people confess our sinfulness and that our sins have left us empty and desolate – like water poured out upon the ground.
Turning Tested Immediately and Severely (vv. 7-9)
The Philistines Seized the Opportunity to Attack
The Philistines heard about this large gathering of Israelites and prepared to attack. Either they assumed Israel was gathering for battle or thought it would be a good time to decide for good the supremacy of gods and nations. When Israel heard of the pending attack, they were afraid. This is the usual way with repentance. One can almost count upon a serious attack upon any resolution to repent. Our sinful nature is wily, and Satan is wilier. They will not wait until new principles of holiness and the mortification of sin have taken hold. They will attack on the way out of sin’s castle – Strike now! Strike hard! Strike without mercy! Satan is a hater and murderer, and all his children are the same. Expect that if you declare war upon your sins and your flesh, they will declare war right back, and their blows will come fast and furiously. Lack of preparation for sin’s counterattack is one reason that repentance in many never bears the full fruit it might, if we were readier to face immediate temptation or an attack upon our health or emotional state, or the loss of external peace. Fighting sin always brings conflict, and it is the Lord’s way of warfare. Darkness hates the light and fights back. The light must be prepared, take up God’s armor, and be strong in the Lord.
The Lord Heard Samuel’s Cry
The battle will be won, but it was not won on the battlefield. Victory was certain because Israel asked Samuel to pray for them – or more accurately, not to stop praying for them. Now, this seems to be a strange battle strategy against an approaching army – prayer. It is strange only to the faithless and worldly. Once we are persuaded that the Lord is our shield and his power invincible, whatever the means at our disposal or bleak our prospects, we can face any enemy and especially our sin nature with confidence in the Lord’s victory. This is not to place any confidence in ourselves, for we should have none. We must be the most non-self-trusting people, provided this does not turn us inward in despair but outward to the “holy Lord God Almighty.” Do you see how wonderfully and clearly the Lord answered this question for his people? It is actually a double-sided question: who will stand before him, and whom will he stand with? For when he stands with us, when he fights for us, we cannot lose. Victory will not be fleshly, but we cannot lose. Victory will not be obtained by force of arms, but we cannot lose. When we look to the Lord to save us, we cannot lose.
But notice Samuel’s first action was not to set up a social media page: “#Pray for Israel.” He offered a burnt offering, a suckling lamb. Why did he do this? There is no victory without cleansing. God will not fight for us unless our sins are covered. The modern church has little conviction of this truth. We ask God to give us victory over a particular sin, but have we first sought to be covered by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ? We want him to fight for us in the world against progressive woke-ism and all its ugly statist, socialist, sodomy wickedness. Are our sins atoned for? Are we trusting in the blood of Jesus Christ, not as a slogan or song, but because we have been wailing for the Lord, wanting to be cleansed by him, wanting his fellowship more than our very life? And the Lord heard Samuel’s cry, but not because Samuel was at good praying or a worthy man. Samuel was heard because he was covered with blood. Samuel was heard because he grounded his entire hope of being heard in the blood of an acceptable substitute, because he looked ahead in faith to God’s Messiah, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And thus the Lord teaches us several truths by Samuel’s actions. First, our warfare in the world against sin and Satan will never be availing unless we are first cleansed of our sins. Second, if we want the Lord to fight for us and to sustain us in our warfare, we must frequently come back to the foot of the cross and seek cleansing in the once-for-all shed blood of Jesus Christ. He must be reconciled to us before he will fight for us. Third, the battle is won by faith, which cries to the Father in prayer. This is the reason that prayer is so vital and that we are commanded to pray without ceasing. Do you see a prayerless man or woman, pastor or congregation? Defeat will mark them. Victory is prayed down out of heaven, for when we pray like this, we are changed. The Lord is the Lord of Hosts. This is his name. He is our shield and defense. His name is a strong tower for us. When his cleansed people call upon him in the name of Jesus Christ, he hears. Faith lays hold upon this promise, for it believes that this is who the Lord is. He rewards those who diligently seek him. Prayer is no afterthought but the doom of every Philistine.
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