1 Samuel 7 English Standard Version 7 And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the LORD and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the LORD. 2 From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD. Samuel Judges Israel 3 And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the LORD only. 5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.” 6 So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the LORD and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah. 7 Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. 8 And the people 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 So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. And Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him. 10 As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the LORD thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. 11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car. 12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the LORD has helped us.” 13 So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. 14 The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites. 15 Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. 16 And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. And he judged Israel in all these places. 17 Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel. And he built there an altar to the LORD. The first few verses of this chapter pick up where we left off at the end of chapter 6. The Israelites in Beth-shemesh asked the people of Kiriath-jearim to come and take the Ark off their hands (as far as I can tell this town did not belong to the Levites, so there was no reason that this town would fare any better than Beth-shemesh did and we see the Israelites using the same kinds of tactics as the pagan Philistines to let the curse fall on someone else). The Ark was taken to the house of Abinadab, and he consecrated his son to take care of the Ark (maybe this man is a son of Aaron and maybe this term "consecrate" has to do with the ordination ceremony that we see described in Exodus 29, but that's iffy at best). The LORD did not seem to bring further plagues on the Israelites and the Ark stayed in the care of Eleazar, the son of Abinadab for 20 years.
During this time there was no king in Israel and Samuel was judge over Israel (there is some evidence that he also acted as prophet and priest, but his official title was one of "judge"). His sons would desire to be judges after him, but they were unrighteous and took bribes and sought to use their position for their own personal gain (not much different from the sons of Eli). Samuel call the people to repentance and told them to "put away" their foreign gods (I'm not sure why the message wasn't to destroy them completely, but maybe the word in Hebrew for "put away" is stronger than the English translation here. It seems if you simply put them away then it is rather easy to take them back out again and we should not simply hide our idols but destroy them completely so that we never come back to them.) He called the people to fast and pray and worship the LORD as they had failed to do during this time when the priesthood was corrupt and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Only if the people put away their false gods and repented (turned back to the LORD) and kept His covenant could the people expect the LORD to deliver them from the Philistines who currently had power over them. As the sacrifices were being offered by Samuel, the Philistines rose up to attack the Israelites while they worshiped, but the LORD Himself spoke with the voice of the rumblings of mighty thunder and confused the Philistines and He defeated them without the the Israelites needing to do anything. This is the promise He made to His people that He would fight for them and drive out the other nations before them if they would only fear Him, refuse to worship false gods, and keep His covenant. Israel got to to participate in the victory though as they gave chase and mopped up the Philistines that were in retreat. They chased them all the way back to Beth-car (we're not sure exactly where this is right now, but it's somewhere close to Mizpah). The people came back to Mizpah and a stone called an Ebenezer was set up there by Samuel that reminded the people of what the LORD did that day. The name Ebenezer means "The LORD is Our Help." After this, all the cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were returned to them (the Philistines withdrew to their own borders) and there was peace for a time between the Israelites and the Amorites that had not been defeated during the time of the Conquest. A summary statement is made here of Samuel's ministry as a judge that he judges Israel until the end of his life making a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah so that the people knew that these were the places where he would regularly hold court and would make righteous judgment for them and would inquire from the LORD on their behalf. He lived in Ramah and would return there after he finished each circuit year by year and there in Ramah he built and altar to the LORD so that he could offer sacrifices for himself and for the people (remember the family of Eli has been judges so there are no priests offering sacrifices in the Tabernacle right now). For now though, we see a pattern that the people want to be like the other nations and they are putting their security not in the LORD, but in the strength of their own army. They want a king who can be a military commander who can lead them into battle and help them be strong enough that the other nations will fear them and not want to mess with them. The people forget that the nations should fear the LORD for He is their King and is the one who fights for them and leads them into battle, but we'll see in the next chapter that the people will not only want a king, but they will want to choose the king for themselves and they will make a poor choice. God already had a better king ready for them (King David), but the people would not wait for God's timing and God's choice. Comments are closed.
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Daniel WestfallI will mostly use this space for recording my "journal" from my daily devotions as I hope to encourage others to read the Bible along with me and to leave a legacy for others. Archives
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