Bible Study - 1 Samuel Chapter 7
Bible Study - 1 Samuel Chapter 7
| 1 And the men of Kiriath-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. | Kiriath-jearim was not known as a holy place. In fact, it has had three names in its history that reflect Baal worship: Baalah, Kiriath-baal, and Baale-judah. It seems this location was more about the righteousness of Abinadab than the city of Kiriath-jearim. He was a Levite, but not a priest. Two of Abinadab's sons, Uzzah and Ahio, would later become priests. |
| 2 From the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim, the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. |
The Ark would stay for 20 years in Abinadab's care. It doesn't appear that the traditional worship practices were done there. This was more of a caretaker keeping it safe than establishing a place of worship. Israel was not right with God, and worship at Shiloh hadn't been in accordance with the law for decades or longer. All the house of Israel is an idiomatic phrase that is the equivalent of saying the nation of Israel. That they lamented after the Lord means the Philistines made life more and more difficult for them over these 20 years until they were ready to turn back to Yahweh. |
| 3 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." |
During these 20 years Samuel continued to mature and walk with the Lord. One wonders why he was absent all this time, especially when the Ark was taken. However, it is clear from how they treated the Ark when it was taken that both the leaders and people of Israel had no regard for God, let alone the priests or His prophet. People who don't care what God has to say or don't want to know don't care what his prophet has to say either. After 20 years of being trampled by the Philistines, they were finally ready to turn back to Yahweh. So they were ready to listen to Samuel. Samuel's prescription for all Israel begins with return, shavim in Hebrew. This is literally turn back to, as in a 180 degree turn. It is the flip side of repent, which means a 180 degree turn away from sin. The degree to which this must be done is with all your heart, all in, nothing held back, no reservations, giving themselves completely to Yahweh. The next part is the removal of gods and goddesses. Ashtaroth is a generic term for goddesses. This was a call to remove and destroy the idols from Israel and reject idolatry. The third part is to turn their hearts to and serve only Yahweh. This is another heart-condition directive. God will not tolerate serving others, or even a split motivation. It's all God or nothing. If they fulfill all three of these conditions, then Yahweh will deliver them from the oppression of the Philistines. God is not unconditional, despite the wolves in sheep's clothing that mislead people with nice sounding phrases like, "God loves you just the way you are." No, God loves you despite the way you are. And He has conditions for us to meet in order to be in a right relationship with Him. This is not an Old Testament only concept. The New Testament is full of conditions as well. |
| 4 So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone. | How simple this sounds in this verse's concise language. In reality, this probably took months to root out and destroy all the idols that had filled the land in the many decades of apostasy. |
| 5 Then Samuel said, "Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you." |
Samuel summons all of Israel to Mizpah where he will intercede for them with the Lord. This was most likely a representative gathering rather than every single Israelite. But it clearly was more than just the leadership. It included the majority of those who were able to serve in a military capacity. It was likely that the number who came was in the hundreds of thousands. This was the beginning of Samuel's office as judge over Israel. He was the last judge that God raised up. The exact location of Mizpah is not known. But it is likely the modern city of Tel en-Nashbeh. Much less likely, it could be at Nebi Samwil. Mizpah was a place of assembly for Israel at other times as well. It was on the circuit Samuel traveled as judge of Israel. And later it is where Saul was anointed king. |
| 6 They gathered to 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 sons of Israel at Mizpah. |
So the nation gathered at Mizpah. They drew water, but instead of drinking it they poured it out before Yahweh and fasted. This self-denial is an act of self-discipline and self-control. Denying the body for the sake of one's spirit puts the body in check, denying its desires in order to better seek God. It is telling the body it is not in charge and demonstrating to God the willingness to put Him first. Then they confessed with their mouths that they had sinned against Yahweh. Finally, they were ready to serve the Lord. Then, for the first time, Samuel is said to operate in his office as judge of Israel. His primary role up to now was as God's prophet. But now his authority was accepted and his decisions and pronouncements listened to and followed. |
| 7 Now when the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. |
The Philistines had several advantages over Israel. They had a professional military force, although that would be supported by militia from the populace when there was war. Whereas the Israelites only had a militia. They had superior military technology the Israelites did not, like chariots. And they had generations of experience in fielding and supporting a large army during campaigns. There were two things holding the Philistines back from outright conquering Israel. One, they had a healthy fear of what the God of Israel would do because of what had happened in the past to enemies of Israel from Egypt to the present. (Although they thought it was gods of Israel rather than the one God.) The second was Israel was very decentralized. There was no place or places they could attack that would bring Israel under control as it had with other enemies in their past. But now they learned that Israel was gathered in one place, meaning there was now a place they could strike against the majority of the leaders and fighters and render Israel virtually defenseless. |
| 8 Then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, "Do not cease to cry to the Lord our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines." | They had learned the hard way that God is their salvation, and not just for their souls. Finally, when faced with a threat they turn to the prophet of God to intercede for them, and put their faith in God. It would be so much better both then and now if people could learn from scripture rather than the hard way. |
| 9 Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it for a whole burnt offering to the Lord; and Samuel cried to the Lord for Israel and the Lord answered him. |
In the Mosaic law, a suckling animal would be sacrificed when it was 8 days old, and never before. After the sacrifice Samuel cried to Yahweh for Israel. God answered, but this is not necessarily a verbal response. Whether there was a verbal response or not, there definitely was an answer by action. |
| 10 Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel. |
This verse is background for what was going on during the sacrifice in verse 9, that the Philistines had marched near Mizpah and were readying for battle against Israel. God's answer to Samuel's cry was a great thunder against the Philistines, so great it threw them into chaos. If you've ever been near an explosion, it completely derails any thought, any action, unless you know it's going to happen beforehand. And sometimes even if you do know in advance it can make you freeze. Imagine not having any concept of anything capable of making such a noise. They would naturally think they were in mortal danger. The instinct to flee would be overwhelming. Fleeing in chaos and fear is the definition of a rout. |
| 11 The men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down as far as below Beth-car. |
In this context, it is likely that went out means marched out, as in an orderly military formation. The Philistines were in chaos, while the Israelites knew Yahweh had intervened on their behalf. The location of Beth-car is unknown. This verse presents an excellent example of God's sovereignty balanced with the responsibility of his people to act. The Israelites were completely dependent on God for their salvation from the Philistine threat. However, God did not just swallow the army up himself. God turned an impending disaster they couldn't do anything about around and made a way for them to triumph. But they had to take action and pursue the Philistines themselves, or they would have been in the same situation a very short time later when the Philistines recovered their wits. Long before this, when the Israelites were first going to go into the Promised Land they were fearful of doing their part to take the land despite God's promises to be with them. So God had them wander in the wilderness. After that generation had died out, the next generation did their duty and conquered the land. It wasn't given to them on a plate. God was still the one who made it possible. But they had to work for it. |
| 12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us." |
Ebenezer means "the stone of help." This was also the name of the site of their defeat in chapters 4 and 5 when they arrogantly tried to do things their way and force God to bend to their will. It may be that Samuel named the stone so that it would remind Israel about how things work when they are reverent and respectful of God and their dependence on Him like they did on this day, and how they don't work when they become arrogant and treat God like an idol. Thus far almost certainly means two things simultaneously. It means in physical terms as they had successfully pursued the Philistine army to this point because God was with them. And it also refers to the time thus far as Yahweh had always been the protector of Israel unless they turned away from Him. |
| 13 So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. | Subdued, yikkanu in Hebrew, is also translated as humbled. This was supposed to be a Philistine great and final victory over Israel leading to long term dominance and mass slavery of the Israelites. So they threw the vast might of their military into it. In the natural, it was a sure thing. But Yahweh intervened miraculously, and the Israelites did their part. This massive defeat decimated the Philistine army. They were not a threat for decades. It would take that long for them to have the ability to field an offensive army of any significant size. |
| 14 The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. |
Remember, Ekron and Gath were two of the five ruling cities of the Philistines. These were walled and fortified cities. But the army that would man these walls was destroyed. The Philistine defeat was that bad. And, of course, the surrounding farms, towns and villages that belonged to these cities were once again in Israel. The Amorites were the people of Canaan before the Israelites took over the Promised Land. The name became a generic term for any non-Jewish people that lived in Israel. In other words, Israel was now safe from both external and internal military threats. |
| 15 Now Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. | This is a euphemism meaning from this point in their life until they died. This is not a contradiction of the earlier account of Eli being judge of Israel at the beginning of Samuel's life. |
| 16 He used to go annually on circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places. 17 Then his return was to Ramah, for his house was there, and there he judged Israel; and he built there an altar to the Lord. |
Samuel's home was in Ramah. There he built an altar to the Lord. To fulfill his duties as judge of Israel he would go to three other cities in addition to Ramah on an annual schedule. All three of these cities were in and around the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. So this circuit did not make Samuel much more geographically accessible to the nation than if he had stayed only in Ramah. As scripture doesn't specify why he did so, we can only speculate. It could have been because judge was a civil position of authority he or God didn't want a single city to become a seat of power, functionally a capital. Or it could be that having a distributed judge seat mirrored the distributed nature of the Israel. Or it could be that putting the altar in Ramah, but moving the judge seat separated the offices of prophet and judge. It also may have been a symbolic act that his circuit was in the smallest tribe of Israel, and one that was nearly destroyed by civil war. Or it could be that this was foreshadowing that the first king would come from the tribe of Benjamin. But we don't really know. |
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB © The Lockman Foundation.