And Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If ye return to Jehovah with all your heart, put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and apply your hearts unto Jehovah, and serve him only; and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
For twenty years Israel grieved over its distance from God, and nothing changed. Then Samuel spoke, and he set a condition before the promise: clear out the idols, give God no rivals, and He will break the grip of the Philistines.
Samuel does not send Israel back to a building or a system. He sends them back to God Himself.
We would speak to the whole church of God as Samuel spoke to Israel. Let us weigh every word. The call is not to return, or to come to some sect, or party, or church government, or to Shiloh as a place. No, we must return from every sect, and from every man who takes the place of Christ; not merely in outward form, but to the Lord, with all our hearts. It must be to Himself; everything else is worth nothing.
Three phrases in the verse carry the weight. A change of behaviour satisfies none of them.
Notice the words, "with all your hearts" and "prepare your hearts." Note too the word "only." God could accept nothing external or on the surface. Out of the heart are the issues of life (Prov. 4:23), and the heart itself must be reached.
(The writers quote an older translation. Where they have "prepare your hearts" and "strange gods," the ESV reads "direct your heart to the LORD" and "the foreign gods.")
Samuel could have said "idols" and stopped. Instead he names one.
Ashtaroth was the chief deity worshipped by the Phoenicians and Sidonians. One dictionary says her worship became the most impure and revolting that can be imagined. She was a "strange god" to Israel, as all the others were, but Samuel singles her out as most likely the deity they were most infatuated with. This shows Israel's condition at the time: they could make a deity of that character the object of their special worship.
Sorrow over sin has to reach the thing you least want to lose.
"All the house of Israel lamented after the Lord," we read. That was not enough. Action is required, and the prophet calls them to it. He commands that they put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth. Repentance always strikes at the darling sin, and does not spare it. Oh, that God's children today might put away their own Ashtaroths! These are the favourite indulgences that bring them to shame, just as this goddess of beauty shamed infatuated Israel.
Israel had not dropped the worship of God. They had added to it, and that is what the word "only" refuses.
By his testimony Samuel begins to work on the conscience of the people. He acts to put away what weakened them by dishonouring God. He tells them that if they will turn to the Lord with all their heart, they must put away the strange gods and serve the Lord alone. A mixed worship was intolerable. Then the Lord would deliver them.
The idols were the second stage of the decline, not the first.
Notice here what a downward course Israel had been pursuing in connection with the house of Eli. The first step into evil is to trust a form, cut off from God and cut off from the principles that make the form valuable. The next step is to set up an idol. So we find Israel saying of the ark, "That it may save us." But now the word of the prophet is, "Put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you."
God had already brought His ark back out of Philistine hands. So the delay in Israel's rescue lay elsewhere.
A true turning to Him is deeply practical, and it shows in the life. If He has His place in the heart or in the land, all strange gods must be put away. He cannot endure a heart divided between Himself and a false god. If they are ready for this, then there is the clear promise: "He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." God Himself had removed His ark from the Philistines' land. Yet in His holiness He could not rescue them from that same enemy until the people were in a true state before Him.
The arithmetic of those twenty years carries its own warning.
Twenty years passed in waiting, but the judgment had lasted only seven months. Israel needed thirty-four times as long as the judgment to reject such an outrageous sin. There must be a work of conscience matching the grace shown, as we see in the story of the prodigal son. It is a solemn thing, seen every day: a believer takes much longer to be restored than to give himself up to evil.
- Longing. Israel grieved after the Lord for twenty years. Sorrow alone changed nothing. Samuel calls them from lamenting to acting.
- Return. The call is back to God Himself — not to a place, a party, or a form — and it must be with all the heart.
- Removal. Real repentance names the favourite idol. Samuel singles out Ashtaroth, the one Israel was most infatuated with.
- Only. Israel had not abandoned God's worship; they had mixed it. Mixed worship is intolerable, because He will not share a divided heart.
- Deliverance. The promise follows the condition. God had already dealt with the Philistines. But in His holiness He could not rescue a people still holding their idols, and restoration takes far longer than the fall did.
And the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths and served Jehovah only.
Samuel had told Israel that a real return to the Lord meant clearing out their idols, and this verse records that they did it. Who were these gods, and why does one short sentence turn the whole chapter?
The two names are not vague labels. One writer explains who Ashtaroth was, why Samuel names her, and how God later used her own temple to remind Israel of its sin.
"The strange gods and Ashtaroth," Samuel says. Ashtaroth was the chief deity worshipped by the Phoenicians and Sidonians. She is often mentioned together with Baal (see Judges 2:13; 10:6; 2 Sam. 12:10), and people probably regarded her as his wife... "Her worship," The Biblical and Theological Dictionary says, "became in the end the most impure and disgusting that can be imagined, and took place in shady groves famous for scenes of immorality." She was a "strange god" to Israel, like all the others. But Samuel singles her out as the god they were most likely obsessed with... After the disastrous defeat of Saul and his armies, the Philistines hung Saul's armour as a trophy in the temple of this very goddess (1 Sam. 31:10). So God sends His people the kind of punishment best suited to remind them of the very cause of their turning away from Him.
Israel did not begin with Baal. One writer traces a downward course that began with trust placed in a religious form — the ark of the covenant, the sacred chest that stood for God's presence.
We observe here what a downward course Israel had been pursuing in connection with the house of Eli. The first step in evil is to put confidence in a form apart from God — and apart from the principles that make the form valuable. The next step is to set up an idol. So we find Israel saying of the ark, "That it may save us." But now the word of the prophet is, "Put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you."
Israel did more than agree with Samuel, and the order of what they did matters.
The result of this appeal shows that God was clearly working with His people: they not only listen to Samuel, they obey his words. They first clear themselves from their evil associations (verse 4). They are not satisfied with protesting against the evil; they deal with it. They "put away" the Baals and the Ashtaroth. Without this first step all else would have been in vain. God's order is, "Cease to do evil" before learning to do well.
Ashtaroth was the favourite, so the clear-out had to reach the favourite.
Repentance always strikes at the favourite sin, and never spares it. If only the children of God today would put away their own Ashtaroths — these favourite indulgences that bring them to shame, as this goddess of beauty shamed the Israel that was infatuated with her.
Removing rivals and serving God alone are one act, because of who He is.
This was good, for Jehovah is a jealous God, and will not share our hearts with any other (Ex. 20:5; Hosea 10:2). So our Lord rebuked the tempter in the wilderness: "You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve" (Matt. 4:10).
The rest of the chapter rests on this cleared ground. One writer ties it straight to drawing near to God in prayer.
Samuel could count on God, and he says, "Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you to the Lord." It is worth noting that before this he warned and led the people to renounce the strange gods and to serve the Lord only, and that they had done so... If I understand God, I understand His nature. Then I cannot draw near to Him in prayer without feeling that I must clearly own Him as the one Lord, and His name one. If I have the true God wrong, or if man's arranging gets in the way, there must always be a barrier and a delay to my finding Him... And all our lack of success in prayer can be traced to this: the Lord is not simply and entirely our God. Covetousness is idolatry — the heart is seeking something else that it passionately desires besides God. Such a person cannot say that he serves the Lord only, and so he ought not to expect deliverance from the Lord.
The verse is held up as the test of preaching: did anything change?
But there must be the wholehearted giving up of whatever does not fit with serving Him alone. And mere talk will not do. "So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the LORD only." Such is the effect of true ministry... What have you put away to serve the Lord only?
- Named. The idols were real: Ashtaroth was the chief goddess of the Phoenicians and Sidonians, and Samuel singles her out as Israel's favourite.
- Caused. The slide began earlier: Israel put confidence in a form apart from God, and expected the ark to save them.
- Removed. Israel did not just protest against the evil; they dealt with it. "Cease to do evil" came first, before learning to do well.
- Only. Putting away and serving are one act, because God is jealous and will not share our hearts with any other.
- Answered. Owning Him as the one Lord clears the barrier to prayer, and where the heart wants something else, prayer fails. Only then comes Mizpah, where Samuel prayed for the people.