1 Samuel 7:3–6

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.

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.

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.

"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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

"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.

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."

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.

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.

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).

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.

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?

In this work, what Samuel does stands out as especially remarkable and blessed. This faithful servant of God had already spoken to the people. Then he adds: "Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you." Gathering the people of God is the work of every servant of the Lord who understands his ministry. But beyond this, Samuel is an intercessor. Prayer marks him — it is the fruit of his closeness to the Lord. Scripture says of him: "Moses and Aaron were among His priests, Samuel also was among those who called upon His name. They called to the LORD, and He answered them" (Ps. 99:6).

Israel must be gathered at Mizpah. Gilgal was the place of gathering under Joshua, the place of circumcision, the place of judging the flesh to gain victory. In the same way, Mizpah is the usual gathering place under the judges... Mizpah is the place of repentance, and without repentance there is no victory. At Mizpah, Israel under Eli had met only defeat. They went there with no work of conscience to raise them up again. In ruin we must remember that Mizpah is just as precious as Gilgal, though much more humbling. There we learn all over again to put our confidence in nothing that belongs to man, but only in the Lord's strength.

"And Samuel said, Gather all Israel at Mizpah" (Watch-tower), the place of expectation. The enemy resisted at once. The lords of the Philistines went straight up against them, and they were afraid. But their false confidence was gone. They did not say again, "Let us fetch the ark that it may save us." Instead they begged Samuel, "Do not stop crying to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines."

Samuel gathers all Israel together for prayer, not for shouting. He says, "I will pray for you to the LORD." They are not looking to the ark now to save them, but to the Lord Himself... With the sins of Eli, Israel tolerated the most dreadful wickedness. With Samuel they fast and confess their sins. Which of these two companies do you belong to, reader? There was no victory while they were identified with evil, only the most dreadful defeat.

As his word had brought them to repentance, he now turns to God in intercession. The man who speaks for God to the people is the one able to speak to God for the people... Others may see the evil just as clearly, but they only dwell on it without divine power. They are never brought into God's presence about it. So the evil overwhelms them and leaves them helpless, instead of making them prevailing intercessors.

Samuel both prayed for Israel and judged them there. He made earnest intercession to God for them. At the same time, he taught them the statutes and judgments of the LORD. Prayer comes before ministry. This is the divine order: "We will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:4). And if prayer does not outweigh ministry, ministry will bring no lasting results.

Here is a man who kept right with God through the years of Israel's dreadful decline. He did not let himself be carried along by the current of the day. So he was ready to serve the people of God when the time was ripe for it.

Samuel speaks again to lead them on to the second step — the preparation of heart. He urges them to gather all Israel to Mizpeh. He says, "I will pray to the LORD for you." The place where they gather matters, for the meaning of Mizpeh is "watch-tower." It suggests that through lack of watchfulness the enemy had gained a footing among the people of God and brought them into bondage.

These things could take place only after what verse 4 reports: "So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the LORD only." The fruits of repentance are different from the fruits of conversion. Here we have three of them. First, water poured out — that is, affliction joined to the sense of a weakness before God that cannot be mended (2 Sam. 14:14; Ps. 22:14). Then fasting, for in mourning one does not feed the flesh. Last, a true confession of evil: "We have sinned against the LORD."

Their act of pouring water on the ground was an acknowledgment of their utter weakness and unworthiness. When the people of God take that place before Him, He is able to do far more for them than all they ask or think. But while one shred of self-confidence remains, they are not ready for the full blessing He always has ready to give. It is a very humbling lesson. Yet it is one of the first we must learn if we expect recovery and the victory that follows, as Israel received from God here.

The attitude taken by Israel in 1 Samuel 7 forms a perfect contrast to the scene in 1 Samuel 4… This was real work, and we can say, God is here now. There is no confidence in a mere symbol or lifeless form. There is no empty pretension or vain assumption, no shout or baseless boasting. All is deep and solemn reality. The earnest cry, the water poured out, the fast, the confession — all tell out the mighty change which had taken place in Israel's moral condition.

Surrounded by the foe, where could Israel gather but to the watchtower? And there take the place of weakness and confession… Such is the place that suits those who know their own lack of heart. That lack first failed to make the Lord and His interests supreme. Then it left them powerless against the enemy pressing in from outside and the rule of the foe within. "And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh." It had been a time when every man did what was right in his own eyes. Now there is the judging of ways and doings by him who ministers the word of God.

In the scene at Mizpeh (1 Sam. 7), we have a picture of the day when Israel, humbled, will be restored to their place of blessing as the people of God. Samuel gathers the people at Mizpeh. It is not just the place of tears, but of humiliation… There they put away their strange gods. It was the dawn of an era of blessing that shone in full splendour under the reigns of David and Solomon.