1 Samuel 7
Israel Repents and Defeats the Philistines
The author skipped twenty years in his account to a time when God’s people were finally ready to repent. We are not told the specifics of this season of silence, but it is evident that God was pursuing and preparing His people.
Twenty Years Passed
Vs. 1 - So the people of Kiriath-jearim came for the ark of the Lord and took it to Abinadab’s house on the hill. They consecrated his son Eleazar to take care of it.
Commentators speculate that the ark may have been left in Kiriath-jearim because the Philistines had destroyed the city of Shiloh.
The ark did not reside in an appropriate place of honor until David brought it into his new capital, Jerusalem (2 Samuel 6). - Thomas Constable
Vs. 2 - Time went by until twenty years had passed
It may very naturally be asked, ‘Where was Samuel all that time?’ I know not what he was doing during those twenty years; but I have a suspicion, I may say, I have a firm persuasion, that he was going from place to place, preaching in quiet spots wherever he could gather an audience; warning the people of their sin, and stirring them up to seek Jehovah, thus endeavoring to infuse some spirituality into their national life. - Charles Spurgeon
Israel Longed for The Lord
Returning
Vs. 3 - Samuel told them, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart,
Prayer - Vs. 5 - I will pray to the Lord on your behalf.
Water Offering - Vs. 6 - they drew water and poured it out in the Lord’s presence.
Fasting - Vs. 6 - They fasted that day
Confession - Vs. 6 - there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.
Water Offering Ceremony
In this context, a ceremonial pouring of water demonstrated the soul poured out before the LORD. It was an expression of emptiness and need.
The Chaldean translation of this passage gives this sense well: “They poured out their hearts like water in penance before the LORD.” They expressed the same heart as Lamentations 2:19: Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; pour out your heart like water before the face of the LORD. - David Guzik
They seemed to say in effect, We could wish to shed as many tears for our sins as there are drops of water in this bucket; but because we cannot do this, behold, we do what we can. - Trapp
Removal
Vs. 3 - get rid of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths that are among you, set your hearts on the Lord, and worship only him.
A worse enemy than the Philistines held sway over the land…. the people were thus in double bondage; the heavy yoke of the Philistines was upon them, because the heavier burden of a false worship crushed out the life of their hearts. - Charles Spurgeon
The local gods of Baal and Ashtoreth were popular idols among the people of Israel. Samuel called the nation to repentance. The repentance had to be inward (with all your hearts) and outward (put away the foreign gods). - David Guzik
Rescue
Vs. 3 - Then he will rescue you from the Philistines.
God had pursued His people in order to protect them, but His rescue was contingent on Israel’s repentance.
The Philistines Marched to Mizpah
Humility
Vs. 8 - The Israelites said to Samuel, “Don’t stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, so that he will save us from the Philistines.”
Commentators contrast the confidence that the people had to fight the Philistines in 1 Samuel 4 to the fear and self-doubt they expressed here in chapter 7. Earlier, the people sought a symbol, but here, they came to God in humble dependence, recognizing that the battle belonged to Him.
Offering
Vs. 9 - Then Samuel took a young lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord.
Samuel led the people to seek the forgiveness and favor of God through both a water offering and a burnt offering.
The purpose of the burnt offering was for general atonement of sin and expression of devotion to God. - Jeremiah K. Garrett
The earliest occurrences of burnt offerings in scripture are found in the accounts of Noah (Genesis 8) and Abraham (Genesis 22). After the construction of the tabernacle under Moses’ leadership, God provided specific instructions for the burnt offerings to occur in the tabernacle complex (Leviticus 1). But commentators note that the tabernacle at Shiloh may have been destroyed by the Philistines at this time. And, as this was the most common of the offerings of Judaism, there are multiple examples in scripture, like this one, of burnt offerings away from the tabernacle.
The Philistines Were Subdued
Vs. 10 - The Lord thundered loudly against the Philistines that day and threw them into such confusion that they were defeated by Israel.
God’s deliverance was apparently entirely supernatural, probably to impress the people with His ability to save them in a hopeless condition and to strengthen their faith in Him. - Thomas Constable
Vs. 12 - He named it Ebenezer, explaining, “The Lord has helped us to this point.”
In Hebrew, Ebenezer means “stone of help” (eben = stone; ezer = help). Samuel wanted the people to remember, not just for a few days, but for years, for decades, for generations, how God had come to the rescue of his people when they humbled themselves before him. They were vulnerable, with their enemies approaching, and they did not deserve God’s rescue, having been chronically unfaithful. And yet in his gracious fidelity to his covenant people, God intervened with thunder to throw Israel’s enemies in confusion and turn their enemies into the vulnerable nation. - David Mathis
Samuel Judged Israel
Vs. 15 - Samuel judged Israel throughout his life.
Brief as the portrait of Samuel here is, it gives us a glimpse of the ideal ruler. Yet the irony was that such a ruler was precisely the man whom Israel rejected, as chapter 8 will show. - Payne
Vs. 17 - he judged Israel there, and he built an altar to the Lord there.
With the destruction of Israel’s tabernacle at Shiloh, the nation’s religious life centered on Samuel, who set up an altar for sacrifice in his home town of Ramah. - Don Fleming
