Welcome to the book of 1 Samuel! Every Wednesday and Friday, I post my thoughts from one chapter of 1 Samuel – today is chapter 7. Read 1 Samuel 7 for yourself, take notes, and compare what you hear from God with what I see and hear. God’s Word is alive and active. We don’t need to see the same things!
If you are new to reading the Bible, I encourage you to read my post, How to Understand the Bible. It gives you 5 tools to read the Bible, so you understand it. You can also go back and read through the story of Joseph and his family and all of Luke with me.
So let’s go ahead and jump in!
Dying for a Leader
Outside the miraculous birth of Samuel, this story has been pretty bleak. The Ark is lost. The priests are corrupt. The enemy is advancing. Even the one good story (the Ark being returned to Israel) sees 70 men killed for looking inside the Ark. So, it’s no wonder the people of Israel were upset.
“The Ark remained in Kiriath-jearim for a long time—twenty years in all. During that time all Israel mourned because it seemed the Lord had abandoned them.”
-1 Samuel 7:2
Do you feel like God has abandoned you? Do you feel like God has abandoned your city, state, country, world?
For Israel, this sense of abandonment lead to confusion. The people didn’t know what to do with the Ark. They didn’t know what to do about the Philistines. They didn’t know what to do about the corrupt priests. Israel was confused because they lacked leadership.
So, finally came good news.
Then into this void steps a leader – God’s chosen leader for Israel. Samuel makes a simple statement, and the people respond.
“Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you want to return to the Lord with all your hearts, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth. Turn your hearts to the Lord and obey him alone; then he will rescue you from the Philistines.” So the Israelites got rid of their images of Baal and Ashtoreth and worshiped only the Lord.”
-1 Samuel 7:3-4
Then he makes one more, “Let’s gather and worship together.” Again, the people respond.
They were dying, literally dying, for someone to lead them.
All around you are people dying, in some cases literally dying, for someone to lead them. So, will you do something about it? The people in your sphere may not act like it – the Israelites didn’t act like they needed a leader. The people in your world may not know it or believe it. They may be in mourning. People around you are probably confused. They need someone to lead them.
Will you step into that void? Will you speak a simple word?
They are waiting. They just don’t know it.
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