Leave it to the Philistines to attack Israel during worship! (As a pastor, I personally find that to be a very low blow.) Fortunately, their military tactic failed and they ended up routed before God rather than victorious over His people - and all of it was thanks to the help of the Lord!
What happened was this - Samuel challenged the Israelites to truly return to the Lord with all their heart (vs. 3). The evidence for this would be their putting away the false gods of Baal and Astartes and serving God alone. The Israelites, attempting to do the right thing, agreed.
Samuel gathered the nation together at Mizpah for a service of repentance and worship (vs. 6). The people fasted, prayed, poured out water offerings before the Lord, and confessed their sin. Hearing of this gathering, the Philistines decide to interrupt and use this as an opportunity to strike a blow against Israel. The people were scared to hear of this development and called out to Samuel to pray for them. Samuel offered up a lamb as a burnt offering before the Lord. I'll let the Bible tell you directly what happened next:
"Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him. As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel; but the Lord thundered with a mighty voice that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion; and they were routed before Israel..." (vs. 9-10)
I think its important to realize who actually fought this battle. The Bible doesn't say anything about the armies or troops of Israel accomplishing this victory. Instead it is the Lord Himself who thunders against the Philistines and delivers Israel. Perhaps we should remember to look to the Lord when we need His help to fight our battles, too.
With the tide of the battle turned, the forces of Israel give chase and strike down the fleeing Philistines. To commemorate the battle, Samuel erects a stone and names it "Ebenezer." (You can add that to the list of funny names we find in I Samuel, along with "Ichabod!") Ebenezer literally means "stone of help." Samuel was basically saying, "Thus far the Lord has helped us," to help the people remember God's faithfulness. We, too, should raise our Ebenezers as a testimony to how God has helped us!
For a little more story behind this chapter and how it influenced one of the great hymns of the Church, check out:
https://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=11&article=909
No comments:
Post a Comment