The Path of Recovery (1 Samuel 7:2-17)

This sermon was preached on 9/5/2010

At the end of the previous chapter the ark of the covenant was returned to Israel. For twenty years the ark was located at Kiriath-jearim. It is not clear if the people were seeking the Lord for these twenty years or whether it took these twenty years for the people to seek the Lord.

In the chapter we are introduced again to Samuel. Throughout these years he has been active. Verses 15–17 describe his regular activities: ‘Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went on a circuit year by year to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah. And he judged Israel in all these places. Then he would return to Ramah, for his home was there, and there also he judged Israel. And he built there an altar to the LORD.’ He travelled the country preaching to the people at strategic locations. His message is summarised in verse 3: ‘If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.’

Samuel’s strategy is clear: there had to be personal repentance before there could be corporate repentance. His message is a call to wholehearted commitment to the Lord.

For this to happen, there has to be a renunciation of worldly behaviour. The sins of which Israel was guilty was not open rejection of the Lord. Rather what they did was to mix the worship of Yahweh with the worship of the pagan tribes around them. They had been guilty of compromise. If they wanted to know divine blessing they would have to repent of their action. Repentance is more than sorrow for having done wrong; it also includes change of direction. The change required of them was total dedication to the Lord. They listened eventually to the preaching of Samuel: ‘So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the LORD only.’

As I said earlier, it is not clear how long this process took. This is a reminder that in looking for restoration we have to be patient. God will not move until the situation is changed, and the situation for which he is waiting is the repentance of each believer. I wonder who was the last person to repent in Israel at this time, and what was the time-gap between that person and the first one to repent. As we apply this to ourselves, each of us knows the necessity of repenting from our compromises with sin before restoration will come. The longer we resist repenting the longer the blessing will stay away. How many unrepentant members does it take to prevent the Lord’s blessing. The answer is one.

Public repentance

With personal repentance having taken place on a national scale, it was now possible to have corporate repentance. So Samuel arranged for the nation to gather at one of his regular meeting places, Mizpah. When they met they did three things: they used a symbolic action, they denied themselves a legitimate function, and they articulated a common confession.

The symbolic action was drawing water and pouring it before the Lord, which signified their desire for cleansing. In modern times, since the Reformation, a common symbolic action was the signing of a covenant or document. The point of such an action was to help them remember what it was they were doing. This is the easiest and least important aspect of the communal repentance because it could be done without much pain or trouble, and it is only of value if the other features are also included.

The legitimate desire they did without was eating food. They realised that satisfying physical needs had to take second place to satisfying spiritual needs. The practice of fasting is one which the Bible mentions often, indeed Jesus took it for granted that his people would fast, yet no specific guidance is given regarding how long a fast should be.

The common confession was straightforward and simple: ‘We have sinned against the LORD.’ The particular name of God that they used signifies his unique relationship with Israel. It is the divine name that indicated his unchanging commitment to his people. They had rebelled against the One that had done them so much good.

Features of repentance

There are three kinds of repentance. There is natural repentance, which occurs when a person realises he has done something wrong, an inappropriate action. Legal repentance is what occurs in a person who is convinced by the law of God that he has done wrong but who still loves the sin; he is afraid of God’s punishment but does not desire a change of heart. Evangelical repentance is the response to God’s offer of pardon and is marked by a hatred of sin, a self-humbling because of it, and a longing to be free of it.

It is also important to note that repentance is not the cause but only the condition of Yahweh’s deliverance. Repentance is not a religious twisting of the divine arm; rather it is the state of soul that God wants to see before he will bless us.

Repentance is a Christian activity, not only at the beginning of the Christian life but throughout it. Of course, repentance is not the same as perfection. Repentance is primarily an attitude of heart in which we confess our inability to maintain a steady walk with God. In the letters to the seven churches, Jesus found fault with five of them and he instructed each one of them to repent of their sins. This means that repentance is not a one-off act; rather it is an ongoing process that demands lifelong acts of repentance. Tertullian, the early Church Father, once said, ‘I was born for nothing but repentance.’ Philip Henry, the father of the famous Matthew, when he was criticised for making too much of repentance, replied that he expected to carry his repentance to the gates of heaven.

Repentance of sin is particular. The one specific sin that was mentioned in the text was compromise, but its tentacles would have affected many areas of life. In one sense it was an outward activity, but in another sense it showed the sad state of their hearts. It was not enough that they get rid of their idols; they had to get their hearts sorted out.

John Bradford, an English Reformer who was burned at the stake, used to write in a notebook the sins of which he was guilty each day so that he would repent of them (in his notebook he also wrote down the commendable traits he saw in others and that he thought were lacking in himself). As I read about his practice I realised that one hour of my life would fill several notebooks. But having said that, Bradford took an action which helped him deal with his personal sins.

J.I. Packer likens repentance to the drainage system on the highway of holiness whereby we get rid of the dirt and rubbish that clings to our lives. Unless we remove these sins they will accumulate and eventually block the road and hinder our progress.

Evidences of true repentance

In this incident we see several indications of true repentance. The first evidence is that the enemy is riled by such sorrow for sin. When the Philistines heard what Israel was doing, they attacked. The Philistines had been allowed by God to dominate the lives of the Israelites because they had departed from him. I am not saying that the Philistines understood the nature of true repentance but their master, the devil, did and he was determined to stop it. Similarly, when a church or community repents, the devil launches all kinds of attacks in order to prevent the repentance continuing.

The second evidence of true repentance is the lack of self-confidence in the Israelites. They heard that the enemy was attacking, but unlike the previous generation who had marched confidently to battle with the Philistines, the penitent Israelites expressed their weakness.

A third evidence of true repentance was the Israelites’ realisation of the necessity of prayer. They called on Samuel as their judge to lead in prayer. Samuel in addition to praying offered a lamb as a burnt offering. The burnt offering was a sacrifice of atonement that indicated total dedication to the Lord. Biblical prayer is often the cry of a people who are desperate and have realised that divine mercy is their only help.

A fourth evidence of true repentance is recollection of the Lord’s goodness, seen here in raising an Ebenezer stone. They recall not merely their own personal experiences but join with all that God has done for his people so far.

The fifth evidence is restoration of territory, of reclamation of ground that had been lost due to their sins. There is a wonderful description of the benefits of repentance in Joel 2. When God’s people repent of their sins, he ‘will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you. And ye shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the name of the Lord your God, that hath dealt wondrously with you: and my people shall never be ashamed. And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am the Lord your God, and none else: and my people shall never be ashamed’ (vv. 25-27).

Incentives to repentance

In closing I would mention three incentives to repentance. The first is the purity of God. We remember the response of Isaiah when he had his vision of the Lord high and lifted up. He said that he was a man of unclean lips and that he lived among a people of unclean lips. It was when he realised this that the Lord was able to use him.

A second incentive to repentance is the power of God. I don’t mean by this his power to crush us (that is the danger that impenitent people face). Rather it is his power at work on our behalf. Remember the response of Peter after he had witnessed the miraculous catch of fish. He fell at Jesus’ feet and said, ‘Depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord.’ It was when he said these words that Jesus promised to use Peter as a servant: ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men’ (Luke 5:8-10).

The third incentive is the promises of God to penitent people. There is the great promise made to Israel in Deuteronomy 30:1-3: ‘And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.’