November 29, 2009
Prayer
Hymn 201 - Trust and Obey
Prayer
1 Samuel 7
Last time we saw how the lords of the Philistines sent the ark back to the land of Israel. Today, we’ll see that the men of Kirjathjearim took the ark to their city.
Vv.1-2. The ark stayed in Kirjathjearim for twenty long years, and at the end of this time the people of Israel began to turn back to the Lord; they lamented after Him. Vv.3-8. Samuel tells them that, if they are going to serve the Lord, they had to put away their false gods and and serve Him with all their hearts. If they did this, the Lord would save them from the hands of the Philistines.
Now, Samuel told them to prepare their hearts; what does that mean? If we prepare for guests, we’d make our house ready. In the same way we need to make our hearts ready for the Lord to use. This might involve taking things out of our lives that He wouldn’t approve of. For the Children of Israel, their false gods were taking the Lord’s place. For older ones, it might mean things in our lives that would take the Lord’s rightful place. For the younger ones, you might have things like disobedience, lying, and rudeness in your hearts. However, if we have the Lord Jesus in our heart, we need to ask Him to help us take these things that are displeasing to Him away. And also for help to be obedient, truthful, and polite.
Vv.4-6. So the Israelites got rid of their false gods. If we sin, what should we do? We need to confess it to the Lord in prayer. Here, the Israelites showed their sorrow by pouring out water and by fasting. Samuel was a judge and showed them what was right and wrong. May we want to judge things in our lives and prepare our hearts for the Lord.
What is special about the 24th day of the month? We saw in the last chapter that they were having the feast of tabernacles; that began on the 15th day of the month and lasted for 8 days. ending on the 23rd. Therefore, this chapter starts on the day after the feast.
Feast or not, the Jews wanted to be reading God’s Word. Once they started reading the law, they realized how far away from the Lord they were. In the day of Samuel, they were worshipping idols. How did they get into that? They had the living God! Here in Nehemiah, the problem was strangers. We have all seen those who were going on for the Lord, but fell away. They let something else take the place of God in their lives. That’s what these strangers were: people who didn’t put God in the place he should have in their lives.
The first thing they did was fast. Sackcloth and earth were a sign of repentance and humility. Repentance is important; we’ve already read 1 John 1:9. To repent is so much more than to ask for forgiveness; it means to admit you were wrong and turn away from it. They had to turn away from the strangers they were involved with. There are those around us that will be a hindrance to our spiritual lives. Paul wrote these words to Timothy: “Avoid … Flee … Purge.”
At the end of v. 2, we read that they confessed the iniquities of their fathers. We’ll see that the rest of this chapter is the retelling of the story of coming out of Egypt and the confessing of those sins. Could it be that the sins that had a strong hold on their fathers have a tendency to appear in the children? Have you ever confessed the iniquities of your fathers? Is there something here for us to apply?
Hymn 221 - I am thine, O Lord; I have heard thy voice.
Prayer