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1 Samuel 6&7 – True Repentance

Jan17

​Good evening y’all. We are continuing our study of 1st Samuel with Good Morning Girls and will be looking at chapters Samuel 6 and 7 today.

I pray you are blessed as you read 🙂

The start of chapter 6 tells us the Philistines kept the Ark for God for 7 months.

“The Ark of the Lord remained in Philistine territory seven months in all” (v1 NLT)

 With all the tumors and death that plagued the Philistines, I wonder why they kept the Ark of God for that long. I’m guessing they held on to it because they were still debating whether it was the God of Israel that was punishing them or not.

David Guzik in his commentary on the chapter said the Philistines kept the Ark for 7 months “Because they were reluctant to give up such a wonderful “trophy” of what they at first felt was such a victory over the God of Israel. It can take a long time before we realize the futility of resisting God!” 

Rather than repent and return the Ark to where it belongs, they chose to keep enduring until they came to a point they decided they couldn’t take anymore. They decided to put the God of Israel to a test: to see if indeed the plagues were from him

They consulted their priests and diviners who rightly advised them to send the Ark back along with a guilt offering. What caught my attention, in verse 6 especially, was the advice given by their priests and diviners for them not to be strong-headed like the Egyptians.

“Don’t be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. By the time God was finished with them, they were eager to let Israel go” (v6 NLT).

Their spiritual counsellors and leaders understood that no one can fight with God and win. Better to surrender to his will.

Let’s spend some time to ponder on our lives…are we resisting God or yielding to His will? Are we living for Him or to please ourselves? For how long do we want to keep sinning and not repent?

In chapter 7, Israel was mourning the loss of the Ark. Samuel told them that if they truly want to repent then they had to get rid of their idols and fully give their hearts back to the Lord. Only then would the LORD deliver them out of the hands of the Philistines.

“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.” (1 Sam7: 3 NLT)

We can’t just come to God with lip service. If indeed we are truly sorry, we will give up the things that made God upset with us in the first place. We won’t hold on to them.  2 Corinthians 7:10 says: 
“For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death” (NLT)

The Israelites obeyed Samuel and got rid of their idols. Their act of true repentance saw God fight on their behalf against the same Philistines who defeated them in earlier chapter. 

When we truly repent and turn from our evil ways God will indeed arise on our behalf and fight our battles. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says 
“Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land’.(NLT)

Samuel proceeded to name the place where they defeated the enemy as Ebenezer which means stone of help or thus far the Lord has helped us.

I pray we will learn to truly turn away from our sins and totally yield to God. May He arise for us and give us victory on all sides In Jesus Name. Amen.

Thanks for joining today. Pls feel free to leave your thots on the chapter in the comments section.

Have a blessed evening 

1 Samuel 5 -When God shows you He is the Boss

Jan14

​Good evening y’all. We are continuing our study of 1st Samuel with Good Morning Girls. We are looking at chapter 5 today.

I love this chapter as God indeed showed the Philistines that He is the one and only true God and He is the Boss. The Philistines must have thought that since they defeated the Israelite’s, despite the fact that the Ark of God was present at the battle ground, their god (Dagon) was superior over the God of Israel. Hahaha!! well they were completely wrong and suffered great humiliation at the hands of the God of Israel. Even their god, Dagon, felt the impact and presence of the Supreme and Great God.

I pray you are blessed as you read 🙂

So here we have the philistines thinking that the best place to keep the captured Ark of God was in the Shrine of Dagon, their man-made god. What an insult to the true God! Well God didn’t need anyone to defend Him: He rightly defended himself. By the time the Philistines got up the following morning, Dagon was bowed down before the Ark of God. Remember the Ark of God signifies the presence of God. The truth is, power surpasses power; and anytime a superior power appears, all the lesser powers have to pay homage and submit to the fact that a greater and more superior power is around.  That was what happened: though Dagon was a god, He was powerless to help himself. Isaiah 41: 21 & 29 says : 

“Present the case for your idols,”
    says the Lord.
“Let them show what they can do,”
    says the King of Israel. (V21)

“See, they are all foolish, worthless things.
    All your idols are as empty as the wind”. (v29)

The philistines didn’t understand the significance of Dagon bowing  before the Ark of God. So they helped him back to his position and went away. They came back the following day, lo and behold, Dagon was not only bowed but his head and hands were broken off towards the entrance and only his torso was in one piece (Now tell me, who is the boss? …lol). Not only did Dagon fall, God punished them by sending plagues of tumors and rats to the people. At this point they knew they were in trouble They knew the God of Israel was fighting them. The whole land was in chaos. They were eager to get rid of the Ark of God.

I stumbled on an artcile by Bob Deffinbaugh that sums up the chapter very well. You can read the full article here. Ihave only included excerpts below –

“Is Dagon in the hands of an angry God? I think so.
The most amazing thing about verses 1-5 is not the prostration of Dagon
before the Ark of God, but the response of the Philistine priests to
this second symbolic scene. The Ark of God is not an idol; the Ark of
God is not Israel’s God. The Ark is a symbol of God’s presence among His
people. It plays an important role in Israel’s worship, but it is not
an idol. Dagon is an idol, which men have fashioned to be their god.
This Philistine idol has twice fallen before the Ark of God and broken
upon impact, requiring repairs. The Philistine “god” falls before the
Ark of God and then has to go back into the shop for repairs. What
should this tell the Philistines?

Does a real God have to be picked up off the ground?
Does a real God fall apart? Does a real God have to be glued back
together? If these pagan priests are thinking properly, they will see
that Dagon’s image belongs on the scrap heap or in the city dump. What
kind of a “god” has to be set upright by its subjects and carried off
for repairs because it is broken? Yet these priests do not humble
themselves and confess that the God of Israel is the only true God. They
do not give up worshipping a piece of wood, stone, or metal. Instead,
they pronounce the threshold on which the idol breaks to be holy. From
this point on, the threshold becomes a sacred object. The threshold’s
destruction of their god should have taught them a lesson, but it is a
lesson the Philistines did not learn. No wonder there are some even more
difficult lessons yet to come.

Once again, it is apparent that the Philistines
recognize that the plague which is visiting various Philistine cities is
due to the presence of the Ark of God in their midst. They know that
the Ark means trouble, and that this trouble is God’s judgment upon them
and their “god,” Dagon. What they do not do is reject their heathen
idolatry and their impotent “god.” Neither do they trust in the God of
Israel and worship Him. They simply want God to “get out of their town.”

I am reminded of the response of the people who lived in the country of the Geresenes, as described in Mark 5.
When Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee and casts the demon from the
dreaded and powerful demoniac, “Legion,” the people of that place are
terrified. They ask Jesus to leave town as soon as possible. They do not
want One this good and this powerful among them. He is too threatening.
The Ark of God is too holy and too hot to handle, and they want only to
be rid of it”. (Bob Deffinbaugh, The Hands of Dagon and the Hand of God (1 Samuel 5:1-7:17), www. bible.org)

May we all learn to submit to God rather than run away from Him when we are in His Presence or He displays His mighty power. Amen

Thanks for joining today. Pls feel free to leave your comments on the chapter.

Have a blessed evening enjoying the goodness of God 🙂