1 Samuel 7:3 - Meaning and Application

We may wonder where Samuel was and what he was doing all this time, since he is not mentioned again until now, after 1 Samuel 4:1. This does not mean he was inactive or unconcerned. It means his work among the people is only now shown by its results. When he saw that they had begun to mourn after the Lord, he acted while the moment was right.

As a faithful servant of God and a true friend to Israel, Samuel worked to do two things for them. First, he tried to separate them from their idols, because reform must begin there. He spoke to all the house of Israel (1 Samuel 7:3), going from place to place, as it seems, like a traveling preacher. Wherever he went, this was his message: if they were truly returning to the Lord, then they must turn away from their idols.

They had to give up the strange gods, because God would not share his place with rivals. They needed to put them away from themselves, and even do what they could in their own places to remove them from the land. They were to put away Baalim, the false gods, and Ashtaroth, the false goddess, since they had also been worshiping her. Ashtaroth is named especially because she was probably their favorite idol, the one they were most attached to. True repentance goes after the favorite sin, the one that is hardest to let go.

Samuel also told them that returning to God had to be a serious, settled matter. They needed to prepare their hearts, set them right, and firmly turn to the Lord. They must belong to him fully, and serve him alone, or else they were not truly serving him in a way that pleased him. This was also the sure way to deliverance and blessing. If they followed this path, God would rescue them from the Philistines, because they had been handed over to them when they abandoned the Lord and served other gods.

Samuel’s preaching had a very good effect. They put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, not only leaving their worship, but also destroying their images and tearing down their altars. They completely gave them up. What have we to do with idols any more? (Hosea 14:8; Isaiah 30:22)

Second, Samuel worked to bind them to God and his service for good. Now that he had stirred them to a better mind, he did all he could to keep them there. He called all Israel, at least through their elders as representatives, to meet him at Mizpeh (1 Samuel 7:5), and there he promised to pray for them. It was worth any effort to come, even from far away, to join Samuel in seeking God’s favor.

Ministers should pray for the people they preach to, asking God to make the message effective by his grace. And when we gather for worship, we should remember that public prayer is as much our duty as hearing a sermon. Samuel would pray that God would free them from their idols by grace, and then, by his providence, deliver them from the Philistines. Ministers would help their people more if they prayed more for them.

They obeyed his call, and they did more than simply attend the meeting. They came with the right spirit, and they were ready to do what the meeting required (1 Samuel 7:6). They drew water and poured it out before the Lord. This likely showed several things. It showed their humility and sorrow for sin, since they saw themselves as water spilled on the ground, unable to be gathered up again, mean and helpless before God (2 Samuel 14:14; Psalm 22:14). The Chaldee reads it as pouring out their hearts in repentance before the Lord.

It also showed earnest prayer for mercy. In prayer, the soul is poured out before God (Psalm 62:8). It may also have shown their full turning from sin. They were ready to give up all their sins, with no more desire to keep even the taste of them than a vessel keeps water that has been poured out. They were open in confession and firm in their resolve to cast away all their sins. Israel was, in this sense, being washed from their idols.

Some think the act also expressed joy in the hope of God’s mercy, which Samuel had promised them. The same kind of ceremony was used at the feast of tabernacles (John 7:37-38; Isaiah 12:3). If that is the meaning here, then they drew water after they had fasted. At the end of their humiliation, they were also expressing hope of pardon and reconciliation.

They fasted too, abstaining from food and humbling themselves. This showed repentance and stirred up their devotion. They also made a public confession: We have sinned against the Lord. In this way they gave glory to God and took shame to themselves. And if we confess our sins like this, we will find that God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

Samuel judged them at Mizpeh at that time. That is, he assured them in God’s name that their sins were forgiven, because they had repented, and that God was reconciled to them. This was a judgment of pardon. Or he may have received charges against those who refused to leave their idols and dealt with them according to the law. Those who would not judge themselves he judged. Or, more likely, he now established courts of justice among them and appointed the regular times and routes that he later followed (1 Samuel 7:16). He was putting those systems in motion to keep them from falling back into the sins they seemed to have renounced.