CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES—
1 Samuel 7:7. “When the Philistines heard,” etc. “Apprehending that such a gathering under one so well known as Samuel boded no good to their dominions, and might be intended to organise the assertion of the nation’s own independence.”—(Kitto.)
1 Samuel 7:9. “Samuel, though only a Levite, offered a burnt offering to the Lord at Mizpeh, because the regular ministries of the tabernacle which was separated from the ark were in abeyance, and God had not yet chosen any fixed place to set His name there, after the destruction of Shiloh; and Samuel was raised up with a special commission from God to supply the deficiency of the transitory and provisional state of things.”—(Wordsworth.) (See also comments of this verse.)
1 Samuel 7:12. “Shen,” literally a tooth, doubtless a rocky eminence in the neighbourhood. It has not been identified. “Ebenezer,” or Eben-ha-ezer, i.e., stone of help.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Samuel 7:7-12
THE DEFEAT OF THE PHILISTINES
I. Opposition to the covenant-people of God furnishes occasion for the fulfilment of the Divine promises. God had promised Abraham that He would bring out His descendants from the land of their captivity with “great substance,” and “judge the nation whom they should serve” (Genesis 15:14), and the opposition of Pharaoh furnished an occasion for the fulfilment of that promise. The Lord had answered Samuel’s prayer for Israel’s freedom, and even “while he was offering the burnt offering” the Philistines furnished an occasion for the fulfilment of the promise by “drawing near to battle against Israel.” In the history of a man’s individual life the opposition from Satanic and human enemies often furnishes occasion to show that “He is faithful that promised” (Hebrews 10:23).
II. The covenant-promises of God are fulfilled also in answer to prayer. When the time drew near for the redemption of Israel from Egypt, “their cry went up to God by reason of the bondage” (Exodus 2:23), and the prayer and faith of Moses came in to help forward the fulfilment of the promise of deliverance. When the seventy years’ captivity was nearly accomplished, the supplication of Daniel was one instrument of bringing the fulfilment of God’s purpose of mercy (Daniel 9). When Our Lord was about to leave the world He promised to His disciples the gift of the Holy Ghost, but they understood well that they must “continue in prayer and supplication” for that Divine gift (Acts 1:4; Acts 1:14). And the promises given to the individual Christian are all fulfilled in answer to prayer. He is to “be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication to let his requests be made known unto God” (Philippians 4:6). The promise had been made to Israel that if they put away their strange gods and returned unto the Lord, He would deliver them out of the hand of the Philistines; but they were right in interpreting this promise as to be fulfilled in answer to prayer, and, therefore, in beseeching Samuel to cease not to cry unto the Lord for them.
III. Character has a mighty influence in bringing answers to prayer. Why did Israel say to Samuel, “Cry unto the Lord our God for us?” It was because they felt that “the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16). Much of the availing power of prayer is in the character that is linked to it. The cry of Moses for his people was often more effectual than the cry of the thousands of Israel. So mighty was his power with the Eternal that, in answer to his intercession, “the Lord repented of the evil which He thought to do unto His people” (Exodus 32:14). If this be so in relation to sinful men, how mighty must be the efficacy of the intercession of the sinless Son of God on behalf of His disciples! If the prayers of men of like passions with ourselves have an influence with God, how mighty must be the prayers of the sinless and Divine man!
IV. Answers to prayer in the present should bring thanksgiving for like blessings in the past. An act of kindness from a friend who has befriended us many times before, brings back to our remembrance all his kind deeds in the past, all the benefits that he has conferred in days that are gone pass again before us every time we are recipients of his bounty. This is, or ought to be, especially the case with gifts received from the hand of God, and especially with good things given in answer to prayer. Thankfulness for the mercy of to-day ought to be deepened by recalling the mercies of past days. When Samuel looked back at the past history of his people, he recalled many instances of God’s loving kindness to a people who had, notwithstanding, often rebelled against Him. And the thought of the many Divine interpositions in the past deepened his gratitude for the present deliverance. His “hitherto,” speaks his thanksgiving for all the help of God to Israel from the day in which they left Egypt until the day which had just passed, and when any man bows before God in gratitude for a present answer to prayer, he should connect it by a hitherto with all that have gone before.
V. It is good for our gratitude to God to show itself in an external form. We like to express our gratitude to a human friend in some practical form as we thereby give a body, as it were, to that which is itself unseen. And it is good to testify our thankfulness to God by some external manifestation, as we thereby perpetuate a remembrance of His goodness and make it known to others. Samuel desired that God’s deliverance at this time should live in the memory of the present generation, and be handed down to their descendants, therefore he embodies his feeling in a pillar of remembrance—“he took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it ‘Ebenezer.’ ”
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1 Samuel 7:7. The Philistines come up, and the Israelites fear, they that had not the wit to fear, whilst they were not friends to God, have not now the grace of fearlessness, when they were reconciled to God. Boldness and fear are commonly misplaced in the best hearts; when we should tremble, we are confident; and when we should be assured, we tremble. Why should Israel have feared, since they had made their peace with the Lord of Hosts? Nothing should affright those which are upright with God: the peace which Israel had made with God was true, but tender.—Bishop Hall.
1. How evil sometimes seems to come out of good. The religious meeting of the Israelites brought trouble upon them from the Philistines.
2. How good is at length brought out of that evil. Israel could never be threatened more seasonably than at this time, when they were repenting and praying.… Bad policy for the Philistines to make war upon Israel when they were making their peace with God.—Henry.
1 Samuel 7:8. An evidence of Samuel’s habitual resort to God in prayer for help. (See 1 Samuel 12:19-23.) In Psalms 99:6, Samuel is specially mentioned as given to prayer, and as prevailing by prayer. “Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name: these called upon the Lord, and He heard them;” and in Jeremiah 15:1, God says, “Though Moses and Samuel stood, before Me, yet My mind could not be towards this people.” Samuel had been given by God in answer to His mother’s prayers, and his whole life seems to have been governed by a sense of the power of prayer, to which his birth was due.… The forty year’s domination of the Philistines over Israel could not be overthrown by the supernatural strength of Samson, but it was terminated by the prayers of Samuel: so much more powerful are the weapons of prayer in the hands of righteous men than any arm of flesh.—Wordsworth.
1 Samuel 7:9. It is difficult to reconcile the severe judgments denounced and inflicted for irregularities in the ritual service, with the direct sanction and approval which attended the irregular actions of Samuel and other prophets with regard to the ritual observances. The point is of importance, for it is the action of the prophets from this time forward upon public affairs which gives to the history of the Jews their peculiar character.… It would appear then that the prophets, as men divinely authorised and inspired, were regarded as having a right to dispense with the strict requirements of the law on special and extraordinary occasions, and that, as prompted by the Spirit, it was lawful for them to do that which would be most criminal in persons not so authorised. And this authorised departure, when occasion demanded, from the strict requirements of the law could not but operate beneficially on the public mind. The rigid enforcement of every jot and tittle of the law, on ordinary occasions, might eventually—without the presence of a corrective and counteracting influence—have created a sort of idolatry for the mere letter of the law, and of every ritual detail, as in itself a divine thing. But the permitted departures therefrom by the prophets corrected this tendency, by directing attention more to the spiritual essence of these observances—teaching, as Samuel himself expressly declared on one occasion, that “obedience was better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.” The diligent reader of the Scripture is aware that this upholding of the spirit above the mere letter of the ritual service was a peculiar function of the prophets, appearing with more and more distinctness as the time advances, until at last the prophets declare with great plainness of speech that the mere ritual service in all its parts, and the most sacred solemnities prescribed by the law, were, in the nakedness of their literal truth—apart from the spiritual influences which should be connected with them—not only unacceptable to the Lord, but abomination in His sight.—Kitto.
Samuel’s intercession was—
I. The most powerful means of aid. “Prayer moves the arm that moves the universe.” It is the Divinely-appointed means of assistance. It has the promises which are “exceeding great and precious” attached to it.
II. It was a prayer in which they all had a believing interest.… Many hearts united in one exercise. This gives public prayer a wondrous power.
III. It was prayer to their covenant God. They had just renewed their covenant with God, and accepted Him as theirs. “Cry unto our God for us.” They knew to whom they addressed their cry. It was to no unknown God or imaginary Deity.
IV. It was prayer for a definite object. They specified their want—“that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines” (1 Samuel 7:8). Too many pray in a way so general as to exhibit little interest in what they ask. But Israel had a particular danger, hence they had a particular request. Their prayer arose from a felt necessity.… Prayer should have a fixed, definite object. You should know what you want, and let your felt want urge your earnest cry.
V. It was offered by a sacrifice.… The sinful can have no claim upon the Holy, nor can they approach without mediation. Hence a system of mediation was established when mercy was revealed. A mediation and an atonement were prefigured in the old economy.—Steel.
1 Samuel 7:12. What a contrast between the event now recorded at Ebenezer and that recorded as having occurred a few years before at the same place. At that time Israel had the ark with them, the visible sign of God’s presence, but the Lord Himself had forsaken them on account of their sins; and Hophni and Phinehas were with the ark, and they were discomfited with a great slaughter, and the priests were slain with the sword, and the ark of God was taken. Now they have not the ark, but they have repented of their sins, and Samuel is with them; and the Lord hearkens to his prayers, and the Philistines are smitten so that they return no more into the coasts of Israel during the days of Samuel, and Samuel sets up the great stone at Ebenezer. Hence it appears that the outward ordinances of a visible Church are of no avail without holiness in the worshippers, and that in the most distressed condition of the visible Church God can raise up Samuels, and endue them with extraordinary graces, and enable them to do great acts, and give comfort and victory to the Church of God by their means.—Wordsworth.
The stone Ebenezer is a monument of those revelations of the might and the grace of a living God, occasioned by sin and penitence, wandering and return, which are the impelling power in the whole political history of the old covenant.—Lange’s Commentary.
It is of great consequence to cherish lasting and grateful memorials of God’s goodness to us, and of our solemn engagements to him. What God has done is too great to be forgotten, and too gracious to be over looked.
I. Look upward, and see God in your history. We should always trace our mercies direct to the hand of God, since, whatever be the agency, He is the source.
II. Look backward, and remember past help. The text supposes that help was needed, and every Christian knows that his dependence is constant. Mark the long continuance of your mercies. Hitherto may be for forty, fifty, or even sixty years.
III. Look forward. Thou shalt see greater things than these.—Thodey,