The Israelites were still under attack from the Philistines. The Ark hadn’t worked the last time they tried to use it as a lucky rabbit’s foot, so all they could do now was cast themselves upon God and trust in Him, appealing to Him on the basis of His grace, not on superstition or magic. Samuel doesn’t seem to have been with the ark when it was foolishly taken into battle, or during the humiliation of the Philistines in the last 2 chapters. But in this chapter, Samuel very much becomes part of the spiritual revival of Israel. The people repented, and the Lord gave them victory over the Philistines. The spiritual things that didn’t happen with the ark happened now without the ark.<\/p>\n
God was correcting the Hebrew perception that the ark was needed for God to work. God can work through anything and anyone. Here He worked through the Word of the Lord, which Samuel spoke and the prayers Samuel offered. God took away Israel\u2019s superstitious security blanket, the ark, and forced them to look elsewhere for security. Samuel told them where to look by calling on the nation to return to the Lord with all their hearts. He sounds very much like Joshua: \u201cPut away your gods . . . Serve the Lord\u201d (Joshua 24:14)! Samuel urged the people to get rid of the foreign idols they were so prone to worship, and they responded by repenting. Then God brought revival to the spiritually dry land.<\/p>\n
The word revival is from Latin, meaning, to live again<\/em> and usually refers to receiving life again after it has almost expired. When a person has been dragged, nearly drowned, from the Pacific surf by lifeguards, CPR methods have been applied to the limp body, and the person has recovered, those watching say, “the surfer’s revived.” Only the Spirit of God can bring spiritual life to a person that is spiritually dead in their sins. But it\u2019s not just the spiritually dead, the lost, that need revival. It\u2019s a painful fact that many in the church today are barely alive spiritually. They are in fact living on life support<\/em>, and are greatly in need of reviving.<\/p>\n “LORD, revive us again and breathe fresh, new life into us, Your dry and weak church.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1 Samuel 7 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0And the men of Kirjath-jearim came, and fetched up the ark of the\u00a0LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the\u00a0LORD.\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the\u00a0LORD. 3<\/sup>\u00a0And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the\u00a0LORD\u00a0with all your hearts,\u00a0then\u00a0<\/em>put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the\u00a0LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the\u00a0LORD\u00a0only.\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the\u00a0LORD.\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>out before the\u00a0LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the\u00a0LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh. 7<\/sup>\u00a0And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>, they were afraid of the Philistines.\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the\u00a0LORD\u00a0our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered\u00a0it for\u00a0<\/em>a burnt offering wholly unto the\u00a0LORD: and Samuel cried unto the\u00a0LORD\u00a0for Israel; and the\u00a0LORD\u00a0heard him.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the\u00a0LORD\u00a0thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until\u00a0they came\u00a0<\/em>under Beth-car.\u00a012<\/sup>\u00a0Then Samuel took a stone, and set\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the\u00a0LORD\u00a0helped us.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel: and the hand of the\u00a0LORD\u00a0was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.\u00a014<\/sup>And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto Gath; and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.\u00a015<\/sup>And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0And he went from year to year in circuit to Beth-el, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places.\u00a0\u00a017<\/sup>And his return\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>to Ramah; for there\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>his house; and there he judged Israel; and there he built an altar unto the\u00a0LORD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Israelites were still under attack from the Philistines. The Ark hadn’t worked the last time they tried to use it as a lucky rabbit’s foot, so all they could do now was cast themselves upon God and trust in Him, appealing to Him on the basis of His grace, not on superstition or magic. 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