Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2220
“Audit 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 Lord. And Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, If you return to the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from amongyou, andprepare your hearts for the Lord, and serve Him only: and He will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only. And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray to the Lord for you.” 1 Samuel 7:2-5.
Two enemies held Israel in subjection. The Philistines had fought against them and defeated them, even though they sent to Shiloh and brought the Ark of the Covenant, the symbol of Jehovah’s Presence, into their camp. The Lord was not with them, so they were smitten with a great slaughter. The crowning disaster of the day was “the Ark of God was taken.” The Philistines carried it away to Ashdod and set it in the house of Dagon, their idol. You remember how God, jealous for His honor and Glory, worked mighty wonders, causing Dagon to fall and inflicting punishment on every city where the ark came, until, at last, the Philistines, wearied with their trials, sent the Ark back to the people on whose behalf Jehovah had shown Himself so strong. Twenty years the Ark abode at Kirjath Jearim and, during all that time, Israel was under the hand of the Philistines.
But a worse enemy than the Philistines held sway over the land. Though the Ark had returned, the people had gone away from their God and had set up the abominable worship of Baal and Astarte, the idols of the Phoenicians and other heathen nations by whom they were surrounded. I will not stay to explain to you about these gods. Suffice it to say that the Baalim were the male gods and the Ashtaroth the female—and that worship of these idols was attended with great lewdness and filthiness—in fact, the holy things of Baal and Astarte we would call obscene and degrading. The people were thus in double bondage. The heavy yoke of the Philistines was upon them because the heavier burden of a false worship crushed out the life of their hearts.
It may very naturally be asked, “Where was Samuel all that time?” I know not what he was doing during those 20 years, but I have a suspicion. I will say I have a firm persuasion that he was going from place to place, preaching in quiet spots wherever he could gather an audience, warning the people of their sin and stirring them up to seek Jehovah, thus endeavoring to infuse some spirituality into their national life. But “the time was long.” He plowed and seemed to plow a rock. For 20 years the good man spoke. For 20 years he acted like a battering ram upon a wall that did not seem to tremble beneath his strokes. For 20 years he went up and down, fleeing for his life from the Philistines, but venturing out, whenever he had an opportunity, to warn a household or a village group, or, perhaps, a township, that they could only be delivered from the Philistines by seeking God—that they had come into their present evil case by forsaking Jehovah and, that, unless they came back to the worship of the only true God, they would never again have their liberties.
“The time was long,” very long, for him to keep on speaking, warning a people who did not seem to care for his message. But constant dripping wears away stones and, at last, the inert mass against which he had battered began to move and there arose a general feeling of enquiry all over the country—“all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” Then was Samuel’s time to strike, while the iron was hot! He had spent 20 years in getting it hot and he did not miss the opportunity when, at last, it came! He pleaded with the people and plainly showed them the only way in which they could expect help—namely, by putting away their false gods and returning with prepared hearts to the service of Jehovah.
That the continual prayers and efforts of Samuel were crowned with success should encourage all those who, in days of unfaithfulness and apostasy, still lift up their voices for the Truth of God! Keep pegging away, my Brothers, though the people may seem to be indifferent to your message, or stiffen their necks against it. Do not give up though in the service of the base idols they seem wholly to forget God! The Lord will yet arise in His own good time and His cause shall triumph! Prepare a way for Him, of whom it is written, “Your people shall be willing in the day of Your power.” Now, I believe that my case, with regard to some to whom I am speaking, is something like that of Samuel. I have, at least, the same message to deliver.
I hope to be able to make this plain by showing you, first, that these people were in a very hopeful condition. That, secondly, they were called upon to take very decided steps. And, thirdly, that they were helped to do so by faith. True, it was faith in Samuel—and you get much more help if you have faith in a greater than Samuel who is still here among us, even our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!