Author: Lisa Groen
Today we will look briefly at one account of God’s people returning to the Lord with all their heart and how fasting is involved in this process, and have a prayer in response. Thursday we will cover Joel 2.
1Samuel 7:3-6 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the Lord with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” 4 So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone. 5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you.” 6 They gathered to Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.”
In previous places in 1 Samuel, we can determine why Samuel gave the admonition for God’s people to return to the Lord with all their heart. There was a CONSEQUENCE for Israel if they did NOT return to the Lord with all their hearts. The consequences of staying where they were at “in their hearts” was to suffer the pain of the current broken social and military position Israel had amidst other persecuting nations. In 1st Samuel this meant the Philistines would continue to be attack, harass, abuse, and control the Israelites in various ways.
A first step God gave his people as to how they were to return to the Lord with all their heart, was to “remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone”. Once Samuel spoke to them about the false gods in verse 3, they removed them in verse 4. Now that some outer obstacles were dealt with, they were ready to work on a change in their “inner life” in order to be able to follow the command to “return to the Lord with all your hearts”. When their hearts were occupied with other gods, they were not admitting their sins to God. But by verse 6, they began admitting “We have sinned against the Lord.” (highlighted for reference) It took Samuel to point out their sin with a promise of hope in verse 3, and so their sin became a problem to them, and their sin became real to them. Perhaps they were realizing for the first time that it was their sin that had opened the door for the Philistines to constantly attack them over many years. When their sin became real to them in verse 6, they confessed their sin. If they had previously been aware of their sin, would some have confessed it already? But not until verse 6 does it mention they confessed their sin, and they undergo some great healing as a nation by God giving them great deliverance. God was responding to their change of heart, and Proverbs 28:13 was coming true for them: He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. As Israel was embracing their whole-heartedness in turning away from their sin, they fasted in verse 6 with true genuineness, because they were finally telling the truth about their sin, and finally their hearts were becoming fully engaged in fasting/mourning for their sins as they were serving God.
Verses 10-14 describe the multi-layered victory God gave them: God gave the Israelites victory against the Philistines as long as Samuel was alive, God struck the Philistines down, the Israelites recovered all the cities which the Philistines had taken, the Philistines stayed outside the borders of Israel, and Israel had peace.
Lord, as we consider the importance of fasting through many Bible examples, may we also engage our hearts in fully serving you. May we receive your direction for how to wholeheartedly serve you and do the physical work of getting rid of false gods or false loves of any kind in our life and see them for what they are—these types of things CAN open the door for the enemy to harass, attack and “invade” certain areas of our lives. We know that not every attack is due to some sin or false god in our lives, and not every hardship is a result of some sin or false god. We also know you promised that in this world we would have tribulation, and we often see lots of it, but you promised that we could be of good cheer because you have overcome the world. May we not get into speculation of why problems exist in our lives and not be prone to condemnation, but may we also as we pray for success, protection, grace for living out our Christianity, our ministries, and depend on your discernment for success. But may we also remember how right it is to weigh out honestly in our minds that famous John Calvin quote, that “The human heart is an idol factory, churning out new idols like the conveyor belt in a manufacturing plant rolling out new widgets.” May we take warning, and may you grant us good solid discernment to know if we have any sins that we are blind to that we need to repent of that may be weakening us, and may it only be from your discernment that we follow and perceive our condition. May we follow truth and have clear vision. May we mourn and grieve appropriately for our sins, and by grace forsake them and find mercy. And as we do so, may we keep the victories of 1 Samuel 7 before our minds, that you are the God who desires truth in the inner man, and you are the God who gives us a love for the truth and will cause us to truly hate any false gods we might have once loved. May we worship you singularly, and with joy wholeheartedly, and see fasting is a strategic tool of mercy that can strengthen us and sharpen us in our renouncing sin, and in turning from it and in our pursuit of you and in our living for you and living out our love for you. May you through the process that you need to take us, grant us recovery of any parts of our lives, our homes, or of the places we trod, or that we work, that have been harassed or broken into by the enemy, to us and to our loved ones, that you would restore them to us, and dedicate them afresh to you, and allow that the promise that we would live in peaceful dwelling places as in Isaiah 32:18 be granted. May you grant us that we would keep our hearts devoted to you and forever raptured by your goodness, your grace, your strength, your mercy, truth, and love, and, all the more as we see the day approaching. I pray this in your great name dear Lord, Amen!
Keep growing in the Word! LG
groenintheword.blog 