1 Samuel, Chapter 7 - The Power of Return | Prophets of Israel Daily

[music] >> Shalom friends, welcome to the Prophets of Israel daily. My name is Jeremy [music] Gimpel. I'm here with Ari Abramowitz. This is 1 Samuel chapter 7 and this series is brought to you by the Land of Israel Network at the landofisrael.com. All right, so last chapter the Ark of the Covenant made its way back into the hands of Israel in Kiriath Jearim. 20 years. That's how long the Ark sat in Kiriath Jearim, parked, waiting. And after everything that had happened with the Philistines, after Dagon fell, the hemorrhoids, the death, the 7 months of catastrophe, the Philistines sent the Ark back, Israel received it, and then uh nothing. No one wanted to touch it. No one wanted to move it. It sat there for 20 years. And then the text tells us something really interesting about the process Israel went through, but you can really only see it in the Hebrew. This is verse two. And so it was that the Ark remained in Kiriath Jearim for a long time. It was there for 20 years. And all the house of Israel lamented after Hashem. So the word in Hebrew Vayigachu has several interpretations. The popular translation is that they mourned, they lamented. They felt the distance. They felt something was missing. It's Where is the Tabernacle? It's in Kiriath Jearim. The Ark was back but not in Shiloh. So the relationship it was like seemingly damaged. And so, you know, they heard what happened. No one wanted to touch it because they might get hemorrhoids or die. No one wanted to look at it. So what else could they do but mourn? But Rashi and the Radak say it doesn't just mean lamented. It means turning toward, following. They turned back after God. Saying that after the people were repenting, they were directing themselves back to God and not just mourning. But what makes that word so beautiful is that all the interpretations point to the same spiritual reality from different angles. I mean, after 20 years of the ark sitting in Kiryat Yearim unattended, seemingly forgotten, the entire nation of Israel, they experienced this interior internal movement. It's grief, longing, turning, awakening, and the word captures that whole complex of feelings in a deliberately ambiguous word because it's trying to capture a lot. And it's essentially the emotional and spiritual precondition for the natural national repentance that we're about to see. And so, that's the spiritual posture that sets the stage for Shmuel, and we then see him in his first act as a judge and leader of Israel. >> And what I love about this moment is that it shows something about Samuel, that he really understands the people, that he really loves the people. He doesn't wait for a crisis to call Israel back. There's no enemy invasion yet, no military disaster. The nation is simply like dormant or hollow. Um that's not the word, but uh something like that, you know? And and Samuel looks at it and and refuses to accept this sort of hollowish state that they're in. He refuses to accept it. He says, "This is not who we are. This is not what we were made for." And that's the the rarest kind of leader, not someone who just reacts to catastrophe, that's most leaders, but someone who sees the drift before the fall and names it clearly and refuses to let the nation sleepwalk towards the edge. Israel had the the ark back, you know, on paper, things were fine. Samuel saw the fine for what it really was, which was really not fine at all. >> Yeah. And so, this is really when Shmuel comes onto the scene as a leader, and he addresses the entire house of Israel. He's not just a judge of one tribe, he commands the respect of the entire nation, and what he says goes right to the heart of it and speaks to the nation that's been beaten down by the Philistines. They're confused and they're really longing for clarity and he brings it. Look at verse three. If you return to Hashem with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths from among you and prepare your hearts for the Lord and serve him only and he will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines. Return to Hashem with all your hearts, get rid of the idols in your life and stop hedging your bets. Prepare your hearts for Hashem and serve him only. So, he doesn't talk here about observance. He talks about the heart and he talks about total commitment. That's the foundation. A committed heart and Shmuel is the leader. He's a judge. He's a prophet. He's the commander-in-chief of the military and he captivates the nation. Look at verse four. So, the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Asheroth and served the Lord only. Just like that. They listened and they acted and I don't want to rush past that because this is a rare occurrence in the Bible. A prophet speaks, the people hear and they respond completely. No argument, no delay. They're not like half measures, they are all in. They put away their idols and they serve Hashem only. A national revival, a national revolution. It's one of the reasons that Samuel is counted among the greatest leaders in all of history because the nation really listens to it. >> Right. Right. He wasn't just one of the greatest prophets, one of the greatest leaders. You know, cuz like let's think about what that really meant. The Baals and the Asheroth weren't random superstitions. They were the gods of rain and harvest and economic success. The gods of the things that actually matter when you're trying to feed your family and survive, right? Worshiping them was the ancient equivalent of keeping Hashem in the synagogue and Baal in the marketplace, right? Two tracks, two loyalties. Cover your bases. And what Samuel is demanding and what Israel actually delivers is the end of the double life. No more hedging, no more divided loyalty. Serve Hashem only. Serve Hashem alone. That is not a small ask. And it seems like it should be, but historically, and especially at the time we can't judge, they were living in a different world then, but it's not a small ask and the fact that they did it completely without argument or delay tells you something about what the 20 years of longing had done to this nation. You know, and what type of leader Samuel was. They were ready. The challenges that they went through, that had done its work on them. >> It's true. And then Shmuel takes it to the next level. He calls all of Israel to Mitspah. And what happens at Mitspah is really beautiful and it's truly unusual in this national gathering. They don't gather to fight or strategize. They draw water and pour it out before Hashem. They fast and they confess and they do teshuvah. Look at verse six. So they gathered together at Mitspah, drew water and poured it out before the Lord. And they fasted that day and said, "There, we have sinned against the Lord." Like that's it. They're not, you know, going through any sort of elaborate liturgy, not a great speech, just being honest. The nation stands before God and names what is true. We have sinned. We got it wrong. We wandered. We're here now before you. And they're saying it. And then drawing and pouring water, that's really special. It's the only time in Tanakh that the nation of Israel draws and pours out water in a national worship outside of the temple. It's something that commentators really wrestled with for centuries. And some say that it represents the pouring out of the heart like water, just formless, total, held back, nothing held back, just giving it all out. And others say it was symbolic of their tears. It was uh symbolic of the nullification of themselves before God. Water goes to the lowest areas always. And some say it was a hint of the water libations that will one day be celebrated in a future temple in Jerusalem. And of course, that was the most joyous of times. So, it's really unique and I think maybe somehow it expresses all of those emotions and all of those feelings together. But either way, the image is beautiful. I mean, a whole nation gathered together emptying themselves out before Hashem. >> Yeah, Jeremy, if I could tell you what moves me about Mizpah, it's not just what you said, but it's also the sequence. There's really beauty to that. First, they put away the idols. That's the That's the action. Then they pour out water and confess, and that's the heart. Samuel understood something that every great leader in Tanakh understands. Outward change without inward transformation is just rearranging the furniture, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, as I like to say. You can remove the idols from your home and keep them fully intact in your heart. Real return requires both, the action and the confession, the hands and the soul. And I think that's why the water image is so perfect. Water has no shape of its own. It takes the shape of whatever holds it. To pour it out is to say, "I am holding nothing back. I'm releasing my grip on the form that I've been insisting to hold on to, my control, my ego. I'm letting it go. Here I am. I'm letting it all go, Hashem, all of it. It's It's yours." >> You know, it's interesting. This like height and spiritual moment, the Philistines hear that Israel has gathered at Mizpah, all of them, and they see an opportunity. Look at verse seven. "Now, when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel had gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines." And, you know, here it is. To test. Israel has just done teshuvah. They've returned to Hashem. They've fasted. They've confessed. They've put away their idols. They're worshipping God with a complete heart, pouring themselves out. And immediately the enemy arrives. And it's as if the return itself, it's almost like provoked this response. And Israel's afraid. They're just being natural, you know, they're just being real. They feel it, and they go straight to Samuel with it in verse 8. "Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines." And in that verse, we can actually see a transformation that's happened within the nations. Last time the Philistines came, Israel ran out to meet them carrying the ark like a lucky charm, trusting in the object rather than God himself. And now, in the face of the same enemy, they turn to prayer. They ask their prophet to intercede and reach out to God on their behalf. And so, Shmuel takes a young lamb and offers it as a burnt offering, and he cries out to Hashem. And it says that Hashem answers, verse 10. "But the Lord thundered with a great noise on that day against the Philistines and confused them, and they were struck down before Israel." And so, just like Moses, he like went up on a mountain, and instead of holding his hands up high, he offers a sacrifice as the leader of the military, telling them to go into action. And the Philistines, who have iron chariots, who have a professional army, who have the military advantage by every human measure, they're routed by noise and confusion. I mean, Israel pursues them and strikes them down, and it's a complete reversal of everything that came before. >> Yeah, and I wanted just let's think about that thunder for a second, Jeremy, because the Philistines had devastated Israel before on the same ground, with the same soldiers, against the same enemy. 30,000 dead, the ark taken. By every military measure, nothing has changed. Israel hasn't acquired iron chariots, they haven't trained a new army. The Philistines are the same Philistines, and yet, they're fleeing in panic from a sound in the sky. The only variable is what happened at Mitzpah. A nation that emptied itself out before Hashem, confessed what was true, and put away the things that had been hiding in their hearts and in their homes and left that all behind. That single interior change brought heaven into the battle. And I think that's the deepest military lesson in the book of Samuel. The outcome on the ground is often determined by something that happened in the heart long before the sword was even ever drawn. >> You know, and after the victory Shmuel does something wonderful. You know, he doesn't just he like sings in his own way just like his mother. Samuel takes a stone and sets it up between Mizpah and Shen. And he names it verse 12. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer saying, "Till now the Lord has helped us." Eben-Ezer, the stone of help. And now if that name sounds familiar it should. It's the same name as the place where Israel was crushed by the Philistines back in chapter 4. Ebenezer was the site of the greatest defeat in the book. 30,000 men died. The ark was captured. Eli died. Ichabod, Hophni and Phinehas and Shmuel then plants a stone there of memory, calls it the same name. It doesn't erase the defeat, but it redeems it. It's to say, "This place was once the site of our greatest failure and now it's the site of our greatest return. The Lord helped us here until now and he's helped us." >> Yeah, this is it's such a Jewish idea. You know, we don't erase our failures. We don't pretend the dark chapters didn't happen. On the contrary, we carry them. And then we plant something new in the same soil. Eben-Ezer, the defeat becomes Eben-Ezer, the deliverance. The same ground that held Israel's worst moment now holds its stone of memory and gratitude. That's not the now, that's redemption. That is what redemption is. That's the Torah saying, "No place is so broken that God cannot transform it. No history is so dark that he cannot write something new in the same location." And I think about Israel today. We have our own Eben-Ezers, places and moments of catastrophic defeat that we carry in our national memory forever. Forever, October 7th, you know, the the years of terror, the moments when the enemy seemed to have the upper hand completely. And Samuel's teaching us, don't just survive those moments, mark them, name them, because the God who brought us through those moments is the same God who will bring us to victory. The same God who watched over us in the valleys of blood and fire is the God who will one day establish our Ebenezer in this generation as well. The stone upon which future generations will stand and say, "Till now Hashem has helped us." And and I personally believe that one day when our children look back on this era, they will not only remember the pain and terror of these years, but they'll recognize them as the birth pangs of redemption, the dark soil from which the light of Israel's deliverance began to grow. >> I really hope so. I really believe that our children are really living as like the transitional generation, and they're going to remember this time as the turning point. And so, the chapter ends here with this ideal vision of Samuel, the prophet, the judge, the leader of the entire nation. And so, the Philistines are subdued, the cities they had taken from Israel are restored. There's peace in the land, and Samuel judges Israel all the days of his life, traveling a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah year after year, bringing justice and Torah to every corner of the nation. And he builds an altar in his home in Ramah, showing that his personal home, it's a home that's dedicated to serving God truly. And so, the chapter ends in this just ideal fashion, just a judge walking the land, serving faithfully year after year. And I think that's deliberate, because chapter 7 is when we first see Shmuel, the leader of Israel, and it ends with him doing exactly what a good leader should do, serving the people. And without even knowing it, he's really setting an example for the future king of Israel. And so may that future king, our future king, come soon. Hazak u'barukh my friends. Bezrat Hashem, we'll see you tomorrow for Samuel chapter 8 when Israel asks for something that just about changes the trajectory of history. And that's when they ask for a king. And so friends, I know you've heard about the fellowship because I speak about it in almost every chapter, but people from the Prophets of Israel Daily keep on joining the movement and our family keeps on growing. So I want to invite you to join us live every Sunday and experience something like nothing else on Earth. So I hope to see you there. Come to the landofisrael.com and you can sign up. Shalom my friends. See you tomorrow. >> [music] >> Amen.