the Third Week after Easter
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 2 of 5
1 Samuel 7:2-17
"The time was long; for it was twenty years" (v. 2). For whom is the time long? Not for the people who do not appear to be suffering. Not for Abinadab and his family who are happy to have the ark in their house. But God, who was waiting, counted these as twenty long years.
At last there is a work of conscience in the people and they lament their behaviour. Samuel speaks to them on behalf of the LORD. They must turn away from their idols in order to serve the living and true God (1 Thessalonians 1:9). Israel obeys and Samuel can then speak to the LORD on their behalf.
But the gathering together of God’s people does not suit the enemy. They consider it as provocation. The Philistines advance . . . and the LORD gives Israel the victory. This is His reply to the humbling of a repentant people and His answer to the intercession of a faithful mediator. Eben-ezer – a stone of help: "Hitherto hath the LORD helped us" (v. 12). Can each of us say this with conviction? We should remember those happy experiences which glorify divine grace.
Samuel is to be the last of the judges (Acts 13:20). He fulfilled his duties to the people, but at the same time he remained, through his altar, in communion with the LORD, before whom, even when very young, he had learned to worship (1 Samuel 1:28).
