1 Samuel 7:1-17

Repentance in the heart of man moves the hand of God.  Years have passed since the Ark was captured and Eli died.  Samuel was growing up and judging the land making his rounds and calling the people to return to the Lord.  The people were living in fear of the Philistines and felt powerless while living in the land that the Lord had given them.  These are the consequences of idolatry and immorality but God is faithful to His people and is using His servant Samuel along with the pain of sin to bring the nation back to the Lord.  It is amazing to see the grace of God at work in the nation and so encouraging to see the grace and patience of God because I am constantly in need of this same grace, mercy and patience.  We can observe the steps towards forgiveness being taken within the hearts of the members of the nation of Israel.

REGRET LEADS TO REMORSE: Certainly the consequences of sin brought about regret on the part of the nation.  The regretted the suffering they were experiencing and eventually regretted having been involved in the sin and idolatry that got them to this place.  As they woke up to their reality they became sorrowful about their plight and were sorry for their sins.  The Ark had been returned but was not in its proper place, they were enslaved to a pagan nation and they knew that they had nobody to blame but themselves.  Sorrow over sin is not the solution to the problem, but it is certainly a step in the right direction.  Too many people love their sin and are not in the least bit sorry over their sin.  They are often blind to the consequences that sin is causing.  Others are sorry for the consequences but not over the sin itself.  When God begins working in our hearts He brings us to a point of sorrow over our sin.  As long as we love our sin there is no hope, but when we begin to feel sorrow for our sin we are finally taking a step in the right direction.

REMORSE LEADS TO REPENTANCE: Israel went beyond sorrow and came to the place where they were truly ready to repent.  They called Samuel to come and meet with them and tell them what they could do to return to the Lord and demonstrate that they were ready to turn from their sin to follow Him once again.  Samuel gave them clear instructions that they needed to get rid of all of their idols and reject the life that they had been living up to this point.  They obeyed Samuel and destroyed all of the other gods that they had been worshiping and began to worship only God.  They came together as a nation and dedicated themselves once again as the people of God who were committed to obeying Him and worshiped Him alone.  They fasted and prayed and established Samuel as their leader and representative before God.  This is what God is looking for in the hearts of every man; a disposition to turn from idols and worship Him alone.  God is not interested in simply being added to the list of “gods” that we worship, He insists on exclusivity.

REPENTANCE LEADS TO RESTORATION: When the Philistines heard that Israel had gathered together they knew that war was likely so instead of waiting for Israel to organize they wanted to make a preemptive strike.  When Israel heard of the army advancing they were struck with fear because they remembered the defeat that they had suffered before.  However, everything was different now.  Israel had turned to God and God was with them.  God went to battle against the Philistines and they were soundly defeated.  Samuel commemorated the victory by building an altar of thanksgiving and erecting a stone to mark the fact that the Lord had brought them to this point.  Israel was restored and had rest from the wars that had plagued them.  They were free to worship the Lord and Samuel had a wonderful season of ministry.  God longs to restore all of us to peace and blessing before Him, but He requires repentance from us.