The Ark of God had been returned to Israel (see previous post) and it had been in the town of Kiriath Jearim for twenty years…. but in all this time, the people still never managed to have victory over their enemies, the Philistines. The Philistines had long been a thorn in their flesh and the story of Samson (in the book of Judges) is a sad example of how one leader after another failed to lead the people into victory.
Enter the prophet Samuel, who sees that the people are crying out to God but not seeing any breakthrough as a result of their prayers. Samuel says to them, "If you're really serious about returning to God with all of your hearts, you need to get rid of all the idols that you have put in God's place. Serve God and God alone…. and you'll be amazed to see how He'll deliver you from the enemies that are oppressing you."
And the people take Samuel's words to heart. They get rid of all their false gods and, as they gather at Mizpah, they confess, "We have sinned against the Lord."
(1 Samuel 7: 6)
This simple acknowledgement of personal responsibility, and the actions they took to put things right, are what made all the difference. As the people re-aligned themselves with God's ways, they were amazed to see how He intervened on their behalf and gave them victory over their enemies. After decades of struggling with the Philistine problem, there was a spectacular breakthrough and we read that the Philistines stopped invading Israel's territory. Throughout the rest of Samuel's lifetime, there was no further problem with the Philistines.
It can be easy for us to make the same mistake as the Israelites. We keep praying to God to give us victory over something that has us in its grip: perhaps a bad habit, a critical spirit, a tendency to worry, a lack of self discipline, a bad temper…. And we don't do the one thing that makes all the difference: recognise and acknowledge that what we're doing is actually sin and that victory can never come until we confess and get rid of it.
In the leadership development course, we consider a topic that we call "signature sin." The idea is that each of us has a particular type of sin that will tend to be our personal challenge: something that is so linked to our personality, that it seems to be an integral part of who we are. For some of us it may be impatience; for others it may be greed or worry or stubbornness… If we dismiss our tendencies as being "not too bad" or excuse them as being "just who I am," we will end up learning to live with them, and probably never have victory over them.
It's only when we're ruthless in looking at our own lives and courageous in calling a spade a spade (or a sin a sin) that we can see the kind of breakthrough and lasting change these people experienced in 1st Samuel chapter 7. Lord, grant us that kind of insight and courage in 2014!
