1 Samuel 7:2-17
So Samuel said to all the Israelites, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.
On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” Now Samuel was serving as leader of Israel at Mizpah.
While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
So the Philistines were subdued and they stopped invading Israel’s territory. Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.
Twenty years pass, and there is a genuine turning to God in national revival. The images of Baal and Ashtoreth, the Canaanite fertility gods, are destroyed. And Samuel, judge and religious leader in Eli's place, leads the nation in an act of repentance and cleansing.
Immediately test comes. The Philistines are advancing, and God uses the occasion to show Israel just what hew ill do for a people who keep faith with him. Israel is needed only for the mopping-up operation. The name of the place of a former defeat is chosen to mark the present victory. It is God's help which makes such a dramatic reversal possible.
Why?
Samuel is a real servant of the Lord, he led Isrealites to returned their heart to the Lord.
Return to the Lord first confesses his sins. Restoration is started from confessing their sins.
The testing is coming when Philistines come to attack Israelite, but Samul relying on the Lord, so Samuel mark a stone named "Thus far the Lord has helped us.
How?\
God has helped us, so as God has helped me either. Give honor to the Lord.
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