(3) The strange gods.--The strange gods are in 1 Samuel 7:4 described as "Baalim." This plural form of Baal refers to the numerous images of Baal which existed, as does the plural form Ashtaroth to those of the female goddess Astarte. They were both favourite Ph?nician deities, known under the familiar names of Baal, Bil, Bel, and Ashtaroth, Astarte, Istar. They represented the productive power of nature, and were generally worshipped throughout the East, usually with a wild and wanton worship.
Prepare your hearts.--It was, indeed, a desperate venture seemingly, this, to which the prophet summoned unarmed and undisciplined Israel. They were then completely at the mercy of their long victorious foes, who held the chief fortified places in the country with their garrisons; and Samuel challenged Israel to bid defiance to the most cherished institutions of their oppressors, bade them, if they loved the Eternal, to turn aside from reverencing what Philistia held to be sacred and all-powerful. He knew well that what he urged upon the people would at once provoke what appeared to be a dangerous and most unequal contest. If defeated, then Israel would bring upon their devoted heads utter misery, and a ruin hitherto undreamed of even in their unhappy land. Had they courage and faith to plunge unarmed, undisciplined, into so perilous a contest? For twenty years the great patriot-statesman had laboured for this end. He had succeeded at last in opening the eyes of Israel to see the real cause of their misfortunes. He had made them as a nation hunger for the lost presence of the Eternal, who had loved them in past days with so great a love; and now, after twenty long slow years, was his work done at last? They sorrowed indeed for their national sins; but had they faith and courage, all unarmed as they were, to rise against the powerful enemies of purity and God?
Verse 3. - If ye do return, etc. At length everything was ripe for a change, and the reformation wrought privately in their hearts was followed by public action. Samuel's secret addresses had no doubt been watched with anger by the Philistines, but he now ventures upon open resistance; for this public summons to Israel to put away its idols by a national act was a summons also to an uprise against foreign domination. We must suppose that the people had often assured Samuel in his wanderings of the reality of their repentance, and of their readiness to stake everything upon the issue of war. As a statesman, he now judges that the time has come, and convenes a national assembly. But everything would depend upon their earnestness. They were virtually unarmed; they would have to deal with an enemy long victorious, and who held the most important posts in their country with garrisons. Terrible suffering would follow upon defeat. Was their faith strong enough, their courage desperate enough, for so fearful a risk? Especially as Samuel is never described to us as a warrior or military hero. He could inspire no confidence as a general. He himself makes everything depend upon theft faith, and all he can promise is, "I will pray for you unto Jehovah" (ver. 5).
7:1-4 God will find a resting-place for his ark; if some thrust it from them, the hearts of others shall be inclined to receive it. It is no new thing for God's ark to be in a private house. Christ and his apostles preached from house to house, when they could not have public places. Twenty years passed before the house of Israel cared for the want of the ark. During this time the prophet Samuel laboured to revive true religion. The few words used are very expressive; and this was one of the most effectual revivals of religion which ever took place in Israel.
And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel,.... When they assembled at one of their three yearly feasts, or as he went from place to place, exhorting them to repentance and reformation; and perceiving they began to be awakened to a sense of their sins, and seemed desirous of returning to God, and restoring his worship:
saying, if ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts; truly and sincerely; for he might fear there was hypocrisy and dissimulation at least in some of them:
then put away the strange gods; as all but the true God are; or the gods of another people, as the Philistines, Canaanites, &c. Baalim seem chiefly intended, as appears from the following verse:
and Ashtaroth from among you; female deities, such as with other nations went by the name of Juno, Venus, &c. so the Arabic version,"the idols of the women ye secretly worship.''Aquila renders it, "the images of Astarte"; so they call Venus as Procopius Gazaeus observes, from "aster", a star; but the word signifies flocks of sheep, and these deities are supposed by some to be in the form of them; but be they what they may, they were to be put away out of their houses, and out of their hearts:
and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only; that is, direct your hearts to him while in his service; let it proceed from the heart, and let it be done to him only, and not to another with him; or to him in and by another, as may be pretended, and commonly is by idolaters:
and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines; under whose dominion they had been for many years; for though their power over them was weakened by Samson, yet they were not completely delivered by him; so all the time of Eli they were not wholly free from them; and especially since their last defeat by them; when the ark was taken, they had been under oppression by them; now Samuel promises them deliverance from it, in case they relinquish their idols, and served the Lord solely and heartily.
Prepare your hearts.--It was, indeed, a desperate venture seemingly, this, to which the prophet summoned unarmed and undisciplined Israel. They were then completely at the mercy of their long victorious foes, who held the chief fortified places in the country with their garrisons; and Samuel challenged Israel to bid defiance to the most cherished institutions of their oppressors, bade them, if they loved the Eternal, to turn aside from reverencing what Philistia held to be sacred and all-powerful. He knew well that what he urged upon the people would at once provoke what appeared to be a dangerous and most unequal contest. If defeated, then Israel would bring upon their devoted heads utter misery, and a ruin hitherto undreamed of even in their unhappy land. Had they courage and faith to plunge unarmed, undisciplined, into so perilous a contest? For twenty years the great patriot-statesman had laboured for this end. He had succeeded at last in opening the eyes of Israel to see the real cause of their misfortunes. He had made them as a nation hunger for the lost presence of the Eternal, who had loved them in past days with so great a love; and now, after twenty long slow years, was his work done at last? They sorrowed indeed for their national sins; but had they faith and courage, all unarmed as they were, to rise against the powerful enemies of purity and God?
saying, if ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts; truly and sincerely; for he might fear there was hypocrisy and dissimulation at least in some of them:
then put away the strange gods; as all but the true God are; or the gods of another people, as the Philistines, Canaanites, &c. Baalim seem chiefly intended, as appears from the following verse:
and Ashtaroth from among you; female deities, such as with other nations went by the name of Juno, Venus, &c. so the Arabic version,"the idols of the women ye secretly worship.''Aquila renders it, "the images of Astarte"; so they call Venus as Procopius Gazaeus observes, from "aster", a star; but the word signifies flocks of sheep, and these deities are supposed by some to be in the form of them; but be they what they may, they were to be put away out of their houses, and out of their hearts:
and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only; that is, direct your hearts to him while in his service; let it proceed from the heart, and let it be done to him only, and not to another with him; or to him in and by another, as may be pretended, and commonly is by idolaters:
and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines; under whose dominion they had been for many years; for though their power over them was weakened by Samson, yet they were not completely delivered by him; so all the time of Eli they were not wholly free from them; and especially since their last defeat by them; when the ark was taken, they had been under oppression by them; now Samuel promises them deliverance from it, in case they relinquish their idols, and served the Lord solely and heartily.