Longing for God

Hello:

Today our text reveals to us what happened to the ark of God as it was released from the camp of Bethshemesh.   Here is the story.

I Samuel 7:1 So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord. They took it to Abinadab’s house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord. 2 It was a long time, twenty years in all, that the ark remained at Kiriath Jearim, and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord.

3 And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “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.” 4 So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only. 5 Then Samuel said, “Assemble all Israel at Mizpah and I will intercede with the Lord for you.” 6 When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel was leader of Israel at Mizpah.

7 When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. And when the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. 8 They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” 9 Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it up as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him. 10 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. 11 The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car. 12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the Lord helped us.”

13 So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again. Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. 14 The towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to her, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the power of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites. 15 Samuel continued as judge over Israel all the days of his life. 16 From year to year he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places. 17 But he always went back to Ramah, where his home was, and there he also judged Israel. And he built an altar there to the Lord.

As you can see in our text, the men of Kiriath Jearim came to pick up the ark from the camp of Bethshemesh and brought it to the house of Abinabib and there it stayed for 20 years.  They consecrated   his son Eleazar to keep guard of it.  Samuel became the judge of Israel yet while the ark was away from the Israelites camp, the people worshipped other gods and the Philistines continued to plague them.   The Israelites however mourned and longed for the presence of God.

One thing I have found out in this journey called life is that once you have been exposed to the things of God, there is absolutely nothing that can satisfy you as the presence of our God.   We may go through our seasons of sin and controversy but sooner or later, there will be a longing in us that will become so desperate for the things of God and the purity of holiness and companionship  with God that our very inner beings will mourn to be back in fellowship with God.  Once you have tasted of God, I feel that it is impossible to find anything on this earth that you give you the type of satisfaction that living for God can.

So the day came that the people mourned and longed after God and Samuel advised them that if they are returning to the Lord then they must put away the foreign Gods and the Ashoreths and serve God only with “all their hearts”.   Ashoreth is the Phoenician name of the primitive Semitic mother goddess.  She was considered to be the female counterpart of the God Baal and was worshipped as a goddess of fertility and sexual love. 

A return to God constitutes a change.  If we are serious about lining our lives up with God then we must do a self-evaluation and be honest about the things in our lives that we need to let go and make a commitment to serve him with all of our hearts.   Our hearts cannot be divided and distracted with other issues and other things which we have made more important than God.

Samuel instructs them that if they would do this then God would deliver them out of the hands of their enemy the Philistines.  We are so close to our deliverance.  It is in our hands.   We control when we get free of something.  As long as you allow it to hinder you and depress you then it will but as soon as you make up your mind that you want to be free then you will.

One of the first steps to get rid of depression is self talk.  You must encourage yourself.   Change all the negative thinking and negative talking into positive statements and then eventually your actions will become healthy and positive steps.  

The children of Israel put away their Gods and return to worship of God alone and Samuel interceded for them and as the story reveals, the Lord did deliver them from the hand of their enemy.

How long do you want to be sad and depressed and stagnated in your life?  You really are in control.   I am speaking from experience.  I suffered with depression for over 15 years and it had become such a part of my life that I was a functional depressant.  I would do what I had to do just to get through the day but at night, I would cry myself to sleep and shut down as soon as I would get behind closed doors and isolate myself from people and just eat.  

I would pray and ask God to get me out of this state or season that I was in but would not make any efforts to move beyond it myself.  I was waiting on a miracle without understanding that it was me and only me that had empowered the state that I was in.  I blamed everyone else and made excuses as to why I was like I was and in my mind, I felt like I desired to be like this for my life had become quite difficult  and of course my past was always to blame.

Well, to make a long story short.  There was no miracle from heaven.   It was a conscious decision to get up and begin to move my life forward and thank God I did.  

Well, enough for today but I would like to close with the part of the text that states that after the enemy was destroyed, Samuel put up a stone in that place and called it Ebenezer meaning: “thus far the Lord has helped us.”  That is my testimony.   Thus far, the Lord has helped me.  

Stay encouraged and don’t forget to pray and read God’s word daily.

This entry was posted on 21. May 2009 at 11:01 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.