Faith, Love & Family
Serve Him Only: What You Do With the Call to Turn
Key Scriptures
3 And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. 4 Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only. 5 And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the LORD. 6 And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.
16 As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, we will not hearken unto thee. 17 But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. 18 But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. 13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Reflection
In 1 Samuel 7 the ark has sat at Kirjathjearim twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD. Samuel gives them no strategy, only a command: “put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only.” They did it. They gathered at Mizpeh, they fasted, and they said plainly, “We have sinned against the LORD.” No excuse. When the Philistines came up, the LORD thundered upon them, and Samuel set a stone in the ground and named it Ebenezer, saying, “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.”
Jeremiah 44 is the same call and the opposite answer. God had sent His prophets, “rising early and sending them,” pleading, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.” The people answered, “we will not hearken unto thee. But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth.” They had made up their minds before the word ever reached them.
Hear their reasoning, because it is ours. “For then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.” They judged the idol by how it made life feel. An idol never asks whether it is true. It asks only whether you were comfortable.
Romans 6 shows where the power to put an idol away actually comes from. Not from resolve. From a death and a resurrection you have been joined to: “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then the promise: “sin shall not have dominion over you.” So yield your members unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.
In Luke 13 the Lord says it twice, “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish,” and then tells of the fig tree spared one more year. Mercy is holding back the axe. Judah heard the call and hardened. Israel heard it and gathered at Mizpeh. Today you will do one or the other.
The same word came to both, and the answer decided everything
- Israel at Mizpeh said, “We have sinned against the LORD,” and God gave them a stone of help; Judah in Egypt said, “we will not hearken,” and God set His face against them.
- Judah defended its idol by comfort — “then had we plenty of victuals” — and comfort is the argument your own sin will use on you today.
- Romans 6 is the answer to both: the believer is not merely told to stop sinning, he is dead with Christ and alive unto God, and therefore sin shall not have dominion over him.
- The word has come to you as surely as it came to them, and there is no third response.
Application
1) Name The Strange God
Samuel did not say repent in general; he said put away Ashtaroth. Name the specific thing you have been serving alongside God, out loud, before Him today.
2) Say It Without Excuse
Israel said only, “We have sinned against the LORD.” Bring no explanation, no comparison to others, no blaming of your circumstances. Confess it plainly and stop there.
3) Refuse The Comfort Argument
Judah kept its idol because life had felt better with it. When your sin whispers that you were happier before you fought it, answer it with truth, not with feeling.
4) Reckon Yourself Dead
Paul does not tell you to try harder; he tells you to reckon what is already true — dead indeed unto sin, alive unto God through Jesus Christ. Preach that to yourself before the temptation comes, not after.
5) Set Up Your Ebenezer
Write down one place God has helped you already. “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us” is not sentiment; it is evidence you will need the next time you are afraid.
Prayer
Father, I have served things beside You and called it living. I confess it now without excuse — I have sinned against You, and I ask You to put away every strange god from my heart. Thank You that in Christ I am not left to my own resolve, but am dead indeed unto sin and alive unto You, and that sin shall not have dominion over me. Keep me from hardening as Judah did, and give me a heart that gathers before You like Israel at Mizpeh. Hitherto You have helped me, and I trust You still. In Jesus name, Amen.
Today’s Reading
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