Repentance and God’s Mercy - 1 Samuel 7:3-17
There have been several scandals in evangelicalism over the last few years with pastors getting caught in doing a variety of inappropriate things. And more often than not, these situations seem to be handled like a PR crisis. It feels like churches and pastors are only willing to say what is necessary to try to get things back to the way they were.
We get a lot of secular language about “unhealthy practices,” “inappropriate relationships” and “public apologies.” What we don’t typically get are clear statements about sin and repentance.
Repentance is one of those things that seems to have fallen out of fashion in our evangelical world. We don’t like to talk about it, because repentance is acknowledging and rejecting your sin, asking for forgiveness, and seeking to live in such a way where you don’t give into it again. Repentance is difficult, but it’s glorious.
The great puritan writer, Thomas Watson actually wrote a short book called The Doctrine of Repentance. In it he wrote:
“When a spring of repentance is open in the heart, a spring of mercy is open in heaven.” What wonderful words?
And of course, that connection is if you truly repent of your sin, and turn to Jesus, you will experience the grace, mercy, and forgiveness of the Lord. There is a direct correlation between repentance and mercy.
Which is precisely what happened in our passage: the people of Israel truly repented and then they experienced the mercy of God. Our passage breaks down into three parts: first we see true repentance (vv. 3-4), then God’s mercy (vv. 5-11). Of course, it’s always a wonderful thing to experience God’s mercy, but it’s also vital that we remember God’s mercy (vv. 12-17).
It’s always very important that we remember where we are in the book of 1 Samuel. The ark of the covenant had returned to the people of Israel, after the Lord had single-handedly defeated the Philistines. Remember, the Philistines had defeated the people of Israel in back-to-back battles and captured the ark of the covenant as a token of their victory. But then the Lord afflicted them with diseases so they decided to return the ark of the covenant to the people of Israel.
And the ark’s return was celebrated among the people of Israel, however, the celebration was short-lived. Because the Lord struck down seventy men among the people of Israel for treating the ark flippantly and irreverently. So the people of Israel sent the ark to Gibeonite city of Kiriath-jearim, where it was stored at Abinab’s house and faithfully cared for by his son Eleazar.
Perhaps you remember where last week’s text ended: verse 2 says that, “all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.”
True Repentance (vv. 3-6)
The people of Israel were lamenting after the Lord and it’s with that backdrop, Samuel, suddenly reappeared.
Interestingly, this is the first time we’ve seen Samuel since chapter 4. He disappeared for several chapters and then reappeared in chapter 7.
And Samuel has a particular message for the people of Israel:
“If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”
Remember, they were lamenting after the Lord. So Samuel’s encouragement to them was to return to the Lord with all their heart.
It’s wonderful advice isn’t it? It’s great church advice. Return to the Lord with all your heart. He’s calling them to take the first commandment seriously - to have no other gods before the Lord. A comment like that will definitely get you a hearty amen from someone.
But the chorus of amens probably stop once Samuel went from vague and general to clear and specific. Because he tells them what returning to the Lord will look like on a practical level.
They need to “...put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among [them] and direct [their] heart to the Lord and serve him only…”
The Ashtaroth is a direct reference to Canaanite worship.
The Canaanites were polytheistic, but a favorite goddess was Ashtaroth who was the goddess of fertility. And sexual rites were a major element of Canaanite pagan worship to Ashtaroth. The Canaanites had combined the brothel with worship. So the belief was, if you wanted a good crop then you might need to “worship” Ashtaroth, which I’m sure didn’t require a lot of arm twisting.
And of course, I’m telling you all of this to give you a sense of just how appealing to the flesh Canaanite worship was to the Israelites. It even helps you understand why it was so difficult for the people of Israel to completely drive the Canaanites out of the promised land. After all, the Canaanites had an exciting night life if you will.
So hopefully you can see what Samuel is saying here, “if you’re serious about returning to the Lord - if you’re serious about repentance - then you have to give all this up.” “...put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only…”
If the people of Israel were truly putting their faith and trust in the Lord then that had to mean they were going to give up the false worship. Because the reality is, faith and repentance are extremely closely connected. You might say, they're two sides of the same coin.
Jesus said, “repent and believe.” Repentance is the firstfruit of genuine faith. And this drives home an important point: true repentance and faith is often accompanied by action. Repentance means you’re changing your life.
Several months ago, I got coffee with a pastor who proudly told me that they baptized a woman who was in a same-sex relationship and active in the LGBTQ community. Initially I thought that’s wonderful news! But my joy for her and this particular church quickly turned to sadness when I realized he never called her to repentance. He didn’t tell her that her lifestyle was sinful and incompatible with Christianity and therefore, she needed to repent and turn from it.
She didn’t know that repentance and faith go together. And that often Christ requires you and me to make difficult changes in our lives. Remember the rich young ruler? Sell all your possessions and give it to the poor!
Instead, he led her to believe that she could continue in blatant unrepentant sin and be a follower of Jesus Christ. He misled her into believing that she could have her cake and eat it too.
He wasn’t willing to tell her to, “put away her foreign gods and Ashtaroth.” The tragedy of that story is that a pastor taught someone that being a Christian wouldn’t cost them anything. When the opposite is true: being a Christian will cost you everything!
And frankly this highlights a few common misconceptions about repentance. The first is, we often think that repentance is synonymous with an emotional response. You just feel sad or guilty or sorry for something that you’ve done and if you ever experienced one of those emotions, then you’re repentant.
Again, Thomas Watson in The Doctrine of Repentance wrote,
“If pain and trouble were sufficient to repentance, then the damned in hell should be most penitent, for they are most in anguish.” In other words, sadness over sin isn’t true repentance.
The second, and perhaps more sinister misconception is that repentance is unnecessary because of God’s grace. The thinking goes, God loves me just as I am and I don’t need to change! I think this is what my pastor friend may have believed.
The Apostle Paul addresses this in Romans: “Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means!”
Should we just remain in our sin because grace will cover it? Paul says no! Here’s the key to repentance: there is a turn or change of life that comes from repentance!
And that turn or change of life is a direct response to God’s love, grace, and mercy! You want to renounce your sin because you love God.
Westminster Confession of Faith chapter 15 paragraph 2 says repentance is when, “...a sinner, out of the sight and sense, not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God, and upon the apprehension of His mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments.”
Repentance means you hate your sin, that you don’t like displeasing the Lord, and that you want to put sin to death in your life.
True repentance often means you will have to make difficult, painful decisions, which is precisely what Samuel called Israel to.
As the commentator Dale Ralph Davis puts it: Samuel is calling Israel to a “difficult repentance.”
If the people of Israel were truly repentant over their sin, then that required tangible changes in their lives. They needed to renounce the false Canaanite gods and religious practices that were so appealing to the flesh, because they truly believed that the Lord was far better.
That’s what repentance is all about. A humble recognition that the gospel of Jesus Christ and submission to his Word is far superior to any sin no matter how appealing it may seem. No matter the sin, no matter the temptation, we must always remember that Jesus is better.
God’s Mercy (vv. 5-11)
And so, Samuel calls the people of Israel to gather in Mizpah for what we might call a joint worship service. All the people from all the tribes would be there.
And so they have a worship service, where they poured out water, fasted, and confessed their sins.
Most scholars aren’t exactly sure what the water being poured out signified. Some think that it was a “symbolic representation of the temporal and spiritual distress [of the Israelites].” Others think it could be a “reflection of the self-denial of the occasion – Israel is depriving herself of even the necessity of life.” Or it could “signify the washing away of communal guilt.”
The “washing away of communal guilt” seems to be the most likely to me, but it doesn’t really matter because the overall point is clear: every element of their worship, the water, the fasting, the confession were a sincere expression of repentance before the Lord.
The people said, “We have sinned against the Lord.”
Here’s one of the beautiful things about God: if you truly repent before the Lord he will forgive you. 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
True repentance and God’s mercy go hand in hand. And it’s exactly what we see in this passage isn’t it? Repentance often paves the way for God’s mercy.
And typically we’re talking about experiencing God’s mercy in a spiritual sense. As John tells us, the Lord will forgive our sins and count us as righteous. But it’s also true that we can experience God’s mercy temporal sense as well. That is, we can experience God’s mercy in the circumstances of our life as well.
We can all look back at various points in our lives and think, “God was good to me when that job opportunity fell through.” Or God was good to me when I moved.”
Miami experienced a special measure of God’s mercy on Friday night when Tech’s touchdown was overturned.
We all have had experiences like that, haven’t we? We can look back and see God’s mercy at various times in our lives, which is exactly what happened in our passage!
Because the Philistines get wind that all of Israel has gathered at Mizpah for their joint worship service and see it as an opportunity to attack Israel and put them under their control once and for all.
After all, just a few short chapters ago, the Philistines easily defeated the Israelites in two consecutive battles.
And so when the people of Israel realize that the Philistine are preparing to attack them - they’re afraid! But their response is different this time isn’t it? They say to Samuel in verse 8: “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”
They ask Samuel to “cry out” to the Lord. It’s similar to language from the book of Judges. Throughout the book of Judges whenever the people are desperate for deliverance, they “cry out” to God. And whenever they would “cry out” to the Lord he’d send a judge to deliver them.
They’re response reminds me of what the writer of Hebrews says in chapter 4, “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
But this time things are different: This time, they’re completely dependent upon the Lord.
They cast themselves on him, because this time, they have nowhere else to turn! Rather than going into battle trusting in the ark of the covenant and their own strength, this time they’re completely dependent upon the Lord.
And Samuel continued to seek the Lord and cry out to him on behalf of the people of Israel. Samuel even offered a lamb as a burnt offering to the Lord.
Samuel is functioning as a mediator between God and his people. We’d be remiss if we failed to notice how it points us to Jesus Christ. After all, Jesus functioned as the perfect mediator between God and man. He made the ultimate sacrifice in order to atone for the sins of his people. And just as the cross satisfied the wrath of God, so the sacrifice of Samuel satisfied the Lord.
We get this incredibly powerful statement at the end of verse 9: “And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord answered him.”
God delivered the people of Israel that day.
“…the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. 11 And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car.”
The Lord “thundered” which threw the Philistines into a confusion which allowed Israel to defeat them. God’s mercy on full display.
Again, Dale Ralph Davis puts it so well. He writes, “The one who truly repents always knows his only hope rests in the “Who knows…?” of divine mercy.”
He’s referring to passages like Jonah 3. Jonah finally makes it to Nineveh to preach and shockingly, the Ninevites repent.
Do you remember what the Ninevites said, “Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
A similar thing is said in Joel 2:12-14,
““Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; 13 and rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. 14 Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the Lord your God?”
After all, over the last twenty years or so the Philistines had killed over thirty-thousand Israelites. The Philistines had had the upper hand on them and were poised to defeat them again! On paper, it looked as if the Israelites didn’t stand a chance! They had no hope apart from the Lord.
And that’s exactly where the Lord wants us. He wants us to be humble and completely dependent upon Him. Here’s what’s so amazing about being in that place: when we are completely dependent upon the Lord is where we so often experience the greatest outpouring of His mercy.
Remember God’s Mercy (vv. 12-17)
I don’t think it would come as a surprise to any of us that there is a relationship between repentance and God’s mercy. The Scriptures tell us of that truth all over the place!
Proverbs 28:13, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”
What a balm to our souls to know that if you truly repent God will forgive you. We worship and serve a loving, gracious, and merciful God.
I recently read that C.S. Lewis wore his late wife, Joy’s, wedding ring on a chain around his neck. I’ve heard of other people doing similar things and it really doesn’t require a lot of explanation: Lewis wore his late wife’s wedding ring around his neck so he’d never forget her. Everything that she had done for him over the years was something he never wanted to forget.
Because the sad reality is, we’re so prone to forget. And the sad reality is that we so often forget about God’s mercy too, but we must remember.
This is exactly what happens in our passage. In verse 12 we’re told that “Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”
Ebenezer literally means, “stone of help.”
Samuel set up that Ebenezer, that “stone of help” as a constant reminder of the Lord’s mercy. They didn’t defeat the Philistines, rather it was the Lord in his infinite mercy defeated them.
After all, we forget! We forget God’s grace and mercy. We forget God’s goodness towards us in Christ. We take these wonderful truths for granted don’t we?
Which is one reason why the Lord in his infinite wisdom has given us the Lord’s Day.
We need that weekly reminder of God’s goodness and faithfulness towards us. We need to sit under the preaching in order to be reminded of these glorious gospel truths!
Which is precisely why Samuel didn’t just set up that ‘Ebenezer’ and walk away. No, Samuel went on a preaching circuit to make sure the people of Israel would remember.
And we reflect on and remember what the Lord has done, not simply for the sake of remembering. It’s not a rote, meaningless exercise. We reflect and remember what the Lord has done in order to help us live for him. We remember the past as a guide for the future.
We don’t “live in the past,” but rather we remember and reflect on the past in order to help us glorify God in the future!
At the end of the day, true repentance is reflected in genuine life change.
I’m often reminded of Martin Luther’s first thesis of his 95 theses: “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ``Repent'' (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”
It’s not like once you become a Christian you no longer need to repent. It’s like believing after you get married you no longer have to tell your spouse, “I’m sorry.”
When was the last time you genuinely repented before the Lord? Repentance is a part of the Christian life. And we repent and turn from our sin, because we know that Jesus is better.
Amen. Let’s pray together.
