The LORD thunders His mighty voice and routes the Philistines out of Israel! Awesome!
Obviously or presumably Israel has put away the false gods and turned to the LORD with all their hearts as God helps them to be free of the Philistines.
Return to the LORD, who helps you... Put aside your false gods and turn to the LORD... Sound like a familiar theme? At the risk of sounding like a broken record we're going there again today. Chapter 7 begins with a reminder to put away false gods and ends with Samuel building an altar to the LORD.
When I was a wee bit younger, I did a whole lot more hiking and kayaking than I do now :) I recall two different altars I ran across on those journeys. Neither of these altars were public altars of any kind. I ran across them quite accidentally. The owner of at least one of them probably never expected anyone to ever find it. They were both in very isolated areas and struck me as being personal and private worship areas for someone. They both looked out over Lake Superior. They both were made of rocks and they both had a place in the rock where a fire could be made. However, the first one I stumbled across had obviously been used recently as the bones of small birds were laid out on the rocks. It smacked really bad of burnt offerings. It felt bad there. I did ask the owner of this property about it at the time as it really disturbed me that I should find something like this on property belonging to clergy. He denied knowing anything about it. It is quite possibe that he did not as the land area was quite vast.
I could not tell for what or whom the second altar I ran across had been built for. The area was clean and much more in the open, in an area where anyone could easily stumble across, unlike the first one. There were no signs of worship of false gods, of worship of sun or moon, or any other such entity... I simply don't know what it was. It did not have that yucky feeling that went with the first altar.
I member those two excursions as I read chapter 7 this morning as I once again remind us all: Return to the LORD with all your heart, put away all foreign and false gods. Direct your heart to the LORD, and serve Him only, and He - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - will deliver you.
Obviously or presumably Israel has put away the false gods and turned to the LORD with all their hearts as God helps them to be free of the Philistines.
Return to the LORD, who helps you... Put aside your false gods and turn to the LORD... Sound like a familiar theme? At the risk of sounding like a broken record we're going there again today. Chapter 7 begins with a reminder to put away false gods and ends with Samuel building an altar to the LORD.
When I was a wee bit younger, I did a whole lot more hiking and kayaking than I do now :) I recall two different altars I ran across on those journeys. Neither of these altars were public altars of any kind. I ran across them quite accidentally. The owner of at least one of them probably never expected anyone to ever find it. They were both in very isolated areas and struck me as being personal and private worship areas for someone. They both looked out over Lake Superior. They both were made of rocks and they both had a place in the rock where a fire could be made. However, the first one I stumbled across had obviously been used recently as the bones of small birds were laid out on the rocks. It smacked really bad of burnt offerings. It felt bad there. I did ask the owner of this property about it at the time as it really disturbed me that I should find something like this on property belonging to clergy. He denied knowing anything about it. It is quite possibe that he did not as the land area was quite vast.
I could not tell for what or whom the second altar I ran across had been built for. The area was clean and much more in the open, in an area where anyone could easily stumble across, unlike the first one. There were no signs of worship of false gods, of worship of sun or moon, or any other such entity... I simply don't know what it was. It did not have that yucky feeling that went with the first altar.
I member those two excursions as I read chapter 7 this morning as I once again remind us all: Return to the LORD with all your heart, put away all foreign and false gods. Direct your heart to the LORD, and serve Him only, and He - the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - will deliver you.
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