Friday, August 22, 2025
Scripture Readings
- Primary Reading: 1 Samuel 6-8
- Secondary Reading: Psalms 97
Key Verse
1 Samuel 7:10 — “And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel.”
Devotional Thought
The Philistines learned what Israel had forgotten: the ark of the LORD is not a charm to be managed but the throne of a living God. For seven months the captured ark brought tumors and mice upon Ashdod, Gaza, Askelon, Gath, and Ekron, until their priests and diviners advised a trespass offering of five golden emerods and five golden mice. They set the ark on a new cart drawn by two milch kine whose calves were shut up at home, and reasoned rightly: if the kine went lowing up the highway to Bethshemesh, turning neither right nor left, then the LORD had done this. The cows walked straight to the field of Joshua, and men who had been reaping wheat lifted their eyes and rejoiced. Yet even among rejoicing Israelites, irreverence met judgment; the men of Bethshemesh looked into the ark and seventy men died, and the question rose, “Who is able to stand before this holy LORD God?” So the ark came to rest twenty long years in the house of Abinadab in Kirjathjearim, while all Israel lamented after the LORD.
Then Samuel spoke, and his word was plain: return with all your hearts, put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth, prepare your hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only. At Mizpeh the people drew water and poured it out before the LORD, fasting and confessing, “We have sinned against the LORD.” When the Philistines drew near, the LORD thundered with a great thunder and discomfited them, and Samuel set a stone between Mizpeh and Shen and named it Ebenezer, “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.” But the chapters close in shadow: Samuel grew old, his sons Joel and Abiah turned aside after lucre and took bribes, and the elders demanded a king like all the nations. God’s answer pierced to the root: “They have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them.”
How easily we treat holy things as instruments for our own purposes. The Philistines wanted the plagues to stop; Bethshemesh wanted the excitement of peeking inside; Israel wanted a king to fight their battles. None of them wanted the LORD Himself to reign. Late August finds many of us in a similar posture—harvest season, when the wheat is in and the calendar fills and we begin to ask what will make the coming year secure. Samuel’s word still stands: prepare your hearts, serve Him only. The ark, the Ebenezer stone, the thunder at Mizpeh all testify that God is not a resource to be deployed but a King to be trusted. Psalm 97 sings the same: “The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice.” Clouds and darkness are round about Him, yet righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne, and light is sown for the righteous.
Reflection
- Where in your life are you treating God as a means to an end—a charm for blessing or a tool for your plans—rather than as the reigning King to be obeyed?
- Samuel set up Ebenezer to remember, “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.” What specific mercies of the past year do you need to name and remember before the LORD today?
Prayer
O Lord, who reignest over all the earth, we confess that like Israel we have often preferred our own way to Thy rule. Forgive us for the idols we keep hidden in the corners of our hearts, and for seeking Thee only when we want deliverance. Thou art holy, and we cannot stand before Thee in our own strength; yet Thou hast shown mercy to those who return with all their hearts. Prepare our hearts unto Thee, we pray. Put away from us every strange god, and teach us to serve Thee only. Be our Ebenezer, our stone of help, and let the light sown for the righteous shine in our homes and labors this day. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Psalm Verse
Psalms 97:1 — “The LORD reigneth; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of isles be glad thereof.”