Year 4, Day 293: 1 Samuel 7

Theological Commentary: Click Here 

Discipleship Focus: Up

• Forgiveness: Forgiveness is when our sins are absolved by God.  We do not deserve this forgiveness, but God grants it to us anyway.  We cannot earn forgiveness, but God gives it to us anyway.  As we are forgiven by God, He also asks us to forgive others.  In fact, Jesus Himself teaches us to pray for our forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer when He says, “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
• Obedience: Genuine and satisfying obedience comes out of our identity.  Our true identity comes only from our Father.

1 Samuel 7 is all about Samuel pulling the people back to God.  Samuel knows that this process is possible.  People can always return to God.  God is gracious and genuinely desires relationship with us.  It is impossible to be beyond God’s grace.

That being said, Samuel also realizes that repentant obedience is a part of the process.  Forgiveness can’t happen if we don’t put away our gods.  Repentance cannot happen if we do not confess our sins and take ownership of our sinful behavior.  A sacrifice needs to happen for our sinfulness to be wiped away.  What we see happening here is these very things.  Samuel takes the people through the process of forgiveness.  But he demands obedience.

The thing I love is that Samuel does not progress forward until the prior steps are completed.  I find that humbling.  Samuel had the authority and power to demand that this process was followed.  He would not lead them through confession until their gods were put aside.  He would not offer a sacrifice until they understood and confessed their sins.

The process is still the same for us.  In Christ, we can know forgiveness and relationship with the Father.  But we must put away our gods.  We must confess our sins and take ownership of our sinful nature.  We must sacrifice.  Thankfully, Christ is the blood sacrifice; but that doesn’t mean that we cannot follow the example of Paul in Galatians 2:19-20 and allow ourselves to be crucified with Christ so that it is Christ who lives within us.

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