Rebellion is a Certainty: 1 Samuel 7:12-17
As the psalmist says, “A broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise.” Perfect is an idealistic dream. It’s not wrong to shoot for perfection, but it is wrong to expect it and not have a plan for when we miss. Everyone falls short of perfection. One of my favorite quotes from the woodworking community is, “Mistakes when working with wood will happen. How skilled you are as a woodworker is how you deal with them.”
The vast majority of Samuel’s leadership over the Hebrew people is covered by today’s six verses. Don’t misunderstand. Samuel has a significant role to play; his death won’t come for eighteen chapters. Samuel’s not done as the chapter ends, but he is done as Israel’s official leader.
Nothing significant goes wrong under Samuel. The Philistines are subdued. The Hebrew people get back the territory the Philistines claimed. There aren’t any major political coups or significant moments of worship of foreign gods. For several decades, the Hebrew people manage to be the people God intended them to be.
Since nothing significantly bad happens, there’s nothing to go into significant detail about. It’s like modern day news sources. Who would pay attention to the news if all they reported was cats being rescued from trees and people demonstrating kindness to one another? Since the Bible can take several decades and smash them into six verses, we have a demonstration of how good things were under Samuel’s righteous leadership.
Samuel gives incredible foreshadowing when setting up the stone called Ebenezer. “The Lord has helped us til now.” Samuel is neither being negative nor casting a dark shadow over the future. He’s being a realist. Samuel knows history. When God sent Moses to bring the people out of Egypt, there was great rebellion in the desert. Hebrew people sometimes call the Moses’ generation the worst generation ever. Under Joshua there was rebellion. Under the judges, there was rebellion. Immediately prior to Samuel’s leadership, there was rebellion. Samuel knows the Hebrew people. The people are righteous for a time until they slip into rebellion.
Full disclosure, this isn’t a pattern owned by the Hebrew people. All people everywhere display this behavior. This pattern is why New Year’s resolutions are expected to be broken. It’s why we say words are cheap. Human beings talk a great talk, but we like to slide into easy behavior rather than holding ourselves accountable to righteousness.
When Samuel says, “The Lord has helped us til now,” he’s placing challenge – not negativity – before them. The Lord will never abandon us, but He does allow us the free will to stray. So long as we return to Him, He will be there for us. Our rebellion is a certainty. Samuel wants the people – and us – to return after our rebellion so the Lord will continue to be there for us. As the Psalmist says, “A broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise.”
