So, why were the Lord’s people victorious over the Philistines in chapter 7 when they had lost so badly to them back in chapter 4? Well, we know that the Israelites didn’t pray and they didn’t give God any offerings before the first battle as Samuel did in 7:9. But if we jump to the conclusion that just doing those things will somehow guarantee that God will do what we want Him to do for us, we’ve really fallen into the same error which led the people to carry the Ark of the Covenant with them into battle: imagining that we can somehow manipulate God or force His hand.

So instead of proudly “claiming” a victory that they “named,” Samuel called the people to do something quite different in verse 3: to repent. He called them to turn away from their false gods and to serve the Lord alone. And that’s exactly what they did: they confessed their sin (verse 6), and they removed all the idols from their midst (verse 4).

And look at the kind of offering that Samuel presented to the Lord in verse 9. He didn’t offer a powerful, expensive animal like a bull. He didn’t even offer a mature goat, which was prescribed as the sin offering for all of the people on the great Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:15). No, Samuel offered up a suckling lamb, something so small and weak that it couldn’t even feed itself. This was not the offering of a people who proudly insisted that God give them their own way, or who were somehow trying to buy favors from God. It was the plea of a people who knew they were completely helpless before the onslaught of the lords of the Philistines.

In fact, the people were under such great conviction of their sins, they didn’t even dare to pray to God on their own behalf. Instead, they asked Samuel to pray for them (verse 8). And in the same way, we depend on a Mediator, the Lord Jesus, to stand in our place before the Father, pleading the blood He has shed on behalf of all of us unworthy sinners who cling to His cross in faith. This is the proper posture of prayer: humble supplication and complete dependence on God’s sovereign grace and mercy.

So, how does God respond to that kind of prayer? By crushing His people’s enemies. The Lord sent thunder so overwhelmingly loud that the mighty Philistine armies turned tail and ran – so all God’s people had to do was to pursue them as they fled (verse 11). And Samuel commemorated the victory, not by bragging about the power of his prayers or offerings, but simply by erecting a monument which he called “Ebenezer,” which means “stone of help.”

Oh yes, at another place called Ebenezer, the people of God had tried to manipulate Him by carrying the Ark into battle (see 4:1), only to have it captured. In contrast, at chapter 7’s Ebenezer, Samuel simply cried out to the Lord and then gave all the glory to the God Who graciously helped His people in spite of their sins.

So, let us come before the Lord in the same sort of confession, repentance, and total dependence. And who knows? In His sovereign grace, maybe the same God will give us the same sort of victory over whatever problems we may face today.

I Samuel 7:1-14 (NASB)

And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the ark of the LORD and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD.
2 And it came about from the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim that the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.
3 Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, “If you return to the LORD with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the LORD and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
4 So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the LORD alone.
5 Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.”
6 And they gathered to Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the LORD.” And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah.
7 Now when the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.
8 Then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, “Do not cease to cry to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.”
9 And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it for a whole burnt offering to the LORD; and Samuel cried to the LORD for Israel and the LORD answered him.
10 Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel.
11 And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down as far as below Beth-car.
12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
13 So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
14 And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.