Understanding True Revival

Series: True RevivalText: 1 Samuel 7:3–15

By: Shaun Marksbury Date: February 19, 2023

Venue: Living Water Baptist ChurchOccasion: AM Service

Introduction

Many people are wondering about what is happening right now in the chapel of Asbury University, a school within the Wesleyan/Methodist tradition. The Wednesday before last, the chapel message included teaching that prompted many students to remain in prayer. That was now eleven days ago, and students have been cycling in and out of the chapel, along with people from all over the country. Speakers have come forward with generally evangelical messages and musicians have led in song while many in the country watch what they consider to be a revival breaking out in Kentucky.

I’m not going to be evaluating the question of whether we should consider this to be a true revival today. I’m pleased with some elements and praying for it, and I’m troubled by other elements, such as the content of the messages, some of the people up front, and the school itself. Truth be told, though, it takes years to evaluate the fruits which may come from a revival, and we can be too quick sometimes to embrace or condemn it.

Let’s first back up and consider a more basic question: “What is revival?” There are a lot of definitions today which may not be the first ones you think when you consider true revival. For instance, I heard one Christian teacher say that revival is “when God steps down from heaven.” Others look for special manifestations.

Yet, the term has a specific connotation. The word “revive” comes from the Latin revivere which means “to live again,” and the English term primarily means “to restore to consciousness or life.” That makes sense; if we find someone has fainted, we would ask how to best revive the person. In Scripture, when Elijah prayed that the Lord would return life to the dead boy, we read that life returned and “he revived” (1 Kings 17:22). When we think of revival, then, we should think of a return of or the creation of new life and awareness.

With that in mind, the primary marker of true revival is always the spiritually dead coming to new life in Christ. The secondary marker is related to that — the Christian coming to a new or a renewed sense of awareness to the truth and ways of God. This is all the work of the Holy Spirit, and this work may extend beyond the individual to include a church, a region, or even an entire country (all of which we find examples of in history).

This means that Scripture and the gospel should be at the forefront of any revival. As one theological dictionary explains,

True revival always brings a fresh and vivid scriptural emphasis on the holiness and justice of God, on His judgment on sin, and on true repentance and the reception of Christ by faith. The presence of God in awful and overwhelming power is the hallmark of revival, as He moves in glorious gospel triumph, bringing new life to His church and salvation to many souls. Such a revival leaves a lasting mark.

Thus, we would expect the preaching of God’s Word and a clear gospel presentation to be the hallmarks of revival. When we look at revivals in history, they begin within areas of spiritual dryness where God’s Word sparks a fire that quickly spreads, burning across many hearts. Such revivals lead to a greater sense of God’s holiness and a desire to obey His commandments.

That’s what we see in just one example of revival, and it’s in First Samuel 7. This comes after the time of the judges, when, sadly, overall spiritual decline marked the children of Israel. As we get to 1 Samuel, we see that even the high priest and his sons are not worshipping as they should. The Israelites even lose the ark of the covenant to their enemies, the Philistines! Of course, the Lord can defend Himself, and through an almost amusing series of events, He leads the Philistines to simply return the ark of the covenant to Israel. However, the ark sits for some time — nothing is necessarily changed in Israel.

So, we begin first Samuel 7, we note that the ark sits out of place for 20 years, a time in which the people need revival. When revival finally comes, we see that it begins with worshipping the Lord alone, it includes confession and the gospel, and it comes through the work of God. Let’s consider the first of these.

Revival begins with worshipping the Lord alone (vv. 3–4)

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.” So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone.

In a sense, these were the people of God. However, they were not living righteously before the Lord, having hearts divided. We see Samuel identify this and call them to repentance. The real problem wasn’t the Philistines, which God could easy remove from them; the issue was the idolatry of the people.

What kind of idolatry was occurring? We read here that there were Baals (plural) and Asharoth (plural for Ashtart or Astarte). The first of these is a more familiar name; Baal was the Canaanite storm god, bringer of rain. As to the latter, the Bible Knowledge Commentary notes,

Ashtoreth (or Astarte) was goddess of both love and war, as were her Babylonian and Greek counterparts Ishtar and Aphrodite respectively. She apparently functioned with Baal as a fertility deity and by their sexual union in some magical way the earth and all its life supposedly experienced annual rejuvenation and fruitfulness.

Rain is essential to an agrarian society, especially one prone to drought, and some of the Jews were apparently hedging their bets by worshipping both Yahweh and these Canaanite deities. So, the children of Israel needed to learn to trust in the Lord completely and not feel the need to have such idols. Samuel promised them that “He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.” Since the time of the conquest of Canaan, though, they had long since lost that confidence.

To be clear, idolatry is always our problem. When we pursue something more than God — such as money, entertainment, power — we’re placing that above God and worshipping it. When we pursue our lusts rather than obey the Lord, we are actually worshipping ourselves. When we seek ungodly means of knowing, such as horoscopes, talking to the dead, or getting good luck charms, we’re engaging in idolatry. When we adopt the thinking of the world, trying to mix it with God’s ways, we idolize. We must put all these things aside in recognition that we’re not putting God first.

They also needed to repent, to turn from their sin and back to the Lord. Note that the call isn’t to just remove the idols but to “direct your hearts to the Lord and serve Him alone.” They were to replace idol worship and synchronistic worship with wholehearted devotion to Yahweh.

That is exactly what they did. We read, “So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the Lord alone.” Repentance, then, is the start of revival.

Really, we could take one step back before that and say revival begins with the call of God’s Word. Samuel was a prophet, and he bore the mantle of the Holy Spirit as he spoke; people were obligated to keep the prophetic word. Moreover, this call against idols is a command to keep the Law of Moses and notably, the Ten Commandments. After that, Joshua had told them to “be very careful to observe the commandment and the law which Moses the servant of the Lord commanded you, to love the Lord your God and walk in all His ways and keep His commandments and hold fast to Him and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Jos. 22:5). It’s always amazing when Christians say that thinking biblically is putting God in a box, when the Holy Spirit has inspired this box of Scripture for us!

So, we might say that true revival here began not with the shaking of tambourines or spiritual ecstasies but with Scripture. When we are not committed to the Lord and His ways, we’re placing someone or something idolatrously above Him. We are not following His Word. True revival will cause us to recognize this, and something else:

Revival includes confession and the gospel (vv. 5–9)

Then Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord for you.” 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. 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. 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.” 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.

In this section, we see the gathering at Mizpah. This was a place about seven miles north of Jerusalem. There needed to be an area large enough to accommodate them, and this was a common spot for gatherings in those days. In Judges, for instance, they gathered there to decide what should be done with the Tribe of Benjamin (Jud. 19:1–20:1, 3; 21:1, 5, 8). We see later in, 1 Samuel 10:17–24, the people regather there and the Lord publicly selects Saul as king.

We might see parallels between this and the church gathering. The people of God must regularly come together, which we see in the Old Testament in the temple and much later in synagogues. God prescribed that worship in a certain way, and that is no less true in the New Testament era. In addition to the reading and preaching of Scripture, we are to pray for one another, as we see here, and we’re to have confession and assurance, as we’ll note in a few minutes.

Let’s back up and consider what happens here. First, we see Samuel beginning here with the call to gather, and he promises to pray for them. Prayer is essential because God is ultimately in control, as we will see, and He wants us to pray concerning our troubles. Without God’s grace, the people will not have true conversion or change.

We see that they also engage in spiritual activity in v. 6. They draw water, which they may have needed after their respective journeys, but poured it out before God (as MacArthur notes, this “was a sign of repentance”). They then denied themselves food by fasting. They’ve spent the past twenty years allowing themselves whatever they wanted, the whole time wondering why God won’t do a mighty work and remove the Philistines. Now, they look at themselves and stop feeding the flesh for five minutes.

Of course, it’s not wrong to take food and water to ourselves. Our Lord who created these things says to take and eat and to take and drink! The issue isn’t enjoying the blessings of the Lord, it’s overindulgence and ingratitude. We have and grow forgetful of the God who supplies our needs. Sometimes, experiencing some hunger pangs can remind us of our need to pray for daily bread.

Note what the people do next. They say, “We have sinned against the Lord.” They confess their sins. In fact, we read that “Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah,” meaning that he was teaching them and showing them precisely where they had erred.

One of the major problems today is the view that sin is something we experience, something that happens to us. It’s seen by many as a result of brokenness; for instance, we often hear of homosexuality as being the product of fallenness. It’s also seen as an evil spirit of oppression, leading many to describe, say, their drunkenness as a spirit which has come upon them which needs to be bound and removed. While there are aspects of this fallen world which affect us more than we know, including the forces of darkness, describing sin only in these terms leads us away from responsibility.

The people say simply, “We have sinned.” They receive and own judgement from God’s prophet. Their confessions, then, were likely specific, contrite, and offered in a spirit of reverence.

Now, it’s almost as though we have an aside in the text. We read, “Now when the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel.” Of course, at this point, the Philistines are still in the land and see the gathering as a threat to be squashed. Understand that worship and confession doesn’t immediately free you of your woes; a mistake many make is to offer a prayer, see trouble returning, and then determine that it doesn’t work.

So, in a human moment, “when the sons of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.” They feared, but note that they had truly softened their hearts; “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.’ ” They now understand that the Lord is their only hope, a fact we would have otherwise seen.

As such, Samuel stands in an intercessory role for them, as a priest, praying and now offering “a suckling lamb … for a whole burnt offering to the Lord;” their sin would receive atonement, and the Lord accepts it, for He then answers. Today, we don’t people to intercede and provide burnt offerings because Jesus Christ, our Great High Priest, is also the Lamb of God who takes away sin as the final, once-for-all sacrifice. In Christ, those who call upon God find complete forgiveness of their sins. Jesus paid the penalty for our sins and now intercedes for us before the throne of God. The bad news of our sins finds its answer in the good news or gospel of Jesus Christ.

The people of God can confess and then have gospel assurance. Incidentally, this is why we often have a time of confession and assurance in our worship services. This is something we can practice corporately, just as they did in Scripture. And any revival worth its salt will prompt people to recognize their sins and turn to the Lord.

That’s because this is God’s grace at work, leading us to the final point:

Revival comes through the work of God (vv. 10–15)

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. The men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down as far as below Beth-car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” 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. 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. Now Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.

This has all been within the sovereign working of God. God allowed the ark to be taken from Israel by the Philistines, the first moment that they truly realized that they could not simply take God for granted. They recovered the ark entirely without any work of their own. When the people of Beth-Shemesh didn’t respect the ark, the Lord struck them. God was entirely in control.

We must see this work also in the hearts of the people. In v. 2, we read, “From the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim, the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord.” The people are already having their hearts turned, even before Samuel’s message to them, meaning God is preparing them.

So, it should be no surprise that the Philistines were no match for the revived children of Israel. We read that Yahweh “thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them.” This is essential for understanding what happens next, for the Jews were not a fighting force with weapons like the Philistines. Yet, we read that the Philistines “were routed;” the men of Israel “pursued the Philistines, and struck them down.”

If it were not for the Lord first confusing the Philistines with His great thunder, the rout would not have been possible. Indeed, as one commentary notes, “This apparently ended Philistine occupation of Israelite soil though the Philistines came later time and time again to harass Israel (13:5; etc.).” The Lord would continue to drive back His adversaries through His people as they humbly sought His assistance.

So, we read that Samuel then “took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us.’ ” The word “ebenezer” means “stone of help,” so that makes sense of his name for the memorial. Incidentally, this is where we get the line in the hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” —

Here I raise my Ebenezer;

Here by Thy great help I’ve come;

And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,

Safely to arrive at home.

We need reminders in our lives that God can help us, no matter what we face, which is why Samuel erected this stone. We can know that His gospel will bring us to our heavenly home despite our sin, and we can know that He will assist us in some way with the cares of this life.

Notice how total this help was. We read, “So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel.” Since the Book of Judges, this is the first time the Jews will be without their constant presence. And it was complete, for we read that “the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. 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.” This is incredible because, as you read 1 Samuel, both Ekron and Gath are important Philistine cities (5:8, 10), but not anymore. The Lord permitted both deliverance from the Philistines and also peace with the mountain-dwelling Amorites!

A new judge is there, leading the people. We read, “Now Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.” The word the Israelites submitted to in Mizpah remained to some degree. They continued to come to him to seek his counsel and submitted when he came to them.

Ultimately, the true ruler would be Jesus Christ, but that is a sermon for another day.

Conclusion

Because God is everywhere, we don’t need to make pilgrimages to mountaintops or to the East Coast for Him to work revival in us. In fact, in our local gathering, He has granted ordinary means of grace through which He works, such as the weekly preaching of His Word. If there’s no preaching of sin, repentance, faith, gospel assurance, then we cannot expect revival in our individual hearts or in our greater community.

It’s troubling to see Christians thinking they need more, and it’s just as troubling that they hate when someone questions or evaluates an event. We must repent before God and accept what He has given us, not looking to idols of experiences and the extraordinary. True revival would get us back to church and excited for the preaching of the Word.

Thankfully, the Lord is gracious to us. If you have found that your heart is divided, turn it to the Lord and seek His forgiveness. He will forgive all our iniquity in Jesus Christ. He can even cause us to desire what He wants us to desire through His Spirit.