Daily Thought

When the spiritually weak Israelites went out against the Philistines without the counsel of Samuel, a national disaster threatened. Even taking the ark of the covenant did not help them, because their hearts were far from God, 1 Sam. 4. 1. The ark was captured, the priests killed, and the people left in disarray. Of course, this substantiated God’s earlier warning through Samuel that Eli’s renegade sons would be killed and the family line wiped out, 1 Sam. 3. 13.

Then Samuel spoke to all Israel and said, ‘If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines’, 7. 3. After they had carried out exactly Samuel’s commands, he gathered them to Mizpeh, promising he would pray to the Lord for them, v. 5. It was a day of true national repentance, when the people admitted that they had ‘sinned against the Lord’, v. 6.

However, the Philistines heard of this national gathering and took the opportunity for a major attack. The fearful Israelites turned to Samuel, asking for his intercession; in fact, they implored him not to be silent but to call out for God’s help in deliverance (literal translation). Making use of a burnt offering that reminded them of their relationship with God, Samuel ‘cried unto the Lord for Israel; and the Lord heard [Heb. answered] him’, v. 9. God showed His power to save without any human agency: He routed the Philistines in the sight of Israel, who only then attacked the fleeing army.

Praying effectively for others is a great privilege but a heavy responsibility. We ourselves have to be in a fit spiritual state, as was Samuel, and we have to be prepared to pray fervently; for ‘the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much’, Jas. 5. 16. Samuel continued his intercessory ministry, 1 Sam. 12. 19, 23, and he was later followed by the Apostle Paul, as noted in nearly all his epistles, e.g., Rom. 1. 9; Col. 1. 3; 2 Thess. 1. 11. Paul just as frequently asked for the intercessory prayers of others, as when he wrote to the Thessalonians, ‘Brethren, pray for us’, 1 Thess. 5. 25 (see also 2 Thess. 3. 1; Col. 4. 3; cp. Heb. 13. 18).