Chapter 7: Twenty Years of Silence

Twenty years passed. An entire generation of Israelites grew up without ever seeing the Ark, without a functioning priesthood, and without a single victory over the Philistines. Children who were born the year the Ark was captured were now adults who had never known anything but defeat and occupation.

During those years, Samuel grew from a young prophet into the sole spiritual leader of the nation. No one appointed him. No ceremony marked the transition. He simply became the only voice Israel trusted, the only man who spoke and people believed God was behind the words.

Then he addressed all of Israel.

SAMUEL“If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”— 1 Samuel 7:3

During those twenty years, Israel turned to the gods of the nations around them, the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the idols of fertility and power that promised everything and delivered nothing. Samuel told them to choose: those gods or the Lord. They could not have both.

And the people listened. They put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth from among them, and they served the Lord only.