TWENTY YEARS LATER

It is now twenty years later.

The people of Israel have allowed the moving of The Ark of God from the places of their enemies back to Israel. However, it remained in a temporary place until twenty years later!

You could safely say the people had neglected the care of the Ark.

For a brief time, we were temporarily distracted from the stories involving the character of Samuel. In that time, we followed the things that were happening with The Ark of God. Now it is time for Samuel to reappear.

God surely has His own ways of keeping time.

The Ark stayed at the house of Abinadab until twenty years later. It was overseen by Eleazar.  In all that time, people had not thought much about The Ark of God at all. 

A PROPHET AND A PRIEST

Samuel was now a grown man.  He was known as a prophet, but he had also become a judge.

In those days judges were usually strong leaders of the military.  Samuel was of military age.  The people had accepted his leadership and rallied around his wisdom.  His circuit of travel became Bethel, Gilgal and Mizpeh, then he would return home to Ramah before making the same circuit all over and over again. 

Mizpeh became the place where Samuel pronounced judgements.  This was a continuous cycle of preaching and judging for the traveling prophet/judge.  Samuel would rule over the courts first, then go into the synagogues and teach the people how to honor God. He handled both duties very well.

However, idolatry still covered the land.  Samuel preached and judged against it. 

Finally, after 20 years of disobedience and luke-warm worship, the people of Israel were beginning to wake up.  They began listening to Samuel and turning their hearts back to God.  At last, they thought of the state of The Ark and grieved and lamented.  They began to repent of their sins before God.

NO IDOLATRY

Samuel preached strongly against the pagan worship of Ashtaroth and Baal.  These were the main forms of idolatrous worship at that time.  These two were the false gods of the Canaanites who God had commanded Israel to conquer and destroy during the days they first entered the Promised Land. 

As I’ve mentioned before, I believe that Satan controls demons that disguise themselves as idols and false gods.  These demons seek to control people and cultures through false religions.  This is a personal conclusion.  Study the scriptures for yourself though.  Just remember to notice the patterns of behavior which you see over time.

WHO WAS BAAL?

It is helpful for us to understand the influence these pagan gods had on the land of Israel and its people during those days.  Even as we live today, it is important to know and understand when false gods raise their ugly heads among the culture.

This is a timeless battle.  Anything we can learn from God’s people’s past mistakes would be helpful in today’s cultures as well.

For the Israelites, this form of idolatry might have begun with intermarriages within an agricultural economy.  They were no longer nomads but had settled down within the land and were steadily growing crops to feed their families. 

The Canaanites the Israelites had intermarried with were worshipers of Baal.  Baal was thought by them to make the land fertile and the crops abundant.  He was also thought to be the cause of increased flocks and even the force behind human families growing and expanding with the birth of new babies. New babies were often his demand for sacrifices. People were selling (killing) their children for hopes of becoming profitable through false religion. (For some reason this sounds so familiar.)

 It was often said by the Philistines that Baal owned the land of Canaan.  They preached this message to the newly settled Israelites and their next generations.  Often, they were told they would have no grain or cattle unless they worshipped Baal.

FALLING INTO THE TRAP

The trap was set for those who were ignorant of God’s Word.  Now the time was right for a wise Prophet and Man of God like Samuel to step back into the picture of history. God had plans to use Samuel’s obedience in a mighty way.

If the People of God had gone 20 years without even noticing that The Ark of God was misplaced, you can imagine how weak the messages of God’s truth had become in the land.  The only one proclaiming truth seemed to be Samuel.  Now as a judge as well as a prophet, he had probably become much bolder with his messages. 

Israel was beginning to listen and realize their mistakes.  They had been living like frogs in slowly boiling water.  The people had become accustomed to the ways of the pagans living around them.  It was common to learn that they all  accepted and allowed what they should not have accepted. 

NO OTHER GODS

Israel knew the commandment which said “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” but they had begun to try to mix their worship of God with Baalism, even though The One True God had strictly forbidden this.

Syncretism never works out.  Eventually people lean one way or another.  It is just a matter of time.

Years and years had passed, and these people and their false gods still inhabited the lands of the Israelites.  The ways of these Canaanites had carried over to the generations of Israelites who now lived there. 

The Philistines were still the main enemies of Israel.  Samuel advised the people that God would not help them defeat the Philistines until the idols were put away for good. 

Israel mistakenly thought they could assure their livelihood and agricultural health by worshiping God and Baal at the same time.  Nothing would have displeased God more than this.  By using this political move of “peaceful co-existence in the land” Israel was making a mockery of God’s sovereignty.

THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE

Moses had taught them with God’s Word; “Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is One.”  These were the first words out of their mouths every morning.  Yet; their daily actions denied the fact. 

Now it was up to Samuel to revive true worship among the people.

How fortunate that all people living in current times have heard and had the choice of receiving the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Now we have even more evidence than those ancient Israelites who lived under a Covenant with Abraham.  We have the Covenant of Jesus Christ, the blood of The Lamb who gave us salvation as a free gift from God. 

Here is a modern song which praises God for such a gift and wipes out the stains in our minds of this horrid history of idolatry from the nation that God chose to bring us Jesus.  Pause for just a moment and listen and lift your voice to the God who loves you and redeems your soul:

I wanted to let you hear this song first because we are going to have to explain Ashteroth here next.  It seems good to have had a moment of sharing God’s glory first. 

MY PEOPLE ARE DESTROYED

I hate to even have to bring up these facts, but I know God would not have his people to be ignorant.  Hosea 4:6 states; “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me.  And since you have forgotten the law of God, I also will forget your children.”

It was the diligence and patient perseverance of Samuel following God’s Holy Spirit that kept Israel from falling into this old trap.  They needed to learn how to distinguish the Godly from the ungodly.  Samuel was about to teach them.

The first step is to know your enemy.

WHO WAS ASHTEROTH?

1 Kings refers to Ashteroth as “the goddess of the Sidonians.”  In other cultures, she was also called Ishtar and Astarte (“Star”).  The worship of Ashtoreth eventually morphed into the worship of Aphrodite.  It is from this name that we get the word “Easter” which I no longer will allow into my vocabulary.   

In our home we have come to call Resurrection Day The Day of Early First Fruits.  The reason is that we know no day to celebrate the glorious resurrection of Christ would be named after a pagan deity. We are not celebrating “Easter”, we are celebrating The Resurrection of Christ.

Shouldn’t Christianity reflect Christian thoughts instead of images of pagan gods?

I would especially apply this concept to the most glorious day of God’s people and His Holy Days. The Resurrection of Christ is the culmination of everything God has ever taught us as His people. It MUST show honor and respect to God. We cannot let it get perverted and rearranged.

If we decide to do this; we are no different than Israel ignoring the fact that The Ark had been moved, used and abused from The Most Holy Place. God will not be mocked.

A MASTER OF PERVERSIONS

Ashteroth was known for being a shrewd, keen and artistic agent for reversing good and using it for evil purposes.  She has gained the reversal and perversion of many such things. Her work is all for Satan. He controls the demons at work behind her idols. Our present day culture reeks with such perversions.  I feel strongly that this still maters to God.  If He did not like this type of worship from ancient Israel, why would He change and accept it from us? 

This fake god named Ashteroth was known as a consort and companion to Baal.  They were said to compliment each other.  Baal was said to the the sun god.  Ashteroth was said to be the moon goddess.   Ashteroth was also known in Canaan as the false goddess of fertility.  She was the female counterpart of Baal.

TREES CAN BE TRUE OR FALSE SYMBOLS

Recognizing the works of Asteroth can be tricky. We need for God to grant us discernment. Be very careful when you approach her stumbling blocks.

Her worshipers often carved her image into the trunks of the trees growing inside the groves on their hillsides. These groves are then used as places of pagan worship. Pagan practices and rituals were known to happen on every high hill in the land that was promised by The God of Israel.

This, of course, would have been an abomination to the One True God who created the trees.  It showed great dishonor.  The immorality associated with the worship of Ashteroth was despicable and disgraceful. It was so bad that I’ll let you do that particular research for yourself. I’m not going there in this lesson.  

God did not mean for His trees to be used in such ways. The trees in the groves of Ashteroth and Baal were used for destroying life; not to help it thrive. The sins of these groves brought death and decay to the land.

WHAT IS TRUTH?

Many associate these facts about Ashteroth’s groves with the Christmas trees we use today.  I would say if you carved your tree out of a grove that was determined for the worship of Ashteroth, you are probably following a pagan practice.  It would not honor The One True God, and it would be wrong and sinful. If you love God, you should repent and change any such idolatrous practices right away. 

On the other hand, some have Christmas trees which were obtained innocently from innocent lands for different and innocent reasons.  Such reasons could be to honor and memorialize the everlasting truths of The One True God.  That would be the opposite of a pagan practice. 

Why?

Because it shows honor and respect and memorializes The One True God.

GOOD VS. EVIL

The trees are only wood. They can be used either for good or evil.

The gods are the subjects which should be examined when we look at these actions. The actions are all about worship.

Who are you worshiping?

Who is being honored and adored by the group you are gathered together with?

Christianity and Judaism worship Only One God. No pagan practices allowed.

What are your motives?

It isn’t the practices of worship as much as the deity which you are worshiping that should be of your utmost concern when making decisions concerning personal worship practices.  The people of Israel were in trouble because they had not acknowledged The One True God of Heaven and Earth as The Only God.  They had been too lazy to look at themselves and examine their actions before God. He gave them annual cycles of time in which to do this. It is un-excusable.

God gave us the same tools.

ASK GOD TO SHOW YOU

However your present traditions; if God seems to be telling you that your traditional practices are wrong, I would advise you to listen and be as obedient as the young child Samuel when he first heard the voice of God calling out to him.

Obedience is everything where God is concerned. If you have doubts; don’t.

God is the judge. None of us humans are qualified.

I can imagine Samuel explaining that fact to Israel. Let every man answer to God for his own actions. Now that is the way we come to the place of complete honesty.

HONESTY

It has taken me years to sort through my own personal religious ritual practices. Here is a link that will explain what I feel personally about the use of a Christmas tree: https://theinseasonlifestyle.com/truth-about-christmas-trees/ .

This article will help you to understand where I stand today. I love explaining what I prayerfully asked God to show to me. It actually took years for me to see this whole picture. I suppose God showed me one bite at a time because He knew I might not be able to handle it all at once.

God may show you a totally different path. My answer is only that we both must be obedient to The Voice of God in our lives. One day He will explain the reason for our strong differences of opinion. Until then, every thing is merely a test of obedience. Listen to God and God alone and proceed in the right direction.

OBEDIENCE IS ALL THAT MATTERS

At our house we do have a Christmas tree. We are NOT celebrating the birth of Christ, except that life begins within the womb. Our tree is always decorated in honor of Immanuel; God with us. Every year that we use it our tree gives testimony to the fact that Christ is The Light of the World.  It is only placed inside our home to celebrate the Conception of Christ. We DO believe that life begins at Conception.

As we believe that Jesus was BORN in the Fall of the year, we celebrate that fact every year at The Feast of Tabernacles. December is the time of CONCEPTION. Stop and count the months with me. Nine months later, in the fall of the year, we celebrate the BIRTH of Jesus. 

When the rest of the world is busy celebrating what we think is the wrong date of birth for Jesus, we celebrate the stories of Conception and talk about the Annunciation and Mary’s visit to Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptist. We consider that life begins at conception. It is always noted that life is sacred and holy.

We believe that life begins at conception; therefore it is okay to acknowledge the life of Christ beginning in December, though He would have lived in the womb of Mary until the Fall season, nine months after December in late August/September, when He was BORN. In December we ponder Mary’s time of waiting on the moment of His birth.

A MODERN CHRISTIAN HANUKKAH

We know that the correlation of the stories of Christ being The Light of The World fulfill the meaning of that first miracle of the story of Hannukah. 

We try to be as accurate and as truthful and honorable to God as humanly possible with all of these celebrations that actually bleed over into one another and confirm the miracles of Our Great God. 

So don’t be too shocked when you see us celebrating Jesus’s birth in September or October, then using a Christmas Tree during the season of Hanukkah in December.

We are not agreeing with anything pagan! Actually, we are celebrating all of the astounding facts that God has revealed to us.

GRACE AND MERCY

Thank God for grace.

We hope we are right, but we know we will be forgiven if we find out otherwise. Everyone makes mistakes due to lack of knowledge, but we try to do our best by studying to show ourselves approved before God. This is ALL because we want to honor our King (Jesus Christ) with all of our hearts, minds and souls.

Doesn’t this is tie right in with the meaning that Jesus proclaimed when He announced He was the truth, the way and the life?

We celebrate all of that truth as accurately as we know how. Stress and human arguments get put aside because we know that God’s love overrides everything. We seek to live in peace with all men, but honor God first and foremost in everything that we do.

I guess my point here is to say that we do not believe that these things we have chosen to do in our celebrations are wrong before God.

ALL MUST STAND BEFORE GOD

The Israelites KNEW that what they practiced was pagan and wrong before God. Samuel taught them the truth and they finally heard his message and repented.

Oh for more Samuels!

God always knows the intent of our hearts.  That is what matters most to Him.  He knows what we know.  God always shows us what we should be doing daily by the leadership of His Holy Spirit living inside our living, breathing tabernacles (our bodies.)

Yet here was Israel trying to sync the worship of these pagan gods of the Canaanites with the worship of The One True God who held the Covenant with Abraham.

This was impossible! 

They did not have the covering of Messiah yet.  All of their actions had to be exact and in line with the Covenant of Abraham for God to be able to fulfill His promises.

It wasn’t right.  

GOD WILL NOT BE MOCKED

There is only One True God.  He will NOT be mocked.

Israel is beginning to grasp his truth about twenty years late.

This truth was Samuel’s main mission in life. He honored God by abiding in his purpose every day and every night.  Samuel oversaw proclaiming the truth of The One True God of Israel against the false gods and goddesses of The Canaanites in the land. 

The Prophet called Samuel and his teaching was beginning to have an effect on Israel.  God had sent him for just this reason. After twenty years of turning away and ignoring the Ark of God that had been returned to them by the Philistines, Israel was finally waking up.

A REVIVAL IN ISRAEL

 A revival was sweeping through the land.  People were praying prayers of repentance and asking God to forgive them and return to their land to live among them. 

The false gods of the Philistines only had power within the minds of those who believed their lies were true.  They were NOT true. The Israelites were turning away from these falsehoods.   Now they turned to Samuel for truth and good advice on what to do next.

His first suggestion was to rid themselves of the idols.

Israel set about correcting these abominations.

WHAT IS GOOD FOR ISRAEL IS GOOD FOR US

Any wise nation at any time in history would heed this example and do the same.

If only America could follow this example; perhaps we too would have victory over our enemies.  I feel it is possible.

I firmly believe in the power of Our Great God to overcome the world.