1 Samuel 7:2-4 (NIV): It was a long time, twenty years in all, that the ark remained at Kiriath Jearim, and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord. And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.
Compromise with the kingdom of the world has always been the easiest snare for God’s people to fall into, and it still is today. In Israel it was very tempting for the people of God to buy or make an idol of one of the fertility gods – Baal and Ashtoreth or Asherah, and keep them around just as a little extra insurance against crop failure, and to keep their flocks and herds reproducing. After all, they reasoned, what’s the harm? Those who had lived in the land for centuries said that they worked! Surely God knows that we’re not really WORSHIPING them – just pouring out little food and drink offerings before them is how you make them work.
But their hearts became darkened as they put their focus on those man-made idols, and they could no longer hear God’s voice. He was no longer willing to bless their crops and their flocks and herds, because if He did, Baal and Ashtoreth would get the credit. He was no longer willing to fight their battles for them, which was why the Philistines had been beating them down for so long. He was no longer willing to share His wisdom with them, because they could not receive it into their foolish, darkened hearts.
Samuel had absolutely no compromise in his life and heart. He walked before God in purity and holiness. Therefore, God gave him abundant wisdom, saw to every one of his needs, gave him overcoming strength in the face of his enemies, and he always heard God’s voice. He knew very clearly why the people were being overwhelmed by their enemies. He saw the idols and the divided hearts, and it grieved him deeply.
Finally the people began to turn back to God, and to seek Him. They did this because their lives were not all that they had hoped they would be. Their crops failed despite their food and drink offerings to Baal and Ashtoreth. Their flocks and herds diminished, just as God had told them they would through Moses. So they started to seek God’s face. But Samuel had it right. If they were going to return to God, they had to do it whole-heartedly. If they turned to God with half their hearts, the other half still belonging to their idols, they would not get half of God’s blessings – they would get zero. With God it is all or nothing. Even if they turned to Him with 99% of their hearts, they would get no blessings in return. It is all or nothing. Until they were willing to get rid of their idols, until they were willing to turn back to God 100%, they would get nothing.
It is the same today. There are many who are convinced that they need to turn their lives around, that they need to get right with God, but they are unwilling to turn away from something in their life that is against God’s commandments. Some want salvation, but they are living with someone out of wedlock, and are unwilling to change that situation. So they raise their hand in a service, but they never experience eternal life and they wonder why. It is because they are still holding onto a sin in their lives, and as long as they do that, they CANNOT experience God and His life. With God it is still all or nothing. Until they give up their sin, they cannot experience eternal life. To some this may seem unreasonable or intolerant. It always has seemed that way to those who are perishing. But God is the holy God, the only true God, and those who come to Him must live by His requirements, in accordance with how He has set the universe up to run.
Father, this makes sense. You are holy, and You have clearly told us the requirements that we must meet to live in Your presence. If we are unwilling, we get nothing; we can’t be a “little bit saved.” Even in salvation we must be completely saved, or we are completely lost. Search us, O Lord, every inch. Show us any part of us that contains compromise with the world, and give us the power to completely root it out of our lives and hearts, so that we can be completely pure, completely holy, completely Yours. Amen.