“So the word of Sh’mu’el came to all Isra’el.
Israel went out to fight against the P’lishtim,
setting up camp at Even-‘Ezer,
while the P’lishtim camped at Afek.”
-1 Samuel 4:1
Just as God raised up Joshua well before Moses passed away to prepare him for his leadership duties over all of Israel…
So was Samuel being groomed by the Lord to prepare him for the heavy responsibilities that lay ahead of him.
The people also needed time to learn to trust the young Samuel as he grew in spiritual maturity.
Now one common misunderstanding is that it was Samuel who ordered Israel to go out and battle against the Philistines.
However, that’s NOT true.
It’s not even implied in the context…
And it doesn’t fit the theme of this story.
The text only says “So the word of Sh’mu’el came to all Isra’el.
And then afterwards, it says “Israel went out to fight against the P’lishtim”.
It doesn’t say the Word came to Samuel and then he ordered the Israelites to go to war against the Philistines.
Got it?
Remember Samuel wasn’t even Israel’s military leader at this time.
It was Eli the High Priest who held that authority.
Alright, let’s move on.
So we’re told the battle took place at 2 locations: EVEN-EZER and AFEK.
No one really knows the exact location of EVEN-EZER.
However, we’re pretty certain about the location of AFEK(which was paired with EVEN-EZER in these verses).
AFEK was situated in a beach area about 20 miles west of Shiloh.
This area was called the SHEFELAH and was the lowlands region located at the bottom of the hill country of Ephraim and Judah.
The point I wanna make is that from a geo-political perspective, this area was NOT part of Philistia.
It was smack dab inside of Israelite territory…
Which means the Philistines had taken over much of the southern and central tribal territories that belonged to Israel…
And probably had every intent of eventually taking over the entire area.
The takeaway here is simple and clear.
When the Lord orders us to remove ungodly people or things from our lives…
We need to do it without question…
Otherwise like the Philistines in ancient Israel’s time…
They will grow like a cancer…
And end up causing much destruction.
Ya feel me?
Here is one thing that has always seemed to be a bit of an oxymoron to me: we are told to remove the unclean from our lives, but also to be a light in the darkness, which is where the unclean are.
So, which is it?
The answer I have come up with is that there is a difference between our social life and our private life.
In our social life, we interact with those who are of every faith and belief, and that is where we are to be the light.
In our private life, we are to be surrounded by like-thinking people, as evenly yoked with them as possible, and this is where we must rid ourselves of every un-godly thing.
Would that include separating from husbands who claim to be believers, who go to Christian church but have secret sins against their wives to include emotional and sometimes physical abuse and very controlling behaviors?