1S7-9: Did You Fully Embrace Your New Identity After You Were Born Again?

Recall back in the Book of Judges, we witnessed the Israelites repeatedly go through the cycle of living in harmony with God, then falling into apostasy, then being oppressed, then repenting and then finally being delivered…

Until the cycle started up all over again.

Well, the Israelites during Samuel’s time were also going through the same cycle.

Here in Chapter 7, they happened to be in the repentance phase of that cycle.

They had finally determined with their emotions and their minds to get rid of the idolatry in their lives and serve only the Lord.

Samuel seized on this as an opportune moment and ordered them to gather at a place called MIZPAH which means “watchtower”.

It was there the people performed some kind of symbolic ceremony and publicly confessed their sins before the Lord.

This event also marked Samuel’s beginning as a SHOFET or Judge of Israel.

However, as I pointed out before, Samuel served as far more than a Judge.

Check out this verse:

“Then Samuel said,
‘Assemble all Israel at Mizpah,
and I will intercede with
the Lord for you.'”
-1 Samuel 7:5

“To intercede” means Samuel would “pray” for the people.

So here we see Samuel also acting as sort of a High Priest or Mediator…

Yet officially he was neither…

Officially, he was a prophet.

So what gives?

Well, remember a prophet was considered God’s earthly instrument to bring about His Will.

They weren’t restricted to just pronouncing God’s oracles…

They held many different roles.

However, none of them performed the broad range of duties that Samuel did.

That’s why Bible scholars struggle to categorize Samuel…

Because as I said, he was so much more than a judge…

Plus he served the ENTIRE nation of Israel…

This was different than your typical Judge who operated in only one region or on behalf of just one tribe. 

Now there’s an interesting takeaway I’m getting from all this.

Before we came to the Lord, our identity and how we thought of ourself was very limited.

In our minds, we were a sinner, an adulterer, a thief, a tax collector or whatever.

Then, after we were born again, we were supposed to throw away our old self and became a new creation in Messiah.

However, sometimes we have difficulty leaving behind our sinful past and fully embracing our new identity…

Just like how the Israelites struggled when they left Egypt.

They may have physically left Egypt…

But there was still a lot of Egypt left inside of them…

Now here’s the thing…

Even if we do finally succeed in embracing our new identity after being born again…

We may still limit ourselves and our potential as a child of the Most Holy…

We may say…

“I’m not called to be a healer…

Or a preacher…

Or a Teacher”

When the reality is, we may be called to perform ALL of those roles and so much more in God’s Kingdom…

Just as Samuel was called to perform many roles.

So what’s the lesson here?

It is this:

DON’T LIMIT YOURSELF IN THE LORD!!!

As a newborn son or daughter of the Almighty, you can go farther…