How Long Has It Been?

How long has it been?  I apologize for the delay since my last post.  As we look at this week’s reading, I would like to focus in one 1 Samuel 7.  The Ark of the Covenant, representing the presence of God, had been stolen by the Philistines.  God brought judgment down upon the Philistines, and it became so bade, that the Philistines returned the Ark.  Upon its return, the people of Kiriath-jearim took it to Abinadab’s house on the hill.  They consecrated his son Eleazar to take care of it (1 Samuel 7:1).  Time went by until twenty years had passed since the ark had been taken to Kiriath-jearim (v.2).  Twenty years!  What was going on in those twenty years?  It would seem that the people had no great concern that the Ark of the Covenant had been taken.  It would seem that the people had no great care that it had been returned.  For we read next, “Then the whole house of Israel longed for the Lord.  Samuel told them, ‘If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, get rid of the foreign gods, and the Ashtoreths that are among you, dedicate yourselves to the Lord, and worship only him” (v.3).  Twenty years of complacency had passed.  Twenty years of going through the motions.  Twenty years of paying more attention to foreign gods than to the God of Israel.  C.H. Spurgeon asked in a sermon, “where was Samuel during these twenty years?”.  His sermon reads, “It may very naturally be asked, “Where was Samuel all that time?” I know not what he was doing during those twenty years; but I have a suspicion, I may say, I have a firm persuasion, that he was going from place to place, preaching in quiet spots wherever he could gather an audience; warning the people of their sin, and stirring them up to seek Jehovah, thus endeavouring to infuse some spirituality into their national life. But “the time was long.” He ploughed, and seemed to plough a rock. For twenty years the good man spoke. For twenty years he acted like a battering-ram upon a wall that did not seem to tremble beneath his strokes. For twenty years he went up and down, fleeing for his life from the Philistines, but venturing out, whenever he had an opportunity, to warn a household or a village group, or, perhaps, a township, that they could only be delivered from the Philistines by seeking God; that they had come into their present evil case by forsaking Jehovah; and that, unless they came back to the worship of the only true God, they would never have their liberties again.”  We can do nothing without the presence of God!  We must long for the presence of God!  How long has it been?