“And Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord, and serve him only: and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines” (1 Sam. 7:3).
Samuel is exhorting the defeated nation who “lamented after the Lord” (1 Kings 7:2) to do several things if they would be right with God. Preparation is a vital quality of success as the Bible teaches. Men sometimes pray before the preaching that God would give him a “ready recollection of the things he has prepared to say.” What if the song leader is not prepared in the leading of the singing? What if no one made preparation for the taking of the Lord’s Supper? Expectations are high when it comes to those who lead, but what about the preparing of the hearts of the worshippers to worship and live out their devotion to the Lord every day? Consider some thoughts about this great exhortation of Samuel and other passages that stress preparing the heart.
1. Focus in Preparing. Samuel made two great points about returning to the Lord “with all your hearts” (1 Sam. 7:3). First, there is the essentiality of putting away any and all forms of religion that are the opposite of the will of God. The very first commandment of the commandments written on tables of stone was “I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Ex. 20:2-3). The Lord God explicitly forbade bowing down and serving any image or form of a god, saying, “for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” (Ex. 20:5). Thus, one does not love God who would turn his heart to something outside of God. Second, the nation was to prepare their hearts unto the Lord and “serve him only” (1 Sam. 7:3). God is exclusively to be worshipped and served. Jesus said this as much to Satan (cf. Matt. 4:10) when citing the statement in Deuteronomy 6:13. Hence, a single-minded heart is required to approach God.
2. Failure of Not Preparing. There are examples of dire consequences when people did not prepare their hearts. It is said of Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, “And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord” (2 Chron. 12:14). It is said of the people in Jehoshaphat’s day, “Howbeit the high places were not taken away: for as yet the people had not prepared their hearts unto the God of their fathers” (2 Chron. 20:33). Whenever leadership and followers do not focus on the Lord, problems arise.
3. Fruits of Preparing. There are several examples of great leaders who helped their people by being spiritually-minded. It is stated of Jehoshaphat, “Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast taken away the groves out of the land, and hast prepared thine heart to seek God” (2 Chron. 19:3). It is stated of Jotham, “So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God” (2 Chron. 27:6). The nation of Judah was greatly blessed by the influence of Ezra. It is stated of him, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach in Israel statutes and judgments” (Ezra 7:10). Just as bad things happen when preparation is lacking, good things come in preparation.
Jimmy Clark