3 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." 4 So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the LORD only.
- 1 Samuel 7:3-4
Did you note the difference between what Samuel asks and what the people do? Samuel says "Get rid of your idols," but the people simply "put them away." And so the people are hedging their bets - if this God thing doesn't work out, they can always go back to the way things were.
And what is the consequence? Not long after this Israel makes the faux pas of asking Samuel for a king - spitting in the face of God, their real king. Clearly they have once again departed from God's way.
Maybe the two things are related, maybe not. In either case, the "putting away" of the idols indicates to me that Israel were not whole hearted in their repentance. They were sorry about their circumstances, yes, but perhaps were just trying something different - much in the way that we might shift to another church if the one we're in 'isn't feeding us', or to a different exercise program/diet if the one we're on doesn't show instant results. We can always go back if the new one doesn't work, can't we?
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