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This verse is taken from:
1 Samuel 7. 1-12
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“search the scriptures” John 5:39
The ark of the Lord had been in the house of Abinadab at Kirjath-jearim for over twenty years, following an abortive attempt to bring it up that led to tragedy, 1 Sam. 6. Now we read, And all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord’, 1 Sam. 7. 2. Samuel knew that the people had gone after other gods, and he made it clear that they could not ‘lament after the Lord’ and, at the same time, have these other gods. The people accepted the words of Samuel and, we read, ‘Then the children of Israel did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only’, 1 Sam. 7. 4. It was following this great purging that Samuel gathered the people together at Mizpah to pray to the Lord for them and we read, ‘They drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord’, 1 Sam. 7. 6.
The pouring out of water before the Lord was a token of the reality of their repentance. Note that before they poured the water out, they drew it. They had to go through the exercise of gathering it drop by drop and feeling the weight of it. This would symbolize the need for a searching of heart and an uncovering of the details of our sin, rather than a general confession of sin. The apostle John reminds us, ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’, 1 John 1. 9. The apostle Paul reminds us, ‘But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup’, 1 Cor. 11. 28.
Not only did the pouring out of the water symbolize their repentance, but the completeness of the forgiveness that accompanied it. The woman of Tekoah reminds us that ‘water spilt on the ground … cannot be gathered up again’, 2 Sam. 14. 14, and, indeed, when we confess our sins and when repentance is seen, God has done with that sin forever. The writer to the Hebrews wrote, And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more’, Heb. 10. 17.
He’ll forgive your transgressions, And remember them no more. [Fanny Crosby]
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