The Geography of Godly Order Text: 1 Samuel 7:15-17
Introduction: The Long Obedience
We live in an age that loves the spectacular but despises the steadfast. Our culture is addicted to the flash, the bang, the overnight sensation, the viral moment. We want the kind of revival that makes the news, the kind of leader who disrupts everything, the kind of change that happens with a single, dramatic vote. But the Kingdom of God, more often than not, is built through a long obedience in the same direction. It is built by men who are not flashy, but faithful. It is established not through constant revolution, but through consistent righteousness.
After the stunning victory at Mizpah, where God thundered from heaven and routed the Philistines, it would be easy to skip ahead. We want the next big battle, the next dramatic confrontation. But the Holy Spirit inspired the historian to pump the brakes and show us something far more foundational than a single victory. He shows us what peace, true peace, actually looks like. It does not look like a perpetual vacation. It looks like a man getting up, day after day, year after year, and doing his job faithfully before the Lord. It looks like order. It looks like stability. It looks like justice administered consistently and worship offered sincerely.
Samuel the prophet is the great transitional figure in Israel's history. He stands between the chaotic, bloody cycles of the judges and the establishment of the monarchy. He is the last of the old kind of leader and the anointer of the new. And in these closing verses of chapter seven, we see the pattern of his life's work. It is a portrait of godly government. It is a rebuke to our modern conceits that you can have justice without God, or a stable society without established worship. Samuel's life teaches us that the foundation of a healthy nation is not a clever political platform, but the patient, persistent, and public application of God's law, grounded in God's worship.
This passage is a quiet snapshot of a nation under godly management. And in this quietness, we find a profound polemic against our own noisy and chaotic age. We are shown that true reformation is not just about tearing down idols, as they did at Mizpah, but also about the slow, hard, glorious work of building a righteous order in their place.
The Text
Thus Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life.
And he used to go annually on circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places.
But his return would be to Ramah, for his house was there, and there he judged Israel; and he built there an altar to Yahweh.
(1 Samuel 7:15-17 LSB)
Lifelong Fidelity (v. 15)
We begin with the summary statement of Samuel's entire career.
"Thus Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life." (1 Samuel 7:15)
The first thing to notice is the duration: "all the days of his life." This is not a four-year term. This is not a temporary appointment. This is a life calling. In an era where leaders are tossed aside with every new election cycle or social media scandal, this phrase lands with real weight. Samuel's authority was not derived from popular opinion polls but from his lifelong consecration to God, which began before he was even born. His was a life of unwavering, consistent service. He did not retire from his calling. He did not get distracted by a more lucrative offer. He did not burn out. He finished the race.
This stands in stark contrast to the period of the judges that preceded him. The pattern in that book was cyclical: sin, oppression, crying out, deliverance by a judge, and then peace, but only "in the days of the judge." As soon as the judge died, the people spiraled back into apostasy. But with Samuel, we see the beginning of a more established, stable order. His lifelong tenure provided a consistency that Israel had not known. He was a fixed point of reference for righteousness in a nation prone to wander.
This is a crucial lesson for us. Godliness is not a sprint; it is a marathon. The men who change the world are not the ones who make a big splash and then disappear, but those who, by God's grace, remain faithful over the long haul. The Christian life, the life of a pastor, the life of a father, the life of a magistrate, is a call to this kind of plodding, persistent, lifelong fidelity. It is a call to be the man who is still there, standing for the truth, long after the fads have faded and the crowds have moved on.
The Circuit of Justice (v. 16)
Next, we see the practical outworking of his lifelong judgeship.
"And he used to go annually on circuit to Bethel and Gilgal and Mizpah, and he judged Israel in all these places." (1 Samuel 7:16 LSB)
Samuel's rule was not a detached, centralized bureaucracy. It was active, personal, and accessible. He went to the people. This circuit was a public, predictable, and orderly administration of justice. This is the opposite of tyranny, which is arbitrary and unpredictable. Under Samuel, the people knew when and where they could bring their disputes to be settled according to the law of God. This regular rhythm of justice is the backbone of a stable society. It builds trust. It cultivates peace.
But we must not miss the theological geography here. These were not random towns. Each place was saturated with meaning in Israel's history. Bethel was where Jacob saw the ladder to heaven and said, "This is none other than the house of God" (Genesis 28:17). It was a place of divine encounter. Gilgal was where Israel first camped in the promised land after crossing the Jordan. It was the place where they rolled away the reproach of Egypt by renewing the covenant of circumcision and celebrated the first Passover in the land (Joshua 4-5). It was a place of covenant memorial. And Mizpah was the very place where Israel had just repented, put away their Baals, and experienced God's miraculous deliverance from the Philistines. It was a place of national repentance and victory.
Do you see the pattern? Samuel's circuit of justice was a constant, physical reminder to the nation of who they were. As he traveled, he was retracing the steps of their covenant history. He judged the people at the place of divine encounter, the place of covenant renewal, and the place of repentance and victory. He was not just settling property disputes. He was re-catechizing the nation. He was embedding the law of God back into the story of God's grace to them. Justice was not an abstract, secular affair; it was a covenantal one.
Home, Court, and Altar (v. 17)
The circuit had a center, a place to which Samuel always returned.
"But his return would be to Ramah, for his house was there, and there he judged Israel; and he built there an altar to Yahweh." (1 Samuel 7:17 LSB)
His public ministry was anchored in his private life. His home base was Ramah. "His house was there." A man's leadership in public is directly tied to his faithfulness at home. The New Testament makes this explicit for elders and deacons, but the principle is universal. A man who cannot govern his own household is not fit to govern the household of God or the affairs of the state. Samuel's authority was credible because it flowed from a well-ordered home.
And notice, he judged Israel there as well. Justice was administered from his home town. This is localism. This is decentralized authority. He was not an anonymous ruler in a distant capital; he was a man known by his neighbors, living among the people he served. This is the biblical model. Authority is personal, relational, and accountable.
But the last clause is the linchpin that holds the entire structure together: "and he built there an altar to Yahweh." This is a staggering statement. The tabernacle was at Shiloh, though it had been desecrated and the Ark captured. In the absence of a functioning central sanctuary, Samuel, a prophet of the Lord, establishes a center of worship right next to the center of justice. He understood what our modern world has deliberately and suicidally forgotten: you cannot separate the courthouse from the altar. All law is an expression of morality, and all morality is an expression of some religion. The only question is which one.
The secularist wants to pretend that justice can be neutral, that the public square can be naked. Samuel shows this to be a lie. His altar at Ramah declared that the ultimate source of all justice is Yahweh. The laws he applied were Yahweh's laws. The authority he wielded was delegated by Yahweh. To build an altar next to the judge's seat is to say, "The God we worship here is the God whose standards we enforce here." This is the essence of Christendom. It is the public acknowledgement that Christ is Lord not only of the church, but of the town square, the courtroom, and the magistrate's office.
The Greater Samuel
Samuel's life was a portrait of godly order, but it was just that, a portrait. It was a shadow pointing forward to the substance. Samuel was a great man, but his sons, as we will soon see, "did not walk in his ways" (1 Samuel 8:3). His righteous order did not last. Even the best of men are still just men. The stability he brought was temporary, a placeholder for the one who would bring an eternal kingdom.
Jesus Christ is the greater Samuel. He is the one who judges not for a lifetime, but for all eternity. He is the ultimate circuit-riding judge. He left His home in glory, "and made His dwelling among us" (John 1:14). He traveled the dusty roads of Galilee and Judea, bringing the justice of the kingdom, healing the sick, casting out demons, and teaching the law of God with ultimate authority.
His circuit also traced the path of covenant history. He was baptized in the Jordan, where Israel first entered the land. He was tempted in the wilderness, where Israel failed. He cleansed the temple in Jerusalem, the heart of the kingdom. And His final journey took Him to the ultimate place of judgment, the cross at Calvary. At the cross, the ultimate altar was built. But it was not an altar where we offer sacrifices to God; it was the altar where God offered Himself for us.
At that altar, true and final justice was meted out. The sins of God's people were judged in the person of His Son. And because that judgment has fallen on Him, we who are in Christ are declared righteous. The Philistines of sin, death, and Hell have been routed, not by thunder from the sky, but by the blood of the Lamb.
And now, risen and ascended, Christ reigns from His home, from the right hand of the Father. And from there, He judges the nations. He has not left us as orphans. Through His Word and Spirit, He continues to ride His circuit, extending His kingdom, bringing His gracious and just rule to bear on every square inch of His creation. The stability Samuel brought to Israel for a generation, Christ is bringing to the entire cosmos for all time. And He is building His church, which is both His courthouse and His house of worship, the place from which His righteous judgments and His glorious praises are to be declared to the world, until He returns to make all things new.