And Samuel said to the people, “The LORD is witness, who appointed Moses and Aaron and brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt. Now therefore stand still that I may plead with you before the LORD concerning all the righteous deeds of the LORD that he performed for you and for your fathers. When Jacob went into Egypt, and the Egyptians oppressed them, then your fathers cried out to the LORD and the LORD sent Moses and Aaron, who brought your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place. But they forgot the LORD their God. And he sold them into the hand of Sisera, commander of the army of Hazor, and into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab. And they fought against them. And they cried out to the LORD and said, ‘We have sinned, because we have forsaken the LORD and have served the Baals and the Ashtaroth. But now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies, that we may serve you.’ And the LORD sent Jerubbaal and Barak and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you out of the hand of your enemies on every side, and you lived in safety.
Comment: Because leaders can be pretty verbose I presume this to be a summary of what Samuel said. He reminds them of several hundreds of years of God’s faithfulness to the Hebrew people since he brought them from slavery in Egypt. He reminds them of the peoples recurrent slipping into idolatry with the non-gods of the surrounding nations and how God had both disciplined and rescued them repeatedly. The religious practices of the so called ‘gods’ listed was immoral in the extreme and very evil by God’s law revealed through Moses. Interestingly he ends with himself as a deliverer, no doubt referring to when relatively recently God had delivered them from the Philistines in answer to Samuel’s prayer. This was a time that people were fearful and it all seemed hopeless (1 Samuel ch 7: 7-11).
Prayer: Help me to count my blessings and see Your goodness in my life. O Lord.
As I read it! 
Thank you Barry for your comments on this passage. Remembering is a very important part of our daily life. When we don’t remember history, and recall how God has used people in bringing wars to an end, when we lose the truth of what has happened in the past, we lose out on seeing God’s faithfulness. Even in our own personal lives, we need to look back and remember, and as you said, “count your blessings.” God bless you.
LikeLike