Only fear the LORD and serve him faithfully with all your heart. For consider what great things he has done for you.
Samuel's farewell comes at a low moment. Israel had demanded a king like the other nations, had confessed the sin of it, and now waited to hear his verdict: fear, serve, and consider. (The ESV says "serve him faithfully." The older wording quoted below says "serve him in truth.")
A Word Spoken After Failure
The people who receive this command have just confessed that they cannot undo what they did. That is why the command matters. The wrong choice stands, but God does not walk away.
William KellyWhen people have put themselves wrong, and come to see they have done so, it is not always possible to reverse it. But God is always a resource, and He will not fail those who truly humble themselves. It becomes a question of doing His will where we are. The results of a wrong act may continue even after the person has come to judge that wrong.
Obedience Built on Gratitude
Samuel could have pressed the claim of duty alone. Instead he adds a "for" to the command. That small word changes the ground of the obedience he asks for.
C. KnappHe does not rest their obedience on duty alone. He puts it on the higher ground of gratitude: "For consider," he says, "how great things He has done for you." Only one motive in a creature stands higher: the holy angels in heaven obey God for what He is in Himself, in the infinite perfections and glories of His Being. The redeemed have this motive too in their worship and obedience. In them, gratitude and a sense of obligation join it and make it stronger — and we would not have it otherwise.
What "Consider" Asks You to Weigh
The word "consider" points backwards. Israel's history was full of benefits they had stopped counting. The best of them was the very thing they threw away.
Scripture QuarterlyWith a strong hand the Lord had brought His people out of Egypt and established them in a good land. He had given them a place of high privilege, with the Lord Himself as their King. He wished them to be a distinct people, unlike other nations. Yet they were not content. Against the plain will of God they demanded a king, so they could be "like all the nations." God gave them what they asked for. Then Samuel urged them to stop and count the great benefits they had gained from having the Lord as their King.
The same writer applies this to Christians. We also have a King, and hearts that still drift.
Scripture QuarterlySamuel's last call to Israel matters greatly for Christians today. We have been redeemed with a wonderful redemption… He is our King, and He will appear soon. He wants His own to be satisfied with Himself as King… Yet how often our hearts long to be like the world. In disobedience to God's will we cry out for idols, and in the end they leave us looking like the subjects of another king.
The Salvation That Teaches Fear
The order in the verse matters. What God has done is not an extra note added to the command. It is what produces the fear and the service.
H. L. RossierLet us not forget this. Knowing His "great salvation" is the true way to fear Him as He wants us to fear Him, and to serve Him as He wants us to serve Him. Let us also remember that knowing the grace of God does not weaken the responsibility of His people at all. "But if you do wickedly, you shall perish, both you and your king."
A Pattern for Anyone Who Teaches Others
Samuel's call rested on God's faithfulness, not on Israel's record. Anyone who teaches others faces the same choice.
J. T. MawsonThis great, wide-ranging call rested wholly on God's faithfulness and love, and we need ministry of this kind. Let us tell God's people what He is, more often than we tell them what they ought to be. They will never be what they ought to be unless they live under the power of what He is.
Nothing Left to Boast In
If the great things are all God's doing, one question answers itself.
Samuel RidoutThese words need no explanation — they need the Holy Spirit to press them on our own souls! How great things has He done for us! Shall we then for a moment boast in that flesh which He condemned by the cross?
Summary
- Consider. The command rests on a backward look. What God has already done is the reason He gives for fearing and serving Him.
- Then serve. Knowing His great salvation is what teaches a person to fear Him and serve Him as He wants.
- Not duty. Samuel lifts obedience off the ground of bare duty onto the higher ground of gratitude.
- No boasting. If the great things are all His doing, nothing is left in us to be proud of.
- After failure. Samuel spoke to people who had sinned and could not undo it. The call means doing God's will where you now are, and grace never cancels responsibility.