The Israelites met together at Mizpah with Samuel as their leader. They drew water from the well and poured it out as an offering to the Lord. On that same day they went without eating to show their sorrow, and they confessed they had been unfaithful to the Lord.
When the Philistine rulers found out about the meeting at Mizpah, they sent an army there to attack the people of Israel. The Israelites were afraid when they heard that the Philistines were coming.
“Don’t stop praying!” they told Samuel. “Ask the Lord our God to rescue us.”
Samuel begged the Lord to rescue Israel, then he sacrificed a young lamb to the Lord. Samuel had not even finished offering the sacrifice when the Philistines started to attack. But the Lord answered his prayer and made thunder crash all around them. The Philistines panicked and ran away.
I Samuel 7:5-10
I have never heard of a man who was killed by thunder! Thunder is loud and can be very upsetting, but it is not deadly. The lightning that causes the thunder is the thing to fear. Someone taught me when I was just a child that if you hear the thunder, the danger has passed.
God caused the Philistine army to run away in fear by sending thunder to crash all around them. They rightly sensed that they were targeted by thunder and needed to get away before they were destroyed by the One who was the cause of the thunder.
Samuel probably would never have prayed for thunder to come and scare the Philistines away. But Samuel kept on praying for God to rescue them and God chose thunder as the way to do it.
When you pray for God to rescue you from some threatening thing in your life, don't tell God how to do it! You do the praying and let God choose the weapon!
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