Israel has built palaces for their kings, and now Judah builds fortresses. But they have forgotten their Maker! So I will send a fire to destroy their cities and fortresses!”
After this Samuel set up a special stone to help people remember what God did. Samuel put the stone between Mizpah and Shen and named the stone “Stone of Help.” Samuel said, “The Lord helped us all the way to this place.”
Come near to God and he will come near to you. You are sinners, so clean sin out of your lives. You are trying to follow God and the world at the same time. Make your thinking pure.
Then Saul said, “Go to the men and tell them that each one must bring his bull and sheep to me. Then the men must kill their bulls and sheep here. Don’t sin against the Lord! Don’t eat meat that still has blood in it.” That night everyone brought their animals and killed them there.
Then David built an altar to the Lord there and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. The Lord answered his prayer for the country. He stopped the disease in Israel.
So Gideon built an altar there to worship the Lord and named it “The Lord is Peace.” It still stands in the city of Ophrah, where the Abiezer family lives.