Here we find a broad-brush description of the life of Samuel, the last Judge of Israel, and the Israelitish world he presided over. After the Philistines returned the Ark of the Covenant, it was taken to the city of Kirjath Jearim but the Israelites continued worshiping other gods, like Baal, the male god of fertility and Ashtoreth, the female equivalent. Samuel commanded the people of Israel to get rid of their idols, stop worshiping foreign gods, and return to worshiping the Lord.

But the Children of Israel, like the nations around them, were polytheists at that time. They needed to be regularly convinced that Jehovah, the Lord, was the chief and most powerful God. A belief in only One God, who we now know as the Lord God Jesus Christ, was beyond them at that time. (See Arcana Coelestia 8301[4].)

Samuel called the people of Israel at Mizpah, where he judged them. The Philistines learned of this gathering and once again set out to make war with them again. The Israelites were afraid and made an offering to the Lord to help them. The Lord answered their cry and the Israelites pushed the Philistines back and reclaimed cities that the Philistines had taken in previous conflicts.

Throughout Samuel’s life there was an ongoing struggle between the Children of Israel and the surrounding peoples. This represents the struggle we all have between good and evil -- between the truths of the one God, Jehovah, and the Ten Commandments, and the false, but popular, loves of self and the world.

Swedenborgian teachings describe how, in the earliest times of spiritual awareness in humanity, people knew that there was only one God, who was their Divine Creator and Redeemer. However, as people fell away from true faith, their worship degenerated and gradually became the worship of idolatry and multiple gods. (See Arcana Coelestia 6003).

285. Since this law is the means of linking the Lord with man and man with the Lord, it is called a covenant and a testimony. It is called a covenant because it serves as a link, and a testimony because it establishes the terms of the covenant. For covenant in the Word means linking, testimony the establishment and witnessing of its terms. That is why there were two tablets, one for God and the other for man. The link is provided by the Lord, but only when man does what is written in his tablet. For the Lord is continually present, and wishes to enter; but man must open the door by the free will which the Lord gives him. For He says:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with me, Revelation 3:20.

The stone tablets on which the law was written are called the tablets of the covenant, and the Ark is called from them the Ark of the covenant; the law itself is called the covenant: see Numbers 10:33; Deuteronomy 4:13, 23; 5:2-3; 9:9; Joshua 3:11; 1 Kings 8:21; Revelation 11:19; and elsewhere.

Since a covenant means being joined, it is said of the Lord that He will be a covenant for the people (Isaiah 42:6; 49:8); He is called the messenger of the covenant (Malachi 3:1); and His blood is called the blood of the covenant (Matthew 26:28; Zechariah 9:11; Exodus 24:4-10). That is why the Word is called the Old and the New Covenants ¹ , for covenants are made on account of love, friendship, association and linking.

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