What does 1 Samuel 7:4 mean?

Samuel was the last of the judges who led Israel as the Lord's deliverer of His people. The pattern of the book of Judges (Judges 2:11–23) repeats. The people sinned against the Lord by serving the idols of foreign nations. He caused them to be captured and oppressed by invaders, in this case the Philistines. Eventually, the people would repent of their sin and cry out to the Lord to deliver them. God would raise up a judge to free them from their oppressors.

Samuel has instructed the people to demonstrate their repentance in three ways: Throw away all the idols and representations of the foreign gods whom you have been serving. Begin to sincerely worship the Lord. Serve Him only and not alongside the worship of any other god (1 Samuel 7:3).

Now the Israelites do exactly what Samuel, the prophet and judge, has told them. They put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, which were the generalized names of all the male gods and female goddesses they had been worshiping in the manner of the people of Canaan. The Israelites began to serve only the Lord and nothing else.

They had passed the true test of repentance: Turning from the sin and heading toward the Lord. Without a change in the behavior, there is not true repentance (Luke 3:8; 6:43–45).