August 25, 2021
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Reading along with us in 1 Samuel? Here’s today’s reading:
1 Samuel 4 (NIV)
1 And Samuel’s word came to all Israel.
The Philistines Capture the Ark
Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. 2 The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. 3 When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh, so that he may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies.”..........Continue Reading
Such a sad chapter for so many reasons…
30,000 Israelites died in a battle but more sad was the state of Israel’s relationship with God that brought about this defeat. They had moved so far from him that they used the Ark as more of a good luck charm than something that represented their covenant relationship with God. We see it in our own lives that we grab on to God when we need something instead of building our relationship with Him in all aspects of our lives.
Eli’s death is sad but expected due to his age and health but add to it that He had to die knowing under his disobedient sons this awful defeat took place and that they lost the ark. Finished by Ichabod’s birth and the death of his mother this was a sad chapter!
1 Samuel 4
This is a super tragic story and I can’t help to be politically incorrect but God punishes a nation that dishonors him.
1Samuel 4
How presumptuous the Israelites are to take the Ark into battle without checking with the Lord first. And rather than Eli and his sons being the godly leaders they were called to be and stopping them, Eli allows them to do it passively, and Hophni and Phinehas lead the charge with the Ark. God will certainly not be used for our own ends and does not honor the symbol of something if we do not have the substance of faith and obedience, which the Israelites clearly lack. It is funny that it is right for them to question why they lost, but they come to a wrong conclusion that they need the symbol of God when they didn’t have His substance. And so the judgement that God placed on Eli’s family is fulfilled in the circumstances of life. Everything is at His disposal when fulfilling His will.
The direct fulfillment of Samuel’s prophesy about Eli.
“Behold, I will do something in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.”
Israel suffers from the wickedness of her leadership. I wonder if we are experiencing the same thing. America’s highest levels of law and order actively or passively fail to function. I pray that “we the people” turn to the Lord en masse and that His power is demonstrated and His name is glorified here.
The other option: global rebellion continues, Christians are taken, the “Restrainer” departs, and ears tingle here on earth.