Year 1, Day 290: 1 Samuel 4

Pleasing in Their Own Sight

Today’s lesson is a great time to remember that technically we are still in the time of the judges with respect to the ancient Hebrew history.  What was the famous line that was so telling about the judges?  Everyone did what was pleasing in their own sight.

Here we have a story about the Hebrew people going forth into battle against the Philistines and facing defeat.  They could have inquired of the Lord.  They could have confessed their sinfulness and made sure that they were doing the Lord’s will.  But they didn’t.  They assumed that if they brought forth the Ark of Covenant then they could force God’s hand upon the outcome.  In short, they act in superstition rather than faith.

I have to laugh at this.  I do the same thing from time to time.  I tell myself, “If I just read the Bible every day then God will give me what I want.”  Or I confess that if I just preach a good sermon every Sunday then God will bless me and give me a comfortable life.  I convince myself that if I am faithful to God then God will bend His great will to my desires.

That makes me laugh when I put it in those words, but it is actually true.  I shouldn’t be reading the Word of God to demonstrate my belief that God should bless me.  I should be reading the Word of God because it is I who need to change!  I shouldn’t desire to preach well to prove myself to God and get Him to bless me.  I should preach His Word because God has already blessed me!  Spirituality is not about getting God to capitulate to my will.  Spirituality is about getting me to humble myself to God.

When we do things for the wrong reasons, the consequences are usually disastrous.  Even if I am doing something good like reading the Bible, if I am doing it for the wrong reason it will have an unfortunate ending such as me reading into the text what I want to see rather than what the text actually says.  Just look at the result of the battle here in 1 Samuel 4.  The Israelites want to beat the Philistines back, so they bring out the Ark.  Yes, wanting to fight on God’s side is a good thing.  But using the Ark to force God’s hand is a bad decision.  And where does it end?

The Result of Human Manipulation

Eli’s sons die.  30,000 Hebrew warriors are killed.  But perhaps the worst news is the fact that the Philistines captured the Ark of the Lord.  Because the Hebrew people treat the Ark as an implement of superstition instead of revering it, the battle goes very poorly.  So it is with us as well.  When we stop revering that which God gives to us and we start using it for our own end, things will go poorly for us as well.

Eli’s Death

Now we turn to Eli once more.  It seems as though Eli has a bright spot in the end of the story.  As much as I knocked him yesterday, let me offer support for him now.  In the end – regardless of Eli’s earlier failures – what is it that Eli cares about in this chapter?  1 Samuel 4:13 is quite telling.  Eli is sitting by the road worrying about the Ark of the Lord.  He’s not worried about his sons, probably because he has already heard that his sons will die sometime.  He knows their end.  But here Eli is worried about the Ark of the Lord.  In his end, it seems as though Eli has found perspective.

Maybe that hits you a bit funny today.  It might seem like I am saying that parents should care about God more than their kids.  And to be honest, that is precisely what I am saying!

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not advocating parents neglect their kids.  Neither am I advocating that parents shouldn’t love their kids.  Parents should love their kids and they should care for them.  But the relationship between a parent and God is more important than the relationship between the parent and the child.  It has to be this way.  Parents can only truly love their children properly if they are first and foremost cemented in God’s love.

I give Eli credit in the end.  News of his sons’ death is not what shocks him.  That news does not decimate him.  It is news of the Ark and its trip into captivity that shocks Eli and brings about his death.  In the end, Eli seems to figure it out.  Since I knocked him so hard yesterday, I wanted to come back and give him some credit today.  In the end, he has a great example.  God and God’s stuff should take priority over all.

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