Attempting to manipulate God

1 Samuel 4:1-11

In the time Samuel lived, there were two methods of battle that come to my mind, the defensive move where a nation that had a walled city withdrew into the city.  An offensive move is going out to meet your enemy, and that is what Israel had done.  The Philistines are first mentioned in Genesis 21, and in Joshua 13 we are allowed into the conversation the LORD is having with Joshua where He is saying there is still more land that needs to be conquered, and you guessed correctly, it was the land of the Philistines and three other Canaanite countries. 

It is good to recall the history of the Judges of Israel and most will remember Joshua, Samson, and Gideon.  And, yes Samuel, the last of the Judges, but what about Jephthah?  In the book of Judges chapter 11:1-2, “Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty warrior. His father was Gilead; his mother was a prostitute. Gilead’s wife also bore him sons, and when they were grown up, they drove Jephthah away. “You are not going to get any inheritance in our family,” they said, “because you are the son of another woman.”  Now Jephthah may not fit the mold you have for the kind of man God would call to lead His people, but He did, and he was one of the Judges of Israel.  I believe often we declare who can serve God and who can’t, that is a perilous place!

The people of Israel lost four thousand men in the first battle with the Philistines, and the people could not understand why God allowed it to happen, and they came up with a plan.  The plan; bring out the ark and who was qualified to carry it by the Law, Eli’s two worthless sons.  A plan is formed but it is God’s and it’s not going to come out the way the people have expected.

Have you ever tried to manipulate God, this was the action of the population of Israel they would bring out the Ark of the Covenant and God will show up and do what God does.  Now when the ark came into the camp, the people shouted, and that unnerved the Philistine army.  It is evident the people incorrectly associated the ark with the will of God and His presence.  It is not clear why the Philistines said gods and not God, but it could have been because of Israel’s worship of so many little gods, and it sent the wrong message to their enemies.  It seems the many who go by the name of Christian also worshipped at the alters of many little gods, and it is evident this has confused the world we are to be light to.

Now it seems that someone, maybe a general told the Philistine soldiers to put on their big boy pants and get ready for the battle.  And they showed up and killed 30,000 of the Israelite soldiers and captured the Ark of God and killed Eli’s two sons.  Not a good time for the people of Israel, they turned tail and ran for home.

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice