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Tuesday, March 6, 2018

Are you Serious? {1 Samuel 4:1 - 7:17}



Then Samuel said to all the people of Israel, “If you are really serious about wanting to return to the LORD, get rid of your foreign gods and your images of Ashtoreth.  Determine to obey only the LORD, then he will rescue from the Philistines.”  (7:3).

I love the title for the devotional in the iworship Bible – Are You Serious?  Have you been in this predicament, where you keep trying to do something, but it just won’t work out?  You keep returning to the same job, or you keep doing the same task, or the same habit, only to become annoyed all day at work, or the task you’re working on just won’t work out, or you keep trying to lose weight, but your method just won’t work. 

These chapters really hit home for me because I’ve been living on “repeat” for a while now and I think I understand why.

In these chapters we see that Israel is not serving God alone - with a whole heart.  The Israelites keep wondering how God could allow them to suffer at the hands of the Philistines, and they conclude that it’s because they did not take the Ark of God with them into battle.  Like the Ark is some sort of good luck charm.  Instead, it leads to an even greater defeat for the Israelites.  Their irreverence and disobedience regarding the Ark results in divine judgment on them. 

The Ark is captured and taken back to Ashdod in Philistine territory.  It looks as though God is being held hostage by the Philistines and is being placed before Dagon in some symbolically subordinate position.  What a shock it must have been to see their god lying prostate in the dirt before the Ark of God.  And then the hands of men prop Dagon back up.  What do these Philistines think?  The Ark of God is a symbol of God’s presence among His people.  It plays an important role in Israel’s worship, but it is not an idol!  And yet these Philistine priests do not humble themselves and confess that the God of Israel is the only true God.  They do not give up worshipping a piece of wood.  God shows the Philistines that their idol is powerless in His hands.  I mean, the hands of Dagon have fallen off, by the “hands of God”!

I’m not sure exactly what the plague was that was sent to the Philistines, but whatever it was, the Philistines were eager to get rid of it.  They realize that the hand of God is heavy on them and the only way to rid the plague is to get rid of the Ark.  As the Ark gets passed around to different cities, the plague seems to follow.  No one seems to want God in their town.  That reminds me of the time when Jesus crosses the Sea of Galilee and casts the demons from Legion in Mark 5.  The people were terrified of what Jesus had done and asked Him to leave town.  No one wants the One who is most holy in their midst.

For seven months the Ark seems to be held in captivity and the Philistines are plagued under the heavy hand of God.  The only solution is to return the Ark to Israel so they come up with a plan to not send the Ark away empty.  Let me remind you that according to the Law of Moses, a guilt offering was a blood sacrifice – there is no blood in the Philistines golden tumors and rats.  The reason for a guilt offering is the sin of the one offering the sacrifice.  There is no acknowledgement of sin by the Philistines, but rather idolization.  The Philistines do not realize that their offering is an offense to the God of Israel and not an offering.  It is by God’s grace alone that results in the end of the plagues. 

It must have been a fun for the Jew’s in ancient times to retell the story that it took the Philistines 7 slow months to realize that these plagues were the heavy hand of God.  But hold on – the Israelites begin dying in great numbers - why?  Essentially for the same reason:  irreverence for the holy things of God and disobedience to the commands which specifically forbid what they were doing (such as looking at or into the Ark).  It seems the Israelites had no appreciation for the holiness of God and these sacred objects.  Both the Philistines and the Israelites seemed to look upon the Ark as an idol.  Both were seeking to control God, rather than to trust in Him and obey His commands. 

There’s no magical way we can manipulate God and bring Him under our control, so we can satisfy our lusts and indulge in our sinful desires.  We cannot take a symbol of God’s presence along with us, expecting that the symbol guarantees us success in life. 

Samuel is right – you are serious?!?  Are you truly wanting to return to the Lord?  What would it mean for you to get serious about your relationship with God?  What idol do you need to remove?  Or what do you need to “do”?  Or what attitude to you need to change? 

Our iworship Bible suggest this:  For one day, take an inventory of your attitudes and actions.  Look for ways you may have fallen into flippant or casual attitudes toward your relationship with God.  Then list one or two ways you might get more serious about your faith.


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