1 Samuel 4 Taking God Lightly

 

Introduction

I wonder if you have ever been struck by the fact that despite living in a world dominated by science all kinds of superstitions still exist.

For example, did you know that 54% of Icelanders believe that elves exist and can influence their lives? Or have you ever thought why an increasingly atheistic society still makes a big deal of Christmas?

Well, the reality is we want a domesticated version of God. We can cope with the little baby in the manger, but not the man on the Cross or the Lord on His Heavenly Throne. We want all the comfort of a divine ‘blessing’ without any of the demands of divine holiness. We want to domesticate God, to control God for our purposes.

And this is not just a temptation for the superstitious or pseudo-religious. As God’s People we are also prone to take God, and weight of His Glory and the demands of His holiness, too lightly. We do this when we do not appreciate the reality of who God is and what this means for all of our lives- we do not take seriously the holiness of God and the call of holiness upon our lives.

The same was true for God’s People in the Old Testament. We see this in our passage today as our focus shifts from the rise of Samuel as prophet to the capture of the Ark of the Covenant; it could be understood this way:

A Good Question (wrongly answered)

A Great Irony (that points to a deeper truth)

A Godly Grief (the grace of Godly Discipline)

Today we called to consider if we take God too lightly or do we truly appreciate who God is and the implications of this for all of life. In effect we are being called to consider if we simply want to use God for our purposes or surrender our lives to His perfect purposes.

We see this, firstly, as we consider the events of verses 1 to 11 and see…

A Good Question (wrongly answered)

Our passage begins with the Israelites going out to fight the Philistines in verse 1. The ongoing conflict between Israel and the Philistines is described in The Book of Judges. And here in verse 2 we have the story of another battle in which the Israelites suffer another decisive defeat.

This military defeat provokes Israel’s leaders to reflect theologically; in verse 3 we read:

 ³ When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord bring defeat on us today before the Philistines?

The elders understood, up to a point, what had happened. They did not think that God was somehow absent from this battle. They saw their defeat as an act of God rather than as an achievement of the Philistines. What they did not understand was why.

The leaders ask the right question. But they answered too quickly. Rather than respond with prayerful reflection, they react with religious activity. They do not seek God and His purposes. They seek to use God for their purposes.

They should have paused and allowed the question to bother them for a while. They should have considered their repeated failure to honour God. They should have considered the actions of Hophni and Phineas and their own attitudes to the corruption at Shiloh. They should have remembered the Word of God that came through Samuel.

Ultimately, they should have wondered what purposes God had in their circumstances. Instead, they jump to a rather superstitious conclusion; in verse 4 to 5 we read:

⁴ So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. ⁵ When the ark of the Lord’s covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook. 

The Ark of the Covenant was a symbol of God’s power. It was also portable symbol of God’s presence among His People. It had gone before them into the Promised Land and been present in their defeat of Jericho along the way. And so, the Israelite leaders assume that if they bring the Ark to the battle, God will deliver them once again.

So, God’s People choose religious superstition over sincere faith. They think they can use the Ark to make God to act on their behalf for their purposes. They are interested in military success, not a deepening relationship with the LORD. Their concern is not to seek God but to control Him, not to submit to God’s purposes, but to use Him for their own. In other words, they are not taking God seriously.

And using religious activity to manipulate or control God is common both in the Bible and in our contemporary world. We are no different from the Israelites in Samuel’s day.

In God’s Word we are taught that being God’s People means being holy as He is holy- it is about truly knowing God, growing in personal holiness, and serving the Lord and His Gospel. These are to be the priorities for the Christian life. But how often is this the true motivation behind much Christianity today?

Or, to get more personal, how often is this the true motivation of our own Christianity? In our coming to church each Sunday, reading the Bible each day and even in the way in which we understand the sacraments is our desire to meet with God and be transformed by Him for His Glory? Or simply for God to meet our needs and change our circumstances so we can be happy?

The reality is that often we use God for our own purposes- we want God to change our circumstances rather than change us. But our God is a holy God. Our God is a God of Glory. We cannot take God lightly. The weight of His Glory must come to bear on our lives. We must be holy as He is holy. We must surrender our lives and our wills to Him.

We need to take God seriously. We need to be holy as He is holy as we trust in Christ’s finished work for us at the Cross and pursue increasing Christlikeness in our lives.

True faith is not a series of techniques for manipulating God’s goodwill or earning God’s Love. Rather, it is a humble appeal for God’s mercy and grace, which He has offered through the finished work of Christ on the Cross.

True faith comes to God humbly and confesses sin, trusting in the precious blood, shed by Christ for sin on the Cross. True faith then seeks to glorify God through faithful obedience and loving service.

True faith recognises that we cannot take God lightly, but we must come to Him humbly, trusting in Him fully, and obeying Him completely. True faith seeks to glorify God by looking to Christ as Lord and Saviour in everyday and in every way. True faith does not take God lightly.

A Great Irony…

There is a great irony in verses 5 to 8. While the Israelites do treat God lightly, the Philistines take God seriously.

The Israelites are ecstatic. They assume that now they have their ‘good luck charm’ their victory is assured. On the other hand, the Philistines, are struck with fear at the weightiness of God. So, one army becomes complacent and the other fought with desperation. The result is the Israelites were comprehensively defeated and many lives, including those of Eli’s sons, were lost.

In one sense the Philistines had a better theology than God’s People. They remembered the story of the exodus. They remembered what God can do. They know that this God is not to be taken lightly. They knew they needed to fight harder than ever before.

In another sense, of course, the Philistines have it all wrong. If the Philistines really believed that the God of the exodus had come among the Hebrews, then surely they should have sought the Lord Almighty in humble repentance.

They teach us the need to know who God truly is. We must know that God has revealed Himself in His Word as a God of awesome Glory and amazing grace.

In verses 1 and 2 Israel went into battle without God and lost. In verses 10 to 11 Israel go into battle with God and still lose. They lose because they are seeking to use God; and God cannot be used.

They take God lightly. They do not take God seriously. They did not turn their hearts to God. They did not ask God why He had permitted their earlier defeat. They did not humble themselves and seek first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness. Instead, they used religion and religious activity for their own ends and purposes.

They failed to remember who God truly was. They failed to remember the precious calling He had graciously placed on their lives: to be Holy as He is Holy. They failed to glorify God and enjoy flourishing under His perfect Way.

Today we must be careful we do not fall into a similar temptation. We must seek God and His Will for our lives- in His Word and through heartfelt prayer. We must surrender to His perfect purposes for our lives. We must trust in His perfect love for us, displayed in the Cross of Christ and the call to be Holy as He is Holy.

We cannot use God for our purposes. Instead, we must humbly submit to His perfect Way. We must remember who God truly is and that His ways are not our ways…

A Godly Grief

In verses 12 to 18 the scene changes sharply back to Shiloh. As the narrator relays the events to us we can almost smell the tension in the air, feel the exhaustion of the fleeing Benjamite, sense Elis’s anguish as he waited by the road, and hear the despairing cry of the people when news of this disaster reached the city.

Eli was old and could no longer stand or see. Instead, he sat at the road and waited for news. In verse 13 we are told ‘…his heart feared for the ark of God…’. Despite his incapacity and indecisiveness, he did have a measure of spiritual discernment. He knew the Ark should never have been used in this way and suspected God would deal with Israel’s failure to take Him seriously.

Eli is desperate for news. In due course, via a desolate cry and an exhausted messenger, he hears about Israel’s defeat and the death of his sons. This news he accepts but the shock of the news of the Ark’s capture is just too much.

In verse 18 we witness Eli’s forty years as leader of Israel come to an inglorious end. His excess weight, the result of his overindulgence in the choice part of every sacrifice, is the deciding factor in his demise. God must not be taken lightly. God will bring His weight to bear on those who too easily take God, and weight of His Glory and the demands of His holiness, too lightly.

From the very public events in the city and at the gate, we move to a more private moment. Eli’s pregnant daughter-in-law hears the news and goes into labour in verses 19 and 20. She dies in childbirth, but not before she names her child ‘Ichabod’. Her reasoning for the choice of name is clear in verses 21 and 22:

²¹ She named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The Glory has departed from Israel”—because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. ²² She said, “The Glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”

For Phinehas’s widow, the loss of the ark raised disturbing thoughts.

She may have reasoned that Israel’s link with their God had been lost, or even that the Philistines now controlled the power of God. Her statement that ‘the glory has departed from Israel’ indicates that she realised that God had removed His presence and blessing from Israel. This loss was devasting: the glory has departed from Israel.

In an important sense, Phinehas’s widow was right, for the Ark was gone and God’s chastisement was falling heavy on His People. There was no hope for God’s People now that God, and His glory, had departed.

This understanding would very soon be proved wrong, however. God had by no means been captured, but things in Israel had changed. Eli and his family were dead. Shiloh was no longer the centre of political or religious life. It was the end of an era.

Throughout history people have often drawn the conclusion that a particular tragic event must mean God is no longer powerful, no longer cares, is no longer present. Think of how often when personal tragedy strike people will turn from God believing He no longer cares, or is no longer there.

But, as People of God’s Word, we know this is not true. We know, because it is the constant theme of God’s Word, that in these moments God is at work for the good of His People and the Glory of His Name.

We must understand that God is always at work for the good of His People and the glory of His name. God will always do what is necessary to shape His People into the people He desires them to be. At times He will shape circumstances for our growth in grace. At other times He will exercise the grace of Godly discipline.

When Israel was taken into exile in Babylon, the sense that God was not powerful enough or did not care enough was very strong. However, the prophet Ezekiel reminded God’s People that their exile was not a sign of God’s powerlessness but a display of His sovereign judgement. He had ordained their exile so that His purposes might be fulfilled. They, like we, needed to be reminded that God’s power and presence are not demonstrated only in the ways we believe to be appropriate.

God will no longer exile His People because Christ suffered exile on our behalf. And because Christ has stood in our place and received the judgement we deserve we no longer fear God’s loving discipline.

And God will discipline His People. Indeed, God’s Word tells us that His discipline is a sign of His love. Like any truly loving father, our Heavenly Father will deal with sinful attitudes and habits that prevent us from maturing fully in our faith and enjoying the fullness of a holy life.

And at times God will distance Himself from His People- it may even feel like the Glory of God has departed from us. But He does this so that we might seek Him in humble repentance. He does this so that we might draw closer to Him in deeper bonds of communion with a keener since of His awesome power and amazing grace.

 

Conclusion

1 Samuel Chapter 4 is a solemn and sobering story; a call to repentance and a call to remember.

In the capture of the Ark we see that when God’s People persist in wickedness God will act to remind His People who He truly is: a God of awesome glory and amazing grace. Today, in Christ, we are free to wholeheartedly repent of sin and regain a burning passion for Christ and His Gospel!

We are called to repent and to remember.

We our to turn from our sinful desire and remember our sacred calling is to be holy as He is holy. To feel the weight of God’s glory and the immensity of His grace. To recognise all we have in Christ and live accordingly. Today we must surrender all to God and rest in His perfect purposes.