Samuel, Israel’s last Judge. This account is both humorous and sad at the same time. And don’t forget frustrating….how can we be so dense?
Eli, who judges Israel before Samuel is now 98 years old, blind and overweight. Samuel must be in his mid-20’s to early 30’s, and all Israel recognizes him as a prophet…but not as the Judge. Up until the battle with the Philistines, that honor still belongs to Eli.
What strikes me funny is that Eli is sitting beside the road worrying about the Ark of the Covenant. Really? Do you suppose for one minute that the Ark of the Covenant is in any danger at all? GOD resides with the Ark, nothing is happening to it that God doesn’t allow. Worrying about it’s safety is a waste of time….worse yet, it says something about your faith and trust in God Himself. Eli has lost his perspective, and I believe he lost his connection to God. (not that he was sinful, he simply no longer heard God’s direction for the nation). Here’s why I say that: If Eli still knew what God wanted, He would never have allowed the Ark to enter the battle.
Notice that no one inquires of God about why they are being defeated. The elders had a discussion amongst themselves and decided to go and get the Ark. Here’s a quick lesson. YOU don’t go and get the Ark and take it with you. THE ARK takes you where god wants you to go.
The Ark leads you, you don’t lead it. The elders have drifted so far from God that they have begun to treat God as if He were one of their many idols. They tell the idols what to do, and place them where they want them…now they are trying the same thing with God.
The futility of their thinking is proved out by their defeat in battle. It was inconceivable for the Israelites to be defeated in battle when the Ark lead them. It had only happened one other time that I know of, and that’s when Achan had sinned and…….oh, wait a minute……you don’t think ….
Yep. Israel has sinned. They have worshipped foreign gods for years now and they have treated God’s holy artifact as a lifeless antique of their own creation. The enormity of their sin has escaped them….their false worship has made them blind. The whole nation is as blind and as overweight as their Judge. And as their Judge falls dead to the ground, God turns away from them, and their future looks bleak.
What of the Ark that Eli was so worried about? The Philistines can’t get rid of it quick enough. Within weeks they have brought it back to Israel with a tribute….begging God to forgive them and leave them alone. Did the Ark need anyone to worry about it? I think not. God does not need our protection, we need His.
There have been times in my life when I consider that you and I are the contemporary “Ark of the Covenant”. The Holy Spirit resides within us, we contain God’s Word, and He works in and through us. We have become the “Ark”. In this sense, we shouldn’t ever be worried about what will happen to us….God can protect His own Ark. He may allow us to be captured…we will see false idols fall at His feet.
In another sense, we take a lesson from the people of Israel, the custodians of the Ark. If the Ark is the Word of God, then we have a responsibility to it…to follow it and obey it. We don’t twist it to make it support what we want to do, but instead we allow it to speak to us and guide us to where He wants us to go. We follow the Bible, and the leading of the Holy Spirit…we are followers, not leaders.
Fast forward 20 years. (That’s easy for us to read, but consider for a moment how long that was). Samuel is poised to become the Judge of Israel, and He tells the nation to purge the evil practices from within them, and they will again be victorious in battle. That exact thing happens, as their new Judge has a personal relationship with the Creator, as it should be.
Sadly, the people still don’t understand that they already have a leader. In direct contradiction to what God wants for them, they demand a king. I wonder this morning….did God want his church to have one earthly ruler that commanded everyone else? It doesn’t appear so to me. It seems to me that God was content to have a elders who would listen to Judge that was raised up from time to time, but direction always came from the altar, and from behind the curtain…never from an earthly throne. Our form of government, while it is the best that this world has to offer, and is by far the most responsive and benevolent government on the earth….is still not what God originally intended for His people.
Just something to think about.
Faithfully,
PR