Read the passage: 1 Samuel 4
v.1 1. God has a word to guide His people.
(And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out)
the accessibility of the word.
see v. 21 Here God was renewing His commitment to speak to Israel.
God always has a word for His people.
God desires that His people be properly guided.
The way for them to be properly guided is to have truth.
God is the author and presence of truth.
God has a word to guide His people individually and corporately.
v.1 2. God gives His word to accompany a need.
(Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside
Ebenezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.)
Israel had a need, a very great need. (need of battle)
However, they were unaware of an even greater need.
God was communicating a different message to His children. His children had a
different need to forsake and repent of the godlessness; to be restored to
fellowship with a Holy God. There were problems in the priesthood.
Their need was a major need--of utmost significance. It was a present existing
need.
God has an answer for present existing needs of His children.
Believers need to seek God’s answer and counsel after discerning and gaining
God’s insight as to their true need.
The first step is admitting there is a need, then defining and clarifying that need,
then seeking God’s counsel and authority and trusting Him to meet that need.
v.2 3. God’s people often engage themselves in conflict before they have a word from
the Lord.
(And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined
battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the
field about four thousand men.)
God’s people are prone to presume upon God’s guiding presence. Israel
undoubtedly felt God would come to their rescue and defense as He had done
before.
But God was interested in their spiritual condition first.
God is so good. Because the lives of God’s children bear a report of His
goodness, they presume God is with them and will rescue them without regard
to the spiritual neglect of their own lives.
Another problem--God’s people often attempt to live off of yesterday’s faith.
That doesn’t work either. Faith must be fresh. It is a present virtue.
Yesterday reports what happened.
Tomorrow reports what can happen.
Today reports what is happening.
Faith must function in the constant realm of the present.
Thus, God’s people need a word from the Lord to place their faith in--before they
engage themselves in conflict.
To engage in conflict with presumption is to most certainly lead to defeat.
The word is sure, true, proven. To engage in conflict properly reconciled to God,
with the instruction and presence of the Word of God is to gain victory.
v.3 4. God’s people then question or presume upon God’s leadership rather than their
followship or their fellowship.
(And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said,
Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the
ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh
among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.)
When things don’t go as God’s people thought there is generally some form of
inquiry.
God’s people seemingly place themselves last in line or completely off the list of
examination as to possible causes.
God’s people can find others to blame, mechanical or physical things,
circumstances, timing and many excuses.
Often God’s people blame or accuse God of some neglect. How absurd.
If God’s people don’t argue men (enemy included in context) erred then who
else do they place blame on?
God’s people in explaining away the problem avoid the very thing that would
help them.
Being honest with God and allowing the Holy Spirit freedom to search and
examine one’s heart is the pathway to gaining freedom from sin and God’s
abundance. (Ps. 139: 23, 24)
The problem is never with God’s leadership but with man’s fellowship
(obedience).
Even when the problem may be someone else’s obedience there is still a need to
be open to the Holy Spirit’s search, to maintain purity, to be sensitive to the true
needs of others, and to generously and lovingly intercede for others to surrender
to God’s authority.
God turns our failures into a message board- to tell us something is wrong.
v.3 5. Man resorts to human reasoning rather than spiritual assessment and then
develops his own plan.
(…let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, …)
There was not anything wrong with the suggestion. They had just not inquired of
God in the first place.
Because God’s people fail to make accurate spiritual assessment they resort to
human power.
A spiritual objective without following spiritual order.
Then, man resorts to human reasoning which ends up in human planning. Then,
human force is required to carry out human plans.
No wonder man gets in such entanglement and despair.
When his plan doesn’t work he may still fail to make spiritual assessment. He just
reasons he needs to try harder or be more creative. Thus, more of the flesh and
more feelings.
All of this God allows so that men might see that God’s way is perfect and works
and that God always has a plan for His children.
God encourages His children to know Him, to learn His ways, to be separated
unto Him.
v.3 6. God’s people in trouble attempt to symbolize spirituality.
(ark) The ark symbolized God’s presence.
When a believer’s plan fails, it is so hard for him to admit some spiritual problem
or reason exists.
Thus, there is great effort to symbolize spirituality.
A believer is trying to convince himself and/or others that his conduct really was
spiritual.
Anytime things do not happen as God promises there is a reason. God’s child
needs to admit there is a reason and seek that reason under God and deal with
the problem scripturally.
It could be unconfessed sin, or insufficient wisdom, or presumption. It could be
the impairment caused just through spiritual warfare.
Don’t just talk about the problem. Don’t defer-get before God.
God’s people need to be humble and honest, bowing before God, seeking Him.
To symbolize spirituality is to be deceived and causes spiritual failings that breed
further failings and lead to confusion and doubtings. This is not God’s plan, but
believer’s unfaithfulness.
God desires His children to be truly spiritual--in Christ.
v.3 7. God does not honor ones placing hope in His covenant without their placing faith
in the maker of the covenant.
(…when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.)
The ark (which represented God’s covenant to His people) was not what
provided protection--God was.
They had the ark. They were God’s people but weren’t trusting in the God of the
ark.
Some think God will just save them any old way, but He will not without faith
unto salvation (faith in Jesus Christ, the Savior)
saved vs. filled with the spirit.
God’s people may place their hope in many things. (i.e. job, economy, another
person,
possessions, the system, the world order, etc.) They should know better.
(what they think God is pleased with a will accept …)
God’s people can say, “I’m a child of the covenant. I don’t have to do anything”.
God, however, requires them to place faith in Him as maker of the covenant--for
Him to add His blessing.
God’s people are to place their faith and trust in God alone. (can’t trust
reputation or past blessings.)
When God’s people place their trust in the maker of the covenant (salvation is
the new testament covenant’s expression) they find shelter from the storms and
victory at every turn.
Under the covenant abiding faithfully, is the position of honor for God’s children.
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