A Call To The Remnant

1 Sam 4:3 Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh to us, that, when it comes among us, it may save us from the hand of our enemies. 

Just for some context, this scripture occurs about halfway through a 40 year oppression by the Philistines. It had not been that long ago that Samson had been killed. How far they had fallen since his demise. And yet, in the midst of a corrupt priesthood, and perhaps because of it, they go to battle with the Philistines and they are roundly defeated. They do not learn from their defeat as they should but rather they are somewhat angry at God that He had not given them the victory they seemed to believe they deserved. So, they doubled down. Without leadership the people are now doing what seems right to them and the priests do nothing to stop them. How loudly they shouted when the Ark came into their camp. This is men trying to force the hand of God, its not going to end well. In their first defeat they lost 4000 men, in the next defeat they lost 30,000 men and the rest fled for their lives and the Ark was taken.What absolute chaos unfolds when we treat God lightly and try and use Him as some kind of talisman.

Now we may be temped to think how foolish these people were. Let me ask you a question. Have you ever “pleaded the blood,” over something? Have you ever commanded anything in the name of Jesus? Have you heard His voice in the matters that you speak to? When we put God before our troubles as some kind of talisman, usually in the midst of frightening circumstances, did we take a moment and step back and think? What is God saying to us in our troubles? Even in the earthquake and the loud storm there is a still small voice that speaks. Have you searched it out? The circumstances must never determine a quick response. In the end its not about our circumstances, its always about the glory of God. We do not use Him to alleviate our troubles, we use our troubles to draw closer to Him. Trusting in God, whether we live or whether we die, puts trust/faith in its proper context. In this context, glorifying God is the chief end of man. When our circumstances are our chief end, then faith is perverted into a “force,” which can either save us or condemn us depending on how much of the “force,” we have or have not. In simple terms, God is displaced.

The Israelites had bypassed God and used what was supposedly most precious to them to go and engage in an unsanctioned war. They were attempting to determine their own fate by using God in ways that made sense to them. How foolish to believe that God is ever confined by an Ark or a temple or a certain prayer or the so called faith of men. God is never confined by anything, period. If He were He would not be God. It is we, His servants, who are confined and contained by His will and the moment we step outside of His will then we have strayed off the narrow path. No good thing comes to pass when we wander away from His will. In all things we cry out to God. If for one moment the Isrealites had cried out to God and sought Him our before the battle or after the defeat they would not have lost 30,000 men or indeed the Ark itself. The Ark represented the presence of God. What can we do without His presence brothers and sisters? Where would we be without the Lord? He goes before us, certainly. Yet we cannot put Him before us. We cannot do it by a talisman, icons or chanting certain words. He is with us in relationship and only in right relationship. He is God and we are His bond-servants. He alone determines our battles and He alone is to be glorified at all times and sought after and waited upon. Everything else ends in disaster.