TURNING BACK TO GOD

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

It was a long time, twenty years in all, that the ark remained at Kiriath Jearim, and all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord. And Samuel said to the whole house of Israel, "If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines."

So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.

Then Samuel said, "Assemble all Israel at Mizpah and I will intercede with the Lord for you."

When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day, they fasted and there they confessed, "We have sinned against the Lord." And Samuel was leader of Israel at Mizpah.

When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them. And when the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. They said to Samuel, "Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that He may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines."

Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it up as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel's behalf, and the Lord answered him.

While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day, the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far has the Lord helped us."

So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again.

Throughout Samuel's lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines. The towns from Ekron to Gath that the Philistines had captured from Israel were restored to her, and Israel delivered the neighboring territory from the power of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

Samuel continued as judge over Israel all the days of his life. From year to year, he went on a circuit from Bethel to Gilgal to Mizpah, judging Israel in all those places. But he always went back to Ramah, where his home was, and there he also judged Israel. And he built an altar there to the Lord.

1 Samuel 7:2-14

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As chapter 6 of 1st Samuel closed, the ark of the Lord had been returned to the Israelites at Beth Shemesh and we saw where they rejoiced and celebrated until seventy of their men were struck down by God for looking into the ark.

Instead of seeing the act as it was, God’s judgment on a group of disobedient men, the people of Beth Shemesh thought the problem was the ark itself and so they sought to give it away, finding takers in the men of Kiriath Jearim who kept it for twenty years. During this time, the scriptures tell us “all the people of Israel mourned and sought after the Lord”. Actually, I like the New Living Translation’s version of this text as it actually gives us a better feel for what the people were going through. It reads:

“During that time all Israel mourned because it seemed the Lord had abandoned them.”

Quick question…

Have you ever gone through a period of time when you felt a sense of grief over feeling the Lord had abandoned you?

Well, going back to our scripture passage, we find the Israelites at Kiriath Jearim receiving counsel from Samuel, the once young boy who had grown up in the temple under the tutelage of Eli, the high priest. Now grown and a judge of Israel, we see him offering spiritual guidance to the “whole house of Israel” saying:

"If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines."

In other words, the reason that God seemed so distant from the Israelites is because they had spiritually distanced themselves from Him, turning instead to the false gods of the Canaanites.

Well, we read where the Israelites listened to Samuel’s counsel and “put away their Baals and Ashtoreths”, choosing to serve God only, and it was then that we find Samuel going before the Lord and interceding for them after calling them to assemble at Mizpah.

Here, we find an important life application principle for we’re reminded that we can only get right with God when we give up everything in our lives that distance us from Him, namely our sin. We have to fully commit to surrender our sinful nature, exchanging it for the righteousness that only He can give.

This is just what we see the Israelites do as they “assembled at Mizpah”. We read where they drew out water and pouring it out before the Lord, an expression of remorse, before fasting and confessing:

"We have sinned against the Lord."

To repair our relationship with the Lord today, we only need to follow this lead of the Israelites, coming clean about the sins He is already very well aware of in repentance with the desire of returning to a life of obedience and a will to follow His way and His way alone. When we do this, we can expect that the Lord will extend His gifts of forgiveness, grace, and love. Then, and this is the most important step, we need to make sure we don’t repeat the sinfulness again. We need to stay true to our word and turn away from anything that could once again distance us from our Lord.

Back to the scriptures where we know Israel had repented and confessed before the Lord, giving up everything that had distanced them from Him. Now they were ready to experience His favor.

For we read that the Philistines had heard about Israel’s assembly at Mizpah and decided to attack them, an act that threw the Israelites into fear of another slaughter and so they went to Samuel saying:

“Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that He may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines."

And Samuel did just that, interceding for his brothers and sisters by taking a suckling lamb and offering it up as a “whole burnt offering to the Lord” while crying “out to the Lord on Israel's behalf”, an act that led to the Lord listening to him.

We see first-hand here how the Lord will listen to our cries for His help once we turn from our wicked, sinful ways and pour out our sincere, heartfelt confessions before Him. We need to remember that He loves us more than we could ever know and wants to partner with us to ensure we live in ways that are righteous, holy, and pleasing in His sight. The truth is that God can’t yoke Himself to sin and so if we continue to allow it to dominate what we think, say, and do then we can’t expect that the Lord will be close to us. We must choose to either embrace Him or our transgressions. We can’t have both.

Well thankfully, Israel chose right. They chose the Lord and He rewarded them with deliverance. For “while Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering”, the scriptures tell us that “the Philistines drew near to engage…in battle”. Little did they know that Israel’s God was waiting for them as He “thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed”. We read where the “men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Car”. The victory was so one-sided that the Philistines were “subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again”.

Further, we see where God continued to keep His hand “against the Philistines” throughout Samuel’s lifetime and He restored all the towns that had been captured from Israel, from “Ekron to Gath” to the “neighboring territory”. The Lord removed it all from “the power of the Philistines” and also brought “peace between Israel and the Amorites”.

All and all, we see where a lot changed for the good of the Israelites after they turned back to God and restored their relationship with Him.

The same can be true for any of us today when we follow the simple steps outlines within this passage.

First, we need to turn from our sinful ways, confessing our wrongs with genuine repentance.

Next, we need to receive the Lord’s grace, mercy, and love with thanksgiving.

Finally, we need to dedicate ourselves toward not sinning again, crying out to the Lord for His help because none of us are strong enough to fight off temptation on our own. And as the Lord empowers us to avoid transgression, He also leads and guides us to right and righteous living through the power of His Word and Holy Spirit. Ultimately, we trade in the enemy for the Savior who longs to walk alongside us in this life as we journey to the better life to come, the life when we abide with Him forever and will never have to worry about sin again.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

SHOWING THE LORD PROPER RESPECT

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

"Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to Him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us and that it happened to us by chance."

So they did this. They took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves. They placed the ark of the Lord on the cart and along with it the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors. Then the cows went straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way; they did not turn to the right or to the left. The rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh.

Now the people of Beth Shemesh were harvesting their wheat in the valley, and when they looked up and saw the ark, they rejoiced at the sight. The cart came to the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and there it stopped beside a large rock. The people chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. The Levites took down the ark of the Lord, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock. On that day, the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord. The five rulers of the Philistines saw all this and then returned that same day to Ekron.

These are the gold tumors the Philistines sent as a guilt offering to the Lord - one each for Ashdod, Gaza, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron. And the number of the gold rats was according to the number of Philistine towns belonging to the five rulers — the fortified towns with their country villages. The large rock, on which they set the ark of the Lord, is a witness to this day in the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh.

But God struck down some of the men of Beth Shemesh, putting seventy of them to death because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. The people mourned because of the heavy blow the Lord had dealt them, and the men of Beth Shemesh asked, "Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?"

Then they sent messengers to the people of Kiriath Jearim, saying, "The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to your place."

So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord. They took it to Abinadab's house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord.

1 Samuel 6:7-21, 7:1

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

At the start of 1 Samuel, chapter 6, we read where the Philistines were trying to get rid of the ark of God because God send a plague of tumors on the people of every city the ark ended up. This led to the nation desperately wanting to get rid of the ark and so they consulted their pagan priests and diviners for guidance, being advised to not return the ark to Israel without also providing a guilt offering. You’ll remember that the prescribed guilt offering was to be in the form of five gold tumors and five gold rats.

As we turn to today’s passage and the rest of this chapter into the opening verse of chapter 7, we find the priests and diviners offering additional direction to the Philistine people, saying:

"Now then, get a new cart ready, with two cows that have calved and have never been yoked. Hitch the cows to the cart, but take their calves away and pen them up. Take the ark of the Lord and put it on the cart, and in a chest beside it put the gold objects you are sending back to Him as a guilt offering. Send it on its way, but keep watching it. If it goes up to its own territory, toward Beth Shemesh, then the Lord has brought this great disaster on us. But if it does not, then we will know that it was not His hand that struck us and that it happened to us by chance."

Here we see where the direction the cart and cows would travel would indicate whether the suffering they were going through was from God or just by happenstance.

And so the Philistines followed the guidance given. The scriptures tell us that they “took two such cows and hitched them to the cart and penned up their calves” before placing “the ark of the Lord on the cart” with “the chest containing the gold rats and the models of the tumors”. They then set the cart on its way and watched as the cows went “straight up toward Beth Shemesh, keeping on the road and lowing all the way”…not turning to the right or to the left. In keeping watch over the path the cows took, we read where “the rulers of the Philistines followed them as far as the border of Beth Shemesh”.

The end result made things crystal clear. The judgment that came down on the Philistines was definitely intentional and from the God of Israel.

Well, as the cows and cart carrying the ark of God and the guilt offering reached the Israelite territory of Beth Shemesh, we read where it stopped beside a large rock in the “field of Joshua” and was seen by the Israelites who were “harvesting their wheat in the valley”. The mere sight of the ark caused the people to rejoice and the scriptures tell us that they “chopped up the wood of the cart and sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord”. The Levites then “took down the ark of the Lord, together with the chest containing the gold objects, and placed them on the large rock” and “the people of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices to the Lord” that day.

As for the “five rulers of the Philistines, they “returned that same day to Ekron” after viewing the sacrifices being made.

So all seemed to be fine in Beth Shemesh. The ark of the Lord had returned and the people celebrated, bringing their offerings and sacrifices before God. Indeed, all was well and would remain that way as long as the people remained faithful and loyal to God’s commands but unfortunately, as we have seen in the past, this didn’t seem to be in the Israelites’ nature. For no matter how hard they tried, they just couldn’t seem to avoid the temptation of disobedience.

So what happened in Beth Shemesh to spoil all the celebrating?

Well, we read where seventy men were struck down by God because they “looked into the ark of the Lord”. The law found in the 4th chapter of the Book of Numbers provided strict guidelines for the handling of the ark and this included anyone who was not a priest looking “at the holy things”, even “for a moment” for if they did, they would die (verse 20). And that’s just what happened in this instance as the seventy men violated the law and paid the price for it.

Within this, we’re reminded of just how powerful an evil temptation is when unchecked. The inability to restrain from looking into the ark brought fatal consequences for the seventy men at Beth Shemesh and it left the people mourning as they wondered among themselves:

“Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?"

The question was valid indeed for God has no rival or equal. No mere human being is on His level. Not even close.

The fact of the matter is that no one this side of Heaven will see Him face-to-face until they pass from this earthly life and into the eternal promise that He has given them through their belief in His son, Jesus Christ. Until then, they are to be His humble servants, ever bowing down in worship and ready to carry out His will and way. For all Christian believers, He is their Heavenly Father and they are His children who are to honor their Father in all they do.

So let’s make sure that we never become so bold as to think we are on an even level with God for He and He alone is perfectly holy, infinitely omnipotent, mighty, and sovereign over all things. In response to this, all believers are to approach Him with absolute meekness and reverence, showing utter admiration for who He is and will always be. Our every day needs to be lived out with a mindset of total surrender, submission, and thanksgiving for the incredible mercy, grace, and love He gives those who place their faith in Him.

My friends, this is the proper way to show our Lord proper respect and when we do, we will find ourselves in good standing before Him, the place we should always want to be.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

NOT LEARNING FROM THE PAST

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place."

They answered, "If you return the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means send a guilt offering to Him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why His hand has not been lifted from you."

The Philistines asked, "What guilt offering should we send to Him?"

They replied, "Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and pay honor to Israel's God. Perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land. Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When He treated them harshly, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?”

1 Samuel 6:1-6

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

After capturing the ark of God from Israel, the Philistines held it for seven months during which time the Lord sent great affliction on them in the form of tumors which struck people wherever the ark was being held. This led the Philistine people to desperately seek to get rid of the ark and so we see in today’s scripture passage from the opening verses of 1 Samuel, chapter 6, that they consulted their pagan “priests and diviners”. Look again at those words here:

When the ark of the Lord had been in Philistine territory seven months, the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the Lord? Tell us how we should send it back to its place."

They answered, "If you return the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means send a guilt offering to Him. Then you will be healed, and you will know why His hand has not been lifted from you."

The Philistines asked, "What guilt offering should we send to Him?"

They replied, "Five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers, because the same plague has struck both you and your rulers. Make models of the tumors and of the rats that are destroying the country, and pay honor to Israel's God. Perhaps He will lift His hand from you and your gods and your land. Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When He treated them harshly, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?” Vv.1-6

Here we read where the Philistines were advised to “return the ark of the God of Israel” away empty but rather with “a guilt offering to Him” (Israel’s God). The pagan advisors told the people that if they sent a guilt offering they would “be healed and…know why His (God’s) hand has not been lifted from you."

This led to the Philistines next inquiring about what guilt offering to give to Israel’s God and the guidance was to take “five gold tumors and five gold rats, according to the number of the Philistine rulers” as the “same plague” that had struck the people had struck the rulers as well. And so the people were to “make models of the tumors and of the rats” that were “destroying the country and pay honor to Israel's God”. If they did this, then there would be a chance that the God of Israel would “lift His hand from (them) and (their) gods and…land”.

Of interest here, we don’t know where the rats came into play but perhaps they were the instrument by which the people became infected with the tumors. This is pure speculation but we do know that the rats were involved somehow and this is why they were to be modeled in gold like the tumors.

We should also note here that there was absolutely no certainty that what the pagan priests and diviners prescribed would even work. They certainly weren’t speaking on behalf of God and we know He is the only One who was (and is) in control. No one can dictate to Him as to what He will do.

Going back to the passage for today, we see where the priests and diviners weren’t done counseling the Philistines. For we find them asking one very important question:

“Why do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh did? When He treated them harshly, did they not send the Israelites out so they could go on their way?”

In other words, the Philistines were being rebuked for not learning from the past mistakes of other nations who tried to go against Israel’s God and failed. The pagan priests and diviners were essentially accusing their people of repeating the mistakes of the Egyptians and Pharaoh by hardening their hearts and stubbornly discounting the power of Israel’s God. And so like Egypt and Pharaoh before, the Philistines were now paying a heavy price while experiencing the might of Israel’s God the hard way.

Now, consider how often people today are like the Philistines. They read the scriptures and see all these examples of stubborn, hard-hearted people who willingly choose to either disregard or disobey God. They also can clearly see how God doesn’t tolerate this attitude and behavior, dealing with it harshly with severe consequences, and yet, they refuse to learn from the mistakes of the past and end up being disciplined just as the Lord did in the past.

Further, too many people then repeat their past mistakes over and over again. The truth of the matter is that in our humanity, we each have weaknesses that we seem to struggle with. I know I do.

So how do we deal with those weaknesses, especially when Satan knows how to exploit them and draw us into sin?

We turn to the One and only One who always leads us into righteousness and away from wickedness. For we can only find the strength to overcome our temptations and shortcomings when we place our full faith and trust in Him and Him alone. The bottom line is that we are no way near strong enough to deal with them ourselves for if we were, we wouldn’t keep failing over and over again.

So friends, it’s time for us to let go and let God take control of our lives. If we do then we will find ourselves able to withstand sin’s attacks when they come. If we don’t, then we’ll end up like the Philistines, the Egyptians, and countless other people groups throughout history who had to learn the hard way through God’s imposed consequences and discipline.

There is no doubt that sin is not going away until Jesus returns and will continue to afflict us all until that day comes or when we die, whichever comes first. Until that time, we had better pay attention to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and the scriptures…the only guidance that is always perfectly true and reliable…committing ourselves to willful obedience and loyalty towards our almighty Maker and Master for He deserves and expects nothing less than that.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

REJECT OR ACCEPT: IT'S A MATTER OF CHOICE

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

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** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The Lord's hand was heavy upon the people of Ashdod and its vicinity; He brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumors. When the men of Ashdod saw what was happening, they said, "The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because His hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god."

So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, "What shall we do with the ark of the god of Israel?"

They answered, "Have the ark of the god of Israel moved to Gath."

So they moved the ark of the God of Israel.

But after they had moved it, the Lord's hand was against that city, throwing it into a great panic. He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors.

So they sent the ark of God to Ekron.

As the ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, "They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people."

So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people." For death had filled the city with panic; God's hand was very heavy upon it. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumors, and the outcry of the city went up to Heaven.

1 Samuel 5:6-12

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

After defeating the Israelites on two occasions, the latter of which also saw them capture the cherished ark of God, the Philistines were emboldened and confident but they were well aware of Israel’s God and the kind of special power He possessed, a power that had “struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness” (1 Samuel 4:8). And yet, they chose to disrespect this mighty God by placing the ark bearing His name before their false god Dagon in his temple…and we know how God had commanded that there would be no gods before Him.

Given all this, it should come as no surprise that the Philistines come under God’s punishment, suffering great affliction as we see in today’s passage. After breaking the idol of Dagon, He now would break the spirit of the Philistine people.

This began in Ashdod where “Lord's hand was heavy upon the people” in its vicinity, bringing “devastation upon them” and afflicting them with tumors. With this localized in Ashdod, the men of the city quickly figured out that the source of the problem was the ark of God which was being held there. They proclaimed:

“The ark of the god of Israel must not stay here with us, because His hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon our god."

And so they came up with a solution after conferring with the “all the rulers of the Philistines”, deciding to move the ark of God to another Philistine city called Gath.

Well, once the ark arrived in Gath, “the Lord's hand (went) against that city, throwing it into a great panic” as “He afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumors”. Thus Gath suffered the same fate as Ashdod and so the city quickly dispatched the ark to yet another Philistine city called Ekron.

As we see in the scriptures, the people of Ekron weren’t very thrilled to see the ark of God enter their city as they cried out:

“They have brought the ark of the god of Israel around to us to kill us and our people."

Their words showed that they were obviously aware of what had happened in Ashdod and Gath and knew a similar fate was about to come upon them and so they wanted nothing to do with the ark, just as they wanted nothing to do with Israel’s God. Still, we read where “death had filled the city with panic” and “God's hand was very heavy upon” Ekron as “those who did not die were afflicted with tumors and the outcry of the city went up to Heaven.” The depth of Ekron’s affliction was so great that they summoned all the Philistine rulers and made the following demand:

“Send the ark of the god of Israel away; let it go back to its own place, or it will kill us and our people.”

Here, we see where the Philistines clearly thought their problems would be solved by getting rid of the ark of the God of Israel and, in doing so, eliminating the curse that had come upon them. In other words, instead of simply accepting Israel’s God and choosing to follow Him, they chose to reject Him and send Him away. This was how they resolved to fix their problem.

This got me thinking that sometimes people today are just like the Philistines. They choose to turn from God in life and when they face His discipline for their sinfulness, they decide to just further distance themselves from Him even more. In other words, in instances when they should be drawing nearer to the Lord, repenting from their wrongs and receiving His pardon and loving forgiveness, they instead blame Him for all their troubles and harbor feelings of contempt for Him.

It’s sad to think that all the Philistines had to do was fall prostrate before the God of Israel, the place where their idol Dagon ended up. Had they just confessed their sin and opted to adopt the God of Israel as their own, things could have gone so much differently but they didn’t go that way and suffered the consequences of their choices.

Friends, we need to learn from the errors of the Philistine people or be faced with similar outcomes. For there is a definitive warning within this passage for all believers and non-believers:

God, the almighty and infinite Maker and Creator of all things will not accept being rejected by the people He made. He demands and deserves nothing short of full acceptance and obedience…now and forever.

To that end, my prayer today is that all people will one day heed these words of the Lord from the Book of Isaiah as He says to all:

"Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other. By Myself I have sworn, My mouth has uttered in all integrity a Word that will not be revoked: Before Me every knee will bow; by Me every tongue will swear. They will say of Me, 'In the Lord alone are righteousness and strength.'" Isaiah 45:22-24a

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

NO ONE GREATER

Can I pray for you in any way?

Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

After the Philistines had captured the ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside Dagon. When the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord!

They took Dagon and put him back in his place. But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord! His head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold; only his body remained.

That is why to this day neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who enter Dagon's temple at Ashdod step on the threshold.

1 Samuel 5:1-5

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Chapter four of 1 Samuel documented two confrontations between the Israelites and Philistines and you may recall that after being soundly defeated by the Philistines in the first battle, the Israelites decided to send the ark of God ahead of their forces in the second fight, thinking the ark alone would bring them victory.

Well, you’ll remember that disaster followed as 30,000 Israelite foot soldiers were killed along with Eli’s two sons, the priests Hophni and Phinehas. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the Philistines also captured the ark of God and took it to their camp.

In today’s message from chapter 5, we pick up there as the Philistines begin to see that they should have left the ark alone.

Speaking of those Philistines, they were obviously feeling very confident after consecutive wins over Israel and it’s also obvious that they largely credited their gods for delivering the victories. To underscore this, we read where they decided to put their newly acquired ark of God in the temple of their chief god Dagon, setting it beside the idol. Once fearing the God of Israel, the Philistines now placed the ark of that God before their false god as if it had triumphed.

They were wrong.

For the scriptures tell us that “when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day”, they found their idol Dagon “fallen on his face on the ground before the ark of the Lord!” And so not really thinking anything of this, we read where they “took Dagon and put him back in his place”.

But the next morning “when they rose”, they found the idol Dagon fallen again on its face “before the ark of the Lord” only this time “his head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold” with only his body remaining. God had told the people of Israel that there would be no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:3) and in Dagon’s temple, we find Him making good on His Word, ensuring the false god was where it belonged,

And as we will soon see, He will have the Philistine people doing the same next.

Through all this, we clearly see that the Philistines erred by trying to place the one true God second to their false one. When it was all said and done, God ensured that He would be restored to His rightful place, sovereign above all things.

You know, sometimes we too make the same mistake as the Philistines, placing God second in our lives behind something else. We seem to be easily distracted by the things of life, so much so that we allow them to steal away our time and talent. And so as we are forced into constantly having to prioritize things, too often we don’t put the Lord first. Instead, we try and just fit Him in after we’ve dealt with other things. And when we put Him off, then we tend to just abandon Him altogether, exhausted from handling matter of life on any one day. Then, when we defer Him until the next day and the same thing happens, you can see where He is eventually completely squeezed out of our life because we have allowed too many things to take precedence over Him.

Maybe you can relate and if I’m honest, there have been times in my life when I know I got this wrong.

Now, think about how God must feel in regard to this kind of attitude. The God who has given us everything and only wants the best for us…the God who gave His Son as a living sacrifice for you and me so we might not perish from our sins but instead have the opportunity for eternal life…the Lord God Almighty who gave us His best first…deserves far better than us making Him second to anything.

Friends, it’s high time that we get our priorities straight in life or our God will do it instead. For if we don’t come before Him, humbly submitting ourselves to Him and His authority, then He will most certainly bring us there, just as He did Dagon, even if it means having to break us in some way. One way or another, we will bow before Him, giving Him the honor and respect He deserves.

Ultimately, we need to never lose sight that there is no entity greater than our God, the Maker of Heaven and earth, the Master over all created things. It’s high time He is revered and placed where He belongs in the order of life…always first and receiving the best His people can give…all of their first fruits…now and forever more.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.

LOSING FAITH...SURRENDERING HOPE

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

That same day, a Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh, his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he arrived, there was Eli sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching, because his heart feared for the ark of God. When the man entered the town and told what had happened, the whole town sent up a cry.

Eli heard the outcry and asked, "What is the meaning of this uproar?" The man hurried over to Eli, who was ninety-eight years old and whose eyes were set so that he could not see. He told Eli, "I have just come from the battle line; I fled from it this very day."

Eli asked, "What happened, my son?" The man who brought the news replied, "Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured."

When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man and heavy. He had led Israel forty years.

His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. As she was dying, the women attending her said, "Don't despair; you have given birth to a son." But she did not respond or pay any attention.

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. She said, "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured."

1 Samuel 4:12-22

This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

As we saw in yesterday’s message, the first part of 1 Samuel, chapter 4, covers two battles between the Israelites and the Philistines with Israel being soundly defeated both times while suffering heavy casualties, particularly in the second battle when 30,000 soldiers died along with Hophni and Phinehas, the two priests who were the sons of the high priest Eli. Additionally, the Philistines also captured the hallowed ark of God.

Well, as we pick up where we left off and look at the remaining verses of this chapter, we see the continued fallout from the major defeats suffered by Israel…and within that fallout, we witness what can happen to God believers when they allow themselves to lose faith.

Now, we have already seen earlier indications of confusion and despair from the elders of the people of Israel as well as the people they led as they wondered how the losses to the Philistines could have happened. In fact, we see where they even begin to question their standing with God after things didn’t go well.

Of course, as we discussed previously, things could have turned out very differently if the Israelite elders and people had consulted God before they entered into conflict to make sure that it was His will for them to fight. It would have been the only way they could have guaranteed they were doing the right thing but all that was moot because they chose to make their own decisions with disastrous results.

Going back to our scripture passage for today, we read where a “Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh, his clothes torn and dust on his head”. Once in Shiloh, he reported the bad news of what had happened in the battle and this news caused the town’s people to send up a cry. This cry got the attention of the high priest Eli who was “sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching, because his heart feared for the ark of God”. The scriptures tell us that he was now “ninety-eight years old” with eyesight so bad that “he could not see”. He asked aloud:

"What is the meaning of this uproar?"

This prompted the Benjamite man to come to him (Eli) and give this report:

"I have just come from the battle line; I fled from it this very day."

And after Eli asked what happened in the battle, the man told him this:

“Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured."

We read where Eli didn’t take the news well for as soon as he heard it, he “fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate”, breaking his neck and dying when the ark of God was mentioned. Of special interest here, we should note that it was the news of the ark’s capture that troubled Eli more than the loss of his sons. Perhaps this is because he knew the Lord had told him it would happen and so the surprise wasn’t as great as the news regarding the ark.

And so Eli was dead and I find it a bit fascinating that a man who had dedicated so much of his life to faithfully serving the Lord in His temple would all of a sudden lose his faith to the point of reacting the way he did and dying in the process. Rather than going to God immediately and inquiring about what His plan was moving forward, Eli just allowed himself to be consumed by the negative circumstances presented to him. It reminds us that he was just as imperfect as other prominent figures we read about in the Bible…and just as imperfect as we are today.

Well after all this, the scriptures introduce us to Eli’s “daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas” who “was pregnant and near the time of delivery”. She too received bad news when “she heard…that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead”. The heartbreaking report caused her to go into a fatal labor with great pain before she gave birth and although the woman attending to her tried to comfort her despair by telling her she had delivered a son, Phinehas’ wife “did not respond or pay any attention”. We do read though that she named her son Ichabod before she died, a name that literally means no glory. She underscored the naming by saying:

“The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured."

She had lost her husband and father in law and now she was dying as well. All of it caused her to lose faith and hope along with it.

All of this taken in whole raises one serious question we all need to ponder:

How should we handle tragedy when it happens in our lives?

You see, I think we all can agree that it’s easy to be faithful when everything goes right in life. In fact, there would be little need for faith if our lives were perfectly trouble-free.

With this, we know that it’s in times of trial that our faith is tested and as we persevere through trouble, we find the Lord taking our faith and refining it…removing impurities and fortifying us so we might grow strong enough to overcome our challenges.

As we see with Eli and Phinehas’ wife, one’s inability to properly cope with tragedy can sometimes be fatal. For when we place our hope in anything other than the Lord, we run the risk of losing the thing we hope in, whether a possession or a person, and finding our faith gone with it.

I feel this is why people have such a difficult time handling the loss of a loved one for they have placed all their faith, hope, and trust in someone who can and will perish…and when that person dies, a void is left in the heart…a void that can only be filled by the Lord. Frankly, it would have been so much easier if the Lord had just been there in the first place.

Our Savior Jesus did some teaching that reinforces this within His famous Sermon on the Mount. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, we find Him saying this:

“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” v.21

How should we apply this as Christian believers?

I think Jesus is trying to remind us to make Him the one and only true Treasure in life for all things are by and through Him…the One who is the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). And when we make Jesus our Treasure then we find ourselves ever in Him and His Holy Spirit, empowered to handle any and all situations, whether good or bad, with an unwavering faith and unmovable hope.

My brothers and sister, this is amazing good news for us to remember as we live this thing called life…that we can do all things (and this includes handling all things) through Christ Jesus who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). If Paul could feel that way while in Roman imprisonment, we can do likewise within our circumstances.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.