Doing Things Wrong

1st Samuel 4

I don’t know if you guys were like this but I know sometimes my parents wanted me to clean my room or something up a certain way. It always seemed like their way was harder and would take longer than ever; so me being intuitive would take short cuts. I would get the job done but I would always seem to not do that good of a job because I skipped a step that my parents wanted me to do. I would get into trouble because I did not listen all the way. 

In this story of Samuel Israel does something that they think is right but it actually is completely wrong. 

The Way of the World

Samuel was established as a prophet among the land of Israel. He was faithful in doing everything God wanted him to do. It all was because he was faithful at a young age. During this time in Israel they were in constant war with the Philistines. They went up to battle them and they lost pretty bad. The elders and leaders of the Israel decided they did not win because they did not have the Ark of the Covenant out during batle. They took the Ark out of the Tabernacle, where it was supposed to be and they fought against the Philistines again. This time they lost even more men and Eli’s sons, Hopni and Phinehas died. Upon hearing the news of his sons death and the Ark of the Covenant was taken by the Philistines, Eli fell and died. Then the daughter in law was giving birth and heard the news and she was dying.

If we look at this chapter and think about what is going on and how death is happening left and right we must not forget Israel’s state. If you read, you notice that Israel never said, “Let’s go to the Lord before our decision.” For them, the Ark was more powerful than God. Also Eli was the high priest and he was the one that should not have let them take the Ark. He did not make a stand, we do not see him as the high priest seeking the Lord. Everything that Israel did was wrong. They did it all the wrong way. 

We can get stuck in the action of things that who receives the action. What I mean is, we can even put the action of worship or Bible reading or prayer above the one who is that action for, God. We can think we are doing the right things, but if our hearts are not right then we are doing them wrong and doing more harm than good. We need to seek the Lord. We need to make sure our decisions are filtered with not what we think is right but what God would want.