Today we begin 1 Samuel Chapter 4.
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click HERE.
For the King James Version, click HERE.
In your journey with the Lord, ever been called to do something?
Only to find out later the outcome was beyond your wildest nightmares.
This is the huge problem with a theology that teaches that once you surrender yourself to God, your life will be a bed of roses from that point onwards.
I myself fell for that bunk…
Once I became a believer I had these idyllic visions of me meeting some nice girl in the church, having kids and then living some kind of ho-hum “Leave it to Beaver” or “Brady Bunch” type of existence.
Holy cow did things turn out quite the contrary to my expectations!!!
As I and so many others have discovered in their walk with the Lord, more often than not, God only gives us information on a “need to know” basis.
We’re called to surrender our lives to Him…
But that’s all the detail we’re given.
Which is probably a good thing…
Because if we knew what lay ahead, we might decide not to take the journey after all.
A perfect example is what transpired here 1 Samuel Chapter 4.
The opening verses say…
“And the word of Samuel
came to all Israel.
Now Israel went out against
the Philistines to battle,
and pitched beside Ebenezer:
and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.”
-1 Samuel 4:1
See, the Israelites were called to battle the Philistines in the area between Even-Ezer and Afek.
The only problem was they assumed victory…
When not only would they be soundly trounced…
But they’d also lose their precious Ark of the Covenant to enemy hands.
Let’s go over a couple of important details here.
FIRST, we can see the feared Philistines still held much power in the Promised Land…
So God’s original command to Joshua to conquer the land was far from being fulfilled.
SECOND, the opening verse shows that Samuel was now established as a prophet for ALL of Israel…
Not just a couple of tribes which was the norm during the era of the Judges.
To their credit, apparently Eli and his scoundrel sons had no problem accepting Samuel’s authority as a prophet for Israel.
However, it should be noted that Samuel was NOT the general who led Israel into battle.
In fact, we’re not even told who the field general was…
That’s how irrelevant the editor deemed that detail was to this story.
A lot of folks assume Samuel also became a political leader because there seemed to be no one else fit for the job.
But the priesthood, as dysfunctional as it was, still held authority.
Since Eli was the judge and High Priest, he would’ve been the one who gave official approval to Israel to go to war against the Philistines.
And normally the High Priest was present at the battle site…
But since Eli was both blind and infirm, his two sons Hophni and Pinchas accompanied the soldiers into battle instead.
At this point, Eli as High Priest was just a puppet.
He had no real power anymore.
Anyways, let’s transition over to the takeaway…
Which is pretty much what I said in the beginning.
Sometimes the Lord’s directions to us do NOT lead us to the results we expected or wanted.
Consider that most of the original disciples of Yeshua ended up being martyred for their faith.
Seriously, do you think the Hebrew militia of farmers and herdsmen would’ve gone into battle against the Philistines if they knew the tragic outcome awaiting them?
I doubt it.
But this battle was necessary so the Lord could bring His intended judgement upon Israel.
We’ll get into the details of the battle the next time we meet.
Another thing was that, as I recall, there was no usage of the Thumim or Urim to ask God’s guidance on this, and the Ark was taken as a symbol of their faith, but there was no real worship or faith behind it.
This reminds me of when Yeshua said that many will call him “Lord” but he won’t know them: I believe that’s because they were offering lip-service instead of true faith.
The Ark was taken to the battle with the expectation that it would grant them the victory: they expected God to win the battle for them just because they brought the Ark.
That’s not how it works.
Plus, as you will no doubt point out later, the leaders were not faithful followers, but decadent deceivers, and God certainly had plans for them that were not pleasant.
Great points!
Your comment that if we knew what was ahead, we may not take that journey reminded me of when Israel came out of Egypt. The Word says…
Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, “Lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war, and return to Egypt.”
Exodus 13:17 NKJV