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            I Samuel Chapter four is a sad story about a people who had forgotten about God, a priest whose sons had sinned against God, and the tragic results. God had warned through the young Samuel about coming judgement since the Priest Eli had failed to discipline his wayward sons.  The chapter opens with an account of a battle between Israel and the Philistines.  Israel was camped at Ebenezer a name the meaning of which is intended to remind everyone that God’s help had been with them. It appears that reminder in this case failed to remind.  The Philistines won the battle of the day and Israel lost 4000 soldiers. The elders asked “Why did the Lord allow us to be defeated? (Verse 3). Nobody seemed to directly answer that question nor was there any mention of the displeasure of God over the sin in their midst.

The solution they concluded was to take the Ark of the Covenant into the next battle with them. After all this seemed to bring success in previous battles. But the result was even worse, Israel lost 30,000 soldiers! They failed to realize that the Ark symbolized the presence of God, but without God’s presence it was simply another box.  God’s presence and his glory had departed from them because of their sin and their failure to remember how the presence of God had been instrumental in their success in battles past.

I believe we all have tendency to forget how important the presence of God is in our personal lives and in the life of our church. When we do that, we become like the Israel of I Samuel chapter four. We think we can do it on our own. We forget that it is only by the grace and mercy of God that we have been saved.  It is only by his presence and power that we can live out the plans he has for us. Chapter four reminds us what we can expect when we try to do it in our own strength.

But the other lesson from this chapter is that when we finally realize we can’t do it on our own we can’t assume that God’s power and presence will immediately come to our aid if we are living with unaddressed sin in our lives. The unanswered and unaddressed question for Israel was: “Why did the Lord allow us to be defeated?" Perhaps an equally important question for us is: Why are we not seeing the power of God more at work in our churches and in our lives?

Pastor Dave