1 Samuel 4-6

When Israel went out to fight the Philistines was God ready to deliver them?  They had been ignoring God for years and so he had sent the Philistines to oppressively rule over them (Judges 13:1).  Though Samson had demoralized the Philistines they did not surrender their control of Israel.  Scripture isn’t clear what precipitated this engagement, but the first day’s loss of 10,000 men (4:2) should have let them know that God was not with them.  But rather than seeking to find the root cause of their oppression Israel chose to “force” the God to fight for them.  This foolish choice was more costly than their previous battle.  Thirty thousand warriors of Israel died during the battle in which the ark of God’s covenant was present; three times the loss as when they fought on their own.  But Israel learned that the external appearance of the God of Israel was not a guarantee of the presence of the God of Israel.  Nor would it force him to display his power.  In actuality they were treating the LORD in the same way the Philistines treated Dagon.  That idol required human hands to lift him from the ground when no human put him there (1 Samuel 5:1-4).   This is a visual reminder of the truth that Paul shared in 2 Timothy 3:5 when he warned Timothy of the emptiness of people who would surround and infiltrate the church; “having a form of godliness but denying its power.”

Stuart