1 Samuel 6
1 Samuel 6, James 4:6
During the season of Lent I took on a new habit of memorizing scripture. I would memorize a verse a week, the idea coming to mind as I was processing discipline of all things. I have a two year old, and he is in the trenches of learning about actions and consequences. He has absolutely no way to know what is right or wrong and it is my job to teach him. As his mother, I don’t just want him to obey me because I am the authority. I want him to obey me because he loves me and because he trusts that I know what is best for him. As a believer, the only guide I have as to what is right and wrong, is what God illuminates to me in the scriptures through His Holy Spirit. Therefore, the only way for me, and my son, to walk in the way everlasting (Psalm 139: 24) is to have scripture written on our hearts. Stored away for when the tests and trials come.
The ark had brought great trouble and hardship to the Philistines. They recognized what they had done angered the Hebrew God, but only as one of the many deities whose favor they sought. They were able to ignore the demand to worship Him alone because, to them, He was just one God in the sea of gods they desired to please. They were unfamiliar with the scriptures, therefore their guilt offering was nothing like what God prescribed in Leviticus (5:14-6:7, 7:1-10). To them, the God of Israel was just one ingredient of a successful life.
How often do we treat God like this? Like our little genie in a bottle, that we can just pull out when we need something. We are a forgetful people. Again and again, we are forgetting who God is and what He has done for us. God knows everything about us. He knows everything we’ve been through, every thought we have, every passion, desire and fear. The incredible thing about our God is that He isn’t just a powerful king, He is our Heavenly Father. As the one who knows us best, He disciplines us and allows the consequences of our actions to sanctify us. The Israelites had made an idol out of the ark, and because of their disobedience God carried out His promised judgement by allowing those who looked at it to be killed.
We must be people who take abiding seriously. By becoming immersed in the word of God and regularly spending time with Him we are changed. Through the power of the Holy Spirit we are able to acknowledge our sin, walking in repentance because of Christ. As believers, we should crave the direction that comes from the word of God because our flesh is always self seeking.
As you process this passage today ask yourself these questions:
Are you truly abiding?
Are you walking in obedience to what you read in the scriptures?
