74: God is No Tool: 1 Samuel 4

G' day, and welcome to Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

Dave here.

Hey, I've got a question for you.

Were you made for God or was God made for you?

Let me ask it again.

Were you made for God or was God made for you?

You might be thinking, Dave, that's an easy one.

Of course we were made for God.

And that's right.

If that's what you're thinking, that we're made for God, you are exactly right.

Except that isn't always how we treat God.

We can really easily treat God.

Not as though we're made for him, but as though he's made for us when we try and get him to do whatever we want or we try and make a bargain with Him.

God.

If you get me tickets to the big game, then I'll be really nice for the next month.

Or when we get grumpy because God didn't do what we wanted him to do.

As though he didn't have plans of his own.

As if somehow we're more important than Him.

In today's story, the Israelites treat God as though he was made for them.

Like they can use him however they want.

It isn't going to go well for them.

Get ready for our next episode of Stories of a Faithful God for Kids.

At the end of our last episode, God had made a promise.

He was really angry that the two priests, Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, the two men who were meant to help his people know him, were doing so much evil as a punishment.

God had promised that they would both die on the same day.

Now war is coming and people are going to die.

In 1 Samuel 4, 1, the Israelites go out to fight the Philistines.

The Philistines live around five cities based on the coast.

If you've ever seen a map of Israel, they're on the left by the Mediterranean Sea.

It's part of the land of Canaan that God was giving to his people, the Israelites.

But God had left the Philistines there to teach the Israelites to trust Him.

The Israelite army set up their camp at a place called Ebenezer.

The Philistines set up their camp at a place nearby called Aphek.

And then both sides march out of their camp to fight.

The two sides join battle, and as the battle spreads, it doesn't go well for Israel.

The Philistines defeat them and 4,000 Israelites are killed.

That's really bad, especially if you're one of the 4,000 Israelites that's killed and it is a defeat.

But it's the sort of defeat that you can bounce back from.

They still have an army, they're still in the war.

They just need to figure out what went wrong, fix it and have another go.

As the Israelite leaders are sitting around discussing what's happened, they ask exactly the right question.

They don't make the mistake of asking why the Philistines won.

There's a much more important question than that.

They ask in verse three, why did the Lord let the Philistines defeat us?

They know that God's far more powerful than the Philistines.

They know that if they've lost the battle, it's because God's made them lose.

So why has he?

In the past, when the Israelites have lost a battle, it's been because of their sin.

They've acted like they don't want God around, they want to follow other gods.

And God said, okay, let's see how that works out for you.

It's craziness.

As if you wouldn't want to go into battle with God on your side.

Well, having asked exactly the right question, they come up with exactly the wrong answer.

They don't look at themselves and ask how they need to repent and turn back to God.

They think about how they can use God like a tool, like a hammer or a screwdriver.

They treat God like he's been made for them.

Instead of them being made for Him.

They decide to get the Ark of the Covenant.

When I say ark, don't think like Noah's ark.

That ark was huge.

The Ark of the Covenant is only just over a metre long, about four feet.

It's a wooden box covered in gold.

Inside are the Ten Commandments and some manna that the Israelites had when they were in the wilderness.

On top are statues of things called cherubim.

Part human, part animal with two wings each.

This ark is meant to be like a throne for God on earth.

It's a reminder that God lives with his people.

God had the Israelites make it when he brought them out of Egypt.

And now the Israelite elders say in verse three, let's bring the Ark of the Covenant with the Lord here from Shiloh.

In this way, God will go with us into battle.

He will save us from our enemies.

Do you see how they're treating God like a tool or a weapon?

It's like they're saying, oooh, we accidentally left our sword back in Shiloh.

Let's lets go and get it and bring it to the battle.

It's like the king is back there on his throne and they figure they just need to go and get the throne with the king on it and bring him to the battle and he'll fight for them.

But God can't be used like that.

You can't just trick him into being on your side.

The real question is, are you on his side?

Do you want what he wants?

If you don't, it doesn't matter what you do.

Things are not going to be good.

Well, the Israelites send messengers to Shiloh to have the Ark of the Covenant brought to the camp.

And we're told in verse four, they brought back the Ark of the Covenant with the Lord of Heaven's armies.

Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas were there with the Ark of the Covenant.

You remember Hophni and Phinehas, right?

The two guys who God said would die on the same day.

As the Ark is brought into the camp, the whole Israelite army lets out a roar of excitement.

They yell so loudly it makes the ground shake.

Not far away in the Philistine camp, the Philistines start to freak out a little bit.

They ask, what's all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?

Hebrew is another word for the Israelites in the Philistines minds.

The Israelites shouldn't be shouting with joy.

They've just lost a battle.

They should be sitting over there terrified, waiting to lose again the next day.

So the Philistines do a little bit of spying, a little bit of investigation, and they discover that the Ark of the Covenant has been brought into the Israelite camp.

And they make exactly the same mistake that the Israelites make.

They think that by bringing in the Ark, the Israelites have brought in God.

They think of God like a tool or a weapon as well.

They know some things about the Israelite God, some things they're a little bit mistaken on.

But what they do know is enough to terrify them.

They say this in verse 7, a God has come into the Hebrew camp.

We're in trouble.

This has never happened before.

How terrible it will be for us.

Who can save us from these powerful gods?

They are the ones who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of disasters in the desert.

Now if you think that if you're a Philistine sitting there thinking that, what do you think the right response should be?

Turn to this God.

Ask him to forgive you.

Learn from him and submit to Him.

Those would all be good things, right?

Unfortunately, that isn't what the Philistines think.

Because all those things assume that God is, well, God, the maker of the universe, King of the world, the one we were made for.

But the Philistines just think that God is a tool or a weapon.

The Israelites have brought in this big weapon into their camp.

And so the Philistines think we just have to fight harder to overcome this weapon.

They say to each other, be brave, Philistines.

Fight like men.

In the past, they were our slaves.

So fight like men or you will become their slaves.

They march out to battle, encouraging each other to be brave.

The Israelites go out to battle confident because they have the Ark of the Covenant with them.

None of them really know or understand the one true God, but God is still in charge, and he makes his plans happen.

He gives victory to the Philistines.

And not a small victory like last time.

This time it's a complete victory.

This time, the Israelites don't go back to their camp.

They all run away to their own homes.

This time it isn't 4,000 Israelites who were killed, it's 30,000.

Also, to make matters worse, the Ark of the Covenant is taken by the Philistines.

Also, the two priests, Hophni and Phinehas, are killed in the battle, just like God said.

They both die on the same day.

This is a complete disaster for Israel, something to make the whole nation cry out in sadness.

In the town of Shiloh, where the Ark is normally kept, an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin comes running in from the battle.

He's torn his clothes and put dust on his head to show how sad he is.

Eli, the high priest, father of Hophni and Phinehas.

He's there, sitting by the side of the road.

He's worried about the Ark of the Covenant.

And so he's sitting on a chair, watching and waiting.

It's a bit strange that he's watching because remember, his eyesight is almost completely gone.

He's also really old.

He's 98.

He's almost 100.

Well, the man comes from the battle and starts telling people in the town all about the disaster.

Everyone starts crying with great sadness.

Eli can't see much, but he can hear.

And he asks, what's going on.

In verse 16, the benjaminite comes and tells him.

He says, I have come from the battle.

I ran all the way here today.

Eli asks, what happened, my son?

The Benjaminite answers, israel ran away from the Philistines.

The Israelite army has lost many soldiers.

Your two sons are both dead.

And the Philistines have taken the Ark of the Covenant of God.

This is horrible news.

When Eli hears about the ark being taken, he's so shocked he falls backwards off his chair.

He's old, he's really fat.

And as he falls, he breaks his neck and dies.

He's been the leader of Israel for 40 years, but now his time is over.

Another person in the town hears the news.

She's Eli's daughter in law, the wife of Phinehas.

She's pregnant and about to have a baby.

In verse 19, we're told she heard the news that the ark of the covenant of God had been taken.

She heard also that Eli, her father in law, and Phinehas, her husband, were both dead.

So she began to give birth to her child.

Unfortunately, the birth doesn't go well and she starts to die.

Thankfully, the baby seems okay and the lady helping the mum give birth tries to cheer her up.

She says in verse 20, don't worry, you've given birth to a son.

But the dying mum doesn't answer.

She's so overwhelmed with sadness, all she can do is give the baby a name.

She doesn't go for a cheery, happy name.

She chooses a name for her son to show how terrible the day of his birth is.

In those days, the meaning of names is really important.

She gives her son the name Ichabod.

It's a name that means something like, where is the glory?

Glory is greatness.

And on this day, all the greatness, all the glory, all that's wonderful about Israel is gone.

She says in verse 22, Israel's glory is gone because the ark of the covenant of God has been taken away.

It's like God's left them.

He's stopped helping them.

In the end, he's what's glorious about Israel.

And now his ark, his throne.

Now he seems to be gone.

The Israelites had tried to use God.

They had treated him like a weapon or a tool.

They had treated him like he was made for them to do what they want.

But God won't be treated like that.

He gave the Philistines victory to show that he won't be treated like that.

Thankfully, God's made sure that what happened on that day has been written down for us.

God kindly wants us to learn from the mistakes that Israel made.

Do you ever treat God like He's a thing to be used?

Like He's a tool to help you get what you want?

Something you can pull out of the cupboard when you need him, and then put him away when he isn't useful anymore?

Do you ever treat him like he was made for you.

Be careful.

God wasn't made for us.

We were made for him.

To listen to him and learn from him, to do what he wants and enjoy him, to know him in all his glory and to show his glory to the world.

Let's not make the same mistake that the Israelites made back in Israel.

The Philistines still think of the Ark of God as a great weapon.

They're pretty excited because they've captured it.

They think that they and their God Dagon are much more powerful than the Israelites.

Don't you worry, though.

God's about to teach them a pretty important lesson.

But that's a story for next time.

Keep trusting Jesus.

Bye for now.