We have been going through the book of 1 Samuel at Church. And last week we covered chapters 4 through 7. My task was to comment on a subject that stood out to me in those chapters, in 5 to 10 minutes. This is my take…

At the beginning of chapter 4, the Israelites go out to fight against the Philistines with the result that Israel gets beaten soundly; they lose 4000 soldiers. Now, I think we can all identify with that because we all face battles in our lives. And I am pretty sure none of us can say “Hey, I’ve won them all.” So, surely, there is a lesson for us here.

When the Israelites regroup, their reaction is to ask: “What did we do wrong?”

1 Samuel 4:3a And the people came into the camp; and the elders of Israel said, Why has Jehovah smitten us to-day before the Philistines?”

That is a fair question. It is actually a crucial question… and a good example for us… BECAUSE when we face defeats or disappointments it is a good thing to stop and examine our lives and our choices honestly. How else are we going to learn from our mistakes? Right?

What is not a good example, is the second half of that verse:

1 Samuel 4:3b Let us fetch ourselves the ark of the covenant of Jehovah out of Shiloh, that it may come among us, and save us out of the hand of our enemies.

You see, without missing a beat, they come up with AN answer… that makes no sense!

It makes no sense because nowhere in the instructions Moses and Joshua gave the people, were they ever told to take the ark into battle. The ark is meant to be at the center of the community, it is where the people worship; it is not a weapon of war. (Regardless of what the Indiana Jones movie says).

As you would expect, it did not go well for them. This time they lose 30,000 soldiers and the Philistines actually capture the ark and take it away.

And the Israelites’ question <What did we do wrong?> remains unanswered…

But that’s Ok because now the scene changes, and the Philistines are about to face the same question…. Because whatever city they took the ark to, got cursed by God. People got sick, people died, mice overran their fields.

After 7 months of misery the Philistines finally say ‘we need to do something about this.’ (Better late than never, right?). So, they call their wisemen, and essentially ask, “What did we do wrong?”

And the wisemen say, ‘Well, it looks like we might have sinned against the God of the Israelites.’

So, they come up with a plan to return the ark. And it is a really clever plan: They put the ark on a cart, with a sin-offering, but instead of taking it back to Israel themselves, they yoke two cows that are nursing two little calves to the cart – and take away the calves.

And they decide that if this God of Israel is real and He is the one punishing them, then surely that God can lead the cow to His country. But if not, then maybe all the plagues happened by chance.

So, guess what? The cows went straight to Israel, mooing all the way. And just like that, the Philistines got the answer to their question. And the plagues ended.

But what about Israel’s question? What did THEY do wrong?

Did it ever get answered?

It did… eventually. In chapter 7: In verse 2 we read:

1 Samuel 7:2 And it came to pass, from the day that the ark abode in Kirjath-jearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years. And all the house of Israel lamented after Jehovah.

Ok… so it took the Philistines 7 months to say: ‘We need to fix our mistake’. But it took Israel 20 years to reach the same conclusion.

It took them 20 years to realize that they were the problem.

You see, they claimed to be worshiping the LORD all that time but at the same time they were worshiping idols. Look at what Samuel told them:

1 Samuel 7:3-4 If ye return to Jehovah with all your heart, put away the strange gods and the Ashtoreths from among you, and apply your hearts unto Jehovah, and serve him only; he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.

And the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtoreths and served Jehovah only.

***And that was the turning point.***

Why did it take Israel so long to answer the question?

Because they were living a life of compromise: They were not loving God above all things – as they had been commanded – but rather God PLUS this and that and that other thing.

And a life like that divides our attention.

It distracts us, to the point that God’s voice gets drowned out in all the noise.

Think of life as driving a car… A life of compromise is when, instead of driving our lives with purpose toward God’s purpose, we just put our life on autopilot – you know – self-driving mode, and lean back and let it cruise… and miss all the exits…

My prayer for us today is that when that happens (not if): when that happens and we find ourselves in that trap, I pray that the gas in our tank runs out well before 20 years have passed.