1 Samuel 4-7 records the Philistines’ attack on Israel, their victory over Israel, their capturing of the Ark of the Lord, their ultimate return of it, and the Israelites eventual defeat of the Philistines with Samuel as their leader. As we read the events that took place, we find God’s promises always come true, and His power is amazingly great. First, God had promised Eli that his sons would die, and that his descendants would never live to old age. After the Philistines had defeated the Israelites a first time, the Israelites decided to take the Ark of the Lord into battle. The Philistines were terrified when they heard that news. They realized the ark represented the God of Israel who had sent plagues on Egypt and delivered the Israelites from bondage there. Their terror turned to resolve and they defeated the Israelites, killed 30,000 troops, along with Eli’s two sons and captured the Ark of the Lord.
They soon found the Ark contained power. When they placed it in the Temple of Dagon, one of their gods, they returned the next day to find the idol had toppled over. They stood it up again, but the next day the idol had fallen again and its arms had broken off, and it’s head as well. The symbolism can’t be missed. The LORD is powerful, more powerful than any idol. Next the Philistine people started to experience a plague. The Ark was moved from once city to another and everywhere it went the Philistines experienced the plague. Eventually, they decided to return the Ark. When it was back among the Israelites, seventy of the men of Israel looked into the Ark and died. God is holy. The Ark represented Him and was only to be handled by priests from the tribe of Levi. The Israelites’ disobedience was judged, just as the Philistines had been judged for assuming their gods were “bigger” than the LORD. Eventually, the Ark was moved to Kiriath-jearim and Samuel organized the army of Israel to go against the Philistines. He called on the LORD for help and the LORD provided victory over them for many years.
While our modern sensibilities may be offended by some of these events, the lesson is once again: The LORD is holy. We must never assume we serve a weak God. God’s love is never weak. God’s wrath is real. Jesus came to redeem us from sin and death, to restore us from God’s wrath, but short of a relationship with Him, we stand condemned, and will one day be separated from our holy God forever. Thank God He loves us so much, He has made a way for us to experience His salvation rather than His wrath!
As we return to John 21, we again read of Jesus’ “reinstatement” of Peter, as it is called. Peter had denied Jesus three times, in a moment when Jesus needed him most. Yet after enduring the crucifixion and rising from the dead, Jesus’ goal was to restore Peter to his place of leadership among the apostles. Jesus never holds a grudge. Jesus never gets even with us. Jesus always offers us forgiveness and restoration. That’s what His life, teaching, death and resurrection emphasize from beginning to end. I once had a young father whose child had been born with multiple birth defects ask me, “Do you think God ever gets even?” I asked him what he meant. He said he had lived a sinful life in his younger years, and turned his back on God many times. He wanted to know if his daughter’s condition was God’s getting even with him.
It wasn’t a moment for platitudes. I told him all our actions have consequences. His drug use in his early years could potentially have had an impact on his daughter. But that was not God “getting even.” God’s desire was for him and his daughter to experience His truth, love, and salvation. Over the next several months, as I visited the man and his wife, and his daughter’s condition worsened, he came to a realization that it was God who was giving him the strength to face the situation. Romans 8:28 assures us, “In all things God works for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.” We all make sinful choices and commit sinful actions. God’s purpose is to redeem us from those. That’s what Jesus’ death on the cross tells us. It’s what Jesus’ meeting with Peter on that early morning by the Sea of Galilee show us. God has promised never to leave us, nor to forsake us, and all His promises are true.