FBC Daily Devotional – September 13, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well a good Monday morning to you. So here we are starting off a new week and trust your weekend went well.

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You were able to be at church yesterday, worship together with God's people and gain something from the

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Word of God and from your worship together. Well today as we begin our week of scripture reading, we read today in 1

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Samuel chapters 2 through 4. And really isn't this a sad, sad period in Israel's history.

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You had these sons of Eli who were just really corrupt in the ministry.

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And by the way, any so -called minister who uses the office of the ministry for strictly selfish and personal gain, getting what he can get out of it and not caring about the people, not caring whom he hurts in the process.

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He's not really a minister. He's really not. He's just another selfish, self -centered abuser of a position.

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But anyway, as the story goes on, you know, the Lord warned Eli that his two sons were going to die at the same time and things were not going to go well for them.

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And so it came to this battle that the Israelites had with the Philistines.

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And in chapter 4, as the battle, the two sides engage, the

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Philistines against the Israelites. Israelites, you know, they're God's people. They ought to be able to win this thing.

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They ought to be able to defeat the Philistines. So they go to battle against the Philistines, but they get routed.

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And the second verse, I think it is in chapter 4, tells us that 4 ,000

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Israelite soldiers lost their lives. 4 ,000. That's quite demoralizing.

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And of course, you want to know why. So they regroup, they get back to camp, their heads are hanging low, and they're wondering, you know, why, you know, why did we lose so terribly?

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How come we got so soundly defeated in this battle? And as they're pondering that question, nobody stops to think, well, it's our fault.

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We've abandoned the Lord. We've turned from the Lord. How can we expect him to bless us if we've turned from him?

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Well, they don't go there. Instead, what they say is, you know what? It's because we don't have the

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Ark. We don't have the Ark of the Covenant. You know, here we are in battle, and the Ark is back, you know, in Shiloh, and it's not with us.

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And so they immediately dispatch a couple of people to run back to fetch the

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Ark. And when they go get the Ark of the Covenant, they bring it, you know, they're carrying it as they're supposed to, and it's covered, and all the rest of that stuff, like they're supposed to.

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But they also bring with them these two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas.

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They have no idea, really, that they're being set up for their own demise, but that's what's coming.

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I'm running ahead of the story a little bit. So they go and get the Ark. They bring the Ark of the

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Covenant into the camp of the army, and as soon as they see the Ark, everybody cheers.

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Everybody cheers. And their conclusion is that, surely, we're going to defeat the

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Philistines now. We have the Ark with us. We're going to defeat the Philistines now. So as far as the difference between 24 hours earlier, when they were soundly defeated, and now, the only difference is that the

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Ark is with them. And so they conclude that because the Ark is with us, we will win the victory.

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Well, if you read the count, you know the rest of the story. That's not what happens at all. Instead, the

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Philistines defeat the Israelites again. They capture the Ark of the Covenant, take it into Philistine territory, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, they perish.

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They perish in the conflict. Now, what I want to point out here is the attitude that the people of Israel had, the soldiers of Israel had toward the

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Ark. It was almost like a good luck charm, if I can use that expression.

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You know what I mean? It's like, okay, we didn't have the rabbit's foot with us yesterday when we went out to battle, so we got to go get the rabbit's foot.

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Okay, now we got the rabbit's foot. Now, we got the good luck charm. Now, we're sure to win. Now, we're sure to get victory.

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And of course, they were defeated. The Ark of the Covenant, symbolizing the very presence of the

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Lord, is not going to be treated so lightly and in such a profane way.

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But yet, as I think about it, I wonder how many spiritual things in our lives, as New Testament Christians, we don't have the

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Ark of the Covenant and anywhere at all. We don't have it. But how many spiritual things in our lives do we treat like that?

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What I mean is, like, we can think because we have a

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Bible in our home, God is going to bless us. We can think because we have a plaque on the wall that has some

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Bible verse, God is going to bless us. We can think because we go to church,

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God is going to bless us. Or we can think because we took communion,

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God is going to bless us. As if just the having of those things or the doing of those things is a sure sign that God's going to bless.

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We treat those things like good luck charms. That's not what they are.

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That's not what they are. Some of these things are means of grace, to be sure. The having of the

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Bible does no good to us unless we open it and partake of it, unless we read it. And as we read it with our mind engaged and our heart engaged and prayerfully, the

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Lord uses that reading to grow us in grace and knowledge of Christ. The same with the church. Just showing up at church and sitting in a pew and warming a pew for an hour or two, it doesn't mean we're going to be blessed.

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But as we go actively participating in the service and so forth, then

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God will bless. So we got to be careful not to use these things.

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Excuse me a moment. I had to take care of that call because I don't need the voicemail interrupting the devotional thing.

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Anyway, we can't treat those things as good luck charms. That's not what they are.

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They are designed to be helpful to us, to be sure. And as we engage with those things in the way

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God intends, then God will bless. But just the having of them doesn't ensure victory or blessing.

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Let's bear that in mind. Father, we do thank you today for this sober reminder from 1

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Samuel chapter 4, not to treat spiritual things in a profane way, not to think of them as simply good luck charms that are going to guarantee your blessing because we have them in hand.

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Deliver us from that kind of thinking, we pray. Instead, help us engage with you, with our mind and our heart, and to do so intentionally, thoughtfully, prayerfully, and obediently.

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And then we will know the blessing of the Lord. Bless these thoughts to our hearts today, we pray.

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And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Sorry about the phone call interruption.

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I usually remember to shut that off before we begin this. But it is what it is.