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God Delivers on His Promise // On Solid Ground, Part 9
If only we could have God on our terms. You know, He blesses you when you need blessing and the rest of the time, He's just kind of there when you need Him. Wouldn't that be nice? But – well, it's not like that.
Have you ever wanted something in life, I mean really, really, really wanted it and then, you finally get it and you just want to give it back. I think we've all experienced that at some point and you know, I think that for some people, it can be the case with God. I know people, lots of people who hunger to be close to God. I know there are people listening today, perhaps you're one of them and all their lives they've wanted "God", whatever that means. But can I tell you something, even something really good, I mean really, really good like God, well it can be a shock to the system.
And the reason is that we sometimes have this idealised unrealistic notion of what that good thing would be like. Take the young woman who wants, more than anything else, to be married and she finally meets her knight in shining armour and marries him and a year later she's wondering what happened to her ideas of romance 24x7. Today on the program we're going to take a look at some people who got God and couldn't wait to give Him back.
We've been looking over this last week and a half, at the stories of a woman called Hannah who honoured God, she poured her heart out to Him when she was in pain and God honoured her. And on the other side there was a guy called Eli and his sons who were around Hannah at the time and they didn't honour God and they reaped their just rewards. And the whole story of Hannah and Eli kind of pivots on this one passage. It's in 1 Samuel, in the Bible, chapter 2, verse 30 and God says:
I will honour those who honour me but those who despise me will be treated with contempt.
And we've seen over this last week and a half how that central reality has played itself out in the lives of Hannah and Samuel, who were blessed by God and Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who weren't. And you know, in particular, this plays itself out in the storms of life. Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were living the life of Riley. They were the priests over Israel, they should have been bringing Israel to God and yet they plundered the sacrifices and they slept with prostitutes and those three, they died, we saw that yesterday on the program.
Their job was to be shepherd of the nation of Israel, shepherding them towards God. Instead they led them to a place of defeat and again, we saw on the program in 1 Samuel chapter 4, that the Philistines attacked and Israel thinks, "ah well, God's always on our side and so we'll go to battle" and all of a sudden, 30,000 of their soldiers are killed. The Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines, the place of the presence of God and strangely, when that happens, the Philistines kind of realise, with a sense of foreboding, when the Philistines learned that the Ark of the Lord had come into the Israelites camp, they were afraid.
"A God has come into the camp", they said. "We're in trouble! Nothing like that has ever happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty Gods?"
See, those instincts were right but anyway, the Ark of the Covenant comes into the Israelite camp and then the Israelites and the Philistines went into battle and the Philistines won. A huge defeat, 30,000 soldiers of the Israelites are dead and the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines. Hmm, it turns out they should have gone with their initial instincts lets have a read of what happens in 1 Samuel chapter 5:
After the Philistines had captured the Ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the Ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside their God, Dagon and when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. They took Dagon and put him back up on his place.
But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen back on his face, on the ground, before the Ark of the Covenant. And his head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold, only his body remained and that's why, to this day, neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who entered Dagon's temple at Ashdod, will step on the threshold.
The Lords hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and it's vicinity. He brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumours and when the men of Ashdod saw what was happening they said, "The Ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us because His hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon, our god."
So they called together the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, "What are we going to do with the Ark of the God of Israel?" And they answered, "Have the Ark of the God of Israel moved to Gath." So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel but after they moved it the Lords hand was against that city.
Thrown into great panic, he afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumours and so they sent the Ark of God to Ekron and as the Ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, "They've brought the Ark of the God of Israel around to kill us and our people!" So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send the Ark of the God of Israel away. Let it go back to it's own place or it will kill us and our people." For death had filled the city with panic. Gods hand was heavy on everything. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumours and the outcry of the city went up to heaven."
Really interesting story this because this Ark of the Covenant of the God of Israel, this is the place of the presence of God and they put it in the temple next to their God and their God falls down twice. First time they prop him up, the second time his head and hands are cut off and then they discover the impact of having God as a captive in their midst.
See in human terms that's what had happened, the Philistines captured God, in human terms they won. You know what they forgot; in fact they probable never realised it in the first place, God is not subject to people. God is not someone you can capture and stick in a temple. He's not someone you can tame and subdue.
Why are we talking about this stuff today? Because you and I deep down, we sometimes try and tame and subdue God. We swing Him round to our way of thinking. We put Him in a temple of our choice; we put Him in the town or city of our choice. We think that God is there to serve us instead of us to serve God. You know what happens when we try to do that? We discover exactly what the Philistines discovered, we discover that God is not someone we can push around.
Okay, we can't see Him. Okay, perhaps present circumstance do appear more powerful than Him but if we want to be on solid ground in the middle of our storms, that's what we've been talking about these past couple of weeks, we need to get our minds around this.
You look at this maelstrom of a storm that was going on at the time, the battle between the Philistines and the Israelites, 30,000 Israelites killed, who appeared to win? Who should have been on solid ground according to our simple human expectations? The Philistines; they won the war, they captured Israel's God. But who they captured was the God who created all the universe, not some idol, not some tin pot little god, they captured God and He brought destruction on them. So much so they couldn't wait to get rid of Him. Do you get it?
When we try to take God by force; force of argument, force of opinion, force of anything, anything that doesn't recognise Him for who He is, watch out! There's so many people playing "Church", playing at being Christians, playing at religion, putting God here and there – THAT'S NOT WHAT IT'S ABOUT! As Dagon discovered, the only way you honour God is when you bow down to Him for who He is – the sovereign God above every power and name and authority in heaven and on earth.
And you know something, Eli didn't understand it, Hophni and Phinehas didn't understand it, they died. The person who understood it was the woman Hannah that we've been looking at, this woman who, in the middle of her storm, humbly bowed down before God and prayed and honoured God.
You can't have God on your own terms; we can only have Him on His terms!
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By Berni DymetIf only we could have God on our terms. You know, He blesses you when you need blessing and the rest of the time, He's just kind of there when you need Him. Wouldn't that be nice? But – well, it's not like that.
Have you ever wanted something in life, I mean really, really, really wanted it and then, you finally get it and you just want to give it back. I think we've all experienced that at some point and you know, I think that for some people, it can be the case with God. I know people, lots of people who hunger to be close to God. I know there are people listening today, perhaps you're one of them and all their lives they've wanted "God", whatever that means. But can I tell you something, even something really good, I mean really, really good like God, well it can be a shock to the system.
And the reason is that we sometimes have this idealised unrealistic notion of what that good thing would be like. Take the young woman who wants, more than anything else, to be married and she finally meets her knight in shining armour and marries him and a year later she's wondering what happened to her ideas of romance 24x7. Today on the program we're going to take a look at some people who got God and couldn't wait to give Him back.
We've been looking over this last week and a half, at the stories of a woman called Hannah who honoured God, she poured her heart out to Him when she was in pain and God honoured her. And on the other side there was a guy called Eli and his sons who were around Hannah at the time and they didn't honour God and they reaped their just rewards. And the whole story of Hannah and Eli kind of pivots on this one passage. It's in 1 Samuel, in the Bible, chapter 2, verse 30 and God says:
I will honour those who honour me but those who despise me will be treated with contempt.
And we've seen over this last week and a half how that central reality has played itself out in the lives of Hannah and Samuel, who were blessed by God and Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who weren't. And you know, in particular, this plays itself out in the storms of life. Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were living the life of Riley. They were the priests over Israel, they should have been bringing Israel to God and yet they plundered the sacrifices and they slept with prostitutes and those three, they died, we saw that yesterday on the program.
Their job was to be shepherd of the nation of Israel, shepherding them towards God. Instead they led them to a place of defeat and again, we saw on the program in 1 Samuel chapter 4, that the Philistines attacked and Israel thinks, "ah well, God's always on our side and so we'll go to battle" and all of a sudden, 30,000 of their soldiers are killed. The Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines, the place of the presence of God and strangely, when that happens, the Philistines kind of realise, with a sense of foreboding, when the Philistines learned that the Ark of the Lord had come into the Israelites camp, they were afraid.
"A God has come into the camp", they said. "We're in trouble! Nothing like that has ever happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty Gods?"
See, those instincts were right but anyway, the Ark of the Covenant comes into the Israelite camp and then the Israelites and the Philistines went into battle and the Philistines won. A huge defeat, 30,000 soldiers of the Israelites are dead and the Covenant, the Ark of the Covenant is captured by the Philistines. Hmm, it turns out they should have gone with their initial instincts lets have a read of what happens in 1 Samuel chapter 5:
After the Philistines had captured the Ark of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then they carried the Ark into Dagon's temple and set it beside their God, Dagon and when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, there was Dagon, fallen on his face on the ground before the Ark of the Lord. They took Dagon and put him back up on his place.
But the following morning when they rose, there was Dagon, fallen back on his face, on the ground, before the Ark of the Covenant. And his head and hands had been broken off and were lying on the threshold, only his body remained and that's why, to this day, neither the priests of Dagon nor any others who entered Dagon's temple at Ashdod, will step on the threshold.
The Lords hand was heavy on the people of Ashdod and it's vicinity. He brought devastation upon them and afflicted them with tumours and when the men of Ashdod saw what was happening they said, "The Ark of the God of Israel must not stay here with us because His hand is heavy upon us and upon Dagon, our god."
So they called together the rulers of the Philistines and asked them, "What are we going to do with the Ark of the God of Israel?" And they answered, "Have the Ark of the God of Israel moved to Gath." So they moved the Ark of the God of Israel but after they moved it the Lords hand was against that city.
Thrown into great panic, he afflicted the people of the city, both young and old, with an outbreak of tumours and so they sent the Ark of God to Ekron and as the Ark of God was entering Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, "They've brought the Ark of the God of Israel around to kill us and our people!" So they called together all the rulers of the Philistines and said, "Send the Ark of the God of Israel away. Let it go back to it's own place or it will kill us and our people." For death had filled the city with panic. Gods hand was heavy on everything. Those who did not die were afflicted with tumours and the outcry of the city went up to heaven."
Really interesting story this because this Ark of the Covenant of the God of Israel, this is the place of the presence of God and they put it in the temple next to their God and their God falls down twice. First time they prop him up, the second time his head and hands are cut off and then they discover the impact of having God as a captive in their midst.
See in human terms that's what had happened, the Philistines captured God, in human terms they won. You know what they forgot; in fact they probable never realised it in the first place, God is not subject to people. God is not someone you can capture and stick in a temple. He's not someone you can tame and subdue.
Why are we talking about this stuff today? Because you and I deep down, we sometimes try and tame and subdue God. We swing Him round to our way of thinking. We put Him in a temple of our choice; we put Him in the town or city of our choice. We think that God is there to serve us instead of us to serve God. You know what happens when we try to do that? We discover exactly what the Philistines discovered, we discover that God is not someone we can push around.
Okay, we can't see Him. Okay, perhaps present circumstance do appear more powerful than Him but if we want to be on solid ground in the middle of our storms, that's what we've been talking about these past couple of weeks, we need to get our minds around this.
You look at this maelstrom of a storm that was going on at the time, the battle between the Philistines and the Israelites, 30,000 Israelites killed, who appeared to win? Who should have been on solid ground according to our simple human expectations? The Philistines; they won the war, they captured Israel's God. But who they captured was the God who created all the universe, not some idol, not some tin pot little god, they captured God and He brought destruction on them. So much so they couldn't wait to get rid of Him. Do you get it?
When we try to take God by force; force of argument, force of opinion, force of anything, anything that doesn't recognise Him for who He is, watch out! There's so many people playing "Church", playing at being Christians, playing at religion, putting God here and there – THAT'S NOT WHAT IT'S ABOUT! As Dagon discovered, the only way you honour God is when you bow down to Him for who He is – the sovereign God above every power and name and authority in heaven and on earth.
And you know something, Eli didn't understand it, Hophni and Phinehas didn't understand it, they died. The person who understood it was the woman Hannah that we've been looking at, this woman who, in the middle of her storm, humbly bowed down before God and prayed and honoured God.
You can't have God on your own terms; we can only have Him on His terms!