I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading. I had been using One Year Bible Online, but it was time for a change.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Samuel 4-7.

    The army of Israel was defeated in battle with the Philistines. After the battle, the leaders asked why God allowed them to be defeated. However, rather than wait for God to send them an answer, they decided to force God to give them victory. They brought to Ark of the Covenant to take it into battle with them. This did not work out as planned. Not only did they lose the battle, but the Ark of the Covenant was captured. This is what happens when we try to force God’s hand. When things go against us, we need to ask God what we did wrong. Then we need to wait for His answer and change our actions based on what He tells us.

    I was originally planning to discuss the meaning of what happened while the Ark was in the possession of the Philistines, but decided to instead talk about the contrast between what happened when the Ark was captured and when Samuel began leading the people. Samuel told the people that if they truly wanted God to rescue them from the Philistines they would need to turn to Him with all of their hearts. The same is true for us. If we desire God to work on our behalf we need to turn out hearts to Him and obey only His commands. We need to get rid of those things which divide our loyalty, to which we give a greater priority than we give obeying God’s commands.