“When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the Lord, that it may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies.”” 1 Samuel 4:3
Today we read of the Captivity of the Ark. The story begins with Elder Counsel after a defeat against the Philistines; “Let us take…the Ark”! This sounded wise, but that was not God’s purpose for it. It had a Home (the Tabernacle) and the God of that Tabernacle had promised to be with them in battle as long as they feared and obeyed Him. But they had not, and thus, suffered defeat. Their Trust was not in God, it was in “something else”, even if it was the Ark! Let us learn from their Mistake with this Question: Is My Trust in God, or in Something Else?