All right, let’s see how carnal you are. If you break a mirror, how many years of bad luck is that? Seven years. If you walk under a ladder? Bad luck. If you open an umbrella indoors? Yeah, bad luck. If you knock on wood, well, that supposedly prevents bad luck from interfering. If you spill salt, you are supposed to throw it where? That is right, over your shoulder. It helps ward off evil spirits. Friday the what is a day of misfortune? The 13th. What color cat is bad luck? Black. A bird flying into your house? I did not know this one before, but supposedly it means death is near. A four-leaf clover is good luck. If you hold your breath while passing what, it supposedly prevents spirits from entering your body? A cemetery. A rabbit’s foot? That is good luck. A horseshoe above a door? Also good luck. I think we have got a bunch of superstitious little Baptists right here. At least when I presented this to the church, man, they aced that quiz. Hi, church. This is the fifth video in our series through 1 Samuel. Today we are covering chapter 4, about how Israel was superstitious about the ark of God, and how I have seen this play out in so many Christians’ lives today. If you are new here, my name is Ryan Rench, pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Temecula, California. Our unofficial motto is “We bring the Bible home.” So when we are studying God’s Word on Sundays, we want to be able to continue with it Monday through Saturday as well, and by watching these videos, you are participating in bringing the Bible home too. I appreciate you tuning in.
Superstition and Christian Liberty
Now, back to superstitions. We are told in Scripture that we are not supposed to have anything to do with superstitions and spirits. The law in Leviticus and Deuteronomy spells that out. The prophets rebuked the people for seeking incantations. Saul tried to conjure up Samuel from the dead by going to a witch. The New Testament rebukes idolatry and witchcraft in Galatians 5. In Acts the apostles confronted people practicing the occult. Revelation speaks of sorcerers having their part in the lake of fire. So there is a lot of this that has trickled down, and I think things like Twilight, and Halloween, and Harry Potter, and anything horror-themed, it seems like all of that is wrapped up in some kind of sorcery and witchcraft. But then there are Jumanji, and Marvel, and Percy Jackson, and yoga, so where do those things fit in? And while we are at it, why do we not throw in some of the more common things too, not just Percy Jackson and yoga? Why not throw in Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings, and Narnia, and Matilda, and Mary Poppins, or Glinda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz? If you really want to go there, you can go so far to the extreme that if you say “bless you” after someone sneezes, you are superstitious, because you are trying to ward off a demon attack that would make that person sick. Or making a wish when you blow out birthday candles: is that bad? Is that evil? Or if somebody says, “Oh man, we are probably going to get a flat tire, since we laughed at them,” and someone says, “Hey, do not do that, you will jinx us,” as if your words will affect the spirits and make it happen. So we have to go to 1 Corinthians chapter 8 before I get to 1 Samuel chapter 4. Look at verses 4 and 5: “As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth, (as there be gods many, and lords many,)” Paul says, “Yeah, we know that.” Verse 6: “But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.” Okay, so he understands the theology of God and demons and actual idols. The idol itself is nothing. It is just made of stone or wood, carved with hands, whatever. Verse 7: “Howbeit there is not in every man that knowledge: for some with conscience of the idol unto this hour eat it as a thing offered unto an idol; and their conscience being weak is defiled.” Not everybody gets that. Verse 8: “But meat commendeth us not to God: for neither, if we eat, are we the better; neither, if we eat not, are we the worse.” So he is saying it is not the physical things themselves that commend us to God. It is not the meat itself that is actually spiritual. Then the following verses talk about not being a stumbling block to your fellow believers. But then also in 1 Timothy chapter 4, verses 1 through 5: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” That sounds like a very spiritual person, forbidding these things. There are a lot of teachings out there that are very limiting, and sometimes the more limited you are, the more spiritual you are thought to be. But the end of verse 3 says these are things which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. We can partake of these things God has created. How? “For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.” That same idea is in Romans chapter 14. One man regardeth the day, and another regardeth it not. He says either way, you regard it unto the Lord. You have to be fully persuaded before the Lord that you can do this, and thank the Lord in the middle of doing it, not with a seared conscience. Their issue there was holidays or holy days no longer being observed by Christians coming from a Jewish background, and in many of these passages their issue is eating meat that has been offered to idols. That one seems really, really serious: “Man, I do not want to have anything to do with idolatry. That is my past life. I want to make such a clean break from that.” If you are superstitious about anything, if there is an inkling of guilt about eating this thing, Paul says, “I will eat no flesh while the world standeth.” He says that back in 1 Corinthians 8, if he is offending someone, but maybe secretly Paul is over here eating bacon, saying, “Hey, I have freedom in Christ to eat bacon. Totally fine with that.” The question is, here is this plate of food that someone has offered in front of an idol, and in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 Paul is teaching the readers, “Look, we know an idol is nothing. We know it is just a stone. So just because this meat has been offered to an idol does not mean it is spiritually contaminated. You can eat it with a clear conscience. Go ahead and chow down on that thing guilt-free.” But there are people who would participate with varying degrees of comfort. There are some who say, “I do not want to touch that,” and others who say, “I am totally free in Christ.” There are Christians today who will participate in jokes about superstitious things, cautiously, and then jokingly. They will joke about spilling the salt, or they will say, “We should watch The Exorcist.” Now, those are not the same thing. They both might offend the conscience, but one is definitely going to be much more offensive than the other. There is a line between those things. There are some absolutely-not, no-way kinds of things, and there are some things I believe are biblically allowed. I have never seen a Christian, for example, not say “God bless you” because of its superstitious roots. We are told in the New Testament there is freedom in Christ. Christ did not come to bind us under the law. He came to fulfill the law, which makes men free. So I am kind of sad when people treat God like a genie, because when you are like that, you have to live in constant fear of upsetting God, as if He were one of the false gods the world worships. Sometimes there is no difference between a New Testament Christian and someone burning incense to a false idol or making some food sacrifice to a false idol. There is a fear of God, but not a healthy fear. Sometimes it is a superstitious fear.
Israel and the Ark
So I wanted to bring the New Testament in before we got into 1 Samuel chapter 4, because we need to have the right perspective. In the days of Israel they were dealing with the ark of the covenant, and their use of the ark of the covenant as this artifact came more from a fear of failure, a superstitious fear of God, than from an actual biblical fear of God. We are going to see in the text how their superstitions paid off for them. We have read throughout these chapters of 1 Samuel about the Philistines. There are constant skirmishes back and forth between the Philistines and the Israelites. You hear about the Philistines all the time: Samson and the Philistines, David and the Philistines. This particular Canaanite tribe was always a thorn in Israel’s side, and God said they would be if Israel did not obey God. Here they have not obeyed God, and they are lined up for battle. Look at 1 Samuel 4:1–2: “And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Eben-ezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men.” And they are back in camp going, “Why did God let this happen? Why is God letting us lose?” Well, the question is right, but their solution is wrong. Their solution was, “Let’s go get the ark.” Verse 3: “And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.” This is more about the thing, the ark of the covenant. Remember Joshua: the ark of the covenant took the first step into the Jordan River, and the Jordan River parted, and the children of Israel walked through on dry ground. At Jericho they marched the ark of the covenant around the city for seven days, and then the walls fell down. So maybe they are thinking there is something magical about this ark, and I guess it is no wonder that here in verse 3 people are suggesting, “Well, the presence of God is connected to this ark, so we have got to take the presence of God into battle, and then He will win our battle.” Verse 4 says, “So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.” So they are expecting the presence of God to be with them. Now, the end of verse 4 says the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. These are evil men. If you, as the children of Israel, are being led by these two goobers, it is no wonder the elders of Israel had no more sense than to treat the ark of God like a good-luck charm. Did no one think to say, “I do not think this is a good idea. Does it not feel like we are trying to manipulate God here? Does anyone see that we are forcing God’s hand?” Nobody thought to say that. They were forcing God’s hand. Well, they go and get the ark, and I guess some of the people thought it was a good idea. The priests were carrying it, and we see later that if the priests were not carrying it, people who touched the ark would be killed. We see that when the ark stumbled and somebody reached out to steady it; he was killed. So they must have gotten the poles and carried it out there, and as soon as all the men see this ark of God, there is this great cheer, a rally cry. The Bible says all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. The Philistines hear this, and they are terrified, and they feel like, “We have got to fight for our lives, men.” They rally the troops in verses 6 and 7, and they are scared: “Oh no, they have rallied their gods. They have brought the God who brought them out of Egypt.” Verse 8: “Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.” So the Philistines have the same thought process as the Israelites. They are thinking exactly like the Israelites here. That is not usually a good sign, when your plan is the same as the world’s plan. Israel is thinking, “Yeah, we have got the ark. Checkmate, Philistines. We have got our little genie God. We have got our lamp here. We are rubbing the lamp, and out pops God. We have got our rabbit’s foot, and you had better watch out, because as soon as I rub this rabbit’s foot, or rub this gold lamp, the genie is going to pop out and get you.” And the Philistines believe it. They are thinking the same thing. So they dig in, thinking, “We are not going down without a fight,” and they fight like they have never fought before, and they win. The Philistines win the battle. And it is like, “Whoa, whoa, hang on. Hang on, God. We had the ark of the covenant. This has Aaron’s rod in it. This has the Ten Commandments in stone, written with the finger of God. This has manna in here. Hang on, we have to win.” But the Philistines charge in, and thirty thousand Israelites die. “And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.”
God Is Not Your Genie
I just imagine God watching all this transpire and saying, “I never said I would do whatever you tell Me to do. Here is what I said: I said I would punish Hophni and Phinehas, and that they would both die in the same day, and this is that day.” It is as if God is saying, “Look, I am true to My word, not yours.” “Yeah, but I thought…” And Israel is just reeling from this. They are so shocked: “I cannot believe You would let us lose, God. We had the ark. I mean, the ark of the covenant of God.” Now, if you are watching the Super Bowl or some game you love, whatever game it is, and you pray for your team to win, what do you suppose God does with that prayer if there is somebody on the other side praying for their team to win? “Oh, please help my team win.” Only one side is going to win. Somebody has got to be disappointed. “But God, I prayed for my team to win.” And God is saying, “Well, I never said I would do that. You are not the boss of Me.” “Well, yeah, but we had Christians on this team, and we prayed. I have been living really good. I have been nice to my family. I prayed, and we still lost.” Hang on. God is not your genie. Folks, it was not a sure thing that Israel was going to win this battle just because they had this superstitious relic, the ark of God, with them. The only sure thing in this story was God’s Word, and He said in 1 Samuel 2:30, “Wherefore the LORD God of Israel saith, I said indeed that thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for ever: but now the LORD saith, Be it far from me; for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.” Here the people of Israel had despised God’s Word. The word of the LORD was precious in those days; there was no open vision. This is what life without God looks like. “Well, we have Samuel. You said everything would be better with Samuel, and we have our prophet. We have the ark of the covenant.” Hang on. The hearts of the children of Israel had not changed. Just because the man of God is there, just because the ark of the covenant is there, that does not mean the individual souls of the people of Israel had been changed. I think this is a good reminder of the teaching of individual soul liberty: God does not force His children to think a certain way. We will all give account of ourselves before God. “Oh, we have Samuel.” I know, but Samuel cannot change the minds of the people overnight. They are still thinking like the Philistines. Instead of taking personal accountability for their own sins, they say, “Why did God let us lose this battle?” When they asked that in Joshua’s time, God revealed to them what the problem was. Remember, there was sin in the camp, and they hunted that sin down, and it was Achan. They got rid of the sin, and then God gave them the victory in the battle. Here, no one even bothered to ask if the defeat of the army was their own problem. They just rushed ahead: “Man, I know we are going to win. We have got the ark. We have got our biggest weapon here. I have been saving this one for just the right time. Now get the ark. We have got the lucky man of God. We have got our lucky box, and now we cannot lose.” That was the mentality of the people, as if the man of God was lucky, as if the box of God was lucky. What was the man of God’s purpose? As we saw in the previous video, it was not to be a good-luck charm: “Now we will win our battles.” No, the man of God’s purpose was to declare the words of God and call the people to obey the Word of God. Israel in this story was not yet obedient to God. So when they lost in battle, this was a wake-up call for them: “Israel, you are superstitious, but you are not obedient. It is time to wake up, Israel.” I do not know whether God is using similar circumstances in your life to shake you awake, but maybe it is time for you to stop treating God like a genie and start waking up. There are only so many wake-up calls He can give you. Maybe it is a car accident. That might be a wake-up call God is giving you: you were this close to eternity, and it is as if God is saying, “Are you going to stop treating Me like I do not matter, or are you going to take My Word seriously?” Man, eternity is way too long to wager with. God will not be ignored for long. Maybe it is a sickness. In the book of James it says the prayer of faith shall save the sick, meaning that in those moments of dire sickness, God might be using them as a wake-up call for you. God wants you to see how serious this is: confess your faults one to another. Use it as a wake-up call. Do not treat God like a good-luck charm. He is not a rabbit’s foot. He is the Creator.
Why Do You Do Right?
As the saying goes, this Book reads like yesterday’s newspaper. The Word of God is just so relevant today, because how many times have I heard, or even said, “Man, when I go to church, my week is just better. I feel better. I can work better. My whole week is good. But if I do not go to church, well, everything is bad. It is just really bad.” Hang on. Are you blaming the genie for a good week or a bad week? “Well, when I do right, I just feel so good.” So is that the only reason you are doing right? I agree that God gives you good feelings. If you live a righteous life, good feelings follow, but that is not why we do right. Maybe you have never said it out loud, but how many times have you wondered, “God, why are all these bad things happening to me? I have been trying to live for You, and nothing is turning out right. I thought life would be easier”? Hang on. God never promised that life would be easier. In fact, He said it might get harder. So stop treating God like a genie. We had a missionary, Jason Russell, at our church a few weeks ago, and he told this heartbreaking story of going overseas as a missionary to Papua New Guinea. He said, “I do not hate my parents. I love my parents.” They were weeping and crying together, and it was a difficult thing to take their grandkids overseas. He talked about how, because of the family’s visa situation, when their kids turn eighteen they have to come back to the United States while the missionaries go back to Papua New Guinea, and leaving them behind was the hardest thing in the world. He said, “I do not hate my kids.” He talked about grandkids he had not even met until they were about two years old. He said, “I do not hate my grandkids. That was the hardest thing I had to do. But I love Jesus more, and Jesus has called us to go to Papua New Guinea.” Listen, God is not a genie. You do not just rub the lamp and everything works out good, and you get your wishes, and your life is happy, and everything is just wonderful. No, you are not in a sprint. You are in a marathon. You are not running just for today, just for this short time. This is a lifetime. You might say, “Well, I prayed all night for this thing to happen, and it did not happen.” Well, hang on. Was your faith in the prayer, or was your faith in God? God is not up there making mistakes. If you think God made a mistake, you are treating God like a genie and not like a holy God, a God who would rather suffer shame than allow you to carry on in false faith. There was a temporary period, when they lost the ark of God, when the name of God was tarnished a little bit, but God would rather suffer shame than allow His children to carry on in a false faith, and the same goes for you. We had Pastor Lloyd Reid preaching at our church, and he preached on wanting the blessings of God more than the God who blesses. One author said, “Whenever the church stops confessing, ‘Thou art worthy,’ and begins chanting, ‘Thou art useful,’ then you know the ark of God has been captured again.” Man, that is so good, so helpful and relevant. So the question is, why do you do your devotions? “Oh, so my day goes better.” No, you are opening the Word of God because you want to do what God says to do. That answer has nothing to do with your feelings. Why do you go to church? “Well, so my week goes better.” It might make your week go better, but what if life does not go better? What if the genie does not pay out? What if life is terrible? What if you are martyred for your faith? Is that the genie’s fault? God is not a genie. Hebrews 11:35–40 says, “Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” Why do you pray? Is it to avoid hardships? Well, they did not actually avoid any hardships. They suffered some horrible consequences in their lives. Why do you pray? James 4:3 says, “Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.” Why do you fear God? Just because you do not want God mad at you? Folks, God is not a genie. He is the Creator. He wants to be feared and reverenced and obeyed, but not just so we can get good things out of Him. We had an evangelist by the name of John Bishop come to our church years ago. I think it was spinal meningitis; he lost his memory completely. He was witnessing to somebody on an airplane one time, and the guy kind of brushed him off when he was talking about Jesus: “Yeah, you know, Jesus, whatever works for you.” Now, Brother John Bishop had a funny speech pattern. He skipped all the little small words, a, and the, and in, and at, all of that. Anything too small, his mind would just jump over. So when this guy he was witnessing to brushed him off and said, “Oh, Jesus, sure, that God stuff, whatever works for you,” Brother Bishop just took that quite literally and said, “Oh, no. He not work for me. I work for Him.” I remember when he told that story, the whole congregation just started busting up laughing, because it is so good. It is such a profound statement: “He not work for me; I work for Him.” God is not a genie. He is not just bending to our wishes and our will. We must bend to His will. Let’s work for Him and not treat God like a genie. Well, God bless you, and we will see you in the next video.
