God's Power to Punish and to Provide - I Samuel 4-6 and Luke 9:1-17
God's power is awesome. He can take care of Himself, and He can take care of us. One of the ways that He takes care of Himself is that He protects His reputation. He desires for all people to know that He is the Only God. Therefore, He stands up for Himself in situations where people might be tempted to think otherwise. That is what we read about in I Samuel 4-6. Eli and his sons had brought down the name of God because of their sin. God decided that He had to assert His power to remove the reproach and show everyone who He was. Therefore, when the battle with the Philistines came, Eli's sons died in the battle, and Eli died when he heard the news. Now, God could elevate Samuel and show people His righteousness through him.
At the same time as He was dealing with Eli's family, God was proving to Israel and the Philistines that He was the holy God. He punished Israel for not calling on Him to defeat their enemies. Instead of depending on God, they were using the ark of the covenant like a good luck charm. God will not support empty ritual. He will not allow ritual to replace relationship. Therefore, many of His own people had to die, because of their sin. The same was true for the pagan Philistines. Their god, Dagon, was disgraced, and the people were killed by the plague until they sent an offering and returned the ark. They saw God's power to punish, and they did not want any more of it. The thing that amazes me is that they did not turn to God once and for all. That should be our response to His power to punish.
In Luke 9 we see His power to provide. Jesus gave power over demons and disease. Jesus fed the 5,000. Even Herod was wondering what was going on, because there was no doubt that Jesus was showing the mighty power of God. It is much better to be on the receiving end of God's power when He is providing instead of punishing. How can we assure that? We must recognize God for who He is and reverence His name in faith. We must turn from our sin and trust Him only. We must exalt His name before all people. This is especially true on this Friday, when we remember Jesus' death on the Cross. He was the only one with the power to provide for our salvation. He was the only one who could defeat sin and Satan. He did it once and for all, and we should give Him all of the glory.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Samuel 7-9 and Luke 9:18-36.
At the same time as He was dealing with Eli's family, God was proving to Israel and the Philistines that He was the holy God. He punished Israel for not calling on Him to defeat their enemies. Instead of depending on God, they were using the ark of the covenant like a good luck charm. God will not support empty ritual. He will not allow ritual to replace relationship. Therefore, many of His own people had to die, because of their sin. The same was true for the pagan Philistines. Their god, Dagon, was disgraced, and the people were killed by the plague until they sent an offering and returned the ark. They saw God's power to punish, and they did not want any more of it. The thing that amazes me is that they did not turn to God once and for all. That should be our response to His power to punish.
In Luke 9 we see His power to provide. Jesus gave power over demons and disease. Jesus fed the 5,000. Even Herod was wondering what was going on, because there was no doubt that Jesus was showing the mighty power of God. It is much better to be on the receiving end of God's power when He is providing instead of punishing. How can we assure that? We must recognize God for who He is and reverence His name in faith. We must turn from our sin and trust Him only. We must exalt His name before all people. This is especially true on this Friday, when we remember Jesus' death on the Cross. He was the only one with the power to provide for our salvation. He was the only one who could defeat sin and Satan. He did it once and for all, and we should give Him all of the glory.
Tomorrow, I intend to read I Samuel 7-9 and Luke 9:18-36.