The Box

 DEVOITON

1^ST SAMUEL

THE BOX

1 Samuel 4:1-11

:1 And Samuel's word came to all Israel. Now the Israelites went out to fight against the Philistines. The Israelites camped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines at Aphek. 2 The Philistines deployed their forces to meet Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand of them on the battlefield. 3 When the soldiers returned to camp, the elders of Israel asked, "Why did the LORD bring defeat upon us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the LORD's covenant from Shiloh, so that it may go with us and save us from the hand of our enemies." 4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD Almighty, who is enthroned between the cherubim. And Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5 When the ark of the LORD's covenant came into the camp, all Israel raised such a great shout that the ground shook. 6 Hearing the uproar, the Philistines asked, "What's all this shouting in the Hebrew camp?" When they learned that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp, 7 the Philistines were afraid. "A god has come into the camp," they said. "We're in trouble! Nothing like this has happened before. 8 Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? They are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert. 9 Be strong, Philistines! Be men, or you will be subject to the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Be men, and fight!" 10 So the Philistines fought, and the Israelites were defeated and every man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great; Israel lost thirty thousand foot soldiers. 11 The ark of God was captured, and Eli's two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

NIV

We wonder why the Israelites believed that God was present in the Ark of the Covenant. It did indeed symbolize his presence in the tabernacle; however, because the Philistines captured the ark of the covenant, it was nothing more than a wooden box covered with gold, with layers of dried blood on its cover. Our modern movies have made the ark something awe-inspiring, with one movie depicting men who found it, opening it, and the fury of God spewing forth like lightning, killing all who looked upon it. However, God Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth, cannot be contained within a box, even one he designed and gave Moses instructions as to how it was to be built. This should give us the clue as to how we must perceive the living God. We cannot put Him in a box. That is to say that we cannot predetermine how God will respond or his actions by deciding the ways God works. Of course, we have the complete scriptures that reveal who God is, and we have records of how he intervened in the lives of many people, especially the whole tribe of Israel. We might decide or expect how God will respond to certain actions or prayers we offer. However, that too is putting God in a box. Although we do have records of how he acted in various ways, and his word is recorded for all time, we can never expect the Lord God Almighty to act following how we perceive him to act. We may quote part of his word, using that as a trap, so to speak, expecting him to do something in a certain way that he may have done before, but again, that would be putting the Lord Almighty who formed us from the dust and breathed life into us, in a box. Let us firmly establish in our hearts and minds, He is the Almighty Sovereign of the Universe, who was, is, and will forever be, and He cannot be contained in a box, even that Ark of the Covenant. The ark represented his covenant with Israel; however, we have the Holy Spirit, who is not just a representative of God, but is God dwelling within us. Yet, we cannot contain the Spirit although he is in us. We can quench him, not allowing him full access to our inner being, but, as Jesus told us to learn from him, that he is gentle and humble of heart, we know the Spirit will not force his ways upon us, but once we submit to the will of God, all heaven and earth will fall away and we will be filled with the power of God, through the working of the Holy Spirt in us the through us, for God almighty will never be contained in any of our constructed ideas, or the box we made for him.