Many
times it's hard to realize that distractions are our biggest enemies. I don't
know what was going on but it didn't matter how much I tried to sit down and
work I could not manage to stop and study. Nothing about studying the book of
Samuel sounded exciting to me, especially not the huge amount of homework we
have. Seven PM, time to go back to homework came, I "started". My
friend Jeremiah came into the room and said I bet you that she is doing everything but
homework. I
sat down "determined" to do homework, but what was the first thing I
did? ...Facebook. Then Jeremiah told me the obvious solution, pray. He
said "Pray so that God can take away
your distractions." Why didn't I think about it before! So he and I
prayed, I honestly thought God would gradually respond to my prayer, but he
didn't! I focused on my homework immediately!
I honestly shouldn't be surprised about this, I have been learning about
how God listens to our prayers, and he listens to those who seek him and love
him. I started interpreting the first few chapters of Samuel. I am halfway
through one of the interpretations because God has shown me something that has
touched my heart so much and I just had to stop and think about it. I have been
doing homework with God; we are discussing the chapters and what he is saying
through the stories. He is telling me how he felt about certain situations that
happened. These are real stories, they happened in real life!
So, this was the situation. The Israelites in the time of Samuel were
slowly starting to understand who God was. They have been so influenced by the
gods of the nations around them; their theology is completely off the lines.
Their mayor enemies, the Philistines have come and attacked them. They killed
many Israelites. The Israelites think that they have a solution. They think
that if the priests bring the Ark of the Covenant (where God's presence was)
then they will win the battle against the Philistines. The problem was that the priests at that time did not know God, and they were very corrupt. What happened to them? They got
defeated by the Philistines, and not only that but they even stole the Ark of
the Covenant! This is what I wrote:
(1 Samuel 4:1-11)
"Interpretation
Question: Why didn't it work for the Israelites to bring the Ark to battle?
Interpretation: The
reason why it didn't work was because it was not about having God’s presence in
front of them, but it was about the situation of their hearts, and of the
hearts of the priests who had the ark. The original readers could learn that it
is the same for them, it is not about just the presence of the LORD being
present but about the situation of their heart before the LORD, if they follow
him then God will honor them in battles. What good was it for them to have
God's presence if God was not pleased by their hearts?
Timeless Truth: It is not just about having the presence of
God but about your heart to God. "
This just hit me; we can think that if we face our problems with just
the word of God then we will conquer those problems. We can recite verses and
make people think that the presence of God is with us through that. But more
important than just recited words or the longing of having his presence around
us is that we are obedient. We cannot objectify God, he is not just an
object that we carry around, and if we carry him our problems will be solved; He is God. He looks into our heart, and our intentions. Our focus should
always be to know Him better, and if we know him better then we will obey and
walk according to his will; He will be with us. If the Israelites had known how
important it was for them to leave behind the idea that God is like other gods,
and decided to really follow God then God would have helped them win the
battle. It is the same with us, we cannot compare God to how people are, He is
different. We cannot please God in the same way we please people. We cannot
follow a certain formula so that God will help us go through our problems. The
only thing we have to do is get to know him, talk to him, spend time with him, read the
Bible to get to know him, but never do it on your own but do it with God.
This is the big revelation, it is a very basic and simple concept, but
there is so much power in it. I love how everything in the Bible comes down to getting
to know God so that we may love him and obey him. This is a little bit of the
Bible school for you, I love it. I am getting to know God through His word. I
am being transformed in the process, and my love for Him is growing more and
more every day. I challenge you to sit down, read, discover who God is through the Bible. If you don't understand it, then
it means that you need to study it! You won't regret it!
Thursday, November 7, 2013
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