The Philistines Capture the Ark
4 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. 2 The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. 3 And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” 4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. [1]
1 Samuel 4:1-4(ESV)
The Birth of Jesus Christ
18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23
“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel”
(which means God with us). 24 When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus. [2]
God’s Not in The Box
This past week, I had the opportunity to visit the Penn Yan United Methodist Church and worship with a fantastic group of musicians and congregants. Rev. Kristen Roth Allen, in her sermon, reminded us that sometimes, "it is hard to say yes." She was referring to Mary's response to the Angel Gabriel, who brought the news that she was to become pregnant with the Messiah. Mary faced many religious, cultural, and family issues, not to mention her betrothal to a righteous man named Joseph. It would have been scandalous for her to be pregnant with no explanation other than the 'Holy Spirit had come over her.' Can you imagine that explanation today?
In the inner workings of faith, we see the reality of a God who does not work in conventional ways. In everything that God does throughout scripture, God works through ordinary people who find themselves in the most precarious of situations. In this work, God's purposes are sometimes revealed in us, through us, because of us, or despite us.
Saying ‘yes’ to God isn’t always easy. It means going not knowing where the Lord is leading. There are times when God leads us to mountaintops and times when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death. Whatever the case may be, "God is with us." It's God's promise in the gift of the Messiah who will save us from our selfishness. There is no other answer than for God to enter this world as a baby—the only way to get the world's attention.
Sometimes, I think I need a megaphone to get the message across, but in the whole of scripture, God never uses a megaphone. God uses a still, small voice in the hearts of the faithful and sometimes the hearts of the unfaithful. Whatever the case may be, God still uses God's power to get our attention.
The angel Gabriel did not just appear to Mary but to Joseph in a dream. Joseph had every religious and cultural right to drag Mary to the city gates and have her stoned for being unfaithful. It was his right to justice in a mad world of religious and cultural regulations. This practice still lives on in countries around the world where women are treated as property and less than because of their gender. Don't believe me; check out the conditions in Afghanistan and other nations around the globe.
Joseph's dream—vision to become the stepfather to the Son of God—took a huge leap of faith. It meant losing his standing in the community, the synagogue, and all the people in this poor town of Nazareth. Joseph was risking it all on a dream.
There are times when we must risk it all on a dream. Sometimes, it is a dream within a dream. Whatever the case, it may be essential to remember that just as God spoke to Jacob's son Joseph in a dream, God speaks to us in dreams. Our dreams are not always God's dreams and visions for how our lives will unfold. They can be drastically different. That's okay; we don't always know the outcome of the path that we are on, but trust that it is paved with grace, faith, and hope in something or someone greater than ourselves. We must combat our needs, wants, and desires for selfishness. We must face the reality that we are not the end-all and be all of the world we are a part of.
The Israelites had become dependent upon the Ark of the Covenant, which provided security, power, and victory over their enemies. They had become dependent on the box that held the stone tablets that Moses had smashed with the commandments of God. They put the broken tablets in a box as if that was the dwelling place of the Lord. When we build boxes for God, we attempt to make God into our image and power broker. But a box, not even the Ark of the Covenant, can hold or wield the power of God.
If there is anything I have learned about God in this lifetime, it is this: God will not be kept in a box. God does what God does, and God's purposes are not our purposes. Sometimes, as the Israelites found out in 1 Samuel 4-1:1-4, God allows Israel to be defeated and allows God’s self to be carried into captivity.
When we consider the Ark of the Covenant, where God dwells, it is not in the box itself but between the two cherubim on top of the Ark, which were cast in gold and bronze. God cannot be contained by anyone or anything, and the second we think we can is when we make the fatal mistake of treating God like another idol. In this world, there is more idolatry than I care to comment on in this blog post.
“So, the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim.” 1 Samuel 4:1-4
We build boxes all the time—boxes in our lives and in the church. We act as if the things that are important are the membership numbers or balancing a budget. We worry about the number of individuals who will come on a Sunday morning to worship and make an offering to pay the bills.
We need a new dream—a vision of God's work in the church and our lives. We need a God-size vision that caused Mary and Joseph to "Say Yes!" to God's work in their lives and their unborn child's life. We need to act as if God has already paved the way in grace, faith, and hope, not focusing on the things that keep us afloat but on the things that change, and transform the human condition into a Christ-centered condition. That is the only way this world will change for the purposes of God.
God isn't in the box but in our hearts, minds, and souls. This Christmas is not about God being a Gennie in a bottle beholden to our wishes. God is not a spiritual vending machine, and it does not bother God if we don't get our Snickers bar that's dangling right there before our eyes; God is waiting for us to say, "Yes!" for God's purposes, not our own. It's not about us; it's all about God being with us in the birth of the Messiah, Christ the King.
[1] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), 1 Sa 4:1–4.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Mt 1:18–25.
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