Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek. The Philistines put themselves in array against Israel. When they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field. When the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has Yahweh defeated us today before the Philistines? Let’s get the ark of Yahweh’s covenant out of Shiloh and bring it to us, that it may come among us and save us out of the hand of our enemies.” So the people sent to Shiloh, and they brought from there the ark of the covenant of Yahweh of Armies, who sits above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.”
(1 Samuel 4:1b-4)

“Clouds and darkness are around him.
    Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
A fire goes before him,
    and burns up his adversaries on every side.
His lightning lights up the world.
    The earth sees, and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax at the presence of Yahweh,
    at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
The heavens declare his righteousness.
    All the peoples have seen his glory.
Let all them be shamed who serve engraved images,
    who boast in their idols.
    Worship him, all you gods!”
(Psalm 97:2-7)

It matters what God thinks and He is watching us (Psalm 139:2; Job 42:2; 2 Corinthians 10:5). This is NOT a threat. He is watching us EAGER to BLESS us (Isaiah 30:18). He wants us to do what is right for OUR sake (Galatians 6:7-16). God is trying to get the blessing TO us (Malachi 3:10). But to receive it, we have to get into alignment with HIM. WE move, He doesn’t move. Eli was not being a good priest to the people. He was not being a good father. He talked, but he didn’t enforce God’s point of view. His sons were immoral. Ungodly. And the people didn’t ask God what HE thought. They simply did what THEY thought would help. Their trust wasn’t in GOD. It was in the ark. It was in a box. It was in symbols. They were idolizing something that had NO POWER. They were totally missing the point. Because of that, because they did NOT seek God. They did NOT follow God. They did NOT submit to God. They did what He had told them NOT to do (putting trust in anything but Him). Because they idolized the trappings and refused to submit to His point of view, they got into a place where the curse was coming at them – and they were NOT staying under His protection. They received the harvest of what they had sown. And the willingly disobedient got judged for their rebellion.

God hides in His glory. He SHOWS us His glory (Psalm 19:1-7; Romans 1:18-32). When humanity willingly stands against it, tries to keep others from it, they put themselves where the wrath of God is. Humans were NEVER meant to be standing there (Matthew 25:41). If we align with God’s point of view, we can enter His glory and stand under His protection. It is unrighteousness and ungodliness. It is SIN that God hates. Those who revel in their sins and iniquities, those who embrace them. They put themselves in the place God hates and are therefore also hated (Psalm 5:5). That’s why God is desperate for people to come to Him, so that they won’t be hated (1 Timothy 2:3-6). Nothing can stand in that place and live.

Summary

The trappings of religion are not what we are to be after. We are to be after a relationship with God. THAT is eternal life (John 17:3). But when we put more emphasis on the THINGS than on GOD, we rob ourselves of the reality of serving the Living God (2 Timothy 3:5). We NEED to be consulting God. We NEED to find out what HE thinks, what HE wants, and what HE desires. When we align with Him, those things will be ours as well. Who wants to stand where they know nothing but failure lives? Who WOULDN’T want to be blessed, rasied up, and honoured? We get that by being servants of God. Humbly submitting to HIM. Symbols are great to focus our attention on the aspect of God that He’s talking about, but leaning into God Himself alone – not the trappings of worship – is the ONLY way to truly worship and follow the Lord (John 4:24).