Not-So-Quiet-Time: 1 Samuel 4
At-Home Bible Guide for the Week of 5/17
Day 1: Verses 1-4
The Israelites faced a terrible defeat in battle, and this caused them to ask an important question: Why has God defeated us? Their elders understood that God was in control, but they didn’t understand what God would make clear later in 1 Samuel 15:22—that God is not pleased by empty actions of “worship.” He desires obedient love. So when the people brought the Ark to battle with the belief that this would put them on God’s “good side,” they missed the point. We make this mistake today by believing that our religious acts can put us in God’s good graces. Pray that God would give you a heart for obedient love rather than empty religious activities.
Day 2: Verses 5-9
The Hebrew people became confident when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to the battle. And the Philistines remembered what had happened to the Egyptians. The Israelites should have remembered their journey out of Egypt too. Had they forgotten how God had destroyed the Israelites who had rebelled against God in the wilderness (Num 16)? God is great and powerful. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov 1:7). Does your life reflect that you fear God today?
Day 3: Verses 10-11
The Israelites trusted in the Ark, but apparently did not trust in the laws that were kept within the Ark. The people appear to have been missing a vital faith of their own. They had evidence that Moses and Aaron had walked with God, but where was the evidence of their own faith? James said, “I will show you my faith by my works” (2:18). Can your family and friends see your faith by how you live?
Day 4: Verses 12-18
This passage shows the sad end of Eli’s ministry. He had done some things well, but he had allowed his sons to defile God’s holiness. He had failed to stand for God’s character at the tabernacle in his life, and he had seen the Ark of God lost at his death. At that point, his chapter in the story was complete. But until that day, Eli could have repented. Many in Scripture from Manasseh to Paul turned back to God. We can repent too. Consider your life and pray a prayer of repentance asking God to turn your heart and life to Him more and more.
Day 5: Verses 19-22
Phineas’s wife is crushed by the loss of her family, and devastated at the loss of “the glory.” She seemed to understand that the Ark was not simply a mascot, but a real marker of God’s real glory in her world. Israel apart from the glory of God was a sad and empty place. And that emptiness could not be filled even by a good gift, like a son. What makes your life “full”? Are you living to “to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord” (Ps 27:4)? Do you ask, with Moses, “Show me your glory” (Ex 33:18)?
Catechism Connection: 47, 87
Let Eli be an example to all of us: today is the day to turn away from our sin. There is no reason to wait. And this repentance will press us into greater “awareness of the mercy of God in Christ,” and change us so that we are now “purposing and working constantly for a new obedience” (WSC 87). This is the way to joy.
Monthly Memory: Psalm 20:7
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
Day 1: Verses 1-4
The Israelites faced a terrible defeat in battle, and this caused them to ask an important question: Why has God defeated us? Their elders understood that God was in control, but they didn’t understand what God would make clear later in 1 Samuel 15:22—that God is not pleased by empty actions of “worship.” He desires obedient love. So when the people brought the Ark to battle with the belief that this would put them on God’s “good side,” they missed the point. We make this mistake today by believing that our religious acts can put us in God’s good graces. Pray that God would give you a heart for obedient love rather than empty religious activities.
Day 2: Verses 5-9
The Hebrew people became confident when the Ark of the Covenant was brought to the battle. And the Philistines remembered what had happened to the Egyptians. The Israelites should have remembered their journey out of Egypt too. Had they forgotten how God had destroyed the Israelites who had rebelled against God in the wilderness (Num 16)? God is great and powerful. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov 1:7). Does your life reflect that you fear God today?
Day 3: Verses 10-11
The Israelites trusted in the Ark, but apparently did not trust in the laws that were kept within the Ark. The people appear to have been missing a vital faith of their own. They had evidence that Moses and Aaron had walked with God, but where was the evidence of their own faith? James said, “I will show you my faith by my works” (2:18). Can your family and friends see your faith by how you live?
Day 4: Verses 12-18
This passage shows the sad end of Eli’s ministry. He had done some things well, but he had allowed his sons to defile God’s holiness. He had failed to stand for God’s character at the tabernacle in his life, and he had seen the Ark of God lost at his death. At that point, his chapter in the story was complete. But until that day, Eli could have repented. Many in Scripture from Manasseh to Paul turned back to God. We can repent too. Consider your life and pray a prayer of repentance asking God to turn your heart and life to Him more and more.
Day 5: Verses 19-22
Phineas’s wife is crushed by the loss of her family, and devastated at the loss of “the glory.” She seemed to understand that the Ark was not simply a mascot, but a real marker of God’s real glory in her world. Israel apart from the glory of God was a sad and empty place. And that emptiness could not be filled even by a good gift, like a son. What makes your life “full”? Are you living to “to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord” (Ps 27:4)? Do you ask, with Moses, “Show me your glory” (Ex 33:18)?
Catechism Connection: 47, 87
Let Eli be an example to all of us: today is the day to turn away from our sin. There is no reason to wait. And this repentance will press us into greater “awareness of the mercy of God in Christ,” and change us so that we are now “purposing and working constantly for a new obedience” (WSC 87). This is the way to joy.
Monthly Memory: Psalm 20:7
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.
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