I read 1 Samuel, chapters 3 and 4 today, about the calling of Samuel to the ministry, the capture of the ark, and the death of Eli, all important events in the life of the Hebrews and their relationship with the Father. I had read this passage many times before. Today, the passage spoke to me.
Consider this: Father God let the Phillistines crush the Hebrews, and take the ark of the covenant.
Sure, it was to punish a largely faithless people, and to punish Eli and his family for letting his sons corrupt the temple and the priesthood. The Hebrews, in their faithless desperation, used the ark as a totem, an idol, by bringing it to the battle with Phillistines, hoping it would turn the battle their way.
Yet the Father let the ark be captured, rather than be used as a wood-and-gold idol. He would not let his chosen people spiritually confine Him to a box, even a box built according to His very own plans.
What does this say to us today? That our church structures and campuses cannot hold Him, that any single church community cannot keep Him on a leash, that church traditions and liturgies have no hold on Him.
He wants our hearts, not our buildings, not our pews, not our playgrounds and gyms, not our vans and buses, not our altars and lecterns, not our Power Points, not our hymnals and songbooks, not our pianos and organs and guitars, not our annual budgets.
I have to wonder: what would we believers do if all of our arks disappeared today?
Would you cower in your entertainment room in the basement?
Or would you shout hallelujah, for another set of shackles had fallen away?
I am a huge supporter of the gathering together of believers, as you know, but of late my interpretation of that is being turned upside down. Did the first believers meet in the same house every week?
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