God Enters the Arena

# 62 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 4:5-8 And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook. 6 Now when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, "What does the sound of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?" Then they understood that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp. 7 So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, "God has come into the camp!" And they said, "Woe to us! For such a thing has never happened before. 8 "Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. (1 Sam 4:5-8) Imagine being in a football stadium when the star athlete of the team has been missing from the team and suddenly makes his appearance out of the tunnel. You know the sound. You've heard the sound! The stadium absolutely erupts. Now with the star athlete here, the home team will win! I imagine the army of Israel was thinking along those same lines. “The pastors are here and they brought the ark! Victory is ours! Meanwhile the Philistines, in the visiting locker room here the roar of the crowd and dread comes over them. They have heard of the reputation of the Israelites star player. They had heard of what He did to lead the Israelites to victory over the the powerful Egyptians. But the cheering Israelites forgot something. God is not Someone who performs for us at the snap of our fingers. He is God! He has performance clauses in His contract with the team if you will. In this particular instance, the star player (God) would not go to battle for the Israelites because they had been worshiping other star athletes. (Other gods) Samuel would set the people straight on this matter in 1 Sam 7:3, when he told the Israelites to “return to the Lord with all their heart and put away their foreign gods and serve God alone. Then and only then would the Lord deliver them “out of the hand of the Philistines.” By all means, cheer for God, but be sure He alone is on the throne of your heart.