Lean Not on Your Own Understanding

 Amaziah-The King Who Stopped Short of the Goal

 Book of 2 Chronicles Chapter 25

 

I think the greatest thing we can learn from the Old Testament is "what not to do".

No matter how powerful we become upon this earth, we are very, very small compared to God!

 Over and over, we read how people went against the Word of God, and God had to take away His hand of blessing.

You see God does not cause our problems; He just removes His hand of blessing that would have stopped most of our problems.

God wants us to allow Him to dictate how we live our lives to gain the greatest blessings while we are alive and even greater blessings when we join Him in Heaven.

God wants to deal with us as any good Father would.

We are foolish people when we do not realize that God wants to bless us and not take away our blessings.

 People believe that God does so many things to them, when actually it's the Devil who has more freedom when God removes His hand of blessing and protection.

 We get a bird's eye view of these things in the Books of the Kings and the Chroniclers, and in the divided nation, we see how leaders rebel against a loving God, and it did not go well for them.

None of us like discipline, but for all of us, a little discipline is necessary.

 Throughout the Old Testament, God dispensed His theocratic kingdom through mediators, the prophets.

 God appointed human leaders through whom He revealed His will and made Himself known. He still does this today.

 The final ultimate form of God's theocratic kingdom will be the Millennial Kingdom governed by Jesus Christ.

There is no more important subject in the Old Testament than the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ!

 The Old Testament looks forward to all the things concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, and it gives us true history so we can better understand.

 We must understand that God deals with Israel to bring her to a place of Spiritual blessing in which she will be the agent for God to bless the nations of the world.

 We now know that this will not take place until after the Rapture of the Church and the Seven Years of Tribulation, which the Church will miss.

 The Mosaic Covenant was conditional and a demonstration of God's Holiness.

 All those who would enter into fellowship with our Holy God would have to meet His Holy Standard.

 Jer 31:31  Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: 

Jer 31:32  Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: 

Jer 31:33  But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 

Jer 31:34  And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 

 The Prophets of the Old Testament teach us how God will achieve this with Israel.

 We know the Messiah will rule this earth from Jerusalem, but the Messiah first came as a suffering Messiah through whom God offers forgiveness of sins.

This forgiveness is for the whole world, but each individual must acknowledge it.

1Jn_2:2  And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

 The one thing we see in all the Bible is the continuation of sin in the human race, and there is only one race in all the Scriptures.

 Red, yellow, black, and white, we are all sinners in His sight, but we are all forgiven if we trust what God has done for us.

Rom_3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

 We know the Messiah to be a descendant of King David.

 2Sa 7:12  And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom. 

2Sa 7:13  He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever. 

2Sa 7:14  I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men: 

2Sa 7:15  But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. 

2Sa 7:16  And thine house and thy kingdom shall be established for ever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever. 

 This is the purpose of God to gain as many as will accept Him into His Heavenly Kingdom.

 The Old Testament gives us the history of Israel in the way God moved these people to fulfill His purpose for them.

 Our lesson continues to show us how the divided nation of Israel and the kings in the line of David continued to fail God in His purpose, but the plan of God continued to move forward, as it still does today.

 How many of us stop short of the goals God has set for us because we have slipped backwards from time to time?

I know I have. I am a work in progress.

I also know that God does not ever change. This is why we need to study the Old Testament to learn from the mistakes made then.

 *****2Ch 25:1  Amaziah was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned twenty and nine years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Jehoaddan of Jerusalem. 

2Ch 25:2  And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, but not with a perfect heart. 

 After our salvation, God the Father gives us opportunities to earn rewards that will be in Heaven when we get there.

 When an opportunity arises, we must grab it, or else we will lose that opportunity.

 God gave opportunities to the Kings of Judah to become great kings, but most of them let pride and discipline be their downfall.

 Pro_16:18  Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

 In fact, God provides opportunities to every national leader because it is God who put them in place.

 We know we just do not see great leaders anymore.

The leaders of today are poisoned by the wickedness of this world.

What did God say on the day of Noah?

Mat 24:38  For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

God says the world keeps going as it always has, disregarding the sin that is in this world.

We here in America have great hope for the one who sits in the chair of the president today, but we do not know as of yet.

All we know is that he was the best choice to change the direction our nation was following, and he still is. 

Opportunities are lost by God's people because we just do not know how to discipline ourselves in the Word of God.

 When we as Christians meet the Lord Jesus in the clouds, He will probably remind us of all those lost opportunities.

 In the Books of the Kings and Chronicles, we see the lost opportunities of the leaders of Judah and Israel.

 Judah had nineteen kings and one queen, and most of them were wicked rulers.

 We must completely understand that God is not going to allow us to live like a bunch of pagans.

 Amaziah was the son of Joash, also written Jehoash, and was the ninth King of Judah.

 Joash was the son of Ahaziah, King of Judah, and the only one of his children who escaped from the wicked Queen Athaliah when she killed her own grandchildren.

 At the age of seven, Joash became King of Judah, and for twenty-three years, he did right in the eyes of God because he was led by Jehoiada, the High Priest of Israel.

 When Jehoiada died, Joash fell into the hands of bad advisors, and he revived the worship of Baal and Ashtaroth.

 When he was rebuked by Zechariah, the son of the High Priest, he had Zechariah stoned to death in the Temple.

 He had allowed the people to build worship centers on former pagan sites, and God was not pleased.

 He failed to remove the High places where the worship of false gods took place.

 False worship began to intermingle with the worship of Jehovah, and God was not pleased.

 These same things still happen today, and some inside the Church.

 People just never change from their wicked ways because they cannot without God in their lives.

 Ecc_1:9  The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

 Not too much later, he was assassinated by two of his own servants.

 Even though Amaziah was known as a mostly good king, we find that Amaziah was much like his father, King Joash, and never truly committed himself to the Lord.

From time to time, Amaziah would worship idols instead of the Lord.

We have a lot of our leaders who claim to be Christian, but the fact remains that any leader who only gives the Lord part of his heart is not really a leader at all and certainly does not belong to God.

God is an all-or-nothing God.

Amaziah did not close the "high places," which were places where false worship took place.

Amaziah did not serve God with a perfect heart.

Once Amaziah returned from his captivity in Israel, he was not much good to the people of Judah, and a conspiracy was made, and he too was assassinated.

 We cannot just be guided by the Preacher; we must be guided by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit.

 Amaziah began his reign by punishing the murderers of his father but not their children in obedience to the Word of God, but this was about all he did in obedience to the Word of God

Amaziah was not going to be the new King David.

He actually helped to bring idol worship into Judah.

 Amaziah numbered his army and became a foolish king.

 *****2Ch 25:5  Moreover, Amaziah gathered Judah together, and made them captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, according to the houses of their fathers, throughout all Judah and Benjamin: and he numbered them from twenty years old and above, and found them three hundred thousand choice men, able to go forth to war, that could handle spear and shield. 

2Ch 25:6  He hired also a hundred thousand mighty men of valour out of Israel for an hundred talents of silver. 

2Ch 25:7  But there came a man of God to him, saying, O king, let not the army of Israel go with thee; for the LORD is not with Israel, to wit, with all the children of Ephraim. 

2Ch 25:8  But if thou wilt go, do it, be strong for the battle: God shall make thee fall before the enemy: for God hath power to help, and to cast down. 

2Ch 25:9  And Amaziah said to the man of God, But what shall we do for the hundred talents which I have given to the army of Israel? And the man of God answered, The LORD is able to give thee much more than this. 

 Amaziah found that he had three hundred thousand men who were able to go to war.

 Notice that a man had to be at least twenty years old to serve in the army and physically able.

 Then Amaziah committed a no-no.

 He hired a hundred thousand mercenary soldiers of Israel.

 If we are God's people, then we must trust that God will provide for our victories in life.

 If Amaziah had gone to war with the help of this mercenary army and won, then he could have bragged about how great he was instead of how great God is.

 The man of God stepped in to warn him.

 It is important to God that we turn away from evil associations with the enemies of God.

Our job is to witness to them the truth of God, but we are not to become a part of the lost crowd.

 It was Edom who had refused to allow the nation of Israel to travel through their land in the exodus from Egypt.

 It was Edom who had helped round up escaping Jews to give to Nebuchadnezzar.

 We should remember Edom was established by Esau, the brother of Jacob.

We would think that one side of the family of brothers would help the other side in their time of need, but not Edom. Edom is Esau

What did God say? Rom_9:13  As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.

Mal 1:2  I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob, 

Mal 1:3  And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. 

 Eventually, Edom and Moab were taken over by the Nabateans.

 King David had conquered the Edomites, and so would King Amaziah without the help of that mercenary army.

 This would not have happened had he kept that army with him.

 It is God who has the power to help, but He also has the power to take down, as many who have faced Israel have found out.

 Amaziah gave this army a hundred talents of silver, which he had promised, and sent them away, but they were not satisfied with that.

 King Amaziah had to choose between losing the hundred talents and losing the war with the Edomites. He chose to win.

As the servants of God, we cannot allow ourselves to be pushed into disobedience because of others, especially by those who do not know the Lord as their Savior.

Satan smiles every time this happens.

We must be led by the LORD and not by the circumstances we face in this world.

 *****2Ch 25:10  Then Amaziah separated them, to wit, the army that was come to him out of Ephraim, to go home again: wherefore their anger was greatly kindled against Judah, and they returned home in great anger. 

 One man wrote that this army was disgraced by this rejection and disappointed with the spoil they hoped to gain and sent home empty.

 It is believed that a hundred talents were probably given to the officers who raised this army, and the soldiers themselves got nothing. This is the way greed works.

 You cannot trust an angry army of a hundred thousand men!

 They returned to Israel with great anger.

 *****2Ch 25:11  And Amaziah strengthened himself, and led forth his people, and went to the valley of salt, and smote of the children of Seir ten thousand. 

2Ch 25:12  And other ten thousand left alive did the children of Judah carry away captive, and brought them unto the top of the rock, and cast them down from the top of the rock, that they all were broken in pieces. 

2Ch 25:13  But the soldiers of the army which Amaziah sent back, that they should not go with him to battle, fell upon the cities of Judah, from Samaria even unto Bethhoron, and smote three thousand of them, and took much spoil

 What did this man of God say? It may be okay to hire others who have the same hope in God and have an interest in Heaven, but God will never allow us to associate with those whom He has given over to the Devil.

 We cannot expect godliness from those who are ungodly.

 Amaziah was now convinced that he was stronger without the army of Israel than he was with them.

 The Valley of Salt ֶwas a significant geographical and military location in the ancient Near East, mentioned in several Old Testament passages. 

It is generally identified with the southern end of the Dead Sea, in the arid and salt-impregnated plain between Judah and Edom.

 It is believed to be part of the Arabah, a broad plain at the Dead Sea's southern end, bordered by salt mountains, salt marshes, and brackish water.

 Twenty thousand men of Edom died in this war with Judah.

 Ten thousand of them were just murdered, but we should understand what God said.

 This place is now called Petra. Selah and Petra are the same.

 2Ki 14:7  He slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day. 

 The name Joktheel means subjugated of God.

 Today, many liberals would scream bloody murder at such a thing, but God does not ever forget the cruelty of His enemies.

 Eze 25:12  Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them; 

Eze 25:13  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; I will also stretch out mine hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; and they of Dedan shall fall by the sword. 

Eze 25:14  And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord GOD.

 Oba 1:10  For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever. 

 Edom or Esau is a picture of sin, the old nature of the flesh.

 Edom had always behaved as a merciless enemy of God's people and was judged for it.

 We cannot feel sorry for God's judgment of sin!

When armies were victorious in those days, they would take plunder, which could include men, women, children, cattle, and any other wealth of the defeated army.

Since there were no prisons, the defeated army was often killed to keep them from seeking revenge.

We could feel sorrow for any people if we had the opportunity to lead them to the Lord, and we did not even try.

 Col 3:5  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: 

Col 3:6  For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: 

Col 3:7  In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. 

 While Amaziah was occupied with Edom, those soldiers from Israel showed just how foolish it was for Amaziah to associate with them.

 We next see that Amaziah becomes a foolish king.

 *****2Ch 25:14  Now it came to pass, after that Amaziah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Seir, and set them up to be his gods, and bowed down himself before them, and burned incense unto them. 

 We might ask ourselves, "Why would Amaziah do such a thing"?

 The only answer is that he was not completely sold out to Jehovah!

 Of all the sins we commit, false worship is the worst besides rejecting the Lord Jesus, which has no forgiveness!

 Exo_34:14  For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God:

 What Amaziah should have destroyed, he began to worship.

He bowed down to these false gods on more than one occasion, and he became a fool.

If false gods cannot save us, why would we consider them gods?

America is full of people today who worship material things and figures of the imagination.

No one has ever seen God, so no one can make an idol that is in His likeness.

It’s the same for Jesus Christ. We do not know what Jesus looked like except to know He took on the resemblance of the Jews.

Jesus was likely a first-century Jewish man with olive-brown skin, short black hair, a beard, and a modest, stocky build, standing around 5 feet 5 inches tall.

Isa 53:2  For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. 

We should not have objects of worship for either one, for they are no more than idols.

What had God said?

 Deu 7:5  But thus shall ye deal with them; ye shall destroy their altars, and break down their images, and cut down their groves, and burn their graven images with fire. 

Deu 7:6  For thou art an holy people unto the LORD thy God: the LORD thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. 

Even a picture of said Jesus Christ can become an idol if we see it as a thing to worship.

 Another King of Judah had failed God's people.

 Amaziah had potential, but he became a failure.

 Amaziah became boastful and arrogant because of his military victory, which he would not have had if he had not listened to the man of God.

 This arrogance would cost Judah a great deal more!

We should realize that if the Kings of Judah had all lived by the Word of God, then God would never have allowed Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Jerusalem, and the Middle East would be far different from what it is today.

It is the same for the Church today. If the Church is obedient to the Word of God, it will thrive because God's plan works while our plans fail.

The truth is, at this moment, the Church is failing because it has allowed the world to get inside the Church, and man's laws have overcome God's laws.

Just because a judge can decide the fate of certain people, only God can decide the true fate of all people.

Amaziah challenged the king of the Northern Kingdom, King Joash.

*****2Ch 25:18  And Joash king of Israel sent to Amaziah king of Judah, saying, The thistle that was in Lebanon sent to the cedar that was in Lebanon, saying, Give thy daughter to my son to wife: and there passed by a wild beast that was in Lebanon, and trode down the thistle. 

2Ch 25:19  Thou sayest, Lo, thou hast smitten the Edomites; and thine heart lifteth thee up to boast: abide now at home; why shouldest thou meddle to thine hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and Judah with thee? 

2Ch 25:20  But Amaziah would not hear; for it came of God, that he might deliver them into the hand of their enemies, because they sought after the gods of Edom.

We get a close-up view of what pride can do to us if we fall into its trap.

God may have allowed Amaziah to be victorious if he had not begun his worship of false idols. 

 Truth be known, it was probably Joash, King of Israel, who had sent that army back into the land of Judah.

 We can see that the areas and the cities that are mentioned were once part of Israel, and Samaria was the chief city in the kingdom of the Ten Tribes of Israel.

 God was on the side of Amaziah until he turned his back on God and began to worship idols.

 One of our greatest problems we as humans has been that we think we are far more important than we really are

Many of us walk around thinking we are some great things, but we are nothing without the Lord Jesus Christ.

 Without the love of God, we are nothing!

 It is Okay to take a little pride in our accomplishments and our achievements, but we must never think we did those things under our own power.

 We must never look upon others as being of less value than we are!

 Self-pride and self-righteousness are enemies to our relationship with our Righteous and Holy God.

 Psa 10:2  The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

Psa 10:3  For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth. 

Psa 10:4  The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. 

 When we go to others to solve our problems and not to God, we are just asking for failure.

 When we say goodbye to God, He will say goodbye to us.

 He will never force us to follow Him or His Words!

 2Ch 25:22  And Judah was put to the worse before Israel, and they fled every man to his tent. 

2Ch 25:23  And Joash the king of Israel took Amaziah king of Judah, the son of Joash, the son of Jehoahaz, at Bethshemesh, and brought him to Jerusalem, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, four hundred cubits.

 The arrogance of Amaziah cost his nation dearly; even the House of God was plundered.

He was captured and was a prisoner to Israel until the death of Joash.

The wall of Jerusalem was broken down for about six hundred feet.

The treasures of the Temple were stolen.

The treasures of the king's house were taken.

Many royal hostages were taken back to Samaria.

It should be very clear that God will judge us for our sins against Him and His Word.

 *****2Ch 25:24  And he took all the gold and the silver, and all the vessels that were found in the house of God with Obededom, and the treasures of the king's house, the hostages also, and returned to Samaria. 

2Ch 25:27  Now after the time that Amaziah did turn away from following the LORD they made a conspiracy against him in Jerusalem; and he fled to Lachish: but they sent to Lachish after him, and slew him there.

It should be easy to see that the Bible is always right. Pride does go before our destruction.

When we say goodbye to God, we begin walking on dangerous ground.

Our biggest problem from the beginning of time is that we just think too highly of ourselves.

Joash was even more wicked than Amaziah.

We see that wicked people can see through the motives of other wicked people much better than we can.

Almost all wicked people are driven by the same motives!

We would be wrong if we cannot see that God is using Joash to punish Amaziah.

Amaziah would enter his own home as a prisoner and see it plundered by Joash.

A section of the wall of Jerusalem is destroyed, and Joash goes too far when he plunders the House of God.

Joash takes hostages from the house of Amaziah to make sure Amaziah does not plan to retaliate.

Joash's advantage was a surprise attack, but more importantly, God's help. Other than God punishing Amaziah, Israel was no stronger than Judah.

God had already given Israel over to destruction.

After Amaziah's exile, he ruled in Judah for fifteen more years, but he was never the same, and he accomplished nothing else during his reign.

He never returned to the Lord, and in a conspiracy, he fled Jerusalem and was assassinated, but he was still buried with his fathers in the city of Judah.

Amaziah had the potential to be a great king, but once he left the Lord and filled his heart with apostasy and self-pride, he was just a figurehead sitting upon the throne of Judah and never accomplished anything for God's people.

We just must not squander the opportunities God gives us to fulfill the purpose He has for us.

If we just follow the Word that God has given us we live a good life here on earth and a much better life in Heaven.

1) Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2) Rom 10:9  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

3) Mal 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not

These are mine right now but what are yours.

Amen

Ready For the Day of the Lord

 Ready for the Day of the Lord

Book of 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5

Our last lesson was about the return of the Lord Jesus so we know for sure that He will return.

So, we should ask ourselves, are we ready for the return of the Lord?

We must not be confused about death and the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus died in our place so, in a real sense we will never die.

A true death is, to live forever without God in our lives, in suffering and despair.

Luk 13:28  There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when ye shall see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out. 

This place of suffering is the same place where the Devil will spend his eternity.

Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

It is a fact there will be degrees of punishment in Hell.

Luk 12:46  The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers. 

Luk 12:47  And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. 

Luk 12:48  But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. 

In Hell there will be a total absence of favor with God.

In Hell there will be an endless disturbance of life as a result of the complete domination of sin.

In Hell there will be endless pain and suffering in body and soul.

In Hell there will be pangs of conscience, there will be anguish, there will be despair, there will be weeping, and there will be gnashing of teeth.

A true life is living throughout eternity with God in our lives.

Believers will enjoy an eternal fellowship in the company of Jesus Christ.

Believers will live in fellowship, relaxation, joy, and happiness throughout eternity.

There will be a New Heaven and a New Earth!

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 

Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 

Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

The New Jerusalem will be a literal city because God has given us the measurements.

It is in the New Jerusalem where God will dwell in fellowship with mankind forever and ever!

How could anyone choose a place called Hell over a place called Heaven?

*****1Th 5:1  But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 

1Th 5:2  For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 

1Th 5:3  For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

We will never know the exact day or the exact time of the return of the Lord but the Lord told us Himself that we should be able to tell when that time gets close.

Mat_16:2  He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, ye say, It will be fair weather: for the sky is red.

Mat_16:3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

The signs point to the soon return of the Lord Jesus Christ!

The day and the time of the return of Christ is not up for discussion the Lord has already said. 

Those that set dates on the return of Jesus Christ cannot know what they are talking about!

Times can extend over many years but the seasons, the things that happen in critical periods of time can be looked at and observed such as Israel returning to the Promised Land and the things that are happening today, in Israel and all over the world.

Only God knows when the details of His return will be fulfilled!

The Lord is coming just as a thief in the night has planned his dirty deed. Suddenly and unexpectedly!

We know that the Lord Jesus will first come to meet His Church in the clouds.

Then at least seven days later, this "Day of the Lord" is that period of time in which the Lord will return to deal with wicked men directly and dramatically in judgment.

There is a day coming when God will punish those who have followed the ways of Satan, the Devil.

Every soul will come under judgment.

We can know that this will be the day when the earth has reached such a depraved condition that it is hopefully lost forever and sits ripe for the "judgment" of God!

Isa 13:9  Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, cruel both with wrath and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate: and he shall destroy the sinners thereof out of it. 

Isa 13:10  For the stars of heaven and the constellations thereof shall not give their light: the sun shall be darkened in his going forth, and the moon shall not cause her light to shine. 

Isa 13:11  And I will punish the world for their evil, and the wicked for their iniquity; and I will cause the arrogancy of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the terrible. 

The day of the Lord will be on that day when the world of unbelievers feel that they are so secure that even a God cannot stop them.

Suddenly out of nowhere God will strike this earth!

It will be on a scale as it was in the days of Noah and the time of Lot.

Luk 17:26  And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. 

Luk 17:27  They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 

Luk 17:28  Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; 

Luk 17:29  But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. 

Luk 17:30  Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

The "day of the Lord" will be a day of catastrophic destruction.

The "day of the Lord" will be a day of no escape for all those who have always been above the law and ignored the Word of God.

Rom 2:3  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? 

The "day of the Lord" will be a dark and miserable day for all those who are left upon this earth.

*****1Th 5:4  But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. 

1Th 5:5  Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. 

A believers we live in the Light of Jesus Christ now, just as we will when we get to Heaven!

Rev_22:5  And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

The "day of the Lord" will not be a surprise to the Church because we know the Lord does not ever break a promise. 

That word "overtake" means the Lord will return to this earth when He is least expected.

2Pe_3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

The true Church will not be caught off guard.

1) By studying the Word of God we are not in spiritual darkness of ignorance.

Rom 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. 

Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light. 

Rom 13:13  Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

1Jn 1:5  This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

What we do know is that we will welcome the "day of the Lord" as we would welcome the morning hours of a beautiful day full of light and full of joy.

To the unbeliever it will be a terrible day!

Amo 5:18  Woe unto you that desire the day of the LORD! to what end is it for you? the day of the LORD is darkness, and not light. 

Amo 5:19  As if a man did flee from a lion, and a bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the wall, and a serpent bit him. 

Amo 5:20  Shall not the day of the LORD be darkness, and not light? even very dark, and no brightness in it? 

2) Being a child of God is being a child of the Light.

Joh_8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Joh_11:9  Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world.

As the Lord Jesus returned to Heaven, the Church has now become the light of this world.

Mat_5:14  Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

We are not only the children of the Light.

3) We are the children of the Day.

We will escape the Judgment of God!

We are the receivers of God's glorious salvation and His deliverance.

We are looking forward to the return of our Savior to take us home to be with Him.

We should be always praying and thinking about the things of God and our responsibility to reach people for Christ.

The "Day of the Lord" is so close that we can almost see it.

*****1Th 5:6  Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. 

1Th 5:7  For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. 

In this verse this sleep refers to spiritual sleep. When we are asleep, we are not aware of what is going on around us. When we are asleep spiritually, we are not alert to the things of God and are not aware of what God is doing.

When we are asleep spiritually, we will be caught off guard when the Lord returns to take us home.

We must be alert to the things of God.

We must continue to worship.

Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. 

We must anticipate the return of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Mat_16:3  And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowring. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?

We are to live sober lives with discipline and control in righteousness and godliness.

It is certainly not time to quit on God!

We all know that the night refers to evil behavior.

We just need to stay away from those who are asleep to the truth of God other than to witness to them and this should be done in the daytime when no one should be sleeping.

We must stay away from those who indulge in sin and immorality and those who are worldly in their ways.

If a person carouses around in the darkness of the night, then he shows himself to be of the night.

When the Lord Jesus warns us of these things then we need pay attention to Him.

Rev 3:11  Behold, I come quickly: hold that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. 

*****1Th 5:8  But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. 

1Th 5:9  For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, 

1Th 5:10  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him.

We must remain mentally awake to the truth of God to protect ourselves from this deceitful world.

We must put on the armor of God because we are certainly involved in the war for our souls!

There is the breast plate of faith and love. The breastplate protects the heart of each soldier.

We must focus upon Jesus and His cause with all our heart.

Our faith will protect our heart when we really believe that it is the Lord Jesus who saves us from sin!

Love also protects our heart when we can see the love that Christ Jesus has for us!

We must focus on the truth of Jesus that we never have to die because Jesus died in our place on that cross.

We must know that we will never bear the punishment for our sin because Jesus took our punishment for us.

That helmet is the hope of our salvation.

Rom 8:24  For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? 

Rom 8:25  But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. 

Without the Lord Jesus Christ there is no hope in the world!

Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 

Eph 2:13  But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

The fact that Jesus Christ died in our place is the reason we can now have that hope that we will never die!

The reality of this hope is:

1) God has not appointed us to see His wrath on this unbelieving world!

2) God has appointed us to receive salvation from sin, death, and the judgment that is coming to this world!

There is now no excuse for us to fall asleep and return to this world of darkness when we have been saved out of it!

*****1Th 5:11  Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do. 

If we have received the Word of God as the truth then how can we deny what the Lord is saying here in these passages.

One of the greatest jobs of each believer is to comfort one another.

To edify is to build upon and not to pull down!

To edify is to preserve the unity of the Church.

Eph 4:15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 

Eph 4:16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. 

Every part of the Church and every ministry of the Church must work together to become One Body of Christ!

What is the greatest problem in the Church today? The Church refuses to unite together around the truth of God, the complete truth.

Today, much of the church has descended into rules and religion that have nothing to do to the truth of a Holy God and have forgotten about faith and love!

*****1Th 5:12  And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you; 

1Th 5:13  And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves. 

We have seen many times that our own Pastor comes to us completely worn out from his labors and yet he still does his very best to give us the message that God has given him for us.

This is what that word labor means.

It means to labor to the point of exhaustion, then to keep laboring even if we have become weary.

It means to work beyond what we are capable of doing.

When we are doing a work for the Lord Jesus, this is the labor that is expected from God.

When we are doing a work for the Church, this is the labor that it takes to succeed in this world of today.

We are to know our church leaders, which means we are to acknowledge and appreciate each and every one of them and show them respect.

We have seen the evidence that few people labor as much as our Pastor and our church leaders especially our Pastor.

At the end of a tiresome day our Pastor still has to handle the business side of the church.

This is also the way of the Apostle Paul and I am sure the other apostles worked as hard to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ by word and by example.

1Ti 5:17  Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, especially they who labour in the word and doctrine. 

1Ti 5:18  For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward. 

1Ti 5:19  Against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.

In order for us to acknowledge our church elders we must be at peace with ourselves.

We should not criticize, murmur, grumble, envy and nor oppose our church leaders who are following the will of God.

We may at times have differences of opinion, but we are not to dispute those among ourselves as the Word of God will settle all disputes.

Leaders are not to act as lords over God's children as we already have the perfect Lord who is Jesus Christ!

But we are to question anyone that acts contrary to Scripture!

Our Church only works when each believer is at peace with themselves and both that leader and that member are at peace with each other all according to the truth of the Gospel.

How did the early Church thrive and succeed?

Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 

Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. 

We are to warn those that are in the Church but are against the truth of the Gospel yet, we are to help those babes in Christ to understand.

*****1Th 5:14  Now we exhort you, brethren, warn them that are unruly, comfort the feebleminded, support the weak, be patient toward all men. 

1Th 5:15  See that none render evil for evil unto any man; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all men. 

We are never to allow unruly church members to destroy the peace of the church family!

We must warn those who are out of line in their disturbances of the church.

Anyone who is causing damage to their own soul must be warned just as any unbeliever.

The Lord will not tolerate unruly behavior in the Church!

Those who come to the church but who leave, going out into the world to do their own thing, should also be warned.

At the same time we are to comfort and assure those who are babes in Christ until they come to the knowledge of the truth.

We need to try to help all those who yield so easily to temptation, and are easily discouraged or defeated.

We need to cling to them as we cling to Jesus never turning loose of either one.

We are to be patient with babes in Christ and patient with each other as the coming of the Lord draws nearer.

It is certainly not a time to quit on the Lord!

We must never render evil for evil to anyone.

When we mistreat someone our testimony with that person is over!

With these things under control there are important things that every church member needs to be doing to make our church a true Church for Jesus Christ.

*****1Th 5:16  Rejoice evermore. 

1Th 5:17  Pray without ceasing. 

1Th 5:18  In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. 

1Th 5:19  Quench not the Spirit. 

1Th 5:20  Despise not prophesyings. 

1Th 5:21  Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. 

1Th 5:22  Abstain from all appearance of evil. 

We need to be always rejoicing because our names are written down in the Lamb's Book of Life.

Our prayers are the main way for us to receive things from God. We need to live our lives so that we can always know that God will hear our prayers for if he hears them, He will certainly answer them in one way or another.

We should wake each day giving thanks to God for another day to serve Him.

If we are having a wonderful day then we need to thank God for it.

If we are having a dreadful day then we need to thank Him for helping us through that day.

We need to thank God for His presence and His power as we walk through our trials and tribulations.

All these things are in the will of God for our lives.

If we quench the Holy Spirit then we have lost the power of God in our lives.

If we ignore the Holy Spirit and go our own way then we have neglected Him.

If we allow sinful things into our lives, we will quench the Holy Spirit.

If we behave immorally, we quench the Holy Spirit.

If we do anything contrary to the Holy Spirit, we will quench the Spirit.

We certainly should not ever lie to the Holy Spirit!

If we quench the Holy Spirit, it is a sin that requires God's forgiveness!

We must never despise the preaching of the truth of God.

This is what the world does and we are to come out from the world.

Neither are we to just blindly accept any preacher or what they say.

Every person is to be tested and proven by measuring the things they say by the Scriptures.

The Scriptures, the Received Text of the early Church are never wrong but some translations can contain errors unintentionally or intentionally.

We must know the Scriptures ourselves to know if we are hearing the truth of God.

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. 

1Jn 4:2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 

1Jn 4:3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

When we know we are hearing the truth of God, then we need to latch on to that person and keep that person as part of the Church of Jesus Christ.

We are also to abstain from all appearances of doing evil!

If we are near anything that has the appearance of evil, we need to flee from it!

If there is even the smallest suggestion that what we are doing could be seen as wrong then we are to flee from it!

Being a Christian has its own responsibilities!

Amen

Blind To the Word of God

 A Departed Glory

Book of 1 Samuel Chapter 4

A great lesson to learn in this passage of the Bible is that unbelievers will not be able to use Jehovah God to reach their own personal goals.

Israel was seeing something new from God.

Jehovah would begin speaking to Israel through the voice of a child.

We can also begin to see the importance of "childlike faith".

We must encourage our children to have the right ideas about the Lord Jesus Christ, and not to get caught up in the things of this wicked world that is not going to get any better.

We must prepare our children, our grandchildren, and our great grandchildren for what lies ahead of them, and it is not limited to climate change.

God brought Samuel along to revive the truth of God and to restore true worship to Jehovah.

Samuel would also be the last Judge of Israel deciding all cases according to the Word of God.

All of Israel began to notice that Samuel was established to be the voice of God.

Another reality we will see is God's judgment is a sure thing! 

God's judgment will take place just as He teaches us in His infallible Word.

Today we are surrounded by evil!

Bad men and terrible things are all around us.

Corruption is dictating politics in America!

Wicked bullies are in charge of many nations including our own nation.

According to the Word of God, tyranny is a doomed thing! Thank Goodness.

*****1Sa 3:21  And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD. 

1Sa 4:1  And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.

The Philistines were the bitter enemy enemies of Israel. 

Most Christians believe that the Palestinians in Israel are the remnants of the Philistines.

These Philistines were the fiercest of the oppressors of Israel as they tried to conquer the Promised Land given to them of Jehovah God.

The Philistines had the same goal which was to conquer all of Palestine and the Palestinians have that same goal today.

Palestine gets its name from the Philistines.

They want to push Israel off into the Mediterranean Sea. They hate Israel.

The Scriptures say they came from Caphtor. Some say this was the island of Crete, but it could also be a part of Egypt, which is more realistic.

The Philistines began oppressing Israel during the period of the Judges and continued their dominance all the time of the "Judges Era" until the time of Samuel, all because Israel lost their love for Jehovah.

They thought they could use Jehovah to meet their own goals. 

They did not understand the ways of God and treated God as an idol.

Israel had fallen away from Jehovah and God used the Philistines to humble them and be a punishment for their sins.

The present invasion of the Philistines into Israel came when the soldiers of the Philistines marched their soldiers into Aphek and made camp.

Aphek was a city that belonged to the tribe Issachar not far from Jezreel.

Aphek had been the royal city of the Canaanites whose king Joshua had killed.

This city is not a great distance from Jerusalem which King David made the capitol of all of Israel.

The Philistines were bold and ruthless.

Israel came out to fight with the Philistines and they camped at Ebenezer.

*****1Sa 4:2  And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men. 

We should understand that when Joshua led the armies of Israel, they had lost very few battles and each loss was because they had not been obedient to Jehovah.

Israel felt they could defeat any enemy at any time, but they had forgotten how they won those battles. 

They won when the Lord was on their side, and they lost when He was not.

We would think they would realize this truth, but they had become blind to the Word of God and their hearts were gross.

Jdg 21:25  In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. 

This is not the way of God!

The pure truth is that most people think the right way is their way and the way of everyone else is the wrong way.

This is the theme going on in America today!

One small group of people are trying to push their way of life upon all people by force and the government is helping them.

Only the Lord Jesus Christ has shown us the right way and that right way is to be more like Him and His ways!

Four thousand soldiers lost their life in that first skirmish because Israel was disobedient to the Lord.

Israel was guilty of the most horrible sins and wickedness.

All these gross sins are described in the Book of Judges.

You see God does not hide these things from us. 

Most authors would have left out mentioning all those wicked things in the Book of Judges.

*****1Sa 4:3  And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. 

Why was Israel losing this war with the Philistines?

Isa 59:1  Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: 

Isa 59:2  But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. 

Isa 59:3  For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. 

Isa 59:4  None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

The officers of the armies of Israel held a council of war to decide the best way to defeat these Philistines, but when they should have repented and turned to God, they chose to use the sacred things of God instead of faith.

There is nothing in this world that can replace our faith!

It is true that the priest of Israel carried the Ark of God in the time of Joshua, but then the Ark was located in the Tabernacle at Shiloh after the battle of Jericho.

It was then time for "faith" to lead the armies of Israel and not the Ark which symbolized the presence of God, but the actions of Israel showed disdain for the things of God.

Eze 39:23  And the heathen shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity: because they trespassed against me, therefore hid I my face from them, and gave them into the hand of their enemies: so fell they all by the sword. 

Eze 39:24  According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I done unto them, and hid my face from them. 

The judgement of God is terrible, and Israel should have known the truth of God.

They had forgotten their own national history.

The death of Eli and his two sons and the capture of the Ark were a clear picture of the "judgment of God upon Israel"!

The Ark taken from the Tabernacle brought a false hope for victory!

*****1Sa 4:4  So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 

1Sa 4:5  And when the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. 

What is going on in the Church today? God is treated more like an idol than the Supreme God and a corrupt priesthood are making things much worse.

The army of Israel was puzzled because the Philistines had so easily won that first battle, wondering why God had allowed such a thing.

The Ark was a symbol of the presence of God, but in fact it was just an ornate wooden box that had no power to change the outcome of any battle.

We cannot be superstitious in our worship of Jehovah God!

So, when the Ark was brought to the battlefield the result was catastrophic.

It is the same for our salvation.

If we treat God like an idol and only call upon Him when we think it will do us some good and then spend the rest of our time doing things our own way, we may find that instead of salvation we will see the "judgement of God".

The truth of God cannot be viewed superstitiously!

The Ark of God was not some good luck charm!

If the world and the flesh still rule in our heart, we certainly will not make it to Heaven because it is the Lord Jesus Christ who must rule in our hearts!

The Levites may have carried the Ark according to the Laws of Moses, but with the two sons Eli with them, it did not ensure the presence of God, in fact, it only insured Israel's defeat.

Many already knew the prophecy of Samuel and the prophecy of God is always true and it is always real.

Rom 1:18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness; 

Rom 1:19  Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

In other words, to remain an unbeliever and blame everything on God's people is a sure way to see the wrath of God.

Though the shouts of the army of Israel was loud enough for the Philistines to hear them, they would have no victory this day.

*****1Sa 4:6  And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of the LORD was come into the camp. 

1Sa 4:7  And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. 

The Philistines considered the Israelites to be foreigners even though they themselves were also foreigners having no place to call their home.

The same thing can be said of the Palestinians today. The land of Palestine was never their homeland. Those that did own some of the land taken over by Israel, were paid for that land and they left.

No matter what Israel thought of the Ark of God, God will not be used as some good luck charm!

It was wrong for Israel to do this thing!

For Hophni and Phinehas to be associated with this event, should have shown these Israelites that God was not in this thing. 

All of Israel knew the sin of these two sons of Eli.

The Philistines became curious of what was happening in the camp of Israel and then realized, according to their frame of mind, that Israel had brought its god to the battlefield.

We have to realize that we cannot take God anywhere.

If God is in any such activity, He will already be there.

They had never seen such a thing before in all their battles.

Saying to themselves that it was Israel's gods that defeated Egypt and the Amorites who these Philistines could not defeat.

The Philistines then determined to fight with everything they had, or they would become slaves of the Israelites.

They said, "woe to us" if we lose this battle.

Then these things gave them added strength.

*****1Sa 4:8  Woe unto us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty Gods? these are the Gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. 

1Sa 4:9  Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you: quit yourselves like men, and fight. 

1Sa 4:10  And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. 

These Philistines had openly admitted that the God of Israel was stronger than their own false gods.

They rightly said Elohim, the plural form for God is a Trinity.

In fact God had destroyed Egypt before Israel entered into the wilderness.

This despair before Israel only made them more determined to defeat Israel which they accomplished, and thirty thousand more soldiers met with death on the battlefield because of a corrupt government.

A complete victory for the Philistines.

The Philistines saw Israel as only a band of escaped slaves and not a nation at all.

These Philistines became aroused to fight for their lives and launched a fierce attack on Israel killing many not realizing that Israel suffered from the "judgment" of the God who sat on that Ark.

Israel was so much in despair they did not return to their camp, but each soldier went back home in fear of their lives and of their family's lives.

They realized that God had not fought for them on this day.

When we feel like God must act in our defense no matter how we treat Him, we are thinking wrong.

God will not be used to satisfy our own whims.

It is we that are to be in the will of God and not the other way round!

When we are unfaithful and have not repented of our sin, God is not obligated to come to our defense!

In fact God is not obligated to us in any way if we are not committed to Him.

Our hope is in the promises of God and our faith is that God will remain faithful to His promises.

It is us who must be committed to the will of God!

God will always conduct His sovereign plan, but for us to be a part of that plan, then we must obey the Word of God and repent of our sin showing faith in the truth of God.

Sinful, wicked behavior will always result in the "Judgment of God"!

Even in their wicked behavior, Israel made the necessary sacrifices and came to the Tabernacle at the appropriate time, but their hearts had waxed gross, and God looks into the heart.

These people were returning to the days of Noah.

Gen_6:5  And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

The world we live in is doing the same thing today!

What had God required of Israel?

Deu_10:12  And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul,

Israel was failing in this.

Notice that phrase "to walk in His ways".

A true child of God will walk in the ways of God and the example He has given to us is His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

God knows what is in our hearts!

Psa_44:21  Shall not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.

Far too many innocent people fall in wars that are unnecessary.

The Philistines were the enemies of Israel, but God will sometimes use our enemies to bring His judgement!

Even the Ark of the Covenant to Israel was taken by a people who did not know the truth of God.

*****1Sa 4:11  And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. 

The fact that Hophni and Phinehas died was a fulfillment of the prophecy given to Samuel and Samuel had made Eli aware of what God had said.

These things took place because of national wickedness and a corrupt priesthood.

If we look at America today, we see national wickedness and a corrupt priesthood, and it cannot be denied.

Why in the world would we think that God would do anything different today than He did in the time of Samuel.

The Philistines would regret that they had taken the Ark of God, but God would take care of this Himself without the help of Israel.

God will not be in the same space as a false god!

Once the Holy Spirit has moved into the heart of a Christian, the Devil nor his demons can move back into that Christian, but we can be sure he will do his best to make our lives miserable if we allow him to do.

Jas_4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Wicked behavior may be idolatry or a corrupt priesthood.

As for Eli, he had allowed his sons to continue in committing adultery in the House of God and stealing from offerings that were made to the Lord. 

Eli had allowed his two sons to take the Ark of God into battle knowing what God had said about his two sons.

God will punish unworthy hands that refuse to repent!

So, no matter who that person is, God will bring judgment upon them!

If we remember where we came from, we will not expect God to do anything less than bring judgment!

1Co 6:9  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 

1Co 6:10  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 

1Co 6:11  And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. 

Eli also died that same day again fulfilling the prophecy given to Samuel.

*****1Sa 4:17  And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there hath been also a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken. 

1Sa 4:18  And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years. 

It was twenty miles from the battlefield to Shiloh, but a messenger thought it was best for Eli to know that the Ark had been taken.

Eli did not respond much to this message of this messenger, until he found out the Ark of God was stolen.

The Ark had been Eli's greatest concern, but he had allowed it to be taken from the House of God.

1Sa 4:13  And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out.

As Eli became excited and tried to stand, he fell, and his neck was broken, and he died the same day of his sons.

Meaning that when God speaks, we need to listen and when God warns us, He is very serious!

Eli had judged Israel for forty years, but he had also indulged in the sin of his sons and most all of Israel was aware of his sin.

The Bible mentions Eli being obese to warn all God's priests that it is not good to live a life of indulgence in the riches of sin.

God's judgment is fixed!

God's judgment will definitely take place!

All those who reject the Word of God will face the judgment of God!

All those playing church without being sincere will face the judgment of God!

Mar 8:34  And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 

Mar 8:35  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it. 

Mar 8:36  For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? 

Mar 8:37  Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 

Mar 8:38  Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. 

Jesus Christ is specific.

We must deny ourselves and take up our own cross and follow Him.

The cross is a sign of death so, we must be willing to give our life in our own pursuit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The God of Glory had departed from Israel on this day.

Amen