When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why did the Lord defeat us today before the Philistines? Let’s bring the ark of the Lord’s covenant from Shiloh. Then it will go with us and save us from our enemies.” (I Samuel 4:3)
In chapter 4 we find Israel going to battle against the Philistines which resulted in four thousand Israelites killed (4:2). After the battle, the elders gathered together and recognized that the result of the battle came from God (4:3). However, instead of waiting for God to act, they decide to take matters in their own hands by taking the Ark of the Covenant with them to the next battle, thinking that it will result in God’s deliverance. Instead of victory, the Israelites were decisively beaten with thirty thousand killed and to add insult to injury, the Ark of the Covenant gets captured (4:10-11).
At this point, the elders were probably shaking their heads in disbelief because it seems they did all the right things on paper for victory against their enemies. And that brings the lesson that God was teaching the Israelites back then and for Christians in 2020: we cannot earn God’s favor on our own effort.
We can sometimes think that God is like the manager at our jobs that we have to impress. Some career driven people try to say the right things and show that they are a hard worker, in order to convince their boss that they deserve that long awaited promotion. In a similar fashion, some Christians may think that since they go to church every single Sunday, are involved in numerous ministries, and read the Word every day, God HAS to bless them.
In reality, the Scriptures teach that our “righteous acts are like a polluted garment” (Isa. 64:6) and that we are enemies of God (Rom. 5:10). It is only through Christ, who paid for our sins on our behalf that we are made and declared righteous and have favor in the Father’s sight. Since this is a gift from God and a result of his grace alone, we cannot boast that we saved ourselves (Eph. 2:8). Knowing that we are saved by God’s grace is freeing because we are no longer riddled with anxiety questioning if we have performed enough good works to please God. This should encourage us to wholeheartedly serve our neighbors in response. As Martin Luther said, “God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does.”