Devotionals

His symbol or His presence, which do you seek

by Bolaji O.Timothy
09/04/26
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His symbol or His presence, which do you seek!

And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. 1Samuel 4:11  

A tragic situation occurred and documented in 1 Samuel 4. A war between the philistine and Israel broke out. They, The Israelite experienced first round of defeat. They came to the situation room to evaluate this and unfortunately the elders thought it wise to seek and bring a symbol of God’s presence without cross checking the Presence of God in the battle, their deliberations and final decision. …..” Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh, that IT may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” They trusted the ark and fetched it, but no trust in God and so, did not seek HIM!

It is important that we get this clear, symbols pointing to God cannot replace God. We cannot fraternize with idols and by default summoned God through any medium he probably had identified with through as evident in previous miracles and testimony.

It was obvious that their heart was far away from GOD such that at this serious moment of defeat all they could do was to seek for a symbol and not God Himself. No religious activities and symbol will replace God.

The primary intention of God for the ark was stated in the book of exodus 25:22 …” There I will meet with you” The most important at that moment was to seek the Lord’s face to know the cause of the defeat. NO, they fetched the ark and lost additional thirty thousand men. The ark was captured.

Lesson: Seek and trust God and not the symbols.