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Choosing Better Makes Sense

Philistines were seriously delayed in their thinking. I don't know any better way to say it. There is this story in 1 Samuel 5 about the Philistines capturing the Ark of God. The Ark was a special thing for the Israelites as it was a physical way for them to see that God was with them. Of course, God never said that the Ark had special powers. The power still rested with God and His blessing came with their continued obedience. Since the Israelites weren't so great at keeping up their part of the bargain, God allowed the Ark to be captured.

So now the Philistines have this Ark of God. The only problem is that whenever they put it near the idol of their own god, their god keeps falling over. That can be very embarrassing for a god. Add to that the fact that God, the true God, was afflicting the Philistines with tumors and you can see why the townsfolk wanted to get rid of the Ark.

They start moving the Ark from town to town, causing great panic whenever people see it. That is understandable. If I saw an object that had killed everyone in the last town it was in being brought to my town, I might freak out too.

Here's my problem. 1 Samuel 6 tells us how the Philistines sent the Ark back to the Israelites. They sent it back because, clearly, God was more powerful than their idols. They sent it back because no one likes to die, right? But they sent the Ark away because somehow that made more sense than turning from their worship of idols and following the one true God.

As I consider this, I think we do the same thing. We walk through this life, suffering from one thing or another, mostly due to the consequences of our own choices. But rather than give up what we know to be bad for us, we hold on. If and when we consider that God is more than anything else in life, we justify ourselves and hope God doesn't notice. Like the Philistines, we attempt to compartmentalize our life. If God doesn't appear to be around, then we can do what we want, right?

Maybe the Philistines aren't the only ones that are delayed in their thinking.
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