Tues.’s Devo - God’s Judgment and His Mercy

Read: 1 Samuel 2:22-4:22; John 5:24-47; Psalm 106:1-12; Proverbs 14:30-31
As Eli grew older his natural eyes grew dimmer but Samuels’ spiritual eyes were seeing clearer and clearer. Samuel began hearing God’s voice at a very early age. Eli had to tell him he was hearing God’s voice and mentor him to be a prophet. His first word from the Lord was against Israel and Eli’s house. He told him again the same word we read yesterday. God was coming to judge the sins of Eli’s family and the fact that he refused to discipline his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. There was no offering that could atone for the sins they had done.
Samuel’s fame spread throughout Israel as a prophet and that he spoke the Word of the Lord. What he said about Israel became true as they went to fight against the Philistines. Israel didn’t fare well the first day so they decided to take the ark with them on the second day. This scared the Philistines to terror, but instead of being the “good luck charm” the Israelites thought the ark would be, they lost very badly that day and the ark was captured by the Philistines. Hophni and Phinehas were killed on the battle field. A messenger came and told Eli the news of his sons and the ark. When he heard about the ark being captured, he had a heart attack and died. Phinehas’ wife was pregnant and when she heard the news, she went into premature labor and delivered a son. She named him Ichabod because the glory had left Israel. Ichabod means “inglorious; there is no glory).
God is very merciful but once his mercy is refused over and over, he has to judge. It was time to judge and nothing could save Israel, not even the ark.
Jesus was still talking to the religious leaders in John. He told them that he came with two witnesses that testified who he was. One was John the Baptist and the other was the things he did. He only did what God told him to do so his miracles testified that he was from God. They studied the Torah to no end yet missed that the Torah testified of Jesus. Even Moses would one day stand in judgement against them that they had the truth but refused to see it because their love for praise blinded them.
Lord, help us to be aware of what you are doing in our day and rejoice because our redemption is drawing near!