Contemplative Bible Reading

1 Samuel 6:5-6 (New Living Translation)

5 Make these things to show honor to the God of Israel. Perhaps then he will stop afflicting you, your gods, and your land. 6 Don’t be stubborn and rebellious as Pharaoh and the Egyptians were. By the time God was finished with them, they were eager to let Israel go.

This is part of the (hi)story of the relationship between God’s people and the Philistines. The Philistines had captured the Ark of the Covenant. The result was seven months of plague on the Philistines. The leaders of the Philistines asked their priests and diviners for advice on what to do to stop this plague. The verses above are the advice of the priests and diviners.

Notice how the advice speaks of Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Those events happened hundreds of years before. Yet, the Philistines knew the history of God’s people and how God had miraculously brought the people out of Egypt after four hundred years.

The Philistines remembered the history. Often, God’s people didn’t remember their own history. That makes no sense. The enemy knows God better than God’s people know God. What was wrong with God’s people?

It is easy to shake my head and wonder about the forgetfulness and sinfulness of God’s people way back when. Us today? Me today? Well, uh, we and I certainly wouldn’t be so stupid and sinful, huh? Well, maybe or maybe not or something. I have my bad days. I have days that are much worse than bad. I am glad the prophets aren’t recording my life for someone else to read a few thousand years from now. How would “The Life of Dwayne” read in a few thousand years? Yikes.

Please God, help me to remember and help me in my unbelief.