Serving a God that never loses a battle

1 Samuel 5 

In 1 Samuel Chapter 4 the philistines won the battle ( or so they thought).

They took the Ark of the Covenant back to their land with them. They considered the ark as one of the things they had defeated. Can you imagine someone being so evil that they felt they could defeat God?

Well, they might have defeated Israel in the battle due to Israel’s lack of true faith, but they did not defeat God.

1 Samuel 5 paints the picture- The Philistines get the Ark of the Covenant back to the House of Dagon. They tried to place the presence of God amongst Dagon and their other idols. Yea, they tried to just put the Ark up on a shelf with all their other idols. They failed to recognize The Ark of the Covenant was different than the godless idols they served. So when they tried to just set the Ark up with all their other idols God began destroying all their idols and all the people.

Israel might have lost the battle, but God did not!

God began to destroy the people of the land with illness, so the people said that the Ark of The Covenant could not stay there. They began to recognize the power God held and the power of His presence, but rather than acknowledging that and submitting to God they cast Him out to another land. They said this must be removed from us. The people then sent it to another area within the Philistines control, but when God’s presence got to this group of people the same thing began to happen. God began to destroy them as well. This happened a third time before the Philistines finally said enough is enough let the Ark be returned to Israel.

I am thankful to serve such a powerful and all present God that not only has already won the war, but He also never loses a battle.

God allowed Israel to lose the battle due to their lack of true faith, but He still did not allow the enemy to have even a sliver of victory. When the enemy took the Ark of the Covenant back to their land as almost a trophy for their victory and tried to place it amongst their godless idols, God struck them down. He destroyed the idols they worshipped and then began destroying the people.  God did not allow the enemy to claim defeat over His true presence.

Don’t let the fact that God allowed Israel to lose their battle discourage you. God gives us what we need to win every battle if we turn to Him with true faith and fully seek His presence. Remember, don’t hold onto superficial symbols but truly hold onto God’s presence.

We all stumble from time to time. Sometimes we might feel like we have lost a battle, but we can be thankful that we are serving a God that never loses a battle.  God will always defeat the enemy. He has already won the war and is with us to help us win every battle.