God Is Not a Rabbit's Foot

​“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.” (1 Samuel 4:3)
 
In 1 Samuel 4 we are given the story of the Israelites going up to battle against the Philistines.  Initially the Israelites are badly defeated by the Philistines and routed.  Confused and bewildered, they come up with an idea.  They will go and get the Ark of the Covenant and bring it up from Shiloh and go into battle with the Ark going before them.  Of course, the plan fails, the Israelites are defeated once again, and the Ark is captured by the Philistines.  The problem is that they were treating the Ark, the very throne of God on earth, as a lucky rabbit’s foot.  They were treating God as though he were some genie in a bottle who would appear at their beckoning and say, “Your wish is my command.”  We read this story and can think to ourselves, ‘What were they thinking?’  Yet so often Christians still treat God the same way.  We stick money in the offering box or attend church or get on our knees and pray or open up the Bible to read only when things are going wrong in life and we need God to do something for us.  We treat God as though he is a lucky rabbit’s foot or Aladdin’s lamp, that if we rub him the right way, he’ll give us what we want.  However, if we give money to the church and attend church and pray often and spend time in his word, God wants us to do these things for one reason—because we love him and we desire to please him.  If there is any ulterior selfish motive hidden in our heart, God sees it and it is detestable to him.