Your Sin Can Become A National Crisis | 1 Samuel 4:12-14

Vince Miller Podcast

Your sin can become a national crisis.

Welcome to the Daily Devo. I am Vince Miller.

This week, we are reading 1 Samuel 4. I've titled this chapter "Misusing Divine Power."

In the first few verses of Chapter 4, we discover that the Israelites were at war with the Philistines. They engaged in two battles sustaining devastating losses, first 7000 dead, then 30,000 dead, until the Philistines claimed victory, captured the Ark of God, and then sent the Israelites running.

A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head. When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out. When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, “What is this uproar?” Then the man hurried and came and told Eli. — 1 Samuel 4:12-14

This is a tragic moment for Israel. In a short devotional, it's tough to capture how devastated God's people might have felt. The unnamed Benjamite makes the 20-mile run retreating from the battle and shows up wearing all the signs of a man in mourning “with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.”

The only way to capture the feeling of this moment is to imagine that you receive a call in the next few moments that your spouse or child was killed and then multiply it by 37,000. That's the message this man delivered to this city: 37,000 souls lost on the field of battle, including sons, husbands, and fathers.

But let's not forget that all of this stemmed from the apathy of one man. Eli, the last in a long line of Judges, allowed his sons to continue to act in disobedience until finally, they did the unthinkable. They took the Ark of the Covenant from the House of the Lord into battle, which led to slaughter.

Disobedient actions concern God, but so does disobedient inaction. Eli had plenty of time to deal with his sons' disobedience, but he didn't. He was apathetic. He took no action, and his inaction was counted as disobedience. This devious sin had devastating consequences for him, his family, his legacy, and 37,000 families who were also impacted. Listen carefully: your sin never only affects you. Disobedient action and disobedient inaction have consequences for everyone.

Here's the application.

Don't be spiritually apathetic to God today. Address your secret sin and stop hiding it. Address the issue in your marriage that you still need to address. Address your child who is acting in sin. Move from disobedient inaction into obedient action and rally those around you to godly action. If you keep putting it off, that situation will have the same devastating consequences in your life as it did to Eli, his family, and the nation of Israel because your apathy never affects only you; it affects everyone around you.