Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - Are You Sure You Know God? | Historical Books | 1 Samuel 6:1-7:2

Episode Date: April 8, 2025

What does it mean to know God? How can we stand before him? Have you surrendered your life to him? In today's episode, Tanya shares how 1 Samuel 6:1-7:2 encourages us to know God with more than just our minds. If you're listening on Spotify, comment below one takeaway from today's episode! Read the Bible with us in 2025! This year, we’re exploring the Historical Books—Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings. Download your reading plan now. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it so that others can find it, too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: 1 Samuel 6:1-7:2

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmuth. When I was a little girl, my mom or dad would leave a chores list on the table while we were home for the summer. We had to unload the dishwasher, we had to feed the cat and the dog, and then perform any other necessary duties my parents decided would either keep the household running or keep my sister Tammy and me out of trouble for the day. I remember one day there was a chore on the list, it's hard to forget, actually. the garden and weed the green beans. Well, first I had to figure out what and where the hoe was.

Then I had to figure out how to use the hoe. Is this a stab it and drag it sort of thing or a shovel? I finally got the hang of it and I took to the row of weeds. And there were some spindly, gnarly plants growing right next to the green beans. I thought I had this covered. Those plants had little yellow weed buds all over them. So I went after them with the hoe. I loosened up all the roots so I could pull them out of the ground. I crossed that list off and I probably settled into watching, save by the Bell reruns or something like that. And you should have seen the look, or maybe I still can see the look on my dad's face when he came home and realized that I had pulled every single tomato plant out of the garden. I really haven't lived this down. You can give

me a chore to this day on the farm, and my sister will either remind me that I don't know the difference between a wheat and a tomato plant or that I cheat when I play board games. They don't even relate, but isn't that what sisters are for? My gardening experience, was one, where my knowledge just didn't cut it, and the gap in my knowledge led to unintended consequences. We see a similar dynamic play out in first Samuel, but it's a different kind of knowledge we're talking about today. See, the Philistines, even the Philistines had some knowledge about God, but their limited understanding led them to respond in ways that didn't align with who he truly is. After capturing the Ark of the Covenant, the symbolic dwelling place of God

is a war trophy. The Philistines were plagued with sickness and suffering. At first, they thought it was a political problem, so they moved the ark from one city to another. But when sickness and suffering followed, they realized this was probably a religious problem. They had enough knowledge about God and the plagues that had happened with Egypt and Pharaoh to know that this might be God's hand in their lives. So they sought religious guidance. They called on their priests and diviners who were trained in handling sacred objects, and those priests and diviners advised them to return the ark to Israel, along with a guilt offering to appease God. So the Philistines admitted defeat. The ark was no longer a symbol of victory but a source of fear, but they wanted to ensure that it truly was God

behind their suffering. So they devised a strange test. They took two cows that had never been yoked and had unweeded calves, and they harnessed them to the ark. And they said, if those cows leave their calves and go straight to Israel, it will confirm God's hand in our affliction. Miraculously, the cows went directly to Israel, and they arrived in a place called Beth Chamesh, where there were people working in the field who saw the ark and rejoice that it was returning to Israel. This seemed like a really great moment in Israel's history. They sacrificed the cows as a burnt offering to the Lord. Yet, even among God's own people, even having returned to Israel, the ark remained a source of confusion. See, 70 Israelites were struck down when they looked into the ark because they violated its sacredness with a casual irreverence.

And so the response from Israel was mourning and confusion, and they asked this very profound question. They said, who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God? And this moment reveals a critical truth. Knowledge about God is not the same as knowing him relationally. The Philistines on one hand viewed God through the lens of superstition and fear. But these Israelites that were struck down, on another hand, even though they had the law in the covenant, they approached God with carelessness rather than irreverence. So the question, who can stand before the Lord?

This holy God is deeply personal and relational. How can we stand before the Lord, this holy God? If knowing God were only about accumulating knowledge, then we would be able to stand before him with all of the things that we know, the Israelites, they would have had all the answers, but they lacked something, a relational understanding, a heart-level understanding of who God is, and how important it is to live in response to him. So Paul explains in the New Testament in Ephesians 2, 12 and 13, how we are able to stand in God's presence without fear. He says, once we were separate from Christ, we were excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the

promise without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, we who were once far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ. There you have it. That's the answer. The blood of Christ. That's what we have to have. We have been brought near. We have been able to stand in God's presence by the blood of Christ. But here's the tension. We still often resist him. Not because we don't know enough, or not because we don't know we should, but because we don't trust enough. It's not just about learning facts. It's about surrendering our hearts. God doesn't just want us to know about him. He wants us to know him. And often that kind of knowing comes not uncertainty, but in surrender. God allowed the ark to go into the hands of the Philistines so he could reveal himself to them.

Similarly, God sometimes allows challenges to enter our lives, not as punishments, but as invitations. Sometimes it takes uncertainty for us to turn to him relationally, letting go of our pride in and asking for forgiveness even when it's hard, surrendering control over how we spend our time and our money, releasing resentment instead of holding on to grudges. These aren't easy things to do. And sometimes when we are unable to see the whole picture, that's when we're pushed to rely on God rather than ourselves.

There is grace in not having all the answers, because when our understanding falls short, we can turn to God to trust him to reveal himself in his time. instead of trying to control everything ourselves and cling to a false sense of certainty. The reality is that God is not asking us to have all the knowledge and all the answers. He's asking us to trust him. Lord, we ask you to reveal the areas in our hearts where we rely too much on knowledge and not enough on just trust.

Show us how to know you, not just with our minds, but with our surrendered hearts. Give us the courage to give up things. that are too important to us to you so that you can handle them in your way. Give us the courage to believe that in your presence, we will find true fulfillment and peace. Amen.