It Seemed Like A Good Idea At the Time!

 

1 Samuel 4:2-3(NKJV)

2Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel. And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men of the army in the field. 

3And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies.”

Here is another example of people doing what they thought was the right thing with good intentions and yet having it turn out wrong.  They are demonstrating their faith in God by wanting to bring Him to help in their battle.  Got it.  There are plenty of other examples of God intervening on their behalf in battles to make this seem like a reasonable thing for them to do.

However it seems to me that there was one little thing that they forgot.  They forgot to check with God first.  I don't see any mention of them going to God in prayer over their idea before implementing it.  Something as simple as "Hey God, we are thinking of doing X.  What do you think?".  If they had they might not have taken that action.

One of the hardest things for us to do as humans is to remember to check with God.  We want to serve Him but in our zeal to do so we do things without checking with Him first.  I for one am going to try and be more conscious of that in the coming year!