My Prayer Lately

So I've been studying in the OT a bit lately. I must be honest, it's because of the tv show "Kings." The show is great and is loosely based on the life of David, of David and Goliath fame. I was watching the show and thinking that I had no idea who most of these characters were and feeling like a complete moron for being Biblically illiterate.

I jumped into 2 Samuel to study the life of David as king and quickly discovered that I should have started a bit earlier to understand this deeply complicated figure. It was like picking up a novel in chapter 12. Never start a book on chapter 12. Start with chapter one. (I believe many Bible readers are guilty of this, myself leading the way, but this is another post for another time.) I jumped back to 1 Samuel and began my journey.

I read about Eli and his wicked sons Hophni and Phinehas (great names) who were noted as wicked chiefly because they basically stole from the members of the congregation and made the people sick of giving. (Should be a dire warning to those in ministry.) God tells Eli that his sons will die in battle because of their sin. And they do.

But this is where the story gets interesting. Eli hears of the death of his sons but immediately asks about the ark. The ark was taken by the Philistines and upon hearing this, Eli fell from where he was sitting and broke his neck. Phinehas' wife heard the news of her husband's death and immediately asks about the ark. Upon hearing that it was taken, she prematurely gives birth to her child.

This blows my mind because it shows just how seriously the people of Israel took the presence of God and the serious nature of the sin in their lives. Do I do this? Never. The prayer that God would reveal the ugliness of my sin is not to wallow in self-loathing, it's to see the beauty of the atonement of the cross. Charles Spurgeon once said, "If your sin is small, your Savior will be small, but if your sin is great, then your Savior will be great." I want my Savior to be great. I don't want to see the cross just as a bloody mess. I want to see the cross as my payment of sin, which is great.


"My sin, o the bliss of this glorious thought
My sin, not in part, but the whole
Was nailed to the cross and I bare it no more
Praise the Lord
Praise the Lord, o my soul!"