People are superstitious. The number 13, black cats, walking under ladders are all counted as bad luck, while four-leafed clovers and horseshoes are good luck. For the Chinese, red and number 8 are good luck, while black and number 4 are bad luck. We all like to think we can control the outcome of things even if we don’t understand quite how it might work.
The Israelites in 1 Samuel 4
thought they could do the same kind of thing with God. When they lost a battle, they brought in the ark of the covenant, the precious gold box symbolizing God’s presence, and thought this meant they could not lose. They did go on to lose; not just the battle, but the ark as well. God showed them that He was in control, not them. They cannot manipulate God into doing what they want.
We might be more enlightened than the people back then but we too tend to manipulate God. It is easier to be superstitious than Christian. We can think that if we are good enough, or religious enough, then God will love us and give us easy lives. But God is bigger than us. The way we come to God is not through our works at all but through the death of his son Jesus for us. Let’s remember that God is bigger and more powerful than us – he controls us, we don’t control him.
(Based on Sunday teaching at ANPC, 4 July 2010 
).