June 23, 2012 – 1 Samuel 5 – 6

This is rather crude, but if I saw a statue or golden likeness of a hemorrhoid, I don’t know if I would know what is was suppose to be.

I think you could easily wonder when reading this why God doesn’t do something similar today.  There are many who do not believe in God or actively try to destroy God.  God has it well within His power to make them all suffer from hemorrhoids until they understand their folly and change their ways.  I can see that, but I have two comments for those thoughts. 

1 – Who’s to say that our country isn’t suffering from hemorrhoids in a certain sense?  I have written about this before and with the decline of wealth and stability in our country, one could argue that God is causing us to falter because of our sins and morality.  That may be true or not.  With all of our flaws, we are a country based on freedom and give many more freedoms than a lot of people in the world have no chance of enjoying.  Then again, those freedoms appear to be in danger and along with the loss of those, our country appears in decline.  Funny how no one seems to be making that connection. 

2 – The Philistines do not convert to believers, they only get rid of the thing that is causing their problem.  God wants conversion, He just doesn’t want a change for earthly pleasure.  Miracles may help some convert, but real and deep conversion, the kind that God wants, cannot come from the working of a miracle.  The Philistines had these issues, they get rid of the Ark, the issues stop, they go back to life as usual.  There is no conversion.  How many times do we have an issue, somehow that issue goes away (and it may have come with us changing our life in some way), then we go back to life as it was.  If it is not going to bring about REAL conversion, why would God bother allowing the miracle.   We do not see plagues of hemorrhoids in Law Vegas or Reno, even though those places are full of sin.  Maybe God knows that a miracle like that wouldn’t work for them or would bring a True conversion.