Form Over Substance

Israel had fought one of their seemingly never-ending battles with the Philistines. And they lost. They couldn’t fathom the reason. “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?” (I Samuel 4:3). Someone then came up with a bright idea: “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” (ibid).

So that was the plan. And, indeed, the ark was brought, and when it arrived, “all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook” (v. 5). Victory assured, all because the ark was there. Only it didn’t quite go as planned. “So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers” (I Sam. 4:10). A disastrous day, even with the ark of God in their midst. And, actually, the Philistines captured the ark and made off with it.

What happened? What happened was form over substance. The Lord had told them, plainly, how to defeat their enemies: “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth…[and] the LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways” (Deuteronomy 28:1, 7). Trusting in a box, regardless of how holy it might be, is not quite the same as trusting in the Lord. Israel was defeated because they failed to honor God, failed to put their confidence in Him, and thought they could find salvation in a representation of God rather than the Lord Himself. It is not terribly surprising that in Leviticus 26, Jehovah had told the people, "But if you do not obey Me, and do not observe all these commandments, and if you despise My statutes, or if your soul abhors My judgments, so that you do not perform all My commandments, but break My covenant, I also will do this to you…I will set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies” (vs. 14-17). It is a lesson Israel never learned.

We must keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:1-2), and our trust must be in Him, not in some formality. As important as the church, baptism, worship, good works, etc. are, they are only the forms of Christianity; Christ is the substance. How many of us truly have a relationship with Him? Or do we have a church-building centered religion? The “church” (usually the preacher) “plans” so many “activities” for the brethren to get involved in. We try to keep busy doing things, many of which are very good things—visitation, prayer meetings, fellowships, etc. I’ve been there. All too often, when I was preaching full time, I felt like a program director and not a gospel preacher, and I felt guilty if I didn’t have something to keep the brethren occupied. It never occurred to me that all of that was…form over substance. Unless people learn Who Jesus Christ is, develop an in-depth bond with Him, trust Him and not the church and its “programs,” then we will have a very shallow religion and a very weak brotherhood. And that, indeed, may be why the Lord’s body is having so negligible an affect on the world today (though I hope it’s greater than it appears to be to me). Unless people are “busy” with church “activities,” they have very little religion. Take away the forms and how much substance is left in the lives of our brethren?

Israel lost to the Philistines because their religion went no deeper than a outward expression of Judaism. Form over substance. How often do we lose to the devil for the same reason?