Seattle’s game losing play in the 2015 Super Bowl was universally panned as a dumb call. It probably was, but what’s amazing is not that they tried the pass, but that so many obsess over it even to today. Mention it to any Seattle fan and watch their head explode. What’s even more amazing is that so many fret over such an irrelevant matter. After all, it’s just a game, and life is filled with many problems and issues that are far more important. But in the eyes of many the Super Bowl has become the most important event of the year, possibly of life itself.

Well thinking about that mistake brings us to the story of another error, a genuinely colossal, life impacting one, when Eli’s sons brought the ark to battle. It was bad enough to lose the battle, and the soldiers, and the Ark but there was a greater consequence that’s hinted at by a simple comment – “all Israel lamented after Jehovah” (1 Samuel 7:1-2).

It’s difficult to get the full meaning of the somewhat cryptic text, but it appears that Hophni and Phinehas had so demeaned the worship of Jehovah by their sin that when The Ark was taken the tabernacle was removed and the Philistines came and destroyed Shiloh, where Israel had worshiped God for 300 years. Jeremiah told Judah that God was about to destroy the city of Jerusalem and the temple itself just like he destroyed the city of Shiloh hundreds of years earlier. He told them to go and see what God did to Shiloh “because of the wickedness of my people Israel” (Jeremiah 7:12). And because of their sin and rebellion God said he was going to do to their temple “as I did to Shiloh” (Jeremiah 7:13-14). This helps explain why the folk who finally got the Ark back never reunited it with the Tabernacle.

The text goes on to tell us that for 20 years (1 Samuel 7:2) Yahweh's worship languished. Finally God had Samuel call for a return to worshiping God, and God alone (1 Samuel 7:3-4). But how does that relate to Seattle and Christians today? I'm glad you asked.

See, Seattle came back the next season to try again. And they kept on coming back. What about us today during our coronavirus separation? Are we trying to come back together with our brethren? Do we lament the loss of connectivity among our brethren because of the quarantine with broken hearts, with the same pain of the Seattle fans who lament the loss of a game? We do if we're serious about worshiping God with our brethren. If we're not careful we could end up with a 20 year drought like Israel.