An Explanation Must Leave Room for the Facts

Then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us: it was a chance that happened to us.

1 Samuel 6:9

Read 1 Samuel 6. Focus on verses 1 through 12 and 19 through 20. The Philistines consider two explanations for what has happened. Is their suffering connected with the Lord's hand, or did it occur by chance? Their priests propose a test involving a cart and two nursing cows whose calves remain at home. If the cows take the road toward Israel, the proposed sign will indicate the Lord's action. The animals travel directly toward Bethshemesh, lowing as they go. The narrative presents a direction that runs against the expected pull toward their calves. The Philistine leaders watch the evidence unfold. Their religious practices are not models for Christian worship, and this test does not become a formula for discovering God's will. Within the story, however, an explanation is being considered in relation to what actually happens. That is a useful discipline when we have become attached to a theory. We can keep repeating what a situation must mean while becoming less willing to observe it. Any fact that does not fit is treated as an inconvenience rather than information. Perhaps a team decides that a quiet member is uninterested. When the person offers careful written suggestions, nobody reads them because the label has already been assigned. Perhaps you assume a recurring household problem comes from carelessness, while a simple check would reveal a broken part. We need not distrust every first explanation. We do need to let it remain answerable to facts. Ask what you would expect to see if the explanation were wrong. Is there a reasonable way to check? Have you noticed what the situation is doing, or only what your theory predicts it should do? The chapter ends with another sobering event. People at Bethshemesh handle the ark without the reverence God's holiness requires, and judgment follows. Receiving evidence of His power does not make Him an object to be managed or examined at will. Faithful inquiry therefore joins attention with humility. We can examine a claim without pretending that God is ours to control. We can also distinguish what a passage actually reports from the additional conclusion we would like it to support. Bring a familiar explanation back into contact with the situation itself. Listen, check, and revise where necessary. It is better to relinquish a convenient theory than to keep asking real people and real facts to disappear so that the theory can remain comfortable. Put It into Practice Check one reasonable alternative explanation before repeating your conclusion. Ask someone close to the situation what you may have failed to notice.

What fact have you been dismissing because it does not fit the explanation you prefer?

God of truth, make me attentive to what is actually happening. Give me willingness to revise a favored explanation and humility about what I cannot conclude. Let careful observation serve faith rather than my wish to be proved right. Amen.