A Study of the Books of Samuel
Sermon # 4
"Bringing Back God's Glory!"
1 Samuel 4:1 – 6:17
We have seen how Samuel dominates
the first three chapters of 1 Samuel and now he fades into the background while the
spiritual condition and political affairs of Israel continue in a down-ward spiral. You
need to remember that this is the period of the judges, a time that scripture
characterizes as when “every man did what was right in his own
eyes” (Judges 17:6).
This dark time is epitomized by the departure of symbol of God’s presence, the Ark of
the Covenant, from the people of Israel.
Don’t forget how 1 Samuel 3:1 described this period as a time when God was not speaking to his people very often: “… the word of
the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation.” The spiritual leaders were corrupt and God’s
people were not obeying his law so why should he say anything new to them? It seems that since men were not listening to God in those days
he rarely bothered to speak to them. This lays the ground work for the departure of
God’s glory from Israel. Unfortunately we will come to
discover that the capture of the ark and its removal to the land of the Philistines only
symbolizes what is already true, what has been true for a long time, the glory of God has
departed from Israel.
In 1 Samuel Four, verse one,
“… Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside
Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek. (2)
Then the Philistines put themselves in battle array
against Israel. And when they joined battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who
killed about four thousand men of the army in the field.”
In the passage before us Israel is once again pitted against the Philistines. In
this initial confrontation with the Philistines Israel suffered a defeat with a loss of
4,000 men, the elders and leaders of Israel were totally bewildered and perplexed. Calling
an emergency meeting to analysis the defeat in verse three, they focused on one
basic question, “Why did the Lord bring defeat upon us
today?” (v.3). If they
had stopped to evaluate their own sinful lifestyles they would have had the answer.
They asked the right question but unfort-unately they drew the wrong conclusion.
The reminder of verse three reveals that they decided to use the Ark to try to manipulate
God, “… 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."
Keep in mind that God had given Israel very distinct instruction through Moses as
to the way in which military campaigns were to be conducted (Deuteronomy 20) but none of
them seem to have been put into practice on this occasion. No priest is called to ask
counsel of God or bless the going forth of the army of Israel. In a very modern fashion
Israel only seems interested in God getting them out of the mess they have gotten
them-selves into. They did not begin to think either of God, nor of the Ark of the
Covenant until after they had suffered defeat.
Instead of searching their hearts and confessing their sins, they decided to
imitate Joshua and Moses and take the Ark of the Covenant into battle with them (Numbers
10:33-36). They apparently regarded the Ark of the Covenant as some sort of giant good
luck charm saying, “If we bring the Ark here then our luck will change.”
The children of Israel either did not know or did not care to consider that the
presence of a physical symbol of God’s presence would do no good, when the hearts of
the people were far from Him! Even as believers today we need to get over the idea that
God will bless us in spite of disobedience.
Notice with me that the text reveals three wrong ways in which people try to
interact with God.
“So
the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from there the ark of the covenant of the
LORD of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and
Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. (5) And when the ark of the
covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth
shook. (6) Now when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, "What
does the sound of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean?" Then they
understood that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp. (7) So the Philistines were
afraid, for they said, "God has come into the camp!" And they said, "Woe to
us! For such a thing has never happened before. (8) Woe to us! Who will deliver us from
the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the
plagues in the wilderness.”
The ark was about 4 ft long by 2 ft high and 2 ft. wide. The ark was made of wood
and overlaid with pure gold. On the top of the ark was a solid slab of gold called the
mercy seat and in the ark was the tables of God’s law. Out of the mercy seat were the
Cherubim with their wings outstretched. The ark was the most sacred piece of furniture in
the temple and it was kept in the holy of holies. It was so holy that it was kept behind a
veil and only the high priest was allowed to look upon it once each year when he offered
the sacrifice for the atonement for Israel’s sins (Lev. 16).
Now they sent for the
ark and wanted it present with them. It was not that they wanted the ark that they may
serve God or worship God or reverence God – they wanted the presence of God for their
own purposes. They were not seeking the will of God, they were not walking by faith and
they certainly were not seeking to glorify God. Even worse, the two wicked sons of Eli,
Hophni and Phinehas would be carrying the ark of God.
It
was significant for Israel to learn that they could not manipulate God by means of His Ark
to given them victory when their heart were not right with Him. A modern form of this is
to see the promises of God as some kind of magical formula, “If I do
this, this and this, then God must do this…” Christians need to learn that God is not like a mop
or a dish rag that we call upon just to clean up our messes. He would not allow Israel to
use Him, and he won’t let us either! The question remains, “Are we
putting God first in our lives or “summoning” God when all else has failed
us?”
Israel’s hope was that the presence of the ark would turn the battle in their
favor but Israel’s plan backfired in a big way. The ark may have been with them in
the camp but the Lord was against them. Their strategy served only to strengthen the
resolve of the enemy to fight that much harder. In verse nine the Philistines say, “Be
strong and conduct yourselves like men, you Philistines, that you do not become servants
of the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Conduct yourselves like men, and fight!" When Hophi and Phinenas, arrived in the
Israelite encampment with the ark, every man shouted so loudly that the ground literally
shook (4:5). The conclusion of the Philistines when hear the uproar caused by the arrival
of the ark in the Israelite camp was that if they are going to die we can at least die
like men. Instead of disheartening the Philistines it caused them to fight even harder.
Beginning in verse ten the disastrous outcome of this battle is given. First
and foremost the forces of Israel are defeated with a loss of 10,000 men (v. 10) and those
that manage to escape death fled. The Ark of the Covenant is taken by the Philistines
(v.11) and the two sons of the priest Eli, Phinehas and Hophni are killed.
Never in the history of Israel has the ark of God ever fallen into enemy hands. As
I said earlier, unfortunately the capture of the ark only symbolizes what is already true,
what has been true for a long time, the glory of God has departed from Israel.
When the news of the battle, the defeat of Israel, the lost of the Ark and the
death of his two sons are reported to Eli the priest he fell off of his chair broke his
neck and died (v.18) “Then
it happened, when he made mention of the ark of God, that Eli fell off the seat backward
by the side of the gate; and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and
heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.”
Unfortunately the dying is not over for the house of Eli. The wife of Eli’s
son, Phinehas, who is pregnant when she hears of her husband’s death and the death of
her husband and father-in-law she goes into premature labor. As she is in labor things do
not go well. Informed that her child is a boy, she names him “Ichabod” which means “no
glory,” because she realizes the departure of the ark symbolizes the
departure of God’s glory (v. 21). Israel had used the ark as a good luck charm, Eli
was concerned for the safety of the ark, only this woman seems to be concerned for the
glory of God.
2. God Refuses to Be Displayed As a Trophy
(5:1-5)
The Philistines
captured the Ark but they soon learned that the Ark, like his written word, was designed
as a comfort and encouragement to his people but not to his enemies. When the
Philistines got what they wanted, they did not want what they had. The real ark gave
the Philistines as much trouble as the fictional ark gave the Nazis in the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” God will use
the ark to teach both the Jews and the Philistines some important lessons.
In chapter
five (verse one) we are intro-duced to the fate of the ark in Philistine hand’s, “Then
the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. (2) When the
Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon and set it by
Dagon.
The Philistines
took the Ark to their capital city of Ashdod and placed it in the Temple of their chief
God – Dagon. Dagon was considered to be the father of Baal. No doubt this was done to show that Dagon was
stronger and more powerful than Jehovah, boy were they in for a surprise. When the
Philistines entered their temple the next morning verse three reveals that much to
their humiliation, they discovered their god face down before the Ark like one of the
worshipers. “And when the people of Ashdod arose early in
the morning, there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the earth before the ark of the LORD.
So they took Dagon and set it in its place again.” When
they left that day you can be sure that their idol was securely in its place. There will
be no more falling on its face, that’s for sure.
Yet verse
four reveals that when they returned the next morning things are even worse than they
were before. “And when they arose early the next morning,
there was Dagon, fallen on its face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. The head of
Dagon and both the palms of its hands were broken off on the threshold; only Dagon's torso
was left of it.” They
found that Dagon’s head and hands had been cut off and the torso was again prostrate
before the ark.
Now they must
begin to wonder if they have the Hebrew God in their hands or if it is the other way
around. The Philistines should have asked themselves, “What kind
of a god has to be set upright by its subjects and carried off for repairs because it is
broken?” The Philistines could
have gotten rid of Dagon and theirs sins but they chose rather to get rid of the Ark and
their plagues. Though they recognized that it was God’s hand upon them they still
refused to repent. They did not in the least profit by their painful experience. Just as
today some people refuse to allow God to break through their pride, though they have time
after time seen evidence of his hand in their lives. And because they refused to learn
from the difficult lessons that God was teaching there are even more difficult lessons to
come.
Verse six
reveals that the Lord not only humiliated the god of the Philistines but he also judged
the people who worship this false god.
“But the hand of the LORD was heavy on the
people of Ashdod, and He ravaged them and struck them with tumors, both Ashdod and its
territory. (7) And when the men of Ashdod saw how it was, they said, "The ark of the
God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is harsh toward us and Dagon our
god."
A terrible
plague came upon the people of Ashdod. It is impossible to be dogmatic about the exact
identity of these plagues. Some comment-aries think that it was the bubonic plague, and
that the people experienced painful inflammation of the lymph glands, particularly in the
groin. Others think that it was a severe form of hemorrhoids because of the translation in
the KJV of (1 Sam 5:9) “emerods in their secret parts,” but
whatever it is people not only suffered pain and humiliation, they are dying like flies
(v. 11). It is apparent that the leaders come to realize that the plague that they are
suffering is due to the presence of the ark in their midst.
So they took the
ark from Ashdod to Gath (vv.8-9); from Gath to Ekron (v. 10); but the Philistines soon
discovered that a terrible plague of tumors broke out in each successive city to which the
Ark is taken. Finally recognizing that the affliction was due
to the presence of the ark (v. 10) they made the decision to send the ark back to Israel
(v. 11), but not without one last test (6:7). While they Philistines do see recognize the
plague as the hand of God as judgment for having the ark in their midst, they do not
reject their powerless god, nor to they trust in the God of Israel and worship Him. They
very simply want God out of their town. They stubbornly clung to the possibility that all
of these disasters “could” just bad luck. If they could prove that calamities
were all coincidence, they could keep the ark and continue to magnify Dagon’s
superiority over Jehovah. In verse seven of chapter six the Philistines outline the
scheme they think will test the God of Israel one last time. “Now
therefore, make a new cart, take two milk cows which have never been yoked, and hitch the
cows to the cart; and take their calves home, away from them. (8) Then take the ark of the
LORD and set it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you are returning to Him
as a trespass offering in a chest by its side. Then send it away, and let it go. (9) And
watch: if it goes up the road to its own territory, to Beth Shemesh, then He has done us
this great evil. But if not, then we shall know that it is not His hand that struck us--it
happened to us by chance."
The plan is
ingenious, at least they think so, they would take two cows that have calves and separate
them from the calves. They would then hitch the cows to a new cart, put the ark on the
cart and turn the cows loose. If the plagues are from God, who wants the ark back, then
the cows will leave their calves behind, and draw the cart back to Israel. If the cows
draw the ark back to Israel it will be safe to assume that the Philistine’s troubles
were from God and they did the right thing in letting the Ark go. If, however, the cows didn’t move at all, or
if they went to their calves it would be “proof” that the God of Israel was not
in control at all and the Philistines had nothing to fear.
When you
consider that these cows were nursing their calves, that the cows had never drawn a cart
before, the Philistines had the deck nicely stacked in their favor. The odds were with
them that these cows would never pull this cart down the road to the nearest Israelite
town of Beth-Shemesh. They thought they had all the angles figured out. But they had not
reckoned with God for verse twelve reveals that, “Then the
cows headed straight for the road to Beth Shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as
they went, and did not turn aside to the right hand or the left.”
The Philistines
did not know the true and living God but the cows did and they obeyed Him.
“Now the people of Beth Shemesh were reaping
their wheat harvest in the valley; and they lifted their eyes and saw the ark, and
rejoiced to see it. (14) Then the cart came into the field of Joshua of Beth Shemesh, and
stood there; a large stone was there. So they split the wood of the cart and offered the
cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. (15) The Levites took down the ark of the LORD and
the chest that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large
stone. Then the men of Beth Shemesh offered burnt offerings and made sacrifices the same
day to the LORD. …. (19) Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had
looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people,
and the people lamented because the LORD had struck the people with a great
slaughter.”
When the ark
arrive in Beth-Shemesh it should have been covered, it was not suppose to be seen by
anyone except the high priest. The people did not do this even though they knew and for
the cost for this error of judgment will be high. Some of the people became curious and
‘looked into the ark” and were slain. There is some difference of opinion as to
whether these individual looked into or upon the ark but either way it was an action that
was forbidden and a number of Israelites lost there lives as a result.
If the pagan
Philistines were judged for the way they unknowingly treated the ark, how much more does
God hold accountable those who new the law and were living in a Levitical (priestly) city.
The awesome event described here certainly would seem to warn us today against a lack of
reverence for the things of God. The writer of Hebrews in the New Testament reminds us that “It is a
fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” May I add that it is even
more fearful to fall into the hands of an angry living God!
Abiding Principles
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