“The Lost Ark”
1 Samuel 4:1-11
1And
the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Now Israel went out to battle against the
Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at
Aphek. 2 The Philistines
drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated
by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of
battle. 3 And when the
troops came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the
Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come
among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” 4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there
the ark of the covenant of the Lord
of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and
Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
5
As soon as the ark of the covenant of the
Lord came into the camp, all
Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the
earth resounded. 6 And when
the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this
great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the
ark of the Lord had come to the
camp, 7 the Philistines were
afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to
us! For nothing like this has happened before.
8 Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these
mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of
plague in the wilderness. 9 Take courage, and be men, O
Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be
men and fight.”
10
So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And
there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot
soldiers. 11 And the ark of
God was captured, and the two sons of
Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. (ESV)
During
last week’s sermon (1 Samuel 3:1-21), we looked at Samuel’s call. If you remember, God called twice and
neither Samuel nor Eli perceived that it was the Lord. However, on the third try, Eli got a clue
and told Samuel, “...if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your
servant hears.’”
The
next time the Lord calls, His address is a bit different, he says “Samuel!
Samuel!” Notice that He uses the boy’s
name twice. This puts him in very
privileged company as the only two others that God had called this way were
Abraham and Moses. This is because
Samuel will usher in the next major landmark in Israel’s (and our) redemptive
history—the Davidic monarchy.
The
first verse of chapter four, this week’s text, actually belongs with last
week’s narrative. Why? The beginning of chapter three begins,
“...And the word of the Lord was rare in those days; there was no frequent
vision” (3:1b). By the end of the
narrative, as Samuel is established as Israel’s prophet, we hear, “And the Lord
appeared again at Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by
the word of the Lord. And the word of
Samuel came to all Israel” (3:21-4:1a).
In
other words, in the appearance of Samuel as God’s prophet, we know that God is
active in Israel again. Given the fact
that the absence of God’s revelation was viewed as a sign of His displeasure,
chapter three and its closing verses would have been seen as a reversal of
this. Don’t forget, however, that God’s
revelation isn’t just “appearing,” but it is being mediated and given through a
very specific person. There is a
problem, however. Just because there is
a new preacher in town, it doesn’t mean that everyone’s on board with what he’s
preaching. Added to this, while the
renewal of God’s revelation to Israel is a blessing, the substance of that
revelation must still come to pass. In
short, while God promised the deposition of Eli’s house, He’s still got to make
good on that promise. We see the
beginning of the end (of Eli’s house) in today’s text.
We’ll look at three things:
I.
Battling the Philistines (1b-4)
II. The Gospel
According to the Philistines (5-9)
III. Hope in the
Midst of Tragedy (10-11)
Battling
the Philistines (1b-4)
Notice
verse 1b, “Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines...” The first questions we’ve got to consider
are who were the Philistines and why was Israel at war with them? Let’s begin with who. Their name derives
from the Hebrew word pelesh which
means something like “to divide, go through, or invade.” They were known as the “Sea People” and
lived at the southern end of Canaan on the Mediterranean Sea. We also know that they were known for being
ironsmiths, which is consistent with what we see when, later on in this book,
we’ll meet a “little fella” by the name of Goliath!
Why
were they at war with Israel? Why
not?! Seriously, Israel was commanded
to conquer the land of Canaan. The Philistines, an apparently hun-like people,
lived there. The conflict first shows
up in Judges when we see Samson engaging them and continues throughout much of
Israel’s history.
Given
the role the Philistines play in the unveiling of God’s redemptive plan, as we
read this story and others like it, it is important to keep in mind the purpose
of this book: Israel needs a king like
David. Why is it important to remember
this? The answer is simple. We know and the original readers would have
known that only one king had been able to defeat the Philistines. His name was David. As for Saul, David’s predecessor, he not
only did he fail to defeat the Philistines, but was, in fact, defeated and
killed by them.
In
a sense, this book Samuel is like a long campaign ad for the house of David
and, if your “hot-button” issue is Philistine terrorism, David is the only
candidate with success at defeating them.
Added to this “campaign focus” is the issue of Samuel’s role in this
particular defeat—he has none. In other
words, when you look back at this pitiful scene in Israel’s history, the author
wants us to know that Samuel is in no way associated with it. His name isn’t mentioned at all.
Notice
next verse 2. Israel is defeated on the
field of battle and loses 4,000 men. In
the big scheme of things, this isn’t a horrible defeat. However, notice Israel’s reaction to
it. As the defeated troops arrive back
at their camp the elders ask, rightly, “Why has the Lord defeated us today
before the Philistines?” (v. 3) Their
mistake, however, is that they didn’t wait for an answer!
Instead
of praying or seeking the Lord, they immediately began to do the same thing you
and I often do in the midst of apparent defeat or in the face of some
conflict. They begin to scheme. Immediately they propose to bring the ark of the covenant to the
battle front. Notice what it says at
the end of verse 3, “Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from
Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”
We’re
told in the text why they do this. They
believe either (a) that, much like the plot of the movie “Raiders of the Lost
Ark,” the ark has some inherent “magical” power that will give them military
superiority, (b) that because the ark is God’s kingly footstool upon the earth,
if they move the ark to the battle line, God will somehow be constrained to
move with it and, of course, fight for them.
In other words, instead of seeking God for Who He is and according to
His promises (remember He promised them the land of Canaan), they sought to use
Him to accomplish their ends and desires.
On
the face of it, that seems crazy until you begin to think about the fact that
you and I do that all the time. Let me
pose it as a question. When you face
your own personal battles do you seek Jesus’ face, His counsel, and His
promises, or do you try to use Him and His Word to accomplish what you think
needs to be done?
As
this section of our text closes (v. 4), the elders send to Shiloh and bring the
ark of the covenant to the battle-lines.
What is just as important here is not only that the ark has been brought
to the battlefront, but also those who attend it—Hophni and Phinehas, Eli’s
wicked sons.
Here
we’re given a clue as to why this battle is taking place and the ultimate
purpose of God. Were the elders wrong
to think they could manipulate God by bringing the ark, physically, into the
midst of this Philistine conflict? Of
course. On the other hand, we also see
here a great picture of God’s sovereignty in action. God used their sinful actions to accomplish His purposes. What was that purpose? We’ll see at the end of the text. For now, let’s consider the Philistines’
reaction to the arrival of the ark.
The
Gospel According to the Philistines (5-9)
Starting
at verse 5, as the ark comes into Israel’s camp there is such rejoicing and
such a mighty shout that the ground shakes.
When the Philistines hear this and learn that the ark has arrived, they
are horrified. Why? Because in their minds, they believed the
same thing that Israel’s elders did—that bringing the ark would constrain
Israel’s god to come and fight for them.
In fact, they say, “Woe to us!” twice.
They
also say, “Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? Most commentators think that the reason that
the Philistines use the word “gods” is because they are simply assuming that
Israel is polytheistic like every other nation in Canaan. While their assumption might be true, where
did they get it? My guess is that they
got it from Israel. In other words,
consider that this is the time of the judges and the nation is in spiritual
chaos.
We
also know that the gods of Canaan throughout Israel’s history continued to be a
temptation and a stumbling block. At
the end of the day, instead of being distinct from the nations around them,
Israel simply blended in. Why? They forgot the very thing that frightened
the Philistines—that God had delivered them from Egypt with mighty plagues in
order to be His covenant people.
Notice
what the Philistines say, “These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with
every sort of plague in the wilderness” (v. 8b). This is amazing in that a century or two after the fact, the
nations surrounding Israel still knew and were moved by the fact of Israel’s
deliverance from Egypt. Were their
facts completely accurate? No. On the other hand, they would have been if
Israel had lived according to the grace shown them.
In
fact, what should have happened here is that after Israel’s defeat and the
elders had asked why, besides waiting for an answer, they could’ve preached the
gospel to themselves: “God is with
us! He promised He would never fail or
forsake us.” This is how Joshua and
Caleb rebutted the spies who, returning from a recon mission in Canaan, said,
“It’s impossible.” Later on in the book
we’ll see the right response as well from a young boy who visits the
battle-line and hears a giant taunting Israel.
He preaches the gospel by asking a question, “Who is this uncircumcised
Philistine to taunt the armies of the living God?” The boy’s name, of course, was David.
While
at some level the Philistines understood words of Israel’s gospel story, they
didn’t really believe its power. They
decided to take their chances saying, “Take courage, and be men, O Philistines,
lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and
fight.”
As
a side-note, it is interesting to consider how they refer to Israel. They use the word, “Hebrews.” While we often use it as a synonym for
Israel—they didn’t. As you read the Old
Testament, you’ll notice that Israel is almost always referred to as “Hebrews”
by those outside the covenant community.[1] Why?
It was a derogatory term. While
Noah’s son, Shem, had a greatgrandson called Eber and that may have something
to do with the etymology. It also very
similar to the word habiru—the name
for landless refugees and aliens.
Either way, they viewed themselves as culturally superior to the Hebrews
and would rather go down fighting than simply give up to them, even if their
gods had arrived for the fight.
Hope
in the Midst of Tragedy (10-11)
In
these two verses we see three tragic events, and in these events, specifically
the last, we get a glimmer of hope.
What happens? As the battle resumes,
Israel is defeated (losing 30,000 men); the ark of God is captured (for the
first time in Israel’s history); and Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are
killed. Next week we’ll consider the
emotional and theological ramifications of the ark’s capture.
This
week, what I want you to notice is the ray of hope. That would be the death of Hophni and Phinehas. Why would their death be a sign of hope? The
reason that their demise should grant Israel hope is because it is yet another evidence
that God keeps His promises. He
promised that Eli’s sons would both die on the same day and they did. Added to this, it adds more credibility to
the ministry of Samuel and his stature as a prophet—what he said came
true.
As
Christians, seeing hope in the midst of tragedy should be second-nature. Why?
Because, the Cross is, perhaps, the greatest portrait of God’s use of
apparently hopeless, pointless tragedy to bring about His greatest glory. The death of Hophni and Phinehas, while
deserved, is tragic.[2] The death of Jesus is more tragic in that He
was innocent. However, tragedy is
transformed to glory, three days later.
Keep
this in mind the next time you feel that you are suffering or are in the midst
of being brought low. Instead of
feeling that God has abandoned you, remember that it is in the midst of these
kinds of times that He evidences His greatest glory.