_THE ARK OF GOD TAKEN BY THE PHILISTINES._
1 SAMUEL iv.
We are liable to form an erroneous impression of the connection of
Samuel with the transactions of this chapter, in consequence of a clause
which ought to belong to the last chapter, being placed, in the
Authorized Version, at the beginning of this. The clause "And the word
of Samuel came to all Israel" belongs really to the preceding chapter.
It denotes that Samuel was now over all Israel the recognized channel of
communication between the people and God. But it does not denote that
the war with the Philistines, of which mention is immediately made, was
undertaken at Samuel's instance. In fact, the whole chapter is
remarkable for the absence of Samuel's name. What is thus denoted seems
to be that Samuel was not consulted either about the war or about the
taking of the ark into the battle. Whatever he may have thought of the
war, he would undoubtedly have been horrified at the proposal about the
ark. That whole transaction must have seemed to him a piece of
infatuation. Probably it was carried into effect in a kind of tumultuous
frenzy. But there can be no reasonable doubt that whatever Samuel could
have done to oppose it would have been done with the greatest
eagerness.
The history is silent about the Philistines from the days of Samson. The
last we have heard of them was the fearful tragedy at the death of that
great Judge of Israel, when the house fell upon the lords and the
people, and such a prodigious slaughter of their great men took place.
From that calamity they seem now to have revived. They would naturally
be desirous to revenge that unexampled catastrophe, and as Ebenezer and
Aphek are situated in the land of Israel, it would seem that the
Philistines were the aggressors. They had come up from the Philistine
plain to the mountainous country of Israel, and no doubt had already
sent many of the people to flight through whose farms they came. As the
Israelites had no standing army, the troops that opposed the Philistines
could be little better than an untrained horde. When they joined battle,
Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of the army
about four thousand men. In a moral point of view the defeat was
strange; the Philistines had made the attack, and the Israelites were
fighting for their homes and hearths; yet victory was given to the
invaders, and in four thousand homes of Israel there was lamentation and
woe.
But this was not really strange. Israel needed chastening, and the
Philistines were God's instruments for that purpose. In particular,
judgment was due to the sons of Eli; and the defeat inflicted by the
Philistines, and the mistaken and superstitious notion which seized on
the people that they would do well to take God's ark into the battle,
were the means by which their punishment came. How often Providence
seems to follow a retrograde course! And yet it is a forward course all
the time, although from our point of view it seems backward; just as
those planets which are nearer the sun than the earth sometimes seem to
us to reverse the direction of their movement; although if we were
placed in the centre of the system we should see very plainly that they
are moving steadily forward all the time.
Three things call for special notice in the main narrative of this
chapter--1. The preparation for the battle; 2. The battle itself; and 3.
The result when the news was carried to Shiloh.
1. The preparation for the battle was the sending for the ark of the
Lord to Shiloh, so that Israel might fight under the immediate presence
and protection of their God.
It seemed a brilliant idea. Whichever of the elders first suggested it,
it caught at once, and was promptly acted on. There were two great
objections to it, but if they were so much as entertained they certainly
had no effect given them. The first was, that the elders had no
legitimate control over the ark. The custody of it belonged to the
priests and the Levites, and Eli was the high priest. If the rulers of
the nation at any time desired to remove the ark (as David afterwards
did when he placed it on Mount Zion), that could only be done after
clear indications that the step was in accordance with the will of God,
and with the full consent of the priests. There is no reason to suppose
that any means were taken to find out whether its removal to the camp
was in accordance with the will of God; and as to the mind of the
priests, Eli was probably passed over as too old and too blind to be
consulted, and Hophni and Phinehas would be restrained by no scruples
from an act which every one seemed to approve. The second great
objection to the step was that it was a superstitious and irreverent use
of the symbol of God's presence. Evidently the people ascribed to the
symbol the glorious properties that belonged only to the reality. They
expected that the symbol of God's presence would do for them all that
might be done by His presence itself. And doubtless there had been
occasions when the symbol and the reality went together. In the
wilderness, in the days of Moses, "It came to pass, when the ark set
forward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies be
scattered, and let them that hate Thee flee before Thee" (Num. x. 35).
But these were occasions determined by the cloud rising and going before
the host, an unmistakable indication of the will of God (Num. ix.
15-22). God's real presence accompanied the ark on these occasions, and
all that was expressed in the symbol was actually enjoyed by the people.
There was no essential or inherent connection between the two; the
actual connection was determined merely by the good pleasure of God. It
pleased Him to connect them, and connected they were. But the ignorant
and superstitious elders forgot that the connection between the symbol
and the reality was of this nature; they believed it to be inherent and
essential. In their unthinking and unreasoning minds the symbol might be
relied on to produce all the effect of the reality. If only the ark of
God were carried into the battle, the same effect would take place as
when Moses said in the wilderness, "Rise up, Lord, and let Thine enemies
be scattered."
Could anything show more clearly the unspiritual tendencies of the human
mind in its conceptions of God, and of the kind of worship He should
receive? The idea of God as the living God is strangely foreign to the
human heart. To think of God as one who has a will and purpose of His
own, and who will never give His countenance to any undertaking that
does not agree with that will and purpose, is very hard for the
unspiritual man. To make the will of God the first consideration in any
enterprise, so that it is not to be thought of if He do not approve, and
is never to be despaired of if He be favourable, is a bondage and a
trouble beyond his ability. Yet even superstitious men believe in a
supernatural power. And they believe in the possibility of enlisting
that power on their side. And the method they take is to ascribe the
virtue of a charm to certain external objects with which that power is
associated. The elders of Israel ascribed this virtue to the ark. They
never inquired whether the enterprise was agreeable to the mind and will
of God. They never asked whether in this case there was any ground for
believing that the symbol and the reality would go together. They simply
ascribed to the symbol the power of a talisman, and felt secure of
victory under its shadow.
Would that we could think of this spirit as extinct even in Christian
communities! What is the Romish and the very High Church doctrine of the
sacraments but an ascription to them, when rightly used, of the power of
a charm? The sacraments, as Scripture teaches, are symbols of very
glorious realities, and wherever the symbols are used in accordance with
God's will the realities are sure to be enjoyed. But it has long been
the doctrine of the Church of Rome, and it is the doctrine of Churches,
with similar views, that the sacraments are reservoirs of grace, and
that to those who place no fatal obstacle in their way, grace comes from
them _ex opere operato_, from the very act of receiving them. It is the
Protestant and scriptural doctrine that by stimulating faith, by
encouraging us to look to the living Saviour, and draw from Him in whom
all fulness dwells, the sacraments bring to us copious supplies of
grace, but that without the presence of that living Saviour they would
be merely as empty wells. The High Church view regards them as charms,
that have a magic virtue to bless the soul. The superstitious mother
thinks if only her child is baptised it will be saved, the act of
baptism will do it, and she never thinks of the living Saviour and His
glorious grace. The dying sinner thinks, if only he had the last
sacraments, he would be borne peacefully and well through the dark
scenes of death and judgment, and forgets that the commandment of
Scripture is not, Look unto the last sacraments, but, "Look _unto Me_
and be ye saved." Alas! what will men not substitute for personal
dealings with the living God? The first book and the last book of the
Bible present sad proof of his recoil from such contact. In Genesis, as
man hears God's voice, he runs to hide himself among the trees of the
garden. In Revelation, when the Judge appears, men call on the mountains
to fall on them and hide them from Him that sitteth on the throne. Only
when we see God's face, beautiful and loving, in Christ, can this
aversion be overcome.
If the presence of the ark in the field of battle did much to excite the
hopes of the Israelites, it did not less to raise the fears of their
opponents. The shout with which its arrival was hailed by the one struck
something of consternation into the breasts of the other. But now, an
effect took place on which the Israelites had not reckoned. The
Philistines were too wise a people to yield to panic. If the Hebrew God,
that did such wonders in the wilderness, was present with their
opponents, there was all the more need for their bestirring themselves
and quitting them like men. The elders of Israel had not reckoned on
this wise plan. It teaches us, even from a heathen point of view, never
to yield to panic. Even when everything looks desperate, there may be
some untried resource to fall back on. And if this be a lesson to be
learnt from pagans, much more surely may it be thought of by believers,
who know that man's extremity is often God's opportunity, and that no
peril is too imminent for God not to be able to deliver.
2. And now the battle rages. The hope of misguided Israel turns out an
illusion. They find, to their consternation, that the symbol does not
carry the reality. It pleases God to allow the ark with which His name
is so intimately associated to be seized by the enemy. The Philistines
carry everything before them. The ark is taken, Hophni and Phinehas are
slain, and there fall of Israel thirty thousand footmen.
Can we fancy the feelings of the two priests who attended the ark as the
defeat of the army of Israel became inevitable? The ark would probably
be carried near the van of the army, preceded by some of the most
valiant troops of Israel. No doubt it had been reckoned on that as soon
as its sacred form was recognized by the Philistines, fear would seize
on them, and they would fly before it. It must have made the two priests
look grave when nothing of the kind took place, but the host of the
Philistines advanced in firm and intrepid phalanx to the fight. But
surely the first onset of the advanced guard will show with whose army
the victory is to lie. The advanced guards are at close quarters, and
the men of Israel give way. Was there conscience enough left in these
two men to flash into their minds that God, whose Holy Spirit they had
vexed, was turned to be their enemy, and was now fighting against them?
Did they, in that supreme moment, get one of those momentary glimpses,
in which the whole iniquities of a lifetime seem marshalled before the
soul, and the enormity of its guilt overwhelms it? Did they feel the
anguish of men caught in their own iniquities, every hope perished,
death inevitable, and after death the judgment? There is not one word,
either in this chapter or in what precedes it, from which the slightest
inference in their favour can be drawn. They died apparently as they had
lived, in the very act of dishonouring God. With the weapons of
rebellion in their hands, and the stains of guilt on their hearts, they
were hurried into the presence of the Judge. Now comes the right
estimate of their reckless, guilty life. All the arts of sophistry, all
the refuges of lies, all their daring contempt of the very idea of a
retribution on sin, are swept away in a moment. They are confronted with
the awful reality of their doom. They see more vividly than even Eli or
Samuel the truth of one part, certainly, of the Divine rule--"Them that
honour Me I will honour; but they that despise Me shall be lightly
esteemed."
The time of guilty pleasure has passed for ever away; the time of
endless retribution has begun. Oh, how short, how miserable, how
abominable appears to them now the revelry of their evil life! what
infatuation it was to forswear all the principles in which they had been
reared, to laugh at the puritanic strictness of their father, to sit in
the seat of the scorner, and pour contempt on the law of God's house!
How they must have cursed the folly that led them into such awful ways
of sin, how sighed in vain that they had not in their youth chosen the
better part, how wished they had never been born!
3. But we must leave the field of battle and hasten back to Shiloh.
Since the ark was carried off Eli must have had a miserable time of it,
reproaching himself for his weakness if he gave even a reluctant assent
to the plan, and feeling that uncertainty of conscience which keeps one
even from prayer, because it makes one doubtful if God will listen. Poor
old man of ninety-eight years, he could but tremble for the ark! His
official seat had been placed somewhere on the wayside, where he would
be near to get tidings from the field of any one who might come with
them, and quite probably a retinue of attendants was around him. At last
a great shout of horror is heard, for a man of Benjamin has come in
sight with his clothes rent and earth upon his head. It is but too
certain a sign of calamity. But who could have thought of the extent of
the calamity which with such awful precision he crowded into his answer?
Israel is fled before the Philistines--calamity the first; there hath
been a great slaughter among the people--calamity the second; thy two
sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are slain--calamity the third; and last, and
most terrible of all, the ark of God is taken! The ark of God is taken!
The Divine symbol, with its overshadowing cherubim and its sacred light,
into which year by year Eli had gone alone to sprinkle the blood of
atonement on the mercy-seat, and where he had solemnly transacted with
God on behalf of the people, was in an enemy's hands! The ark, that no
Canaanite or Amalekite had ever touched, on which no Midianite or
Ammonite had ever laid his polluted finger, which had remained safe and
sure in Israel's custody through all the perils of their journeys and
all the storms of battle, was now torn from their grasp! And there
perishes with it all the hope of Israel, and all the sacred service
which was associated with it; and Israel is a widowed, desolate, godless
people, without hope and without God in the world; and all this has come
because they dragged it away from its place, and these two sons of mine,
now gone to their account, encouraged the profanation!
"And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he
fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck
brake, and he died; for he was an old man and heavy. And he had judged
Israel forty years."
This was calamity the fifth; but even yet the list was not exhausted.
"His daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was with child, near to be
delivered; and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken,
and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself
and travailed, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her
death the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not, for thou hast
born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it. And she
named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel;
because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and
her husband. And she said, The glory is departed from Israel; for the
ark of God is taken."
Poor, good woman! with such a husband she had no doubt had a troubled
life. The spring of her spirit had probably been broken long ago; and
what little of elasticity yet remained was all too little to bear up
under such an overwhelming load. But it may have been her comfort to
live so near to the house of God as she did, and to be thus reminded of
Him who had commanded the sons of Aaron to bless the people saying, "The
Lord bless thee and keep thee; the Lord make His face shine upon thee
and be gracious to thee; the Lord lift up His countenance upon thee and
give thee peace." But now the ark of God is taken, its services are at
an end, and the blessing is gone. The tribes may come up to the feasts
as before, but not with the bright eye or the merry shouts of former
days; the bullock may smoke on the altar, but where is the sanctuary in
which Jehovah dwelt, and where the mercy-seat for the priest to sprinkle
the blood, and where the door by which he can come out to bless the
people? Oh, my hapless child, what shall I call thee, who hast been
ushered on this day of midnight gloom into a God-forsaken and
dishonoured place? I will call thee Ichabod, for the glory is departed.
The glory is departed from Israel, for the ark of God is taken.
What an awful impression these scenes convey to us of the overpowering
desolation that comes to believing souls with the feeling that God has
taken His departure. Tell us that the sun is no longer to shine; tell us
that neither dew nor rain shall ever fall again to refresh the earth;
tell us that a cruel and savage nation is to reign unchecked and
unchallenged over all the families of a people once free and happy; you
convey no such image of desolation as when you tell to pious hearts that
God has departed from their community. Let us learn the obvious lesson,
to do nothing to provoke such a calamity. It is only when resisted and
dishonoured that the Spirit of God departs--only when He is driven away.
Oh, beware of everything that grieves Him--everything that interferes
with His gracious action on your souls. Beware of all that would lead
God to say, "I will go and return to My place, till they acknowledge
their offence and seek My face." Let our prayer be the cry of
David:--"Cast me not away from Thy presence, and take not Thy Holy
Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation, and uphold me
with Thy free Spirit."