1 Samuel 4:1–11

It seems that it was Israel who provoked the battle. There was probably an armed truce between them. Here, with no word of command from God, and no apparent provocation from the Philistines, they go out to fight them. They took the offensive without God's direction and without His support, and they were made to smart for it.

They camp near Eben-ezer, which means "the stone of help." Clearly they counted on God's help — but apart from His word, and apart from any recognition of His rights among His people. The Philistines camp in Aphek, which means "restraint." Perhaps this shows they were not as self-confident as Israel. Yet they gained a decisive victory, with a great slaughter of 4,000 men.

The low condition of the people of God becomes the occasion for their enemies to gain power over them. The particular enemy at this point was the Philistine within the land. Enemies outside surrounded the people of Israel — the Egyptians, Syrians and others. But they also had enemies inside their borders, and the most persistent of these were the Philistines. It is the enemy inside the circle of God's people who always comes to the front when the people of God are in a low condition. Opposition from outside may be the result of a bright testimony. But in every age corruption from inside has always been the result of a low spiritual condition.

Here Israel was being made to realise the curse of a broken law. See Deuteronomy 28:25. Their disobedience had left them weak and powerless, so they could not stand before their enemies.

Self-sufficiency is always the sign that self-judgment is missing. God's people often go out to fight a spiritual enemy in a state of soul that makes victory impossible — and it would really compromise God's honour to give them victory then. That is why self-judgment must come first, before there can be true warfare against enemies outside. But one defeat is not enough to teach the people their need and the folly of their course. Four thousand fall before the enemy. This should have brought them on their faces in confession and prayer, to learn the reason for this defeat. Had they waited on God, they would soon have learned it, and would surely have been spared the further loss of the next battle.

Was God's hand shortened, so that it could not save? Was His ear heavy, so that it could not hear? No. Israel's sins had come between them and their God, and had hidden His face from them, so that He would not hear (Isaiah 59:1-2). This became clear twenty years later, on that same battlefield, when it was given the name Ebenezer (1 Samuel 7:12); there the Lord gave Israel a decisive victory that ended the forty years of Philistine oppression. The first time, they trusted in the presence of the ark, without confession and without sacrifice. They were shamefully defeated. The second time, confession was made and the nursing lamb offered — the death of Christ brought in remembrance before God. Then the Lord thundered with a great thunder against the Philistines.

It is very clear from these words that the elders were not in their right place. The word "why" would never have dropped from their lips had they realised their moral condition. They would have known only too well why it was. There was shameful sin among them — the vile conduct of Hophni and Phinehas.

After the first loss of four thousand, the elders could have become exercised before the Lord, as the warrior Joshua was. Had they cried to God earnestly to know the cause, they might have been spared the second and worse defeat. But no. Once the opening skirmish had ended in disaster they only say, "Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?" It was little more than a pious expression, and no searching of heart followed.

Israel's leaders had a remedy. "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." Mark the word "it." It is true that the ark went before them when they crossed the Jordan. It also went with them when they marched round the walls of Jericho. But was it the ark that worked for them on those occasions, or was it God? God was now forgotten, and a mere symbol had taken His place in their wayward minds. The ark was to them a mere charm or mascot.

They could appeal to their history and argue that precedent was on their side. Did not the ark lead them to victory in the days of Joshua, when the city of Jericho fell before Israel? One thing, however, they forgot, and it was their undoing. They overlooked the majesty and holiness of God. He will not and cannot tolerate wrongdoing in His enemies, still less among His people... The people who used the ark in Joshua's day were a people in whom the flesh was judged, and who were under the leadership of the Captain of the Lord's host.

It is easy for man's depraved heart to appeal to examples in Scripture to justify unauthorised practices. This happens when people take those scriptures out of their connection and misapply them. After they had settled in the land, there was no authority whatever to remove the ark from its appointed resting place; in fact it was forbidden. God's presence, symbolised by the ark, was not to come to them — they were to go to it!

What a miserable ground of confidence! Not a word about the Lord Himself. They did not think of Him as the source of their strength; they did not make Him their shield and defence. No — they trusted in the ark, and vainly imagined that it could save them. How useless! How could it help them at all when the presence of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, was not with it? Impossible! He was no longer there. He had been grieved away by their unconfessed and unjudged sin, and no symbol or ordinance could ever take His place.

It is very sad when God's people put their trust in the symbols of God's presence rather than in God Himself. So it was here; and so it was later, just before Judah were taken captive by the king of Babylon. Here the people thought they were perfectly safe because the ark was in the camp. Later they thought the enemy could not overthrow them because they had the temple in Jerusalem. They trusted in the temple, not in God.

The mercy-seat, with the ark upon which it rests, is the throne of Him who has taken His place in the midst of His people. He is the God who dwells between the cherubim, and appears in the cloud upon the mercy-seat.

The elders knew well how morally corrupt these young men were. Yet they were blind to one thing: the living God could never approve of these men publicly identifying with the ark. We are reminded here that it was "the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim." That very expression insists on the absolute holiness of God.

The Israelites put their confidence in the ark. They had misunderstood, or wrongly applied, what Moses said when Israel set out on their wilderness journeys: "And whenever the ark set out, Moses said, 'Arise, O LORD, and let your enemies be scattered, and let those who hate you flee before you.' And when it rested, he said, 'Return, O LORD, to the ten thousand thousands of Israel'" (Num. 10:35-36). Man's sinful heart easily appeals to Scripture examples to justify practices God never authorised. It lifts those Scriptures out of their setting and so misapplies them. Once Israel had settled in the land, no authority whatever allowed them to move the ark from its resting-place. God had in fact forbidden it (see Deut. 12:5, 11). God's presence, pictured by the ark, was not to come to them. They were to go to it!

It never crosses their mind to come before God and learn from Him why He had abandoned His people. They pull God to themselves, so to speak. You can see the same thing today. Two Christianized nations fight against one another and each side says: God must be with us.

What a fearful condition of things! The ark of God, in the company of ungodly men! Their wickedness was about to bring down on the whole nation the just judgement of a holy and righteous God. Nothing is more dreadful, nothing more offensive to God, than the daring attempt to tie His name and His truth to wickedness. Moral evil is bad enough in any circumstances. But to mix moral evil with the name and service of Him who is holy and true is the very highest and darkest form of wickedness. It can only bring down the heavy judgement of God… That one sentence, "Hophni and Phinehas were there with the ark of the covenant of God," sums up in a few words the terrible picture of Israel's moral condition.

They brought the ark of the covenant into the camp. They looked not to God, but to a symbol, to save them. They looked to outward orthodoxy and ignored moral condition.

They received it with wild shouts of triumph… The same superstitious fear, the opposite of faith, worked in both camps. It produced panic in the Philistines and short-lived confidence in the Israelites. In both it was total ignorance and unbelief.

The God who sits between the cherubim lets Israel lead Him, but He comes as Judge rather than Deliverer. He judges everything: first the priests, then the people, and last their enemies, after His glory has left Israel.

Israel brings the ark into the camp and receives it with "a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded." The great shout has a triumphant sound and the appearance of power. But in reality it only shows their lack of faith on the one hand, and their merely human confidence on the other. Faith moves quietly and moral power makes no noise.

All this was very impressive, but it was hollow. They ought to have known themselves much better than to make such an empty show. Their shout of triumph fitted badly with their low moral condition in God's sight. Those who know least of themselves always make the highest claims and take the highest position.

This was not a shout commanded by the Lord, as when the armies of the Lord marched round Jericho. It came from themselves, as they imagined the success of their own schemes. It was not the shout of obedience or of confidence in the Lord, but of confidence in their own plans.

They made two mistakes: they thought they could command the Lord's presence through the symbol of the ark, and they depended on the ark instead of on the living God... Poor deluded people! They did not know the holiness of their God. They were blind to the way His name was dishonoured through Hophni and Phinehas. So they imagined that God would now step in for them, and they shouted, expecting victory over their enemies... What instruction for God's people in every age — telling everyone who has ears to hear that the Lord is with them, as He said to Asa through Azariah, only while they are "with Him." (2 Chron. 15:1-2.) Without meeting that condition they will be completely powerless before the enemy, and exposed to certain disaster.

The people appear to give God's power great honour. When the ark comes into the camp they raise such a shout that "the earth resounded." In the same way the Christian world uses Christ's name to exalt itself while its own wrongdoing goes unjudged. The outward sign of God's presence is enough for this system, which boasts: We have the ark. Israel thinks that God cannot abandon them without exposing Himself to shame. But God does just that. He exposes Himself to shame, and lets the world seem to conquer Him.

There is no true power for the believer apart from obedience to God's word. There is no true joy or peace apart from subjection, and no lasting rest without submission to God's will as revealed in Scripture. There were great shouts in the camp when the ark arrived... But it was not the sound of shouting for victory, nor was the shout of a king among them. It was the expression of a vain and fatal confidence. There was more shouting than real or effective fighting. It was much easier to shout than to fight. In the same way today, it is easier to get excited at big meetings, stirring talks and thrilling music than to live a life devoted to God.

What a contrast between Israel's boastful shout in 1 Sam. 4 and the Lord's thunder in 1 Sam. 7! The first was human pretension; the second, divine power. Humiliating defeat followed the first at once; splendid triumph followed the second... When the earth rang with Israel's pretentious shout, they could take notice of that. Men of the world can understand and appreciate self-assertion and self-confidence; but these are the very things that shut God out. On the other hand, a broken heart, a contrite spirit, a lowly mind, are His delight... The fullness of God always waits on an empty vessel.

Their fear rested on a right sense of what the ark truly meant, for they said, "God is come into the camp." This was the terrible effect on the people of God of letting unholiness be linked with the ark of God. Sin had so hardened them that they had become less sensitive to the presence of God than their enemies. They had said of the ark, "When it comes among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies" (v. 3). When the ark did come into their midst, their enemies rightly said, "God is come" (v. 7).

Naturally they supposed the shout of triumph rested on something real. They did not see what lay beneath the surface. They did not understand what it meant that the priesthood was defiled, the sacrifice despised, the temple dishonoured. They saw the outward symbol and imagined that power went with it. So they were afraid. How little they knew that their fear and Israel's triumph were alike groundless.

Exactly the same superstitious fear was at work in both camps. It is the opposite of faith. It produced panic in the Philistines and short-lived confidence in the Israelites. In both it was total ignorance and unbelief.

The Philistines said, "God is come into the camp." They at once reminded themselves how Israel's mighty God had broken the power of Egypt. Then they steeled themselves to fight as they had never fought before. But by their own admission they were now going to fight God! In their superstitious ignorance they mistook a symbol for God Himself! Only Israel's frightful condition explains the second victory... Philistine defiance would have got what it deserved, if God's own people had not needed to be taught a terrible lesson.

In the same way, the Christian world uses Christ's name to exalt itself while its own sin goes unjudged. The outward sign of God's presence is enough for this system, which boasts: We have the ark. Israel thinks that God cannot abandon them without exposing Himself to shame. But God does exactly this: He exposes Himself to shame; He lets the world appear to conquer Him.

In 1 Samuel 4:7, when their conscience was still untouched, Israel was unafraid, and it was the Philistines who were full of fear. Now, having experienced their weakness, the people are terrified, for they do not yet have the assurance that God is for them. In one sense this fear is no doubt wretched, but it is good to see it on the path of restoration. Isn't this better than the "great shout" Israel had raised before, that had made the earth tremble?

The Philistines hear that Israel has shouted so loudly because the ark had come into the camp, and their fear grows. They were idolaters, and mere formal religion was very familiar to them. They assume that the ark was Israel's god, which is more or less what Israel thought at this time. They are very worried, because Israel had not brought the ark into battle against the Philistines before, at least since entering the land. They remember that God — whom they call "gods" — had sent many plagues on Egypt. But they did not know that the ark did not even exist at that time!

They would probably show the ark some superstitious reverence. The nations never changed their gods, as foolish Israel did, but they were quite willing to add extra ones. They may have looked on the two cherubim, whose outstretched wings overshadow the mercy seat of the ark, as a pair of gods. After all, they say here, "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." They seem to mix up the mighty acts God had done in Egypt with those in the wilderness.

On the words about the plagues "in the wilderness," Wellhausen, the well known critic, remarks: "Either an excusable inaccuracy, or a copyist's slip." He meant that the Egyptians were not struck in the wilderness, but in their own land. However, Wellhausen did not see that the Philistines said this. They expressed their inaccurate knowledge of what had happened, and Samuel reports it as spoken by the Philistines.

Their fear rested on a true sense of what the ark meant, for they said, "God has come into the camp." This was the terrible effect on God's people of allowing unholiness to be linked with the ark of God. Sin had hardened them so much that they had become less sensitive to God's presence than their enemies were.

They naturally supposed that the shout of triumph was based on a reality. They did not see what lay beneath the surface. They did not understand what a defiled priesthood, a despised sacrifice and a desecrated temple meant. They saw the outward symbol and imagined that power went with it, so they were afraid. How little they knew that their fear and Israel's triumph were alike groundless.

It was exactly the same superstitious fear, the opposite of faith, that produced panic in the Philistines and short-lived confidence in the Israelites. In both it was total ignorance and unbelief.

The Philistines were filled with fear, for they thought that the mighty God who had struck the Egyptians had indeed come into the camp. But their fear stirred up their courage, and they fought. God used them as His sword of judgment, and they struck Israel with a great slaughter... What an instruction for God's people in all ages! It tells everyone who has ears to hear that the Lord is with them only while they are "with Him." That is what He said to King Asa through the prophet Azariah (2 Chron. 15:1-2).

They naturally assumed that the shout of triumph rested on something real. They did not see what was beneath the surface. They did not understand the meaning of a defiled priesthood, a despised sacrifice, a desecrated temple. They saw the outward symbol and imagined that power went with it, so they were afraid. How little they knew that their fear and Israel's triumph were both groundless.

The Philistines, like unbelieving Israel, look at the symbol of the Lord's presence instead of to the Lord Himself — whom they did not know. Their fear was only superstition, and they soon shake it off.

The Philistine need have no fear of the ark when polluted Israel brings it into camp as approval for their sin. Israel's condition was such that God could not defend them. At such a time, to fall back on the symbol of His presence was to call down judgment on themselves.

"Be strong! Be men" is all the men of the world can say to encourage one another. But the man of faith relies on the Lord, and says with the apostle, "For when I am weak, then I am strong." … God has said, "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the LORD" (Jer. 17:5).

Here was the resource of the Philistines — "be men." Israel could not do this. If sin kept them from drawing on God's resources, they were weaker than other men. Israel's only hope was in God. If God was not there, and it was only man against man, an Israelite was no match for a Philistine.

Some now want to make a bold stand against the unbelieving ministers in Christendom. They may say, "We have not served them." Have you not? … This present struggle will be no light matter. … Waving handkerchiefs, making speeches of uncertain sound, yes, shouting until the earth rings with the noise — none of it will win the battle.

The Philistines had good reason to fear the God of Israel, who had plagued the Egyptians so long before. Even so, they were still determined to "be strong," so that they would not become the servants of Israel. Little did they know the mind of God, for He would use them to chastise His people, then deal with them. Later He would do the same with the Assyrian. He would use him as the rod of His anger against a rebellious people, then punish the Assyrians, who thought they had been the scourge of Israel by their own power.

"And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again." How empty the shout! How hollow the boast! How worthless the pretension! Sadly, humiliating defeat followed, as it always must.

Israel found that they were beaten before the Philistines. So they thought of the ark of the Lord's covenant and throne, not as the emblem of His presence, but as a charm to rescue them from their enemies. There was a superstitious hope in the ark of the Lord, but no faith in Israel. It was no better than a lucky object, and they were no better than pagans in the way they used it. Where was the reverence for God that suited His people?

The Philistines need have no fear of the ark when a defiled Israel brings it into camp as a stamp of approval on their wrongdoing. Israel's condition was such that God could not defend them. In that state, to fall back on the symbol of His presence was to call down judgment on themselves. So it happened: the people of God fall, the ark passes into the hands of the enemy, and the two sons of Eli die.

It was enough for Eli the high priest to know that God would be no party to His own dishonour, least of all at the hands of His own people. The Philistines might be wrong to fear that simply bringing the ark onto the field would settle the fight. But the Israelites were a hundred times more guilty. They flattered themselves that the ark, brought in this way, must prove their deliverance.

If He is holy in the temple of Dagon, the idol must fall face down before Him. If that same holiness will strike the godless Philistine nation, it is no less intense toward His own people. In fact, as we well know, judgment will begin at the house of God. The prophet reminds the people that they alone as a nation had been known by God. That did not exempt them from punishment. Instead, it was the pledge that they would get it if needed: "Therefore I will punish you for your iniquities."

In the days of Joshua the ark had gone before the armed men round the walls of Jericho, until they fell. The soldiers of Israel in the days of Eli must have recalled that striking passage in their history. They ordered the ark's presence among them, only to suffer the most humiliating defeat they had ever known… Was it from lack of power that God did not give them the victory? No. Twenty years later, on the same battlefield at Ebenezer, God gave Israel a remarkable victory.

In the days of Eli the Israelites put their trust in the ark instead of in the Lord. In the last days of the kings of Judah the people put their trust in the temple instead of in God. In the same way, many today put their trust in belonging to a great religious system instead of in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have the form of godliness in their religious connections, but they deny its power. That power lies in a living link with the exalted Son of God.

Eli had sinned through his family, and on his family the judgment would come. His descendants would die in the prime of life. Hophni and Phinehas would die on the same day... The later history shows how solemnly these predictions came true. The Philistines killed Hophni and Phinehas in battle (1 Sam. 4:11). Sixty years later King Saul cut off Eli's descendants (1 Sam. 22:18). One hundred years after the prediction, King Solomon removed the last of Eli's house from the priesthood (1 Kings 2:27).

The people saw that the Philistines had beaten them. So they thought of the ark of the Lord's covenant and throne — not as the sign of His presence, but as a charm to rescue them from their enemies. They had a superstitious hope in the ark of the Lord, but no faith in Israel. It was no better than a good-luck token, and they used it no better than the heathen would... When people are in danger, few things come more naturally to the heart than using the Lord for themselves instead of trusting Him.

Israel's condition was such that God could not defend them. In that state, falling back on the symbol of His presence only called down judgment on themselves.

That one terrible fact — the ark of God in the house of Dagon — told the sad tale of Israel's complete failure and ruin. God must have reality, truth and holiness in those with whom He chooses to dwell. "Holiness befits your house, O LORD, forevermore." Having the Lord living among them was the highest privilege of all. But it demanded holiness. He could not connect His name with unjudged sin. Impossible. It would be a denial of His nature, and God cannot deny Himself.

The Philistines defeat them again. Hophni and Phinehas are killed and the ark is taken. Eli falls backward at the news and breaks his neck. Phinehas' wife, dying, gives her son a name that expresses the people's terrible condition. "And she named the child 'Ichabod,' saying, 'The glory has departed from Israel.'" The priesthood, as the link between God and Israel, had come to its final end.

God will be God, however His people may fail. Israel completely failed to guard the ark of His testimony, and let it pass into the hands of the Philistines. When all was lost in man's hand, the glory of God shone out in power and splendour. Dagon fell, and the Lord's hand made the whole land of the Philistines tremble. His presence was unbearable to them, and they tried to get rid of it as soon as possible.

In the days of Eli the Israelites trusted the ark instead of the Lord. In the last days of the kings of Judah the people trusted the temple instead of God. Today many trust their membership of a great religious system instead of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have the form of godliness in their religious associations, but deny the power of godliness — a living link with the exalted Son of God.