And what Samuel had said happened to all Israel. And Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Eben-ezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel; and the battle spread, and Israel was routed before the Philistines; and they slew in battle array in the field about four thousand men.
Israel goes out to fight the Philistines and camps at Ebenezer. In one day about four thousand Israelites fall. The account records no word from God sending them out, and it gives no reason for the loss. Commentators take up both questions.
Nothing in the account says God called this battle. Commentators point out who started it.
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.
Commentators read the name of each camp as a comment on the mood of that army.
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 Philistines are singled out from Israel's other opponents because of where they lived — not outside the land, but in it.
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.
The loss was not bad luck or the sign of a stronger army. Commentators trace it to a warning God gave in the law long before.
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.
Victory never depended on numbers alone. It depended on the state of the people going out to fight.
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.
Twenty years later Israel fought on the same ground, with the opposite result. What changed was not God's power but their condition.
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.
- Help presumed. They camped at "the stone of help." They counted on God's help, but not on His word or His rights among them.
- Help absent. No command from God sent them out. They attacked without His direction or His support, and they smarted for it.
- Help withheld for a reason. The defeat was the curse of a broken law at work. Their disobedience left them unable to stand before their enemies.
- Help misread. Four thousand dead should have put them on their faces in confession. Instead they trusted in the presence of the ark, and the next battle brought further loss.
- Help finally given. Twenty years later Israel stood on that same field. This time confession was made and the sacrifice offered. The Lord thundered against the Philistines — the same God, a changed people.