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The priorities of God’s love - in 1 Samuel 4 - 7

We have learned in our first two studies in Samuel how God designed from the beginning that man would be honoured above all creatures by giving us as family to His Son who is our King and High Priest. That is how much God cares about us. We have a great and sure hope, but how does it all affect our living now?

As a background to our study today can we note the absolute character of God’s love as pledged to Israel in the Old Testament, and into the benefit of which we are brought (Romans 11).

If God loves us so much why do things not work out the way we want them to, even in the work that we seek to do for God? When things go wrong, does it mean that God is growing cold to us?

In today’s study we will discover the strange lesson that God loves us so much that He will even fight against us, because our relationship with Him matters more to Him than any work for Him that we might do. God wants us to know and experience His love and care for us every day. Sometimes in order to bring us to the place where He can bless us God may even have to show hostility to us. The study covers chapters 4 – 7 of 1 Samuel and is centred around two battles at two places called Ebenezer and what happened in the twenty odd years between

The study contains three units –

1. Defeat 3:19 – 4::22
2. Judgement 5:1 – 7:2
3. Victory 7:3 -14

1. Defeat

^{1SA 3:19} Thus Samuel grew and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fail. ²⁰ And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was confirmed as a prophet of the LORD. ²¹ And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, because the LORD revealed Himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

^{1SA 4:1} Thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to meet the Philistines in battle and camped beside Ebenezer while the Philistines camped in Aphek.

It is wonderful when the people of God hear the word of God, and the Lord is seen in their midst. It is beautiful when as individuals we can hear the voice of God to us, and discover the presence of God in our lives. The story seems to be starting well. And the nation is engaged in the work of God, fighting against the enemies of the Lord.

Yet the chapter ends disastrously.

^{1SA 4:19} Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas' wife, was pregnant and about to give birth; and when she heard the news that the ark of God was taken and that her father-in-law and her husband had died, she kneeled down and gave birth, for her pains came upon her. ²⁰ And about the time of her death the women who stood by her said to her, "Do not be afraid, for you have given birth to a son." But she did not answer or pay attention. ²¹ And she called the boy Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel," because the ark of God was taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband. ²² And she said, "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God was taken."

Within the space of a few days, the nation has gone from receiving the word of God, and rejoicing at the presence of God, to discovering that the glory of God, the active fellowship of God is gone.

Israel first became aware that they had a problem when something did not go the way that they had expected.

^{1SA 4:2} And the Philistines drew up in battle array to meet Israel. When the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines who killed about four thousand men on the battlefield.

The defeat in battle comes as a jolt. It is not certain how many were actually killed in this battle. The term ‘thousand’ may be a reference to a military unit as in ‘company’ or ‘squad’. The detail is not the significant point however. It is the fact of the defeat. After all, the nation is engaged on the Lord’s work. So what should they do now?

^{1SA 4:3} When the people came into the camp, the elders of Israel said, "Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us take to ourselves from Shiloh the ark of the covenant of the LORD, that it may come among us and deliver us from the power of our enemies." ⁴ So the people sent to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts who sits above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

So their question became – ‘How can we make sure that the Lord knows which side He is supposed to be on?’ They sought something to compel God to help them and not their enemies. Possibly they searched the ancient records and came upon the story of the conquest of Jericho, and read how the Ark featured in the victory over that city. In any event they decide to take (the word is aggressive) to themselves the Ark. And so the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas brought the Ark to the camp.

^{1SA 4:5} And it happened as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, that all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth resounded. ⁶ And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, "What does the noise 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 And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, "God has come into the camp." And they said, "Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. ⁸ "Woe to us! Who shall deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who smote the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. ⁹ "Take courage and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews, as they have been slaves to you; therefore, be men and fight." ¹⁰ So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent, and the slaughter was very great; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. ¹¹ And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.

This was not the way that it was supposed to happen. The presence of the Ark in the camp of Israel inspired, not Israel but the Philistines. And the Ark containing the tablets written on by the very finger of God – the embodiment of God’s law, and the assurance of God’s presence, was again ‘taken’, but this time by the enemy. What is God doing? We might however have been alerted to trouble looming when we read of the involvement of Hophni and Phinehas, because twice in chapters 2 and 3 God has made it clear that He had repudiated the service of the sons of Eli. God will not prosper his people if there is sin or evil in the camp.

When the news was brought back to Shiloh, the shock killed Eli and threw his daughter-in-law into the premature and fatal labour that gave birth to Ichabod, exclaiming that the glory had departed.

It could have been worse. At least she knew that the glory had gone. It is sadly possible for us to lose the reality of the Lord in our lives, and to be unaware of it. Others may see it, but we may be blind to our true plight, as was Samson in Judges 16:20 where we are told that he did not know that the Lord had departed from him.

Nevertheless the situation was bleak. The nation was without the presence or glory of God, and there is no indication that they even appreciated why God had fought for their enemies. What will happen to God’s work now? Has God not damaged His own reputation as well? Surely the Philistines and all the nations around will be convinced that their gods are superior to the God of Israel.

2. Judgement

When we read on into chapter 5 we discover that the Philistines did indeed draw the conclusion that their god was greater than the God of Israel. However strange things began to happen.

^{1SA 5:1} Now the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. ² Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. ³ When the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again. ⁴ But when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD. And the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. …

^{1SA 5:6} Now the hand of the LORD was heavy on the Ashdodites, and He ravaged them and smote them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territories. ⁷ When the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, "The ark of the God of Israel must not remain with us, for His hand is severe on us and on Dagon our god." ⁸ So they sent and gathered all the lords of the Philistines to them and said, "What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel?" And they said, "Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Gath." … ⁹ And … the hand of the LORD was against the city … ¹⁰ So they sent the ark of God to Ekron. … ¹¹ They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines and said, "Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it return to its own place, that it may not kill us and our people."

The Philistine’s idol (Dagon) was broken and prostrated before the ark. The God of Israel showed that He is more powerful than a stone idol, and that He can take care of His own reputation. The story almost reduces to comedy when the Philistines realised that the God of Israel was alive, so they played a sinister game of ‘pass the Ark’, between their cities.

God did not need to act through Israel to preserve or display His glory. God also brought His judgement on the Philistine people until they knew that the God of Israel was not their conquest. They now knew that Israel had not been defeated because of a failure of the power of God. Eventually they had suffered enough.

^{1SA 6:1} Now the ark of the LORD had been in the country of the Philistines seven months. ² And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, "What shall we do with the ark of the LORD? Tell us how we shall send it to its place." ³ And they said, "If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it empty; but you shall surely return to Him a guilt offering. Then you shall be healed and it shall be known to you why His hand is not removed from you." … ⁶ "Why then do you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? When He had severely dealt with them, did they not allow the people to go, and they departed? ⁷ "Now therefore take and prepare a new cart and two milch cows on which there has never been a yoke; and hitch the cows to the cart and take their calves home, away from them. ⁸ "And take the ark of the LORD and place it on the cart; and put the articles of gold which you return to Him as a guilt offering in a box by its side. Then send it away that it may go. 9 "And watch, if it goes up by the way of its own territory to Beth-shemesh, then He has done us this great evil. But if not, then we shall know that it was not His hand that struck us; it happened to us by chance."

The Philistines were no fools. The found two cows that had young calves, removed the calves away from the mothers, hitched the cows to a wagon containing the Ark and their goodwill offering and left them to choose their own path. If the cows went back to their calves then obviously what had happened to them had nothing to do with the Ark. But if the God of Israel was punishing them for taking the Ark then God will direct the cows home to Israel.

^{1SA 6:10} Then the men did so, and took two milch cows and hitched them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home. ¹¹ And they put the ark of the LORD on the cart, and the box with the golden mice and the likenesses of their tumors. ¹² And the cows took the straight way in the direction of Beth-shemesh; they went along the highway, lowing as they went, and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. And the lords of the Philistines followed them to the border of Beth-shemesh. ¹³ Now the people of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat harvest in the valley, and they raised their eyes and saw the ark and were glad to see it. ¹⁴ And the cart came into the field of Joshua the Beth-shemite and stood there where there was a large stone; and they split the wood of the cart and offered the cows as a burnt offering to the LORD. ¹⁵ And the Levites took down the ark of the LORD and the box that was with it, in which were the articles of gold, and put them on the large stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrificed sacrifices that day to the LORD. ¹⁶ And when the five lords of the Philistines saw it, they returned to Ekron that day.

When God directed the cows straight to the Israelite town of Bethshemesh, it confirmed to the Philistines that God had indeed been judging them for their seizure of the Ark.

We should now observe that the town of Bethshemesh was a fitting destination for the Ark because we learn from Joshua 21:16 that Bethshemesh was one of the cities that was given to the Levites, and the Levites were the tribe that were entrusted with the care and safekeeping of the tabernacle and its furnishings. In a very particular sense the Ark has come home.

But again disaster strikes.

^{1SA 6:19} And He struck down some of the men of Beth-shemesh because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck down of all the people, 50,070 men, and the people mourned because the LORD had struck the people with a great slaughter.

There is probably some textual corruption in this verse and the more likely number may be 70 (as RSV), which better fits the description of ‘some of the people’. In any event the Lord was displeased with the inhabitants of Bethshemesh, because of the way they behaved regarding the Ark.

Thus when God showed His disapproval of their conduct they behaved just like the Philistines had and play ‘pass the Ark’. So they sent off to the people of another city - Kiriath-jearim, and said – ‘The Ark has come back – you come and take it’.

^{1SA 6: 20} And the men of Beth-shemesh said, "Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? And to whom shall He go up from us?" ²¹ So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim, saying, "The Philistines have brought back the ark of the LORD; come down and take it up to you."

^{1SA 7:1} And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took the ark of the LORD and brought it into the house of Abinadab on the hill, and consecrated Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD. ² And it came about from the day that the ark remained at Kiriath-jearim that the time was long, for it was twenty years; and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.

There is heavy irony in the language. The men of Bethshemesh, Levites, custodians of the things belonging to the tabernacle, declare Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? They pay lip service to God’s glory, but are only concerned to shift the spotlight of God’s glory off them as quickly as they can.

Just consider, the people to whom the charge of the tabernacle and all its equipment was given turn to someone else and say ‘Oh by the way the Ark has come here, but it is too holy for us to keep, you had better come and get it and take care of it’. That the inhabitants of Kiriath-jearim were able to take the Ark and care for it for decades suggests that they were of a more ‘holy’ disposition, able to live with the presence of God in their midst.

But just as Bethshemesh was a special city, so also was Kiriath-jearim. If we look at Joshua 9:17 we discover that Kiriath-jearim was in fact one of the cities belonging to the Gibeonites. The Gibeonites were one of the peoples of the land of Canaan whom Joshua had been instructed to destroy. Their story is told in Joshua 9, where by a trick they persuaded Joshua and the people of Israel to enter into a treaty with them. They did so however because they recognised that God was alive and real. When Joshua discovered who they were there was consternation, and the Gibeonites were sentenced to perform menial and degrading work.

^{JOS 9:22} Then Joshua called for them and spoke to them, saying, "Why have you deceived us, saying, `We are very far from you,' when you are living within our land? ²³ "Now therefore, you are cursed, and you shall never cease being slaves, both hewers of wood and drawers of water for the house of my God."

The Gibeonites were determined to enter into a relationship with this God at any cost, and so they accepted the menial service gladly. In fact the service that they were assigned to (‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’) was the lowliest of ‘women’s work’. If this had been England in the nineteenth century they would have been assigned to the work of the fourth under laundry maid, from whose task we derive the derogatory term ‘scrubber’. So the Gibeonites (described in Joshua 10:2 as like royalty) are reduced to being ‘scrubbers’ – ‘for the house of the Lord’.

But now look at what has happened – The Ark came to a city of Levites, who call for someone more holy to receive it and the Gibeonites answer the call. And God blesses the Canaanite city with His presence for a very long period, until King David takes the Ark to Jerusalem in 2 Samuel 6. Has the world turned upside down?

We might recall that we read in our last study, in the middle of the judgement on the house of Eli, God had declared –

^{1SA 2: 30 …} those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me will be lightly esteemed.

The nation of Israel had not honoured God. They had not valued God, or a relationship with Him. They had treated God as merely useful to them in the course that they were engaged upon. They sought to ‘harness the power of God’ and God defeated them before their enemies. The Levites of Bethshemesh did not honour God. They treated God as a curiosity, an object of debate or study, and God slew many of them. The Gibeonites on the other hand honoured God in that they were serious about entering into a relationship with God, and they did not care what it cost. They valued a relationship with God above everything else.

What is important is not the plans we have to do things for God (like the nation fighting the enemies of God), or how spiritually elevated we appear to be (like the Levites of Bethshemesh). What matters is how we honour God. What value do we put on our relationship to Him and fellowship with Him? For the Gibeonites this was the only thing that mattered and true to His word, God honoured them.

3. Victory

The story in 1 Samuel now brings us to the second battle at another Ebenezer probably over twenty years later, because Samuel is now grown up. This time there is no question of trying to bring the Ark to the battle, because that is still being cared for by the Gibeonites.

^{1SA 7:3} Then Samuel spoke to all the house of Israel, saying, "If you return to the LORD with all your heart, remove the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your hearts to the LORD and serve Him alone; and He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines." ⁴ So the sons of Israel removed the Baals and the Ashtaroth and served the LORD alone.

^{1SA 7:5} Then Samuel said, "Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you." ⁶ And they gathered to Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah.

God is the God who showed to Israel and to the Philistines that He is well able to take care of His own honour, and the conduct of the work is in His hands. The preparation for service for Israel and for us is the preparation of the heart. Make the Lord the most important priority of our hearts. If our zeal is not for the fellowship of the Lord then we are fooling ourselves when we think that we are going to perform the Lord’s work.

^{1SA 7:7} Now when the Philistines heard that the sons of Israel had gathered to Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the sons of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. ⁸ Then the sons of Israel said to Samuel, "Do not cease to cry to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines." ⁹ And Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it for a whole burnt offering to the LORD; and Samuel cried to the LORD for Israel and the LORD answered him. ¹⁰ Now Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, and the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day against the Philistines and confused them, so that they were routed before Israel. ¹¹ And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and struck them down as far as below Beth-car.

How different is the attitude of the people this time. They appreciated that unless God chooses to be in the midst of them, then everything is hopeless. This time they cast themselves upon God. And God responded.

^{1SA 7:12} Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." ¹³ So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. ¹⁴ And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.

The conclusion to the study is in the utterance of Samuel at the stone of Ebenezer -"Thus far the LORD has helped us." It is not the same as the expression ‘so far so good’. That might be said of a man creeping across thin ice which might break at any moment and plunge him into a freezing torrent. It is rather that as we look back through our lives we can see that the Lord gave help yesterday, and the day before, when we came in dependence to Him.

God had shown Israel that he is able to act effectively in any situation. He had helped them ‘thus far’. But yesterday’s help was for yesterday, and just as we cannot dine again today on yesterday’s food, so we need to come each day to the Lord in full dependence on him for today. Just because the Lord helped or fed me yesterday does not mean that I can rest on my laurels and manage without His help today. If I am to know the Lord’s hand in my life today, I must let the Lord be sovereign today.

Let us take one day at a time, and learn that ‘thus far the Lord has helped us’, and submit today to Him. If we honour God by making His fellowship our main goal, and by treasuring our living relationship with Him as most precious, making Jesus sovereign, then He will share Himself, and what He is doing, today, with us. It’s no use saying that we have a King/High Priest, if we don’t let Him rule, minister, lead, today and each day.

Conclusion

God loves us so much that He wants the very best for us, and the very best is living fellowship with Him. The value of such fellowship is so great that if we allow ourselves to be sidetracked or diverted God will even fight against us in order to bring us to our stone of Ebenezer.

Crossroads 16.03.03 - DAB