12. The Ark in the Battlefield; or, God's Presence Forgotten

Chapter 12 - The Ark in the Battlefield; or, God’s Presence Forgotten THE last year of Eli’s life was disturbed by the renewal of warfare. The Philistines had again begun to vex Israel, and it had become needful that active measures should be taken to stay their inroads. The Hebrew army went out to meet them, and pitched their tents in a place which, in after times, obtained the name of "Ebenezer." The Philistines, who were encamped at Aphek, "put themselves in array" against the op­posing force, and gained a decided victory. 1 Sam. iv. There was little cause for the elders of Israel to ask, "Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines?" Had they allowed conscience to utter its testimony, it would have said, "Have ye not procured this unto yourselves, in that ye have forsaken the Lord your God?" Without instituting any thorough, earnest inquiry, as to the true cause of their discomfiture, they set themselves to frame an expedient for the re-establishment of their martial fame. "Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies." In taking this step they were guilty of two evils:---first, of presumption, in removing the ark without authority from the place where God had set his name; and secondly, of superstition, in regarding the ark as though it were a miraculous ensign, and had a kind of magical power, thus making it "Their talisman, their charm, their boasted pledge of safety and success,"

It is manifest that they associated with it no confidence in the power of Him whose presence it tokened. Their expectation was that "it" would rescue them, and that it would, therefore, accomplish for them that which, in its absence, God had shown him­self unwilling to effect. They mistook the symbol for the thing symbolized. The misjudged scheme was, nevertheless, generally approved; and "the people sent to Shiloh," not to consult the prophet, but to execute that which they had devised, and to "bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of Hosts, which dwelt between the cherubims." Eli thought the measure ill advised; and when the feeble remonstrances which he doubtless made, were overruled, he still distrusted the working of it; "his heart trembled for the ark of God." Hophni and Phinehas, probably glad to have such an excuse for participating in the excitements of a martial life, whose eventful stir better suited their minds than the quiet and sacred occupa­tions of their calm retreat at Shiloh, fulfilled their duty as guardians of the ark, and re­paired to the scene of action. The looked-for arrival awoke exceeding joy: "all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again." The attention of the Philistines was attracted, and the tidings filled them with sore alarm. The comments which they made, on being informed of what the Israelites had done, betray the confused notions that prevailed in their midst. "God is come into the camp," said they, as though His presence were limited to the dimensions of that narrow chest. "Who shall deliver us out of the hands of these mighty gods?" as though the Israelites, like other nations, adored a plurality of divine beings. "These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues," as though the ark had existed in the days of the Hebrew thraldom. "The gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness," as though Pharaoh and his host had followed the people in their wanderings from station to station. We cannot wonder at these errors on the part of untaught heathens, when we see what groveling ideas were entertained by such as had among them a revelation of God’s will. The descendants of Abraham well knew, that God had wrought mighty deeds for their ancestors, long ere the ark had been fashioned; and they might have recollected that their fathers, with that ark in sight, had been warned of the curse which Jehovah’s power could inflict on such as turned away from His service and His fear. Strong, however, in their vain confidence, they renewed the combat; but only to ex­perience a new calamity. "Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent," while the slaughter was more than seven times as great as in the preceding engagement. Nor was this all. Hophni and Phinehas were slain; and, worse still, "the ark of God was taken." The" Chaldee Paraphrast" records a tradition, that Goliath himself was the warrior who gained this trophy; which, if a mere fable, yet demonstrates the unwillingness of the Jewish commentators to believe that the greatest of Israel’s national treasures had been yielded to a less valiant captor. The mournful state of the desolated Shiloh may be better imagined than described; The messenger, with his clothes rent and earth upon his head---the wailing of the inhabitants---the intense emotion which proved fatal to the anxious, watching Eli---the dying words of his son’s wife, as she named her new-born son "Ichabod," saying, "The glory is de­parted from Israel, for the ark of God is taken," are the successive hints which por­tray in outline a deep and wide-spread grief. Truly, the glory had departed, departed as an evidence of the Divine displeasure. It was because "God was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel," that he "delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand; he gave His people over also unto the sword, and was wroth with His inheritance: the fire," a fitting emblem of destructive war, "consumed their young men," and, therefore, "their maidens were not given in marriage: their priests fell by the sword, and their widows," unable to survive the sad intelligence, or forgetful of their personal bereavement in the greater public loss, "made no lamentation." Psalms 78:59-64. The chastisement fully answered to the crime. It was suitable; for the very object in which the people had placed a false trust, was that of which they deplored the loss. And it was likely to be profitable; for it was calculated to teach them, that the ark was of value, not for its own sake, but for the sake of Him to whose earthly residence it testified. The error of Israel is one to which the human heart is ever prone. Nothing is easier than to lose sight of God in those very means of grace whereby He has in time past mani­fested Himself to our souls. Aptness to walk by sight rather than by faith, to be swayed more by the external and showy than by what is inward and unostentatious, tends to make us value the material above the spiritual. We think more of the form, than of the substance; more of the sign, than of the thing signified; more of the golden conduit, than of the pure water which it conveys. In such a state of mind, we think more of Zion, than of Zion’s God; more of the preaching itself, than of the truth preached; we look upon the rite of baptism, either as a passport to heaven, or else simply as a rite which betokens admis­sion into the ranks of discipleship, while oblivious of the important doctrine it is designed to shadow forth; we partake of the sacramental elements, and fail to "discern the Lord’s body." But when we thus withdraw our confidence from the Most High, to repose it in observances, and institutions, and creeds, and sanctuaries, then does He write a sentence of death upon them all.

It has been well said, "that our best maxims, our dearest heir-looms, are worthless and dead, if they do not bear witness of the liv­ing God;" and that He "pours contempt upon the best devices, upon those which bear most the stamp of His own wisdom, when they exalt themselves against Him." Hence the secret of so many golden candlesticks removed---so many burning and shining lights extinguished---so many Sabbaths mourned as profitless ­so many ordinances found unrefreshing---so many lamentations poured out over the hiding of Jehovah’s face. What was said of the Jewish church in reference to earthly bless­ings, may often be said of us in respect of our spiritual privileges: "She did not know," (or consider,)" that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold;" and often, therefore, is it needful that a correction overtake us, similar to that which was threatened against her;---"therefore will I return, and take away my corn, and my wine, and my wool, and my flax." The Lord is "a jealous God," and "will not give His glory to another." Let it not be ours to provoke His departure. Let us never be con­tent to enter the banqueting house, unless His banner over us be love. Let us not dream, that we can be satisfied with "the garden of lilies" and the "bed of spices," unless our "beloved" is there. As it had been better, far better, for Israel to have had Jehovah’s presence without the ark, than the ark without the favor of their God, even so it would be infinitely better for us to be ex­cluded from sanctuary services, and enjoy communion with God in private, than to go with the multitude that keep holy day, and yet be deprived of a sanctuary blessing. "The means of grace," as old divines used to say, "are not so precious, as grace by the means." While, therefore, we guard against underrating them on the one hand, let us he equally on our guard lest, on the other hand, we overvalue them. Let us learn to estimate them at their true worth; precious, as God’s appointments; precious, as the earthen vessels through which the living water is outpoured; but valueless, apart from His presence, and unreplenished by the streams of His grace.

"In vain is every outward rite, Unless Almighty grace be given; Naught save the Spirit’s life and light Can fit a sinner’s soul for heaven."