Last week in our study of 1 Samuel,
we saw that God had put His hand on Samuel to be a prophet. In chapter 3, verse 19, we saw,
and Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and he didn't let
none of his words fall to the ground. God was with Samuel. And he not only grew in years
in the Lord, and the Lord was with him, he didn't let any of
the words fall to the ground. He grew in years in stature and
in grace and goodness and in wisdom, knowledge and understanding,
both in natural and spiritual things. The Lord assisted him
in his service. and prospered him in all things.
And Samuel's words went forth as prophecy, as the rule of justice
and truth. You know, he was a spokesman
for God. He spoke the word of God. That's
nothing to take lightly. God did not fail to perform the
things that Samuel spoke. and he made all Israel to know
that he was a prophet of the Lord. Verse 20 of chapter three
says, and all Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, knew that
Samuel was established, that word means faithful, to be a
prophet of the Lord. Now, in 1 Samuel chapter four,
verse one, We read in the word of Samuel
came, marginal there, it says came to pass to all Israel. The word of the Lord was known,
the word of prophecy by Samuel concerning what befell Eli and
his family was spread throughout all the land. Everyone had heard
the prophecy that he gave to Eli. And what the Lord spoke
through Samuel began to come to pass in this war that we're
going to look at tonight between Israel and the Philistines. And
it would be the beginning of that prophecy and the fact that
Phinehas and Hophni would be healed. How many times have we
said that God means what He says and says what He means and means
what He says. Now in so many words, the word
of Samuel from the Lord to Eli would stir Israel up to go to
war with the Philistines. And this would in the providence
of God. bring about the punishment that
Samuel had prophesied concerning Eli's family. And because of
this, it seems obvious to me that Israel instigated this war,
though we're not told specifically. And what is clear, though, is
there's no evidence that Israel sought counsel for the Lord in
prayer. No evidence that they came to
Samuel and asked him to pray to the Lord on their behalf.
So I think that it's somewhat clear that Israel went out to
battle on their own here. And having no grief of the horrific
sin of the priesthood, they didn't have the blessing of the Lord
that would have assured their victory. And again, they did
what was right in their own eyes. You remember how many times we
read that in our study of judges? They didn't have the blessing
of the Lord. They didn't have his assurance of victory. And
again, they did what was right in their own eyes. Just 40 years
before, the entire nation of Israel had been in captivity
to the Philistines until Samson delivered them. They'd already
forgotten that they were in captivity because they didn't do what was
right in the sight of the Lord. They went without the Lord's
blessing. That's always an ingredient for disaster. Now they had a
true prophet, and yet they continued to do what they thought was right
without even considering what God thought. And you and I are
guilty of the same things. We do what we think is right
without praying. Many times we do what we think's
right without seeking Christ. We convince ourselves that what
we're doing is the Lord's will. We pray, we want an immediate
answer, and we don't wait on the Lord. People say they seek
the Lord's will, but in most cases, they simply do what they
want to. So now in the same state of disobedience,
Israel, without concern of God or His prophet, foolishly go
to battle with the Philistines. Verse one, now Israel went out
against the Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer,
and the Philistines pitched in Aphic. and the Philistines put
themselves in array against Israel. And when they joined battle,
Israel was smitten before the Philistines, and they slew of
the army in the field about 4,000 men." Now, I find it somewhat
interesting that Israel pitched their camp beside Ebenezer. As you'll see in the verses before
us tonight, Ebenezer was a place of great affliction. Here they
lose 4,000 men, and we'll see here in a moment that they lost
30,000. And it's a place of affliction. You know what the name of this
place is? Stone of Help. Stone of Help. But it'll be some
20 years later after Israel's defeat, that Samuel gonna lay
up stones as a memorial to Israel's eventual victory over the Philistines. Though at this time, this place
was not a stone of help, the name's not gonna change. The
memorial and the place will still mean that Christ, the solid rock
and the sure stone of foundation was their help, and he was. The
beginning of affliction, natural, spirit, or both, is often the
beginning of the chosen sinners crying out for help. I don't
think I've ever cried out for help unto the Lord as I have
when I was in time of affliction, time of trouble. And you who
trust in Christ have many times seen that affliction has been
the cause of your crying out to God for help. Why? Because God takes what seems
to be evil, what seems to be a horrific trial and affliction,
and makes it good. But for the moment, this painful
experience of losing these 34,000 men was a result of Israel's
misuse of the glorious things that picture the glory of Christ
and His work. and that being the misuse of
the offering, which pictures Christ's sacrifice and offering.
No good result ever, ever comes when Christ is not honored, glorified,
and sought for His will and purpose. Look to Leviticus chapter 26
with me, if you would please, verse 15. Word from the Lord here in Leviticus
26. Verse 15. There's always consequence
for sin. We've said that many times. Not
that the Lord won't forgive it, not that we aren't still His
children, but there's a consequence for sin. We reap what we sow. chapter 26 verse 15 and if you
shall despise my statutes or if your soul abhor my judgments
so that you will not do all my commandments but that you break
my covenant I will also do this unto you. I will even appoint
over you terror and consumption and the burning ague that shall
consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart. And you shall sow your
seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. And look at 17,
and I'll set my face against you. Who will? God. I'll set my face against you,
and you shall be slain before your enemies. that they that
hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when none
pursue with you. Look at John chapter five with
me. Verse 22. John five, verse 22. The Lord Jesus speaking says,
for the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son. That all men should honor the
Son, even as they honor the Father. And he that honoreth not the
Son, honoreth not the Father, which has sent me. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him
that sent me, hath everlasting life. and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Back in our
text in 1 Samuel 4, we see from verse 2 that when this battle
ensued, Israel was routed, losing 4,000 men. Then in verse 3, we
see that when Israel returned to camp, and this is such a picture
of us, they begin to blame their loss of those men and failure
in going to battle on God. And that's typical of all of
us by nature. We hold to our failures most
often as being someone else's fault. Adam did it, Eve did it,
and we do it. Look at the question the elders
asked when this particular battle of great loss was over, verse
three. And when the people were coming
to the camp, the elders of Israel said, wherefore hath the Lord
smitten us today before the Philistines? Or maybe better said, why did
the Lord do this to us? Why did the Lord allow this to
happen? You ever said that? Why did the
Lord allow this to happen? To judge the Lord had smitten
them was correct, and even to ask why was a legitimate question. However, the tone of this question
dripped with feelings of entitlement. After all, we are God's chosen
people. The question insinuates that
what happened shouldn't have happened. Why did this happen?
What transpired that should not have transpired the way that
it did? But they didn't even consider
their wicked and corrupt worship and their tolerance of an evil
priesthood. You remember what those two boys
did. And Eli allowed it. And I'm sure there were others
in on it, other priests. And that was the cause and the
source of their defeat. And it's the same today, friends.
Today, false modern day religion tells folks that if they accept
Jesus and give their hearts to God and attend religious activities,
no matter how corrupt they may be, all their troubles would
just magically disappear. Not so. Not so. In their question, there's not
even a hint of repentance or any recognition that the problem
was of their own making. They thought that God would bless
their endeavors no matter what they did. Not so. And what they do next is also
very typical of the ignorant that are steeped in religion.
They thought that they could simply do something religious
that would appease the Lord and return them to favor. No. They come up with the bright
idea in verse three to fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the
Lord out of Shiloh and bring it to their camp. They say, for
if it was with them in battle, it may save them out of their
enemy's hands. You know, my mother used to say,
and I'm sure yours did too, two wrongs don't make a right. Most
folks don't believe that they're wrong. They believe that they're
right. They just need to be more right.
The loss of 4,000 men was not that they had done wrong. They
didn't think that. They didn't think that's why
they were under the judgment of God. They thought they'd done
the right thing. Just weren't right enough. And the thought, the only thought
that their righteousness needed was just, we just need a little
personal boost. Just maybe the ark of the covenant
of the Lord would provide that boost for them. And men still
do the same thing today. They get involved with this ministry
and that ministry. They head up committees. By doing
so, they think they'll boost their spiritual worth and provide
more jewels in their crowns. Again, not so. Israel's next gross ignorance
was that they ascribed the saving power of God to an object. In verse 3, they said, 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. Did you notice they call the
God's ark here an it? They, with lack of confidence,
say, it may save us. It's worth a try. But only God
can deliver. Only God can save. Israel had
turned the Ark of the Covenant into nothing but a superstitious
artifact. Israel did the same thing with
the brazen serpent. And people do the same thing
today. I told you about the fellow that
thought he had the offering plate of Spurgeon, and they made an
idol out of it. Ridiculous. They would take that
which God declared to be His dwelling place in Shiloh that
represents the Lord Jesus Christ and move it to their camp. They
had made that which was ordained to be used in true worship and
they made it a token for religious victory. There's no victory apart. from all hope and trust being
in Shiloh. Our victory in Shiloh is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what that represented.
Jesus Christ is the power and salvation of God, and we don't
choose to do with Him what we please. Just the opposite. Look at verse 4. So the people
sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the ark of
the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims,
And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with
the ark of the covenant of God. 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. And when the Philistines
heard the noise of the shout, they said, what meaneth the noise
of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood
that the ark of the Lord was come into their camp. And the
Philistines were afraid. For they said, God is coming
to the camp. And they said, woe unto us, for
there hath not been such a thing heretofore. Woe unto us, who
shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods, plural. These are the gods, plural, that
smoke the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.
Now we see from these verses that religious beliefs, they
go past the boundaries of denominations and nations. Any doctrine other
than believing that Jesus Christ, in Him crucified, is the only
means of salvation, is one that believes that the sinner can
do something to be saved. You can look at every religion,
the doctrine, the creeds of every religion, And there's only two,
the one that Jesus Christ, salvations of the Lord, and all the others
are salvation is of man. Every single one. These superstition
beliefs of the Israelites and the Philistines were pretty much
the same. Salvation is the Lord's doing or it's a man's doing,
no in between. The people of Israel thought
the ark was their deliverance, and then the Philistines, thought
the same. That's why they were so afraid. To the Philistines, the Ark of
the Covenant was nothing more than just an idol, and they attributed
the Ark of the Covenant, and their fear of it, as mighty gods,
idols. They both believed that the Ark
would save Israel. They both believed that the Ark,
a box, was God. It was a man-made box. God told them how to make it,
but man made it. And you can't put God in a box. Significance is where it was
to be kept. It was to be kept in Shiloh,
not in their camp. And again, Shiloh represents
Christ. It was in the temple which represented
Christ. It was where God communed with
his people once a year above the mercy seat in the day of
atonement. And to put confidence in it was
to discount everything that it represented. No different than
Israel making a golden calf in the days of Moses and ascribing
their deliverance to it. That's exactly what they did.
And these pagan nations did the same thing with their idols.
They were afraid of Israel's idols, because they didn't know
the true and living God. None of their idols had the power
to deliver or save any more than the Ark of the Covenant itself
did. You know, I was thinking, why
else would Paul have written? Who is he that condemned it?
It's Christ that died, yea, rather that's risen again, who's even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us, Romans 8, 34. You see, only the one that saves,
only the one who redeems can keep us from being condemned.
Only the one that God justly accepted can sit at his right
hand and plead our cause of intercessory mediation. Jesus Christ is a
just God and a Savior. Only in Christ our Savior can
we be justified and saved. The generals and the officers
of the Philistines spoke these words to the common soldier in
verse 9. Now be strong and quit yourselves
like men. Get over yourself here. Get over
your fear. Oh, you Philistines, that you
be not servants unto the Hebrews as they have been to you. Quit
yourselves like men and fight. And the Philistines, all they
had to depend on was their manly courage. Their case was desperate,
thinking that they had gods as well as men to fight. They were
afraid of Israel's gods, plural. So they exerted themselves to
the uttermost with hopes of still gaining victory. And victory
is what they got. Verse 10, And the Philistines
fought, And Israel was smitten, and they fled every man to his
tent, and there was a very great slaughter for their fell of Israel,
30,000 footmen. Verse 11, and the ark of God
was taken. The Philistines took it. And
the two sons of Eli, Hothni, and Phinehas were slain. And here it is that the words,
the prophecy of Samuel were fulfilled. His words did not fall to the
ground. Hophni and Phinehas met their end, and whether they were
carrying the ark, which many think that they were, or simply
trying to protect it, what God had promised by Samuel's prophecy
came true. died with the confidence that
all was well. Everything's going to be all
right. We've got the Ark of the Covenant with us now. And they
died. They died. There will be many
professing believers today who will meet the same end. They
believe that all is well. They'll say, me and Jesus, we've
got a good thing going. They'll say everything's okay
with them and the man upstairs, but things won't be okay at all.
Anything that is no more than an it to you will be taken from
you by the enemy. And those whose treasure can't
be taken away will in the end prevail. That's what we'll see
as we go on in this book. The reason for Israel's loss
was never considered. They never considered it. They
sought to undo the prophecy by their own imagined righteousness.
And when a believer is humbled in defeat, they'll cease from
their own imagined work of righteousness, and they'll camp out at mercy's
door. They'll seek the only one who can help. Hebrews 4.14, seeing
then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the
heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession, for we have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
into the throne of grace, that we may attain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Now, as you know, the Ark of
the Covenant was where that mercy seat resided, and because of
Israel's ignorance and entitled thinking, they lost the one thing
that they needed most, the place where God met with his people
and accepted the burnt offering for their sacrifices. Now, if
a man or woman who claims to be a professing believer insist
on doing something themselves to be saved, as Israel did here,
they're going to lose that one means of redemption and acceptance
that they have, and that being the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our
only way of escape. He's our only way to victory. And if you seek other solutions,
but the one and only provided by God, which is Christ, you'll
be defeated every time. You'll lose the only the one
and only hope that you have. Now let's read a few verses here
and there. Ran a man of Benjamin out of
the army and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent
and with the earth upon his head. And when he came, lo, Eli sat
upon a seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the
ark of God. He was worried about the ark
of God. And when the man came into the
city and told it, all the city cried out. And when Eli heard
the noise of the crying, he said, what meaneth the noise of this
tumult? And the man came in hastily and
told Eli. Now Eli was 90 and eight years
old and his eyes were dim that he could not see. And the man
said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army. And I fled today
out of the army. And he said, what is there done,
my son? And the messenger answered and
said, Israel has fled before the Philistines. And there hath
been also a great slaughter among the people. And thy two sons
also, Hophni and Phinehas are dead. And the ark of God is taken. And it came to pass. when he
made mention of the ark of God. I thought about that. Not when
he made mention of his two sons being killed, but when he made
mention to Eli about the ark of God. He fell from off the seat backward
by the side of the gate and his neck break and he died. For he was an old man and he
had judged Israel 40 years. It broke his heart. And in the
end, it broke his neck when he fell. The lesson to be learned
there is without Christ, without our atonement, without our mercy
seat, there's no glory that awaits us in Christ, in Him. That's what the remaining verses
in this chapter teach us. And the Lord willing, we'll look
more into the following verses next time, but I do want to read
them together here. Verse 19. And his daughter-in-law,
Phinehas's 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 woman 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. That's what the name Ichabod
means. The glory of the Lord has departed. There is no glory apart from
Christ's atonement and mercy saved. God is only present with
the word and worship if his dear son are. When the Lord Jesus
Christ is removed from a people, the glory is gone from them.
If he who is glorious in his nature and his perfections and
his offices and his grace is removed, no hope, no hope for
him. You know, that's why it's so
discouraging when you have loved ones and family, friends that
attend a place where the gospel is not preached. There's no hope
for them, you know that. That's what God's Word tells
us, and it's a sad thing. We can only hope that the Lord
will intervene and show them the truth. We all have those
that we love in that condition. May each of us see to it that
Christ is not removed from us. May each of us make our calling
and election sure. Well, how do you do that, Brother
David? Strive not to be lukewarm. The
Lord said, if you're neither hot nor cold, you're lukewarm,
I'll spew you, spit you out of my mouth. Strive not to be unfruitful. Strive not to be negligent. Strive
to attend the worship of God. Strive to consistently hear the
gospel preached. May we labor to enter into His
rest. You see, the work of Christ is
finished, you know that. And that's the only place that
we have any rest, is in Him. If I don't have Christ, I don't
have anything. May God be pleased to enable
us to do so, trust in Him and His love.