Sean: This is a characteristic of God. We dare not allow ourselves to forget that he does his best work in the worst circumstances. The greatest forgiveness is given to the gravest sinner. The most powerful actions of God are worked through the most powerless people. His greatest signs come during the most gloomy circumstances.
Caleb: The following message was recorded at King's Tree Church. May the spirit use it to help you see, savor, and sing the beauty of God in the crucified and risen Jesus Christ.
Sean: So we've got a big section this morning, chapters four through seven, but I decided to do that because I really dedicated to teaching Samuel in the episodic nature in which Samuel was written. You'll remember the intro for this series, how we talked about how a story, a big story, is a conglomeration of smaller stories. We often call them scenes, multiple scenes and a big story. And when you put them together, you get the overall story. Well, chapters four through seven are so cohesive with a beginning and ending keywords like bookends, with key themes throughout, with repeated phrases, with irony and twists, with a beginning and a conflict and resolution, I had to keep this section together.
I couldn't bear to break it into two sermons. It would be like ordering a four course meal and then taking two of the courses home to microwave, so I couldn't bear to do that. But don't worry, even now it's still gonna be shorter than one of Pastor Christopher's sermons, so I've timed it. We're good. Let me pray, and then we can review a bit and begin.
Heavenly Father, extremely thankful for your glory, for your saving glory, for your might, for your weightiness, even seeing that with baptism of my children. I'm so thankful to you for that and thankful to you that unless you build the house, the workers labor in vain, that you are the one moving all things forward, and that you are good. We can trust you with it. I pray your blessing on this sermon today, that something of your glory would be made known. In Jesus' name, amen.
So we saw in the beginning of the book of Samuel, Hannah prays for a son. She's given Samuel. Hannah then sends Samuel to serve before the Ark of the Lord at Shiloh under Eli, the high priest, and Samuel faithfully serves there. Now it's important to remember that Samuel is coming after this really tumultuous time of Israel. It comes after the book of Judges, Judges is there's a big mess.
There's no king in Israel, and the religious system is kind of everywhere. People are just doing their own thing, and as a result, we heard in chapter three last time, the word of the Lord and the presence of the Lord were rare in those days. Largely this was due to the massive moral failure of Eli and his priesthood. Remember his children, Haphne and Phinehas. But things began to change because if you also remember with Samuel, God spoke to him.
God's word had returned. God showed up in front of him. God's presence had returned, and we kind of see the narrative moving in a more hopeful direction with God raising up Samuel as his prophet at Shiloh, but all is not well because remember what Samuel's first prophecy was, it was to Eli telling him, Your house will be destroyed, and your two sons will be killed on the same day as a sign of this, And so then we ended last sermon with Samuel established as a prophet of the Lord and Eli awaiting judgment for his sons. I'll begin now in chapter one, or verse one of chapter four. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel.
Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about 4,000 men of the field of battle. And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? 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.
So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant and the Lord of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. Interesting way to start this chapter. We see verse one there that Samuel's prophecy continues to be made known throughout Israel, and that's like a verbal cross link between chapter three and chapter four. We had Samuel's word going forth at the end of chapter three, and now chapter four begins with a repetition of that, tying those two chapters together, and that's helpful because Samuel actually bows out of the story now for three chapters. He's not the main character coming up here.
Interestingly enough, it is the ark who is going to be the main character of the next few chapters. We were introduced to the ark, of course, in chapter three. Now we start with a battle here, and Israel loses. That's a little bit of a shock because our narratives seem to be moving in a hopeful direction. The word of the Lord returned.
The presence of the Lord returned. God raised up Samuel, so we're kind of feeling good about ourselves here, and now suddenly, boom, Israel has a defeat, and we think, what's going on? Maybe this is a chance for God to kind of show his power and to defeat the Philistines after Israel's defeated. Maybe that's the case. We're not quite sure where the narrative is headed here, but we get a bit of a hint from the elders' response to this defeat.
See if you can spot the flaw in their reasoning. They say, why has the Lord defeated us before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh that it may come among us and save us. See what they're doing here? They've rightly affirmed the Lord is responsible for their defeat.
Of course that's true. He has not blessed them. He has not given them victory. But instead of saying, maybe repenting, maybe praying to see what they may have done wrong, what do they do? They say, I know.
Let's just bring the ark with us. It can save us from the power of our enemies. If God isn't going to save us, then maybe the ark will. You see the problem there? Pitting the ark against God.
They're kind of trying to twist God's arm by bringing the ark into battle. They're treating it like some kind of a magic talisman. Now what's the problem with that? It's the fact that the ark is only holy because it's that earthly place where God's presence dwells. Remember, God instructed Moses back in Exodus 32 to make the ark, and he said in Exodus 32 and in Numbers seven eighty nine, he says, The presence of God is going to appear above the ark.
He's gonna speak to Moses right from there, between the cherubim, that's what we saw, God's presence over the ark. In fact, when Moses finishes setting up everything that God had said to set up with the tabernacle, you see it there, God's cloud, his glory, his presence rests right there above the ark. So it's this place where heaven and earth meet, and God's presence is there, and that's what makes it holy. It's not just a magic box all on its own, and all through Exodus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and Joshua, yes, the ark was powerful. It split the Red Sea.
It knocks down the walls of Jericho, but it was always handled reverently and only ever handled by Levitical priests, and it was only ever followed. You didn't cart the ark behind you going where you wanted. You waited and you followed the ark. You see this really clearly in Numbers 10. It says the cloud would move up and move forward.
The ark would move forward, and then Israel would follow where the ark led, and even you see in Joshua three:four that they would fall behind 2,000 cubits, so the ark was to call the shots with the Levites leading it. It was never meant to be carted behind you into battle and used to your own ends, so this is not boding well for Israel. They're not treating the ark with proper reverence or holiness. Then don't be confused. This is not a sign of faith in God that they're taking the ark with them.
They're not showing their faith in God. This is an act of rebellion against God and what he's said to do. Further leading to our impending doom here, look who accompanies them, Hophni and Phinehas. Now this is a bad idea because God has said Hophni and Phinehas will die on the same day, and now they're both marching into battle, so what's gonna happen? We can probably guess at what's gonna happen.
Let me read it to you though. As soon as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout so that the earth resounded, And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, what does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean? And when they learned that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp, the Philistines were afraid for they said, A god has come into the camp. And they said, Woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us, 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. Take courage and be men, oh Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you. Be men and fight. I wanna draw your attention to the Philistines' response here. Now they're a little confused, but they know enough to know that this is the God who destroyed the Egyptians, and they say, Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods?
Now it's important that you realize it's probably translated maybe power in your translation. The Hebrew word there is hand. Who will deliver us from the hand of this God? The words hand and power are really used interchangeably in the Hebrew because of course with your hand you can grip, you can manipulate, you can control, you can create or tear down. The power really is in the hand, and so in the Hebrew world, you could use the word hand and power together.
That's important because there's a lot of play on words dealing with the word hand and its use as power coming up in the narrative, so I wanna draw your attention there. We say things like this. You've probably seen in a movie where a bad guy says, Now I have him in the palm of my hand. We're using it the same way now as it was used back then. That's power.
That's influence. It's also important though to realize he's using the word hand because this is the same language God uses when he's delivering Egypt Israel from Egypt. Remember, God says, I'm gonna stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with wonders, and it was foretold that the people of Canaan would hear about what happened and be struck with terror. When Moses, after they've left Egypt and the Red Sea is parted, they're walking across, on the other side Moses makes a song, and the song he makes is recounting what God has done, and there's a part where it says everyone's gonna hear about what God just did to Egypt, and they're gonna fear him. Let me read to you the part of the song here Moses writes.
It says, So the Philistines Where are we here? Yes, it says, The peoples have heard. They tremble. Pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Terror and death fall upon them because of the greatness of your arm.
That was written by Moses a couple hundred years before this happened. That's exactly what we see happening right here. The Philistines have heard about God's mighty hand, and now they're scared because they see him, what they perceive to be him coming to battle. The question remains though, is God really with Israel in this battle? Let me read to you, verse 10.
So the Philistines fought and Israel was defeated and they fled every man to his home And there was a very great slaughter for 30,000 foot soldiers of Israel fell and the Ark of God was captured and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas died. Well, it's been a long time coming, hasn't it? That judgment against Eli's sons. We we kinda knew that was probably gonna happen in this battle. Sure enough it did.
They've both been killed in the battle. But then there's this other detail. Israel has been defeated. We could kind of sense maybe that was gonna come because they were not using the ark correctly, shouldn't be using the ark at all. They lost about seven times the amount of men as they had in the first battle.
One thing we definitely did not see coming though, a shock to us as readers, is the fact that the ark is now captured by the Philistines. Up until now, you've read through the Bible, the ark has been invincible. It's been untouchable. Literally, the ark has been untouchable up until now, and now we see it being taken by the Philistines. It's captured.
What is going on with that? We just read about how God's presence had returned to Shiloh. Things were looking good, and now it looks like God has been defeated and the ark taken away. What's going on with this? We've gotta sit on that for a little while, because right now we've got a messenger of Benjamin running back to Shiloh to report to everyone how the battle just went, and Eli is sitting there at the gates anxiously awaiting news of the battle.
Verse 12, a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head. When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching for his heart trembled for the Ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out. When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, what is this uproar? Then the man hurried and came and told Eli.
Now Eli was 98 years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see. And the man said to Eli, I am he who has come from the battle. I fled the battle today. And he said, How did it go, my son? He who brought the news answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great defeat among the people.
Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the Ark of God has been captured. As soon as he mentioned the Ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years. Notice Eli's apprehension here. He has a bad feeling about the battle.
His heart trembles, not for his sons, but his heart trembles for the ark. He knows it should not have been taken into battle. Now this isn't in the text, but I can just imagine something like this happened. They came back from the initial battle, the elders of Israel, and they went to Shiloh, and they said to Hofne and Phinehas, Hey, let's take the ark with us. That'll help us out, and Hofne and Phinehas, of course, they'd be all for that.
They didn't know God. They'd say, Sure, we take the ark, and I'm sure Eli was there, and he was seeing this happening, but what do we know about Eli? He probably didn't address the situation. Maybe he said a little something, but he didn't stop it from happening, and I can just picture him there watching the ark leaving with his two sons, and his heart is trembling because he knows this is a terrible idea. His heart was anxious for the ark.
Now again, we don't know that that exactly happened, but what we do know is that the ark was taken to battle, Eli's sons went to battle and Eli was left behind and he was anxious about what was going to happen. And the outcome is worse than he could have feared. Notice he takes the news pretty well of his sons dying. His heart had been prepared for that. Remember he said, Well, it's the will of the Lord let him do as he sees fit.
So he had readied himself for that, but when he hears that the ark has been taken, he's so shocked, he's so dismayed that he falls off his seat, and then being of an old age and being heavy, that fall kills him and he dies. Remember the rising and the falling that Hannah mentioned in chapter two. Well, here we see Eli's line falling from the priesthood, and he has been judged. Now the scene changes somewhat abruptly, and at first this might seem like an unrelated narrative where we're moving, but actually what we're about to hear symbolically sets up a question we're all already wondering. A question chapters five through seven is going to answer for us.
Where is the glory of the Lord? What's just happened here? Let me read to you. This is nineteen. Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phineas was pregnant and about to give birth.
And when she heard the news that the Ark of God was captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death, the woman attending her said, Do not be afraid. You've born a son. But she did not answer or pay attention. And she named the child Ichabod saying, The glory has departed from Israel because the Ark of God had been captured and because her father-in-law and her husband.
And she said, The glory has departed from Israel for the Ark of God has been captured. What do we have here? Well, Phineas' wife, when she hears about the horrors of what has just happened, it leads to early labor for her, and she gives birth to a baby son. Now tragically, she dies during the birth, but before she does with her last words, she symbolically names the child Ichabod. That name literally means no glory or where is the glory.
The Hebrew word for glory, qavad, is the qavad and ichabod, and that means glory or weight. It can be used for weightiness or significance or heaviness. Keep the word in mind. We're gonna see it used over and over again throughout our story here, but she doesn't name him qavad. She names him iqavad.
The I there is negating the qavad. So it's not glory. It's no glory, or it can also be something like a question. Where is the glory? Picture you're gonna name your child face, and instead you name your child unfaithful.
That's the idea here. It's ikkavad, no glory, or where is the glory? And really, we can't blame her for naming the child that, can we? The ark is the center of God's glory. In Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and Joshua, it shows that, and now it's departed Israel.
Where is God's glory? Does he have any left? This is a question that we as the audience are asking ourselves when we get to this point in the narrative. Has God been defeated? Is he like the other gods who win sometimes and loses other times?
Where is the glory? That's the question that chapters five and six are about to answer for us. Chapter five. When the Philistines captured the Ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. Then the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it into the house of Dagon and set it up beside Dagon.
This was a common practice back then. You gotta understand an army was only as strong as its god, and when one army conquers another, it was understood that the god of the winning army had defeated the god of the losing army, and so what you'd have is the victors would take the idol or symbol of the god of the losing army and bring it into their own temple, a bit like gods napping. You destroyed them, and you'd take their god and put it in your god's temple, and what did that say? That said, Our god has defeated yours. Your god is now simply a servant in the temple of our god.
Your God is now just a trophy showing how powerful our God is. They would do that back then. The other thing you need to understand here is that the temple is the center of a God's power. A god was most powerful, most influential inside his temple, such that the further you got from a god's temple, the less influence that god had. The closer you got to the temple, the more influence that god had until if you were inside this God's temple, there's just the radiating epicenter of that God's power.
Remember, God in the ark does not have a temple yet. Solomon builds that later. So here's God with no temple separated from Israel, set in the middle, the epicenter of Dagon's power, right in the middle of Dagon's temple. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say it looks like now God is in the palm of Dagon's hand. Let's keep reading and see what happens.
And when the people of Ashdod rose early the next day, behold, Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the Lord, So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. Now this is hilarious. We have Dagon bowing down to the ark in his own temple. In Dagon's own temple, he's worshiping the one true God. Again, Dagon is supposed to rule this place.
He's supposed to be most powerful here, and he's just laying flat on the ground before the ark. This is a humiliation for Dagon. This is a massive defeat. Imagine the Philistine priests. They walk in, and what do they see?
They catch their own god bowing down to this other god, the one they've just captured. That's gonna rattle them. That's shaking them up. They're a bit scared of that. And then like a little child, Dagon needs to be stood back up by his priests.
Bad Dagon falling on his face, can't get up, even in his own temple. This is a disgrace, but it gets better. But when they rose early on the next morning, behold Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the Ark of the Lord and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Only the trunk of Dagon was left to him. This is why the priests of Dagon and all who enter the house of Dagon do not tread on the threshold of Dagon and Ashdod to this day.
The hand of the Lord was heavy against the people of Ashdod, and he terrified and afflicted them with tumors, both Ashdod and its territory. This paragraph is full of really important details I wanna draw our attention to. First of all, the priests are pretty anxious. They wake up early the next morning. They wanna know, Man, what was the deal with Daegon yesterday?
How's he doing today? I hope he's not bowing down again. That would be concerning. And what they see doesn't make them feel any better. They see he is lying down as if he were defeated, and he is dismembered.
Now I want you to picture the scene. The priests go through the threshold of the temple, and right there on the threshold are hands. And so I'm actually gonna physically act this out for you so you can kind of see what I'm picturing here. I think this is very interesting. So let's say we have the ark back here, and here is the threshold of the temple, and I'm Daegon.
And hopefully that's the only time you ever hear that said in church. And so they walk in, and this is what Daegon looks like. Hands forward like this. For those who can see, what does this look like I'm doing? Looks like I'm trying to crawl to get out of the temple.
It looks like I'm begging for mercy, trying to get away. This is what they come and see. Dagon's hands clutching at the threshold of the temple, cut off by the Lord. It's as if the torment of being in the presence of the one true God is too much for Dagon. He's ready to abandon his own temple, crawl his way out if he has to, to get away from the power of God.
And remember, this is the place where Dagon should have been most powerful. This reminds me of the demoniac who comes to Jesus and says, Don't throw us into the abyss. Send us into the pigs. And Jesus sends the demons into the pigs, and then what do they do? Even then, they run off the edge of the island.
They can't stand being on the same island as Jesus. While that may have worked for them, they got away. Dagon certainly did not. His hands and his head are severed. Now this was kind of a common thing to do to a defeated opponent, and there's some symbolic qualities to this.
Of course the head is the center of your dignity and glory, and when that's gone, pretty obvious you've been defeated. But also the hands, remember I mentioned earlier how the hands are the power, the might. They grip, they control, they hold the sword. When someone's hands are gone, their power is gone, so enjoy the irony here. When God is metaphorically in the hands of the enemy, what does he do?
He cuts the enemy's hands right off. Here at the epicenter of Dagon's power we see him made powerless. And whose hand was heavy? Shown to be glorious. In the text you use the word heavy.
That's our same word, qavad, glory, weight. Whose hand was shown to be heavy? It was God's. God's hand is weighty. Degas hands are cut off.
Now what does this remind you of? God out of the darkest place surrounded, defeated, then showing his glorious victory. What does that remind you of? This is just like the cross. This is just like the resurrection.
Jesus on the cross surrounded by enemies, Satan and demons, no doubt there as well, completely abandoned. Jesus in the tomb, cold and damp, a bit like a temple of death, if you think about it, his body exiled to death even as the ark is exiled to Philistia. It's in that very moment, right, in the quiet and early morning of the third day, his body exiled that Jesus bursts forth to life and victory and joy shown to be the Son of God and power by his resurrection from the dead. And in doing so, Jesus defeats sin and Satan and death and all demons. Listen to the effect of the crucifixion and resurrection on the spiritual realm.
I'm gonna read quickly from Philippians two:eight. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed upon him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Dagon bowing down to the ark, that's prophetic. That lying there, that posture lying there in submission, that is going to be everything.
Angels, humans, demons, everything is going to be humbled and lying flat before the risen Lord Jesus. Again, listen to the effect of the cross on the spiritual realm when I read to you from Colossians two fifteen. Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them in the cross. Is this not what God just did to Dagon? You could read it this way.
Disarming Dagon, he made a public disgrace out of him, triumphing over him in the midst of exile into Dagon's temple. This is a characteristic of God. We dare not allow ourselves to forget that he does his best work in the worst circumstances. The greatest forgiveness is given to the gravest sinner. The most powerful actions of God are works through the most powerless people.
His greatest signs come during the most gloomy circumstances. Remember Elijah on Mount Carmel, four fifty prophets of Baal around him, 400 prophets of Ashtaroth around him. He's the only faithful God fearer anywhere that he knows of. And what happens? God shoots down fire from heaven, totally incinerates the altar, and then all those evil priests are slaughtered after that.
Consider Hezekiah. He's holed up in Jerusalem being sieged by 185,000 troops. Hezekiah doesn't even have 2,000 troops to put on the backs of horses. He doesn't have the horses either. What happens?
Hezekiah prays. An angel comes and kills all 185,000 of that evil army, and he's delivered. Consider Elisha when he's surrounded by an Assyrian army, which is itself surrounded by an invisible angelic army, and what happens? They are struck blind and thrown into a panic. Consider Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
Only faithful people there, thrown into a furnace where they realize they could be burning to death, and what happens? God shows up right there in and amongst them. This is what God does. He does his best work in the worst circumstances, and you probably have testimonies like this in your own life. If you think back on your life, if you're distanced from that circumstance far enough and you can start to see it clearly, you've probably found that during the darkest days of your life, God was doing his most magnificent, his most transformative work.
It's one of the ways God works. We need to hold that to our hearts for comfort in the present, and then also expectation, comfort in the future. No matter what comes, how dark, God's glory just radiates more and more the darker the situation. That's something that is wonderful about our God. Now that's just the beginning of the problems for the Philistines.
Let me show you where we go from here. And then when the men of Ashdod saw how things were going, they said, the ark of God of Israel must not remain with us, for his hand is hard against us and against Dagon our God. So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? They answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be brought around to Geth. So they brought the ark of God of Israel there, but after they had brought it around, the hand of the Lord was against the city causing a very great panic, and he afflicted the men of the city, both young and old, with tumors that broke out on them.
So they sent the ark of God to Ekron, but as soon as the ark of God came to Ekron, the people of Ekron cried out, they have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people. They sent therefore and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines and said, send away the ark of God of Israel and let it return to its own place that it may not Kill us and our people. For there was a deathly panic throughout the whole city. The hand of the Lord was very heavy. Glorious, same word.
Very heavy there. The men who did not die were struck with tumors and the cry of the city went up to heaven. So here unaided by any army, we have God move from city to city conquering the Philistines. Notice where we started in verse six. The Philistines said, The Lord's hand was heavy on them.
Glorious, qabod, that word, and Ichabod's name. By the end, what does it say? The hand is exceedingly heavy, exceedingly glorious. Do you see what's happening? See what the narrator is teaching us there?
He's showing us the answer for that question, Ichabod. It's not Ichabod, no glory. It's Kavadah Ma'od, exceeding glory. That's what the language is telling us here. This is the answer to Eli's daughter in law's question and our question, where is God's glory?
Where is it? It's in Philistia, and it's showing up heavier and stronger than ever. It's not that there is no glory. There is exceeding glory. God is alive and well doing just fine conquering Philistia all on his own.
And so the Philistines then have a problem. They have to do something with the ark. How are they gonna respond to this? I'll read it to you here. The ark of the Lord was in the country of the Philistines seven months, and the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners and said, What shall we do with the ark of the Lord?
Tell us with what shall we send it to its place? They said, if you send away the ark of God of Israel, do not send it empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering, then you'll be healed and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you. They said, what is the guilt offering that we shall return to him? They answered, five golden tumors and five golden mice according to the number of the lords of the Philistines for the same plague was on all of you and on your lords. So you must make images of your tumors and images of your mice that ravage the land and give glory to the God of Israel.
Perhaps he will lighten his hand from off you and your gods and your land. Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away and they departed? So the Philistines decide to get rid of the ark, and in their kind of strange little pagan way, they're actually doing what God requires, and they're doing what Israel should have done. They're giving golden gifts, a guilt offering.
They're acknowledging the glory of God. They just said it right there. Give glory to God. They're seeing his weightiness. They're taking him seriously.
Remember what God said to Eli in chapter two verse 30, For those who honor me, I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed. Well, that's true, and you wanna know that word, honor there? Those who honor me, I will honor. You know what? That's a translation of what word?
That's our word, qavad. Those who acknowledge my glory, my weightiness, I will honor. God says, And the ones who treat me lightly and don't take me seriously, I will despise. The Israelites treated God lightly. They lost their battle.
The Philistines treated God lightly. Their towns were destroyed. Now they're prepared to take him seriously. How's that gonna turn out for him? Well, I'll summarize the next few verses here.
What happens is they send the ark back to Israel. It goes to a place called Beth Shemesh, and they send it there. It's on a cart, and it's being pulled by two oxen. The oxen walk their way straight to Beth Shemesh, and then the people of Israel there are harvesting wheat. They look up, they see the ark returning all on its own with the spoils of war next to it.
Remember those golden tumors and golden mice that come along with it? So the people of Israel receive the ark, and they sacrificed the oxen to God, and everything seems to be going well. They received the ark back. That's a big deal, but notice this next detail that comes in our narrative. This happens right after they received the ark back, and some of the men of Beth Shemesh, again, is now in Israel, because they looked upon the ark of the Lord, he struck 70 of them, and the people mourned because the Lord had struck the people with a great blow.
The look upon the ark there isn't just seeing it. It seems to imply something irreverent, maybe like looking inside of it. Then the men of Beth Shemesh said, Who is able to stand before the Lord, this holy God, and to whom shall he go up away from us? So they sent messengers to the inhabitants of Kirith Jearim saying, The Philistines have returned the ark of the Lord. Come down and take it up to you.
God doesn't play favorites, does he? The rules are the same for both sides because God doesn't pick a side. Joshua five fourteen, when Joshua sees the angel of the Lord, and Joshua says, Are you for us or for our adversaries? The angel of the Lord says, Neither. God is his own side.
He's on his own side. Whoever is not for him is against him. The Philistines treated him lightly. They were smitten. They honored him.
They were spared. The Israelites treat him lightly. They are smitten. And the battle of Ebenezer, they lost that too. Are the Israelites now finally going to repent and start to feel the weight of God?
Let me read for you. And the men of Kirith Jearim came and took up the Ark of the Lord and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eliezer to have charge of the Ark of the Lord. From the day that the Ark was lodged in Kirith Jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord. Moving on further.
And Samuel came, and Samuel said to all the house of Israel, If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away your foreign gods and the Ashtoreth among you, and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only. Then Samuel said, Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you. So they gathered at 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 people of Israel at Mizpah.
I just wanna mention one thing here. Notice the Israelites had false gods they were worshiping. No wonder they took the ark with them into battle. They're treating it just like another idol. That's not how God is to be treated, But now we see Samuel leading them in the repentance.
This is good. Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the people of Israel said to Samuel, Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines. So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord.
And Samuel cried out to the Lord of Israel, and the Lord answered him. As Samuel was offering the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. You need to picture this. Here's Israel, They're at Mizpah. They're flat footed.
There's no counter attack. They're not here for military engagement. They're here for sacrifice. And they look, and the Philistines are actually coming down upon him, they're saying, Samuel, make the sacrifice. And if God doesn't come through here, they are going to be wiped out.
So this shows now they're putting their trust in the right place, right? Philistine's coming, and Samuel is making the sacrifice, and as he does, the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. The men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them as far as below Bethkar. Then Samuel took a stone and set it upon Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer. That's where our story began.
Now it's ending in the same name. Called the stone Ebenezer, for he said, till now the Lord has helped us. So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel, and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites.
So here is the completion of our story. We began with a defeat at Ebenezer. We end with a great victory at Ebenezer because the Israelites finally gave glory to God. They appreciated his kavod, his weight, his weightiness, his significance. How they do that?
They repented. They got rid of their idols. They humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God, and they relied upon him with prayer. Rather than might and manipulation, they relied upon God, and Samuel led them in this great repentance. What have we learned about the glory of the God here?
Well, that those who regard God lightly are despised. Those who honor him, his weight, his glory, he honors them and shows them mercy. Where is God's glory? Ichabod, where is the glory? Well, this story, God's glory was seen in the midst of the dark temple of Dagon, but that was just a small taste of that time when God would stretch out his mighty hand in full splendor and show himself to be most glorious in the most darkest place.
Jesus Christ on the cross, the mighty right hand of God pierced through for the forgiveness of our sins. Jesus Christ in the tomb, abandoned, exiled to death, springing forth to life. This is the place now where we look to see God's glory. There is no greater darkness than God dying. There is no greater glory than God raising from the dead.
He is shown to be most glorious in the most darkest circumstance. So it is to that then, the resurrection, the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ, it is to that glory revealed in Jesus then that we as Christians are to look. We are called to honor and revere and feel the weight of that glory. Let us then not regard him lightly, but let us honor him as holy for what he has done with his glorious hand. Let me pray for us.
Lord, it's so good that these things are true. It's so good that we can fail, or we can pit ourselves against you if we choose, and it doesn't affect your glory, or we can be uplifted by you, and we can submit ourselves to you. That's good for us. Doesn't affect your glory at all. Lord, you are glorious, and you are in charge.
We thank you for that, and we just pray for the mercy to be humble, and to be willing and to be repentant and to align ourselves with your glory, not for our own name's sake, but for your name's sake, because you're the one to whom all glory is given. Thank you for that unchangeable fact. Lord, please align us with your glory, make us humble and repentant, and let us feel the weight of your significance. In Jesus' name, amen.
Caleb: Thank you for listening to this message from Kingstree Church in Sabina, Ohio. To see more of the beauty of God and the crucified and risen Jesus Christ, come worship with us on Sundays at 10AM or visit our website at kingstreechurch.org.