Though Samuel himself continued in a strong relationship
with God, in the nation of Israel as a whole, the days were becoming dark. The
spiritual lives of most of the people during these times had lost practically
all their meaning. The society had not become secular, necessarily, but the
religious life of the people was more like that of the nations around Israel.
Theirs had actually become a religion without life. It had
become one that was merely ceremonial. It had lost the sense of a true
relationship with God and had become a religion of cold tradition. The people
looked upon their duties only as fulfilling certain rituals and formalities.
Since their perception of religion was much like the people
of the other nations, the Israelites had even adopted as their own many of the
gods of the surrounding nations, idols such as various forms of the Baals and
the Ashtoreths.
The final sentence of the book of Judges encapsulates accurately the tenor of the day’s society when the author of that book concludes his writings by saying that “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
Mustering the Troops for Battle
But the fact that the Israelites had become much like their
surrounding nations does not mean that they lived in peace with them. There
were constant incursions and wars. This was the situation during the last days
of Eli the priest, and before Samuel became the recognized leader of the
spiritual life of Israel.
This particular portion of the story of the Israelites
begins, oddly enough, at a location on the map called “Ebenezer.” The name
means “Stone of Help.”
It is not clear if this spot actually bore that name at the
time the story begins, because it is after an eventual and great victory over
the Philistines that Samuel set up a stone to name Ebenezer, while saying,
“Thus far the Lord has helped us,” but that event would not come until
several years later. Nevertheless, the name is significant even at the
beginning of the battle, because it is where the Israelites mustered their
troops, readying themselves for the ensuing conflict.
The Philistines, for their part, came together at a site
known as “Aphek.” That word means “fortress.” It is likely that there were also
other Apheks, so it is unclear if this
was actually the given name of this specific place, or if it was simply one of
several fortresses with a name that has been lost to us.
However, the significance of the place-names lies in the meanings. Ebenezer refers to the need of help, in this case meaning the help that comes from the Lord. The name Aphek, on the other hand, symbolizes the best efforts of man. A fortress. A stronghold. The mightiest of man’s defenses.
The Defeat
Although the Israelite troops were gathered at a site called
Ebenezer, it takes more than place-names to instill proper attitudes and
behavior in the people. The name may refer to the fact that there is a need for
help from God, but there is nothing in the text to suggest that they actually
looked to him for help in their battle against the Philistines. As a result,
and because the faith of the Israelites was not truly in God, the Philistines
stuck down about four thousand of their warriors. Israel was defeated by the
enemy.
Crushed by the defeat, the elders of Israel then began to
question why they were not able to overcome the invaders. “Why has the LORD
brought defeat on us before the Philistines today?” they wondered.
There had been no previous indication that they had been
seeking the help of the LORD before going out into this battle—no prayers for
guidance and blessing, but now that they had been defeated, they seemed to
believe that the cause of their defeat was because God was not with them. They
correctly assessed the cause, but the solution that they proposed demonstrated
their complete deficiency in understanding the ways of God.
The elders suggested, “Let us bring the ark of the covenant
of the LORD from Shiloh, so that it may go with us to save us from the hand of
our enemies.”
It was true that the Ark of the Covenant served as a
vanguard in times previous to this and even symbolized the presence of God, but
the ark was not God Himself. It is not as if the physical act of bringing the
ark into the camp was the same as having the presence of God with them. Similar
to the rest of the spiritual understanding of the people, they looked to ritual
instead of inner life.
If the Israelites would have learned the lessons of their history, they would have known that the presence of God depended more upon their own obedience to his word than it did with any religious symbolic relic or artifact. Moses could have told them this, and in fact he did.
The Presence of God with Moses
During the forty years when the Israelites were wandering in
the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt, Moses set up what was called “the
tent of meeting” outside the camp. It was within that tent where Moses would
meet with God and speak with him “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend”
(Exodus 33:11).
I do not know in what form God appeared to Moses. There is
no indication in the text that it was in the form of a man, like a pre-incarnate
Jesus, but it may have been. All that we are told is that when Moses entered
the tent, a pillar of cloud would come down and remain at the entrance.
Although we are told that Moses spoke with God “face to
face,” it was not the actual full face of God that Moses saw, for just a few
verses after we are given that phrase, in response to the request by Moses to
see the full glory of God, God told him, “You cannot see My face, for no one
can see Me and live” (v.20).
What we can know of what Moses actually saw and what he
sensed when he was in the tent of meeting is left only to the short description
that we have of those events, and however we picture it in our minds. But the
important matter is that the relationship that Moses had with God was a personal
one, not one simply based on ritual and paying homage. Moses wanted to know God
in an intimate way. He spoke with him as a man does with a friend.
Moses said to God, “Now if indeed I have found favor in Your
sight, please let me know Your ways, that I may know You and find favor in Your
sight. Remember that this nation is Your people.”
If the Israelites of Samuel’s day would have had this same desire, if they wanted to know the ways of God, they would not have been concerned that he would be with them in their battle with the Philistines. The Lord would have said to them as he answered Moses, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Exodus 33:13-14 BSB).
The Presence of God with Joshua
Joshua also could have told the Israelites this as they were
going to battle. After his army was defeated in a battle that Joshua thought
should have been an easy victory for them, he realized that something had gone
wrong in the relationship of his people with God.
Indeed, when Joshua came to God to ask him the reason for
this defeat, God told him plainly, “Israel has sinned; they have transgressed
My covenant that I commanded them…This is why the Israelites cannot stand
against their enemies. They will turn their backs and run from their enemies,
because they themselves have been set apart for destruction. I will no longer
be with you unless you remove from among you whatever is devoted to
destruction” (Joshua 7:11-12 BSB).
It was only after Joshua and the Israelites put themselves
through a lengthy process of determining the root of their failure with the
Lord that God gave them the success that they were seeking. Their failure had
been that they had not taken the words of God to heart. Outwardly, they may
have appeared to be following what God had told them, but inwardly they had
been disobedient.
The sin could not be hidden. God had seen it and had
abandoned his people because they had abandoned him.
Some of the very first words that God spoke to Joshua after
the death of Moses are words that all of us should hear if we seek to have a
true and living relationship with God, and not merely one of performing certain
rituals like “going to church,” and “saying our prayers.” These practices may
be good things, but they cannot be the extent of a full relationship with God.
We also must come to know his ways and to walk in them.
God told Joshua that obedience was important, but not simply
outward and ritualistic obedience. It was to be an obedience that grows out of
a true understanding of the mind of God. It is to be an obedience that has come
about because the follower of God “meditates day and night” on the words that
God has spoken.
“For then,” God told him, “you will prosper and succeed in all you do” (Joshua 1:7-8).
The Corruption of the Priesthood
But the Israelites of Samuel’s day had forgotten these
things. As I mentioned previously, their religious leader and teacher at the
time was not yet Samuel, but it was still the High Priest Eli, along with his
two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.
The two sons were known for their wickedness. They had no
regard for how they should conduct themselves as priests, or regard even for
the Lord. They took for themselves the offerings that were meant for the Lord,
and they habitually slept with the women who served at the entrance.
The father Eli knew of these transgressions, and attempted
to reprimand his sons for their actions, but they had no respect also for their
father and did not listen. Eli said to them, “If a man sins against another
man, God can intercede for him; but if a man sins against the LORD, who can
intercede for him?” (1 Samuel 2:12-25)
His words were more accurate than perhaps he even knew. Eli
and his sons had allowed the priesthood to become a mockery, and God was soon
to bring each of their lives to a violent end.
A man of God soon visited the priest, telling him of God’s intentions to put Eli’s line of priesthood to an end with his two sons, both dying on the same day. The prophet also told Eli how the Lord was then to raise up a faithful priest, who would do whatever was in God’s heart and mind (1 Samuel 2:35). The immediate fulfillment of this prophecy was to be Samuel, although the ultimate fulfillment involved a deeper significance.
The Ark of the Covenant Goes to War
But Samuel was not yet the recognized religious leader at
the time when the army had made decision to bring the Ark of the Covenant into
the battle with them against the Philistines. So unaccustomed were the people
with the teachings of their Scriptures that they thought that bringing this
relic into the fight with them would give them victory.
They said, “Let us bring the ark of the LORD from Shiloh, so
that it may go with us to save us from the hand of our enemies.”
The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, also went with the
ark of the covenant of God. So certain where the soldiers of this new battle
strategy, that when the Ark of the Covenant entered the camp, “all the
Israelites raised such a great shout that it shook the ground.”
So great was the cheering that the Philistines heard the
noise. They asked one another, “What is this loud shouting in the camp of the
Hebrews?”
When they realized that the ark of the LORD had entered the
camp, the Philistines were afraid. “The gods have entered their camp!” they
said.
The Philistines can be excused for their lack of
understanding about the nature of the LORD God. All ancient cultures had their
war gods—from Odin of the Norse people, Mars for the Romans and Ares of the
Greeks. In the ancient perception of battle, it was not merely the number and
strength of the warriors that determined the outcome, or their weaponry, but
also the power of the war gods that were on either side. Thus, when the
Philistines understood that the Israelites had carried their god into their
camp, they were greatly frightened.
“Woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before,” the
cried. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These
are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the
wilderness. Take courage and be men, O Philistines! Otherwise, you will serve
the Hebrews just as they served you. Now be men and fight!” (1 Samuel 4:7-9
BSB)
Strange that the Philistines remembered the history of Israel, but the people of Israel did not.
Victory for the Philistines
And fight the Philistines did. They fought with such abandon
that not only did they kill thirty thousand foot soldiers and defeat the
Israelites, but they even captured the ark of God. Also, as the man of God had
predicted to Eli, his two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died—both on the same day.
No doubt they had been victims of the battle.
As a messenger ran back to Shiloh to tell of the defeat, he
reported to Eli, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a
great slaughter among the people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are both
dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”
Hearing the news about his sons was shocking enough for the old priest, but when he heard that the ark of the Lord had been captured, he fell backwards in his chair. He was an old man, and the years of easy living had caused him to grow very fat. When he fell, he broke his neck and died.
Ichabod
One of the dead sons, Phinehas, had a wife who was well
advanced in her pregnancy. When the news came to her about the capture of God’s
ark, and the deaths of her husband and her father-in-law, all strength left
her. She collapsed where she stood. The shock of the situation also caused her
to go into labor. She was dying and giving birth at the same time.
There was a woman attending her at the birth, and trying to
encourage the dying mother she said, “Do not be afraid, for you have given
birth to a son!”
Her only response was, “The glory has departed from Israel,
for the ark of God has been captured.”
She named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed
from Israel.” The name means, “there is no glory.”
The departure of the ark from Israel was the indication that
the glory of God was absent from that nation, but it did not mean that the
glory of God had ceased to exist. God was still as sovereign and powerful as
ever. It was only that Israel had forsaken God, so he had also forsaken them.
His glory was not present with his people.
It was not to be a permanent absence, for the glory of God would return after some years. But that return would only be after a number of years, and it would be only after Samuel the judge brought about a revival in the faith of the people toward the Lord God.
A Regrettable Cycle of Sin
This cycle of the people of God abandoning him and then
returning was one whose history is recorded for us multiple times in the Bible.
But the ancient nation of Israel is not the only nation who once served and
worshiped God and then in later years abandoned him and turned their desires in
other directions. All nations who have had a foundation based on the teachings
of God should turn to the example of ancient Israel to reap the lessons of its
history.
It would be many years after the events of Ichabod that the
prophet Jeremiah would write the following words concerning the people of his
own day. As you read these words of Jeremiah slowly (and preferably in voice),
ask yourself how much this applies to our own nation of the United States in
our present days.
From the writings of Jeremiah:
The word of the
LORD came to me, saying, “This is what the LORD says:
‘I remember the
devotion of your youth…how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not
sown.
[You were] holy to
the LORD, the firstfruits of His harvest…
What fault did your
fathers find in Me that they strayed so far from Me, and followed worthless
idols, and became worthless themselves?
They did not ask,
“Where is the LORD, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of
deserts and pits, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels
and no one lives?”
I brought you into
a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land,
and made My inheritance detestable.
The priests did not
ask, “Where is the LORD?”
The experts in the
law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me.
The prophets
prophesied by false gods and followed useless idols.
Therefore, I will
contend with you again, declares the LORD, and I will bring a case against your
children’s children…
My people have
exchanged their Glory for useless idols.
Be stunned by this,
O heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled…
For My people have
committed two evils:
They have forsaken
Me, the fountain of living water,
And they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water. (Jeremiah 2:1-13)
Where is the Lord?
We might ask, “How could that ancient nation of Israel, who
had seen so many miracles of God and had experienced so many blessings from his
hand, abandon him in the end?” It may seem inconceivable to us, except for the
fact that our own nation has acted in much the very same manner.
There are too many similarities between the words that
Jeremiah wrote and our own situation for me to ignore. We are that
nation who has abandoned God. We may not be battling the Philistines, but our
own vulnerability is just as obvious.
We have our own battles. The invaders of our land do not
come with swords and arrows, or with any other type of military armament, but
they are real nonetheless. We are presently facing a barrage of crises on several
fronts, whether we talk of economic crisis, pandemic health crisis, a chaotic
immigration crisis, or a new surge of racial hatred—these are but a few of
them.
And what is our response to these disasters? Like ancient
Israel, we do not ask, “Where is the LORD?”
Instead, we further implicate ourselves in evil by
continuing to reject what God has taught us in the Scriptures. Moreover, not
only are we rejecting God’s word, but we often act in direct defiance of what
he had told us or how he has created us to live.
As an example, some of the first words of the Bible are
about the creation of all that we know. Among those words concerning creation
are these: “God created man in His own image…male and female He created them.”
But today, we are no longer allowed to describe sexuality in
terms of only male and female. This idea, as fundamental as it is in the
creation account and in God’s design, has become archaic and backward in our
society. In addition to describing us as Male or Female, we must now include an
alphabet soup of letters to accommodate those who have chosen to
“self-identify” (a new term for our age) as some other confusing perversion of
God’s design. Notice that our modern term “self-identify” is actually a suitable
term, for God identified only male and female. All
other identities come from rebellion against God.
But today, this distinction between men and women is losing
credibility. Today, we are expected to ask what pronouns a person prefers—what
mixture of self-identified gender labels should we use when addressing them? As in the
days of the Judges of Israel, “everyone merely does what is right in his own
eyes.”
Many want the loving term of “mother” to be replaced with
“birthing person,” because now, even as we tout our confidence in “science,” we
also teach that men can become pregnant. And one of the most distressing things
about all of this is that we are also seeing these lies taught to our children
so that they are brought up in a society almost completely devoid of God’s
standards.
Even with all of this, as upsetting that it all is, this
same subject of children brings me to what I consider the greatest of all the
evils of our society. That evil is the denial of the right for all children, both those born and those yet to be born, to have life.
For nearly 50 years, children still in the womb of their
mothers in our country have had no rights. They remained alive merely at the
whim of their mothers. In that nearly 50 years since these unborn children lost
their fundamental right to live, over 60 million of them have been killed.
Life is the very essence of human rights. It is, as stated
in our constitution, an “inalienable right.” It is given to us by God, and not
to be taken from an innocent, merely at the whim of another.
Many Middle Eastern societies in ancient days practiced
child sacrifice by killing infants in homage to their gods, to the Baals or to other gods. Our practice of
killing children while still in the womb is our own modern version of child
sacrifice. Our god is no statue or image as in those ancient days. Our god is
ourselves. We worship our own desires above all else.
For some reason (and it can only be the patience of God), he has so far not brought judgment upon our nation because of this evil of child sacrifice. God has been longsuffering with us, but his longsuffering is not endless when it comes to blatant disobedience and evil in a society. Again, we see this in the story of ancient Israel.
A Pivotal Moment of Time
In our own nation, we are at a critical moment—a pivotal
moment. We are living at the very instant of our history where enough people
have finally come to the point of saying, “no more killing of babies,” that we
may actually be able to make this major change in our laws. We are at the point
where we can give these unborn children their right to live.
But as you know, the opposition is great. The forces of
politics and finance are waged against it. There is actually no certainty how
this matter will end.
Our nation is at the point of choosing what path to follow.
Should we continue to further implicate ourselves in rebellion against the ways
of the Lord, there is no doubt in my mind that God’s presence will soon (very soon) depart
from our land. We have already seen it in many ways. Should we fail at this
point, as our nation collapses to the ground, it will be shouting “Ichabod!”
We are turning this beautiful land into a land of hatred and
destruction.
“Ichabod!” The glory of the Lord has departed!
But it is not his glory that has abandoned us. We have abandoned him. However, there is a road back. We can begin to travel that road now.
Next week—Ebenezer. “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
************************
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. (Matthew 5:8)
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 29:11-14)
Show me Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths. Guide me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; all day long I wait for You. (Psalm 25:4-5)
Let us then
approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and
find grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:16)
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