Sermon Tone Analysis

God's Control and Correction - 1 Samuel 4

PRAY

Defeat is an opportunity and discipline an advantage when we understand God to be sovereign in his control and loving in his correction.

In our text today, however, we derive application for ourselves positively from the negative example of Israel’s elders in battle against the Philistines and Eli’s reaction to the bad news of losing the ark of the covenant:

From 4:1 a to b, some unknown period of time after Samuel’s conversation with Eli.

4:1b-7:1 ends up being the story of ark of the covenant, the first part of which shows the fulfillment of God’s judgment against the house of Eli. - In contrast to what we said before regarding Eli, God is not a passive Father but a present Father.

Defeat’s Opportunity (vv.

1-11)

“Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?”

(v. 3)

- right question; unfortunately they’ll come up with the wrong answer

Right Question, Wrong Answer (vv.

1-4)

Philistines - “were a non-Semitic people whose origins were most likely in Crete or in some other part of the Aegean Sea area.... [map] They lived in five main towns on the southern Canaan coast—Gaza, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Ashdod.” - Merrill, E. H. (1985). 1 Samuel.

In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.),

The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 436).

Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.

Now the Philistines were enemies of God, and a threat to God’s people.

But the Lord was bringing judgment on the sins of his people through a foreign army, as he promised he would do if they strayed from him (Lev 26:17 and Deut 28:25).

They had marched into battle without God (on their/your/our side) - So the elders were correct to think that since they lost, the Lord did not fight for them.

However, what they didn’t actually do is repent and seek God.

At the end of all this fiasco with the ark, Samuel would instruct the people in a right response:

If you are returning, prove it, and he will deliver you.

Defeat then becomes an opportunity to see and name the point of our neglect, and to repent and return to God.

Instead, they take a different approach, a sort of superstitious one: “Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may save us from the power of our enemies.”

(v. 3)

What’s luck got to do with it?

(vv.

5-8)

I do not think we are led to conclude that the only problem with the second defeat is Hophni and Phinehas.

- “Israel called for the Ark, instead of for the God of the Ark and of the nation.”

- James Dunk in Biblical Illustrator

Was this an attempt to demonstrate commitment to the covenant or treating God like they could twist his arm into fighting for them if they brought along their good luck charm?

The Ark of the Covenant was not a talisman - It was a reminder of the presence of God and his power and authority to lead them and to keep his covenant with them.

What was the ark?

It was a chest made of wood.

It was overlaid with pure gold, within and without, and crowned with a mercy seat of pure gold.

What was its purpose?

It was a material thing representing a spiritual idea.

It was a thing made with hands to symbolise things not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

It was a temporality pointing to a spirituality.

- J.H. Jowett in Biblical Illustrator

If the Lord had instructed them to do so, and then they had carried it in faith and obedience… THAT would have mattered.

But not like this!

High regard for the Ark was natural.

Read its history.

It was made on a Divine plan; and housed in the Holy of holies; it was the resting place of the Shekinah.

By grand histories it had taken a deep place in their reverence and love.

Here lay the danger.

It is easy to cling to the visible loved symbol, whilst the invisible world of truth for which it stands is “let slip.”

We may carry to life’s battlefields all our religious methods, and fail in the fight.

Faith in God would have purified their hearts (Acts 15:9) and made them heroes in the fight.

- James Dunk in Biblical Illustrator

There really is a difference: God honors those who honor him.

Knowing and obeying God versus treating him like your talisman or hidden superpower (superstition, idolatry)

[Please allow me to caution you somewhere in here not to treat a cross symbol or Bible verses like a good luck charm.

Now, I sincerely do not want to be overly harsh in this.

But I must tell you honestly that I do not believe such things are a reflection of our maturity but our immaturity.]

You might even use the act of prayer or of reading your Bible or of giving to God’s work rather superstitiously than as an act of worship to God and building a relationship of trust with him.

Or attending church… or taking the Lord’s Table, and so on.

And it’s never a good sign for our understanding of God when (pagans) the godless have a similar view.

(Philistines fear bc of the ark)

Who is actually fearing God more at this point, even in their confused, polytheistic version?

(6:8) - The mighty hand of God had reached their ears!

:-)

So we see that Israel had prematurely celebrated when they brought the ark...

It proved to be an unwise move, bringing the ark.

- As a consequence:

Lost Ark and Lost Lives (vv.

9-11)

*The danger of the form of religion rather than the spirit, the reality.

Defeat should drive us to God… to relent, repent, and return to God… not to some outward forms that supposedly put us on are the nice list instead of the naughty list… no, to a true spirit of dependence on God.

Defeat becomes advantage when the worthlessness of superstition is exposed and causes us to return to God.

We also see too that defeat becomes advantage when poor leadership is removed to make way for godly leadership.

(that’s part of what takes place next)

Discipline’s Advantage (vv.

12-22)

I ask you: Is God just in his judgments?

(as is the case in his punishment of Hophni and Phinehas)

Does God discipline vindictively or as a Father who loves his children? - Can there be any spiteful retribution in the heart of God? NO!

What is God’s aim with discipline?

And in the end, God's glory is the ultimate purpose of corrective discipline.

But in our text we find another negative example of failed response to God’s corrective discipline.

Deadly Bad News (vv.

12-18)

An interesting and dramatic retelling of the events… as the young man runs beyond Eli (who could not see him) to tell the townspeople and then back to Eli to give his report.

Eli’s main fear was for the ark (ultimately his responsibility) more than for his sons - “his heart trembled for the ark of God” (v.

13)

At the height of Eli’s dismay, he falls from his seat and breaks his neck.

- The reader is likely mean to feel the “weight” of Eli’s death.

The Orphan Ichabod & the Glory of God (vv.

19-22)

The recently widowed wife of Phinehas gives birth to a son, whom she names, Ichabod, meaning “no glory.”

“The glory has departed from Israel” (vv.

21&22)

The glory has departed… There is no glory [true, but not true] - for the moment, the glory had been removed from Israel, true.

But God’s glory is far from *tarnished? tainted?

overturned?

Can God be captured in enemy hands?

Is his glory gone because the ark is displaced?

(Does God live in something built by human hands?

Acts 7:48-49 - That’s the essence of idolatry: worshipping something creat-ed rather than the Creat-or.

Who Gets the Glory?

In your life… whether in difficulties, defeat or discipline:

[Concluding Summary & Application]

Opportunity in Difficulties, Discipline, and Defeat

Does God not provide an alternate way to handle defeat, his loving discipline, and difficulties in our lives?

(the purifying/cleansing that leads to righteousness - change in the right direction; even the quitting or removal of harmful team members)

Idols of the heart

Repentance from the heart