Stolen Ark
Brad Pearce
Heroes and Villains: The Lost Ark • Sermon • Submitted
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Transcript
It is as always a privilege to share the Word of God with this church.
Today we are switching gears a bit in our study of the Word. We recently finished up looking at The Sermon on the Mount. That is a very didactic text, meaning Jesus was preaching to the crowd and giving direct instruction. Although the sermon comes from the gospel narrative of Matthew, the Sermon on the Mount is a direct teaching of Christ. Today we are going to switch gear and look at a historical narrative. Over the next 5 weeks we will be walking through the story of Lost Ark seen in 1 Samuel 4-7.
This is a continuation on a series we did last year entitled Heroes and Villains walking through the first 3 chapters of 1 Samuel. If you weren’t able to be with us then or can’t remember back that far, don’t worry. We’ll make sure everyone has the context they need to know where we’re at in this.
The Historical Narrative portion of Scripture truly is fascinating. We are about to be involved in an epic tale over the next few weeks. The Bible is full of interesting, action-packed, sometimes even horrifying tales that have the ability to captivate our attention, if we really look at what is happening here.
I love movies. I love getting sucked into a good story. My wife and I like going to the movies, now of course, that’s more for the popcorn than anything else, but we enjoy going nonetheless. Just about everyone loves a good story.
Our text this morning from 1 Samuel is a fascinating story. There is drama, battle, and loss. We’re even going to break it down into three acts as we walk through the text. But there are two incredible truths that separate our historical narratives in the Bible from the stories we read and the movies we read. Number one, they are real. These are accounts of things that actually happened. We will read today about 30,000 men falling in battle. Those are 30,000 real people that died that day. Now some stories and movies are based on history. They may also give factual tellings of events past however, many of these are doctored up to provide more drama during the movie going experience. The historical narratives we read in Scripture are absolutely true. The Second, and most distinguishing difference between our Historical Narratives from the Bible and other stories or movies we may read is that all of these stories are for our edification! What does that mean? It means that not only did the events of these stories happen, but that God uses them to teach us! Now I understand that stories often carry morals and teach values, but while those lessons may have some temporal value, the teaching from God’s Word makes an eternal impact.
All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
What does this mean for us? This means that we can be excited as we read through this historical narrative today because not only is it a fascinating and really intense story, but that God breathed this out, and it is beneficial for us! God uses His Word to grow His children and prepare them to serve Him. The ultimate point of this life is to give God glory, serve Him, and enjoy His presence. He equips us to do that through the study of His Word.
So I said all of that to say this: It is an incredible grace of God that He would give us fascinating stories that are both true and edifying. As we walk through the Word of God this morning, may we do so like an excited child hanging on every word while simultaneously praying for God to teach, reprove, correct, and train us that we may be equipped to serve Him in all that we do.
With that in mind, if you haven’t already, turn to 1 Samuel Chapter 4.
The first three chapters prior to this tell of the story of Samuel’s birth. His mother was barren. God blesses her with a child and she vows to give him to the service of God so after he is weened she gives him to the temple in Shiloh. There, the high priest Eli, takes Samuel in under his wing to serve in the temple. Eli had two sons, Hophni and Phineas. They served as priests, but they were wicked men. We’re told that even though they served as priests, they did not know the Lord. It was just a position of power for them to abuse. They stole offerings from the people to eat themselves. We see a big contrast between Samuel who is faithful in his service in the temple and Hophni and Phineas who are wicked. We see that Samuel is literally and verbally called by God. God tells Samuel that Eli’s family has sinned grievously and that they will be punished. After that, Samuel continues to grow and it because evident that he is a prophet of the the Lord. God was speaking through Samuel in a very special way.
That leads us to where we pick up today.
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 four thousand men on 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 of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
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.
When our text says that the Word of Samuel came to Israel, this means that Samuel had become recognized as a prophet of God and that Israel was now listening to him. It really caps off what we learn about Samuel in the end of chapter 3, that he was growing in the Lord and the special relationship he had with God as a prophet.
Then we start to get into the meat of the story we are focussing on today. Before we look at the application of this text, let’s make sure we have the stage properly set. Israel goes out to battle the Philistines. Who are those guys? “The Philistines were an immigrant people from the military aristocracy of the island of Crete (Amos 9:7). Small numbers of Philistines were in the land at the time of Abraham, but they came in larger numbers soon after Israel came to Canaan from Egypt. They were organized into five city-states. (Enduring Word Commentary, Guzik)” They were well equipped warriors. They were the first group in the area to process iron. It is safe to say that they were a formidable opponent. This wasn’t the first bout between the groups either. You may remember the story of Samson. He was a mighty Israelite Warrior and Judge. That was until he disobeyed God and God took away Samson’s incredible strength. Samson’s primary foes were the Philistines. After being captured by them he was given strength one more time to take a large number of them out.
The Philistines and the Israelites had one major problem, they both wanted to occupy the same area. All of us who have ever been in a stare down for the last scoop of cobbler at a Sunday lunch know that when there is a fixed quantity of something, in our Text’s case land, it can only go to one person, or in this case nation.
So the Israelites battle with the Philistines. They want to drive them out of the land. And in just the first two verses of chapter 4 we see that they went to battle and it did not go well for the Israelites. Roughly 4000 Israelite warriors are killed. Just reading this portion of Scripture, we may begin thinking much like the Israelites did at this point. They ask, “Why has the Lord defeated us!”
That’s a great question we will return to in a moment. Their plan to get over the defeat is to bring in the ark of the covenant of the Lord. So that with the presence of the Ark would ensure they wouldn’t be defeated. So they bring in the ark and wouldn’t you know it but along with the ark come the two worthless priests, Hophni and Phineas. But as soon as the ark makes it way into the camp, the whole army shouts for joy! It was so loud that the earth shook at the cries for joy.
Now lets break down some application from what is going on here:
The Israelites showed at least one good understanding in this section of Scripture that we too need to understand: The battle belongs to the Lord. They said in verse 3, “Why has the Lord defeated us before the Philistines?” Not why have those big bad philistines been able to get the upper hand on us? They understood that ultimately God is in control. We see all throughout Scripture that God is the true ruler of this earth.
For kingship belongs to the Lord,
and he rules over the nations.
keep this in mind when you are reacting to the political news of the day. We spoke last Sunday night about the Christians duty to influence the social order in a way that is honoring to God, but at the same time we understand that God is ultimately in control.
He changes times and seasons;
he removes kings and sets up kings;
he gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding;
I love our country and I am thankful for all those who served to provide us with the freedoms that we enjoy today. But we must understand that God controls this world and if there comes a time when He sees fit to shift power, regime, or governmental philosophy, God will still be supreme and worthy of all honor, glory and praise. He is where our hope lies. We must understand that the battle, all battles belong to the Lord.
So the Israelites understood that the Battle was the Lords and that He allowed them to be defeated. Their response shows us another application for us in this first act.
2. Their response to defeat was superstition. Superstition. They got whipped up on the battlefield and thought that the best course of action would be to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord into battle with them. Their reaction to the Lord not blessing their endeavors was to bring in a good luck charm. The ark represented the presence and power of God. One study bible notes, “Knowing that victory or defeat depended upon the Lord’s presence, they confused the symbol of His presence with his actual presence.”
They were acting by chance rather than faith. They thought maybe if we bring the ark we’ll win. It was superstition. And you know what? One sign of fallen humanity and our lack of reliance on God is our huge tendency to use superstitions. Did you know nearly 80% of the buildings around the world lack a 13th floor? The elevator skips right from 12 to 14. Now of course in reality they still have a 13th floor they just call it the 14th because calling it the 13th would bring bad luck. I remember one season of Kentucky Basketball in which I would watch every game upstairs in my room because when I watched it downstairs with the family we would lose. Hockey players don’t shave their beards during the playoffs. Humans do a lot of silly things to manufacture control over situations that they ultimately have no control over. If I’m being honest, all those superstitions are plum dumb.
Israel and us today would be much better off going to God in prayer, saying, “Your will be done, Your Kingdom come.” Then trying to manipulate the the actions of God by what we do or the artifacts we use. Its akin to saying you are saved by dipping in the water of baptism. Even when we laid hands on Brother Ronnie for our deacon ordination last Sunday, we made it clear that there was no power in the action itself. We were acting in obedience and participating in something that symbolizes being set apart for service. Too often we elevate the action over what it intended to represent! The Israelites thought that bring the ark would ensure victory because it worked for Joshua in bringing down the walls of Jericho. There, the Israelites carried the ark around the city and would go on to be victorious. The difference between the battle of Jericho and the occurence in our text today is that God TOLD Joshua to use the ark that way. In our section today, they made no attempt to ask God what they should do. Samuel was a prophet! They could’ve asked him to talk to God. But instead they acted upon what they could control and their own assumptions about how God worked. But proverbs 3:5
Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
They showed trust in their abilities to manipulate God. They did not call on Him, they tried to manufacture His presence. And we see in verse 5 that they were excited about their efforts. They shout with joy at the clever decision to manufacture God’s presence. We often try to do the same things. As we looked at recently in the Greatest Sermon Ever Given, many will come to Jesus saying Lord, Lord did we not do many great things in your name, but He will say depart from me I never knew you. God wants our hearts, not our actions. When He has our hearts that will influence our actions but the order there can’t be switched around.
So here in the first at of our story we see defeat and superstition. Let’s look at Act 2.
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, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.”
Our second act of today’s narrative consists of the Philistines reacting to the cheering of the Israelites and the presence of the Ark. There are a few interesting things to note. We see that the Philistines are also superstitious. They recognize that the ark is associated with the presence of the God of the Israelites. They also know about what God has brought the Israelites through. They know about the plagues and the deliverance from Egypt. However, even though they knew those things, they did not cower down. Instead they doubled down and prepared to fight even harder.
But there should be one thing that jumps out at us as we are reading through the Philistines understanding of the Israelite’s God. If you notice in verses 8 and 9, God is plural! It says “Gods” Who can deliver us from the power or hand of THESE mighty GODS? These are the GODS who struck...”
Its unclear exactly how much the Philistines understood about the God of the Israelites, but it is clear that they understood them to be a polytheistic people. There’s two ways to interpret this and I’m not sure one is really better than the other.
The culture in Israel was so similar to that of everyone around them that the polytheistic Philistines just assumed that the Israelites were no different. The wicked Priests Hophni and Phineas were known to participate in religious prostitution rituals just like the Canaanite neighbors. We see all throughout the book of Judges that the Israelites often did whatever was right in the sight of their own eyes and had a desire to be like the rest of the nations. So it could be that the culture just looked polytheistic. OR
It could be that the Philistines saw how willing the Israelite people were to follow after other Gods than the one true God who delivered them out of Egypt. I’ve mentioned this before, but I was recently reading a journal article about the Israelites being polytheistic and at first it made me made because I said, no they worshiped the one true God. But then as you read through the Old Testament, you see just how willing they were to ditch that God for whatever other god they could find.
Either way, it is clear that God’s chosen nation was awful at staying true to the God who was so faithful to be their deliverer. They were functionally polytheistic! By that I mean whether or not they were actively serving multiple false gods, many Israelites were living lives that were indistinguishable from those who did believe in multiple false gods.
Now, before we move on to act 3, I want to park here for just a second. We look at the Israelites and we think, how can you be so silly! How can you not serve the God who brought you up out of Egypt? How can you not be faithful to the God who has established you as a people? How can you be so functionally polytheistic!
But if we were to take a step back, many Christians are in the exact same boat. Many claim the name of Christ as their Savior, but they don’t have any desire to serve the God of their salvation. Many claim the name of Christ but are completely unfaithful to the God they say established their salvation. Many claim the name of Christ but are functionally polytheistic. That is that they say they serve the Lord while also serving money, or themselves, or their pride.
Let me ask you this morning, are you functionally polytheistic? Want a good way to test if you are? Ask if anyone can tell any difference between you and the unbelieving world. If not, then its likely that you, like Israel, need to repent and cling to the God of your salvation. Israel was called to be a nation set apart from the rest of the World. Christians are called to be set apart from the unbelieving World. We aren’t living up to that calling when we are indistinguishable from the world.
Let’s look at act 3.
So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
The Philistines fought. Israel lost. Everyone got out of dodge as quickly as they could! 30,000 soldiers just from Israel died. Even more than that the good luck charm was captured. Those two wicked priests, killed during the battle.
What an ending to this chapter. It seems a bit dark, right?
Heres the reality we all have to understand. God is a righteous God and He does not take lightly to the profaning of His name. What we see happening in these last two verse, and really the whole section we’ve gone through today, is an expression of God’s judgment.
His people sinned against Him. They shouldn’t have been indistinguishable from the pagan nations. There shouldn’t have been cultic prostitution in the temple. There shouldn’t have been priests stealing from the offerings the people were making. All of these are sins against the God whom Israel said it served. And they had been warned! They had been warned to listen to the Lord.
“But if in spite of this you will not listen to me, but walk contrary to me, then I will walk contrary to you in fury, and I myself will discipline you sevenfold for your sins.
God is just and sin against Him will not go unpunished. For Israel, that punishment was given right here on the battle field. That punishment also extended to God’s promise to take out Hophni and Phineas due to their sins against Him.
We have to understand that God is true to His Word.
This expression of God’s judgment on the Israelites should point us to the reality of the other judgments He will bring.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
Every one will die. Every one will face judgment. That judgment will be rendered upon the sin in your life. Now here is the thing with sin:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
We’ve all sinned. We all fall short of the glory of God. Later on in Romans it says the wages of sin is death.
Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.
So those are the facts of the situation. Everyone will face divine judgment, every one has sinned, sin incurs death, God will not be mocked, everyone will reap what they sow.
That is the just reality of every single person. We are all sinners rightfully, justly owed the wrath of God.
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
Israel tried to manipulate the presence of God by bringing the ark into battle field. They tried to win their own victory. Many people try to win their own salvation. They try to earn it by being baptized. Or always taking communion. Or coming to church every Sunday. All of those are good things, but they aren’t THE thing. You are saved by God’s grace alone through Faith in Christ alone. Those other things are what you do in response to the grace you have received.
Don’t be like the Israelites banking on superstition and religious actions you control. Fall contrite before the Lord, repent of your rebellious actions, place your faith in Christ’s completed work on the cross. Boldly proclaim Christ and live for Him and Him alone. Start today! Come down during this hymn of response and make it know that you understand Christ is the only hope. It’s time to stop living like the rest of the world and start resting in faith in Christ. Come today. Let’s pray.