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Introduction

The reformation we see here in this passage was slow in coming, and did not last very long. But at the same time, it was real. Reformations are messy, and cannot be understood by the tidy-minded. As we live in a time that is desperate for real reformation, there are many things for us to learn here.

The Text

“And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD. And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD . . .” (1 Sam. 7:1-17).

Summary of the Text

So the ark of the covenant was taken to Kirjathjearim, a predominantly Gentile town, and it was kept at the house of a man named Abinadab. Abinadab’s son was named Eleazar, and he was consecrated to take care of the ark (v. 1). The ark was there for twenty years, and the entire house of Israel lamented after the Lord (v. 2). We know from other chronologies that this was the time when Samson destroyed the temple of the Philistines, and so Samuel judged that the time was right for reformation. The Israelites were suffering at the hands of the Philistines (v. 3), and Samuel told the whole nation to do three things, which all amounted to the same thing. He told them to wholeheartedly return to the Lord (v. 3), to put away their idols (v. 3), and prepare their hearts to serve the Lord alone (v. 3). And so this is what Israel did (v. 4). Samuel saw this, and so he mustered them at Mizpeh so that he could pray for them (v. 5). This they did, and consecrated themselves (v. 6).

The Philistines heard about this, and went up against them. The response was one of fear (v. 7). They turned to Samuel, asking him to pray for them (v. 8), which is why he had called them together in the first place (v. 5). Samuel offered up a lamb as an ascension sacrifice, and God heard his prayer (v. 9). The Philistines arrived just as he was sacrificing, the Lord thundered from the sky, and the Israelites routed them (v. 10), and pursued them to Bethcar (v. 11). And so Samuel set up a memorial between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer (v. 12).

The Philistines were set back all the days of Samuel (v. 13). The Israelite towns controlled by the Philistines, from Ekron to Gath, were returned to Israel (v. 14). And there was peace with the Amorites as well. Samuel judged Israel to the end of his life (v. 15). He was a circuit judge, traveling between Bethel, Gilgal, Mizpeh (v. 16), and his hometown of Ramah (v. 17).

A Lament for the Lord

Israel has the ark back from the Philistines, but everything is still unsettled. There is not a place of worship, like there was at Shiloh, and the ark is being kept was a consecrated man at somebody’s house. This was the state of affairs for twenty years, and the entire nation felt it. It tells us that “all the house of Israel” lamented after the Lord.

Reformations are real solutions for real problems. As William Tyndale once put it, God is “no patcher.” He doesn’t fuss around the edges. His approach is a root and branch approach. Jeremiah once spoke of the tendency of false prophets to “heal the wound of the people lightly” (Jer. 8:11). When someone rushes in to address the people’s “felt needs,” or to tell them “how to have their best life now,” the message is a light daub. Israel’s worship here is in raggedy tatters, and this is the way it is for twenty years—recognized as such for twenty years.

Samuel’s Message

One might argue that Israel’s real god here was their fear of the Philistines. Even after their repentance, they fear (v. 7). God is gracious, and responds even when men cry out to Him with mixed motives. Think of how God even responded to Ahab, for example (1 Kings 21: 27). Their trouble was the Philistines (v. 3). Because of it, they cried out to the true God (v. 2). The victory of Samson had just happened, and Samuel decided that it was time to call for a decision.

As mentioned before, Samuel calls them to three things. The first is to return to the Lord with all their hearts (v. 3). Having done so, they were to purge their lives of the strange gods and Ashtaroth. These baals were the male deities, and the others were the female fertility figures. Get rid of them all, Samuel said. And the third thing was to prepare their hearts to serve the living God only (v. 3). Here they are again: 1. Return wholeheartedly; 2. Purge out all idolatry; and 3. Pursue God only.

Now the fact that the Israelites listened to Samuel, and got rid of their baals and Ashtaroth (v. 4) means that their twenty year lament for the Lord (v. 2) was compromised.

Reformation and Worship

If Israel had gathered at Mizpeh, and had gone to war with the Philistines without repenting, what would have happened? They would have been soundly defeated again. The actual battle here is what we might call an instrument. If they had not repented, they would have used that instrument, and when they did repent they used that instrument. But when a repentant heart picks up an instrument, the attitude is entirely different. Not by might, not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord (Zech. 2:6).

We are surrounded by Philistines, and we are beleaguered by them. The ancient Israelites had to deal with Ekron and Gath, with Ashkelon and Gaza, and with Ashdod. We have to deal with predatory taxation, and abortion on demand, and sodomy exalted. We have to deal with corruption in the highest places, and with moral stupidity in the lowest. We see this, and go out to battle, and what happens? We get our tails kicked. Why is this? It is because of that little god shelf we have at home. It is because the gods we serve do not want to go to war with their fellow idols. We must return to the Lord, we must throw down the idols, and we must pursue the Lord, and the Lord alone.

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Introduction

We now can see the shape of an interesting storyline taking place. We see Israelites acting like faithless Gentiles, and Gentiles acting like faithful Israelites. In the pages to come, we are going to see quite a bit of this.

The Text

“And the ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months. And the Philistines called for the priests and the diviners, saying, What shall we do to the ark of the LORD? tell us wherewith we shall send it to his place . . .” (1 Sam. 6:1-21).

Summary of the Text

The Philistines had the ark for seven months, meaning that they were plagued for about that time (v. 1). When they got to the end of their rope, they asked their holy men how to unload the ark (v. 2). They gave good advice— don’t send it off without a trespass or guilt offering (v. 3). What shall that offering be? The answer was that there should be five golden tumors, to match the number of the chief lords of the chief cities (v. 4). There were also mice, which may have represented the surrounding agrarian villages, which were apparently plagued by mice eating the grain. The mice “marred the land” (v. 5). All Philistia was afflicted. They were told to give glory to the God of Israel, and perhaps He will take His hand off them, their gods, and their land (v. 5). The priests of Philistia reminded the lords of the Philistines not to harden their hearts the way Pharaoh and the Egyptians had (v. 6). They were advised to take two milch cows, and to tie them to a new cart, and to take their calves away (v. 7). The ark is to be put on the cart, and the gold tumors and mice put in a box next to it, and the cart turned loose (v. 8). If the milch cows head (uphill) to Israel, then God is afflicting them, but if the milch cows go in search of their calves, then the plague was a coincidence (v. 9). So they followed the advice (vv. 10-11). The milch cows, lowing for their calves, made a beeline for Israel anyway, and the lords of the Philistines followed after, right up to the border (v. 12). The men of Bethshemesh were in the wheat harvest (May/June), and they were interrupted by the arrival of the cart (v. 13). The cart stopped by the house of a man named Joshua, and so they offered up the milch cows as a burnt offering (v. 14). They put the ark on a rock, and offered more burnt offerings (v. 15). The lords
of the Philistines, satisfied, returned home (v. 16). The gold tumors corresponded to the five great cities (v. 17). The mice represented all the villages (v. 18).

What could go wrong now? God smote the men of that city because they desecrated the ark by looking into it, and over 50,000 people died (v. 19)—worse than the casualties at the first battle of Ebenezer (v. 19). And the men of Bethshemesh said that they could not stand it (v. 20). And so they handed the ark off to the inhabitants of a place called Kirjathjearim (v. 21).

Keeping in mind that the ancient literary structure won’t necessarily match our chapters and verses (or sermon divisions), consider this chiastic structure.

a First Battle of Ebenezer (Philistine victory)—1 Sam. 4:1b-11
b Ark held by the Gentiles—1 Sam. 4:12-22
c Ark plagues the Philistines—1 Sam. 5: 1-12
d Return of the ark—1 Sam. 6: 1-18
c’ Ark plagues Bethshemesh—1 Sam. 6: 19-21
b’ Ark held by the Gentiles in Kirjathjearim—1 Sam. 7: 1-2
a’ Second Battle of Ebenezer (Israelite victory)—1 Sam. 7: 3-17

A Roundabout Transfer

A few generations later, Asaph tells the story of the Exodus in Psalm 78. But he includes this story near the end of that psalm, where the ark of the covenant went into exile and then returned (Ps. 78:58-72). This is a description of how God moved the ark of the covenant from Shiloh to Zion at Jerusalem, the place He had chosen for the sake of David. God judged His people first, and then rose up like a drunken warrior and smote the Philistines (Ps. 78: 65). This psalm tells us that this was all part of God’s plan to establish the throne in Judah.

What’s Wrong with This Picture?

Let’s consider a few geographical details. Ekron was near where the Sorek Valley opened up into the plain. Bethshemesh was part way up that valley, and was soon to be the site of many of Samson’s great deeds. Delilah was from that region (Judges 16:4). Bethshemesh was a Levitical city (Josh. 21:16). It was full of Levites, who ought to have known how to handle the ark. But the first thing they did was offer up two milch cows for a burnt offering —when the law required that such offerings be of males (Lev. 1:3). They set it up on a stone for people to gawk at, when the law required the ark to be covered (Num. 4:5). Then they looked into the ark, and so the Lord slew a bunch of them. The lesson is clear—these Levites are Philistines.

Instead of repenting, they seek to unload the ark. So they send the ark up to the road to Kirjathjearim. But this was predominantly a Gentile city (Josh. 9:17). Within the borders of Israel, this was nevertheless one of the towns of the Gibeonites who tricked Joshua. So the Levites hand the ark off to the Gibeonites.

From Top to Bottom

We have learned from Hannah that the Lord raises the lowly and topples the arrogant. But this is not something that happens to solitary individuals only—as when one president falls and is replaced with another one, but with the institution of the presidency itself still intact. No, when God mixes it up, the whole structure of society is involved. God is not playing patty-cake here. There are many moving parts, and the stakes are high. The run up to the second battle of Ebenezer includes the ark remaining peacefully at Kirjathjearim for 20 years (1 Sam. 7:2), and it also includes the time in which we see all the exploits of Samson. Just as Dagon fell before the ark, so the whole house of Dagon fell before (and upon) Samson. And it was right after that when Samuel decided to declare repentant war upon the Philistines.

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Introduction

Recall that the elders of Israel had summoned the ark of the covenant to the battlefield (1 Sam. 4:3), and the entire army of Israel was full of confidence that it would “do” something (1 Sam. 4:5). But it didn’t do anything, and Israel was decisively defeated and the ark captured. And so then it started to do things.

The Text

“And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod. When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon . . .” (1 Sam. 5:1-12).

Summary of the Text

The Philistines brought the ark of the covenant which they had captured from Ebenezer, the battlefield, to Ashdod, one of the principal cities of Philistia (v. 1). The five great cities were Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gaza, Gath, and Ekron). Our modern name Palestine comes from the fact that Philistines lived there. They brought the ark into the temple of Dagon, their principal deity, and set it next to their idol (v. 2). When they got up in the morning, the idol was prostrate before the ark of the Lord. So they helped their god back up (v. 3). When they got up the next day, the same thing had happened, only the statue was now broken—head and hands broken off on the threshold (v. 4). From that time on, the threshold of Dagon’s house became something those entering would not step on (v. 5).

This was highly symbolic, but the Lord then got down to business. The hand of the Lord was heavy on Ashdod and the surrounding area, and He destroyed them by means of tumors (v. 6). The men of Ashdod put two and two together and decided that the ark could not remain (v. 7). So all the lords of the Philistines decided to try another city—and settled upon Gath (v. 8). But when the ark got there, the epidemic from Ashdod came with it (v. 9). So they tried a third city, Ekron, but the Ekronites didn’t wait for the epidemic to start (v. 10). So they had a meeting of their leaders, and it was decided to send the ark back to Israel as an act of self-defense (v. 11). Those who did not die still had the tumors, and the cry of the city went up to Heaven (v. 12).

The Plague

This plague that the Philistines had to cope with was almost certainly the Bubonic Plague. The affliction was accompanied by tumors, it was deadly, and it was associated with rodents. The Bubonic Plague causes painful swellings in the lymph nodes, in the groin and armpit, and these are called buboes. In v. 6, the LXX adds that “rats appeared in their land, and death and destruction were throughout the city.”When the Philistines sent the ark back to Israel in the next chapter, they included as a guilt offering five golden replicas of the tumors and five golden mice (1 Sam. 6:4). In short, God was dealing with them roughly. His hand was heavy upon them with a “very great destruction” (v. 9). God would not fight for Israel through the ark on sinful Israel’s terms. But once that issue was settled (as it was by the routing of the Israelite army), God undertook to fight for Israel on His own terms. And it is important to note that this was done through the instrumentality of the ark of the covenant. Israel’s problem was not that they believed that the ark had spiritual authority—it was that they did not themselves live under that authority. The ark contained the Ten Commandments, and Hophni and Phinehas were the immoral priests who brought those sacred words up to the battlefield.

Desolation at Shiloh

After this, Shiloh had been wiped out, presumably in the immediate aftermath of this first battle at Ebenezer. Centuries later, when Jeremiah is rebuking the people for having made the very same mistake about the Temple as had been made at Shiloh, he points to the desolation of Shiloh (Jer. 7:12, 14; 26: 6, 9). God says through Jeremiah that He destroyed Shiloh because of the wickedness of Israel—it was not just Hophni and Phinehas.

A Grotesque Victory Lap

The ark of the covenant is taken on a grand tour of the land of the Philistines, a parody of triumph. Despite the fact that the spiritual combat here is in deadly earnest, we are plainly meant to see the humor in this story. Dagon falls over twice, and then the ark tours all of Philistia, leaving mayhem in its wake. It was captured in the far north near Aphek, taken to Ashdod in the southwest, then over to Gath in the east, due north to Ekron, where they weren’t having any, not even for a little while, and then straight east back to Israel with all due haste. Israel was winning great victories, in part because there were no Israelites involved.

If Only

God is a great man of war (Ex. 15:3). When He bares His right arm, He accomplishes all that He wills. He can use human leaders, and often does, but He periodically does this sort of thing when such leaders get above themselves. As Charles de Gaulle once put it, the graveyards are full of indispensable men. Note what happens here as a prelude to this great victory—the human leaders die or disappear. Samuel disappears for three chapters after 4:1. Hophni and Phinehas are killed in battle for their sins. Eli falls and dies in grief. Hannah had begun this book with her song that exulted in the emptying of thrones. The fall of leaders in the church is not necessarily a bad thing. It may well be a prelude to grace, a prelude to great reformation and revival.

Too often we say if only in places where God says no such thing. If only the old wineskins would hold the new wine . . . If only the old leaders would accept the young blood . . . If only the curators would stop polishing the marble floors of the Reformation Heritage Museum . . . If only we would learn that God is fully willing to overthrow His appointed leaders.

Take this lesson from God’s playbook. Reformations are messy. Do you pray for reformation in the church? Well and good, but you are praying for a mess. This is not said to discourage you—we are called, like Hannah, to exult in God’s pattern of doing things. God overthrows people who should know better. Creative destruction is something that He knows how to do well. But we still wince. Sometimes we think that they had it coming like Hophni and Phinehas did, and other times we think (deep down in our hearts) that the Lord was a bit severe, as with Eli. But reflect and learn wisdom.

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