It’s all very ‘Raiders of the lost ark’ today….

So we leave Samuel where he is for now. He has some growing and maturing to do. God has spoken directly to him and he has shown himself willing to follow and trust and obey. This is a very special lad but it is not yet his time to act.

The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and he let none of Samuel’s words fall to the ground. And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba recognized that Samuel was attested as a prophet of the Lord. The Lord continued to appear at Shiloh, and there he revealed himself to Samuel through his word.  1 Samuel 3:19-21

Meanwhile the Israelites and the Philistines enter into battle. The Philistines are a force to be reckoned with. Their weapons and armour are more sophisticated than the Israelites. No worries though, eh? The Israelites have their God to protect them – the all-powerful God who has led them to victory so many times before…….except this time they were defeated. That raised a few questions. Next time they take the ark of the covenant of the Lord Almighty with them into battle – the physical representation of the presence of their God amongst them…..Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, accompany the ark. When the Philistines heard of this, they were afraid – and it took a lot to make them afraid. They fully knew the significance of the ark. They knew all the stories of what this God had done for the people of Israel.

But not this time.

This time the Philistines again defeated the Israelites.

This time, the ark of God was captured.

This time, Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, both died.

Because they had all taken God’s protection and support for granted. They had all gone their own way and disobeyed God and disrespected God and then expected God to help them in battle.

This time, it wasn’t going to work that way.

It was time to face the consequences of years of disobedience and debauchery and exploitation and idolatry and compromise.

When Eli is told the news, the shock is too much for him –

When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man, and he was heavy. He had led Israel forty years.  1 Samuel 4:18

The shock forces Phinehas’ wife to go into labour and she delivers a boy, losing her life in the process. The boy is called Ichabod, meaning ‘no glory’, saying, “The Glory has departed from Israel”.

That just about sums it up.

The Philistines placed the captured ark in Dagon’s temple. The next morning, the statue of Dagon had fallen face down before the ark.

They stood him up again and it happened again the next day – and his head and his hands had fallen off.

I think God was trying to tell them something.

The people of Ashdod suffered physically with disease and tumours because of the presence of the ark in their community. They begged for it to be taken somewhere else.

The same thing happened in Gath.

And Ekron.

It seems that a good and holy thing can be a disaster in the wrong hands.

After seven months, the Philistines have had enough. They seek advice about how to return the ark to the Israelites. They are advised to send five gold tumours and five gold rats (because they had suffered with both) as a guilt offering and let the cart be led by two cows that have recently calved. They watch as God leads the cart back to the Israelites.

They witness the people of Beth Shemesh rejoicing as the ark is returned and creating a burnt offering to God out of the cart and the cows. They know they’ve done the right thing.

Some of the inhabitants of Beth Shemesh have not done the right thing however. 70 of them look inside the ark. They should know better. They are instantly struck down.

The people need reminding of the power and holiness of the ark and how it should be treated with the utmost awe and respect –

“Who can stand in the presence of the Lord, this holy God? To whom will the ark go up from here?”  1 Samuel 6:20

The ark becomes a bit of hot potato at that point. Everyone is quick to pass it on. No one wants it in their community for fear of what God might do.

It finds a home –

So the men of Kiriath Jearim came and took up the ark of the Lord. They brought it to Abinadab’s house on the hill and consecrated Eleazar his son to guard the ark of the Lord. The ark remained at Kiriath Jearim a long time—twenty years in all.  1 Samuel 7:1-2

What happens next is really important. But ‘next’ is a very long time. Twenty years pass. Twenty years. It takes that long for the whole nation to be ready to turn back to God.

And enter Samuel. He is now grown. He is now mature. He is ready. It is his time.

He speaks with authority. He tells the people to get rid of all other gods and they do. He tells them to worship the one true God alone and they do.

Israel gathers at Mizpah with Samuel to fast and pray and confess their sin. The Philistines assume they are gathering to fight and prepare to attack.

The Israelties are afraid. They have every reason to be.

They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.”  1 Samuel 7:8

This time, God is with them. This time, when Samuel calls out on their behalf, God listens and responds.

Because their hearts are right. They have put themselves right before God.

But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites. The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar.  1 Samuel 7:10-11

Samuel sets up a stone as a reminder of God’s deliverance and calls it Ebenezer which means stone of help because “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

I like that. It’s good to be confident in God’s strength and deliverance but not cocky. We should never take it for granted. We should never assume.

As we are reminded everyday by the wacky and weird and inexplicable and wonderful and tragic things that go on around us – ‘God works in mysterious ways’.

So throughout Samuel’s lifetime, there was peace in the land. The Philistines stopped attacking the Israelites. Samuel travelled around acting as a judge and held court for Israel in Ramah, his home town.

Samuel continued as Israel’s leader all the days of his life.  1 Samuel 7:15