Ep. 73 - The Philistines Steal the Ark (Part 1)

In the last episode, we found out all about the corruption in the tabernacle. High priest Eli’s sons – Hophni and Phinehas – were horrible priests…stealing from people who came to the tabernacle to worship and forcing women to sleep in the same bed as them! They were turning God’s tabernacle into a joke, and the Israelites (who were already struggling with worshipping other gods) were starting to avoid the tabernacle. God couldn’t just stand by and do nothing. So, God sent a warning to high priest Eli – if you don’t get your sons under control, both of them are going to die in one day and your family will forever lose the priesthood, and worse of all, somehow the tabernacle would be taken over by an enemy. Of course, Eli shared the warning with his sons…but as usual Hophni and Phinehas ignored their father. And Eli, for whatever reason, couldn’t bring himself to do anything about it. And so, the corruption in the tabernacle continued. Then our merciful God sent another warning…this time in a different way…through a little boy named Samuel. The warning through Samuel said that Eli was quickly running out of time to do something about his sons, that everything God said He would do was going to happen…soon. Would Eli take this new warning seriously? Would Eli finally do something about his sons and all the horrible things they were doing in the tabernacle? Well, let’s find out.

Well, unfortunately no, it seems that Eli wasn’t going to do anything about it. Because after Samuel shared God’s latest warning with Eli, all Eli said was, “It is the Lord. Let Him do what seems good to Him.” (3:20) That’s it! It’s almost like Eli had given up…whatever was going to happen was going to happen. I mean, Eli was definitely capable of doing something (otherwise God wouldn’t have given him the warnings to begin with), but for whatever reason, Eli just couldn’t bring himself to act…he couldn’t bring himself to be hard on his sons. And as time went on, and as the corruption in the tabernacle got worse and worse, the boy Samuel was growing. And the more Samuel grew up, the more Samuel’s reputation grew too. And before too long, all of Israel knew who Samuel was. And the Bible says, “All Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, knew that Samuel had been established as a prophet of the Lord.” (3:20)

Now, while things weren’t going very well with the tabernacle, things also weren’t going very well with the Philistines. Remember that the Philistines still ruled over Israel…and for a long time the Israelites didn’t seem to have the backbone to fight back? Well, over time, it seems that the Israelites finally got tired of the Philistines ruling over them, and decided enough was enough – it was time to get rid of the Philistines. Now this sounds all well and good…ya know…the Israelites were back to fighting off their oppressors like they’d done so many times in the past (like they should have done with Samson). But unlike the previous times, the Israelites hadn’t turned back to God…at least not really.

Ya see, it you’d been able to talk to an Israelite back then, and you’d asked one of them, ‘Who is the god of Israel?’, probably most Israelites would have said, ‘Ya know…God – Yahweh, Elohim, El Shaddai’. But if you’d asked that same Israelite if they worshipped any other god, they probably also would have said, ‘Oh yah for sure. I also worship Baal, and my wife worships Ashtoreth…but only when it’s time to harvest the fields (because those were the gods who were supposed to bring rain and good harvests). We also have the god of our little town, who we make sure to bring offerings to everyday…just for good luck.’ Sounds kinda weird, right kidzos? How can the Israelites think that they worshipped the one true God, when they also worshipped these other gods too? Well that’s because the Israelites were thinking about the real God the same way that the surrounding nations were thinking about their false gods. The surrounding nations all had a main national god, a less powerful god for their town or city, and then other gods for different things in their lives (like one for good harvests, another to have lots of children, and on and on). Like the Philistines…they had a main national god called Dagon, and then if you lived in the Philistine city of Ekron, well then you also made offerings to Baalzebub. If you were an Ammonite, your main national god was Molech. If you were a Moabite, it was Chemosh. And on and on it went. So, even though the Israelites might have thought they were worshipping God, it wasn’t really true. Because not only did they worship other gods too, but even the way they thought about the one true God was like the way that the surrounding nations thought about their gods. For the Israelites, the true God was just one of many gods, and importantly, in their minds the one true God behaved just like all those other gods. And this was a big problem…as we are about to find out.

So things finally came to a head between Israelites and the Philistines, the Bible says, “Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer; and the Philistines encamped in Aphek.” (1 Sam. 4:1) Now the Israelites might not have known it, but they were taking a huge risk here. In all the major battles that had happened before, the Israelites had first of all given up all their false gods, and second of all asked God if they should fight. But this time, the Israelites were still worshipping other gods and they hadn’t asked God if they should fight. But despite all this, not too long after the two armies had setup camp, the Philistines and the Israelites fought each other, and…wouldn’t you know it…the Philistines won. Four thousand Israelites were killed that day. And after the defeat, the Israelites scrambled back to their camp to try to figure out what in the world happened. Of course, the Israelites should have well known what happened…but for whatever reason, the Israelites just couldn’t figure it out. The Philistine army was still out there. So what were they going to do?

And that’s when they came up with a not so bright idea. Even though they had been defeated, the Israelite army has still mostly survived. What they needed to do was find a way to motivate the troops…to find a way to get the ISreaelite army super excited so that they fought extra hard in the next battle. So what were they going to do? Well that’s when the Israelite elders came up with this not so bright idea and the they said to the Israelites, “Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh to us, that when it comes among us it may save us from the hand of our enemies.” (4:3) You kidzos remember what the ark of the covenant was right? It was the most special thing in the tabernacle. It was the golden box that had the Ten Commandments in it, that sat not in the tabernacle grounds, not in the holy place, but in the most holy place. It was so special that it was to be seen only once a year and only by one person…the high priest. So, instead of throwing away all the false gods, instead of asking God if they should fight the Philistines, the Israelites were going to bring the ark of the covenant to the front lines with the Philistines…the most special thing in the tabernacle…the thing that God had set aside for tabernacle services…and that had absolutely nothing to do with winning battles.

Why in the world did the Israelites think that this was a good idea? Well, it all comes back to how the Israelites were thinking about God the same way that the surrounding nations thought about their false gods. Bringing statues or idols of gods to battle…well that was what the other nations did. Because the way that these other nations thought about battles, was that not only were the people in the battles fighting each other, but the gods were fighting each other too. So if your side won, it wasn’t necessarily because you had a bigger or better trained army, but it was because your god was more powerful that the other people’s god. So when the Israelites were fighting the Egyptians, the Egyptians probably had an image of Ra in the army. If they were fighting the Mesopotamians, they probably had an image of Marduk in the army. And as the Israelites were just now fighting the Philistines, there was probably an image of Dagon over there. And so, when the Israelites lost against the Philistines and were trying to figure out why, they looked over at the Philistine army and and said, ‘Ya know what’s missing…we don’t have an image of our God! Get the ark!’

So the Israelites sent for the ark, and had it brought from Shiloh to the Israelite camp. High priest Eli, of course, wanted nothing to do with this. But Hophni and Phinehas, they thought it was a great idea…and the two sons of Eli went with the ark into the camp. And at first, the ark seemed to make a big difference for the Israelites. Because the Bible says that, “when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the earth shook.” (4:5) All the Israelites in the army were super excited to see the ark! And not only that, but the ark also seemed to make a big impression on the Philistines. Because when the Philistines heard all the shouting coming from the Israelites, and when they found out that the famed ark of the covenant had come into the camp, they were scared. And the Philistines said to themselves, “Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Be strong and conduct yourselves like men, you Philistines, that you do not become like servants of the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Conduct yourselves like men and fight!” (4:8-9)

But while at first the ark seemed to be making a big difference for the Israelites, of course it turned out to be a huge mistake. The God of Israel wasn’t just one of many gods, He is the one true God…the creator of all things. And His ark was not some kind of magic trinket that you can just bring to a battle and expect God to do something different. The one true God can’t be controlled by where some golden box was…no matter how special it might have been. After the ark arrived in the camp, the excited Israelites attacked the Philistines…and lost…big time. Thirty thousand Israelite soldiers died this time. The defeat was so bad, that the Israelite soldiers who survived the battle didn’t even both going back to the camp…each man just ran straight back his home. And not only that, but the high priest’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, had both been killed. And not only THAT, but the very worst thing that could possibly have happened happened…the Philistines captured the ark! The ark of the covenant, the most special thing in all Israel, the center of all Israelite worship was not in the hands of their arch enemies – the Philistines. It was a devastating defeat for Israel in every way imaginable.

News spread fast of the Israelites defeat. Just as the battle was wrapping up, when it was obvious that the Israelites had lost, a solider of the tribe of Benjamin ran directly from the battle line all the way to Shiloh. Poor old Eli, who by now was 98 years old and blind, was waiting patiently by the city gate…because as the Bible says, “his heart trembled for the ark of God.” (4:13) The Benjamite soldier ran to Eli and gave him the horrible news, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Also, your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead; and the ark of God has been captured.” (4:17) The news shocked Eli. So many bad things had happened at once. A huge defeat for the Israelites. Both his sons dead. But when Eli heard what had happened to the ark, this especially shocked him. The ark was probably the most special thing on earth. It was central to the tabernacle…the center of the Israelites religion and worship…without it there was no tabernacle. How would Israel recover from this? Undoubtedly, Eli had known that taking the ark into battle was a bad idea…but he just couldn’t believe that God would have let THIS happen. Eli was so shocked by what had happened, that Eli fell off his chair. And Eli was so old and so frail, that when he landed on the ground that he broke his neck and died immediately.

And so in one day, everything that God promised would happen to Eli happened. Both of Eli’s sons had died. The tabernacle had been taken over by an enemy. And with Eli dead, his family’s leadership in the priesthood was over. It was a sad end to the line of a man who meant so well. And the Israelites as a nation were not faring any better. The army had been defeated, the Philistines were able to oppress Israel more than ever, and by far the worst thing…the Philistine gods had (at least in the way the Israelites thought about it) defeated the God of Israel. How could Israel possibly get over this? What would the Philistines do with the ark? Was this the end of the Israel as a nation? Well, we will find out all about it…next time.