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"And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore
hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant
of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of
the hand of our enemies. So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence
the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims: and
the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with
a great shout, so that the earth rang again" (4: 3-5).
What hypocrisy it is when the elders of Israel cry "Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us
before the Philistines"? For twenty years they had spurned the Lord, disobeyed His
express commands, and sinned most grievously against Him. They boldly dispute the
matter with Him, and seem unaware of the great provocation they had given Him. This
wild and unreasonable attitude seems to have been in the mind of the writer of the book
of Proverbs when he wrote:
"The foolishness of man perverteth his way (`leads him astray' is not strong enough,
for the word includes the idea of `destruction'); and his heart fretteth against the Lord
(fretteth = `is angry with')" (Prov. 19: 3).
The defeat brings no realization, or change of heart. It did not bring them to their
knees to seek Divine forgiveness. They did not consider whether they themselves were at
fault. Instead, in their blindness, the rulers of the nation suddenly remember the ark of
the covenant within the holiest of all of the Tabernacle. It had always been the symbol of
God's Presence among His people to their fathers, and they unwisely thought that they
could oblige Jehovah to fight for them by wresting it from its alloted place in the
Sanctuary without His express command or permission. It was a curious delusion that
led the rulers to think that the unseen God was inseparably linked with that strange and
beautiful symbol of His Presence. That coffer of wood overlaid with gold, upon which
was the mercy seat and cherubims of pure gold, had many hallowed memories for it was
the place to which the high priest once every year brought the blood of the sin offering,
first for himself and then for the people, and where enquiry was made of God "There I
will meet with the children of Israel" (Exod. 29: 43). But it was not an object of
reverence or worship in itself, like the idols of other nations.
There is no doubt that in the minds of the elders of Israel lay the memory of the days
of old when glorious victories were gained in the heroic days of Moses and Joshua, but
they never stopped to consider the fact that Jehovah was then worshipped and revered by
the nation. It was different now. The Lord had been forsaken for many a year now, and
His sanctuary had become a place of corruption and vice: his ministers prime examples
of covetousness and immorality. The ark of the covenant was now a symbol of a broken
covenant. The custodians of the ark were of course Hophni and Phinehas, and there was
obviously no resistance from them that it should be removed from its sacred resting place
and carried outside. They may indeed have even suggested it, thinking it might add to
their prestige and glory.
"And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What meaneth the
noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the ark of
the Lord was come into the camp. And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is