HISTORY OF THE WORLDLY SANCTUARY.
FROM THE PASSAGE OF THE JORDAN TO THE BUILDING OF THE TEMPLE.
ACCORDING to the commonly received chronology, it was on the tenth day of the first month of the year 1451 B. C., that the Sanctuary made its entrance into the promised land. Up to this time the children of Israel, and consequently the Sanctuary, had no particular abiding place; but now the former are entering upon their promised inheritance, and the latter also begins to be more permanently located. The first encampment after the passage of the Jordan was in Gilgal. Josh. iv, 19. But as it is our object to confine ourselves chiefly to the Sanctuary, we shall pass by all events with which it is not particularly connected. The taking of Jericho, therefore, in which the ark of God bore a conspicuous part; the destruction of Ai; the defeat of the various alliances formed against Joshua; and the division of the land by lot; we need not particularly mention; but we will pass on to that place to which after the conquest of the land the Sanctuary was removed from Gilgal; and that place was—Shiloh. "And the whole congregation of the children of Israel assembled together at Shiloh, and set up the tabernacle of the congregation there. And the land was subdued before them." Josh. xviii, 1. It is while the Tabernacle is located at Shiloh, that we meet with the melancholy record that GOD FORSAKES HIS SANCTUARY.
On account of the gross wickedness of the priests and people, [1 Sam. ii.] God forsook his habitation, and gave his glory, the ark of his covenant, into the hands of the enemy. Israel went out against the Philistines to battle; but when the battle was joined, they were smitten before them; for their own sins had shorn them of their strength. They were now left to pursue a course which should show to themselves and others to how low an estate they had fallen. They doubtless remembered how in former times their fathers had been beaten by their enemies when they took not the ark with them to battle, as in case of the Canaanites; [Num. xiv, 44, 45;] though the real cause of this defeat, they seemed not to lay to heart; and how they had succeeded with it around the walls of Jericho. From this latter circumstance taking courage, they resolved that the ark should be brought forth: vainly supposing that that alone would preserve them, when the God of that ark had departed from their midst. Therefore the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts was carried forth, accompanied by its adulterous priests, into a sinful and God-forsaken army. But they soon learned, by sad experience, that the ark, of itself, was no safeguard against their enemies; that its presence would not hide from the eyes of the Lord their transgression, nor avert their punishment. They were again smitten before the Philistines, and fled every man to his tent; there was a very great slaughter; the ark was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. Eli, the aged high priest, sat upon a seat by the wayside anxiously waiting the result of the engagement; for "his heart trembled for the ark of God." A messenger soon returned hastily from the army and in four brief sentences made known to him the sum of their misfortune: 1. Israel is fled before the Philistines. 2. There hath been also a great slaughter among the people. 3. Thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead. All this the old man bore with comparative composure; for there was another object for which he was even more solicitous than for these; the dregs of this tale of bitterness were yet to come: 4. AND THE ARK OF GOD IS TAKEN! And when mention was made of the ark of God, "he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake and he died." The ark of God lay nearer the heart of this aged and venerable man than even the welfare of Israel or the fate of his two sons. In his anxiety for that, he had overlooked all other calamities; but when his hopes in regard to this were blasted and his worst fears realized, he could no longer endure the weight of such accumulated disasters: the powers of his nature gave way; and he found his own grave in the general calamity of his country. So dark was the cloud which Israel's wickedness had raised to obscure the sun of their prosperity. They were now dishonored in the sight of the heathen. The name of the Lord would probably be blasphemed. The capture of the ark showed that the Lord had departed from them; and the destruction of their nation, and the ruin of their religion were to them no distant prospects. The language in which they embodied the burden of their woe, was this: "The glory is departed from Israel; for the ark of God is taken." This may be thought an unnecessary digression. But we do well to study the examples that are left on record for our learning, that we may profit by them; to mark the causes which have brought disgrace and evil upon God's chosen people in ancient times, that we may avoid them. Especially may be learned from the record here given, the importance of cherishing the ark of God, that it depart not from our midst. Thus did sin disarrange the affairs of Israel; and the service of the Sanctuary was for a time interrupted. The ark with its mercy-seat and cherubim, which the "author of the book, Cozri," justly calls "the foundation, root, heart and marrow of the whole temple, and all the Levitical worship therein performed," was torn from it, and we must henceforth for a season trace them separately. The Sanctuary abode in Gilgal seven years. Shiloh, the place to which it was then removed, appears to have been a considerable town about fifteen miles north from Jerusalem, and nearly in the center of the whole land. "Here," says Dr. Clarke, "the tabernacle remained one hundred and thirty years as is generally supposed;" but he gives us no special reason for this general supposition. The chronology given in the margin of our Bibles, certainly makes the time much longer; namely, from 1444 B. C., to 1141 B. C., which is 303 years. And if we take the account of Paul, we have a longer time still; for he says that after the dividing of the land by lot, God gave them (their fathers) judges about the space of four hundred and fifty years, until Samuel the prophet. Acts xiii, 19, 20. And it was not till after the call of Samuel the prophet, that the ark was taken from Shiloh, and captured by the Philistines. How long the tabernacle remained there after the capture of the ark, we are not informed. But it does not appear that God's glory or the ark of his covenant, ever returned to that building. The next time the sacred historian introduces it to us, is in the days of Saul, about seventy-nine years later, when we find it at Nob, [1 Sam. xxi; Matt. xii, 3, 4.] which was about twelve miles west by north from Jerusalem. We again find it, twenty years later still, in the days of David and Solomon, at Gibeon. 1 Chron. xvi, 39; 2 Chron. i, 3. This was about eight miles north from Jerusalem. It here remained thirty-eight years, till the building of the temple. But where is the ark of the covenant of the Lord? We left it at the battle of Eben-ezer, where it was captured by the Philistines, and the lament went up that the glory had departed from Israel; for the ark of God was taken. As it is an essential part of the Sanctuary, we will now go back and bring up its history. It was retained in the land of the Philistines seven months. At Ashdod their god, Dagon, fell twice before it. As it was removed from thence to Gath, and from thence to Ekron, both these cities were sorely smitten on account of its presence. "So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his place; that it slay us not, and our people." 1 Sam. v. It was returned to Israel to Beth-shemesh. "And they of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley; and they lifted up their eyes and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it." 1 Sam. vi, 13. But for presuming to look into that ark fifty thousand three score and ten men of them were smitten of the Lord. From thence it was removed to Kirjath-jearim, to the house of Abinadab, where it abode twenty years. It was during this period that all Israel lamented after the Lord. Chap. vii, 2. Then David gathered together all the chosen men of Israel and went to bring up the ark from Kirjath-jearim to Jerusalem, the city of David, to the tent which he had there pitched for it. 2 Sam. v, 1, 2; 1 Chron. xv; xvi. But on account of Uzzah's putting forth his hand to steady it, and being slain for his rashness, David was afraid, and "would not remove the ark of the Lord unto him into the city of David; but David carried it aside into the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. And the ark of the Lord continued in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months; and the Lord blessed Obed-edom and all his household. And it was told king David, saying, The Lord hath blessed the house of Obed-edom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom into the city of David with gladness." 2 Sam. vi, 9-12. We have now traced the Sanctuary and the ark, both as to condition and place, up to the time when it was more permanently located in the glorious temple built by Solomon. The erection of this magnificent structure will therefore next claim our attention.