1 Samuel 4:3
And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day 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.
After a first defeat in which Israel had rashly gone to battle without seeking the Lord and lost four thousand men, the disheartened people returned to camp and asked why the Lord had allowed the Philistines to strike them. Blind to their own rebellion, they failed to see their disaster as God's judgment for the nation's sins and concluded instead that they had been beaten only because the ark was not with them. They sent to Shiloh for the ark of the covenant, remembering how its presence had opened the Jordan and thrown down Jericho and supposing its coming among them would save them from their enemies, though God had neither commanded nor permitted it to be taken into battle. The ark was the symbol of God's presence whose sacredness lay in His law within it, yet the object itself could bestow no blessing apart from God and could bring deliverance only when Israel obeyed that law and fulfilled the conditions of the covenant. To trust the sacred chest to guarantee rescue while violating the covenant, and to bear it into battle by wicked hands, was presumption that compelled God to withdraw His presence and ended in far more terrible defeat; so possessing God's law and sacred things cannot save while sin is cherished and unforsaken, but safety lies in departing from iniquity and obeying His word.
Defeat and Misguided Remedy
The elders spoke when the disheartened people had come back into the camp and to their tents after a first defeat in a renewed war with the Philistines. Israel had rashly gone out to battle again without asking counsel from the Lord and without the concurrence of Eli or Samuel, so the hand of God was not with them. They were beaten in that first engagement with a loss of four thousand men.
Their question, wherefore the Lord had smitten them before the Philistines, shows a nation ripe for the judgments of God yet so blinded by unbelief and rebellion that it could not see in its disaster a token of the Lord's displeasure. They recognized the defeat but failed to see that the sins of the nation had brought God's judgment upon them.
Instead they decided the defeat was because the ark of God was not with them, fearing also that other nations would hear of it and be encouraged to make war with them. They sent to Shiloh for the ark of the covenant, remembering the passage over Jordan and the easy conquest of Jericho when they bore the ark. They concluded that bringing it among them that it might save them was all that was necessary to triumph over their enemies. God had neither commanded nor permitted the ark to be brought into battle. The cry belongs to the earlier defeat on the very field where Israel was later victorious, when Israel was defeated, the priests were killed, and the ark was taken.
Ark Cannot Save Without Obedience
The ark was the representative of God himself and the symbol of His presence, and its sacredness came from the divine law contained within it, yet the object itself could not bestow blessings that only God could bestow. Its strength lay not in the chest itself but in obedience to the law it enshrined, for Israel's power depended on keeping that law.
Its presence had brought deliverance at the passage over Jordan and the easy conquest of Jericho, and it could bring blessing and prosperity only when Israel obeyed that law and fulfilled the conditions of its covenant with God. It availed when Israel acted in His commands and when it was borne by holy men, but it could not help them when they followed their own plans and opposed divine counsel. To expect its blessing while violating those conditions was presumption.
Israel treated the ark as though its mere presence could guarantee rescue and save them from their enemies. They trusted the sacred object, and the possession and knowledge of the law, more than God who had given it, worshiping it instead of God. Rather than confessing and abandoning the sins that had brought defeat and seeking God's direction, they made the ark a means of rescue.
Carrying it by Hophni and Phinehas, men doomed to destruction, did not compel God to fight for them. The law represented beneath the mercy seat condemned their disobedience. God in anger withdrew the symbol with its assurance of His presence and power because His holy commandments had been broken, and He did not go out with Israel's armies, so their enemies triumphed. Bringing the ark thus ended in terrible defeat, disaster and death.
Call to Repentance Today
Merely possessing and regarding God's law cannot save from enemies or preserve from the power of divine justice while evil is unreproved and unforsaken, while sin is cherished and lightly regarded and allowed to remain in the midst, and trust in sacred things and in the ark containing the commandments cannot gain victory apart from repentance of wicked works. A sin-hating God calls upon those who profess to be the repository of His law and to keep it to depart from all iniquity, to accept reproof, to put sin out of the camp, and to repent and obey His word and let it transform character. Leaders must faithfully remove wrongs, in contrast to the iniquity of Eli's sons in sacred office which Eli failed to reprove and restrain.
There is a limit beyond which God will no longer delay His judgments, and His correction through His chosen instruments cannot be disregarded with impunity. Neglect to repent and obey will bring as serious consequences upon God's people today as it brought upon ancient Israel for the same sin. The desolation of Jerusalem stands as a solemn warning of this to modern Israel.
Just so in Jeremiah's time the Jews believed strict observance of the divinely appointed temple services would preserve them from just punishment of their evil course, and the same danger exists among those professing to keep God's law who flatter themselves that regard for the commandments will preserve them from divine justice while they refuse reproof and remain in evil. Saul knew the history of the terrible defeat when the ark was brought into the camp with Hophni and Phinehas, yet he sent for the sacred ark and its priests hoping by display to revive courage and strengthen his royal authority, relying on display rather than real piety and ignoring the lesson. The false trust ended in fearful calamity in which the sons of Eli were slain, Eli lost his life, the ark was taken, and thirty thousand were slain, illustrating that transgression leads to disaster and defeat while obedience to God is the path of safety and happiness.