Introduction
Misplaced trust: that's something we all can relate to. We counted on someone or something to come through and they don't. We think someone is trustworthy, but when push comes to shove, they leave you hanging. So we can relate to the idea of misplaced trust. Our passage today helps us to see the ultimate misplacement of trust and one that we are very often guilty of: trusting on anything else but Christ for our standing before God and our identity.
I. Three Things Going On: War, Death, and an Inglorious Birth (overview of the chapter).
A. The Battle of Aphek, 1-11.
1. Four times Israel will fight the Philistines in this place – twice here, 7:10-13, and 29:1 (Saul and Jonathan killed here).
a. Aphek is in the Plain of Sharon, ten miles east and slightly north of Joppa.
b. This location is significant because it lets us know that the Philistines were on the way to Shiloh.
1) In ancient warfare, in order to conquer a nation one had to conquer the nation's gods.
2) Perhaps this invasion is a retaliation for Samson's destruction of the temple in Gaza, Jd. 16:23-30.
2. This is the first time that the Philistines are mentioned in 1Samuel (after this time, they will be mentioned 151 times).
a. There is still a lot of mystery regarding the identity of the Philistines.
b. They came to Palestine from the Greek island via Egypt.
c. They dominated the coastal area and ended up giving the name to the whole region: PALESTINE.
d. Their religion was very syncretistic and incorporated elements from everywhere they had been.
e. Though they are ethnically different people than today's inhabitants of Gaza, Gaza was one of the main Philistine cities from which attacks were launched into Israel.
3. Notice that there were actually two battles in this engagement.
a. In the first one 4,000 troops or 4 units of Israelite soldiers died, 2.
1) After this first battle, the generals (elders) of Israel held a strategic analysis meeting to figure out what went wrong, 3a.
2) Their conclusion was that Israel lost because the Ark of the Covenant wasn't there in the battle with them, 3b.
a) The Ark had done wonders for Joshua when he came to Jericho.
b) But unlike Joshua, the Israelite generals viewed the Ark as their lucky charm – Davis calls this section, "Rabbit-Foot Theology."
3) So they send wander boys to go get the Ark from Shiloh (maybe against Eli's wishes, v. 13), 4.
a) Notice the full title that the Holy Spirit uses here: the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who dwells between the cherubim.
b) The point the Holy Spirit is making is that they brought the ark, but the forgot the One the ark represented: Yahweh of armies.
c) Their trust was in a gold-covered, portable box, measuring 3¾ feet in length by 2 ¼ feet in width and height.
b. The people loved the generals' idea, 5.
c. It is interesting that at this point, as bad as Philistine theology was, it was better than Israelite theology – they understood the ark represented Yahweh, 6-9.
d. The Israelites are even more soundly defeated in the second battle – 30,000 troops were lost, 10.
e. But the worst blow was that the ark was taken away, 11.
1) This was a great disappointment to Israel because God didn't help them.
2) It was also great rejoicing for the Philistines because they thought their god had conquered Yahweh – they were sorely mistaken, as we will see in chpts. 5-6.
4. The reason why 34,000 troops are dead and the Ark of the Covenant is taken away is Eli's unfaithfulness in raising his sons, 2:29, 3:13 – what a serious business!
5. Later on in Jeremiah, we find out that not only was the Ark taken away, but Shiloh was eventually overrun and the tabernacle destroyed – God's people were not able to meet with him as he prescribed till David set up the tabernacle in Jerusalem.
B. The death of Eli, 12-18.
1. One of the things that chpts. 4-6 is doing is showing the transition between an old regime marked by corruption and absence of the Word of God with Eli as its chief representative and a new faithful regime led by Samuel as the mouthpiece of God.
2. Here God is removing the last vestiges of corruption.
3. Notice that it was not the news about his sons that shocked Eli, but the news about the Ark, 17-18.
a. He knew that his sons were going to die as a judgment from God sooner or later, but the ark?
b. He passed out and broke his neck under the weight of his own body – his being large was equated with his sharing in the meat that his sons robbed from the Lord.
C. The birth of Ichabod (an inglorious birth), 19-22.
1. Eli's line is not quite finished yet – a grandson is born to him in the midst of judgment.
2. Eli's daughter-in-law understood what was going.
a. The capturing of the Ark of the Covenant was sign of God's judgment upon Israel.
b. It showed that God was going to leave Israel to her own since that's what they were acting like they wanted – "every man did what was right in his own eyes."
II. Israel Helps Us Idolatry Drives away the Glory of God.
A. The taking the Ark of the Covenant to battle and trusting that the presence of that box was what they did was idolatry on the part of Israel.
B. We are quick to judge Israel for what they did – how could they be so stupid?
C. Yet, we are much more like Israel than we would be willing to admit.
"The human heart is an idol factory.... Every one of us from our mother's womb is an expert in inventing idols." John Calvin
D. We carry the Ark to battle any time that we trusting in anything else besides Christ for our standing before God and for our worth.
1. When we trust in the things that are here to point us to Christ instead of Christ himself.
a. Baptism.
b. Lord's Supper
c. Church membership or attendance
d. A prayer you once prayed or walking down an aisle.
2. When we trust in our own godliness, our good works.
3. When we trust in our lineage – family.
4. All these things and many more are idolatry that drives God's glory away.
"The text [capturing of the Ark] forces two important implications upon us: Yahweh will suffer shame rather than allow you to carry on a false relationship with him; and Yahweh will allow you to be disappointed with him if it will awaken you to the sort of God her really is." Dale Ralph Davis
E. We carry the Ark to battle when we think of God as useful instead of worthy.
1. God is useful to give me what I want.
2. God doesn't exist for us, we exist for him.
F. Because we are idolaters, we are glory-robbers and God will not share his glory.
Is. 48:11 – For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it; for how should My name be profaned? And I will not give My glory to another.
III. Jesus Overcomes Our Idolatry.
A. We read Is. 48:11 and think, "What hope there is for us?"
1. We have robbed God's glory often.
2. We have taken the Ark to battle again and again.
3. Let me read the verses preceding Is. 48:11.
Is. 48:6-10 – "You have heard; see all this. And will you not declare it? I have made you hear new things from this time, even hidden things, and you did not know them. They are created now and not from the beginning; and before this day you have not heard them, lest you should say, 'Of course I knew them.' Surely you did not hear, surely you did not know; surely from long ago your ear was not opened. For I knew that you would deal very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb. For My name's sake I will defer My anger, and for My praise I will restrain it from you, so that I do not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.
B. God is not going to share his glory with idolaters like us, so he rescues us from our idolatry through Jesus.
Jn. 1:14 – And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Eph. 2:1-10 – And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
1. In Christ Jesus, we don't have to worry about seeking glory.
2. He is our glory and we have been freed to enjoy that.
3. We are by nature Ark-carrying people; Jesus Christ frees us from that.
Conclusion
Jesus brings the glory of God into our lives. He is the express imagine of the glory of God to those who receive him.
Jn. 1:11 – He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.
Have you received him by faith alone as a response to his grace? If not, all you are doing is carrying the Ark and attempting to rob God of his glory.
If you have received Christ, be encouraged. He is the Ark! Not only are you not having to carry the Ark, he is carrying you.
http://olympiabp.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-glory-is-gone-1-sam-4_6.html
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