Ark

 This week's verses are 1 Samuel 4:3-11:

When the army came back to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why did the Lord let us be defeated today by the Philistines? Let’s take with us the ark of the covenant of the Lord from Shiloh. When it is with us, it will save us from the hand of our enemies.”

So the army sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, who sits between the cherubim. Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. When the ark of the covenant of the Lord arrived at the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the ground shook.

When the Philistines heard the sound of the shout, they said, “What is this loud shout in the camp of the Hebrews?” Then they realized that the ark of the Lord had arrived at the camp. The Philistines were scared because they thought that gods had come to the camp. They said, “Woe to us! We’ve never seen anything like this! Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all sorts of plagues in the desert! Be strong and act like men, you Philistines, or else you will wind up serving the Hebrews the way they have served you! Act like men and fight!”

So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. The slaughter was very great; 30,000 foot soldiers from Israel fell in battle. The ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed.

 These verses show the wickedness of Israel, trying to engage in a military conquest in the name of their God, without actually checking to see if God was on board with their plans.

Israel had had problems with the Philistines for a long time. The Philistines had occupied them and ruled with an iron fist. It was a point of great national shame. Before the events in these verses took place, they had tried to rebel against the Philistines and had suffered some serious military defeats.

Not to be outdone by a bunch of subhuman gentiles, the people went and got their secret weapon: The Ark of the Covenant. Assured of their righteous victory, they rushed again into battle. But instead of an easy victory, they were defeated so badly that they lost the Ark itself!

We don't have the Ark of the Covenant anymore, but these verses can still teach us something. Blasting full speed ahead with religion on our side does not guarantee a victory. It is presumption, and presumption can be deadly. We can't just stamp God's name on something we planned and expect it to be an easy victory. He gets a vote.

But how many times do we encounter hardship or an unexpected defeat and immediately assume "this can't be God's will. I'm going to fix it." And without any introspection or prayerful reflection, we make a great spectacle of telling everyone that God is going to do whatever it is we wanted. That's the kind of wickedness that guarantees defeat! Why not ask God what he wants?

Israel didn't even mention God in their planned counterattack. They used the Ark presumptuously, manipulating God by using his name as though he endorsed their actions. Worse, it was idolatrous, in the sense that they were using the object as if it had special powers to control the god it represented.

The Ark was meant to represent the special relationship God had with his people, but instead of honoring that, and having a conversation with him, they tried to use it like a kind of magic genie lamp.

But we do that too. How much of your devotional time is spent listening and studying what God wants of you, versus you just "putting in your hours" and telling him what you want? Is your religion a relationship, or just a kind of magic genie lamp you use to ensure victory?

When they dusted off the Ark, the armies of Israel had a powerful worship time. It could be heard all the way in the Philistine camp. The problem was they were worshiping the Ark, the religious artifact, and not the God it was meant to point them to. Meanwhile, the Philistines at least had enough respect for God's centrality to the situation that they were afraid of Him.

Victory does not come from great spectacles of religiosity, or our own possession of these signs of God's favor. The Philistines had none of that and they won the day. We can achieve a kind of victory in our own strength, but real victory comes from God alone. How might things have been different if, like in other cases in the Bible, instead of rushing back into battle, Israel had paused and asked God what was going on? We'll never know.

So don't treat your Christianity the way Israel treated the Ark. It's not the Ark that's important, but the Covenant it represents. It's an agreement that says that we can approach our Creator any time we want to, without retaliation. It's a standing offer of amnesty, instead of certain defeat. Let's not take that for granted, just to rush blindly back into situations that have defeated us at least once before.