1 Samuel 4

1 Samuel 4

Meyer - Our Daily Homily - 1 Samuel 4:3 Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord. Israel had been defeated with great loss. Their only hope of being able to hold their own against the Philistines and the people of the land was in the protection and help vouchsafed to them by God. They knew this, and thought that they would be secured, if only the Ark of the covenant were on the field. They forgot that it was only the material symbol of a spiritual relationship; that it was useless unless that relationship was in living force; and that the bending forms of the cherubim, emblematic of the Divine protection, would not avail if their fellowship with the God of the cherubim had been ruptured by black-sliding. There is a sense in which we are always sending for the Ark. The reliance on outward rites, such as baptism and the Lord’s Supper, on the part of those who are alienated from the life of God; the maintenance of the forms of prayer and Scripture-reading which no longer express the passionate love of the soul; the habit of church-going, which so many practice, not because they love God, but because they think that it will in some way secure His alliance in life’s battle— all these are forms in which we still fetch the Ark of the covenant, whilst our hearts are wrong with the God of the covenant. It should never be forgotten that nothing can afford to us protection and succor but vital union with Christ. We must hide in His secret place if we would abide under His shadow. We must dwell in the most holy place if we would be shadowed by the wings of the Shekinah. There must be nothing between us and God, if we are to walk together, and enjoy fellowship with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ. 1 Samuel 4:4 So the people sent to Shiloh, and from there they carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts who sits above the cherubim; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. Who sits: 2Sa 6:2 2Ki 19:15 Ps 80:1 99:1 the cherubim: Ex 25:18-22 Nu 7:89 Hophni: 1Sa 2:12-17,22 Ps 50:16,17 Mal 1:9 Ac 19:15,16 with the ark: Nu 4:5,15 Note the "Shekinah Glory" over the Ark So the people sent to Shiloh (shiloh) - The people follow the advice of the elders, showing the importance of godly leadership in difficult times. The idea that the Ark would lead them into victory may have come from the remembrance of the fact that this tactic had proved successful earlier in Israel’s history (cf. Nu 10:33–36; Josh 3:3–7; Josh 4:1–18; Josh 6:6–21). Bergen notes that "Biblical evidence suggests that bringing deity images and/or thrones of deities onto the battlefield was a common practice in Ancient Near East societies (cf. Josh 6:7–8; 2 Sam 5:21; Ezek 21:21)." (Borrow 1 & 2 Samuel - New American Commentary) And from there they carried the Ark (aron) of the covenant of the LORD of hosts Who sits above (NIV, ESV "enthroned on") the cherubim (kerub) - The ark of the covenant is first described in Ex 25:18-22 with the synonym the "Ark of Testimony." The ark symbolized the Throne of Yahweh (see verses below) What was above the cherubim? The Shekinah glory cloud symbolizing the presence of Yahweh, although the specific name Shekinah is not found in the Bible. This text uses the same great name first used by Hannah (1Sa 1:11+), Jehovah Sabaoth, LORD of hosts (of armies) which speaks of His sovereign majesty and His rule over the hosts of heaven. One has to wonder where Samuel was at this time, for surely he would have objected to moving the Ark and treating it like a "good luck charm!"