Expedition against the Philistines - The Two Battles of Ebenezer - Death of Eli's Sons, and Taking of the Ark

- Death of Eli -Judgment on the Philistine Cities - The Return of the Ark. (1 SAMUEL 4-7:1)

TIME had passed; but in Shiloh it was as before. Eli, who had reached the patriarchal age of ninety-seven,

was now totally blind,42 and his sons still held rule in the sanctuary. As for Samuel, his prophetic "word was

to all Israel."  43 Some effect must have been produced by a ministry so generally acknowledged. True, it did

not succeed in leading the people to repentance, nor in teaching them the spiritual character of the

relationship between God and themselves, nor yet that of His ordinances in Israel.

But whereas the conduct of Eli's sons had brought the sanctuary and its services into public contempt (1

Samuel 2:17), Samuel's ministry restored and strengthened belief in the reality of God's presence in His

temple, and in His help and power. In short, it would tend to keep alive and increase historical, although not

spiritual belief in Israel. Such feelings, when uncombined with repentance, would lead to a revival of

religiousness rather than of religion; to confidence in the possession of what, dissociated from their higher

bearing, were merely externals; to a confusion of symbols with reality; and to such a reliance on their calling

and privileges, as would have converted the wonder-working Presence of Jehovah in the midst of His

believing people into a magic power attaching to certain symbols, the religion of Israel into mere externalism,

essentially heathen in its character, and the calling of God's people into a warrant for carnal pride of

nationality. In truth, however different in manifestation, the sin of Israel was essentially the same as that of

Eli's sons. Accordingly it had to be shown in reference to both, that neither high office nor yet the

possession of high privileges entitles to the promises attached to them, irrespective of a deeper relationship

between God and His servants.

It may have been this renewed, though entirely carnal confidence in the Presence of God in His sanctuary,

as evidenced by the prophetic office of Samuel, or else merely a fresh outbreak of that chronic state of

warfare between Israel and the Philistines which existed since the days of Samson and even before, that led

to the expedition which terminated in the defeat at Eben-ezer. At any rate, the sacred text implies that the

Philistines held possession of part of the soil of Palestine; nor do we read of any recent incursion on their

part which had given them this hold. It was, therefore, as against positions which the enemy had occupied

for some time that "Israel went out to battle" in that open "field," which from the monument erected after the

later deliverance under Samuel (1 Samuel 7:12), obtained the name of Eben-ezer, or stone of help The scene

of action lay, as we know, in the territory of Benjamin, a short way beyond, Mizpeh, "the look out," about

two hours to the north-west of Jerusalem.  44 The Philistines had pitched a short way off at Aphek,

"firmness," probably a fortified position. The battle ended in the entire d efeat of Israel, with a loss of four

thousand men, not fugitives, but in the "battle -array" 45 itself.

They must have been at least equal in numbers to the Philistines, and under favorable circumstances, since

at the council of war after their defeat, "the elders of Israel" unhesitatingly ascribed the disaster not to

secondary causes, but to the direct agency of Jehovah. It was quite in accordance with the prevailing

religious state that, instead of inquiring into the causes of God's controversy with them, they sought safety

in having among them "the ark of the covenant of the Lord," irrespective of the Lord Himself and of the

terms of His covenant. As if to mark, in its own peculiarly significant manner, the incongruity of the whole

proceeding, Scripture simply puts together these two things in their sharp contrast: that it was "the ark of

the covenant of Jehovah of Hosts, which dwelleth, between the cherubim," and that "Hophni and Phinehas

were there with the ark of the covenant of God" (1 Samuel 4:4).

Such an event as the removal of the ark from the sanctuary, and its presence in the camp, had never

happened since the settlement of Israel in Canaan. Its arrival, betokening to their minds the certain renewal

of miraculous deliverances such as their fathers had experienced, excited unbounded enthusiasm in Israel,

and caused equal depression among the Philistines. But soon another mood prevailed.46