1 Samuel 4:3 Commentary and Bible Study

Look at the attitude of the elders of Israel who should have known better: ‘When the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the LORD smitten us to day before the Philistines?’ How very interesting. If they were listening to the ministry given to the contrary, it would be obvious. No doubt, it was the idolatry; they could have assumed that. It could be all manner of other things also. They don't appear to have sought the Lord in this at all. They have grown in militancy and strength, but there is no spiritual side to it. They don’t say, ‘Our army was not adequately trained’, or ‘The people ran and didn't show enough courage.’ There is no question about their army. That's not going to be examined. They seem to acknowledge that it was because the Lord was not with them, but not in a spiritual sense. They are almost indignant. ‘Why has God let us down?’, and they don't ask the right questions. They say, the Lord is to blame, and they immediately begin a quarrel with the Lord. ‘Why has he smitten us before the Philistines?’ There is no mention of the fact they are still idolaters, and they are in serious trouble with the Lord. There is no self-examination. This is their conclusion; this is the best they can do, and it is to think just like the pagan nations. Their remedy is to stoop to superstition. ‘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.’ If we had the ark among our armies, then it may save us out of the hand of our enemies. ‘Fetch it out of Shiloh and bring it here. Bundle it onto a cart; bring it here, put it in the midst of us. It may be that that will bring us luck; that will get us a deliverance’, just as if they had been pagans. They are idolaters, and they are thinking like idolaters. ‘The people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubims.’ That is inserted to indicate its great remoteness and sanctity. That's where it dwelt and where it ought to have stayed. But where is Eli in all this? Didn’t he stop them? No, poor old Eli! He is a rather likeable man in many ways. He is a gentle old saint, and he's not like his sons, personally. But the older he gets, the more ineffective he becomes, and the more of a pushover he is to the people, and he raises no voice of protest or resistence. Even worse: Eli’s two dreadful sons went with it. It is bad enough for him to allow the removal of the ark – he knew better than that – but to have his two sons who he ought to have reproved, and against whom complaints had been made for years; to have them accompany it spelt disaster. They were forbidden in the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 12:5-7, 11-14), from taking the ark of the covenant, or moving the place of sacrifice, or any of the ordinances of God, from the settled resting place that God would appoint. The ark of the covenant would go before them all through their journey, through the wilderness into the promise land, but when they got there, God had said, I will command a settled place for it, and things must be conducted there and nowhere else. They had no right to march off with the ark of God and use it like a heathen idol at the head of their army, and use it as a source of power and help for themselves. They are idolaters – they were into syncretism – and they are acting like idolaters, even with the things of God.