1 Samuel 4 – Mishkan Daviyd

In 1 Samuel 4, the Children of Israel are in a battle against the Philistines. It is not going well for the Israelites, so they decide to bring out the Ark of the Covenant. However, the Israelites will shortly find out that the Ark is only effective, whey they are in obedient communion with Yehovah. As a result, the Israelites suffer a tremendous loss. In both loss of the life and the Ark of the Covenant. Two of Eli’s sons die. When Eli hears of this, he collapses breaks his neck and dies. Phinehas’ wife dies during childbirth. This is a fulfillment of an earlier prophecy.

1 Samuel 4:1

¹And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.

1 Samuel 4 starts off with what may seem to be a misplaced sentence. It is the only place in 1 Samuel 4 that even mentions Samuel.
In the previous chapter, 1 Samuel 3, Samuel heard from God directly, 1 Samuel 3:11.

¹¹And Yehovah said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that hears it shall tingle.

Yehovah speaks to Samuel of the impending end of Eli’s lineage as priests.
Several times God spoke to Samuel, as such 1 Samuel 3:19-20.

¹⁹ And Samuel grew, and Yehovah was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground. ²⁰ And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of Yehovah.

All Israel knew that Samuel was a prophet of Yehovah.
This is juxtaposed with the Children of Israel at war with the Philistines.

On one hand God is speaking to Samuel, on the other there is conflict.
One is spiritual and the other is because of a lack of reverence by the Children of Israel.

1 Samuel 4:2

²And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men.

Initial fighting with the Philistines resulted in 4,000 casualties for the Children of Israel.
This should not be happening, Israel is God’s chosen nation. Yet they are being defeated by the Philistines.
There is only one reason this would happen, Leviticus 26:14-17.

¹⁴But if you will not hearken to Me, and will not do all these commandments; ¹⁵And if you shall despise My statutes, or if your soul abhor My judgments, so that you will not do all My commandments, that you break My covenant: ¹⁶I also will do this to you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. ¹⁷And I will set My face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and you shall flee when none pursues you.

The Children of Israel had started to go their own way.
From the time of Joshua, it did not take long before they drifted from Yehovah, Judges 2:10-15.

¹⁰And also all that generation were gathered to their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not Yehovah, nor yet the works which He had done for Israel. ¹¹And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of Yehovah, and served Baalim: ¹²And they abandon Yehovah God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves to them, and provoked Yehovah to anger. ¹³And they abandon Yehovah, and served Baal and Ashtaroth. ¹⁴And the anger of Yehovah was hot against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of spoilers that spoiled them, and He sold them into the hands of their enemies round about, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. ¹⁵Wherever they went out, the hand of Yehovah was against them for evil, as Yehovah had said, and as Yehovah had sworn to them: and they were greatly distressed.

The Children of Israel had abandoned Yehovah and started to serve other gods.
Although, they had returned somewhat, they had not fully returned to Yehovah. This is the crux of the problem.

Once an individual starts to drift away from God, the path of repentance is a lot more complex.
It is not just do the things you were doing before, it is James 4:7-8.

⁷Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. ⁸Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse hands, sinners; and purify hearts, double minded.

It seems simple, just submit to God and resist the Devil.
It is only easy, when one has been doing it all their lives.
Once an individual has wandered off the path, resisting the devil, becomes much harder. Sin is deceptive and many times people do not realize what they are doing.
Plus submitting to God is more encompassing, than what the average believer is willing to do. Even those who claim to be mature, may find out that there is much more to submitting than they even realize.
Unfortunately, many of us are much more self-deceived than we are willing to admit or even realize.
The path to God is one that we should find and never veer off of for any reason whatsoever.

1 Samuel 4:3

³And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore has Yehovah smitten us to day before the Philistines? Let us fetch the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah out of Shiloh to us, that, when it comes among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.

At least, they realized that the Philistines were not the problem.
What they are about to do will probably causes more problems than their previous disobedience.
What they should have done, and it is the same for believers today, is asked God what they had done to offend Him? Once Yehovah reveals the answer, they should have immediately repented and corrected the situation.
If you find it hard to hear specifically from God, then you may have a larger problem than you imagined.
You have probably wandered into the wrong courtyard far from God’s ways.

Bringing the Ark proves that these people were only interested in fixing their problems, they were not interested in following God’s ways.
It is the same for believers today. If all a believer does is pray for relief from an issue; they are only interested in themselves.
What they should be doing is praying, reading and studying the Bible, and be involved in a group that earnestly seeks God consistently.
To merely pray for relief is to treat God like an enchantment.
Yeshua tells us in Matthew 6:8.

⁸Be not therefore like to them: for your Father knows what things you have need of, before you ask Him.

If God knows what we need ahead of time, then we do not need to ask repeatedly. We should take our prayer time to worship Him rather than ourselves.
If one is not receiving, there may be a reason. It could be a timing issue, they may be in rebellion or possibly God is teaching them a lesson.
Either way to ask repeatedly when He already knows is a trust issue. You may not be as faithful as you think you are.

1 Samuel 4:4

⁴So the people sent to Shiloh, that they might bring from thence the Ark of the Covenant of Yehovah of hosts, which dwells between the cherubims: and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, there with the Ark of the Covenant of God.

So the people went to Shiloh to get the Ark of the Covenant.
Hophni and Phinehas came with the Ark of the Covenant. Not just anyone can handle the Ark of the Covenant. As David would eventually find out, when he attempted to bring it to Jerusalem the first time.
We cannot just do things any way we want to. We have to do it God’s way and we must be sanctified and anointed to touch what God has made holy.

1 Samuel 4:5

⁵And when the Ark of the covenant of Yehovah came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the land rang again.

Of course they shouted. It worked in the past, it should work today.
However, in the past; it was a different people, Joshua 24:31.

³¹And Israel served Yehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that overlived Joshua, and which had known all the works of Yehovah, that He had done for Israel.

In the past, the people served Yehovah. That was not the case for these Israelites.
One should not expect God to move for them if they are unwilling to do the little God asks us to do.

1 Samuel 4:6-8

⁶And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, What mean the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And they understood that the Ark of Yehovah was come into the camp. ⁷And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, Judge is come into the camp. And they said, Woe to us! for there has not been such a thing before now. ⁸Woe to us! who shall deliver us out of the hand of the Judge? This the Judge that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness.

The Philistines heard the shout, but what they probably heard based on the Hebrew was the sound of silver trumpets or shofars.
In 1 Samuel 4:6, shout both times comes from the Hebrew word תְּרוּעָה teruwah (H8643). It usually indicates the sound that comes from a silver trumpet or shofar.
From previous encounters of other nations with Israel, the Philistines knew that the Ark of the Covenant was in the camp.
Whether the Philistines understood or not, they felt that they had a daunting task before them.
Many had heard what had happened in Egypt.
In 1 Samuel 4:8, אֱלֹהִים elohiym (H0430) is translated gods. This verse is translated such that it appears that the Philistines were referring to the Israelites. However, that is incorrect; it should have been singular referring to Yehovah as the Judge that they feared. He is the one that smote the Egyptians with plagues.

1 Samuel 4:9

⁹Be strong, and be yourselves like men you Philistines, that you be not servants to the Hebrews, as they have been to you: be yourselves like men, and fight.

In this case as did many before, the Philistines decide to fight it out.
For them, it turns out much different.
However, one has to wonder if Yehovah did not want them to leave. If He had wanted them to retreat, He could have easily scared them off.
Yet they stayed, one must consider that this event is a lesson for generations to learn from. It is true that we have an all powerful God. However, He is not a God to be trifled with.
As we continue the object lesson will become more apparent.

1 Samuel 4:10

¹⁰And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent: and there was a very great slaughter; for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen.

That day the Philistines benefited from Israel’s disobedience.
They defeated them and slew 30,000 Israelites and divided them.
I am confident that the Philistines believed that their god was more powerful than Yehovah. Many have thought this through the years.
If one defeats the people of Yehovah, either the people of God were less than righteous, there is a lesson for the people of Yehovah to learn or both.
In many cases, it is a lack of vigilance on the part of the believer.
We would do well to understand that God’s standard is perfection. It is the minimum, anything less is sin. Although, we may fail to achieve it in this life time, we should never shy away from continuing to strive to improve every moment of the day.

1 Samuel 4:11

¹¹And the Ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain.

But the Philistines went too far that day. They should have not taken the Ark of the Covenant.
The death of Hophni and Phinehas is one thing, but taking the Ark of the Covenant will prove to be a mistake on the part of the Philistines.
The death of Hophni and Phineas was the beginning of the fulfillment of 1 Samuel 3:11-14.

¹¹And Yehovah said to Samuel, Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of every one that hears it shall tingle. ¹²In that day I will perform against Eli all which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin, I will also make an end. ¹³For I have told him that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knows; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. ¹⁴And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering for ever.

1 Samuel 4:12-13

¹²And there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent, and with earth upon his head. ¹³And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the Ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told all the city cried out

A Benjamite came to Shiloh and told the city what had happened.
There was a cry in the city.
Hopefully, it was a cry of repentance.
However, more than likely it was a cry of fear of what else could happen or that they lost what little faith they had left.

1 Samuel 4:14-17

¹⁴And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, What the noise of this tumult? And the man came in hastily, and told Eli. ¹⁵Now Eli was ninety and eight years old; and his eyes were dim, that he could not see. ¹⁶And the man said to Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and I fled to day out of the army. And he said, What is there done, my son? ¹⁷And the messenger answered and said, Israel is fled before the Philistines, and there has been also a great slaughter among the people, and your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the Ark of God is taken.

The Benjamite also told Eli what had happened.
Eli who was advanced in age, 98 years and his eyesight was not very clear.

1 Samuel 4:18

¹⁸And it came to pass, when he made mention of the Ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck broke, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years.

When Eli heard about the Ark of the Covenant, he fell backwards and broke his neck.
Eli had judged Israel for 40 years. He will not be remembered as an impartial judge. He placed his sons above others.
Never turn a blind eye to the sins of others in the congregation when it is your responsibility to properly judge. Especially, when it is adversely affecting others.
We should never place anyone above the laws of God. That is sin and will permeate throughout the congregation.
This is why Paul stated in 1 Corinthians 5:6.

⁶Your glorying not good. Know not that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

1 Samuel 4:19-20

¹⁹And his daughter in law, Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the Ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her. ²⁰And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said to her, Fear not; for you have born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it.

At this time, Phinehas’ wife was giving birth.
As she heard the news she had no response to that fact a son was being born.
She too had probably heard the prophesy of the family.
She was hearing of the fulfillment as she was giving birth.

1 Samuel 4:21-22

²¹And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glory is departed from Israel: because the Ark of God was taken, and because of her father in law and her husband. ²²And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the Ark of God is taken.

Phinehas’ wife’s last words were that the glory is departed from Israel.
Unfortunately for her, her faith was in an object and her family. She would have done well to take the prophesy to heart.
The glory was still there but limited.
It was found with a man who put Yehovah above all, Samuel.
Samuel proved that family was not more important that Yehovah and following His ways. He removed His sons from being judges.

Today the glory can be with us, but we must be the ones to pursue the glory.
It must be done His way or else the glory will depart from our lives too.

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