Hello and welcome to our broadcast we're looking at 1st Samuel chapter 4 Israel lost a battle that they deserve to lose We're gonna look and see why stay tuned I'm reading in 1 Samuel 4, verse 1, and 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. And 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 4,000 men. And when the people were come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? 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. so the people sent to Shiloh that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts which dwelt between the cherubims and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were there with the ark of the covenant of God. And when the Ark of the Covenant of God came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, what meaneth the noise of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews? And when they understood that the Ark of the Lord was come into the camp, and the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God has come into the camp. And they said, woe unto us. for there hath not been such a thing heretofore. Woe unto us who shall deliver us out of the hand of these mighty gods. These are the gods that smote the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness. Be strong, and quit yourselves like men, O ye Philistines, that ye be not servants unto the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Quit yourselves like men, and fight." And the Philistines fought, and Israel was smitten, and they fled every man into his tent. and there was a great slaughter for their fell of Israel, 30,000 footmen. And the ark of God was taken, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were slain. And 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. And 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 it, all the city cried out. And when Eli heard the noise of the crying, he said, what meaneth the noise of this tumult? And the man came in hastily and told Eli. Now Eli was ninety and eight years old. His eyes were dim that he could not see. Well, verse 16 says, And the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army, and I fled today out of the army. And he said, What is there done, my son? And the messenger answered and said, Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people, and thy two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God is taken. And 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 break, and he died, for he was an old man and heavy, and he had judged Israel 40 years. And his daughter-in-law, Phineas's wife, was with child near to be delivered. And when she heard the tidings of the ark of God was taken, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself, travailed, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death, the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not, for thou hast borne a son.' But she answered not, neither did she regard it. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, The glorious departed from Israel, because the ark of God was taken, and because of her father-in-law and her husband. and she said the glory is departed from israel for the ark of god is taken well the fact is the glory had departed from israel a long time before that ark was taken so we look into verse number one we start off looking at the prophet it says the word of samuel came unto israel now that verse really does belong at the tail end of the last chapter where we read in verse 21 And the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord, and the word of Samuel came to all of Israel. And then chapter four could start with now Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. Now, it says here the word of Samuel, the word of Samuel. He is mentioned 142 times in the Bible. That's interesting when you consider that Elijah is mentioned only 69 times, and Elisha 58. Isaiah is only mentioned 32 times in the Bible. Samuel was a great man of God. He's mentioned 142 times. Now, it says here that the child in verse number one of 1 Samuel chapter three, if we go back and look at the context of this chapter four, it says, and the child Samuel ministered under the Lord before Eli, and the word of the Lord was precious in those days, there was no open vision." Now, what that word precious means is that it was rare. The word of the Lord was rare in those days, and there was no open vision. Now, they had the ark, and they had some real big-shot preachers, Eli, Hophni, Phinehas, and all those people, but the word of the Lord was rare, and there was no open vision. That is, there was no open vision of what God was doing or wanted to do. Truth of matter, he wasn't doing anything, because God's people wouldn't let him. So we see the prophet was there, his name was Samuel, and the Philistines were there, it says in chapter 4 and verse number 1, and the word of the Lord came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer, and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. Now, we have the prophet, we have the Philistines, but more than that, we have a problem. And the problem is not the Philistines, the problem is the people of God are going through the motions while ignoring the message of the prophet. They've got the motions, but they're ignoring the message. It says, the word of Samuel came to all of Israel. It says back here in the last chapter, the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, and the Lord revealed himself. to Samuel? Well, he's not mentioned again for another 20 years. You get down to chapter 7 and verse number 3, and when he is mentioned, he's talking to them about repenting. He says, "...and Samuel spake unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, Then put away the strange gods and an asteroth from among you and then third prepare your hearts under the Lord and for serve him only and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines for 20 years They haven't been listening to the prophet and you'll find that when you get down 20 years down the road here in chapter 7 and verse number 3 They're ready to listen. It'd been a lot better if they listened way back here in this chapter and Well, they're going through the motions while they're ignoring the message. I said that word covenant is in 1 Samuel 10 times, the word elder six times, the word ark 40 times. They were putting all their confidence in that ark. Even the word Lord is in 1 Samuel 337 times. They're going through the religious motions and ignoring the message. They're going through the motions and ignoring the grace of God. Again, we read back in chapter three, And verse 21, the Lord appeared again in Shiloh. What a work of grace that was that he sent Samuel at that time, but they didn't listen to him. Well, we get into chapter four and verse number two, and that says the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel. mark it down you're going to if you're going to be a child of god you're going to have the enemies coming against you those philistines are out there it says they put themselves in array against israel and when they joined battle israel was smitten before the philistines and they slew the army in the field about four thousand men well the bible says very plainly back in psalm 106 verse 41 their enemies also oppressed them And they were brought into subjection under their hand. It took 20 years, but they finally listened. Their enemies also oppressed them. They were brought into subjection under their hand. Well, in 1 Samuel chapter 4, verse number 3, We see here they were having a leadership problem at the beginning here of this story. It says, and when the people were come to the camp, the elders of Israel said, wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines? Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh and bring it here into our camp. They said, when it cometh among us, it may save us out of the hand of the enemies. it a covenant they're talking about the ark of the covenant while they're living in absolute corruption you say absolute corruption yeah go back to chapter four and verse number four and we read there that it says so the people sent to shiloh that they might bring from thence the ark of the covenant of the lord of hosts and it dwelt between the cherubims and the two sons of hoffen i and phineas were there with the ark of the covenant Well, they had some popular people, Hophni, Phinehas, Eli. They had the Ark of the Covenant. And who were Hophni and Phinehas? Well, they were Eli's sons. And what do we read about them? Back in chapter 2, verse 22, it says, Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did. unto all Israel, and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation. And he said unto them, why do ye such thing? For I hear of your evil dealings by all the people. Nay, my son, for this is no good report I hear." What a pussyfooter. What a wimp. He should have been straightened out his sons. Here they were having sexual relationships in the church. But a lot of that going on under the guise of fundamentalism in our day and age. All he says is, oh, a little slap on the fingers, nay, my son. Well, here we are, here we are, back here, we see that the ark here is in Shiloh, Eli is in Shiloh, Hophni and Phinehas are in Shiloh, these very popular corrupt young people in charge of the ark. Everything's going on here, people and the ark, lots of things going on in Shiloh. I'll tell you what, who isn't in Shiloh? God isn't in Shiloh. Well, we read in verse number 13 of chapter 3, For I have told him, God said, speaking of Eli, that I will judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knoweth, because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. Now, I'm beginning to understand why Israel's losing this battle. They're putting all their trust in that ark. They got this thing to them. It's just a magic box. It was supposed to be the representation of God in their area. Well, God's not in their area. He's not in the middle of the slush. well we read in first samuel 4 15 and when the ark of the covenant of the lord came into the camp all israel shouted with a great shout so that the earth rang again well they're really excited but it was a short-lived emotion we see down in first samuel 10 verse Samuel 4 verse 10 it says in the Philistines fought Israel was smitten every man fled into their tent. There was a very great slaughter and 30,000 footmen were slaughtered and the ark of God was taken and Hophni and Phinehas were slain. Well, that's a good thing. At least got rid of them. In any event, they're a great shout when the Ark came into the camp. Oh, they thought this is going to be the all end of everything. Well, the Philistines, if you read it from verse six down through verse number nine, they said, quit yourselves like men. Let's go out here and fight. And they did go out and fight. And Israel lost 30,000 footmen. The Ark was taken. Hophni and Phinehas are dead. Well, it says in verse number 12, there ran a man of Benjamin out of the army, and came to Shiloh the same day with his clothes rent and earth upon his head. And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. our magic box into the into the war section well the man came along and Eli heard everybody whining and crying and what was going on and he said what's happening well the messenger gave him the bad news and we read in verse number 15 now Eli was nine and eight years old his eyes were dim that he could not see well not only his eyes were dim his spiritual eyes were more dim than his physical eyes and it says in the man said unto Eli, I am he that came out of the army. I fled the day out of the army. He said, what has happened? He said, well, Israel has fled before the Philistines. There's been a great slaughter among the people. Hothni and Phinehas are dead and the ark is taken. And it came to pass, verse 18, when he, that is The servant that ran of the army made mention of the ark that he that is Eli fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate and his neck break and he died for he was an old man and heavy. He had judged Israel 40 years, wasn't much of a judge. Back in chapter 3, we find out here that he was telling Samuel, go back, lie down, go to sleep. Here he's falling over backwards. He never did go forward, do anything for God. Well, he fell over and broke his neck and he died. And that was the end of the story of that man. And you wonder why Israel is losing. It's not hard to figure out here. Well, verse 19 says his daughter-in-law, Phineas' wife. Now remember, Phineas was a womanizer, and he managed to marry somebody. Well, she was with child, near to be delivered, and when she heard the tidings of the ark of God was gone, and then second, her father-in-law was dead, and her husband was dead, She's about to have a child and it says here that she named the child Ichabod saying the ark of God is taken. The glory is departed from Israel for the ark of God is taken. Well, her husband's dead, her brother-in-law's dead, her father-in-law's dead, but we've lost our magic box. Well, this is the reason for the big problem here. Basically put, it was a leadership problem. They had a serious problem where they were putting their confidence in the ark rather than in the Lord. I think we're there again. I think we're putting our confidence in the things we have. We call it the fundamental movement. That's going to fix everything. Well, if that's the only hope we have, we have no hope at all. Tune in for our next broadcast as we continue to look at the battles in the Bible.