Losing the Ark

1 Samuel 4, 5 & 6

Such a dry time and the people didn’t hunger for God or His Word.  

I think we all go through times like that.

And I’m reminded that I’m not that different from Israel.  

Why is that I know, and still don’t always do something about it?

And I love it that God keeps calling and pursuing us!

Samuel walked his talk during the time of the judges for about 20 years.  His talk captivated all Israel from the North to the South while the priesthood of Eli was winding down and that of Hophni and Phinehas would soon end.   Eli had grown fat on the choice portions of Israel’s offerings and his sons grew more corrupt and irreverent by the day. 

And then the day came that Israel was defeated yet again by the Philistines.  The elders elected to send the ark of the LORD’s covenant into battle.   And no one stopped them!   As if the notions and precepts of holiness and consecration had fallen completely out of practice.   That the power of the LORD’s presence was tied to the object and not to God’s will and favor.  

No one stopped them or restrained themselves.

Even the priesthood doing as it saw fit,

accompanying the ark into battle.

Unsteady leadership.

Israel is defeated and the ark is lost.

It falls into enemy hands. 

And it causes Eli to fall off his chair by the road.

More heart sick over the ark than his boys.

The ark brings sickness and pestilence to every enemy city.

The ark is shuffled from city to city and ultimately shipped back to the Levitical town of Beth Shemesh. 

On a cart pulled by two cows that had recently calved. 

Along with gold tumors and gold rats.  

Symbols of plague and pestilence.

And the ark comes to rest in relative obscurity at the home of Abinadab.

At Kiriath Jearim.

For about 20 years.  

I wonder why it wasn’t taken back to Shiloh, to the tabernacle? 

I wonder why Samuel wasn’t living still in the temple?

And Samuel calls the people back to God. 

Leading them like the other judges,

springing up here and there,

during times of trouble.

And God held back the Philistines

during Samuel’s lifetime. 

And there was some measure of peace. 

Peace seems so easy and so elusive.