Before we go on to the further characteristics of the two families at Shiloh, showing so distinctly what is pleasing to God at this very time, and what is not, let us ask ourselves, Are we real worshippers? Can we sing the song of Shiloh? Yes!
The Song of Shiloh
Sing, you say, how can we sing, and the church in such a state, and judgment close at hand? It was exactly the same when Hannah sang that song of Shiloh; she was like a lark. You might say to the lark, How can you sing? Do you not see what a fog there is on the ground? This way I sing, the lark would say, higher and higher, far above the fog, in the heavenly blue above. Thus sang Hannah, higher, and higher still. Is there a higher swell of joy in the whole Scriptures? As the sun fills the sky of the lark, so the Lord Himself was before her soul.
She did not rejoice in Shiloh, as a place, but in the Lord who is the Shiloh. It is the person who makes the place. “My heart rejoiceth in the Lord... because I rejoice in Thy salvation.” In the spirit of Revelation 3, as a Philadelphian, she says, “There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside Thee.” How soon we may slip away from this; how soon get occupied with men! Such was the Person of the Holy One to her, that He exceeded all others. What an exclusion, and what a song!
Is Jesus the Shiloh thus before our souls? If so, how could we leave Him? “Lord, to whom shall we go?” Do our actions show that He is enough, and we cannot allow any beside Him? “And by Him actions are weighed.” The mighty men, and the weak, are all made known in His presence. His wonderful ways are known at Shiloh. Read every sentence. How needed to the children of God now at Shiloh! “He bringeth low and lifteth up.” Could anything prove more distinctly the inspiration of the Holy Ghost than this song at Shiloh? Hannah’s faith and song rises to a theme utterly unknown at that time. The church, of which this is a picture, full of typical instruction, was as yet hidden (Eph. 3:99And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: (Ephesians 3:9)).
Mark the order of 1 Samuel 2:8-108He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them. 9He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. 10The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed. (1 Samuel 2:8‑10), in Hannah’s song. She sees humanity a dunghill! Out of that dunghill, God lifteth up or raiseth up the beggar, “To set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.” Is not that exactly what God is doing now? Oh, have you been taken as a lost beggar out of the dunghill, as Paul? And is God determined that you shall be set amongst princes, and that you shall, as part of the body of Christ, inherit the throne of glory? Yes; He has no lower thought or purpose for us. But does it in some way depend on my holding fast? May I not turn aside, though a true saint, and after all be lost?
Nothing of the kind, says Hannah: “He will keep the feet of his saints.” True, she says, “And the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.” Cheer up, my soul! these are weighty words—they are the words of this day of grace, during which God is gathering the church for the throne of glory in the heavens.
Then in 1 Samuel 2:1010The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed. (1 Samuel 2:10). The next thing is the time of tribulation: “The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces, out of heaven shall He thunder upon them.” Then the judgment of the quick: “The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth.” After this, the reign of Christ on earth: “And he shall give strength unto His king, and exalt the horn of His anointed.”
It was simply impossible for any one to have invented this very order, then utterly unknown to man; but now become the well-known order, and purpose of God. First, the taking out the church for the throne of glory, kept for that purpose by the power of God. Secondly, the day of the Lord, ending with the judgment of the living nations. And, thirdly, the setting up Christ as the true Shiloh, Messiah, King on earth. Let the skeptic tell me how it came to pass, that Hannah sang of all this, in type, more than a thousand years before it was revealed? This amazing song of Shiloh is an unanswerable proof, then, of divine inspiration. It is the very theme at this moment of the songs of those gathered to Him, the only Shiloh. Oh that we were more like Hannah, instead of being crushed with the state of things in Christendom, and even at the very place or position that answers now to Shiloh, as a place, the place in His presence, of peaceful tranquility. Yes, instead of looking at the state of things until our hearts sink within us, may we, like Hannah, and like the lark, thus rise above them, and rejoice only in the Lord.
We have noticed that there were two families at the only true place — Shiloh. One is approved, the other disapproved. What was the difference? This may help us to discern the Lord’s mind now, especially where there may be two companies, both declaring they are gathered to the Lord. The words are very plain. “The child did minister unto the Lord, before Eli the priest.” This is the first test. Are we ministering unto the Lord, or to self and self-importance? Which is it? Do not evade this question.
“Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord.” Yet they were the officials of Shiloh! Is it possible to be so now? We do not ask, Is it possible for a true Christian to fail, to fall? Alas! every true Christian knows and owns it is. But is it possible for evil to be practiced by those who are in the true place, on true ground, as they say, and that by those who know not the Lord? Yes, and for the very same motive as that of the sons of Eli. Ah! it is what they can get. It is “the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot; all that the flesh-hook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh,” (1 Sam.2:14). Wickedness was practiced at the very doors of the tabernacle at Shiloh.
“Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord; for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.” This is the root, the practice of evil by those who know not the Lord. Mark again the contrast: “But Samuel ministered before the Lord, being a child, girded with a linen ephod.” Ah, my brethren, this is the remedy for all the evil at Shiloh, to really minister before the Lord, girded with practical righteousness. Do weigh this.
The Lord now sends a messenger, a man of God, to Shiloh (1 Sam. 2:2727And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said unto him, Thus saith the Lord, Did I plainly appear unto the house of thy father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? (1 Samuel 2:27)). God makes known the coming judgments on the house of Eli. He now makes known to us the coming judgment on Christendom, on Laodicea. But what was the marked failure of Eli? It was the allowance of evil. He seems to have been an amiable old man himself; but whilst himself condemning the evil, he was loose in allowing and going on with it. And what he allows, he is reckoned as a partaker of. And did this bring down the judgment of God on his house, and on Shiloh, where He placed His holy name at first? It certainly did, according to the word of the man of God.
And has there been no man of God in these days who faithfully warned the house of the amiable Eli, who allowed and went on with what he condemned? Is it not astonishing what light these three chapters throw on our very path in these days? Surely we can thus discern what God approves, and what He condemns. No doubt all the world may condemn the exclusion of evil, and all who bring and practice it. Nothing has been so hated and misjudged in these days, as faithful exclusion of known evil, especially evil doctrine against the Person of Christ. But does God misjudge, like man, or disapprove? Read the message of the man of God to Eli. May we all read it in the fear of the Lord. He says, “But now the Lord saith, Be it far from Me! for them that honor Me I will honor, and they that despise Me shall be lightly esteemed” (1 Sam.2:30). This is a most important word to us. We may be too much occupied with the authority of the assembly; with questions of united judgment, or a majority; although necessary to give due consideration to them, but do we know the real presence of the Lord? Do we really know Him as we should if we saw Him? This is the point. Do we really own Him present, and seek His mind? Who would rail and question the decision of a few thus gathered in His presence? Is He not really present to faith? He says it; and it will be found wherever He is truly owned.
These He will honor and preserve. It has been so in every case. But we must hasten on to
1 Samuel 3
“And the child Samuel ministered to the Lord before Eli. And the word of the Lord was precious in those days: there was no open vision.” It is so now. It is only as we are as little children, we can really serve the Lord. And though there is no open vision, no further development, yet cannot we say that the word of God is precious in these last, closing days of Christendom, as in those closing days of Shiloh? The eyes of Eli began to wax dim that he could not see. It is so wherever known evil is allowed or palliated. Dimness of perception of divine truth is sure to be the result. “And ere the lamp of God went out.” Is it not a solemn thought that the bright testimony of the Holy Ghost will soon cease to shine in this poor world, ere God shall give the rejecters up to dark and strong delusion? The night grows dark, already pagan ritualism covers the land with many a rite of Baal. Is this a time for indifference? Are the Elis and Samuels to lie down to dream, being neither cold nor hot? No, the voice of the Lord is heard, but not by Eli: “He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” But he who allows the evil he condemns, has no ear to hear. Eli heard not that voice, though it had to say to him.
(Continued and to be Continued).