SA 1-7There are two truths which stand very prominently before us throughout the sacred volume. The one is that of God's fore-knowledge: and the other is, that in accomplishing his purposes, God always acts worthily of Himself. It is in the redemption, which is by Christ Jesus, that both these find their special' and definite display. They are variously and amply illustrated, however, in other dealings of God with men; and amongst the rest, in the events detailed in the narrative before us.
It is in the redemption by Christ Jesus, we have said, that they are fully displayed. Many, indeed, seem to suppose, that redemption was an after-thought with God, -a resource to which he turned when Satan's cunning, and Adam's weakness had spoiled the workmanship of His hands. But is this the light in which the subject is presented to us in the word of God? Nay, so far from this, we are told that the very end for which God created all things was, that he might be glorified in the church. "God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by (means of) the church, the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Eph. 3:9-11). So also, as to, the other truth. Where else can we learn the holiness and righteousness of God, as they are to be learned in the cross of Christ? Man was ruined. God was resolved to save. Grace must reign. But how? At the expense of righteousness? Nay, but "through righteousness!" Before man fell, God knew he would, and determined to make man's sin the occasion of unfolding depths of compassion and riches of grace in Himself, which otherwise must have been unmanifested and unknown. But is he, therefore, to be unrighteous? Can He make light of sin, as though there were little, if any, difference between sin and holiness? God forbid. He is indeed gracious, and His grace must reign and triumph. But it must be in such a way as vindicates His glory and manifests His holiness; and hence the cross of Christ. There we behold grace indeed; but there we see holiness as well. " Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign [not at the expense of righteousness, but] through righteousness, unto eternal life, by Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 5:20, 21).
So in the narrative before us. Israel's condition was not only evil, it was desperate. The measure of their iniquity was full, and judgment was at the door. But before we hear a word of their wickedness, or of the judgment which was impending over them, we have the touching display of the fore-knowledge and grace of God. The instrument of deliverance is prepared. The despised and misjudged Hannah, the woman of a sorrowful spirit, becomes the joyful mother of the one chosen and appointed of God to be the channel of deliverance and blessing to Israel, when the judgment shall have done its work. Samuel thus becomes to us the witness of sovereign grace-grace that foresaw the crisis, and provided for it; yea, grace that informs us of this provision, before the circumstances are recorded which made such a provision needful.
Still, God cannot act unworthily of Himself. He has resources in Himself to meet the need of His people, deeply as they may have fallen, widely as they may have departed from Him. But He cannot sanction their iniquity. He can forgive. lie can restore. He can bring in richer and fuller blessing than that which, by their sin, they have forfeited. But He can neither sanction iniquity, nor wink at it. Before the blessing, which in His grace He has prepared, can be actually introduced, He must in His righteousness dissociate Himself from His people's sin. Grace may -shall-must- triumph; for God is grace. But in all this He will still manifest Himself to be of purer eyes than to behold evil-the One who cannot look on iniquity.
The condition of Israel at the period of our narrative was mournful in the extreme. It was not merely that the nation was wicked; but the priesthood, which was God's ordinance for the blessing of His people, had become the instrument of corruption and apostasy. The house of God at Shiloh had become the scene, and its most solemn services the occasion, of wickedness sufficient to shock the conscience of the natural man. "Wherefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord; for men abhorred the offering of the Lord." When that which bears the name of God becomes the instrument of corrupting others, we may be sure that the measure of man's iniquity is nearly full. But before the stroke of justice falls, due and repeated warning is administered. First, a man of God is sent to Eli, to declare to him the judgments which the wickedness of his sons is hastening on; and then the child Samuel is sent with the same terrible message. Chapter 4 presents to us the accomplishment of these threatenings.
" Pride goeth before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall." Now, Israel, we are told, went out against the Philistines to battle, and. pitched beside Ebenezer. They did not wait to be attacked. Neither did they wait on God to learn whether He would have them attack the Philistines. They went out. Vain and self-confident, they judged themselves more than a match for their adversaries. But when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines; and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men. And what is the effect of this terrible discomfiture? Are they deeply humbled before God? Do they inquire of Him the cause of so solemn an event, and wait on Him for deliverance? Alas, no. The elders do indeed say, " Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us to-day before the Philistines?" But, without waiting for an answer; without any searchings of heart or confessions of sin; yea, and without seeking counsel of God, they immediately add, " 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." Serious, indeed, for our souls, are the lessons taught us here. Surely, too, it is for us to learn, that God's ordinances are not God himself. While He, the living God, is known, and trusted in, and obeyed, His ordinances are channels of blessing to our souls. But when we have ceased to lean on Him, and to walk in His presence; when we have ceased to enjoy that living communion with God which alone can sustain us in conflict, and make us more than conquerors,-then how easily do we transfer to ordinances the confidence which we have ceased to place on God himself. Baptism, the Lord's Supper, ministry, the church-how all these are substituted in our own day for the present power of the living God! How is this? Ah! we may trust in these, make much of these, boast of these, and never have our consciences searched by the light of God's holy presence. We can go on with all these, and the heart all the while be unhumbled and unbroken; yea, our very diligence and zeal with regard to these, more completely blinding us to our real state before God, and puffing us up with pride and self-conceit. " I am rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing," is not more expressive of the last state of the professing body now on the earth, than it would have been of Israel's state when they carried the ark into the camp, and made the earth ring again with their shouts. But Israel had to find, by bitter experience, that they were "wretched, and miserable, and blind, and poor, and naked." Their sin made them so, to their shame, in the presence of their enemies.
Yes, God is not mocked. When his people have so far forgotten him as to use his name and ordinances for a sanction and a shelter to their iniquity, he shows that he has not forgotten what is due to the glory of his own holiness. He can suffer even his ordinances to be profaned, his sanctuary to be polluted, and his ark to go into the enemy's land, rather than have His HOLY NAME associated with his people's sin. The Philistines tremble at the first when they hear that the ark has come into the camp. But they have no need. He who dwelleth between the cherubims, whose name is Holy, has forsaken his chosen seat; and the ark has no power to defend itself, much less the people who, in their pride and iniquity, are putting their trust therein. " And 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. And the ark of God was taken; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were-slain." How fearful a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God!
But we have not yet seen the worst. There are deeper and more solemn lessons for us still. Eli had not personally participated in the sin of his nation and his sons. He, himself, was evidently a godly man. With what earnestness did he entreat the child Samuel to keep back from him nothing that the Lord had spoken. How meekly did he bow when the fearful message was communicated to him. "It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good." How evidently paramount in his esteem was the glory of God and the honor of His house, when his soul was tested by the tidings brought him from the field of battle. "What is there done, my son?" was his question to the messenger. "Israel is fled before the Philistines." These are sad tidings for the high-priest and judge of Israel. "And there Bath been also a great slaughter among the people." This is worse still. "And thy two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead." What must the aged patriarch have felt on hearing this! But all this he can bear. And is this not all? No; there is another announcement still. "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 brake, and he died;; for he was an old man and heavy; and he had judged Israel forty years." Now, would any one suppose that this venerable' man, to whom the ark of God was thus dear, was himself the cause of its capture and of Israel's overthrow? Yet it was even so. And this brings to view a most solemn principle of God's government of his people: viz., that he holds us responsible, not only for the sin we commit, but for the sin we allow. To have fellowship with iniquity is to make ourselves chargeable therewith; and the more holy the individual is personally, the greater sanction is given to the dishonor of God's name. It was not that Eli transgressed personally. Nor did he fail to reprove and protest against the sin of his sons. He did remonstrate with them. " Why do ye such things? for I hear of your evil dealings by all this people. Nay, my sons; for it is no good report that I hear: ye make the Lord's people to transgress. If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?" Thus did Eli see the evil in his sons, point it out, rebuke it, and expostulate with them respecting it. But still he allowed it. His sons went on with their priestly ministration, and no hand of authority was stretched out by their father to prevent it. He did not, by discipline on them, dissociate himself, the priesthood, the name, and the people of God, from the iniquity of his sons. And so long as in false tenderness he held back from this, all that he did say was but so much solemn testimony against himself. How many in this day think to excuse themselves from the pain of actually separating from evil, by bearing testimony that it is evil, and pro- testing in word against it. But, surely, the word before us may show, that the more we see of evil and speak of evil in those with whom we still hold fellowship as God's people, as " priests to God," the more evil and inexcusable is our own course demonstrated to be, in thus accrediting what we do so judge to be evil in the sight of God. " In that day I will perform against Eli all things which I have spoken concerning his house: when I begin I will also make an end. For I have told him that I will judge his house forever FOR THE INIQUITY WHICH HE KNOWETH; because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. And therefore I have sworn unto the house of Eli, that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be purged with sacrifice nor offering forever." Awful words! And as awfully fulfilled! The Lord grant that they may sink deeply into our hearts.
" If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged of the Lord." It was because Israel; yea, because Eli failed thus to give glory to God, that God had to vindicate His own glory as we have seen: to vindicate it, by delivering it into the enemy's hand.
" When God heard this, he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel: so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He placed among men; and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy's hands. He gave His people over also unto the sword; and was wroth with His inheritance." Such are the awful results of unjudged evil in the house, and among the people of God.
The triumph of the enemy was short-lived. They had no need to be afraid of the ark, when polluted Israel brought it into the camp, as a sanction for their iniquities, and a substitute for the living God Himself. God saw it then to be for His glory, that the ark should pass into the hand of the Philistines, rather than it should remain with the guilty people, who abused the very fact of their possessing it, to strengthen their hands in evil. It was then a question between the Philistines and Israel, and Israel was in such a state morally, as that God could not own and defend them, and they were utterly discomfited, and the ark itself borne away in triumph by the enemy. But when the Philistines place the ark in the house of Dagon their god, and think to celebrate its capture as a victory of Dagon over the God of Israel, they find at once what a terrible thing it is to have God for our enemy. It is no longer a question between the Philistines and Israel, but between Dagon and the God of Israel. "Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep, and like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine. And He smote his enemies in the hinder part; He them to a perpetual reproach." Dagon is cast to the ground, and nothing left of him but his stump. The Philistines are smitten with a loathsome disease; and the ark is sent from one city to another by the affrighted inhabitants, till at last they agree to send it back to the land of Israel altogether! And how wonderful are God's ways. The lords of the Philistines devise a mode of sending back the ark, by which they hope to ascertain whether it is really by it that their calamities have been occasioned. And God stoops to make manifest in this way His glory. The milch kine yoked by the Philistines to the new cart on which the ark was placed, forget the very instincts of their nature, to bear to the land of Israel the sacred treasure with which they are charged. "And the men did so; and took two mulch kine, and tied them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home: and they laid the ark of the Lord upon the cart; and the coffer with the mice of gold, and the images of their emerods. And the kine took the straight way to the way of Beth-shemesh, and went along the highway, lowing as they went, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left; and the lords of the Philistines went after them unto the border of Beth-shemesh." Thus did God, in the sight of the enemies, vindicate His glory, and make manifest, that their victory over transgressing Israel was no victory over Him. And what grace to Israel! The ark, forfeited by their wickedness, is restored to them by the Philistines; with offerings, too, on their part, in acknowledgment that their capture of the ark had been to their own utter shame and discomfiture. Thus did God get glory to His own name, by the apparent temporary obscuring of His glory. " Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints! "
We have now for a moment to inquire what was Israel's estimate of those ways on receiving back the ark of the Lord. "And they of Beth-shemesh were reaping their wheat-harvest in the valley: and they lifted up their eyes, and saw the ark, and rejoiced to see it." "They clave the wood of the cart, and offered the kine a burnt-offering unto the Lord. And the Levites took down the ark of the Lord, and the coffer that was with it, wherein the jewels of gold were, and put them on the great stone; and the men of Beth-shemesh offered burnt-offerings, and sacrificed sacrifices the same day unto the Lord." There was joy in the recovery of the ark, and acknowledgment in some sort of God's mercy in restoring it, in the sacrifices which they offered. But, alas! it was the superficial, carnal joy of hearts unbroken by a sense of sin. They were glad to have the ark back again; but their souls had not recognized the needs-be that had been occasioned by their sin for the capture and captivity of the ark. They were not humbled and broken under a sense of their own sin, and of the holiness of that God with whom they had to do. This was soon made manifest. So little did they think of their own sin and shame, in having made it needful for God to "deliver his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemy's hand," that they could even use the opportunity afforded by the return of the ark, to gratify their unhallowed curiosity by looking-into it! And the hand of God was upon them for this. " And he smote the men of Beth-shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even he smote of the people fifty thousand and three score and ten men: and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter. And the men of Beth-shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? And to whom shall he go up from us?" Surely there had been enough in the battle of Aphek, with all its sorrowful results, to have led them to exclaim long ere this, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? But no; they had failed to learn this lesson, so wholesome and indispensable, and now they must learn it by experience still more bitter than any which had preceded it. Four and thirty thousand were all who fell in both the engagements recorded in chap. 4. Fifty thousand and seventy are smitten for their rashness and presumption, at Beth-shemesh! Now they are obliged to say, "Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?" But, alas! they add -" and to whom shall he go up from us?" The heart, unhumbled by " grace reigning through righteousness," when it is at last compelled to bow to the majesty of God in holy judgment on evil, bows in the sullenness of despair; and just as the Philistines had sent the ark which afflicted them (as they thought) from city to city, so now the men Of Beth-shemesh say, " to whom shall he go up from us?" And they sent to Kirjath-jearim; and the ark was taken there.
" There is forgiveness with thee [not that thou mayest be trifled with or despised, but] that thou mayest be feared." Solemn words! May they sink deep into our hearts. It is one thing to grasp at the thought of forgiveness, and selfishly rejoice in it, merely as meeting our necessity, and rescuing us from death; another thing to enter into God's thoughts of what sin-our sin-is as revealed in the cross of Christ. The blessedness to us of being forgiven, and the freeness with which forgiveness is imparted, are both blessed subjects for meditation, and we may well rejoice-yea, and God would have us rejoice-in view of them. But still, unless we apprehend something of what it cost Jesus to accomplish our salvation, and of the necessity there was in the Divine glory, we being sinners, that Jesus should suffer what he did, our joy will be of little power and of short duration. We must learn what sin is, and what God's estimate of it is too. Failing to learn this by faith where God has fully revealed it, even in the cross of Christ (where we not only read the evil of sin, but see it entirely put away), we have to learn it by bitter experience under God's hand, extorting from us the exclamation, Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God? The Lord grant us in lowliness to bow to his hand as we see it stretched out against our sin on our Sin-bearer's head on the Cross.
The seventh chapter presents us with another scene. The ark abides twenty years at Kirjath-jearim, and the children of Israel lament after the Lord. Samuel urges on them the putting away the strange gods, and preparing their hearts unto the Lord. The children of Israel do so, and Samuel gathers the whole congregation to Mizpeh. There they fast and humble themselves before the Lord, and say, "We have sinned against the Lord." The Philistines hear that they are gathered together, and come up against them. Israel, no longer self-confident as at the beginning of chap. 4, are afraid of the Philistines, and entreat Samuel to pray for them. It is no longer the ark they trust in, but God, the living God, himself. "Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines." Samuel takes a sucking lamb, and offers it for a burnt offering wholly to the Lord; he cries also to the Lord for Israel, and the Lord hears him. "And as Samuel was offering up the burnt-offering [the sweet savor of the perfect work of Christ], the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel; but the Lord thundered with a great thunder that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel." In chap. 4 Israel, strong and self-confident and trusting ordinances, with unhumbled, unbroken hearts, making God's ordinances a sanction for their iniquity, are smitten before the Philistines, and the ark led captive into the enemy's land. In chap. 4, God, having vindicated his name against the Philistines, and brought back his ark in triumph to the land of Israel, the men of Beth-shemesh, glad to have the ark back again, but still unhumbled as to what had occasioned its capture, they have to learn in yet deeper trial what a holy Lord God they have to do with. In chap. 7, Israel, humbled, broken-hearted, confessing and putting away their iniquities, cry to the Lord, and to him only, in their distress. The sweet savor of the work of Jesus (typically) ascends up before God-the people say, "We have sinned"-and God, who has no controversy with those who are on their faces, trusting in Jesus, and crying to himself, thunders on the Philistines, and utterly discomfits them before Israel. Samuel, who had been raised up before the judgment descended on Eli and on Israel, takes his place as judge; and the Philistines came no more into the coasts of Israel; but the hand of the Lord is against them all the days of Samuel. " And Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. And he went from year to year in circuit to Bethel, and Gilgal, and Mizpeh, and judged Israel in all those places. And his return was to Ramah, for there was his house; and there he judged Israel, and there he built an altar unto the Lord." Blessed, peaceful close of a narrative, unfolding at its commencement, and in its course, such scenes of wickedness, of judgment and of sorrow. The Lord keep us, beloved, from the vain presumptuous confidence and falseheartedness evinced at Shiloh and at Aphek! May we be preserved also, from the unhumbled joy, even in the Lord's deliverance, which met its terrible rebuke at Beth-shemesh! And oh, that we may know, one and all
of us, the broken-heartedness, the confession, the putting away of evil, the fear and trembling, the crying to the Lord, and the presenting His perfect work in the sweet savor of it, which God so owned and blest at Mizpeh! May these holy, gracious lessons, not be lost upon us; but may our hearts know the power of them, by the Spirit, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.