"Ebenezer and Ichabod" 1 Samuel 4-7 "Here I raise my Ebenezer" How did an obscure location in 1 Samuel become part of one of the most famous hymns of the church? Tonight we are looking at Ebenezer and Ichabod. Ebenezer opens and closes our passage, while Ichabod well describes the condition of Israel. As we saw last time, the Word of the LORD was rare, there was no frequent vision, Eli's eyesight was growing dim, the ark of God was still in the temple, and the lamp of God had not yet gone out. 1. Israel vs. the Philistines at Ebenezer (4:1-22) But all that is changing. No longer is Eli's eyesight dim. He is now blind (4:15). He is a blind man watching at the gate. And no longer is the ark of the LORD in the temple the elders of Israel have brought the ark out to the battle. In the days of Joshua this resulted in the victory of Israel at Jericho, as the ark of the covenant went before them into battle. The elders of Israel are thinking of the ark as a magical talisman: Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies. (4:3) They were right, you know. By bringing the ark of the covenant of the LORD into the camp, they were bringing the power of God into the camp. The coming of the ark did signal the coming of God into the camp. Listen to the language of 4:4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. Indeed, when the ark came to the camp, God himself came. God came to Ebenezer (literally, the stone of help). You've probably heard preachers point to 1 Samuel 7 when explaining "ebenezer" but how often have they started with 1 Samuel 4. Israel brought the ark to Ebenezer because they were seeking God's help. "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come!" There is a mocking irony in those words! Because Israel is singing them here in 1 Samuel 4. Israel is not following other gods. Israel is trusting in Yahweh to save them! Will God be a rock of help to them? Will he be their sure fortress? The Philistines sure think he will! A god has come into the camp! Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? They had heard of what Yahweh did for Israel: These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. But what neither Israel nor the Philistines understood was that the coming of God is not necessarily a good thing for his people! Because the LORD came in judgment against the house of Eli and against all Israel for their sin. So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, died. (4:10-11) But Eli was sitting at the gate of the city, watching. The blind man is watching, for though blind, he sees more clearly than the elders of Israel, and his heart trembled for the ark of God. God had judged him for honoring his sons over his God. It may well be that Eli had repented of this, because his response to the news is the response of faith: Israel has fled before the Philistines and there has also been a great defeat among the people. This is bad. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phineas, are dead, This is tragic. and the ark of God has been captured. The news of Israel's defeat is disheartening. The news of his sons death is heartbreaking. But you can live through that. Eli already knew that God would kill both of his sons in a single day. But the ark? Brothers and sisters, Eli knew as well as you that God does not physically reside in the tabernacle. But the ark was the physical demonstration of God's presence with his people. For God to remove the ark from the land is for God to say "you are no longer my people." As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died. The response of Eli's pregnant daughter-in-law is even more poignant: when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death the women attending her said to her, 'Do not be afraid, for you have borne a son.' In other words, you may have lost your father-in-law and your husband, but you have a son a male who will take care of you! But this woman understood that the birth of son meant nothing compared to the loss of the ark: so she did not answer or pay attention. And she named the child Ichabod, saying "The glory has departed from Israel!" I-chavod "no glory" The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured. And she died. Psalm 78 reflects on the end of the period of the Judges: For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols. When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel. He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind, and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe. He gave his people over to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage. Fire devoured their young men, and their young women had no marriage song. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation. (78:58-64) Psalm 78 sees 1 Samuel 4 as the final turning point the decisive moment in Israel's history leading up to the establishment of the house of David. Because it is when God forsook Shiloh, when he delivered his glory into the hand of his foes, and when the priests fell by the sword, then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of wine. And he put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting shame. And then Psalm 78 speaks of how God called David his servant, and set him as shepherd over Israel. 2. Yahweh vs. Dagon at Ashdod, Gath and Ekron (5:1-12) 1 Samuel 5 recounts the exile of the ark of God. Israel could not defeat the Philistines because they viewed the ark simply as a magic talisman. The problem was not that Israel had too high a view of the ark. Israel had too low a view of the ark! Because in chapter 5, the ark does everything that Israel could not do! If 1 Samuel was trying to rebuke Israel for thinking of the ark as having supernatural powers, then chapter 5 would have been counterproductive! The exile of the ark of God is designed to show Israel that God doesn't need them. When the ark went before Israel in the days of Joshua, the Jordan River parted, Jericho's walls fell down, and Israel received their inheritance. Now the ark will go before Israel against the Philistines! Before Samuel, Saul or David, the first victory against the Philistines in Samuel's gospel is when the ark goes alone into Ashdod. And yes, I called it Samuel's gospel. Because Samuel is all about the good news of the coming of the kingdom of God. Note first that they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. 1 Samuel makes a point of reminding us that the ark leaves Israel from Ebenezer the stone of help. And the Philistines brought the ark of God to the house of Dagon, in order to demonstrate that Dagon was greater than Yahweh. Now it may be that Dagon's armies had beaten Yahweh's armies, but the LORD wished to demonstrate that even in exile, even without his people, Yahweh is still the great God over all gods. Here is the demonstration that God does not need you in order to accomplish his purposes. The first night Dagon falls on his face before the ark of Yahweh. The ark of the LORD is a powerful thing. It cannot be manipulated for selfish or nationalist ends (the conclusion to the Raiders of the Lost Ark is exactly right in that respect). The moment of defeat, when Yahweh is brought under the power of the enemy, turns out to be the moment of victory! So they took Dagon and put him back in his place. This is what we tend to do with our idols. The LORD knocks them down, but we set them back up again, thinking that it was just a fluke! But the next morning, behold Dagon had fallen face downward on the ground before the ark of the LORD, and the head of Dagon and both his hands were lying cut off on the threshold. Yahweh had cut down the god of the Philistines. And he also afflicted the people of Ashdod. As long as the ark was in Ashdod, the people of Ashdod were afflicted with tumors. And when the moved the ark to Gath, the men of Gath were afflicted with tumors (5:8-9). And when they suggested moving the ark to Ekron, the third major city of the Philistines, the people of Ekron cried out "They have brought around to us the ark of the God of Israel to kill us and our people!" 3. The Ark Returned to Beth-Shemesh (6:1-7:2) In 6:1 we hear that the ark was in exile among the Philistines for seven months. But in that short time, Yahweh convinced the Philistines of his power. So the lords of the Philistines called together their priests, and asked what to do with this powerful talisman, and the priests and diviners answered: If you send away the ark of the God of Israel, do not send it away empty, but by all means return him a guilt offering. Then you will be healed, and it will be known to you why his hand does not turn away from you. They recommend five golden tumors and five golden mice as the guilt offering, to represent the plagues with which God had struck them. And revealing their knowledge of history, they add Why should you harden your hearts as the Egyptians and Pharaoh hardened their hearts? After he had dealt severely with them, did they not send the people away, and they departed? But they also wanted to make sure that it was really Yahweh who had struck them. After all, by sending the ark of God back to Israel, the Philistines would be acknowledging that Yahweh was greater than Dagon, and would thus be encouraging Israel to attack them. They want to make sure that it was really Yahweh. So they use two milk cows on which there has never come a yoke . . . but take their calves home, away from them. (6:7) Milk cows do not have a strong tendency to wander! They want to return home to be milked and have a strong maternal instinct. If they have never been yoked, then they are not likely to work together either. So if they go trotting off in the wrong direction, opposite their calves, up to Beth-Shemesh. And the cows stopped at the great stone in the field of Joshua of Beth-Shemesh, and the Levites came and took down the ark of the LORD, and they offered the two milk cows as a burnt offering to the LORD, and the men of Beth-Shemesh offered burnt offerings and sacrifices to Yahweh. But some of the men of Beth-Shemesh had no regard for the holiness of God, and they looked upon the ark of the LORD (possibly looked into it), and the LORD struck seventy men of Beth-Shemesh. And so they asked, Who is able to stand before the LORD, this holy God? (6:20) And so they sent messengers to Kiriath-Jearim saying The Philistines have returned the ark of the LORD. Come down and take it up with you. Beth-Shemesh is in the lowlands. Kiriath-Jearim is on the border of Benjamin and Judah in the highlands. Now, why did they take the ark to Kiriath-Jearim? Why didn't they return the ark to Shiloh? Why did they consecrate Eleazar the son of Abinadab to "have charge of the ark of the LORD" rather than return it to the priests at Shiloh? While this is not mentioned in the Bible, archeological digs suggest that Shiloh seems to have been destroyed around 1050 BC right about the time of the death of Eli. There was no return to Shiloh. (Jeremiah says in 7:12, "Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.") God had struck down Eli and his sons on the same day that he had removed the ark from Shiloh. The ark had been restored from exile, but the priesthood was still in doubt. The man of God had spoken in 2:35 of a faithful priest, but God had said, I will raise up for myself a faithful priest. Where was that faithful priest? Until God raised up the faithful priest, the ark remained in a consecrated exile. This mini-exile is echoed in louder and longer terms in the great exile of 586 BC. Instead of seven months, it was 70 years. Instead of the ark held captive, the temple was destroyed altogether. Instead of 20 years of limbo with the ark in Kiriath Jearim, awaiting a faithful priest, it was 500 years of silence, awaiting the son of David, the prophet, priest and king, who would restore all things. 4. Samuel at Ebenezer (7:3-17) Meanwhile, with the ark at Kiriath-Jearim awaiting the faithful priest, Samuel, the prophet of God, spoke to the house of Israel (in other words, while you are waiting for God to act, do not sit on your hands, but repent and believe! Waiting on the LORD does not mean being passive, but is an active trusting!): If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you are direct your heart to the LORD and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines. (7:3) And the people of Israel did as Samuel said. They put away the Baalim and the Ashtaroth (Baal and Asherah were the male and female deities of the Canaanites) Then Samuel called Israel together at Mizpah, and they drew water and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day and said there, 'We have sinned against the LORD.' (7:6) Why did they draw water? Water was a precious commodity in Israel. To pour water on the ground was an image of futility, as the wise woman of Tekoa says in 2 Samuel 14:14, We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground which cannot be gathered up again. Water is also an image of judgment in scripture. The water of the flood, the water of the Red Sea, the water of the Jordan River, God frequently used water as a means of judgment (and blessing) in the OT. So they poured water out upon the ground and fasted they deprived themselves of even the necessary things of life, because they acknowledged that the only thing necessary was the mercy of Yahweh. We have sinned against the LORD. If God does not have mercy upon us, then what is the use of food and water? We in the western church do not fast enough. We are self-indulgent. We are proud. Fasting is foreign to our lifestyle of perpetual feasting! Have you ever devoted a full day to fasting and prayer? It's hard. But it is a valuable thing to humble yourself and acknowledge that if God does not have mercy upon us, what is the use of bread and water? And when the people all come together in their corporate fast, the Philistines hear of it, and fear that Israel is preparing to rebel. And they see it as an opportunity to reassert their authority over Israel. And so they gather together to strike Israel, and the people were afraid, because they were not prepared to do battle! And so they said to Samuel, (Read 7:8-11) The LORD thundered forth and routed the Philistines. Samuel the prophet spoke to man on behalf of God, and spoke to God on behalf of man. He interceded for the people as a priest offering the sacrifice, and as a prophet speaking to the LORD. And the LORD heard him. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, 'Till now the LORD has helped us.' (7:12) This is the establishment of Ebenezer the stone of help. Wait, I thought that Israel encamped at Ebenezer in chapter 4! But this says that Ebenezer didn't exist until chapter 7. Are there two Ebenezers? Yes. The first Ebenezer was in the coastal plain near the foothills of Ephraim. That was the place where Israel was defeated, the ark was captured, and the two sons of Eli killed. But now Samuel sets up a stone in Benjamin, near Mizpah, and called its name "Ebenezer." The death of the priests and the capture of the ark turns out to be the means that God used to overthrow the Philistines. Samuel is teaching the people that God's triumph comes through our weakness. The LORD brought judgment upon his priests and upon his people at Ebenezer. But his purpose is to bring Israel through suffering to glory. 2. Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come; and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God: he, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood. Ebenezer is the place where God himself is brought under the power of his foes. Ebenezer is the place where "Ichabod" is pronounced "no glory." The glory has departed. Ebenezer is the place where darkness falls, where the lights go out. When news comes from Ebenezer the blind priest falls over backward and dies; the pregnant woman gives birth to a son, and then dies. And yet when God himself is brought under the power of the devil, when our Lord Jesus Christ descends into hell, he casts Dagon on his face, binds the strong man, and plunders his house, rescuing his people from the bonds of sin and death. And so even as Samuel saw that Ebenezer turned from Ichabod to Glory, so also the cross.