Whatever Samuel said was broadcast all through Israel. Israel went to war against the Philistines. Israel set up camp at Ebenezer, the Philistines at Aphek. The Philistines marched out to meet Israel, the fighting spread, and Israel was badly beaten—about four thousand soldiers left dead on the field. When the troops returned to camp, Israel’s elders said, “Why has God given us such a beating today by the Philistines? Let’s go to Shiloh and get the Chest of God’s Covenant. It will accompany us and save us from the grip of our enemies.”
So the army sent orders to Shiloh. They brought the Chest of the Covenant of God, the God-of-the-Angel-Armies, the Cherubim-Enthroned-God. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, accompanied the Chest of the Covenant of God.
When the Chest of the Covenant of God was brought into camp, everyone gave a huge cheer. The shouts were like thunderclaps shaking the very ground. The Philistines heard the shouting and wondered what on earth was going on: “What’s all this shouting among the Hebrews?”
Then they learned that the Chest of God had entered the Hebrew camp. The Philistines panicked: “Their gods have come to their camp! Nothing like this has ever happened before. We’re done for! Who can save us from the clutches of these supergods? These are the same gods who hit the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues out in the wilderness. On your feet, Philistines! Courage! We’re about to become slaves to the Hebrews, just as they have been slaves to us. Show what you’re made of! Fight for your lives!”
And did they ever fight! It turned into a rout. They thrashed Israel so mercilessly that the Israelite soldiers ran for their lives, leaving behind an incredible thirty thousand dead. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the Chest of God was taken and the two sons of Eli—Hophni and Phinehas—were killed.
The Plilistines were the Israelites greatest enemy. And one day that enemy took over 4,000 of their men. Naturally they asked, "Why did this happen to us? We are God's people." So after this great tragedy, this major loss, they went to God, but not in the right way. They recognized the holiness of the ark (The Ark of the Covenant held the 10 commandments, and was supposed to be kept in the Most Holy Place in the temple), but they thought the ark itself would rescue and save them, not the holiness that was inside it. So they removed the ark from it's Holy place, and used it as a good luck charm, expecting it to protect them from the enemy.
They thought that if they took the ark into battle with them, it would bring them victory after such a great defeat. But what happened was just the opposite. The enemy defeated them even greater, by slaughtering over 30,000 men this time, including the two sons of Eli (1 Samuel 2:34 "And to prove that what I said will come true, I will cause your two sons to die on the same day.")
A symbol of God does not save us, God does.
Church does not save us, the One we worship there does.
The cross doesn't free us, the One that died on the cross does.
I have a new young man that has joined my herd. He is a 19 year old that looks just like Russell Westbrook (if you know who that is). He's pretty awesome too. We were in the car on Friday going out to the Raymond jail to see my boy, and his bro, and I asked him about the tattoo that covers his entire right arm. I had noticed it when he first started coming around and wanted to find out what it was about. Funny....when I asked him to tell me about it, he said, "I don't even really know, I just got it when I was mad." At the very top of his arm is a scripture that I saw, but didn't know which one it was, so I asked him to tell me about that too. Again, he said, "I don't even know what it is. The guy that did the tat said he saw something in me that made him think of it, so he just put it on there." This is what is tattooed on his arm:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son,
that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
John 3:16
So then I got to tell him what that means. What is means for him personally. What Jesus did for him. What Jesus is doing for him every day. The Bible verse inked on his arm does not make him a Christian, but when he begins to understand what that verse means for him, and he believes it IS for him, that is what will set him free.
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