Thoughts on 1 Samuel 4

Today's reading: 1 Samuel 4; Romans 8

It seems kind of odd at first that the Philistines would be able to defeat the Israelites and capture the ark in 1 Samuel 4. The pattern we have seen over and over again throughout the book of Judges is that Israel turns away from God, He delivers them into the hands of their enemies, then they turn back to Him and He rescues them. Isn't them bringing the ark into the camp and the great cheering that frightened the Philistines an indication that they were relying on Yahweh for deliverance? Why would God still allow them to be defeated?

The short answer to this is that Israel had not turned back to Yahweh here as they had at other times. There is no mention of them turning from the other gods they had sought after like there are at other times, they simply bring the ark of the covenant to the battlefield. More than that, they have never had to bring the ark to battle to be rescued in the past, it was always that when the hearts of the Israelites returned to the Lord, He would bring deliverance. So Israel sending for the ark of the covenant is not an indication that they had repented of turning away from God, instead it was their attempt to treat God like the gods of the nations. They were regarding the ark like a talisman or icon, and bringing it into the camp would bring Yahweh into the camp to add His power to their own.

This is a foreign way of thinking about deities for many of us in the modern West, but this was very common at the time. Gods were generally territorial, so if you wanted the power of your god, you took them with you. Armies would very often carry idols onto the battlefield in order to have their god's power available, and these idols also became a focal point in battle because if you could remove your enemy's god(s) from the battlefield, you were much more likely to win. So rather than Israel recognizing Yahweh as God of gods and Lord of lords, they were treating Him like the other gods they had started worshipping and whose idols they likely also had on the battlefield with them. But Yahweh cannot and will not be manipulated like that, and He shows them that by allowing the ark to be captured.

What is really telling though is what we will read tomorrow in 1 Samuel 5. The ark getting captured and Israel being defeated would seem to be a knock on the power and ability of Yahweh to protect His people, meaning He cannot compete with the gods of the Philistines. But it was not that Yahweh was overpowered by the Philistines, but that He was disciplining His people by allowing them to be defeated by the them. And to show that this is the case, and to not leave anyone on either side of the conflict with the wrong impression, Yahweh is going to "defeat" the Philistines and their gods entirely on His own without any human intervention.

Yahweh is not weaker than the gods of the Philistines, but He is also not a puppet to be controlled by the Israelites at their will. If they want His power and His promises to be operative for them, they don't need the ark on the battlefield, they need hearts that are given back over to Him.