The Capture of the Ark

 •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 13
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Samuel had no part in the sorrowful doings which culminated in the loss of the ark, but it is quite impossible to pass over the disaster while meditating upon the life of the prophet. In Darby's translation, 1 Samuel 4 opens with the words, “What Samuel had said happened to all Israel.” We thus learn that the defeat of the people, the death of the sons of Eli, and the loss of the ark were the Lord's fulfillment of the heavy message which he gave to the temple child in the midnight revelation.
The people were utterly wrong with God, and the evil of their leaders was glaring, yet they were so insensible to their condition that they ventured upon a war with the Philistines, only to be abandoned by the Lord to calamity and disgrace. About four thousand men of Israel were slain at a place which afterward, in happier days, became known as Ebenezer, meaning, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us” (1 Sam. 7:1212Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. (1 Samuel 7:12)). A faithful and compassionate God is always ready to help those who first judge themselves and then make their humble appeal to His mercy. But fleshly pride and insensibility of heart He will lay low. Let us not forget, beloved brethren, that “Israel's God is ours” and that “whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning” (Rom. 15:44For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. (Romans 15:4)).