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Chosen no: R-5626 a, from: 1915 Year. |
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GOD'S ARK IN WICKED HANDS
-FEBRUARY 21.--1 SAMUEL 4:1-18.--
A CORRUPT PRIESTHOOD - A DEMORALIZED PEOPLE - ATTEMPT TO BRING GOD INTO THE WAR - THE ARK OF THE COVENANT CAPTURED - PUNISHMENT AT THE HANDS OF THEIR - ENEMIES - THE SAME PRINCIPLE IN OPERATION TODAY -
TRAGIC DEATH OF ELI AND HIS SONS - WHICH NATIONS - ARE IN COVENANT RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD?
"Be ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deluding your own selves."--James 1:22.
SOME twenty years after God's prediction of
the calamities that would befall Eli and his
family, the tragedy related in this lesson
occurred. In all those twenty years, apparently
no reformations had taken place--
the aged Eli, now ninety-eight years old, had
not purged the servants or the service of the
Lord. He had allowed matters to continue
in the hands of his sons, notwithstanding
their continual dishonesty in the things of
God, and their immorality and pernicious example.
Samuel, apparently, may have been absent at the time of
this lesson, and perhaps for years before. Wherever he
was, we may be sure he was a true servant of God, and
more and more recognized of the people as such.
We are not to overestimate the moral and religious
conditions of the people during those twenty years; but
we may assume that the evil example of the priests, the
sons of Eli, whom he had associated with him in the
priestly office, had an injurious effect upon the people--a
demoralizing effect. According to God's covenant with
the nation, He was bound to reprove them, punish them.
A fresh invasion of the Philistines took place. The
Israelites went out to meet them in battle and were defeated.
In their chagrin, and groping after some help,
they looked to God, just as all the nations of Europe today
are looking to God for help and praying in vain.
The usual customs under such conditions today are the
same as then; namely, an attempt to bring God into the
war, an attempt to invoke the assistance of religious
symbols, etc. And, indeed, the Israelites had more ground
for so doing than have the warring kingdoms of today;
for God had declared Himself to be the Keeper of Israel,
and that they were His special nation, His ward, and that
He would protect them as long as they would be loyal to
Him. On the other hand, the kingdoms of this world have
no such Divine promise, have no ground for such expectations
of Divine aid. They are falsely styling themselves
Christian kingdoms, "Christendom"; whereas they
have neither part nor lot with the Lord. He recognizes
no nations except Natural Israel of the past and Spiritual
Israel of the present. "Ye are a holy nation, a peculiar
people, a Royal Priesthood, to show forth the praises of
Him who hath called you from darkness into His marvelous
light."--1 Peter 2:9.
The Israelites doubtless had read how the Ark went
before them in the Wilderness journey, how it was in the
midst of the River Jordan when the people crossed over
dry-shod, and how it was in the procession that marched
around Jericho when the walls fell. And so they determined
to bring up the Ark of the Lord and put it in the
battle with the people of Israel; and thus they thought
they would insure victory. Their reasoning, apparently,
was that God would not permit the Ark of the Covenant
to be injured or to be captured; and hence they would be
safe and victory would be bound to come to Israel.
With our mental eye we see the pageant: Here come
the Levites, bearing the holy Ark of God, and the two
sons of Eli, arrayed as the priests of the Most High, the
representatives of God's Holiness; and the people, enthused
with the thought of victory through the Ark of
God, shouted their usual battle-hymn, "Rise up, Lord, and
let Thine enemies be scattered, and let them that hate
Thee flee before Thee."--Numbers 10:35.
The people forgot that they had been living irreligiously,
in violation of their Covenant with God; and
that that Covenant called for punishment upon them at
the hand of their enemies. They forgot that the two
representative priests by no means represented God and
His Righteousness--that they were thieves and robbers,
garbed as the priests of God; that they were immoral,
impure, posing as the representatives of the Divine Holiness.
They forgot that God's blessing was not to be expected
under such conditions.
A PRESENT-DAY PARALLEL
And alas! Although we are many centuries removed
from their time, we see much of this same principle today--
much sham, much pretense, much misrepresentation
of God on the part of those who profess to be His representatives.
We behold the present war, with the Kaiser
of Germany at the head of the Lutheran Church; with
Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria-Hungary, the chief
son of the Papacy; with King George at the head of the
Church of England; with the Czar, the "little father" of
Russia, the chief representative of the Greek Catholic
Church--all these marching out to battle, each rallying his
soldiers with the thought of God, each treading the
precious Name of the Prince of Peace into the dust, each
bent on the use of the sword for the selfish purpose of
promoting the greatness of his empire and its commercial
prosperity, and, incidentally, upholding the traditions of
the past respecting his authority to establish the Kingdom
of God upon earth.
Today, as in the days of Eli's sons, the people give a
[R5626 : page 43] shout as they couple the Cause of God with their national
projects. Again they forget that the two are entirely
separate; that God's Cause is under Divine direction; and
that His Cause will prosper best by the permission of a
great defeat to all these systems of men, preparing incidentally
for the establishment of Messiah's Kingdom,
after the Armageddon of the Bible shall have humbled
the world and made them ready to acclaim the new King
Immanuel and His Kingdom "the desire of all nations."
Calling upon the Name of the Lord and having the
Ark of God in the battle did not help the Israelites, even
as the carrying of the ikons by the Russian soldiers will
not give them the victory, or the wearing of the name of
God upon their belts give the victory to the Germans, or
the carrying of the Cross of St. George give victory to
the armies of the British.
There was a great slaughter and a scattering of the
forces of the Israelites. The two sons of Eli were slain.
The Ark of God was captured. A swift runner from the
army brought the sad intelligence to Shiloh, where Eli
as judge sat upon his high seat in the gate, anxiously
wondering, fearfully remembering the twenty-year-before
prediction of disaster. The runner reported to Eli that
the battle had gone against the Israelites, that his two
sons were slain, and concluded by telling that the Ark of
the Lord had also been captured by the Philistines.
ISRAEL DIFFERENT FROM OTHER NATIONS
Eli heard all with equanimity until the last sentence.
When he learned that his precious treasure, for which he
was the guardian by Divine appointment, had been taken
by the Philistines, the poor man fell over in a faint, his
chair toppled, his neck was broken. Although faithful at
heart until death at ninety-eight, he, nevertheless, is not
without reproof in that he neglected his family and neglected
to see that the work entrusted to him was not interfered
with by those of his own household. His loyalty
to God was not sufficiently great to hinder him from shirking
his responsibility. In his character was too much of
the spirit of "peace at any price," not enough of that
courage which is prepared to die for righteousness' sake.
The lesson taught to God's Covenant people, Israel, the
Lord next sent chastisements upon the Philistines, so that
they were glad to return the Ark to the people of God.
Some are inclined to make light of the declaration that
the Philistines were plagued with mice and with hemorrhoids
so long as they had the Ark with them; and that
when the Ark had been restored to the Israelites, these
plagues were removed. We have no reason, however, to
doubt that the Philistines had cause for the realization
that these were special plagues, and the Scriptures seem
to uphold the thought that they were of the Lord.
This does not authorize us in supposing that every kind
of plague today is of the Lord--that pestilences, etc., are
special punishments of God. We must remember, when
considering this matter, that the nation of Israel, and
everything appertaining to it, was in a special covenant
relationship with God and under Divine supervision.
Whoever touched Israel or any of the things pertaining
to the typical system was to that extent adverse to the
Lord, His Cause, His interests, and this could be done
only by the Lord's permission; and when the Lord wished
to bring back the Ark, or deliver His people from such
circumstances, it was for Him to bring to pass conditions
necessary to that end.
There is no such condition of things prevailing today.
The nation of Israel is temporarily cut off from the Divine
protection which was with them--until the full number
from the Gentiles shall have been brought into Spiritual
Israel. Then all Israel will be recovered from their blindness
and their alienation from God, as it is written: "This
is My covenant with them when I shall take away their
sins."--Romans 11:26-32.
The only people or nation now in covenant relationship
with God, according to the Bible, is Spiritual Israel,
"a holy nation, a peculiar people." And, as respects
[R5627 : page 43] Spiritual Israel, their interests are spiritual; and the
Divine promises do not guarantee them earthly blessings
and protection, but rather the reverse--persecution and
opposition. God's guarantee to Spiritual Israel, however,
is that all the adversities of the present life which He
permits to come to them will work out to their eternal
spiritual welfare, if they are rightly exercised thereby.
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