A L M A C I A S

THE GLORY OF GOD HAS DEPARTED

In the book of I Samuel, we find many lessons that could very well apply to us today. One of those lessons is found in I Samuel 4:1ff, where we learn that the Israelites had gone to fight against the Philistines who were long-time enemies of Israel. In this battle, the Israelites lost 400 of their men to the Philistines. When the elders began to ask themselves why they had lost, they blamed God for not having fought on their side, as well as the fact that they did not have the ark of the covenant with them as they had gone into battle. The elders did ask themselves the right question, but their answer was wrong. First, they had no right to blame God for their defeat, and it was not the absence of the ark of God which had caused them to lose the battle. Rather, it was their relationship with God which had brought about this defeat.

We read in I Samuel 4:4-8 that they decided to bring the ark of God from Shiloh, thinking that once the ark was in their midst, they would be victorious. They finally managed to bring the ark of the covenant into the camp, and they shouted with great joy, believing that now the Philistines would be no match for them. However, when they went into battle, they lost again; and they lost even more men than before ­ an additional 30,000! As we study this account from the Scriptures, we might ask ourselves why the elders of Israel thought that if they had the ark of God with them, they would have won. One possibility could have been that these elders remembered how the waters of the Jordan River had opened for the people of God as they crossed to go into the promised land, as well as when the people of God were able to cause the walls of Jericho to crumble after they had walked around the city accompanied by the ark of God. Thus, they believed that it was the ark of God that made all the difference. They were completely wrong about all of this. It was not the ark that made all the difference, rather it was the relationship the people had with God that really helped them to accomplish what they did. They did not have that relationship with God at this time, for they were a rebellious and disobedient people. Later on in the same chapter, we read that someone came to Eli and told him that the Philistines had taken the ark of God. When Eli heard this, he fell back and was killed, for he thought that the glory of God had departed from Israel. Eli was wrong; the glory of God had departed long before that. The glory of God had departed when the people had departed from Him. What about us today? Is the glory of God still with us?