Israel had a problem—the Philistines. In 1 Samuel 4:2, we read, “Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle.” The elders of Israel, then, wanted to know why God didn’t give them victory. What happened? One might think in such a case they would have inquired of God through practices such as prayer, fasting, and prophecy. Instead, however, they went the Bond-villain route hatched a plan to unleash a secret weapon: “Let us bring the ark of the covenant from Shiloh, so that he may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies” (4:3). Operation Ark Bomb was thus born.
The people “sent to Shiloh, and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim” (4:4). Among those who were in on this plan were Hophni and Phinehas, the wicked sons of the priest Eli. We’re told in 2:12-13 that “they had no regard for the Lord or for the duties of the priests to the people,” and in 2:17 that “they treated the offerings of the Lord with contempt.” Hophni and Phinehas were content to enjoy the privileges of the priesthood, but they were unrighteous and impious. For them, God was a means to an end.
Everyone seemed to think Operation Ark Bomb would work. When the ark entered the Israelite camp, the Israelites gave a loud shout, no doubt anticipating their victory. This alarmed the Philistines, who must have wondered what trick the Israelites had up their sleeves. Once they learned that the ark of the covenant had arrived in the camp, the Philistines were frightened. “Gods have come into the camp,” they said. Perhaps better than the Israelites, they understood the gravity of the situation. They remembered the plagues that the God of Israel inflicted upon Egypt.
Nevertheless, they psyched themselves up for a fight and engaged in battle. At this point, the reader might expect something along the lines of the ending of Raiders of the Lost Ark: all the ark-stealing Nazis were wiped out in the face-melting fury of the angel of death. The Israelites no doubt expected God to show up and open up a can of divine wrath. But in fact what happened was…
nothing.
God didn’t do a thing. Operation Ark Bomb was a dud. “There was a very great slaughter, for there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. The ark of God was captured; and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died” (4:10-11).
Eli, meanwhile, was waiting in Shiloh for news of the battle. A Benjaminite who escaped the slaughter reported to him, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great slaughter among the troops; your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.” With this last bit of news about the ark, Eli fell backward and broke his neck. Israel not only lost the battle, thousands of lives, and the ark, but the man who had been its leader for forty years.
So that worked out badly.
This isn’t the first time I’ve read this passage, but this time it hit different, as the kids say. In their fear and desperation, the Israelites developed a plan to use God to accomplish their ends. They must have believed that surely God agreed with them. After all, we’re talking about the Philistines here—the Philistines, for crying out loud! Why wouldn’t God want to destroy them? So, they thought, let’s roll God in here, let him pour out some fire and brimstone on the Philistines, and call it good.
But God will not be used in this way. God is not a weapon. God is not a tool we can pull out when we need something fixed. He is not a means to an end. God is the end—the telos, the goal. God does not appear on command, even if we pray fervently, even if we stand in the very presence of the ark of the covenant. God is sovereign. He responds to our prayers, but he is not beholden to our will.
There is in our time, as in all times, a temptation to try to use God instrumentally. God-talk can become a way to get clicks, votes, money, or power. God-talk can add gravity to our claims about right and wrong, just and unjust. It can serve unrighteous agendas. “God” can be a word we use when we want to sound like serious people. In many cases, “God” is little more than a grift.
As the story of the Israelites shows us, when we try to use God, it won't end well. It’s noteworthy that God didn’t actively punish the Israelites. He didn’t send plagues on them or destroy them with fire. He simply left them to their own plans. Proverbs 16:25 teaches us, “There is a way which seems right to a person, But its end is the way of death” (NASB). Sometimes the greatest discipline God can inflict is to withdraw his Spirit. Romans 1 teaches us that God gave up the gentiles to immorality because they refused to acknowledge him as God. “And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind, and to things that should not be done” (Rom 1:28).
The wife of wicked Phinehas was pregnant at the time of his death. When she learned that both Phinehas and Eli were dead, she went into labor and gave birth. The name she gave the child was Ichabod, which means “without glory,” because the glory of the Lord had departed from Israel. This relates to God’s warning to the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2:5: “Repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.” If God removes your lampstand, you’re no longer a church, even if you have the form of one. You have become Ichabod.
In fact, any community of faith can become Ichabod. When we follow the wrong leaders, insist on our own way, choose self-will over self-denial, and follow our sinful hearts rather than God’s divine guidance in Scripture, God may finally give us exactly what we want. In the great divorce, C.S. Lewis wrote, “There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done,’ and those to whom God says, in the end, ‘Thy will be done.’” God may abandon us to our own will, and hence to our destruction.
Operation Ark Bomb didn’t work. The Israelites tried to use God, rather than seek his will and discern their path. All such efforts lead to ruin. It may not be as dramatic as the slaughter of thirty-thousand Israelites, but it will happen. Before we act, self-examination, repentance, and discernment are essential. Wesley described repentance as the “porch” of religion. We must turn from our ways to God’s ways, seek his will, and follow in obedience.
I believe that large segments of the American church have become Ichabod. God has removed their lampstands. Too often, we haven’t sought God in repentance and obedience, but tried to use God to build our own kingdoms. The results have been predictable. And yet nothing is wasted with God. He will use this moment to purify the church and call her back to holiness and sincerity. The glory may have departed, but not forever. God will restore—in his time and in his way. I just hope I’m alive to see it when he has mercy and revives us yet again.
Amen! to, God can use His withdrawn presence to purify Christ’s Church. I personally believe that this is exactly what much of the churches in America are experiencing right now.
It'd be nice if there were only one way of becoming Ichabod. Then all we'd have to do is avoid the way those people over there (whom we don't like) are becoming Ichabod, and we'd be just fine.