How are you tonight? I think Steve Stucker is actually supposed to be out here, but maybe he's giving the weather somewhere. I don't know. But I just wanted you to see-- Steve. How are you?

Hi.

Sorry about that crack. Do you forgive me?

You're forgiven.

Do you think there were weathermen in the Old Testament?

Yeah they probably weren't much more accurate than we are today.

[LAUGHTER]

But the profits were.

You bet.

Could you to see Steve in the Old Testament? The weather in Jerusalem today is a mild 72. I wanted to show you this CD that we have. It's a new CD that Marsh Shamburger, our worship leader tonight, put together, wrote a lot of the songs, and produced. Marsh did you write these songs?

Almost all of them.

Almost all of them. And I have this playing in my car right now, and it's an acoustic, kind of a mellow, rendition of a lot of the songs that we sing here as well as songs that he's written, that he has sung and he and Shannon have sung together. And the great thing about this is Marsh produced this, worked long and hard on it, and all of the proceeds go to raise money for high school kids to go on a mission trip this summer. So you could get a great CD, have a good time listening to it, and then send kids overseas. Steve what do we got tonight?

Well we've got several questions concerning the Ark of the Covenant.

Do you want to have a seat?

Don't mind. Which chair would you prefer?

Whatever you don't prefer, I'll prefer.

This is like being on the set of the Jetsons back in the 60s up here. I like this.

[LAUGHTER]

Except the Jetsons didn't have an Ark of the Covenant.

We wanted to check in and see if you would explain to us just what God was trying to illustrate through the Ark of the Covenant.

All right. Well, let me just kind of back up a little bit and explain what's up on this platform. This is the actual Ark of the Covenant that was from the Old Testament. We found it. No, we had an artist in our church replicate this some years ago. And, in fact, all of the articles that was in the holy of holies in the holy place, the menorah right there, Steve on your right hand side, the Ark of the Covenant here.

I think the table of showbread is here, minus is the bread. And we have the altar of incense in the back the. Lid got broke, so the altar of incense is kind of hanging out behind the scenes. But God established a means by which people could approach him, and he could have A fellowship with him, B take care of the sin problem. And that's where the Tabernacle came in. That's where the Ark of the Covenant came in.

If we were to live at the time of Samuel, or even going back before that in the wilderness, and approach this strange dwelling place of God, you would see cloth first of all. You would see a seven foot high fence made out of cloth. The front section would be 75 feet wide, and it would be 150 feet deep. And inside the courtyard would be an altar where sacrifices were made, a big brass washing basin.

Then you would have, besides that, a tent-like structure sort of toward the back of that. And the tent was 15 feet wide by 30 feet deep divided into two compartments. In one compartment, 15 by 15, was this box, the Ark of the Covenant. And God said that he would speak to his people from the lid. I know it sounds strange. I'm going to speak to you from the lid of this box, from the mercy seat.

And that's because a priest, once a year, would take blood and sprinkle it upon the mercy seat to take away the sin of the people. This was done on Yom Kippur. And it was symbolic of God fellowshipping with people over the forgiveness of sins.

So it was, fellowship was a lot tougher in those days. We couldn't just get down on our knees and talk to God.

Excellent point. You know, right now we can just say "Father, in Jesus' name--" and we have instant access. In those days, you had to, first of all, take care of the sin issue by bringing an animal to this tabernacle and have him sacrifice it on your behalf. And there were lots of those. And then even, get this, even the high priest could only come in to that inner sanctum one time a year, and he had to do so, you know, really strictly. That is, he had to make sure that his sins were atoned for, that he was right with God. And it is said they put little pomegranate bells on the bottom of his robe so you could hear him moving around.

If he was moving around, whew. If he wasn't moving around, pull on the rope that's attached to his ankle, because he's probably dead. He didn't do something right. So it wasn't just like, hey God how are you doing today? It was very strict and very tough.

Speaking of strictness, why was God so incredibly specific in his directions about the building of the ark in the Tabernacle? When you read through that, it's just mind boggling, the detail that he required.

That's a great question, actually, because let me even frame that a little bit further. If you look at the chapters or the verses that God spent to speak about the creation of the world in comparison to the Tabernacle the Ark of the Covenant, it's like way out of proportion. Just, God created the heavens and the Earth next, and a little bit of detail is given. But an incredible amount of detail was given to Moses, and it was given to Moses when he went to Mount Sinai and received the law.

He didn't just get the law. He got, in effect, a set of blueprints for this structure, the Tabernacle. Hebrews tells us what is going on. Hebrews tells us that the tabernacle was a pattern of heavenly things, that what we see on Earth was patterned after what is taking place in heaven. And to get the unlocking of that, you have to read the Book of Revelation where you see the creatures in the glass, not of water now, but of the sea of glass. And some of the same elements are present in that heavenly vision that John had with the Tabernacle. So it was a pattern.

You mentioned sacrifice. How do Jews sacrifice today when they don't have a temple?

Well that's a problem. It's a problem. It was a problem in the Old Testament, when they were taken into Babylon, and the temple was destroyed. It was a problem in the wilderness when the Ark of the Covenant was removed by the Philistines that we're going to read about tonight. It's a problem today because the Bible tells us, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. And God said that I will deal with you based upon what I do here, and what you do here in response to my commandments.

So once that's gone and there's no shedding of blood, you have this huge debt that has never been paid. Of course we know the answer to that. The debt was paid in the Lamb of God, slain once for all, Jesus Christ. So that if we place our faith in him, that's efficacious eternally. We don't have to keep coming back and have the sacrifices. It's done. It's a continual sacrifice. It's a sacrifice for all eternity.

I know in your lesson tonight you're going to talk about superstitions, things like that. What do you say to those who use things like rosaries, or statues of saints, or icons?

Well I'm going to probably reserve a little bit of that for the study. But, you know, when I was a kid, we always had a statue in our car, and it was facing us. And a friend of mine who didn't understand what that was all about said, "don't you think your statue's facing the wrong way? I mean, you want to see where you're going, right, down the road so he can kind of keep you from the harm, rather than after." And I don't know. That stuck with me. I don't know why I shared that.

Here is the bottom line issue. God doesn't want a depersonalized religion. Rather, he wants a deep, personal relationship with us. And whenever we substitute that relationship with anything else, it becomes a problem. If we start deifying an icon, for that matter, a denomination, or a system, or a book, or a seminar, and we say that thing is the answer, versus God in the relationship, it's always a problem. It's going to cause us to stumble.

So even from a Christian standpoint, things like a crucifix around the neck or a cross on the wall could be misused if we're not careful about it.

Yeah, anything can be used well. Anything can be used improperly. Some people will say, "I need something to remind me of God. Every time I see it, it reminds me of God. It reminds me of what Jesus Christ has done for me." And there's nothing wrong, inherently, with being reminded of Jesus Christ dying for our sins on the cross. It can become a problem if we start thinking of Jesus only as a crucified Savior, rather than as a risen Lord.

I think maybe the proper icon to wear would be a tomb around our neck that's empty, because that's Christianity. Jesus died, but he rose from the dead. Death is conquered, and we ought to celebrate that fact. So those things tell us a partial truth, not the whole truth, about the character of God.

The Jewish religion was just chock full of symbolic items of personal devotion. How come these things are de-emphasized in the New Testament?

Simply because we are the temple of God. God decides to take up residence in human beings. Corporately, the church the body of Christ. Individually, Christians who believe in him. So that, rather than going to a holy place, we become a holy people, a people set apart. And God delights to meet with us in the session with our own heart, as we're before the Lord. So that veil, that partition, that separation, is done away with in Christ.

All right. Well that's all of our questions for tonight. We want to encourage everybody, as we go through the lessons each week, to drop your questions in the offering boxes that you see in the aisles here. And Skip and the staff go through them each week, and we compile those. And are these questions that we had tonight basically come from you. We thought they were really good, and we appreciate your input. And I'm going to get out of the way here.

By the way, Steve, do you know what was inside the Ark of the Covenant?

Skip was going to have me jump out of it tonight, you know. He talked about that.

But do you remember what was in it? There were three items that were in it. One was the tablets of the law, the commandment, which they continually broke. Number two, there was a rod that budded, Aaron's rod that budded. And then there was a golden pot of manicotti, is that right? No, manna. That was it, manna from the wilderness, right. To commemorate that God took care of them in the wilderness.

Got it.

All right.

It's in my notes.

Marsh, back to you.

In the wilderness, God gave Moses explicit instructions for the construction of a mysterious object called the Ark of the Covenant. During Jeremiah's time, the temple was looted. And since then, the ark has been the source of much speculation and controversy. Though the Ark was given to Israel as testimony of God's presence, they made it into a kind of good luck charm, and it didn't work. Because tonight in 1 Samuel chapter 4, we find Israel trusting not in God but relying upon a symbol. Unfortunately, this is a common error.

Consider how quick some people are to look for exotic signs that are really spiritual superstitions. Do you have spiritual superstitions in your life? Do you think God will respond if you pray in a special place, or have a certain item around? Prepare to have some traditional beliefs challenge tonight as this chapter unfolds, and we consider spiritual superstitions line online.

Well, let's open to chapter 4 of first Samuel. Edmund Burke, the British statesman and scholar, said superstition is the religion of feeble minds. Now we think, well yes superstition, that happened a long time ago with ancient peoples who really weren't enlightened and didn't have the knowledge like we have today. And I would say you're right, sort of. Because some of these things have a tendency to come alongside, and linger even, into today.

Example, in ancient times, let's say we were in a forest in Germany or in Holland. And in the forest two friends, let's call one Hans, met his other friend, let's call him Franz. They met together in the forest, and Hans would say, "Franz, how are you today?" And Franz would say "I'm doing good Hans. How are you?" And Hans would say "I'm doing great. I bought the house that I always wanted, and I got a good price on the house too."

And they would get happy and rejoice together, and then suddenly they would gasp and realize the error of their ways. And they would rush over to a tree nearby in the forest and start pounding it with their fists. Because of the ancient belief system where they believed that the gods lived inside the trees of the forest and were listening to what human beings were saying. And these were jealous, hostile gods, and if they heard that a human being had been blessed in some way, or had prospered in some way, he would become jealous and try to steal away that blessing.

And so they would go over and they would pound on the tree, or they would knock on wood. And so when people today say, everything's going great knock on wood, it's just the ancient pagan superstition that the gods are listening, going to steal our blessings. I'd better do something. Ah, I Feel better.

What about today? Are people superstitious, genuinely, today? Well ask Miss Cleo. Or ask people like John Edwards, who are telling people things about their past and about relatives who have died and "I see purple-- no it's not purple. Blue-- no it's not blue." Yeah, I mean you can finally get one. People are highly superstitious.

Princeton University religion research department said 64% of the American adults believe in psychic phenomenon. 25% say they have personally experienced some form of psychic phenomenon. And 1% of the American public, adult public, visits mediums regularly. You say, well that's only 1%, but if you were to tally up how many people that really was-- that's a significant amount who regularly see mediums.

The Gallup organization recorded that one in four Americans believe in ghosts. One in six think they have communicated with the dead. And you'd be surprised at how many people are still weirded out about a Friday the 13th. Don't put an umbrella up inside. Don't spill salt. Don't walk under a ladder. All those goofy little things that are in the subconscious mind and come out during those times. And by the way, if you ever think that you might be abducted by aliens, you can get insurance for it in England.

Listen to this for $156 a year, a London, the company is called Goodfellow Rebecca Ingram's Pearson, will insure you in the event that you are abducted by aliens. Now if you are merely abducted, if they just nab you, they will pay $312,000 for the abduction. If you're abducted and partly eaten, you'll get a whopping 468,000 deal-- $468,000. I said deal because it's such a deal

There is a catch, however. You have to prove that you've been abducted. That's a little harder to do. You might show the little weird videos with lights flashing that is a reflection of the sun and try to say-- you have to prove it. That's how you will collect. And one of the top questions for the FBI up to this day, and even I as the FBI chaplain have gotten this question, "so, are there really x files?" People really want to know these things. There's this incredible amount of superstition.

At the same time, in our culture, there is a push to de-mystify, de-religify, our culture. Some say take away religion, take away belief in God, you will have more of a utopia. It's religion that divides people. It's religion that is the problem. David read in leadership magazine wrote these words, "History shows that when religion wanes in any country, it is not replaced by popular nationalistic philosophy that leads to universal happiness and peace. The vacuum left by the waning of religion in Western countries has been filled by an army of superstitious cults and beliefs. Perfect secularism is by no means something that casts out all fears. Take it away, and other goofy ideas will come flooding in. You create a vacuum."

With that said, I'll go into verse 1 and see the story. Verse 1-- actually let's start back at Chapter 3 verse 21. "Then the Lord appeared again in Shiloh, for the Lord revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the Lord. And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines, and encamped beside Ebenezer. And the Philistines encamped in Aphek."

I started in verse 21 of chapter 3 to show you the comparison between the last verse of chapter 3, the first verse of chapter 4. You have in one hand the word of the Lord, and then you have the word of Samuel. The word of the Lord has now become equivalent to the word of Samuel, in that you have this first prophet emerging on the scene. And he is going to speak not his opinion, but he's going to speak a message from God in a day and age when, remember last week the word of God was a rare treasure. There was no widespread Revelation. Now there is a clarion call from a profit of God to an airing nation.

And so that when Samuel speaks, it's a thus saith the Lord. The word of Samuel has become equivalent at this point with the word of God. God raises up a spokesman, which goes back to this point-- God wants to speak. People don't want to listen. And so here's a profit, but a profit is of no profit unless there's people to listen to him.

And so the ears have to be open. Speak, Lord. Your servant hears-- and that is a problem you'll see here. Instead of waiting on the Lord, instead of praying about a situation that came up, they just took the matter into their own hands. Now it says in verse 1 and continuing into verse 2, it mentions the Philistines. It says the Philistines encamped in a Aphek. Get used to these guys. They were around a lot during the story of first and second Samuel.

Who were they? The Philistines were warriors who migrated. They used to live way up north. They're called the Sea peoples, up in the Aegean Sean, up and the islands of the Aegean Sea, like Crete, along the shores of Asia Minor. And these people were forced down by the Dorian Greeks, who invaded their own country. They were forced down to the southern Mediterranean coasts.

And that's where they began to settle. At first when they settled, they were peaceful. They just kind of hung out with the local people. Eventually they became more aggressive, and when they became aggressive the problems began. They weren't satisfied with that portion of land that they had. They wanted to press and take all of that area. The Egyptian pharaoh, Ramsey's III, tells of his confrontation with the Philistines that he was able to not subdue them but to withstand them from moving into Egypt. But in the process, Egypt lost control of the southern coast of Israel.

The southern coast of Israel, which is where the Philistines settled in Israel, staged their wars against David, against Saul, against Jonathan, etc. And they tried to take over that land. There were five cities that formed a coalition. Five Philistines cities, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Eccrine, Gaza, and Gaffe. That's the area of the Philistines. The word Palestine, or Palestinian, comes from the word philistia, or Philistine. There is no such thing as a Palestinian nation. There never has been.

Even though they say they are in it, and the territory is occupied by Israel, and we'll get into this at a later date, Israel bought the land from them, cash-- all of the land that is the land of Israel-- bought it for a price. Was given by the United Nations in '47 and '48, and then was attacked by other countries to get it back, and they won those wars. But there was no Palestinian nation, and the country was never called Palestine. It was called Israel.

Palestine comes from the word philistia, or philistia, the land of the Philistines, it means. The name was revived, however, in 135 a.d. by Hadrian, the Roman emperor. He came in and he subdued Jerusalem, renamed the city of Jerusalem, Aelia Capitolina in defiance of the Jewish god, and set up his pagan Roman gods. And he decided to call Judea once again Palestine to defy the Jews and to erase any kind of loyalty to Yahweh from their memory. That's where the word is derived.

Then, verse 2, the Philistines put themselves in battle array against Israel. And when they joined the battle, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about 4,000 men of the army in the field. And when the people had come into the camp, the elders of Israel said, why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shilo to us, and notice the phrasing, that when it comes among us, it may save us from the hand of our enemies.

Couple of things to notice. They recognize the hand of God in the battle. Somehow, maybe even superstitiously, but they say why has the Lord defeated us? I think that the Israelis at that time knew enough of their history, where God said in Deuteronomy 28, "if you obey me, if you keep my commands, if you obey the voice of the Lord, your God, to observe carefully all his commands, which I command you today, that the Lord, your God, will set you high above all nations of the Earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord, your God."

Down in that same chapter, verse 7, Deuteronomy 28, "the Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face. They shall come out against you one way, and shall flee before you seven ways." Then a list of blessings are added to that, but it says "but it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all of his commandments, and all of his statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you." And list the curses, you'll be cursed in the city. You'll be cursed in the country. You'll be cursed when you do that. You'll be cursed when you do this.

And it goes down the list. And it says "the Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the Earth, and your carcasses will be scattered, God said, in the fields." They recognized a truth. They recognized that God somehow allowed their defeat, that God used the rod, you might say, of the Philistines to spank them. Just like God, later on, will use the Babylonians to spank them again, until there is a national repentance. And then God will bring them back into the land.

But we notice something. What we noticed is that instead of stopping, inquiring, waiting on God, praying about it, they take the matter into their own hands, and they come up with a plan. Let's get the ark. Now keep something in mind. The period we're dealing with is the period of, do you remember? The judges. And member that saying that we keep saying a lot in this series? There was no King in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes. Perfect existentialism.

But he made up their own rules as they went along. And no doubt they have been influenced by the pagan cultures around them. The Philistines would take their little idols, their icons, their gods, into battle with them, and pray to their little amulets, pray to their little statues, hold on to them and ask the gods. Because they believe the spirit of the God actually inhabited the idol. Help us win this battle.

And being influenced by the pagans who brought these statues, amulets, gods, and goddesses, into battle, Israel probably had a similar thought like a Philistine would think. Get the ark. They knew something of their history. And yet, what they're doing is adding some of their history, some of the truth of God, and some of the practices of other nations in kind of smooshing it all together and saying, that's what I believe. I believe a little of this, a little of that, and even a little of that. Let's put all together.

It's called syncretism, religious syncretism. They knew that victory or defeat in Israel depends on the presence of God. They also knew that the Ark of the Covenant was the symbol of the presence of God, and that was the danger. The danger is they thought the substance was the symbol. If you have the symbol, that will be the substance. Just bring in the icon. Bring in the box, and the box will save us. They had, in effect, become like the Philistines.

Listen to this text. It's second Samuel chapter 5. It's insight into the Philistines thinking. David goes out to battle against the Philistines. The battle takes place at Balle Para Zeam, and it says, "the Philistines abandon their idols there, and David and his men carry them off." Going into battle, bring the icons. Bring the amulets. That's how Israel is thinking. Go get the ark. We need help here. We've been defeated.

Maybe they thought back to the time when Joshua and the people of Israel bore the Ark of the Covenant upon the shoulders of the priests and approached the Jordan River, and the Jordan River opened up. They said that's what we need, man. We need that kind of power. And so they got the ark. Here's their mistake. There's a couple of them.

Mistake number one, they forgot that God was omnipresent, everywhere. God can be in the Tabernacle in Shiloh, ministering to people there through sacrifices, and at the same time be with the people in battle over at Aphek. there is no spatial limitation to God. Psalm 139 describes this beautifully when David, and you're familiar with this, "said where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascended into heaven you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day. Darkness and light are both alike to you."

They forgot that God is omnipresent. They thought that God was restricted to a space. Bring the ark, because that's where God said he'd meet us. That's where God said he would atone for the sins. We need it in the battle.

A second mistake that they made was not just forgetting that God is omnipresent, but replacing a relationship with God with a religion. Now you hear us talk about that, and if you're new to hanging around Christians, maybe you've just recently hung around with these weird people you call Christians. These born-againers. And they have that weird way of saying, well it's not a religion. It's a relationship. You go, what's all that about?

Here's a good example. If you look at the text back in verse 3, they said let us bring the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord from Shilo to us, that when it comes among us, it may save us from the hand of our enemies. They didn't seek God. They sought it, the box, the symbol. They superstitiously ascribe power to the box.

There wasn't any power in the box, just like an Indiana Jones how the Nazis, remember, ascribed power to it. "We must have the Ark of the Covenant. We will rule the world."

[LAUGHTER]

They ascribe power to it. Just like people would say, oh I can't leave the house unless I wear my cross. Got to have that cross. Oh, it's my lucky cross. Things go better during the day when I wear my lucky cross. Or oh I turned the cross the wrong way today. That's why things are wrong. I turned it the other way. Or again, the statue in the car. That's where you got the accident. You need to have a statue in your car.

The children of Israel literally put God in a box. They literally put God into a box. God is in that box. That's where God lives. And the same mistake Israel made I think sometimes people today make. They look to the it, not to Him. The plan, the ritual, the paradigm, the religion, the seminar. It is so easy to rely on a formula rather than personal faith in God behind the formula.

We can get very superstitious. Well, I didn't read enough chapters of the Bible today. I didn't pray long enough today. I haven't got to enough meetings this month. That's why things aren't going well in my life. God does not want a formula glorified. a formula deified. He wants us to look to Him, not to my box. You know what, I've been around long enough in the Christian world, and every few months, every few years, I see a new box get developed.

Christian say, this is the box, man. This is it. This is what you need. You Need to come to this seminar. You need to be a part of this movement. You need to read this book. That's the box. And it's some new solution, some six steps to victory. Or it would be seven steps to victory, wouldn't it? If it's a Christian book. The perfect number.

And we put faith in the box. If you have this kind of a meeting, then you'll be spiritual. If you pray this person's prayer, then you'll be spiritual. It's just another box. We look to the it rather than to him. It will save us. Verse four, so the people sent to Shilo, that they might bring from there the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord of hosts who dwells between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli-- here they are again, our favorite apostate priests-- Pisani and Phinehas, were there with the Ark of the Covenant of God.

Now why did the priests come? Well, you know the story, don't you? The priests had to carry the ark on their shoulders. That's the mistake David will make later on when he puts it in a pickup truck. Well, it's a cart, but that would be the ancient equivalent of a pickup truck.

But the priest were to carry it with staves or rods on their shoulders, bearing the Ark of the Covenant. So these guys, instead of saying, "no we're not going to do that. God doesn't want the box to go into battle. This is the Ark of the Covenant. It is to stay here. This is where you come to worship. This is where the sacrifices are made." Because these guys are already corrupt, they sleep with women at the door of the Tabernacle, they're drunk half the time, they do whatever they want with the flesh hooks, "why not? Let's go to battle with it."

And so being as corrupt as they are, not making any kind of a spiritual stand, they acquiesce to the will of the people. After all, they're just paid preachers. They have no convictions of their own. And they go along with it. Carnality always relies on programs. "Hey we got this program." OK. I'm carnal. I'll go along with the program.

Charles Spurgeon, I've always loved this, he said "if there was only one prayer that I might pray before I died, it would be this. Lord send my church men filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Give to any denominations such men, and its progress must be mighty. Keep back such men. Send them college gentlemen of great refinement and profound learning, but of little fire and grace, dumb dogs which cannot bark, and straight away that denomination must decline." And this denomination, called Israel, is starting to decline, even in the Old Testament.

Declining away from God. Relying on ritual. Relying on ceremony. Not relying on him-- relying on it. And the ones who should be the leaders are just going along with it, into the corruption. And when the Ark of the Covenant, verse 5, the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted so loudly that the Earth shook. Wow. It's like the ultimate praise and worship meeting, man. There's a lot of excitement going. Shouting amen, amen. And the Philistines will hear it.

They're enthusiastic about this box, aren't they? No doubt, in that meeting, in that assembly, tears were shed. Hankies were waved. People got very excited, very emotional. In fact, somebody would look at that and say, it's a revival. No. Don't always mistake enthusiasm for revival. In fact, I've been and I've seen lots of meetings before, all around the world, and I've examined them very carefully. And I've listened to certain Christian television programs where there's lots of excitement and people are shouting and moving.

And then I'm listening to what is being spoken, thinking OK, what's the meat of it? And a lot of times, nothing is being said. It's not about truth. It's not about responding to truth. It's not even about obedience to the truth. It's just about having a party, getting emotionally moved with excitement. Jesus spoke about a seed that was sown upon the soil, and he said, "he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word of God and immediately receives it with joy, and motion. But because he has no root in himself, he endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arise because of the word immediately, he stumbles."

You know, I know Christians like that. I call them alka-seltzer Christians. They fizz really quickly, and then they fizz out really quickly. And after a while, they're not around anymore, but they sure had a good time doing it. You know what, God isn't interested in how high you can jump, but how straight you can walk when you hit the ground. The children of Israel had a great fervor as that ark entered their camp. In fact, it's going to even impress the Philistines.

When the Philistines heard the noise of the shout, they said, what does the sound of this great shout in the camp of the Hebrews mean? Then they understood that the Ark of Yahweh had come into the camp. So the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God has come into the camp. God's here. But in Hebrew it's, Elohim, and in this sense it would be translated gods, because they were polytheistic. The gods are here.

They didn't believe in Yahweh, though they knew that Israel's God was the way, the singular God. Gods have come into the camp, and they said "woe to us, for such a thing has never happened before. Woe to us. Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods?" Now listen to this, "these are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues in the wilderness." Now we see the superstition of the Philistines, who believed that the spirit of God dwelt in the idol. The icon has come into the camp. The Ark of the Covenant is here. Therefore, God, their God, is in that camp.

But did you notice? It seems that the news of Israel's victory over Egypt years before in the wilderness is still remembered by the Philistines, who lived way up in the northern Aegean Sea, Asia Minor area now migrated downward. They still remember that. They say, "these are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all the plagues of the wilderness." You know, I like this. I like this because now we learn the truth.

We may have wondered what was the truth when we read the book of Numbers, and Israel sent out 12 spies into the land. Two of them came back with a good report. 10 of them came back with an evil report. Joshua and Caleb said, let's go in and take the land. God gave it to us. No problem. No issue. 10 of them said, big issue, because they be big people in that land. Big [INAUDIBLE], giants. And they said, we are grasshoppers in their sight, and we're grasshoppers in our sight. We can't do it.

45 years later, when they get into the land of Israel and face their first battle, the battle of Jericho-- and Joshua had the brains to not send 12 spies out anymore, because 10 of them weren't worth their salt. Only two of them were any good, he and Caleb. So he sent two spies into Jericho to check out the land. And they met a gal by the name of Rahab.

Rahab was a harlot. She was a woman of the evening, but she had heard of the God of the Jews. And she said, you know, ever since we heard about how your God dried up the Red Sea and delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and destroyed Og and Sihon, the gods of the Amorites, and the kings of the Amorites. Ever since we heard that, she said, "our hearts melted within us, and there was no strength left in us."

Oh, that's the truth. The 10 spies said, we're grasshoppers in their sight and in our sight. The truth was, these Hebrews are vicious, man. Their God dries up seas. Their God destroys kingdoms. And our hearts melted within us. See, God had already prepared the way, but 10 of them caused the entire nation to not live by faith.

You see, Joshua and Caleb had a big god and little giants in their minds. The 10 spies had a little bitty god and big giants, because they saw God through the lens of the giants. Joshua and Caleb saw the Giants through the lens of their God. You know, you can take something small and obscure a rather large object. That balcony back there, or for that matter this room if we were to measure it, is like 125 by 150 feet.

But watch this. A little object, four by six, or thereabout, has blocked my vision of 125 by 150 feet room. A little object can obscure the visual of a larger object. It all depends on perspective. Now, if I were to take this Bible and put it back into the middle of the room or in the back of the room, it would be a tiny little speck at the right perspective.

And so often we take our problems in life, and we go like this, right here. I don't see how you can do anything, God. Of course, you don't see anything, because you can't see anything. You've got your problems up there. Take your problem, and put it back to the grandeur, sovereignty, magnificence, and power of God. You go, you put it in perspective, then you can do anything, Lord. That's what we need to do.

Now the Philistines tell us the rest of this story. We heard about you guys. We heard what your God had done, and all the plagues in the wilderness. The children of Israel had a problem. They created a problem, and I daresay their problem is still with them today. For God promise them the land of Canaan. You know how big that was? 300,000 square miles. Did that the land God promised them extended all the way to the Euphrates River-- That includes Iran, and Iraq, and Syria-- down to the river of Egypt-- which is in the control now of Egypt?

God gave them that land. So technically all of that Middle Eastern section, where the enemies of Israel are today, belong to Israel. Now you can bring that up in the United Nations meeting, or on CNN, you'd have real problems. God gave them 300,000 square miles. They only took, at the peak of their kingdom, 30,000 square miles, under the reign of King David and Solomon. A tenth of what God promised them, they enjoyed.

Sounds like a lot of us. God gives all that pertains to life and God and they say we go, no I'll just have this little tiny Christian growth, about that big. Oh not even that big. Just about that big. That's all I need. We get all excited when we see somebody come to Christ. We holler, we scream, we clap, and we should. It's great. But again, growth ought to excite us.

The question tonight isn't just "are you saved?" are you enjoying your inheritance? Are you walking and all that God has given you? Are you taking all of the promises of God, and applying it to your life? Again, Charles Spurgeon. See, nobody said it like Chuck Spurgeon. He said "most Christians as to the river of experience are only up to the ankles. Some others have waited till the stream is up to the knees, and a few find it breast high, but a few. Oh, and a few, but--" oh. I can't even read this. "And few, oh how few, find it a river to swim in, the bottom of which they cannot touch."

So here God has given you all of this blessing, and we take off and just a portion of it. So Israel failed to take the people in the land and push them out of the land, and you reap what you sow. And they suffered consequences, i.e. the Philistines and other Canaanites. They didn't pull them out completely, Joshua's tells us, and they suffered the consequences.

"Be strong," verse 9, "and conduct yourselves like men, you Philistines, that you do not become servants of the Hebrews, as they have been to you. Conduct yourselves like men and fight." So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated. And every man fled to his tent. There was a very great slaughter, and there fell of Israel 30,000 foot soldiers. We read over that, but imagine 30,000 dead bodies on the field. After they brought the ark in saying, it will save us. It didn't save because it can't save.

30,000 were defeated. Also the Ark of God was captured, verse 11, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died. You would think that Israel had an advantage at that point, because they were superstitious. But the Philistines were also superstitious, and they were filled with fear saying, oh man were toast. They brought in that icon. Now we're going to die. Their God did all that stuff to Egypt.

But it seemed, rather, to bolster them. They became very humanistic. "Come on. Fight like men. Rise to the challenge." And they went out sort of with the determination of a kamikaze pilot. Come on, we're going to do it. And they did it. Then a man of Benjamin ran from the battle line the same day, and came to Shilo with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. When he came there was Eli, sitting on a seat by the wayside, watching for, his heart trembled, for the Ark of God.

And when the man came into the city and told it, all the city cried out. There's that old priest. The guy who wouldn't restrain his son. My heart goes out to him, but I can't help but ask him, Eli, why didn't you stop your sons? Why didn't he ever restrain them? It's one thing to tremble after the Ark of God. It's another thing to just obey God as a lifestyle.

I appreciate his sentiment, but a lot of this could have been averted as we saw in the previous chapters. When Eli heard the noise of the outcry, he said "what does the sound of this tumult mean?" And the man came quickly and told Eli. Eli was 98 years old. Man, old guy. And his eyes were so dim, they could not see. So blind, old guy. Then the man said Eli, I am he who came from the battle, and I fled today from the battle line.

And he said "what happened, my son?" so the messenger answered and said "Israel has fled from before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Also, your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead. And the Ark of God has been captured." Then it happened, when he made mention of the Ark of God, that Eli fell off his seat backward by the side of the gate. And his neck was broken, and he died, for the man was old and heavy.

So you have a fat, blind, old guy, 98 years old, hanging out by the roadside waiting for the ark. And they said it's captured. It so stunned him, he fell backward, broke his neck, and died. And he had judged Israel for 40 years. Now if you remember back in chapter 2, right around verse 29 and following, God made a prediction through young Samuel, saying your days are numbered Eli. Your kids' days are numbered. And both you and your sons will die in one day, and God will raise up not your house, that will be extinct, but a whole new lineage of priests who will be faithful.

And now God is fulfilling that. Now his daughter-in-law, Phinehas's his wife was with child, due to be delivered, and when she heard the news that the Ark of God was captured, and that her Father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and gave birth, for her labor pains came upon her. And about the time of her death, the woman who stood by her said to her, "do not fear, for you born a son."

Now that's, I don't know that's the appropriate thing to tell somebody who's just lost her husband, Father-in-law, and had the holiest icon of Israel taken from their midst, and 30,000 people have been killed that day. "Hey don't fear, man. You got a boy." Maybe he's just trying to divert her attention away. But she did not answer, nor did she regard it. And she named the child Icabod, which means no glory, or where is the glory, saying "the glory has departed from Israel because the Ark of God has been captured, and because her Father-in-law, and her husband." And she said, "the glory has departed from Israel for the Ark of God has been captured."

The word departed, the Ark of God has departed, is the word for to go into exile, just like the children of Israel went into Babylonian captivity or exile. The Ark of God went into exile. And since they regarded the ark as the symbol of God's presence, it was as if God himself had gone into exile, wasn't helping them anymore, wasn't coming to their aid, as they trusted in God superstitiously, not spiritually.

Now what a disaster. Steve brought up a very interesting question that plays right into this, there's no ark now. So there's no place of atonement on Yom Kippur. There is no approach to God, because that was the only way God could be approached, was through sacrifice and the shedding of blood to cover the broken law. Thus, there was no forgiveness of their sin. Without the shedding of blood is no forgiveness of sin.

And when I am in Israel, and I talk to people about what they trust in, and a very devout Jewish person will say, I trust in the law that God gave to Moses. I say what do you do about your sins? What do you mean? Well you've got to do something. Your book says without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. That's why God instituted the Tabernacle. That's why the temple set in Jerusalem. And the temple is destroyed. You have no sacrifice. What do you do for your sin?

You'd be amazed at the stories that are concocted to deal with the sin issue. Israel here has no approach. Now just look at the first two verses of the next chapter, and we'll close. Then the Philistines took the Ark of God and brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod. And this is where the story leaves off, and we pick it up next week. When the Philistines took the Ark of God, they brought it into the temple of Dagon, and set it by their God, this fish God, Dagon.

So Israel, beginning now to idolize their own icons of worship, "if we just had the Ark of the Covenant, I know we'd be OK." I remember hearing that sentiment some years ago when some Christian said, "I know that if we only had a Christian president, everything will be OK." Or "if we only had the dove back, we'd be OK. If we only had a cross on the church, if that was there, then I know we'd be OK." Or whatever symbol, or icon, or system, it, that we trust rather than him-- the relationship with him.

Israel real God awful emotional, awful excited, about it, but not about him. Christian, do you get really excited about an it rather than him? Do you find yourself getting awfully excited about a new album, a new band, a new product, a new seminar, a new book? Those are great, don't get me wrong. I mean, I write books. But do you get excited about him? Has the glory departed from your life?

Maybe you're finding yourself empty and hollow, and you're just trying to fill it. That's the thing about idolatry. You know, when a person has an idol that they trust in, you know it is the evidence that they're not experiencing intimacy with God anymore? They don't experience the closeness. They've got to fill in that vacuum, that void, and so an idol is brought into their life. "Here it is. This will fill me now."

So an idol is an indication that something has been lost. Intimacy has been lost. Closeness has been lost. But it's also the indication that they're trying desperately to get it back, and they'll try anything. And I find that when people lose an intimate relationship with God, they will be open to the craziest things, trying to get back that feeling of intimacy with him once again. My prayer is that we get excited about not an it, not a box, not a system, not a program, not a seminar, not a movement, but Him.

Lord, we thank you for the boxes that have come in our lives, the packages, Lord, that have come along and have helped the body of Christ to grow, to learn, to mature. But Lord, we also know we have a tendency to idolize the box, to put the box, be it a system or a human being, on a pedestal. Could be a denomination.

Could be a theological construct. But Lord, anything short of relationship is not what you have intended. It's not what you desire. It's not what we need. You want deep, personal relationship, rather than de-personalized religion. Lord, shine your light of truth in our hearts. Has the glory departed from us? I pray we would come back and let you kindle that flame in us once again. Light the fire again, Lord. Light the fire again and our lives. In Jesus's name. Amen.