R.C. Sproul

And so the permission was given, and that night the Ark of the Covenant was brought out of the sanctuary and in to the midst of the military garrison.

And when the soldiers saw the arrival of the throne of God, there was this tumultuous, thunderous cheer and ovation.

Right across the valley, the Philistine army heard this thunderous roar coming out of the camp of the Jews, and somebody said, what's going on over there?

And one of their spies reported to their leader saying, God has come in to their camp.

And the Philistines were terrified because they had heard the stories of how this tiny bunch of ragtag gypsies had overthrown and conquered the mightiest army in the world at the shores of the Red Sea when God intervened to save them in their conflict with Egypt and with Pharaoh.

They had heard of the stunning victories under the leadership of Joshua and others who had preceded them at this time.

And so the Philistines knew that the ark came in.

They said, we're in deep trouble.

What the Philistines didn't know was that at that time Israel was being ruled by this venerable patriarch whose name was Eli.

And Eli, as the record tells us, was a godly man

And he had served the people for decades and decades as their spiritual mentor and as their judge.

And he was anointed of God, but he had one serious defect, you recall.

He had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, who followed in their father's footsteps in one regard in that they entered into the priesthood, but they did not share his godliness.

and they committed spiritually atrocious acts, temple prostitution, all kinds of desecration of their sacred vocation, and the problem is their father never disciplined.

And so God had spoken to Eli through his young charge, Samuel, in a midnight revelation in which he told him that the judgment of God was going to fall upon the house of Eli.

And when Eli heard it, he said, that's the Lord.

He realized that he was going to be exposed to this punishment.

So what happened was when the Jews took the Ark of the Covenant into battle the second time against the Philistines, jubilant now that God was on their side and marching into battle with them, this time the battle turned out different.

Instead of the Jews having 4,000 of their soldiers killed, they had 30,000.

Not only were 30,000 killed, but to add insult to injury, the Philistines captured the supreme trophy of war.