1Sa 4:22 | KingComments | STEP | In Eli’s house is a God-fearing woman, the wife of the wicked Phinehas. Also to her the ark is the most important. The women around her do not understand her, just as Hannah was not understood. They do not understand what is going on in her with respect to the glory of God’s people. Her God-fearing heart knows what the ark means to Israel. For her, the ark represents the presence of God, which is now gone ( ). What is happening here, is definitive. The ark has gone into captivity and will never return to the tabernacle in Shiloh. Shiloh has been destroyed and the tent has not been used as a shelter for the ark anymore. The ark gets its place in the coming temple. There are four captivities of Israel, which means that they are in captivity outside their land. Three times this is literally the case and once symbolic and that is here. 1. The first captivity is in Egypt. During this captivity, the people have deviated from God. Moses, raised up by God, takes the people out of captivity, and brings them to the promised land. This will happen again to the people in the future. 2. In 1 Samuel we see the second case. The people are given in captivity because of their unfaithfulness, this time in the ark that comes into Philistine hands. In the ark the people are symbolically captured. God leaves His people. History is then continued in what happens to the ark in the land of the Philistines. All the time the ark is gone, nobody seems to have cared about it. Only when David cares about it, the ark is brought back from captivity and brought to Zion. 3. The third captivity is the Babylonian, as the judgment on the decay during the times of the kings. The glory of the LORD departs from Jerusalem, be it in phases ( ). The restoration – albeit a partial one – takes place under the high priest Jeshua and the prince Zerubbabel, who together are a picture of the Lord Jesus. This restoration is described in the book of Ezra ( ). 4. The fourth captivity – the scattering of Israel among the nations – is the result of the rejection of the Lord Jesus and continues still. This will be ended by the coming of the Lord Jesus Himself. Then comes the realm of peace, with no chance of a new captivity. It is not just a prophetic history for Israel. The prophetic meaning is also important to us. Philistines are a picture of the nominal Christians. It is what we see especially in the church in Sardis ( ). It presents Protestantism, as it has developed since the Reformation. We see as never before that the ark has ended up in the dirty hands of the Philistines. It is the time of Bible criticism and false teaching about the Lord Jesus. In Protestantism these errors are greater than in Roman Catholicism.

‏ 1 Samuel 4:22

Ichabod

In Eli’s house is a God-fearing woman, the wife of the wicked Phinehas. Also to her the ark is the most important. The women around her do not understand her, just as Hannah was not understood. They do not understand what is going on in her with respect to the glory of God’s people. Her God-fearing heart knows what the ark means to Israel. For her, the ark represents the presence of God, which is now gone (Psa 78:60-61).

What is happening here, is definitive. The ark has gone into captivity and will never return to the tabernacle in Shiloh. Shiloh has been destroyed and the tent has not been used as a shelter for the ark anymore. The ark gets its place in the coming temple.

There are four captivities of Israel, which means that they are in captivity outside their land. Three times this is literally the case and once symbolic and that is here.

1. The first captivity is in Egypt. During this captivity, the people have deviated from God. Moses, raised up by God, takes the people out of captivity, and brings them to the promised land. This will happen again to the people in the future.

2. In 1 Samuel we see the second case. The people are given in captivity because of their unfaithfulness, this time in the ark that comes into Philistine hands. In the ark the people are symbolically captured. God leaves His people. History is then continued in what happens to the ark in the land of the Philistines. All the time the ark is gone, nobody seems to have cared about it. Only when David cares about it, the ark is brought back from captivity and brought to Zion.

3. The third captivity is the Babylonian, as the judgment on the decay during the times of the kings. The glory of the LORD departs from Jerusalem, be it in phases (Eze 9:3a ; Eze 10:18-19 ; Eze 11:22-23). The restoration – albeit a partial one – takes place under the high priest Jeshua and the prince Zerubbabel, who together are a picture of the Lord Jesus. This restoration is described in the book of Ezra (Ezra 1:1-3 ; Ezra 2:1-2 ; Ezra 3:2).

4. The fourth captivity – the scattering of Israel among the nations – is the result of the rejection of the Lord Jesus and continues still. This will be ended by the coming of the Lord Jesus Himself. Then comes the realm of peace, with no chance of a new captivity.

It is not just a prophetic history for Israel. The prophetic meaning is also important to us. Philistines are a picture of the nominal Christians. It is what we see especially in the church in Sardis (Rev 3:1-6). It presents Protestantism, as it has developed since the Reformation. We see as never before that the ark has ended up in the dirty hands of the Philistines. It is the time of Bible criticism and false teaching about the Lord Jesus. In Protestantism these errors are greater than in Roman Catholicism.