We ended part 2 with the Philistines defeating Israel in battle and capturing the ark of God. Israel’s forty year period of testing had ended in disaster.
Judgment Continues
A retreating Benjamite soldier ran to Shiloh, which was slightly east of the battlefield, with the bad news. We are then told the following:
When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out. When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, “What is this uproar?” Then the man hurried and came and told Eli. Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see. (4:13–15)
This description provides a vivid picture of a decrepit and scared old man sitting there helpless. Again, his outward appearance reflected his inward condition.
The scene that was not described by the Holy Spirit in this 4th chapter was the one in Shiloh from after the first day of battle when “the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant.” I imagine the following scene at the tabernacle in Shiloh when this message came.
Eli was sitting on his chair beside the doorpost when the messengers arrived. He did not offer to inquire of the Lord, but simply resisted the demand from the messengers who preceded to push him aside and enter the inner court. Inside, they met Hophni and Phinehas who ambitiously declared that they would march to the battle with the ark so that the enemies of the Lord would be destroyed. Samuel was not there. He had returned to Ramah the day before, having been warned by the Lord of the pending destruction of Shiloh.
When a leader is not obeying God’s voice and allowing the corruption of His laws amongst the people, the people will ultimately rise up to follow an alternate path that leads them to destruction. They will rally behind false religious leaders to try to get what God will not give them the way they want it to be given. The false religious leaders will tell them whatever they want to hear so that they can manipulate them for their own purposes. Eli did not stop the cancer when his sons were young and it ended up spreading to the whole body.
In this case, the people were using the ark like an idol to fight their battle. They were employing the same tactics as the pagan nations. Likewise, the Western church voraciously desires to do everything just like the world does, which is exactly why it has the same results.
The messenger then told Eli how the battle went and chapter 4 ends with the following climactic scene:
He who brought the news answered and said, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great defeat among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.” As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years.
Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. 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 and gave birth, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death the women attending her said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you have borne a son.” But she did not answer or pay attention. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.” (17–22)
Eli’s daughter-in-law is representative of those under compromised leadership. She had a false understanding of God. Yes, the Shekinah glory did dwell above the mercy seat, but the true purpose of the tabernacle was to show Israel how to commune with and revere Jehovah—the omniscient God. From this relational standpoint, the glory had already departed from Israel. God allowed the ark to be removed to put symbolic closure in the natural realm to the pre-existing reality of the spiritual realm. The reality of the pathetic state of the Western church is already known in the spiritual realm and the forthcoming battlefield losses will make this abundantly clear in the natural realm.
What is not acknowledged in the Samuel text, but is expounded on elsewhere in Scripture, is that Shiloh was subsequently destroyed by the Philistines after this battle. They also took economic control of the region, which included the primary trade route between Egypt and Mesopotamia. The following passages add background color that further explains the reasons for this destruction.
Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies, but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealously with their idols. When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel. He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind, and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe. He gave his people over to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage. Fire devoured their young men, and their young women had no marriage song. Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation. (Psalm 78:56–64; emphasis mine)
Go now to my place that in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim. (Jeremiah 7:12–15; emphasis mine)
You shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: If you will not listen to me, to walk in my law that I have set before you, and to listen to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send to you urgently, though you have not listened, then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth.’
The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD. And when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, then the priests and the prophets and all the people laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die! Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without inhabitant’?” And all the people gathered around Jeremiah in the house of the LORD. (Jeremiah 26:4–9)
These Scriptures further highlight what I briefly mentioned in Part 2: God judged His people at this time due to their unrelenting idol worship.
Count the Cost or Worship Idols
Put simply, idol worship is to put something before God in your soul. Israel had their “high places.” Many in the church today do also. There is a direct connection between making your relationship with God the most important aspect of your life and hearing His voice. If anything else seizes prominence in your soul (i.e., your mind, will, and emotions), then your intimate communication with God will be sidetracked or lost. Don’t believe me? Close every book (except your Bible), turn off your TV (better yet, just cut the cable), stay away from social media, forget the news, etc., for a month. Just watch what happens. More appropriately, listen … you will hear clearly. But first, you will hear the pull of whatever is attached to your soul trying to maintain preeminence. This is what needs to be subdued.
One will say, “I could never do that for an entire month!” In response I say, “That is exactly why you are not hearing God’s voice!” You are unwilling to surrender to the Lord. I am not saying that one most avoid the information of this world to follow Jesus Christ. I am simply saying that He must rule your soul if you are going to follow Him. This is a worthwhile journey to push the issue, if need be.
Once, while leading a prayer session and teaching on Luke 14, the Lord spoke this to me:
“If you don’t count the cost, you won’t hear My voice, and you’ll live for yourself.”
In the 33rd verse of that same chapter, Luke recorded Jesus saying:
“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
““If you don’t count the cost, you won’t hear My voice, and you’ll live for yourself.””
There is absolutely a direct connection between laying down your life (the Greek word translated “life” in the gospels is psyche, which means “soul”) and hearing God’s voice. It does not happen, indeed cannot happen, without renouncing the things of this world that keep a grip on your soul. Their must be a reckoning, their must be a counting of the cost, to break on through to the other side.
Classic Rock Turned Upside Down
When I counted the cost back in 2001–2002, I threw out something like 125 compact discs (CDs) containing lyrics that I knew would poison my soul if I continued to listen to them.
We are all in different places and we all face different challenges, yet, the Lord speaks to each of us individually in our own unique circumstances. The religious man keeps the (secular) CDs and says, “The Bible does not forbid me to listen to music.” The true disciple obeys the voice of the Spirit of Christ, no matter what the cost.
A few years after I threw the CDs out, my wife and I visited a Christian family for dinner. The son of the father (from a previous marriage) was wearing a Doors t-shirt (my favorite band from my past life). I said something to him like, “How can you be a Christian and listen to the Doors?” The truth pierced his soul and revealed where he was at. If I recall correctly, the last time I talked to the step mother she told me he was on drugs and they did not know where he was.
I have noticed that once God is reigning in your soul, He flips the whole information equation. He will even use what used to control you to inform you. A few years ago, I was standing at the counter at my bank. They often play music there and on this particular day the song, Simple Man, by Lynyrd Skynyrd (a CD I threw out) was playing. The Holy Spirit just gripped me as I listened to the chorus of the song. I went home and looked up the lyrics only to find this:
Mama told me when I was young
“Come sit beside me, my only son
And listen closely to what I say
And if you do this it’ll help you some sunny day”
“Oh, take your time, don’t live too fast
Troubles will come and they will pass
You’ll find a woman and you’ll find love
And don’t forget, son, there is someone up above”
“And be a simple kind of man
Oh, be something you love and understand
Baby be a simple kind of man
Oh, won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”
“Forget your lust for the rich man’s gold
All that you need is in your soul
And you can do this, oh baby, if you try
All that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfied”
“And be a simple kind of man
Oh, be something you love and understand
Baby be a simple kind of man
Oh, won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”
Oh yes, I will
“Boy, don’t you worry, you’ll find yourself
Follow your heart and nothing else
And you can do this, oh baby, if you try
All that I want for you, my son, is to be satisfied”
“And be a simple kind of man
Oh, be something you love and understand
Baby be a simple kind of man
Oh, won’t you do this for me, son, if you can”
Baby, be a simple, be a simple man
Oh, be something you love and understand
Baby, be a simple kind of man
When I replaced Mama with God and put the Spirit of Christ in the man’s soul, I had the message from God. I often think back to this song and expect I will continue to as I raise my sons. It means much more to me than I can or wish to adequately describe. The depth of it is reserved just for my best Friend and I. When I hear the song now it is pure. It is pure to me. Amazingly, one of the last concerts I ever went to before I lost my life was that of the very same Lynyrd Skynyrd. I think back to the man I was then, compared to the man I am now, and I am awed by the transformational power of God.
I hesitate to even mention this experience, not just because it is deeply personal, but because it will be misunderstood by most. Yet, I feel compelled by the hope that it may shine light from heaven into the heart of a reader, revealing the personal and non-religious nature of God.
Collapse is Eminent
Many Western Christians will soon face Shiloh scenarios. They do not realize that the whole thing they regard as the church is right now just a bureaucratic house of cards, full of controlling, manipulative, pathetic, and perverted leaders, that is ready to collapse. The games continue to be played and the casualties keep piling up.
If you “hear” what I am saying, do not despair. This is when things begin to get interesting. God does not need man to be glorified. In part 4, we will see this firsthand as God fights for Himself.