The ark of the LORD was in the country of the Philistines seven months.
For seven months the chest that marked God's presence among His people sat in enemy country, taken as a war trophy. Israel did nothing — which leaves two questions: who guarded God's honour in those months, and why did His own people never come for Him?
The measure of seven months
The length of the stay carries its own message. One writer hears two things in it at once:
Samuel RidoutSeven months is a complete cycle of time. On one side it bears perfect witness to God's hatred of the course His people had taken. On the other side it shows how helpless idolatry is to resist Him, and how unholy people cannot endure His presence.
God guards His own honour
No Israelite army marched to rescue the ark. None had to. The same writer asks what any Israelite should have learned from watching those events:
Samuel RidoutWhat Israelite could look back at the defeat at Ebenezer (1 Sam. 4:1), at the ark carried off in triumph by the Philistines, and then at fallen Dagon and the plagues on the Philistines, and fail to learn the lesson taught so plainly? Must he not say: "Our God is holy. He will not leave His honour in the unclean hands of wicked priests or an ungodly nation. What we could not take care of, He still maintains"?
Believers still make the mistake this exposes. Another writer points to Uzzah, the man who reached out to steady the ark on a cart and died for it:
W. T. P. WolstonI believe the secret of much of our failure and defeat is that we are rather like Uzzah (see 2 Sam. 6:1-8). We think He cannot do without our help, but He can. God can take care of His own ark — Christ.
Why the Philistines gave it up
Seven months was long enough to break the Philistines. Yet one writer sees more than severity in them, and a warning in how people answer it:
Hamilton SmithIf man, in his folly, tries to tie the glory of God to idols, God will maintain His glory by judgment. Still, in judgment God remembers mercy. God is the Creator. His creatures may be sunk in darkness and idolatry, yet when they cry to Him in their distress, their cry will reach up to heaven. But how often man uses the way God deals in judgment as a reason to harden his heart against Him. That is what happened with the Philistines. God allows seven months to pass, until their desperate state forces them to look for some way out.
Another writer sets this episode beside the chapter that follows and draws a sharp contrast:
C. H. MackintoshIn 1 Samuel 5 and 1 Samuel 6 we see that the Philistines could not do with Jehovah. In 1 Samuel 7 we see that Israel could not do without Him. This is striking and instructive. The world cannot endure the very thought of the presence of God.
Israel's silence during those months
Israel never prayed, searched, or mourned for the ark while it sat in enemy hands. Its return owed nothing to them:
H. L. RossierGod's public ways may be in judgment, as we have just seen, but His secret ways always bring Him back into the middle of His people in grace. The ark returned to Beth-shemesh without Israel feeling the need of it, or expressing any desire for it.
Seven months against twenty years
Now set the seven months against what came next. The ark returned to Israelite soil at Kirjath-jearim, and the wait there ran far longer:
H. L. RossierTwenty years passed by in waiting, while the judgment had lasted only seven months (1 Sam. 6:1). Only repentance could bring the people into the state that would restore their communion with God. Strange gods still stood among them while the ark stayed at Kirjath-jearim. Could the ark live with the idols of Israel, when it could not do so in Philistia? It takes thirty-four times as long as the judgment to bring Israel to reject such an outrageous sin. There must be a work of conscience matching the grace, as we see in the story of the prodigal son. It is a solemn thing, seen every day: a believer takes much longer to be restored than to give himself up to do evil.
Summary
- Seven months — the clock starts. A full cycle of time. It showed God's hatred of Israel's course, and how powerless idols were to hold Him.
- Seven months — God works alone. Israel could not guard His honour, so He guarded it Himself. The Uzzah instinct — that God needs our steadying hand — is the root of much of our defeat.
- Seven months — the world cracks. The Philistines could not live with the LORD. Even in judgment there was mercy for a cry that reached heaven, but they hardened instead.
- Seven months — Israel stays quiet. The ark came back by God's secret ways in grace, not because His people ever asked for it.
- Twenty years — the real reckoning. Judgment lasted seven months; repentance took thirty-four times longer. Ruin is quick; restoration is slow.