The Ark,without the presence of the spirit of Jehovah,was just a plain wooden box.Of course it could not avert disaster under such circumstances and the battle which followed ended with a terrible defeat for the Hebrew army.Not only were the depraved sons of Eli killed,but the Ark itself was captured by the enemy.When news of this disaster reached Eli,he gave a great sigh and died and Samuel was elected Judge in his place.
It was one of the worst days in all Jewish history.
The Holy of Holies,which had been carried from Egypt to the land of Canaan was now reposing in the new temple which the Philistines had erected upon the ruins of the ancient structure destroyed by Samson.It was a war trophy,but still able to influence the fate of nations and the lives of men.For no sooner had the Philistines carried the Ark into the presence of Dagon than the image of their god was struck down by invisible hands and was broken into a thousand pieces.
The Philistines,in great fear,took the Ark away and carried it to the city of Gath.Immediately all the people fell ill.After that there was no end to the ill-luck of poor Philistia.They took the Ark from north to south and from east to west,but everywhere disaster followed.Until,in utter despair,the Philistines filled the Ark with gold,hoisted it onto a cart,harnessed two cows in front of the cart,and set the animals free to wander whither they pleased,provided they took this terrible curse away from their country.
The driverless cows started eastward.One beautiful morning,some Jewish farmers who were working in the fields saw the wagon with its holy load standing in the middle of the road.Hastily they built an altar and all the people from the neighbourhood flocked together to worship.Later they brought the Ark to the house of a Levite priest,called Abinadab.There it stood until it was taken to Jerusalem,many years later,when David was King and dreamed of building that famous temple which was finally constructed by his son Solomon.
The return of the Ark seemed to predict the coming of a better day.But more and more the people grew tired of the loose form of government which had become characteristic of the rule of the Judges.And so they went to Samuel and asked him what they should do in case of his death.Samuel too had two sons,but they were very much like Phineas and Hophni and no one cared to see them as successors to their father.
Samuel asked Jehovah to tell him what measures ought to be taken.
Jehovah spoke of the coming of a king.He was tired of the continued disobedience on the part of his Jewish worshippers.For a long time they had been clamouring for a king of their own.Very well.Jehovah would give them such a king as they deserved.But that king would take the sons of the people to use them as his soldiers and he would take their daughters as his servants and he would take their grain and their oil and their wine to feed his followers and he would take a tenth of everything his subjects possessed and he would rule them with a rod of iron.
When the tribes heard this news,they were actually happy.It was their ambition to become a mighty empire and to rival the glories of Egypt and Babylonia and Assyria.They did not count the cost until it was too late.When they had ceased to be free farmers and shepherds and had become the slaves of a ruler in a distant city,they began to appreciate what they had sacrificed when they asked Jehovah to take away their liberty.
