And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp.
Is God in the camp?
I. Consider the great mistake which both Israelites and the Philistines made. The Israelites, instead of seeking to God himself, went to Shiloh to fetch the ark of the covenant. Before they had won any victory, the sight of the ark made them boastful and confident. The Philistines fell into an error of a different kind, for they were frightened without any real cause. They said, “God is come into the camp; “whereas God had not come at all. It was only the ark with the cherubim upon it; God was not there.
1. The mistake they made was just this they mistook the visible for the invisible. It has pleased God, even in our holy faith, to give us some external symbols--water, and bread, and wine. They are so simple, that it does seem at first sight, as if men could never have made them objects of worship, or used them as instruments of a kind of witchcraft. One would have thought that these symbols would only have been like windows of agate and gates of carbuncle, through which men would behold the Saviour and draw near to Him. Instead thereof, some have neither looked through the windows nor passed through the gates, but they have ascribed to the gates and the windows that which is only to be found in Him who is behind them both. It is sad, indeed, when the symbol takes the place of the Saviour.
2. These Israelites fell into another mistake, which is also often made today: they preferred office to character. In their distress, instead of calling upon God, they sent for Hophni and Phinehas. “If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.” The blind man may wear a band on his arm to show that he is a certificated guide; but will you be saved from the ditch simply because he belongs to the order of guides, and has his certificate with him? Be not led away by any such vain notion.
3. But these people who faced the Philistines made another mistake: they confounded enthusiasm with faith. When they saw the ark they shouted so that the earth rang again. “These are the kind of people I like,” says one, “people that can shout.” If that is all you want, why do you not go among the bulls of Bashan, and make your home in the midst of them? They can make more noise than any mortal man can make. These Israelites shouted, but there was nothing in their noise, any more than there is in their modern imitators. If the ejaculation comes from your heart, I would not ask you to restrain it. God forbid that we should judge any man’s worship! But do not be so foolish as to suppose that because there is loud noise there must also be faith. Faith is a still water, it floweth deep. True faith in God may express itself with leaping and with shouting; and it is a happy thing when it does: but it can also sit still before the Lord, and that perhaps is a happier thing still. Praise can sit silent on the lip, and yet be heard in heaven. There is a passion of the heart too deep for words.
4. Another mistake these people made that day was this: they valued, novelty above Scriptural order. “The Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us l for there hath not been such a thing heretofore.” The Israelites probably made the same mistake, fixing their hope on this new method of fighting the Philistines, which they hoped would bring them victory. We are all so apt to think that the new plan of going to work will be much more effective than those that have become familiar; but it is not so. It is generally a mistake to exchange old lamps for new. “There hath not been such a thing heretofore.” There is a glamour about the novelty which misleads us, and we are liable to think the newer is the truer. If there has not been such a thing heretofore, some people will take to it at once for that very reason. “Oh,” says the man who is given to change, “that is the thing for me!” But it is probably not the thing for a true-hearted and intelligent Christian, for if “there hath not been such a thing heretofore,” it is difficult to explain, if the thing be a good one, why the Holy Ghost, who has been with the people of God since Pentecost, and who came to lead us into all truth, has not led the Church of God to this before. If your new discovery is the mind of God, where has Holy Scripture been all these centuries? The mistake made on that battlefield is a mistake which nowadays is frequently imitated. It assumes many forms.
5. We fall into their error when we confound ritual and spirituality.
6. We fall into the same blunder that the Israelites and Philistines made if we consider orthodoxy to be salvation. We have secured much that is worth keeping when we have, intellectually and intelligently, laid hold on that divinely-revealed truth, “the gospel of the grace of God” but we have not obtained everything even then. Remember it was a beautiful tomb in which the dead Christ was laid; but he left it, and there was nothing there but grave clothes after He had gone; and, in like manner, the best-constructed system of theology, if it has not Christ in it, and if he who holds it be not himself spiritually alive, is nothing more than a tomb in which are trappings for the dead. It is nothing better than a gilded ark, without the presence of God; and although you may shout, and say, “God is come into the camp,” it will not be so.
7. We fall into the same error if we regard routine as security, and think that, because we have often done a thing, and have not suffered for it, therefore it will be always well with us. We are all such creatures of habit that, at length, our repeated actions seem to be natural and right. Because sentence against their evil works is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. But though Pompeii may slumber long at the foot of Vesuvius, at length it is overwhelmed. It behoves every one of us to try our ways, and specially to call in question things which have become a sort of second nature to us.
II. Having considered the great mistake these people made, I will draw your attention, in the second place, to the great truth of which their mistake was a caricature. God does come to the camp of His people, and His presence is the great power of His church. I will briefly sketch the scene that takes place when God comes into the camp.
1. Then, the truth of the gospel becomes vital.
2. When God comes into the camp, new life is put into prayer.
3. By the presence of God in the camp fresh energy is thrown into service.
4. When God comes into the camp, His presence convinces unbelievers.
5. The presence of God, moreover, comforts mourners.
6. When God is in the camp, His presence infuses daring into faith. Feeble men begin to grow vigorous, young men dream dreams, and old men see visions. Many begin to plot and plan something for Jesus which, in their timid days, they would never have thought of attempting. Others reach a height of consecration that seems to verge on imprudence.
7. The fact of God being in the camp cannot be hidden, for in a delightful way it distils joy into worship.
III. Let us try to learn the great lessons which this incident teaches us.
1. The first lesson is that which I have been insisting upon all through: the necessity of the Divine presence.
2. Learn, next, that we should do all we can to obtain the presence of God in the camp.
3. When God does come to us, we should seek by all means to retain his presence. How can this boon be secured? (C. H. Spurgeon.)