1 Samuel 4

(1) Before the ark was carried out to the battle ground, Israel lost to the Philistines. 

 v.2b Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men

After the ark was out there Israel lost more souls.

v.10 So the Philistines fought. Israel was defeated; they all ran home. The slaughter was very great; thirty thousand foot soldiers fell in battle.

Why?

(2) They said, “Too bad for us! We’ve never seen anything like this! 4:8 Too bad for us! Who can deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all sorts of plagues in the desert!

For sure, there was not the problem of God that Israel lost the battle. For sure, it was not because of the ark which was carried in the battles of Moses and Joshua (Numbers 10:35, Josh 6:6).

(3) 4:4 So the army sent to Shiloh, and they took from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts who sits between the cherubim. Now the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.

"Now," means supplementary information. The 2 sons of Eli were there with the ark. They were the reasons why Israel lost.

A seemingly sure win situation turned into a great loss to Israel just because of their wicked leaders.

(4) The elders, the soldiers, the Philistines, and Eli all put their focus on the ark. That was true that the ark represented the presence of God. However, God would not simply bless the dwelling place of the ark and overlook the wickedness of the priests.
Let us pray for our leaders in the church, and other leaders if we long for the blessings of God. 

Do we also like Israelites/Philistines who put false confidence on the objects? Is God a very naïve God who would bless/curse based on where people put the ark? In other words, is God Someone that we can manipulate? Do we have such a low view of God? e.g. we can just offer more money to the church and God will overlook my sins or I can put a Cross on my desk and God will bless all my work. 

Audrey