“IS GOD IN THE CAMP?” – Charles Spurgeon

IS GOD IN THE CAMP?

“And the Philistines were afraid, for they said, God is come into the camp. And they said, Woe unto us! For there has not been such a thing before.” — 1 Samuel 4:7.

I. The Great Mistake Made by Both the Israelites and the Philistines

ISRAEL was out of gear with God. The people had forgotten the Most High and had gone aside to the worship of Baal. They had neglected the things of God, and therefore, they were given up to their enemies. When Jehovah had brought them out of Egypt, He instructed them how they were to live in the land to which He would bring them, and warned them that if they forsook Him, they would be chastened. HIs words were very plain—“If you will not, for all this, hearken unto Me, but walk contrary unto Me; then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.” In fulfillment of this threat, the Philistines had been divinely permitted to make great havoc of the idolatrous Israelites and to hold them in cruel slavery. The only way for them to get out of their trouble was to return to God, who by His judgments seemed to say, “Hear you the rod, and who has appointed it.” The only cure for their hurt was to go back with repentance and renew their faith and their covenant with God. Then all would have been right. But this is the last thing that men will do. Our minds, by nature, love not spiritual things. We will attend to any outward duty or to any external rite—but to bring our hearts into subjection to the divine will, to bow our minds to the Most High, and to serve the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul, the natural man abhors. Yet nothing less than this will suffice to turn our captivity. Instead of attempting to get right with God, these Israelites set about devising superstitious means of securing the victory over their foes. In this respect, most of us have imitated them. We think of a thousand inventions, but we neglect the one thing necessary. I may be addressing some who at this time are passing through sore trials and who therefore think that they must have forgotten some little thing in connection with external religion, instead of seeing that it matters little what outward observance they may neglect, so long as they do not possess the faith, without which it is impossible to please God. They forgot the main matter, which is to enthrone God in the life and to seek to do His will by faith in Christ Jesus. Get right with God. Confess your sin. Believe in Jesus Christ, the appointed Savior. Be reconciled to God by the death of His Son—then all will be right between you and the Father in heaven. We cannot bring men to this, apart from the Spirit of God. In this sermon, I shall have to show you how often and in how many ways men seek other methods of cure than the only one, namely, to take the case to God. They heal their hurt slightly. They cry, “Peace! Peace!” where there is no peace, and adopt a thousand devious devices rather than accept the only remedy provided by the Great Physician for sin-sick souls.

Instead of seeking to become right with God, these Israelites thought that if they could get the ark of the covenant, which had been the symbol of Jehovah’s presence, and bring it from the tent of Shiloh into the midst of their camp, they would then be certain of victory. So they sent and fetched the ark—and when it came into the camp, they were enthusiastic as if their banners already waved over a victorious host. They lifted up their voices so loudly that the earth rang again with their shouts, while the Philistines, hearing their exulting shout and finding out the reason, were greatly afraid. With fearful hearts and trembling lips, already counting that all was lost, their enemies turned to one another and said, “God has come into the camp. Woe unto us! for there has not been such a thing before.”

In considering this subject, we will think, first, of the great mistake which both Israel and the Philistines made. In the second place, we will consider the great truth of which their mistake was a caricature. God does come into the camp when His people go forth to fight in His name. And when He really comes, the tide of battle is turned. When I have spoken on these two things, I shall close, as God shall help me, by speaking upon the great lessons which lie almost upon the very surface of the narrative.

II. The Great Mistake

First, then, let us consider THE GREAT MISTAKE which both the Israelites and Philistines made. The Israelites, instead of seeing to God Himself, went to Shiloh to fetch the ark of the covenant. The ark was the sacred place where God revealed Himself in the days when His people truly served Him. But it was devoid of power without the presence of Him who dwelt between the cherubim. The Israelites were mistaken, for they shouted long before they were “out of the woods.” 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 has come into the camp,” whereas God had not come at all. It was only the ark with the cherubim on it—God was not there. 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, bread, and wine. They are so simple that it seems, 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 Savior and draw near to Him. Instead, some have neither looked through the windows nor passed through the gates, but 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 Savior! Man is by nature both an atheist and an idolater. These are two shades of the same thing. We need, if we worship at all, something that we can see. But a God that can be seen is no God—and so the idolater is first cousin to the atheist. He has a god which is not god, for he cannot be a god if he can be apprehended by human senses. This ark of the covenant, which was but a chest of wood covered with gold with angelic figures on the lid, was simply a token of the presence of God with His people. But these Israelites transformed it into a sacred object, to be highly reverenced, to be worshipped, and as it appears, to be trusted in. The elders said, “Let us fetch the ark of the covenant of the Lord out of Shiloh unto us, that, when it comes among us, it may save us out of the hand of our enemies.” They ascribed to the ark what could only be done by God Himself.

This is the tendency of us all. Anything which we can see, we pine after. Hence, we lean upon the arm of flesh. We trust in man, though it is written plainly enough, “Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord.” Yet, we still need some symbol, some token, something before our eyes—and if it can be something artistic, so much the better. We lay hold of something beautiful that will charm the eyes and produce a kind of sensuous feeling and straightway we mistake our transient emotion for spiritual worship and true reverence. This is the great mistake that many still make—they think that God has come into the camp merely because some outward religious rite or ceremony has been observed—or because some sacred shrine has been set up among them. 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. Why did their hearts turn to them? Simply because they were priests and the people had come to hold the sacred office in such superstitious reverence that they thought that was everything. But these young men were exceedingly great sinners against the Lord—they were not even moral men, much less spiritual men. They made the house of God to be abhorred and dishonored the Lord before all Israel. Yet, because they happened to hold the office of the priesthood, they were put in the place of God. Dear friends, this is a kind of feeling which many indulge. They think they shall be saved if they have a Levite for their priest. They imagine that the worship of God must be conducted properly because the man who conducts it is in the apostolic succession and has been duly ordained. You shall see a man eminent for the holiness of his life, for the unselfishness of his character, for the fidelity of his preaching, for his power in prayer, for the blessing that rests upon his ministry in the conversion of sinners—but he is counted a mere nobody because he lacks the superstitious qualification which deluded men think is so necessary. Here are Hophni and Phinehas, two of the grossest sinners in all the land of Israel—but then, you see, they are in the line of Aaron and so they are trusted, and indeed are put in the place of God.

III. The Great Truth

Now, 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 is a caricature. Though what the Philistines said and what the Israelites thought, on this occasion, was false, it is often true. God does come to the camp of His people and His presence is the great power of His church. O brethren, what joy comes to us at such a time! I will briefly sketch the scene that takes place when God comes into the camp. Then, the truth of the gospel becomes vital. The doctrines of grace have then with them the grace of the doctrines. Then is Christ not only to us the Truth, but He is also the Way and the Life. The gospel then becomes a sword with two edges and it does marvelous execution. The word of God then shows itself to be both a hammer and a fire, smiting and melting those upon whom its power is proved. Whoever preaches the gospel, when God has come into the camp, speaks with power. He may have little eloquence and less learning—but if God is with him and if his heart is all aglow with divine love, he will speak with power and the people will say, “Surely, God is in this place, and we know it.” When God comes into the camp, new life is put into prayer. Instead of the repetition of holy phrases in a cold, feeble, lifeless fashion, the soul empties itself out before the Lord like water flowing from a fountain. And men and women cry mightily unto Him, laying hold upon the horns of the altar—and they come away with both hands full of heaven’s own blessing, for they have prevailed with God in mighty wrestling.

IV. The Great Lessons

The first lesson is that which I have been insisting upon all through—the necessity of the divine presence. Dear friends, you acknowledge this. There is not one among us who does not know that the Holy Spirit is necessary to effect any work. But I am afraid that it is something which we know so well that we have put it up on a shelf—and there it lies unheeded. But it must not be so with you, my brothers, nor with me. We must pray in the Holy Spirit, or else we shall not pray at all. And we must preach under the influence of the Holy Spirit, or else we shall chatter like sparrows on the windowsill in the morning—and nothing will come of the chattering. Only the Holy Spirit can make anything we do to be effectual. Therefore never begin any work without the Holy Spirit and do not dare go on with the impetus that you have gained, but cry again for the Holy Spirit. The “amen” of the sermon needs to be spoken in the power of the Holy Spirit just as much as the first word of the discourse—and every word between the first and the last. Let all your service for God be in the Spirit, or else it is all good for nothing.

Learn, next, that we should do all we can to obtain the presence of God in the camp. If there are any preparations which we can make for His coming, let us set about them at once. You who are out of Christ must not think that there is anything for you to do before you receive Christ. All the doing has been done—“Jesus did it, did it all, Long, long ago.” But I am now addressing the people of God and if we would have God to come very near to us, we must prepare the way of the Lord and make straight in the desert a highway for our God. What can we do to obtain the presence of God in our midst?

V. Conclusion

Let us, each one, look after his own life and see that all is right there. Then the life of the church will soon be at flood tide, and when we go forth to the battle, the Philistines will know for sure that, “God is come into the camp.” May God speedily raise us all up to this point of personal consecration!