We continue with our examination of the subject of the Ark of the Covenant. We've come to Episode 9 which is also chapter 9 in our book, In Search of the Lost Ark: The Quest For The Ark of the Covenant. The chapter is titled "Battling for the Promised Land."
This book is a free download from our website educatingourworld and is found under the category of Bible Prophecy.
We read the following....
We recall that God had promised Abraham that the entire land of Canaan would belong to his descendants. Jericho was the first city of the Promised Land to be conquered. After Jericho was destroyed, Joshua set his sights on the smaller city of Ai (pronounced eye). With the success at Jericho, it seemed that victory at Ai would be a simple matter. This, however, would not be the case.
The People Went Fighting Without The Lord
If Joshua thought that having the Ark of the Covenant would be an automatic guarantee for victory in battle, he would soon learn differently. The Bible describes what happened as follows:
Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai, which is near Beth-aven, east of Bethel, and said to them, “Go up and spy out the land.” And the men went up and spied out Ai. Then they returned to Joshua and said to him, “Not all the people need go up; about two or three thousand men should go up and attack Ai. Since they are so few, do not make the whole people toil up there” (Joshua 7:2,3 NRSV UE).
The victory at Jericho was not won because of the superior fighting ability of Israel but because of the power of the Lord. Unfortunately, the overconfident people went to fight the battle with Ai without consulting Him. Scripture says:
So about three thousand men went up there from the people, but they fled before the men of Ai (Joshua 7:4 NKJV).
The army was defeated at Ai. The main reason for the defeat was that one of the Israelites, a man named Achan, took some of the booty from the destroyed city of Jericho. God had commanded that Jericho be utterly destroyed with no spoils taken. The Israelites had to be judged for their disobedience. After the loss at Ai, Joshua and the leaders fell before the Ark:
Joshua and the leaders of Israel tore their clothing in dismay, threw dust on their heads, and bowed down facing the Ark of the LORD until evening (Joshua 7:6 NLT).
Ai was eventually conquered, but a valuable lesson was learned—mere possession of the Ark did not guarantee victory.
The Ark moved around a number of places during this time period. First, it seemed to remain a couple of years at Gilgal, the place where they first entered the land.
On one occasion it was brought to Mount Ebal in the area of Shechem. This was too commemorate the victories at Jericho and Ai as well as having the covenant renewed.
The Ark then settled in Shiloh for some 400 years. There a more permanent structure was built for the Ark.
We discover that for a three-hundred-year period after the time of Joshua, the references to the Ark are rare. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia notes:
Just where the ark was during the period of the judges is still a matter of some uncertainty.
We have the record of the High Priest Phineas receiving counsel from God concerning the civil war with Benjamin.7 We read the following in the Book of Judges:
And the Israelites went up seeking direction from the LORD. (In those days the Ark of the Covenant of God was in Bethel, and Phinehas son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron was the priest.) The Israelites asked the LORD, “Should we fight against our relatives from Benjamin again or should we stop?” The LORD said, “Go! Tomorrow, I will give you victory over them” (Judges 20:27,28 NLT).
Apart from this one event, the Bible is silent about the Ark during the time of the Judges.
Conclusion
For several hundred years after the battle of Jericho, references to the Ark are few. It is assumed the Ark traveled with the Tabernacle and came to rest in Shiloh8, where it stood for a period of four hundred years.
We now come to an incident where the Ark is again brought out to battle, and this time with disastrous results.