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Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines, seeing our cause is so just, our own just and necessary defence from God’s and our enemies, and we came not forth to battle by our own motion, but by God’s command delivered by Samuel? This was strange blindness, that when there was so great a corruption in their worship and manners, 1Sa 2, and such a defection to idolatry, 1Sa_7:3 Psa_78:58, they could not see sufficient reason why God should suffer them to fall by their enemies.
The ark of the covenant of the Lord; that great pledge of God’s presence and help, by whose conduct our ancestors obtained success, Num_10:35 14:44 Jos_6:4. Instead of the performance of moral duties, humbling themselves deeply for and purging themselves speedily and thoroughly from all their sins, for which God was displeased with them, and now had chastised them, they take an easier and cheaper course, and put their trust in their ceremonial observances, not doubting but the very presence of the ark would give them the victory; and therefore it is no wonder they meet with so sad a disappointment.