The elders of Israel knew that the Lord had promised to fight on behalf of his people if they kept the terms of the old covenant. They knew that Israel’s security as a nation was linked with faithfulness to covenant obligations.1 The fact that they lost is evidence that the Lord did not fight with them but that they were under his wrath because of covenant disobedience (see Leviticus 26:17; Deuteronomy 28:25).2 Defeat for Israel was inevitable if God did not fight with them (Numbers 14:42; Deuteronomy 1:42).3
3 And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”