As long as the Israeli people were migrating, the Ark traveled with them. (Remember Numbers 10:33-36 and other passages.) After they took the land promised to them the Ark remained in one place—some say for 369 years at Shiloh. The Ark did not go before the people into battle; the people went to Shiloh, where the Ark rested. There they worshiped, sacrificed, and feasted.
It seems Israel’s leaders are trying to go back to their former ways when they bring the Ark from Shiloh and send it into battle before them. Perhaps they are attempting a form of magic in doing so, or maybe they are caught up in wishful thinking. In any case the battle is lost and the Ark, too.
God desires obedience, not nostalgia, nor magical acts, nor wishful thinking.
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