1 Samuel 4
-The book moves on in time to the point where Israel went
out to meet the Philistines in battle towards the west. Israel camped beside
Ebenezer; meanwhile, the Philistines made their camp in Aphek due west of the
Israelite encampment. The Philistines drew up in battle array in anticipation
of their clash with Israel. As the battle ensued, the Philistines were
victorious against the Israelites killing about 4,000 men on the battlefield.
This was a big shock to the army of Israel and their elders wondered what was
going on. They asked, “Why has the LORD defeated us today before the
Philistines?” They concluded that they needed to go east to Shiloh and take the
Ark of the Covenant of the LORD so that it may come and give them deliverance
from the power of the enemy. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were still
running things at the time with the Ark of the Covenant, and consented to bring
the Ark to the Israeli camp. As it approached them at the camp, all Israel
shouted to such a great extent that the earth resounded. Of course the Philistines
heard the shouts and soon perceived that indeed the Ark of the Covenant, a
feared object, was with the Israelites. The Philistines felt that God was in
the camp of their enemy. They knew that nothing like this had actually happened
before. They feared the woe upon them because of the LORD’s reputation in
dismantling Egypt with His plagues and the wilderness miracles that were common
knowledge in the region. However, they took courage and gathered their strength
together to resist and fight. They had made the Israelites their slaves and did
not want to become the slaves of Israel due to cowardness and fear. “So the Philistines
fought and Israel was defeated, and every man fled to his tent; and the
slaughter was very great, for there fell of Israel 30,000 foot soldiers (1
Samuel 4:1-10).”
-The Ark of God was taken, and Hophni and Phinehas died in
the conflict specifically as prophesied (1 Samuel 2:34). Now a man from the
tribe of Benjamin ran from the battle line all the way to Shiloh that same day
with torn clothes and dust on his head. As he came to the city, Eli was sitting
on his seat by the road eagerly waiting and watching for any kind of news. He
was trembling in his heart on account of the Ark of the Covenant being away
from its proper spot in the holy of holies. The man gave his account first to
men of the city, who immediately cried out in anguish. Eli didn’t initially
know what was going on, and the man who ran from the battle shared with him the
grim news. He specifically told Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle
line. Indeed, I escaped, from the battle line today.” Eli responded, “How did
things go, my son?” The bearer of the horrible news then said, “Israel has fled
before the Philistines and there has also been a great slaughter among the
people, and your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the Ark of
God has been taken.” When the part about the Ark was mentioned, Eli fell off of
his seat backwards beside the gate. His neck was broken and he died, “for he
was old and heavy.” His 40-year reign as Israel’s judge had come to a
disastrous close, but that was not all (1 Samuel 4:11-18).
-Eli’s daughter-in-law, Phinehas’s wife, was pregnant and on
the verge of giving birth to a son. When she heard the distressing news that
the Ark had been taken and her husband’s and father-in-law’s deaths, she
kneeled down in anguish, gave birth to her son, then died in the pains of
childbirth. The women who stood by her reassured her that she not be afraid,
she was having a boy. But, she could not even answer or pay attention in her agony.
All that she muttered before leaving the earth was to call the child’s name, Ichabod
(no glory), because “the glory has departed from Israel, for the Ark of God was
taken (1 Samuel 4:19-22).”
-*Application* Israel’s mistake was looking to an object,
the Ark, rather than the LORD of the object. It was God’s presence they needed,
not a box plated with gold as ornate and special as it was. This amounted to
idolatry in a sense. They trusted the Ark, and negated the God of the Ark in
their battle. Sin was indeed present, and God’s wrath came upon them in an
overwhelming way because of it. The leadership was corrupt with Hophni and
Phinehas and unwilling to take up the mantle of courage in the case of Eli. When
sin begets a camp, tribe, or nation, we too can pronounce Ichabod over it.
There is no glory in things done apart from God’s presence and will.
Verse to Memorize:
1 Samuel 4:21
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