There is a saying that victory has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan. There is no worse failure than that which leads to God’s glory departing from a people. Sadly, many churches and individuals in our day have walked away from God, and God has walked away from them. Are there echoes of this sadness in history?
In the beginning verses of chapter 4, God’s People took the Ark into battle with the Philistines as a talisman to trap God into helping them against their foes. The Ark was lost, and Eli’s two sons fell in the battle. This tragedy was God’s judgement against Eli and his house, and expressed God’s displeasure at Israel. But it also opened the door for a new era of God’s goodness and fellowship with his people.
While in our current day the internet provides real time updates of news at the battlefront, in Samuel’s day the news of a battle was carried by a runner. The marathon comes from a Greek runner bringing good news of victory against Persia. Sad news came via a runner too, usually just ahead of the retreating forces.
The day of the loss of the Ark and the death of Hophni and Phineas, a Benjaminite ran to Shiloh bearing sad news, with his clothes ruined in the traditional sign of mourning (v.12). When that man arrived, the high priest Eli was sitting, waiting for news (v.13).
Eli was not a picture of hope or health. Old (98), blind, and “heavy” from the stolen food his sons gave him (vv.15, 18), Eli knew from a man of God and Samuel that God would soon bring judgement on him and his family for their sinful deeds in the Temple grounds. His “heart trembled for the ark of God” (v.13) because he knew that it should never have left Shiloh without God’s say-so (Deut. 12:5-11).
When the bearer of bad news arrived, all of Shiloh cried out (v.13). Eli knew it had to be bad, and caught the man’s attention as he passed by (v.14). The man hurried to inform him (v.16); he was, after all, the high priest.
The news just kept getting worse. “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great defeat among the people” (v.17). Terrible news, but not unexpected in Israel’s recent history. “Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead” (v.17). Also terrible news, but that happens in war, and God had already announced their pending deaths so it was perhaps not a complete shock.
One piece of news was even worse, though. “The ark of God has been captured” (v.17). This was worse news than all the rest. The Ark was the very symbol of God’s presence with his people; and it had been taken away by pagans.
This was the news that Eli could not take. As soon as the man said it, “Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died” (v.18). Thus ended a dark chapter in Israel’s history, as Eli judged Israel for 40 years while his sons stole from the people and from God. It was a long fall from Joshua to Eli, longer than the seat to the ground.
The sadness for Eli’s family did not end there. Eli’s daughter-in-law heard of the deaths, and the capture of the Ark, and was shocked into labour (v.19). Sadly the suddenness of the labour led to her death (v.21). She lived only long enough to express more piety than Phineas, her late husband, by calling her son Ichabod which roughly translates as “no glory” (vv.21-2).
Thus Eli’s grandson bore a name forever reminding of terrible tragedy, into terrible circumstances; an orphan, with no immediate family to care for him. God’s glory had in a sense departed Israel with the Ark’s capture. But it was not permanent.
This passage teaches us that sometimes God’s presence has to depart, or seem to depart from us, for us to recognise our sinfulness and repent. We cannot continue to sin against God and expect him to continue in goodness towards us. Sometimes, God hands us over to trials and judgement to draw us back to him.
While God’s glory may depart from individuals or churches, it is not necessarily permanent. If we repent and seek God, he promises in Scripture to return to us (Zech. 1:3). While sadly many individuals and churches have walked apart from God and no longer enjoy his goodness and presence, if we repent and turn from our sin God will not forsake us.
There is forgiveness and grace to be found, because God’s glory departing was not the end. Many years later, angels visited announcing glad tidings of great joy, because God had come to dwell with his people as a baby in a manger. Jesus, God’s glory in our midst, laid down his life for our sins so we can enjoy God’s presence forever.
