1 Samuel 4:1 – 22 “thus the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now the Israelites went out to meet the Philistines in battle and camped at Ebenezer, while the Philistines camped at Aphek. The Philistines arrayed themselves against Israel, and as the battle spread, Israel was defeated by the Philistines, who struck down about four thousand men on the battlefield. When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why has the LORD brought defeat on us before the Philistines today? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that it may go with us to save us from the hand of our enemies.”
So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD of Hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
When the ark of the covenant of the LORD entered the camp, all the Israelites raised such a great shout that it shook the ground. On hearing the noise of the shout, the Philistines asked, “What is this loud shouting in the camp of the Hebrews?” And when they realized that the ark of the LORD had entered the camp, the Philistines were afraid. “The gods have entered their camp!” they said. “Woe to us, for nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the wilderness. Take courage and be men, O Philistines! Otherwise, you will serve the Hebrews just as they served you. Now be men and fight!”
So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and each man fled to his tent. The slaughter was very great—thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. The ark of God was captured, and Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, died.
That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line all the way to Shiloh, with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. When he arrived, there was Eli, sitting on his chair beside the road and watching, because his heart trembled for the ark of God. When the man entered the city to give a report, the whole city cried out. Eli heard the outcry and asked, “Why this commotion?” So the man hurried over and reported to Eli. Now Eli was ninety-eight years old, and his gaze was fixed because he could not see.
“I have just come from the battle,” the man said to Eli. “I fled from there today.”
“What happened, my son?” Eli asked.
The messenger answered, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are both dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”
As soon as the ark of God was mentioned, Eli fell backward from his chair by the city gate, and being old and heavy, he broke his neck and died. And Eli had judged Israel forty years. Now Eli’s daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news of the capture of God’s ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she collapsed and gave birth, for her labor pains overtook her.
As she was dying, the women attending to her said, “Do not despair, for you have given birth to a son!”
But she did not respond or pay any heed. And she named the boy Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel,” because the ark of God had been captured and her father-in-law and her husband had been killed.
“The glory has departed from Israel,” she said, “for the ark of God has been captured.”
Remember the Ark of the Covenant, the holiest thing in all of the tabernacle? The Ark was to be kept in the Holy of Holies and even the high priest was only supposed to enter there at set times. But Eli had been judging Israel for 40 years, and Eli had little respect or reverence for the Lord. Eli’s sons, Phinehas and Hophni, were far worse than Eli and had no regard for the Lord whatsoever. Phinehas and Hophni were terrorizing those who brought animal offerings and forcing themselves on female worshipers.
The Israelites took on the Philistines in battle and were defeated. Such a disaster should have warned the Israelites that God was no longer blessing them. In Deuteronomy 28:25, God warned the Israelites what would happen if they failed to worship Him. “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.” God gave Moses a prophetic song and had him teach it to all the Israelites, who were then supposed to teach it to all succeeding generations as a warning against leaving Him…..but they didn’t!
When the first attack on the Philistines failed, the Israelites should have repented and sought the Lord; instead, their idea of how to solve this problem was to blame the Lord!!! 1 Samuel 4:3 tells us, “When the troops returned to the camp, the elders of Israel asked, “Why has the LORD brought defeat on us before the Philistines today? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD from Shiloh, so that it may go with us to save us from the hand of our enemies.” What kind of convoluted thinking is this??? First, the Israelites BLAMED the Lord for bringing defeat on them and then they decided to solve the problem by hauling the Ark, a symbol of God’s holiness, into battle. The Ark of the Covenant was always to be kept in the Holy of Holies and was only to be moved when God commanded and with very special precautions.
We don’t know who was high priest before Eli, but he evidently set a bad precedent as well. Joshua 24:31 tells us, “Israel served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced everything the Lord had done for Israel.” By this point, the Israelites were treating the One True Living God as if He were simply one more local deity. The holy items in the Tabernacle were being regarded as fetishes or charms. While the Philistines remembered the power of the God of Israel, the Israelites themselves did not. The Israelites had abandoned God and now He abandoned them. The Philistines captured the Ark, Phinehas and Hophni were killed, and when Eli got the news, he fell backward, snapping his neck, and dying. To complete the tragedy, Phinehas’ pregnant wife died in childbirth, and as she was dying, she named her son “Ichabod,” a name meaning “The glory has departed,” or “There is no glory!”
APPLICATION: This passage is a bit long, but it makes better sense to tell the entire story at once. God had warned Eli three separate times that his family was doomed for destruction, and each time Eli had failed to repent. Now the day of doom had arrived. Either the priests had failed to teach the Israelites the Law of Moses and the Song of Moses, or the priests might have tried and the Israelites refused to listen. Then after refusing to follow the Lord as previous generations had promised, the Israelites blamed God when they reaped the consequences He had already warned about.
DO WE REALLY LISTEN TO GOD? Sometimes when we pray, we aren’t really listening but we are simply reciting a list of demands. We want God to do our will in His Name, and we want Him to be quick about it! If God tries to correct us, we stop our ears.
DO WE REALLY WORSHIP GOD? The Israelites had allowed worship to degenerated into a series of rituals with little or no regard for the God whom they were supposed to worship.
DO WE RESPECT THE POWER OF GOD? The Israelites had long ceased to remind themselves of the greatness of God and the wonders He had performed for them. The pagan Philistines had a clearer memory of the power of God than did the Israelites.
WHAT WOULD WE DO IF GOD WROTE “ICHABOD” OVER OUR ENDEAVORS? Phinehas’ wife spoke a true word as she lay dying when she said that the glory had departed from Israel. The horrific thing is that any church, any mission, any organization, or any individual that fails to remember that they are to be serving God can find themselves labeled “Ichabod.” God’s work will always continue; however, if we refuse to listen to God, to worship, to respect God’s power, and to serve Him as He desires, we too may find “Ichabod” written over our most cherished endeavors. May such a thing never happen to any of us!
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives so that You will never have to write “Ichabod” over us. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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