Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
That same day a Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh, his clothes torn and dust on his head. When he arrived, there was Eli sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching, because his heart feared for the ark of God. When the man entered the town and told what had happened, the whole town sent up a cry.
Eli heard the outcry and asked, "What is the meaning of this uproar?" The man hurried over to Eli, who was ninety-eight years old and whose eyes were set so that he could not see. He told Eli, "I have just come from the battle line; I fled from it this very day."
Eli asked, "What happened, my son?" The man who brought the news replied, "Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured."
When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man and heavy. He had led Israel forty years.
His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. As she was dying, the women attending her said, "Don't despair; you have given birth to a son." But she did not respond or pay any attention.
She named the boy Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel"-because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. She said, "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured."
1 Samuel 4:12-22
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
The first part of 1st Samuel, Chapter 4, documents two battles between Israel and the Philistines with Israel being defeated twice while suffering heavy casualties, particularly in the second battle when 30,000 soldiers died along with Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas. And if these losses weren’t enough, the Philistines also captured the hallowed ark of God.
As the chapter ends, we see continued fallout from the great loss suffered by Israel. We also see what can happen to God’s believers when they allow themselves to lose faith.
We have already seen earlier indications of confusion and despair from the elders of the people of Israel as well as the people they led. They wondered how any of this could have happened to them yet they had never turned to God for guidance before entering into battle…and thus could never have known if it was His will for them to do so. And after things don’t go well, they begin to wonder where they stood with their Father in heaven.
Going back to our scripture, we see where a “Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh, his clothes torn and dust on his head”. Once in Shiloh, the Benjamite went to Eli who was “sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching, because his heart feared for the ark of God”. After hearing an outcry from the town and inquiring as to what was going on, the man told Eli, who was “ninety-eight years old and whose eyes were set so that he could not see”, “I have just come from the battle line; I fled from it this very day…Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured."
Eli didn’t take the news well. For we read where he “fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate”, breaking his neck and dying when the ark of God was mentioned. Interestingly enough, note where it wasn’t the news of his sons' death but the ark that troubled him the most. You’ll recall that the Lord had promised that his sons would die so perhaps it wasn’t as much a surprise as the news about the ark.
Still, it’s a bit fascinating to me that a man who had dedicated so much of his life to faithfully serving the Lord in His temple would all of a sudden lose his faith to the point of reacting the way he did and dying in the process. It reveals to us that Eli was just as imperfect as other prominent figures in the scriptures…and just as imperfect as we are as well.
After this, we read about Eli’s “daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas” who “was pregnant and near the time of delivery”. She too received bad news when “she heard…that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead”. This caused her to go into a fatal labor with great pain before she gave birth. And although the woman attending to her tried to comfort her despair by telling her she had delivered a son, Phinehas’ wife “did not respond or pay any attention”. And before she died, she named her son, Ichabod (which means no glory), while saying, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured." She had lost her husband and father in law and was now dying as well. Her faith was lost and with it her hope as well.
This entire passage raises one serious question we all need to ponder:
How do we handle tragedy when it happens in our lives?
For it’s easy to be faithful when everything goes right in life. In fact, there would be little need for faith if our lives were perfect and trouble-free. No…it’s in times of trial that our faith is tested and as we persevere through trouble, we find the Lord taking our faith and refining it…fortifying us so we might grow strong enough to overcome our present challenges.
As we have seen with Eli and Phinehas’ wife, one’s inability to properly cope with tragedy can sometimes be fatal. For when we place our hope in anything other than the Lord then we are running the risk of that thing, whether it’s a possession or a person, leaving our lives and taking our hope along with it. This is why people have such a difficult time handling the loss of a loved one. They place all their faith, hope and trust in someone who is not enduring and when that person dies, a void is left in their hearts…a void that can only be filled by the Lord…and it would have been so much easier if the Lord had been there in the first place.
Jesus said in His Sermon on the Mount, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21) As Christians, we are to make Jesus our one and only treasure, for all things are by and through Him…the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). And when we make Jesus our treasure then we find ourselves ever in His spirit and strength, able to handle all circumstances whether good or bad with an unwavering faith and unmovable hope. This is good news for us to remember as we continue to praise and give thanks for all the Lord has done, is doing and will continue to do in our lives. He is so very good in every way. Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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