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In Christ, Mark
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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 our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
As we saw in yesterday’s message, the first part of 1 Samuel, chapter 4, covers two battles between the Israelites and the Philistines with Israel being soundly defeated both times while suffering heavy casualties, particularly in the second battle when 30,000 soldiers died along with Hophni and Phinehas, the two priests who were the sons of the high priest Eli. Additionally, the Philistines also captured the hallowed ark of God.
Well, as we pick up where we left off and look at the remaining verses of this chapter, we see the continued fallout from the major defeats suffered by Israel…and within that fallout, we witness what can happen to God believers when they allow themselves to lose faith.
Now, 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 as they wondered how the losses to the Philistines could have happened. In fact, we see where they even begin to question their standing with God after things didn’t go well.
Of course, as we discussed previously, things could have turned out very differently if the Israelite elders and people had consulted God before they entered into conflict to make sure that it was His will for them to fight. It would have been the only way they could have guaranteed they were doing the right thing but all that was moot because they chose to make their own decisions with disastrous results.
Going back to our scripture passage for today, we read where a “Benjamite ran from the battle line and went to Shiloh, his clothes torn and dust on his head”. Once in Shiloh, he reported the bad news of what had happened in the battle and this news caused the town’s people to send up a cry. This cry got the attention of the high priest Eli who was “sitting on his chair by the side of the road, watching, because his heart feared for the ark of God”. The scriptures tell us that he was now “ninety-eight years old” with eyesight so bad that “he could not see”. He asked aloud:
"What is the meaning of this uproar?"
This prompted the Benjamite man to come to him (Eli) and give this report:
"I have just come from the battle line; I fled from it this very day."
And after Eli asked what happened in the battle, the man told him this:
“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."
We read where Eli didn’t take the news well for as soon as he heard it, he “fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate”, breaking his neck and dying when the ark of God was mentioned. Of special interest here, we should note that it was the news of the ark’s capture that troubled Eli more than the loss of his sons. Perhaps this is because he knew the Lord had told him it would happen and so the surprise wasn’t as great as the news regarding the ark.
And so Eli was dead and I find it a bit fascinating 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. Rather than going to God immediately and inquiring about what His plan was moving forward, Eli just allowed himself to be consumed by the negative circumstances presented to him. It reminds us that he was just as imperfect as other prominent figures we read about in the Bible…and just as imperfect as we are today.
Well after all this, the scriptures introduce us to 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”. The heartbreaking report 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”. We do read though that she named her son Ichabod before she died, a name that literally means no glory. She underscored the naming by 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 now she was dying as well. All of it caused her to lose faith and hope along with it.
All of this taken in whole raises one serious question we all need to ponder:
How should we handle tragedy when it happens in our lives?
You see, I think we all can agree that 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 perfectly trouble-free.
With this, we know that 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…removing impurities and fortifying us so we might grow strong enough to overcome our challenges.
As we see 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, we run the risk of losing the thing we hope in, whether a possession or a person, and finding our faith gone with it.
I feel this is why people have such a difficult time handling the loss of a loved one for they have placed all their faith, hope, and trust in someone who can and will perish…and when that person dies, a void is left in the heart…a void that can only be filled by the Lord. Frankly, it would have been so much easier if the Lord had just been there in the first place.
Our Savior Jesus did some teaching that reinforces this within His famous Sermon on the Mount. In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 6, we find Him saying this:
“Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” v.21
How should we apply this as Christian believers?
I think Jesus is trying to remind us to make Him the one and only true Treasure in life for all things are by and through Him…the One who is the Way and the Truth and the Life (John 14:6). And when we make Jesus our Treasure then we find ourselves ever in Him and His Holy Spirit, empowered to handle any and all situations, whether good or bad, with an unwavering faith and unmovable hope.
My brothers and sister, this is amazing good news for us to remember as we live this thing called life…that we can do all things (and this includes handling all things) through Christ Jesus who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13). If Paul could feel that way while in Roman imprisonment, we can do likewise within our circumstances.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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