Transition time in Israel’s history

1 Samuel 4:12-22

Do you enjoy reading a good novel or a biography of a great leader?  Then you should read the books of Samuel.  It covers a significant transition time in Israel’s history.  God is going to use Samuel to guide Israel’s transition from a theocracy to a monarchy.  The story begins with a faithful wife who cannot have a child and she goes to the house of God and makes a promise, one that she plans on keeping; the gift of her first child back to God.  It has the same religious hypocrisy we see in our days with the sons of the high priest Eli, as they use the office of priest to gain power and wealth.  And we see how poor spiritual leadership will always bring about spiritually dead people.

Then we see the son of the faithful mother, the lady who was childless, and told God if He would open her womb and give her a son she would bring him back to Eli to be God’s.  The story has battles with the Philistines, the loss of over 30,000 men in battle and the loss of the ark of God.  The remainder of 1 Samuel is about Saul being picked as the king and the story of what happens to a man when God allows him to have wealth and power, and he tries to run the show without God’s direction.

Picking up the story in verse 17, we see a Benjaminite running into town with his clothes torn and dirt on his head, and the message is an expression of mourning, for anyone who can see.  But Eli, who is blind, only hears the people’s outcry.  In that he is the most famous person in the town, the young man comes to him and reports that his sons are dead, the army of Israel is running away, and that seems not to disturb Eli.  But at the moment the man said the Philistines had captured the ark of God, the old fat man plummeted backward and hit the ground breaking his neck dying.

Now I’ve told you this book has a lot of side stories and will keep your attention, let us end today with the story of Eli’s daughter-in-law found in verses 19-22, “Now his daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant, about to give birth. And when she heard the news that the ark of God was captured, and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she bowed and gave birth, for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death the women attending her said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you have borne a son.” But she did not answer or pay attention. And she named the child Ichabod, saying, “The glory has departed from Israel!” because the ark of God had been captured and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”

From the Back Porch,

Bob Rice