A Journey Through The Old Testament - Elmer Towns

attlefront would raise the spirits of the people and help them fight with greater zeal. As far as
these two priests were concerned, it was simply a matter of conducting a mammoth pep rally
before the next battle and then returning home later that night.
With the arrival of the two priests bearing the Ark of the Covenant, the people became
excited. The defeated army took heart as they saw the box that they were convinced would win
them the battle. Their pitiful moans of failure were transformed into a jubilant shout of victory.
The echo of the celebration echoed from mountain to mountain. It did not take long for the
Philistines to discern what must be happening in the Israelite battle camp.
“God is come into the camp,” they concluded. “Woe to us! For such a thing has never
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 the plagues in the wilderness” (w. 7-S). The situation
was serious for the Philistines. Twice they had unsuccessfully attempted an invasion of Egypt
and twice they were repelled and defeated. Now they were engaging in battle against what they
perceived to be the gods that had so humiliatingly defeated the Egyptians during the Exodus. It
was almost certain they could not stand against so powerful a set of gods. But they really had no
choice in the matter. If there ever was a time they must do their best, it was now. It was either
fight or forever be enslaved to the Israelites.
But the Philistines had it all wrong. God was not in the camp. The people’s excitement
was not over God, but over a gold-plated wooden box containing a number of unique objects
important to the worship of God. And Israel had it all wrong too. There is a world of difference
between a wooden box covered in gold and the presence of God. But as it was, the two confused
and deceived armies marched into battle again to fight. “There was a very great slaughter, and
there fell of Israel thirty thousand foot soldiers. Also the ark of God was captured; and the two
sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died” (w. 10-11).
Tension was everywhere present in Shiloh as the people eagerly awaited news from the
battlefront. Eli, now blind in his old age, could not see the torn clothes and dirty face of the
downcast soldier as he ran into the city and shared the awful news with the people. But he could
still hear well enough to discern the mournful cry of the people as they first heard the news Eli
didn’t want to, but knew he had to, hear. “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has
been a great slaughter among the people,” the soldier explained. Then he added, “Also your two
sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been taken” (v. 17).
PERSPECTIVE: THE HOPELESSNESS OF LIFE
WITHOUT GOD
It was more than Eli could take. In his shock at the news of the ark being taken in the
battle, he fell back off his seat into a gate. The combination of Eli’s weight and age made his fall
into the gate fatal. He broke his neck and died.
Eli was not the only one in the family to be shocked with the news. His daughter-in-law,
the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and very close to the end of her term. When she heard the
news from the battle and was told of the death of her father-in-law, she went into a premature
labor. As the midwives assisted in the birth, they tried to encourage the young mother and
widow, but she had her mind on other things. When told she had given birth to a son, all she
could do was name him Ichabod. The ark was gone. The glory was departed from Israel. Life
was not really worth living without the glory. The child was born, but the mother did not survive.