Word for Today: Monday, February 18, 2013

1 Samuel 4:1b-22 The Glory has Departed

Memory Verse 1 Samuel 4:22(KJV)

“And she said, The glory is departed from Israel: for the ark of God is taken”.

Yesterday, we saw the judgement pronounced by God on the house of Eli. Today, we are going to see the reality of God’s judgement. This is a sad passage about defeat and death.

God uses discipline as a last resort. God's plan for the earth is love first, discipline last. To get us to listen and repent, he will use deep conviction, the rebuke from men of God, family or friends, and every other means before disciplining us. But if we resist these warnings then his judgement will befall us.

For a while, the Israelites enjoyed peace but their sins brought war, the Philistines who were known to be enemies of Israel gathered together and waged war against the Israelites. Verse 2 tells us that Israel was smitten before the Philistines. Why? Their hearts were turned from God, they indulged in idolatry.

When the Israelites were defeated the elders asked a question “Why did the Lord bring defeat upon us today” Verse 3? Unfortunately none of them could provide the right answer. I guess there had already sunk in their evil ways to realise that they have sinned against God. This should be a warning to Christians, although not every rough situation is a judgement from God, some can be as a result of the devil persecuting you for being a Christians. But we should examine our lives daily if we are in right standing with God, and if we realise that we are being punished for our sins, we shouldn’t hesitate to turn back to God and ask for forgiveness.

The elders thought the solution to their problems was taking the ark of God to battle, unfortunately for them the next battle was even more disastrous and to make matters worse the ark of God was captured. The elders made a terrible mistake; they mistook the ark (which is the symbol of God’s presence) for his actual presence. God cannot be confined to a box or a building. God dwells in our hearts and the Israelites failed to realise these because their hearts were already turned to other gods.

We witness the death of Eli and his sons in verses 11 and 18. What a tragic way to die. Hophni and Phinehas were priests not soldiers and weren’t supposed to be in battle but they went because of the ark of God. God had already planned everything out and there was no way they could have escaped God’s judgement.

Eli and his sons lead the children of Israel into sin, Eli judged Israel for 40 years and through his family the temple worship was defiled by greed and sexual immorality and Israel experienced spiritual drought and to make matters worse the ark of God was captured because the people decided to use it as a lucky charm in battle.

What a tragic day for Israel and for the house of Eli. Lastly we see Phinehas wife going into forced labour because of the tragic news. She acknowledged that the glory of God had departed from Israel and upon her death she named her son Ichabod meaning no glory left.

It is really a sad story, now we see the consequences of deliberately sinning against God and refusal to turn from our evil ways. God will forgive our sins if we confess and forsake them 1 John 1:9 but if we continue to sin we will incur the wrath. May God give us the grace to remain steadfast to him and yield to his warnings, Amen. God bless you.