Year One, August 6

For You Are the Glory of Their Strength1

1 Samuel 4:12-18; 20-22

12A man of Benjamin ran from the battle line and came to Shiloh the same day, with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head. (Bad news is sure to find a messenger and a swift one. Sadly, the good news of the Gospel often remains untold.) 13When he arrived, Eli was sitting on his seat by the road watching, for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city and told the news, all the city cried out. (In this way, the prophecy that the judgments of the Lord on Eli’s sons was fulfilled and the two ears of everyone who heard of it tingled.2 Shiloh had been contaminated with sin, and as a result, the city was infected with sorrow.) 14When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, “What is this uproar?” Then the man hurried and came and told Eli.

15Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see. 16And the man said to Eli, “I am he who has come from the battle; I fled from the battle today.” And he said, “How did it go, my son?” 17He who brought the news answered and said, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has also been a great defeat among the people. Your two sons also, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured.”

The distinguished old priest, within two years of a century old, endured all the sad news patiently until the messenger came to the last item.

18As soon as he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell over backward from his seat by the side of the gate, and his neck was broken and he died, for the man was old and heavy. He had judged Israel forty years. (First his heart was broken and then his neck. Eli fainted from grief and the fall caused his death. No sword of the Philistines could have killed him any more effectively than this terrible news that God’s ark was captured. Nothing affects good people as much as injury to the Church or dishonor brought upon the name of the Lord.)

The sad news that the ark was taken, and that her husband had been killed, caused the pregnant wife of Phinehas to go into labor and die right after the child was born.

20And 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. 21And 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. 22And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.” (She seems to have been a God-fearing woman, though her husband was a wicked man. Her faith led her to forget her own miseries, because the miseries of the Church of God were even greater. She named her child Ichabod, which means, “without honor” or, “where is the glory?” because honor and glory had been taken away from Israel. Her death was another strike against Eli’s house, but it was sent in love to her, because she was spared from seeing Israel’s sorrow.)

The sad story of the destruction of Eli’s family is a special warning to all parents to not allow sin to go unpunished in their households. Lack of discipline is lack of love. Let us see what Solomon says about it.

  

Proverbs 23:13-18

13 Do not withhold discipline from a child.

if you strike him with a rod, he will not die.

14 If you strike him with the rod,

you will save his soul from Sheol.

Charles Bridges3 in his “Exposition on the Book of Proverbs,” says, “Eli tried gentler means and the sad result is written for our instruction. Is it not cruel love that turns away from painful duty? To tolerate sin in a child is tantamount to hating him in our heart. Is it not better that the flesh should smart than that the soul should die? What if your child should rebuke you throughout eternity, for the neglect of that timely correction that might have saved their soul from hell.”

15 My son, if your heart is wise,

my heart too will be glad.

16 My inmost being will exult

when your lips speak what is right.

It is a father’s greatest happiness to have a son who is not only good himself, but the bold champion of goodness, speaking out bravely for right and truth and God.

17 Let not your heart envy sinners,

but continue in the fear of the LORD all the day.

18 Surely there is a future,

and your hope will not be cut off.

The trouble in this life will soon be over and then the godly will begin their best life. Their hope is a certain hope. May the Lord teach us as a family to serve him faithfully, so that we may be blessed both here and hereafter.

^{_______________}

¹ Psalm 89:17

² 1 Samuel 3:11

³ Charles Bridges (1794-1869). An evangelical pastor and theologian in the Church of England.