Samuel 4.1-22 The Sin, the Slaughter, and the Sorrow

1 Samuel 4:12–22 ESV

12 A 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. 13 When 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. 14 When Eli heard the sound of the outcry, he said, “What is this uproar?” Then the man hurried and came and told Eli. 15 Now Eli was ninety-eight years old and his eyes were set so that he could not see. 16 And 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?” 17 He 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.” 18 As 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. 19 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. 20 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. 21 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. 22 And she said, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”

Context is everything, or at least very important in this passage. If you’ve not been with us the last few weeks, let me clue you in.

The character we are looking at is Samuel. Samuel was prayed for by his mother, and when God answered, she dedicated him to the Lord’s service. so at a very young age Samuel was delivered to the priest, Eli, and was raised in the service of the Lord.

the priest, Eli, had two sons. the sons were doing despicable things, and God pointed it out to Eli, but Eli did nothing about his sons. God told Samuel one night that he was going to take the priesthood away from Eli, his two sons would die, and the priesthood would be removed from Elis descendants.

That’s a lot to digest, but you need to know it. there’s a second contextual piece you need to know.

I’ll get to that.

In the passage we have before us, a man of Benjamin runs from the battle and has his clothes torn , his demeanor is a mess, and he cried out through the city telling the people of the news of the battle. The news wasn’t good. The people cried out before God.

And Eli heard the cry. He found the man, and asked him how things went. Essentially, here are the main points:

Israel fled before the Philistines.

Israel was defeated in a huge way.

Hophni and Phineas, Eli’s sons, were dead.

The ark of God was captured.

When the ark of God was mentioned, Eli fell over and died. He had served in Israel for forty years.

The news of the death of Phinehas was tragic for Eli’s daughter in law. She was pregnant, and the news threw her into childbirth. Please note that the scripture says the news of the deaht of her fatherinlaw and her husband, and that the ark was captured- threw her into childbirth.

Tragically, this nameless daughter inlaw would die in childbirth. But before dying, she would name the child, a son, born to her. She named him “Ichabod”, which means the glory has departed from israel. In the closing verse, the writer nails down the meaning of this story… the glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.

That’s a lot of information.

But remember, I said there is more context to this story.

The battle that this Benjamite man who came running into town to report on was not the first battle. It was the second. This cnapter, however, is the first place where the long and storied battles of Israel with the Philistines begins. Listen to the first five verses of this 4th chapter of Samuel.

1 Samuel 4:1–5 ESV

1 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. 2 The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. 3 And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” 4 So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God. 5 As soon as the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded.

Israel battles against the Philistines and loses to the tune of 4000 men. Their question directed their loss at the Lord- Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines?

If they had taken the time to consider, they would know that it wasn’t the Lord’s fault they lost, it was their own. They had not repented of clear sin in their midst, they failed to truly to return to the Lord when he clearly pointed out their sin. T

Their response to this failure was to bring up the ark of God and to go to battle again. They had experienced the victory when the ark marched with them around Jericho- it would work again.

And in the end that move would not prove to be an act of faith and trust in God, but rather in a suspicion that there was something special about the ark. They didn’t recognize the ark as representative of God’s presence among them, they saw it as a trump card holding special powers to help them.

REad on:

1 Samuel 4:6–10 ESV

6 And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, “What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?” And when they learned that the ark of the Lord had come to the camp, 7 the Philistines were afraid, for they said, “A god has come into the camp.” And they said, “Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. 8 Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. 9 Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.” 10 So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell.

The philistines eventually routed them again. and they captured the ark.

An interesting Psalm that recounts this event is worthy of our reading, it is Psalm 78:56-66

Psalm 78:56–66 ESV

56 Yet they tested and rebelled against the Most High God and did not keep his testimonies, 57 but turned away and acted treacherously like their fathers; they twisted like a deceitful bow. 58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places; they moved him to jealousy with their idols. 59 When God heard, he was full of wrath, and he utterly rejected Israel. 60 He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind, 61 and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe. 62 He gave his people over to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage. 63 Fire devoured their young men, and their young women had no marriage song. 64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation. 65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep, like a strong man shouting because of wine. 66 And he put his adversaries to rout; he put them to everlasting shame.

And so that is the context of the death of Hophni and Phineas and Eli and his daughter in law and the defeat of Israel and the capture of the ark.

The essence of this passage is the following.

Their was sin in Eli’s sons for sure-God would hold them accountable. But there was sin in Israel in general. Sin that was not being dealt with. Underlying, festering sin that was eating away at the foundational relationship that Israel had with Jehovah. And though they knew about it, they did nothing to resolve it.

A friend of mine is dealing with metastatic cancer. When she told me about it, I didn’t understand the term. She explained that metastatic cancer is a cancer that begins on one place and spreads to other parts of the body.

That is a good definition of the sin in Israel. It may have begun with Eli’s sons, or maybe not, but as it went untreated it spread throughout the people of Israel with devastating results.

Because the sin was not dealt with , the battle with the Philistines was a rout. Israel had the greatest advantage if their relationship with Jehovah was right- but it was not.

We see it in their belief that the Ark of God was a superstitious tool instead of the visible presence of God being with them. The slaughter of Israel by the Philistines was a direct result of their weak relationship with God that was marred by sin.

Finally, The result of their sin brought them great sorrow. This story clearly reflects the results of unresolved sin in our lives. Eli would not correct his sons. when he tried, they ignored him. He never tried again, and both their response and his lack of resolve for the sake of Israel were sin.

How sad, two sons die, Eli dies, the daughter in law dies, and thechild is named “Ichabod” for the glory of God had departed. The ark of God was taken.

The visible presence of God’s presence and blessing were taken because of unresolved sin in their lives and in their nation.

and that brings me to our bottom line:

Unresolved Sin Will Undermine Your Faith

Those things that we fail to deal with cause us the most problems. Let a fanbelt on your car start to chirp and do nothing about it and watch what happens. A loud screech or failure of one of the major systems of your car.

Let a drip in a waterpipe go and one day you will come home to find your house flooded. that’s how sin works.

Most of you know I’ve got Beau the wonderdog. I’ve started playing a game with him. He’s one of those dogs that is a natural leader, meaning I’ve failed at training him and he runs the show.

Part of that is that he will not follow- he will walk out in front. He leads when we go on a walk. And that is not how this is supposed to work.

So what I do is let him get a few feet in front of me and I run as fast as I can to a hiding place or away from him and he will come flying back to find me. It’s shortened the distance he will get away from me significatnly, because he wants to be sure he’s not alone.

Friends, sin separates us from God. And underlying sin is like the dripping faucet or pipe that is not dealt with. It will grow.

And we need to be consciously looking to see if we’ve gotten away from God…has our sin allowed us to travel too far from where we need to be.

And when we have, we need to deal with it. You see, God can’t stand in the prsence of sin. He’s a holy God.

And unresolved sin separates us from him.