Some transitions are exciting and celebratory. Others are
painful and frightening. This one was the latter... very painful. The nation of
Israel was fighting with the Philistines. And, because the battle was not going
well, they superstitiously sent for the Ark of God to be brought into their
soldiers' camp. They supposed (incorrectly) that they couldn't lose with that
sacred object among them. Well, they were wrong. Not only did the Ark's
presence not help them, it made matters worse. God didn't approve of their move
and didn't help them. And their enemies fought so much more vehemently because
the Jews had the Ark with them. In the end the whole matter was a miserable
failure... well, from man's perspective anyway.
God would have called this sequence of events a success
though. He had purposed to dispose of Eli and his sons and to set up Samuel as
His principal in Israel, so in this manner His plan was brought to fruition.
But, the transition from Eli (old, fat, blind and weak) to Samuel (young,
strong, devoted and powerful) was anything but painless. The Ark was taken by
the Philistines, Hophni and Phinehas were killed, the armies of Israel were put
to flight, Eli died in shock and his grandson, Ichabod, was born.
Now, here's the thing. Ichabod was a name that meant "the
glory is departed" - but was it? God had Israel on an upward climb, not a
downward slide. True, they didn't know it yet, but the end of 3 centuries of
chaos was approaching. Samuel the prophet and David the king were the next 2
figures in God's plan for Israel. They still had some lessons to learn on their
way to the top (think, Saul), but at least the cycle of defeat from the period
of the judges was ending.
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