God's new start (3) Eli and Ichabod

The man who brought the news replied, ‘Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured’. When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backwards off his chair. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man and he was heavy. He had led Israel for forty years. 1 Samuel 4:17-18

The daughter-in-law of Israel’s priest Eli died giving birth to a baby boy. The last thing she did was to give him his name: Ichabod, which means “Glory gone!” (1 Samuel 4:19-22). Poor child! What must it have been like to live with such a name?

Her reason, though, was clear. Her husband, Phinehas, had been killed in battle against the Philistines; Eli, old and nearly blind, fell, broke his neck and died on hearing the news; and worst of all, God’s covenant box – the Ark – had been seized by the Philistines and installed in Ashdod in the temple of their god Dagon.

As far as she was concerned, if the Ark of the Covenant was gone, then God was gone. And if God was gone, then all the glory of Israel had also gone. It seems she died in despair.

Of course, God hadn’t gone; he still had plans for his special people, and they were all wrapped up in another child, Samuel, son of Hannah and Elkanah. (“Samuel” sounds like “Heard by God”.) But the unfolding of those plans still lay in the future, and Phinehas’ wife would never see them.

The early chapters of 1 Samuel are all about God’s decision that it was time to pass judgment on Eli and his family. Eli was 98 and had served as Israel’s leader for 40 years. His sons, who had succeeded him in the priesthood, had gone from bad to worse, profaning sacred acts of worship and wallowing in sexual immorality. Eli had tried to restrain them (2:12-25), but his efforts seem to have been pretty feeble, and had no effect. A new start was urgently needed, and God had Samuel lined up to lead it.

Forty years’ leadership! – and what to show for it? How sad is that!

Perhaps because of my own weaknesses and failings, I find it hard not to have some sympathy for Eli. I get the impression that his heart was sincere - as we sometimes say, “He meant well” - but things had just got beyond him.

On the plus side, he was quick to correct himself over thinking Hannah was drunk, and he pronounced a blessing on her (1:17). When she and Elkanah came to Shiloh to worship and to visit Samuel he prayed that she would have more children (2:18-21). He did at least try to restrain his sons, however ineffectively. When the bad news of God’s judgment fell he didn’t try to wriggle out of his responsibility, but accepted it honestly and humbly (3:17-18), even from the mouth of a child.

Perhaps most striking of all, his death seems to have been caused more by the shock of learning that the Ark was lost than by the news that his sons were dead. Yes, I think his heart was right.

But it’s hard not to see him as one of the Bible’s most pathetic failures. Of course it’s good to have a heart which is in the right place, but what’s the good of that if we aren’t in fact doing God’s will?

This can prompt a question in us, especially those of us who are no longer young: Have I maintained my spiritual fire as the years have gone by? This perhaps is the main battle of the Christian life: the pressures of life take their toll, and a red-hot spiritual zeal can easily cool, so how are we to avoid becoming a spent force, a “burnt-out case”?

The Bible nowhere gives us a detailed account of what we must do, though obviously drawing near to God day by day in prayer and scripture-reading, and sharing in regular worship and fellowship with other believers, is basic. But let’s face the fact that there are times when, though we know these things are vital, we just have no appetite for them.

Each of us must work out our own way of tackling this. But be in no doubt: it is possible – and it is important. Paul tells the Christians of Rome: “never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervour”. And then he adds an important clue: “…serving the Lord” (Romans 12:11). Yes, it’s when we drop out of committed service that the warning bells begin to ring – or should do, anyway.

So God saw fit to judge Eli. I don’t think, by the way, that that judgment had to do with his eternal salvation – the Old Testament in general has very little to say on that subject. No, he judged him as to his failure of service and ministry; you could compare this to Paul’s warning in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15.

But we would be wise to remember that we too will one day face God’s judgment – not as to our salvation, but as to the use to which we have put our lives and our gifts. And I doubt if that will be a comfortable experience for many of us.

Here’s a question we can put to ourselves: What will my epitaph be when my earthly life is over and done?

Will it be: “Well done, good and faithful servant”? Or will it be, like Eli, that saddest of words… Ichabod?

Father, I confess how low my spiritual light often burns, and how feeble is my faith and commitment. Help me to take to heart the warning of Eli’s story, and grant that, however weakly, something of the beauty of Jesus might shine from me each day. Amen.