1 Samuel 4
Consider the broad brushstrokes of an ancient, sad saga. It was a tragic time in the history of ancient Israel. Those assigned to lead spiritually did anything but that. The sons of the spiritual leader, Eli, engaged in despicably sordid behavior, and they did it in the name of God! War had erupted between them and their nemesis, the Philistines, and things looked very bad for Israel.
But all was not lost. For, despite their morally deficient behavior, they still had the ark of God, the physical symbol of God’s spiritual presence. And the desperate Israelites depended on that ark — treating it as a magical talisman — to rescue them from disaster regardless of how decadent their behavior might be.
Thus it was that, when the ark of God arrived in their camp, the Israelite soldiers raised cries of jubilation loud enough to echo into the camp of the Philistines. Now frightened, the Philistines frantically tried to bolster each other’s courage. “We’re in trouble!” they shouted. “Nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who will deliver us? Be men, and fight!” (see 1 Samuel 4:7–9). They needn’t have worried. When the battle was joined, they utterly routed the Israelites.
An Israelite messenger fled home to tell the tragic news. Upon hearing it, Eli, Israel’s aging, spineless leader, fell backwards off his chair, broke his neck and died. And his daughter-in-law, whose husband was also killed in the battle, went into labor and, before dying, delivered a boy she named Ichabod.
Ichabod means “the glory has departed.” In other words, the good old days are gone. All the good news was in last week’s headline. I’m a has-been. How’s that for a name to hang around your neck on your first day of school? How’s that for an enduring legacy?
What a strange narrative! What are we to make of it? Is it just a tragic old tale? A bizarre account that has nothing to do with us? Or could it be a story with an enduring moral?
Well, if nothing else, it at least suggests that we can’t depend on outward religious symbols and ignore unethical behavior and still expect God to be pleased. It at least indicates that how we treat each other counts.And, finally, it negatively illustrates a positive message that a prophet yet to appear on the stage of Israel’s history would bear. And that message is worth listening to, whether one lived in Eli’s day or whether one lives in ours. Here’s how the prophet Micah stated it:
O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8, NLT).
So, maybe for us the lesson is this: outward blessings, beautiful buildings and sacred monuments can never replace treating others with justice and mercy and walking humbly with God. Regardless of our history, our claims or our religious symbols, how we live before God and with each other matters.
—Randy Roberts, DMin, is vice president for spiritual life and mission at Loma Linda University Health.