God was not pleased with Eli. The high priest
knew his two sons were sinning in the sanctuary
of the Lord. They didn’t even try to hide it. Still
Eli hadn’t stopped them. God told him that his
family would be judged. The Lord said, “I will
do something that will cause people to shudder
when they hear about it.”
When Eli was 98 years old, the Philistines
made war with Israel. The army went out to
defend their nation, but they lost the battle and
4,000 men were killed.
The elders of Israel were confused. “Why did
the Lord allow this to happen?” Suddenly one
of them had an idea. “Let’s go get the Ark of the
Lord! We’ll take it with us into battle, and it will give
us victory.” So they sent for the Ark of God, and
the sons of Eli brought it to the camp. When the
Israelites saw it, they shouted for joy. The shout
was so loud that it seemed like the ground shook.
The Philistines heard the shout and thought it
was a war cry. They sent spies to see what was
going on and found that the Ark of God had been
brought into the camp. The Philistines panicked.
They said, “Their gods are now in their camp.
We’re doomed! These are magnificent gods.
They’re the ones that slaughtered the Egyptians
with plagues.”
The Philistine leaders stood before the troops.
“Be strong and act like men! You are mighty
Philistines, not weak Hebrews. Now is the time to
fight like you’ve never fought before. If you don’t,
you’ll be their slaves.”
So the Philistines fought as if they had
everything to lose. Israel was crushed – their
soldiers slaughtered. 30,000 men were killed,
including Eli’s two sons. The Philistines then
captured the Ark of God and took it to their own
camp.
Back in Israel, Eli was sitting on a chair beside
the road waiting for a report from the battle. He
was concerned about the Ark of God. A man ran
from the battle to tell everyone what happened.
The entire city started crying out in pain. Eli was
blind and had difficulty hearing. He heard the
noise, but couldn’t hear what was said. “What’s
going on?”
The man got close to the old priest and said,
“Our men were slaughtered today. Your two sons
were killed, and the Ark of God was captured.”
When Eli heard about the Ark of God, he fell
backwards off the chair. He was a heavy man, so
the fall broke his neck and he died.
Eli’s daughter-in-law was due to give birth
to a child. She heard about the Ark of God and
her husband’s death. She then heard that her
father-in-law was also dead. Suddenly she went
into labor and gave birth to a son. Those helping
her said, “You now have something to be happy
about. You’ve given birth to a son!”
At first she didn’t respond, and then she
finally said, “The glory has departed from Israel
because the Ark of God has been captured.” Just
before she died, she named the boy Ichabod,
which means, “The glory has departed.”
© God Child