Today God’s church is celebrating The Feast of Tabernacles. We are joyfully experiencing the abundant blessings of God’s great glory. However, long ago there was a time when the people of Israel had to say “there is no glory.” You can take a much deeper dive into this part of the story here: https://scripturesavvy.com/how-to-hear-gods-voice/#:~:text=Hearing%20God%E2%80%99s%20voice%20requires%20a%20heart
This happened during the days when the prophecy Samuel had spoken to Eli began to come true.
The Lord began to give more messages to Samuel. He passed them on to the people of Israel. Samuel became widely known as a true prophet of the Lord.
WELCOME
Welcome to The IN SEASON Lifestyle’s weekly bible study topic called COME AS A CHILD. We’ve slowly made our way from Genesis to The Book of Samuel. Our weekly lessons are posted every Thursday. If you wish to have a copy of all of our posts, just click the “submit” button above and fill in your contact information. We will be happy to share each post with you.
CONTINUING TO STUDY 1 SAMUEL CHAPTER 4
Currently, we are studying 1 Samuel Chapter 4.
Samuel had now become widely known in Israel as a faithful prophet.
During those days Israel was at war with the Philistines. Israel camped near Ebenezer and the Philistines camped at Aphek. There was a battle where the Philistines defeated Israel, killing four thousand Israelites.
WHY HAD GOD FORSAKEN HIS PEOPLE?
When the Israelites returned to their camps, their leaders pondered why God would have let Israel be defeated.
In order to have more success in battle they made a new decision. They decided to carry the Ark into the battles with them. Their thoughts were that this would mean The Lord would be with them and would help them to win victories over their enemies.
When the leaders sent for the Ark of The Lord at Shiloh, the two sinful sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, accompanied it into battle.
THE LOUD SHOUT FROM ISRAEL
As the Ark made its way through the land of Israel the people shouted for joy. They shouted so loud that the ground seemed to shake. The sound of the shout was heard all the way to the camp of the Philistines.
Upon hearing the noise the Philistines inquired to know what was going on. When the Philistines learned the noise was because The Ark of The Lord had arrived, they panicked. They had heard the stories of how The God of Israel delivered His people out of the Land of Egypt where they once were slaves.
FIGHT LIKE YOU NEVER FOUGHT BEFORE
The Philistine leaders warned their men to fight like they had never fought before. They had a great fear of falling into the hands of the Israelites.
As the Philistines fought with all of their might, Israel was again defeated. Thirty thousand men of Israel died that day. The Ark of God was captured and Hophni and Phinehas were killed.
Eli was afraid because of the Ark of God being moved by his two sons. He was waiting beside the road when a man who had fled the battle arrived with sad news. The Ark had been captured by the Philistines. Also; Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas had been killed.
THE DEATH OF ELI
By this time Eli was ninety-eight years old. He had become completely blind. When he heard this news he fell from his place where he sat at the gate. Being old and fat, he died from a broken neck.
Eli had judged Israel for 40 years.
Phinehas’s wife was pregnant. She delivered a boy and right before she died in childbirth she named him Ichabod. Ichabod means “there is no glory.” She had chosen this name because her husband and father-in-law had died and the Ark of God had been captured.
It was a sad day for Israel.
Indeed; it did seem that there was no glory left in the land.