In chapter 3:11-12, God had said to the boy Samuel that He was going to do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of every one that heard should tingle; in that day He would perform against Eli all that He had spoken concerning his house. The time was now come.
Verse 1. The first sentence should be separated from the second. The word of Samuel, or what Samuel had said happened to all Israel. Perhaps it was a long time before it happened, but we may be sure that what God promises, He will perform.
It was right to fight against the Philistines, but the people of Israel were themselves going, on in sin as chapter 7:3 shows, and God's first controversy is with His people. So at the first engagement, about four thousand men were killed. Rightly is the question then raised (verse 3) "Wherefore hath the Lord smitten us today before the Philistines?" but there is no answer nor apparently did they ask of God; instead they tried to connect the presence of God with their own unjudged and sinful condition. But God is not mocked (Galatians 6:77Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. (Galatians 6:7)).
All Israel might shout, so that the earth rang again, but it was a vain show, and the Philistines had but to quit themselves like men (verse 9) when the people suffered a second and far greater defeat, losing thirty thousand footmen. Now the ark of God, the sign and the place of God's relationship with Israel, was taken, and the two wicked sons of Eli were killed.
But this is not all; one man escaped from the second battle with the Philistines, and ran to Shiloh, where the ark of God had been, and where the aged Eli anxiously waited (verse 13). Hearing the terrible news from the messenger's lips, the old priest fell backward and died.
His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, on learning of the taking of the ark by the Philistines and the death of Eli and her husband, named the position of Israel as she died: her son just born must bear the name of Ichabod,—"the glory is departed from Israel." Such was indeed their place—the ark was gone, and the empty tabernacle was left without a priest through whom the people might approach to God or offer their sacrifices.
Nevertheless the faithful God did not leave Himself without means of communicating with His wayward people; as the prophet, Samuel, presently comes before us.