This chapter presents, not only the ruin of the priesthood, but also the ruin of the entire people; therefore judgment comes upon the one as well as upon the other. “And what Samuel had said happened to all Israel” (1 Sam. 4:11And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Eben-ezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. (1 Samuel 4:1)). Samuel’s word, the prophetic word, had an infallible character. The judgment it pronounced would certainly come to pass.
“And Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and encamped beside Eben-ezer” (1 Sam. 4:11And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Eben-ezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. (1 Samuel 4:1)). Eben-ezer is mentioned here only in order to indicate to us the place where Israel pitched their camp, for it did not receive this name until later (1 Sam. 7:1212Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. (1 Samuel 7:12)). This place was at Mizpah (1 Sam. 7:66And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the Lord. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh. (1 Samuel 7:6)), a fact which is of great importance for appreciating the moral condition of the people. For Israel, the place of meeting before God was Gilgal under Joshua and Mizpah under the judges. At this time the name of Mizpah meant nothing to the affections of the people and was not even pronounced (cf. Judg. 11:11; 20:1; 21:1, 511Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and captain over them: and Jephthah uttered all his words before the Lord in Mizpeh. (Judges 11:11)
1Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the Lord in Mizpeh. (Judges 20:1)
1Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife. (Judges 21:1)
5And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the Lord? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the Lord to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death. (Judges 21:5)). The natural consequence of forgetting God’s presence is that the people do not consult Him. The immediate result of this is that “Israel was smitten before the Philistines” (1 Sam. 4:22And the Philistines put themselves in array against Israel: and when they joined battle, Israel was smitten before the Philistines: and they slew of the army in the field about four thousand men. (1 Samuel 4:2)).
They ask: “Why has Jehovah smitten us today before the Philistines?” They do not understand the cause of their defeat, having no conscience of their condition. In order to rise again after the blow that had leveled them, they attempt to associate the ark, God’s throne, with their ruined state, as it had been associated with them at the beginning of their history. They do not dream of presenting themselves before God in order to learn from Him the reason why He had abandoned His people. They pull God to themselves, so to speak. The same thing may be seen today. Two Christianized nations fight against one another and each side says: God must be with us.
The God who sits between the cherubim allows Himself to be led by Israel, but as Judge rather than Deliverer. He judges everything; first the priesthood, then the people, and finally their adversaries after His glory has departed from Israel.
The people appear to highly acknowledge God’s power; when the ark comes into the camp they raise such a great shout that “the earth shook.” In the same way Christendom uses Christ’s name in order to exalt itself in the midst of unjudged iniquity. The outward sign of God’s presence is sufficient for this system which boasts: We have the ark. Israel thinks that God cannot abandon them without exposing Himself to shame. But God does exactly this: He exposes Himself to shame; He allows the world seemingly to become His conqueror. In reality, this scene is the accomplishment of God’s word through Samuel, but God, delivered into the hands of enemies, is the One who judges. As it was with the ark, so it is with Christ. He who is rejected, despised, He to whom men did all that they would, is established by God as Judge of the living and of the dead.
What became of the triumphal shout in 1 Samuel 4:55And when the ark of the covenant of the Lord came into the camp, all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang again. (1 Samuel 4:5)? A “noise of... tumult” replaces it. Israel is smitten, the priesthood is destroyed, shame and powerlessness are evident, and God’s glory is delivered into the hands of the enemy!
The piety of poor, guilty Eli shines out in this disaster. The end of his career speaks to us of something yet besides God’s judgment, however real and terrible His judgment may have been. With a self-judged heart he had humbly accepted God’s judgment on himself and his sons (1 Sam. 3:1818And Samuel told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And he said, It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good. (1 Samuel 3:18)); now his thought is only for the ark of the Lord. “His heart trembled for the ark of God.” (1 Sam. 4:1313And when he came, lo, Eli sat upon a seat by the wayside watching: for his heart trembled for the ark of God. And when the man came into the city, and told it, all the city cried out. (1 Samuel 4:13)). When the messenger speaks of it, Eli falls from his seat and dies (1 Sam. 4:1818And it came to pass, when he made mention of the ark of God, that he fell from off the seat backward by the side of the gate, and his neck brake, and he died: for he was an old man, and heavy. And he had judged Israel forty years. (1 Samuel 4:18)). It is not the judgment on his family that leads to his death, but the dishonor inflicted on the Lord and His departure from the midst of His people.
Phinehas’s wife’s last moments also shine with a similar consoling light! The catastrophe brings her pregnancy to a premature end and causes her death, but in dying she calls her son Ichabod: “The glory is departed.” In the person of her own son, she proclaims Israel’s ruin and its consequences. The witnesses of the times of the end may be recognized by this feature. The dishonor done to God through our own unfaithfulness humbles us, and, instead of attempting to remedy the state of things this has provoked, we bow our heads under the judgment, for there we perceive the holiness of the Lord.