Tragic News Kills Eli

When the army went out to battle, Eli had stayed at Shiloh. With dread he waited for the result of the conflict, “for his heart trembled for the ark of God.” Day after day he sat outside the gate of the tabernacle by the highway, anxiously expecting a messenger to come from the battlefield.BOE 295.4

Finally a Benjamite, “with his clothes torn and dirt on his head,” rushed to the town and repeated to eager crowds the news of defeat. The sound of wailing and crying reached Eli beside the tabernacle. The messenger came to him and said, “Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead.” Eli could endure all this, terrible as it was, for he had expected it. But when the messenger added, “and the ark of God has been captured,” a look of extreme anguish passed over his face. The thought that his sin had dishonored God and caused Him to withdraw His presence from Israel was more than he could bear. He fell, “and his neck was broken, and he died.”BOE 295.5

The wife of Phinehas feared the Lord. The death of her father-in-law and her husband, and above all, the terrible news that the ark of God was taken, caused her death. She felt that the last hope of Israel was gone. She gave the name Ichabod, or “inglorious,” to the child born during this terrible time, with her dying breath mournfully repeating the words, “The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured.”BOE 295.6

But the Lord had not completely cast His people aside, and He used the ark to punish the Philistines. The divine presence, invisible, would still be with it to bring terror and destruction to those who transgressed His holy law. The wicked may triumph for a time as they see Israel being punished, but the time will come when they too must receive the sentence of a holy, sin-hating God.BOE 295.7